Chugging Out Some More Choons From 1988 And 1989... Felly Had Blue Lipstick - But Wasn't Singing... And We Were Pumping Up The Jam, Being Pure, Singing About History, Thrashing Around To Accieed and Getting Back To Life...

 

Felly of Technotronic - her with the blue lipstick on the original album cover. She didn't wanna place to stay, but you could get your booty on the floor tonight and make her day. However, it wasn't really Felly singing. No, Ya Kid K was the one! This was all over the charts and the dancefloors in September/October 1989. I bought the Technotronic album, which contained this and their next few hits towards the end of the year, and was bowled over.

And I still love Felly's lipstick.

And Ya Kid K, of course.

ACCEEED! Love this. The Acid House  scene of 1988 really rattled the establishment and that's never a bad thing, and this vid and song always do my head in. Especially the bit where the bloke's head judders about.

RIGHT ON ONE, MATEY!

This 1988 hit by Breathe is one of my favourite love songs. And the video's so yuppie, but with a splash of delicious working class humour at the end. Gorgeous.

Back To Life... the mighty Soul II Soul in 1989. So beautiful and classic and wonderful and innovative and downright marvellous I actually passed my ciggies around.

1989 - and I was gobsmacked by the transformation of Siobhan Fahey - from Bananarama chorus girl to purring sophisti-cat. This is stunning - Shakespear's Sister, History.

Pure, the Lightening Seeds. One of my themes to the summer of 1989. Released on 8 July, it spent ten weeks on the chart. I was, of course, romantically involved - and this is terribly evocative. Ah, those golden days in Saffron Walden!

We'll carry on our trawl of (just) some 1980s pop brilliance soon. We've started with 1989 and 1988 and next we'll take a peek at 1987 and 1986. We're heading all the way back to 1980 in time. Keep it chooned.

Mel and Kim

Fun, love, money and hair. The 1980s loved them all. And the sparkling new hair products, mousse, gel and extensions. Kim recalls that Mel washed her extended hairdo and phoned her with an urgent warning: 'Kim! Don't wash it! It goes like a mattress!'

Mel and Kim Appleby were two young English sisters - cockneys to be precise. They scaled the heights of pop stardom in the late 1980s and we loved them. They were celebrated not just for their talent but for being two English black women (or women of colour or whatever the current politically correct saying is) who'd scaled those heights, but I'd long ago learned that English was not a colour, and I was simply bowled over by their music, dance moves and sparkling sense of fun.

I remember seeing them being interviewed by Andrea Arnold (Dawn of kids' show No 73) and they were so natural, down-to-earth and downright likeable I could have grabbed a mug of tea and joined them for a natter without feeling even remotely star-struck - not like when I met Percy Sugden from Coronation Street and was absolutely gobsmacked.

Mel and Kim made it big as part of the Stock/Aitken/Waterman starburst, although Mel was already a model.

The news that Mel had cancer was stunning. I associated the sisters with fun and dance and wonderful nights out, me splashing on the latest swanky aftershave, dolloping on mousse or hair gel, and my latest Miami Vice inspired finery.

And not tragedy.

The meeting of the two extremes seemed incomprehensible to me at the time. I struggled to get my head round it.

Now I still listen to their music at times, and dance and smile and remember the good times, but not without more than a hint of sadness. 

And I say...

God bless, Mel - and all the best, Kim. Thanks for providing the soundtrack to some lovely times. x

Some More 1980s Highs - Gritty Neighbours, Sir Alec Jeffreys, The Trap Door And More...

We've got the lovely Anita Dobson - Angie from EastEnders, Rear of the Year 1987, no less - to welcome you back to your pick of what made the 1980s so swingorilliantly wicked! Thanks so much for your comments. We start off with a return to Ramsay Street with Beth P:

I recall Neighbours being huge when I was at school and my older sister scoffing at it. She called it ‘trite’ because she preferred Brookside and EastEnders. And then when Daphne died in a car crash caused by joy riders and Des went to pieces, his mother had a breakdown and Mike nearly went to prison trying to avenge Daph’s death, my sister cried over the episodes and said it was one of the strongest, bleakest soap stories she’d ever seen. 1 up to Neighbours!

I had a bit of a fixation with Den and Angie in EastEnders but on the whole I preferred Neighbours because it had more people doing everyday things that I could identify with – like popping in for a cup of tea and a good natter. EastEnders was just determined to be miserable all the time.

Yes, quite right. Much as I loved 'Enders back then, I didn't know any neighbourhood THAT flippin' miserable - and there were some real dives round my way. I lived in one.

Farewell, sweet Daphne! It was a strong and harrowing storyline for Neighbours, with a terrible aftermath.

Continuing the Australian soaps theme, Carl says:

I couldn't stick Sons & Daughters. And when we got our first VCR I had to sit through it 5 nights a week.

Strewth mate, shush! You'll upset Beryl. Oh no! Too late!

Well, moving quickly on, Spinderella Q says:

The biggie for me from the 80’s was falling in love with Jordan from New Kids On The Block in 1989. I was 8.

Nice lad. Plenty of product in the hair to give it that distinctive 1980s "smart-but-messed-up" look and the jacket is fabulous - dressy, but not overstated. Well, not by 1989 standards, that is. The lad should go far.

Chris reminds us of a forgotten gem:

What about “DON’T YOU OPEN THAT TRAPDOOR – COS THERE’S SOMETHING DOWN THERE!”

WONDERFUL! Dear old Berk and co - and voiced by fabulous Willie Rushton. We have only one thing to say: Globits!

Returning to the soaps, an English one this time, and Laura says:

I loved it when Ken and Deirdre in Coronation Street rowed in the '80s. He was kind of plank like, and she really went over the top.

We don't know what you mean, Laura. Ooh heck...

... perhaps we do... mind you, Ken looks a bit more 'Sugar Plum Fairy' than 'plank' to us...

Some who weren't around in the 1980s wish they were - like Harry:

I love the 1980s although I wasn’t born. Things like the first commercial computer mouse, the first version of Windows, the ZX Spectrum, Pac-Man, Sir Alec Jeffreys discovering DNA fingerprinting and Sir Tim Berners-Lee inventing the World Wide Web make it all seem so exciting. And they found the Titanic. And I love all the music and fashions.

You have excellent taste, my lad. And, if you haven't already, you must check out the fabulous Thompson Twins with my fave '80s popstrel Alannah Currie on You Tube or somewhere. Simply great.

Oh, Alannah, Alannah! Be still my fluttering heart! I adored Ms Currie back in the day.

Please keep the comments coming. Who knows what the future holds? As Sir Alec Jeffreys who stumbled upon DNA fingerprinting in 1984, said in recent years: 

‘If someone had told me in 1980, “Alec, go away and figure out a way of identifying people with DNA,” I would have sat there looking very stupid and got nowhere at all.’

Keep hopeful and happy if you can! xxx

My 50th Birthday - The Alannah Currie Card...

 For my birthday - it's 80's Alannah!

She had it all - talent, beauty and her very own '80s style...
 

My fiftieth birthday came and went in October with a great 1980s-themed party thrown for me by my wonderful family.

It was a terrific occasion, I had many cards and gifts from family and friends, and was made to feel thoroughly special.

One very thoughtful gesture of kindness came from my long-suffering personal trainer, Gary.

Gary is a bloke who has contributed a great deal to my health and general well-being over the last few years as I have an illness which necessitates a fitness regime. Gary is a top bloke who endures my endless whitterings during each PT session. "Gary! Name three major events of 1982!" "Gary! Why can't they play more '80s music at this gym? This modern stuff is so weedy!" "Gary! Who played Archie Gibbs in Crossroads?" "Gary! I can't possibly go on the treadmill today - I was on my feet all day at work yesterday!" 

And: "Gary! Don't you think Alannah Currie was the most beautiful pop star of the 1980s? Knocks spots off Madonna, doesn't she?"

I've written about my love for Alannah elsewhere on this blog (check out the Thompson Twins label below) but the gym I attend is at a residential centre I lived in for a while in the 1980s, and visiting it always makes me feel nostalgic for those days, and reminds me of my passions and torments from way back then.

Oh, Alannah! Alannah! Be still my fluttering heart! She joined the Thompson Twins when they assumed their classic line-up (the one we all remember - Alannah, Tom Bailey and Joe Leeway) and changed musical direction (switching to synthesizers) in 1982, and her beauty and style captivated me.

Being the absolute professional he is ("The customer is always right"), Gary always agrees with me about the loveliness of Alannah, although I know his tongue is firmly in his cheek. Anyway, for my birthday, completely out of the blue, he presented with me the home made Alannah card pictured above.

And I was dead chuffed.

And touched.

Cheers, Gazza.

But don't think I'm going on that treadmill, mateyboots...

1987: Then Jericho - The Motive... The Business Will Just Steal Your Soul...

"The business will just steal your soul, and that's what I believe.

But where's there truth there's poetry

It happens naturally..."

There's no getting over the riches that the 1980s gave... I'm still blown away by this song. And transported back to that youthful summer of 1987 - with its hair gel and slick dressing...

Well, the 1980s idea of slick dressing.

And the following year would be so different...

Acciiieed! Accciiieed!

There'll never be another 1980s.

New Romantics

 August 1980 - the release of Ashes To Ashes, with its groundbreaking video, was a great moment for David Bowie - and propelled the Blitz Kids and others towards the pop scene to form the New Romantics, the first big 1980s music and fashion scene.

20th Century Words by John Ayto traces the term "New Romantic" to 1980. So, what was a New Romantic? Late 1980 saw the emergence of two acts - Adam And The Ants and Spandau Ballet - into the upper echelons of the pop charts. They gave us Ant Music and To Cut A Long Story Short, respectively, and although both songs were very different, the Ants and the Ballet blokes were both heavy on the face make-up and the dashing outfits of years long, long past.

And, suddenly, we were all talking of New Romantics.

1981 brought a flurry of them into our lives - including, of course, Duran Duran and Ultravox. Planet Earth, complete with video, was very typical of the scene - synths, futuristic setting, OTT dandy flounces, lashings of lippy, and bizarre hairdos. The movement crossed over to America and Kim Carnes sent us the divine Bette Davis Eyes. 

TV Times, June 1981. How would you feel if your son looked like Adam Ant? If he'd lived where I lived, he'd probably have got seriously punched. But although nobody I knew was brave enough to adopt the image, Adam And The Ants were immensely popular with us lads.

So, the first big new pop sensation of the fledgling 1980s. How did it all begin?

Well, that's not quite what it seems! Read up on it elsewhere and you'll find that it all seems to have originated from a club called The Blitz Club in London, whose patrons paid homage to David Bowie - apparently dubbing themselves "Blitz Kids". Or was it somewhere called Billy's? Or both? Or...

Anyway, it was a dressy night club scene - or a couple of dressy night club scenes - where men wore make up and/or flamboyant outfits

The UK press created the "New Romantics" tag when Adam and the Ants and Spandau Ballet first hit the pop charts in late 1980.

David Bowie, of course, had been exciting the pop scene since 1969, and was very heavy on image. Was he Ziggy Stardust? A Thin White Duke (goodness, I thought that particular image was bloody boring and so retro!), but whatever he was he attracted dedicated followers in droves and his music brought flashes of sheer brilliance. 

In 1980, David had another one of those flashes - with his Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) album, and a single which would be included on this album, released in August 1980, although not officially classed as a New Romantic song, was what kick-started the scene. That song was, of course, Ashes To Ashes.

The video (or "promo" as we referred to them back then) was striking and hugely expensive, and featured Steve Strange, who wowed the pop charts in 1981 and 1982 with Visage hits like Fade To Grey and Mind Of A Toy.

But not all of those considered New Romantics in the early 1980s were part of The Blitz Club scene - Adam And The Ants for instance. 

And I can certainly state that I'd never heard of the Blitz and what attracted me to the New Romantic style was that I had simply had enough of the gobbiness and run-down seediness that had dominated the previous decade.

Several years before the New Romantics, as I lurched into my teens, I was yearning for something a bit more flash, a bit more stylish. I was depressed with the thick layer of mould up my bedroom wall, my threadbare "make do and mend", often hand-me-down clothes. 

I craved for glamour and excitement. I'm sure I was not alone! There was simply something in the air - many of us wanted a change. 

After the likes of Slade shouting their mouths off - as tacky as you please, the sleaziness of the Disco scene and the hopelessness (and, of course big gobbedness) of Punk, plus the oh-so-unoriginal 1970s revivals of 1950s style, 1960s mods and rockers (no thank you, Paul Weller!), plus the '60s ska scene and rockabilly, I was hungry to dress up, desperately hoping that the 1980s would be different.

And they were.

And probably the first manifestation of that was the emergence of the New Romantics in late 1980.

The wonderful Roxy Music, still going strong in the early 1980s, are considered to be an influence on the New Romantics, and I'm sure the group was, but the New Romantics, despite their precursors, were still startling and fresh at the time.

Boy George, of course, was part of the Blitz Club scene, he worked as a cloakroom attendant there, and he was an early New Romantic for sure -  but by the time he made his chart debut in 1982, the New Romantic thing, which had burned fiercely from late 1980 and throughout 1981, had fizzled as far as we the public were concerned. So, The Boy was, at the time, greeted as a stand alone newcomer, a unique individual, loved or loathed. Similarly, A Flock Of Seagulls, who had chart success in late 1982 with Wishing, whilst looking very New Romantic indeed, were not, at the time (as far as I remember!) labelled as such.

Let's hear it for the boy - Boy George, of course - before fame, pictured in the Daily Mirror in April 1981. Although an original New Romantic mover, shaker and trendsetter, by the time he arrived in the pop charts in 1982, the New Romantic scene was just about dead and buried. So, he was regarded simply as Boy George. And his own very personal sense of style inspired admiration, clones, and some homophobia. Soon-to-find-fame George (as seen in the newspaper picture), then simply referred to as George O'Dowd, 19, was wearing Chinese slippers (£3.99), old school trousers he'd tapered himself, and leg warmers. A 1920s dress (20p, Oxfam) was draped around his waist. The tassle belts, the long scarf, and Oxfam beads around his neck, cost him a few pence, the crimplene blouse came from his mum and the wooden cross from a friend. A black felt hat and assorted earrings completed his outfit.

Adam and the Ants.. well, Adam - AKA Stuart Goddard - has stated that his early '80s pop venture was not part of the New Romantic movement. I never knew at the time. Loved the band and saw it as very much part of the New Romantic thing way back then. Sorry, Adam! I still love you and the Ants - whatever you were!

Two groups which I was labelling "New Romantic" long after 1981 were Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. They were always and forever "New Romantics" to me. I loved the way the Duranies dropped the frillies for those gorgeous brightly-coloured suits - and the 1982 Rio video marked a turning point in my own personal fashion statements. 

 A change of image for Duran Duran, seen here in 1981 and 1982. Loved the colourful suits with pushed up sleeves and large shoulders!

Even now, knocking on towards fifty, I still feel a stirring of youthful (if that's possible at my age!) excitement at the thought of the New Romantics and the blossoming synth pop scene of the early 1980s in general. Combined, these two factors were the first indication that 1980s music and fashion were going to be OK for me. And, as it turned out, brilliant!

1986: Black Type Murdered By A Picnic Table Wielding Maniac? What A Nightmare!

This book, which I found last year in a local charity shop, is truly brillo pads. It's completely and utterly swingorilliant. It transports me back effortlessly to the heyday of Smash Hits magazine - that heyday, of course, being the 1980s. Those were the days of Madonna, Morton "Snorten Forten" Harket, miserable Morrisey, Bros, Jason and Kylie, Wham!, Adam and the Ants and other "pop" "stars". The days of "akchewerlery" and frightwigs. The days of Rick Astley's Ruddy Big Pig. The days of Black Type. Black Type? Yus, mateyboots, Sir Blackford of Type, the legendary letters page editor of Smash Hits.

In 1986 a nation mourned as horrendously horrible news broke: Black Type had been brutally murdered by a picnic table-wielding maniac. Stunned horrendous horror gave way to cries of "worra swizz!" as it all turned out to be a dream and Black Type lived on to blacken many more pages of Smash Hits.

 

Some utterly fabby Smash Hits covers from 1986 and 1987. Yes, folks, we have Howard Jones! We have Duran Duran! We have the Beastie Boys! And yes, yes, YES!!! we have Nick Kamen and the Housemartins.

The book even features some advertisements from the 1980s. Remember chat lines? After British Telecom arrived in 1980 and became a public corporation in late 1981, all sorts of new and highly exciting thingies happened - things like chatlines, which rose into the stratosphere in the mid-1980s. Great fun, coz the World Wide Web wouldn't be invented until 1989, so you could natter to all sorts of Tom, Dick and Harrys in the comfort and safety of your own black ash infested pad even back then. But chatlines had such potential aggro value they were actually featured as a storyline on Brookside. Yep, some kiddies dialled the digits and drove their parents' phone bills sky high, causing many tears and smacked botties before bedtime.

Happy 2015... Wish It Was 1985?

Happy New Year to all my readers (bless you both! x).

Ellen has e-mailed me to take me to task about the Spands, as I used to call 'em. How could I ignore 'em?

You've mentioned the Thompson Twins, PIL, Duran Duran, house music, acid house, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Neneh Cherry, Eurythmics, Adam and the Ants, Pet Shop Boys, even Agadoo by Black Lace and Tarzan Boy by Baltimora. But you've ignored one of the most iconic pop groups of the 1980s - SPANDAU BALLET. How could you do that?

Um, well, to cut a long story short I lost my mind, Ellen. No slight intended to the lads and that's TRUE. I just haven't got round to them yet. But I will. Hope you like the pic of them at Live Aid in 1985.

Happy New Year!

House Music And Garage Music... Separate, Not The Same...

Joanne has written:

Were the dance music genres of the 1980s, House and Garage the same thing? I remember as a kid them being referred to separately, but I recently read of something called "Garage House" on a not very accurate site, and thought I'd turn to you for the answer!

Yes, they were separate, Joanne. House music as a distinct genre of electronic dance music began in Chicago - 1983 was described as "Year Zero" for house in the Channel 4 documentary, Pump Up The Volume. House, of course, hit the mainstream in the mid-1980s. Garage I knew little of until the 1990s, when I heard talk of "house and garage". There was also talk of something called "shed" at that time. It all seemed quite witty, but I was married by then and no longer part of the nightclub scene so know little about Garage. It apparently began in the early 1980s in New York and New Jersey, USA, and was influenced by the same sudden explosion of electronic instruments - synthesizers, drum machines, etc - as house.

The origins of the two genres are separate though.

1981 - Mr Rubik - The Barron Knights

 

The Barron Knights gave us the album Twisting The Knights Away in 1981, and reflected the year's main craze on the cover and in one of the tracks - the Rubik's Cube! The Cube blasted out from behind the Iron Curtain, Hungary to be exact, where it had been known as Magic Cube, to become Rubik's Cube in 1980 - re-manufactured to Western World safety and packaging norms.

Small numbers of Magic Cubes had seeped into the West, but there were never enough to spark any major craze, and the Magic Cube was not pliable enough to allow speed cubing, which would become a major feature of the Rubik's Cube craze. The small seepage of Magic Cubes caused some confusion and even the mighty BBC to slip up in its 'I Love...' series, when it claimed the Rubik's Cube arrived in the UK in 1979. It did not actually exist then, and the small numbers of Magic Cubes which seeped over here via a small niche puzzle company largely passed unnoticed. Just check out any UK newspaper archive. The BBC was inundated with complaints and moved the Rubik's Cube to 1980 on its 'I Love...' website. 

As the series had also goofed with the space hopper (UK newspaper articles reveal it was a huge craze from the time of its release in the spring of 1968 and not thrilling and new in 1971) and several other items, pop culture historians now approach the series with extreme caution.

But in the case of the Rubik's Cube, the BBC can't be wholly blamed: rather misleading tales that the tiny niche puzzle company Pentangle in England launched the Magic Cube in the UK in 1978 had been circulating since the early 1980s - taking no account of the tiny numbers available and the Magic Cube's differences to the 1980 Rubik's Cube. As we say, the UK newspaper archives are a great recorder of past crazes, as are magazines of the time.

From the cover of the Sunday Times Magazine's review of 1981 - the Year of the Cube in the UK.

Sadly, the 1980 Rubik's Cubes were also in woefully short supply at first. Although the trademark was registered in the UK on 7 May 1980, the first of them did not arrive until later in the year - and still stocks were low. In the spring of 1981 more Cubes arrived. The craze flamed, and was so ferocious that the colourful little object become one of the main icons of the 1980s. 

Hear the Barron Knights' humorous Rubik's  Cube song below, with some clever modern day Cube animation that just suits the mood - and evokes very powerfully the spirit of 1981! Mr Rubik was, of course, the puzzle's inventor, Erno Rubik, and much more can be read about the Cube by clicking on our "Rubik's Cube" label below.

Memories of 1983 - Jimmy The Hoover - Tantalise...

I've been thinking a lot about 1983 lately. I have my reasons! But a good one I can share with you is the fact that the summer of 1983 was much nicer than this one! And tangled up with the memories of that summer is the refrain "Wo Wo Ee Yeh Yeh" - courtesy of Jimmy The Hoover, an English pop band which had formed in 1982. Seems so strange to think that 1983 is thirty years ago. I'm getting old! But the memories of my youth remain strong and stop me from feeling TOO old! By the wonder of YouTube, enjoy Jimmy The Hoover above.

Smash Hits: Always Read The Black Type First...

Howard Jones and a lovely brolly (£2-99 - a snip!) star on a 1985 "Smash Hits" cover...

Lovely freebies...

Mid-1980s "Smash Hits" hilarity...

Black Type was essential reading for me in the 1980s. The Smash Hits letters pages were loaded with the drollest of droll wit and irony and I'd beg a look at my younger sister's copy of that worthy mag every time I visited my parents' house. Once I even wrote in and had a letter published myself.

To me, the 1980s were a fabulous time for music. I loved the polished pop, the synth era, the evolvement of rap into the Hip Hop scene, the beginnings of House music, Acid House, and the Dance and Rave scenes.

But I certainly had no desire to drool over pop stars and booster their (often) already massive egos. In the 1970s, we kids got into pop young and I had a cousin who subjected the whole family to her dreadful fixations with the likes of Donny Osmond, the Bay City Rollers and John Travolta.

"Oh, Andy, Woody writes to his Mum every week - isn't he sweet!" (or some such tosh) she'd squawk as she clutched the latest "must-have" fan mag. And it really got on my nerves.

So, I developed a healthy cynicism about pop stars and pop music at an early age. My cousin didn't. As a young married mum in the mid-1980s, she was squawking: "Ooh, Jon Bon Jovi! Did you know that's all his own hair?! He's sooo lovely..." etc, etc, etc.

But my tongue was firmly in my cheek when it came to the pop scene (although I adored a lot of the music) and the Smash Hits letters pages were heaven for me as they often left the subject of pop far behind (how do you spell achtuwarly?).

Black Type, the mysterious letters page editor, who seemed like a bit of a wally, would often wax lyrical about his latest obsession (who would it be this week? Una Stubbs? Bonnie Langford?) and there were enthralling exchanges about Harpic Bleachmatic Duo ads. Amongst other things.

In fact, the whole tone of Smash Hits back then was just sooo droll (remember ' "pop" "star" Simon Le Bon'?), nothing could ever compete. Ever. And on top of all that the mag had Neil Tennant (pre-Pet Shop Boys fame) on its journalistic staff.

Wonderful.-------------

Pet Shop Boys 1986 - "Opportunities - Let's Make Lots Of Money" - Original UK Chart Version?

They met in August 1981. And Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe made a Docklands development-sized impact on the mid-to-late 1980s popular music scene - rich in electronics and deliciously droll irony...

Had an enquiry from Phil:

Hi! I enjoy your 1980s site a lot and have a little question for you. In 1986 I loved the Pet Shop Boys hit "Opportunities Lets Make Lots Of Money". I have searched it out on YouTube and heard some great versions of the song, but I'm sure they are not the same as the version in the UK charts in '86. I seem to remember it being faster and even more electronic. Am I right? And if so, where can I find the chart version?

You are right, Phil! There were several mixes of this song. I have the UK chart entry mix on a 1986 compilation cassette - Now That's What I Call Music 7 - and it has a harder, faster, dancier sound. Do look out for copies of Now 7 on on-line auction sites. Of course, there is no CD version. Perhaps the NOW people might consider rectifying that situation with a release of all the pre-CD NOWs on that format for the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of this legendary compilation series?

1983-2013 - thirty years!! Doesn't seem possible...

Now That's What I Call Music 7 - 1986. The Pig had gone (last appearance Now 5) and for this outing we had a very different design. But then we were S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G. Neil and Chris filled us in in 1987:

 No questions in the house, no give and take
There's a big bang in the city
We're all on the make

We're S-H-O-PP-I-N-G, we're shopping
We're S-H-O-PP-I-N-G, we're shopping

Our gain is your loss, that's the price you pay
I heard it in the House of Commons: everything's for sale

Feel the Quality!

Paul McCartney And The Frog Chorus: We All Stand Together...

Remember Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus? The song, of course, leapt up the pop charts. Smash Hits interviewed one of the stars in their Bitz section back in December 1984 ...

The London Borough of Finchley is not only the constituency of Margaret Thatcher, but also the home of Hamish the Frog who, along with his two younger brothers Ian the Frog and Keith the Frog and the artistic assistance of Paul McCartney, has created a record that is positively hopping up the charts. 

"We All Stand Together" by Paul McCartney And The Frog Chorus is the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition for Hamish, Ian and Keith.

"We've been croaking and humming since we were tadpoles," explains Hamish. "We began with the odd gig down the local aquarium, then we graduated to more, er, prestigious venues - boating lakes, swimming pools etc."

The talented trio - actually they were a quartet at the time but fourth member Steve the Frog mysteriously disappeared only days after the opening of Marcel's French Bistro on Finchley High Road - first came to the attention of Fab Macca last year. The Frogettes were playing an open-air free festival (in Greenpeace) at a Sussex duckpond near the McCartney home. Also on the bill were Spawndau Ballet, Howard Toads and Barry Manilow. Macca, impressed by their "energy and commitment", invited them along to "do do a session" and the single was born.

So what was it like working with a living legend?

"You mean Rupert the Bear?" croaks Hamish.

No, no, no. We mean Paul McCartney.

"OK," shrugs Hamish, "but we don't just want to do novelty records. Our tastes are a bit more, er, radical than Paul's."

What does he mean exactly?

Hamish scowls. "Every year three million frogs are slaughtered and their legs amputated for the eating pleasure of the bourgeoisie," replies Hamish, hopping mad by this point. "The tragic death of our brother really brought this home."

Hamish wipes a tear from his eye, warns "Bitz" to expect something a bit more "hard-hitting" for their next single and hops off home to the luxury Finchley fish tank the brothers have just bought with their royalties.

There goes a frog who does not mince his croaks.

New Order - Blue Monday... "Really Weird, That Is!"

  
New Order, of course, formed after Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, committed suicide in 1980. In 1983, I had never even heard of New Order. I had heard of Joy Division when they'd had some chart success with Love Will Tear Us Apart in 1980, but the follow-on band had slipped underneath my radar. I was dead common, you see. Chart music was everything to me and if a band hadn't charted, I didn't know 'em.

Then, along came Blue Monday in 1983. Now, at that point my favourite kind of music was synth pop, and Blue Monday had synths. It also had a jangling guitar. It also had a staccato beat. And it had a lack of structure I had never encountered before. The song simply didn't conform to the rules I was used to, and I rejected it: "That's really weird, that is!" I squawked.

But within a week this now legendary long player was on my record player non-stop. It was groundbreaking. It was brilliant. It was staggeringly original, it began to move us away from synth pop and towards the dance music era of the late 1980s and early 1990s - that's what I now say.

1987... schizoid year which saw the '80s destroying the yuppie dream it had created with the stock market crash - and a huge gale wreaking death and destruction across the south of England. The dance scene was getting well and truly underway. This track, from New Order's SUBSTANCE 1987 compilation album, is an absolute peach. Just listen to Bernard Summner:

"I stood there beside myself
Thinking hard about the weather
Then came by a friend of mine

Suggested we go out together
Then I knew it from the start
This friend of mine would fall apart
Pretending not to see his guilt
I said 'let's go out and have some fun'..."

1987: Eurythmics - Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)

Eurythmics - Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox - formed in 1980 and were one of the most fascinating and innovative contributors to the pop charts throughout the decade. 

Remember Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)? Remember Who's That Girl? Remember Here Comes The Rain Again? Of course you do! But do you remember Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)? You probably don't! Take a look at the brilliant video above and listen to the compelling story of an upper-middle class English woman, brilliantly portrayed by the very Scottish Annie Lennox, as she tries to meld the girl, the masculine side and the vamp within her and break away from her repressed state. Or simply goes off her rocker! 

Love this.

What Does The Term "New Wave" Music And Fashion Mean? Is It A Meaningless "Catch All"?

Charlie writes:

I love 80's Actual and would like to ask you something. What on earth was New Wave? I've read reams about it, and it seems to be applied to so many different forms of music and fashion in the 1980s, especially in America, whilst some people have the view that it means bog-all. What's your view, Andy? I'm confused!

Well, to me, "New Wave" music and fashion spanned from about 1978 to about 1980/81, with other things happening alongside. I always view "New Wave" as being, primarily, the revival of 1960s Mods and Rockers culture in the late 1970s. Throw in a little Blondie, one or two kookie odds and ends, plus the 1979-1981 ska revival, and you're about there as far as I'm concerned. "New Wave" was never an individual music genre in itself. I did not regard the late disco scene, Punk, New Romantics or synth pop as New Wave.

I'm not sure how UK music journalists of the '80s felt about it, but I fail to see how such a nebulous term can be applied to the diverse range of music and fashions which dominated that decade - it certainly could not, in my opinion, be applied to the whole or even half of the 1980s as some on-line sources now claim.

Nowadays, some people do seem a little obsessed with trying to slot things into convenient categories, it seems tremendously important for some reason, but I don't see the point. For me, the 1980s music scene was about disco (very early on), the ska revival, synth pop, gothic rock, New Romantics, indie, soul, the emergence of hip hop, the creation of house and acid house music, the beginnings of modern dance music, and the "rave" culture - amongst other things. It also included music I simply termed "pop".

As for America, I think things were rather different there and how they applied the "New Wave" term is not something I know a great deal about. 

Great to hear from you, Charlie. Glad you like the blog and I hope you keep reading.

The Human League

The Human League arrived - first hitting the Top 40 in May 1981 with Sound of the Crowd.

The original Human League had formed in 1977, and there were several changes in line-up (two of the original members who left in 1980 later formed Heaven 17) before the vast majority of us discovered a rather different version of the group which came together in 1980.

One of the pivotal moments in the band's history was when vocalist Phil Oakey asked Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall (then school girls aged 17 and 18) to join, having spotted them dancing at The Crazy Daisy Nightclub, Sheffield, in October 1980.

Oakey was faced with the highly difficult task of recruiting new band members within a matter of days when he spotted Susan Ann and Joanne.

The girls were originally recruited as "guests" to the group, to dance and provide incidental vocals on a European tour. Many fans of the obscure original Human League group were disgruntled to see the dancing girls, expecting the original all-male line-up. Legend has it that thrown beer cans and some heckling was the result.

But, despite this, on returning to England in December 1980, the girls were made full members of The Human League.

The band gave us a distinctly unseasonal Christmas Number One in 1981 - Don't You Want Me.

Classic.

I love the Human League. If I hear one of their early-to-mid 1980s hits, I'm transported back... I can smell the hair gel, see that jumbled Rubik's Cube sitting smugly on the settee, hear the Space Invaders and Pac-Man machines burbling, feel the tensions of O' Levels and job hunting and the happiness of becoming a wage earner...

It's not just nostalgia. I think that the Human League are brilliant - then, now, forever.

Now That's What I Call Music Arrives...

Illustration from the first Now That's What I Call Music cassette, which contained such goodies as Will Powers Kissing With Confidence and Tracey Ullman's They Don't Know.
  From the Now cassette sleeve. Do you remember Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack singing Tonight I Celebrate My Love? I liked, and still like, that song, but me and my mate Neal used to sing along to it: "Tonight, I sellotape my glove to you. It seems the natural thing to do..." 

Why?

'Cos we woz wallies.

Read more about the Now That's What I Call Music pig and how it evolved here.

Talk Talk - Bringing Back The '80s...

Talk Talk formed in 1981, and their music has the ability to lead me back to my '80s youth... so that I can almost touch it. Almost be there.

But not quite.

Those rough-edged, highly turbulent but still much simpler days are gone.

Forever.

Above you'll find Talk Talk's 1982 hit Today... I was seventeen... wore a donkey jacket for fashion... worked as an office clerk... played on the CB... smoked, went to discos and down the pub. I didn't have a ZX Spectrum. Nerdy rubbish. Computers were just a passing fad anyway...



And on to 1984... It's My Life... no more office clerking... now a Social Services Care Assistant... wanted to CARE, do something MEANINGFUL... I was idealistic AND cynical... booze, nightclubs and sex ruled my free time...



1985: Life was what I made it... great friends and loads of laughter, sex and music and dancing and booze and hair gel and cheap flash clothes - tweak those shoulder pads, push up those sleeves... Mobile phones? Yuppie toys - they'll never catch on!... pose at the Nite Spot... sink eight pints of Stella...

And then, suddenly, completely out of the blue, I fell in love - properly in love for the very first time - and my life slid totally out of my control...