‘Nowhere Girl’: The most underappreciated 12″ single of the 1980s
In the wise words of Forrest Gump’s mother, “Life’s like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.” Life will slap the virtuous square on the face and scupper long-fought endeavours just as the remorseless criminal gets off scot-free before winning the national lottery. In an ideal world, everyone would reap the awards they deserve, but all too often, humanity disregards Mother Nature’s dispassionate whim. Unfortunately, a 1980s single entitled ‘Nowhere Girl’ lay victim to the darker side of chance.
In 1965, The Beatles released ‘Nowhere Man’ on their groundbreaking album Rubber Soul. The Lennon-McCartney partnership carelessly neglected to follow the song up with a second instalment. But fear not, B-Movie, the lesser-known new wave group from Mansfield, England, sated this crippling curiosity of 25 years in 1980.
After forming in 1979, the co-founding line-up, comprising lead vocalist and bassist Steve Hovington, guitarist Paul Statham, keyboardist Rick Holliday and drummer Graham Boffey, recorded its debut release, the 7″ EP Take Three. The three tracks exhibited sketches of post-punk potential, but the best was still yet to come.
B-Movie first released ‘Nowhere Girl’ in November 1980 as a 12″ single backed by ‘Scare Some Life into Me’ on the B-side. The release was succeeded throughout the 1980s by a flurry of dark yet danceable 12″ singles. New Order, the phoenix formed from Joy Division’s ashes, perfected this formula by accompanying their darker and sporadically synth-laden rock albums with corresponding 12″ dance singles.
New Order achieved widespread success with singles like ‘True Faith’, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ and ‘Temptation’, but 1983’s ‘Blue Monday’ will forever be the jewel in their crown. Framing intensely bleak lyrics with cutting-edge synth programming, the group made ‘Blue Monday’ a historical sensation as the best-selling 12″ single of all time.
I will grant you that ‘Nowhere Girl’ wasn’t quite so revolutionary as ‘Blue Monday’, but it was, all the same, tragically overlooked. The haunting lyrics unravel a tale of desperation and communication breakdown, ostensibly between two lovers. “Nowhere girl you’re living in a dream / Nowhere girl you stay behind the scenes / Nowhere girl you never go outside / Nowhere girl ’cause you prefer to hide,” the opening verse reads.
Part of the tragedy connected to ‘Nowhere Girl’ is that it was released several times with varying allure. The original 1980 version was undoubtedly enjoyable, but the 1982 re-recorded release on Some Bizzare/Sire Records was far superior. After an extended introduction of piano and synth melodies rolling over a pulsating rhythm, Hovington delivers his angsty vocal. The song swirls forth through tense revolutions of verse, with the punctuating chorus pleasingly underpinned by jagged delay-treated guitar chords.
The 1982 version reached number 67 in the UK Singles Chart to become B-Movie’s second-best performing single after 1981’s ‘Remembrance Day’, which reached number 61. When creating their debut studio album, Forever Running, the band recorded the song once again, criminally castrating the impactful intro and poisoning the main sequence with inferior vocals and production.
Forever Running struggled to make a dent in the market alongside like-minded contemporaries such as The Smiths and New Order, leading to the band’s dissolution later in 1985. In 2004, B-Movie reunited for several live performances and have remained sporadically active since through two further studio albums and a scattering of domestic gigs.
Above all else, I hope this article can introduce B-Movie to a new generation of music lovers. ‘Nowhere Girl’ has failed to match the test of time, and I implore listeners to check out the 1982 version below. In my humble opinion, the band has done its legacy a disservice by featuring inferior versions instead of this one on Spotify, the world’s most popular music streaming service. Presumably, it is beyond their power at the moment.
