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He released many live albums but never included Perfect Day

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He released many live albums, but never included "Perfect Day". In 1979, he played it on a world tour, but Sounds magazine reported: "He ruined the peaceful colour of 'Perfect Day' with his mangled yelling, turning it into a piece of glib self-gratification." Mind you, he has probably done that to all his best songs. On world tours, each man kills the thing he wrote.The first cover of "Perfect Day" came in 1982. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, who had just left the Human League and formed Heaven 17, commissioned and produced a set of covers called Music of Quality and Distinction Vol 1 (Virgin). It was stylish and surprising, with guest vocalists ranging from Tina Turner to Paula Yates. Glenn Gregory, also of Heaven 17, sang "Perfect Day", in a fine, sombre rendition that opened with a moment of brilliance: the lavishly recorded sound of a match being struck and a cigarette lit. The singer's world-weary exhalation then turned into the gentlest of synthesised percussion loops."We were amazed that it hadn't been covered by anyone else," Martyn Ware says.

"It's so beautifully poignant, very bittersweet, with an undercurrent of oh-my-God."He had long been obsessed with Lou Reed. "His songs had a certain wistfulness, an ennui that living in Sheffield was all about His voice was impossibly glamorous and languid. And if Bowie was associated with something, it was instantly OK. If only that was the case now."Ware never considered the drugs angle: "I assumed it was a simple love song."And the BBC version? "It's tripe Bland, no soul behind it. I'm all for charity work, but let's not pretend it's not benefiting the people involved.

You end up with a pop royal family." This is said with some authority. Martyn Ware sang on "Do They Know It's Christmas?"The song still hadn't been a single, but it had appeared on the B-side of "Walk on the Wild Side", and B-sides could be found on juke boxes. At the Pizza Express near the British Museum, it was played to death by a teenager, up in London for the day with her mum - Kirsty MacColl. "You could hear both songs while you were waiting for your pizza. It was fantastic." Two decades later, Kirsty MacColl was looking for a song to sing as a duet with Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, to round off her greatest hits (Galore, Virgin). She still loved "Perfect Day": "It's glorious and tragic at the same time." Without being asked, she adds: "Of course it's a bit weird that it's a drug song, especially for Evan." Their version is a faithful one.

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