This week in 1982
1 Town Called Malice/Precious The Jam
2 Golden Brown The Stranglers
3 Say Hello Wave Goodbye Soft Cell
4 Maid of Orleans (The Waltz of Joan Of Arc) Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
5 The Model/Computer Love Kraftwerk
6 The Lion Sleeps Tonight Tight fit
7 Oh Julie Shakin’ Stevens
8 Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do) Christopher Cross
9 Dead Ringer For Love Meat Loaf
10 Senses Working Overtime XTC The Jam formed in Woking, Surrey, in 1972 but didn’t release their debut single ‘In The City’ until April of 1977. From then until their break-up in December 1982 they released 18 consecutive top 40 UK top 40 singles, four of which reached number one. ‘Town Called Malice’/‘Precious’ was their third.
The first single from their sixth and final album, 1982’s ‘The Gift’ (their only album to reach No. 1), it was released as a double-A sided single, but it quickly became evident that ‘Town Called Malice’ was the standout track and it picked up the lion’s share of airplay. However, The Jam did perform both tracks on Top Of The Pops, becoming the first act to appear on the show playing both songs from a double-A sided single since The Beatles with ‘Day Tripper’/ ‘We Can Work It Out’ in 1965
‘Town Called Malice’ laments the decline of working class, small town traditions but also acts as a rallying call (‘I could go on for hours and I probably will/ But I’d sooner put some joy back/ In this town called malice’). Jam frontman and songwriter Paul Weller has stated that it ‘could have been written about any suburban town, but it was in fact written about my hometown of Woking’.
It spent three weeks at the top in the UK, but stopped short of the top spot in Ireland, reaching number two. In the US, it was The Jam’s only chart entry in any chart, making number 31 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and No 45 in Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart – two unlikely chart bedfellows.
The single prevented the classic ‘Golden Brown’ from reaching number one, depriving The Stranglers of what would have been their only number one in the UK. Stranglers’ record company EMI objected when sales of both the Jam’s studio-recorded 7-inch single and a live 12-inch were counted towards chart sales – complaining that Jam fans were buying both versions and thus artificially boosting numbers – but their objections were overruled and the Stranglers had to settle for number two.