It's the end of April, post number 193, and the second anniversary of this site.
Incredibly, in that time, over 450 people have visited the site from at least 20 different countries. It doesn't sound like all that much for two years of a website. But I started this purely as a way to express myself and talk about my passion for exploring music, in part to help my mental health. I had no expectations about anyone actually reading any of my nonsense, so the fact that a few hardy souls have is fantastic.
Thank you to everyone who has read and engaged with the site - I really appreciate it!
To celebrate - I have concocted a playlist of the 1980s - the decade where music really came to the fore for me. Some of the choices are ones that represent where I was at that time and what we were listening to - some are artists I discovered after the 80s - some are iconic.
I think all of the tracks are, of course, great - for some letters I could have picked four or five great bands, although, of course, for a few letters my choices were somewhat limited.....
A: Adam & The Ants: Stand And Deliver
Pretty much every person I knew in 1981-82, aged 8 or 9, considered Adam & The Ants to be the band to be into. I didn't yet understand punk and post-punk - I just knew that tunes like Stand And Deliver were catchy as heck!
Stand And Deliver (Official music video)
B: Big Country: Look Away
A band that has been a passion of mine for almost four decades now - and many of you will be aware that the much missed Stuart Adamson remains my all time musical hero. I could have gone for a more obvious choice, but this was the song, from 1986s The Seer, that hooked me in to begin with.
Look Away (Official music video)
C: Crowded House: Love This Life
Again, a band that caught my imagination in a big way a long time ago. Neil Finn's ability to craft a magical tune is almost without match, especially when it was combined by the bond of Paul Hester and Nick Seymour. Don't Dream may be the best known choice from their two 80s albums, but Temple Of Low Men was my first (and still my favourite) - and this is one of the best songs he ever wrote (and that is saying something).
Love This Life (Audio only)
D: Duran Duran: Planet Earth
I'm not sure if it was cool for a boy to like Duran Duran back in 1983 or so - they somehow seemed the preserve of the hordes of screaming teenage girls. But they were, are, a great band and I realised a lot later that no one much gave them credit for that. Four talented musicians and a charismatic front man is a good recipe - and the early stuff is great. Oh, and what a bass line!
Planet Earth (Live at Måndagsbörsen in 1981)
E: Echo & The Bunnymen: The Killing Moon
I wasn't much into them at the time. Ian McCulloch had said some unkind things about my faves of the time - Simple Minds - and so they got short shrift from me! Then, I realised they were utterly brilliant. You might think this controversial (but I remain unmoved), but this might just be the greatest song ever written! Quite a statement, I know - but this song has literally everything; epic, soaring beauty, eerie and hooky guitars, lush strings and Mac's slightly fragile vocals. Goosebumps every time.
The Killing Moon (Official music video)
F: Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Relax
Well, that last one is hard to follow. But now we have possibly the most iconic British single of the first half of the 80s. Risqué, controversial and laden with big riffs - everything an 11 year old might want to hear (except it was banned on the radio for a while, which made hearing it difficult - luckily my mate Paul had a copy).
Relax (Official music video)
G: Go-Betweens: Bye Bye Pride
This is a band I was fully aware of from the music press of the late 80s, but never really heard until much more recently, when I finally relented and entered the world of digital music. They were the critics darlings who probably should have been at least as big as The Smiths, but weren't. Bye Bye Pride, written and sung by Grant McLennan, is simply a thing of beauty - how does everybody not know this song?
Bye Bye Pride (Official music video)
H: Huey Lewis & The News: The Heart Of Rock & Roll
This may seem like a leftfield choice to some of you - but in 1985 or so, I was a big fan of The News. In fact, so much so, that I persuaded my mum's pen friend from California to bring me a tour t-shirt with her when she visited. A good old fashioned pop-rock tune.
The Heart Of Rock & Roll (Official music video)
I: INXS: Don't Change
It was a toss up between INXS (who I already knew and loved in the 80s) and the Icicle Works (who I discovered and loved at the start of the 90s). Then it was a decision between something from their big album, Kick, the more charismatic Listen Like Thieves album, or this, my absolute favourite song of theirs. Don't Change is just a gem, the keyboard and guitar lines are great and Hutchence just sounds so cool on this.
Don't Change (Live in the US sometime around 1982-83)
J: Julian Cope: World Shut Your Mouth
He's a bit of a nutter. 8 year old me wouldn't have known that from his work in Teardrop Explodes, but 13 year old me probably should have guessed from this song. A perfect three and a half minutes of manic indie pop, with a video where Cope is draped / hanging off a distinctly odd shaped mic stand.
World Shut Your Mouth (Official music video)
K: Kim Wilde: Kids In America
Was Kim Wilde Britain's answer to Debbie Harry? I don't know about that, but 43 years later and still sounding great, Kids In America still stands up as one of the iconic 80s tracks.
Kids In America (Official music video)
L: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions: Mr. Malcontent
I think most of us loved Lost Weekend and Perfect Skin when they came out. They were well crafted, 'adult' pop tunes with lyrics that seemed cool, because we didn't have a clue what they meant. But as I listened to more of their stuff at college, this became my favourite track. The slow start, building to a bigger chorus, slowing back down into the middle 8 - and then exploding out for the glorious finale.
Mr. Malcontent (Audio only)
M: Madness: Our House
How could I not have some representation of the ska movement that dominated the charts here, when the 70s became the 80s? The Specials, The Selector, Bad Manners and schoolboy favourites, Madness. It wasn't just that Suggs and co. were a bunch of cheeky chappies (although that helped) - the songs were instant classics too.
Our House (Official music video)
N: New Order: Ceremony
I didn't know Joy Division when I was six, or indeed that Ian Curtis had committed suicide on my seventh birthday. I didn't even know much about the band formed from those ashes, New Order, probably until True Faith came out in 1987. Latterly I found the stark beauty of Joy Division, and much of New Order's back catalogue - of which their earlier stuff captures my attention - maybe because there are still echoes of Joy Division in there. Ceremony, in fact, was written before Curtis' death, so is almost a de facto Joy Division song.
Ceremony (Live at CoManCHE Student Union, 1981)
O: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz of Joan of Arc)
Incredibly, this was the second single from Architecture & Morality about the French saint - and both made the UK Top5. I still vividly remember both these songs and videos from Top of the Pops. The weird and dramatic mellotron sounds and the waltz rhythm somehow hooked me in, despite the perhaps odd lyrical subject.
Maid Of Orleans (Official music video)
P: Psychedelic Furs: All That Money Wants
Pretty In Pink was about my favourite film in the mid-80s, and was also my first knowing taste of the Psychedelic Furs. I didn't know at that time that their title track was a (slightly inferior) re-working of an older song. Their first Best Of came out at the end of the decade, and I dived in - but despite all that great history, this standalone single, made just for this collection, remains one of my favourites. It has John Ashton's bright and fuzzy 60s sounding guitar, Vince Ely's crisp drums and Richard Butler's rasp, which shouldn't work, but does.
All That Money Wants (Official music video)
Q: Queen: One Vision
You don't ever have to own a Queen album, and yet you will still probably know at least twenty or more or their songs. This one was always the favourite back in the day - the strange vocal beginning, the big crunching guitar from Dr May and yet another chance for Freddie to belt it out of the park!
One Vision (it had to be the live at Wembley version)
R: R.E.M.: Fall On Me
I started listening to REM in 1989, after Green had come out - I had sought out the entire back catalogue within a year or so. For a long time, Life's Rich Pageant was my favourite album of theirs (it's probably Fables Of The Construction now, for the record) - and this was always a standout track on it, for me; one of those times where the two Michaels, Stipe and Mills, counterpoint vocals took it all to another level.
Fall On Me (Live from Austin, TX)
S: Simple Minds: Hunter And The Hunted
Before the stadium anthems of the mid to late 80s there was nuance and subtlety. New Gold Dream came out in 1982 and I first heard it in 1987. I didn't really get it at first listen, but after half a dozen plays it became my favourite album of all - it still is today. So I have picked my favourite version of my favourite song from this favourite record! This live version, which was later released as the B-Side of Waterfront, is so atmospheric and moody - I'll let Jim introduce it himself....
Hunter And The Hunted (Live at Newcastle City Hall, 1982)
T: Talking Heads: Road To Nowhere
I had probably seen that quirky video for Once In A Lifetime at some point in my younger years, but it was when Road To Nowhere came out in 1985 that Talking Heads grabbed my attention. David Byrne would say that it was a "resigned, even joyous look at doom". But for me it was all about that great rhythm track laid down by Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz that really drives this song along.
Road To Nowhere (Official music video)
U: U2: I Will Follow
Pride was my gateway song, but the first three U2 albums are the ones that really got me. They all have this raw, post-punk energy that I find irresistible - epitomised by I Will Follow, one of the earliest singles, coming off debut LP Boy. If you see clips of them playing live in the early 80s, as well as the energy, there is such joy and passion.
I Will Follow (Live on The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1981)
V: Violent Femmes: Blister In The Sun
Another band that I was introduced to in the 90s rather than the 80s, I still don't know a huge amount about them, but this is such a catchy number - the acoustic guitar riff and the staccato brushed drum lick propel it into a foot stomping singalong.
Blister In The Sun (Live version)
W: World Party: Is It Like Today?
I was reminded of World Party last month, for all the wrong reasons, with the death of founder and sole permanent member, Karl Wallinger. One small positive was that it reminded me of how fantastic their songs were. It also allows me to cram in a tenuous Icicle Works reference (see I), as they also covered Private Revolution. And yes, that is Sinead n backing vocals.
Private Revolution (Official music video)
X: XTC: Senses Working Overtime
There was only one real choice for X, but luckily Swindon's finest, XTC, were a great band, and this single from 1982 is probably my first memory of them. Andy Partridge apparently loosely based this one on Manfred Mann's 1964 hit 5-4-3-2-1.
Senses Working Overtime (Official music video)
Y: Yazoo: Situation
Yazoo was the result of former punk Alison Moyet asking to be a part of synth-pop maestro (and recently ex-Depeche Mode) Vince Clarke's new outfit. His ear for a good tune and Moyet's great voice, led us to Only You, Don't Go and this, the more upbeat Situation.
Situation (Official music video)
Z: ZZ Top: Gimme All Your Lovin'
Again, there aren't many places to go with Z - but settling with ZZ Top isn't so bad. The Texan barroom blues band had added some extra slick rock production to their sound by the time 1983s Eliminator came around. They had been on hiatus for a while, and interestingly Billy Gibbons had gotten into British synth pop, like Depeche Mode and OMD, which inspired him to up the tempo on these new songs. The riff on this one (and the beards) led it to become one of the hits of that year, propelling it to UK number 10.
Gimme All Your Lovin' (Official music video)
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