IS VIC THERE?
“Is Vic There?” is the debut single by post-punk band Department S, released by Demon Records on 29 December 1980. It was produced by former Mott the Hoople members Buffin and Overend Watts. The title is a quotation from a Monty Python sketch titled “Phone-In”, which closed the comedy troupe’s 1973 Matching Tie and Handkerchief album. “Is Vic There?” charted at No. 22 on the UK Singles Chart and, when re-released on RCA Records in March 1981, it made No. 67 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. (More from Wikipedia)
Of the songs that I have heard, the deceptively languid “Johnny No” is my favorite Primitives song and is included on the English Freakbeat, Volume 4 CD. The mix of foreign-language lyrics and an English tag line reminds me of the delightful 1980 song “Is Vic There?” by the British band Department S; I once had the “French version” of the song on a small punk rock CD that I stumbled on in a bargain bin. Evidently there was the regular English version and also an Italian version.
(May 2015)
