I was first acquainted with songwriter Malcolm Mitchell via the 1973 industrial musical for Lyons Maid, issued on vinyl as With Lyons Maid You’re Laughing, which features songs about ice cream and thwarted telephonic sex (with “The Girl on the Lyons Maid Phone”).
A few years later I stumbled upon a series of uncredited tunes written by MMA Presentations for UK retailer Argos and captured on 7″ as The Argos Show. Bits of the music and arrangements bore more than a passing resemblance to the Lyons Maid production and I wondered whether Mitchell had a hand in the show.
And he did. According to a 1998 obituary, Mitchell began his career as a jazz guitarist and bandleader (he was “the first British musician to play with Duke Ellington and earn money for doing so”) and later formed Mitchell Monkhouse Associates (MMA) for the production of music, jingles, and business conferences.
The Quiet Revolution, an “MMA Recording” by Mitchell for Rank Xerox in support of a 1972 UK promotional campaign for the fabulously quiet Model 4000 photocopier, is little known amongst collectors of industrial musicals. I count 4 separate numbers on this 7″, including an early version of “Get Behind It and Push” that would be repurposed later for Lyons Maid and a brief A-side opener again reminiscent of The Argos Show.
Rank Xerox, The Quiet Revolution (Malcolm Mitchell, songwriter). 1972; MMA EP 1. Mono!
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