"Where's Captain Kirk?" is a 1979 single released by

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

/ new wave band

Spizzenergi Spizzenergi are an English punk/ new wave band led by vocalist/guitarist Spizz (real name Kenneth Spiers, born Solihull 1959). Formed in the late 1970s, the band changed its name every year, subsequent names including Athletico Spizz 80, Spizzo ...

. It was released on the

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label and spent seven weeks at the top of the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the ...

, but failed to enter the UK singles chart.

Background

The single was the fourth to be released by the band

, who had previously been known as Spizzoil. The song was written by lead singer Spizz and keyboard player Mark Coalfield. The single reached the number one spot on the

and stayed there for seven weeks. "Where's Captain Kirk?" was the first number one single on the chart, which had just been established. In July 1980 Record Mirror revealed that the single sold more than 60,000 units without ever charting. Following the success of "Where's Captain Kirk?", which refers to captain James T. Kirk of the ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' fictional universe, two further ''Star Trek'' related songs were released by the band. "Spock's Missing" followed six months later and "Five Year Mission (Featuring the Return of Spock)" was released on a later album. A Portuguese single released in 1981 had "Where's Captain Kirk?" on the a-side and "Spock's Missing" on the b-side. The single was later re-released by Spizz as a solo record in 1987. Both versions of the song were included on the compilation album ''Spizz Not Dead Shock'', while the original is also on ''Spizzhistory''. London Punkharmonic Orchestra have included a recording on the album '' Classical Punk''. The single also lent the name to the best of collection for Spizzenergi. The single is included on the album both as the first song, and again as the twentieth with a live version recorded at the Holiday in the Sun punk festival.

Critical reception

During the first week of the first release''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' named it its single of the week. Following release, the single was included in the ''NME'' Writers ''100 Best Indie Singles Ever 1992.'', and more than two decades after its release, it was included at number 29 in ''

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'' magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all time Jason Heller reviewed "Where's Captain Kirk" for

Tor.com ''Reactor'', formerly ''Tor.com'', is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on specul ...

in 2010 as part of his series entitled "Frequency Rotation" which looked at science fiction related music. He called it a "loving (if kitsch-happy) homage to ''Star Trek''—and especially its square-jawed, twinkly-eyed, ass-kicking hero." On a ''

'' television special, Radio One DJ

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

, in reference to the song, said that Spizzenergi recorded "the only Star Trek tribute worthy of the Enterprise's jukebox". It was also placed by listeners at No. 40 in his 1980 ''

Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 (though the exact figure varied above and below this number) best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually do ...

''.

Credits and personnel

Credits taken from the Spizzenergi official website.

Charts

References

External links

*
"Where's Captain Kirk?"
– song lyrics {{Authority control Songs about fictional male characters 1979 singles Music based on Star Trek Unofficial works based on Star Trek 1979 songs Spizzenergi songs UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles