Taylor O’Tot and the Advertising Jingles
Advertising — Mean To Me (The Clothes You Wear)
(From the LP Jingles, EMI Records (UK), 1978)
Advertising only lasted for one album, but it’s a minor classic of the short-lived UK power pop scene of the late ’70s up there with anything the Records, the Motors, the Yachts or any of their better-known compatriots managed. The quartet had two singer-songwriters in Tot Taylor and Simon Boswell, who wrote and sang separately but had such similar styles that for years, I thought Tot Taylor was the band’s only mouthpiece. I came into Advertising backwards through Taylor’s ’80s work as the mentor of faux-jazz chanteuse Mari Wilson (whose glorious 1982 single “Just What I Always Wanted” was featured on Little Hits 1.0) and his grandiose, arty solo records from the same period. “Mean To Me (The Clothes You Wear)” is the only song on Jingles that looks ahead to Taylor’s ’80s work, but in its straightforward evocation of a classic ’60s pop single, complete with punny, clever lyrical hooks and a low-budget, new wave-era attempt at a fairly sweeping Tony Hatch-style arrangement (complete with bells!), it’s one of the album’s many highlights. In fact, I think this is one of the greatest power pop singles of its time and place. Snap the album up if you ever see a copy.
–Stewart Mason
Carl Cafarelli said,
June 7, 2007 @ 6:16 pm
Great to see something by Advertising preserved, but I gotta admit I prefer “Ich Liebe Dich.”
Stewart said,
June 7, 2007 @ 8:33 pm
This one was a super-tough call. At first, I was gonna go for “Lipstick” simply because it’s their best-known song (to the extent that any of them are remembered), and then I went so far towards both “Suspender Fun” and “The Lookalikes” that I started writing entries for each, but I love “Mean To Me,” and it really is the closest Advertising ever came to Tot Taylor’s solo work.
Anonymous said,
June 9, 2007 @ 8:06 am
that whole album is great - let’s hear some more of this kind of thing!
gogogorilla said,
June 15, 2007 @ 9:47 am
The album is sinply amazing, been spinning it for ages on a 2-3 times a day basis. Strangely it was quite easy to score on german flea markets for a while. I bought it 4 times and gave all of the copies to good friends. Simon Boswell later on was in “Live Wire”, which I regard quite boring actually. But Tot Taylors Solo Stuff is quite interesting as well.
dee said,
December 5, 2007 @ 8:22 pm
my fav is “suspender fun” (I think that’s the title!)
Nigel said,
February 4, 2008 @ 6:36 am
Yep, they were a wonderful, bright little group …. saw them twice live in ‘78 (both great nights out) 2nd time was at Birkbeck College (Nov 78 ??). Was that their last gig? Always wished they’d recorded a live number called ‘Sparkle Tones’ (I think?)….The best thing they did after Lookalikes & Suspender Fun ……. What are they all doing now - I remember their lead guitarist bought us spotty little school kids a drink at Loughborough Uni - nice guy …!
Gliska said,
August 1, 2009 @ 8:10 am
Решил добавить RSS и получать новости, мне лично понравилось, что написал автор
Geshak said,
August 6, 2009 @ 10:10 am
Понравилась статья.Буду следить за комментами….
Plovdiy said,
August 10, 2009 @ 1:21 am
Неплохая подборка в блоге, хорошо сделано, автору спс.
Seriona said,
August 11, 2009 @ 8:07 am
В целом статья мне понравилась, но требует некоторых доработок.
Я бы даже сказал всего одну. Хотелось бы прочитать в более развёрнутов виде