{"id":656138,"date":"2025-12-26T15:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T15:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/656138\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T15:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T15:49:13","slug":"the-first-ever-song-to-top-the-indie-chart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/656138\/","title":{"rendered":"The first-ever song to top the indie chart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Which<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out)<\/p>\n

Fri 26 December 2025 12:30, UK <\/p>\n

As the 1970s were coming to a close, spirits were high in the offices of the British indie <\/a>label Cherry Red Records. In just the second year of its existence, the upstart company was already making an impact, with releases by American punk bands The Runaways and Dead Kennedys performing well above expectations.<\/p>\n

When Cherry Red founder Ian McNay looked at the UK singles charts, however, he wasn\u2019t seeing music that reflected the energy and enthusiasm he was observing with his own eyes in and around London clubs and record shops. <\/p>\n

While young people were talking about the bands on labels like Cherry Red, Rough Trade, and Mute, the charts were suggesting that Pink Floyd, ABBA, and Paul McCartney\u2019s \u2018Wonderful Christmastime<\/a>\u2019 were still reigning supreme in the culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI woke up one morning in December 1979 thinking, \u2018Why doesn\u2019t someone compile a proper independent chart based on accurate sales information?\u2019\u201d McNay recalled to the Guardian in 2009. \u201cAny record was eligible if it didn\u2019t go through the major distributors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fighting capitalism with a smaller version of capitalism might not have been the dream scenario the Dead Kennedys<\/a> had in mind. Still, the idea was far too interesting not to pursue. Just a month later, on January 19th, 1980, the trade magazine Record Business had done enough due diligence to publish the first-ever Indie Record Chart.<\/p>\n

So, what was the first song at the top?<\/p>\n

Topping that debut edition of the indie world\u2019s top sellers was a Rough Trade single by Spizzenergi, titled \u2018Where\u2019s Captain Kirk?\u2019 and yes, it was a post-punk song themed around Star Trek, but this was not your typical Top of the Pops novelty jam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I awoke from the dangers of space \/ I looked and I saw a familiar face \/ The time warp in space made a change in me \/ For I was the Captain and the Captain was me,\u201d they sang.<\/p>\n

Led by frontman Spizz (AKA Kenneth Spiers), Spizzenergi might have been pleased to be an unlikely chart topper, but it certainly didn\u2019t make them serious about their marketing strategy going forward. The band was famous for changing its name every year, with Spizzenergi merely being their moniker of the moment, in-between brief spells as Spizz Oil, The Spizzles, and Athletico Spizz 80, among other even less commercially viable trademarks.<\/p>\n

Rough Trade was slightly more interested in capitalising on the success of \u2018Where\u2019s Captain Kirk?\u2019, going as far as to reach out to James T Kirk himself, William Shatner, about doing a photoshoot with Spizzenergi. Shatner was almost certainly up for it, but CBS \u2013 the owners of the Star Trek franchise \u2013 supposedly shot down the idea, unsure about the potential punkification of their recently revived sci-fi cash cow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Where\u2019s Captain Kirk?\u2019 had narrowly edged out the number two track on the first indie chart, \u2018Day Trip to Bangor\u2019 by Fiddler\u2019s Dram. The latter was certainly an indie single by definition, released by Dingle Records in Middlesex, but being a folk song with considerably wider appeal, \u2018Day Trip to Bangor\u2019 had already crossed over to the mainstream UK singles chart, with Fiddler\u2019s Dram earning the obligatory spot on Top of the Pops.<\/p>\n

Overall, though, the first indie chart had proved a big success. \u201cIt quickly led to overseas licensing, radio play, and shops knew what to order,\u201d McNay said. \u201cIt had no marketing machine; it was something of substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, by the time \u201cindie\u201d had become more of an everyday buzzword in the early 1990s<\/a>, the \u201csubstance\u201d of the old indie chart had already run its course, as the major labels had figured out how to market their own artists on faux-indie subsidiaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy 1993 the indie chart had become a farce,\u201d McNay recalled to Mojo, \u201cMany of the records in it had nothing to do with independent companies and had become meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Punk Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest Punk content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out) Fri 26 December 2025 12:30, UK As the 1970s were coming to a close, spirits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,481,200749,269,2402,16,588,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-656138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-indie","10":"tag-indie-label","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-punk","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-uk-charts","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115786664275280487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}