40 years on: Top 10 albums of 1980

 Top 10 albums of 1980 (in chronological order)

1. John Foxx - Metamatic
2. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
3. Genesis - Duke
4. The Human League - Travelogue
5. Gary Numan - Telekon
6. David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
7. Simple Minds - Empires & Dance
8. Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids
9. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Organisation
10. Mike Oldfield - QE2

Of Ants and Turtles and Electric Video Dreams

Steve Barron: the Ninja Turtle years.

I was interested to read this interview with video and film director Steve Barron this morning. I didn't know very much about him although of course was well acquainted with his work on seminal pop promotional videos starting in 1979 with The Jam and Secret Affair, moving onto pop pioneers Adam & the Ants, The Human League, Tears for Fears, OMD, Simple Minds et al, and then winding up with the big boys like  Madonna, Bowie, Bryan Adams and Michael Jackson (Billie Jean), while still remaining faithful to A-ha throughout.
He also directed a couple of films including the 80's-pop fuelled comedy sci-fi Electric Dreams and some other things which were, and remain, off my radar.
The abovementioned article was there to plug his new autobiography "Egg n Chips & Billie Jean: A Trip Through the Eighties", which from the Kindle preview actually looks quite entertaining.

His videos seem to always have that grainy, slightly old-fashioned feel to them which I quite like. Here's one of those early, seminal videos from 1980 (featuring the legendary GIANT PLUG!).

20th Century TOTP

UK telly viewers may like to know that BBC4 are set to re-broadcast all the Top of the Pops shows in their entirety from April 1976 onwards evry Thursday night starting this week!
Why start at AD 1976? I hear you ask, well that apparently was the month when the Beeb actually decided to keep all the shows (presumably on tape) for archive purposes, supposedly for these 'time capsule' type occasions. Hurrah! Should make interesting viewing if only for spotting the daft dancing and "fashions" of the time as bad news is that the music itself won't be very good for quite a bit. Just as an indication, number one in the UK in April 1976 was Brotherhood of Man's Euro-winner "Save Your Kisses For Me" (no, you don't need to sing it thank you).

If anything the new screenings may spawn a new and better quality crop of youtube uploads from the show, as there are plenty of geeks out there willing to record and upload their fave TOTP moments througout the years (cough).
Speaking of which, we came across this rather good youtube channel which is doing just that. The aptly named memorylane1980s channel features loads of good stuff from said decade for your coffee-break sized viewing pleasure. Here's Sheffield band and 80's TOTP regulars The Human League doing one of their best in their 'democratic' line-up, with Phil Oakey dressed in what can only be described as a 'girl's blouse'.
Howzabout that then guys n gals?

I Love 1980 - 23

John Foxx - My Face (flexi disc)

Not so much a tribute to the song (you've had your share already John Foxx!) more a homage to the format itself. Smash Hits, and others, occasionally gave a way a free coloured flexi disc with their fornightly magazine, which was a pioneer publication in covering music trends in a unique style. The Foxx track was released in such a format 30 years ago this week.
Smash Hits flexis seem to have been mostly by artists on Virgin - Squeeze, XTC, Skids, OMITD; Foxx - a label which, as already mentioned, was particularly aware of new sounds and new means of distributing music to the kids., although later other labels took up on the idea and occasionally issued pieces of wobbly plastic via SH and other mags too. The Flexi-Pop! magazine was lanched in 1980, and had a free flexi disc each issue, often with exclusively recorded songs by bands of the moment (Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, The Jam, Haircut 100..)
The sound quality of the track(s) on the discs were never excellent of course, even by vinyl standards, and more than often you had to put a 10p piece on the needle or on the centrre of the disc itself to make sure it played properly on yer record player. But this was 1980, we didn't worry too much about scratches and, hey, they were free!


This particular track by Foxx remained exclusive to this release right up until the year 2000 when it finally saw the light of day in non-flexi form on the Modern Art compilation. Its total electronic style was in keeping with the year's Metamatic, although according to SH blurb the song "is just one of the forty or so tracks that the man has been working up while preparing for his second solo album". Ironically it was his last 'electronic' song to be released before moving on (or back) to a more 'organic' sound with drums and guitars with The Garden and susbequent 80s albums. Foxx would return to electronics some ten years later with the Nation 12 project with Tim Simenon in 1991 and again from 1995 with Louis Gordon. He is currently working on electronic music with producer and all round analogue geek Benge as John Foxx & The Maths.



read Ryan Foley's History of the flexi disc here.
flexi-pop facebook group here
thanks, as ever, to Brian McCloskey's SH archive

Listen: John Foxx - My Face

Ballet Dancing

For those brave enough to venture into post-Diamond territory Spandau Ballet have released expanded and remastered editions of their 'True' and 'Parade' albums this week.
'True' is released as a three disc edition featuring a CD of the original album, remastered; a CD of bonus material including previously unreleased remixes and live tracks and a DVD of the band playing live at London's Sadlers Wells theatre in 1983. 'Parade' appears as a 2-CD edition, featuring the remastered album and a number of bonus tracks on one disc and a BBC In Concert show recorded at Wembley Arena in 1984 on the other.

We're very much in mid-80s territory here so the uninitiated please beware . Gone were the days of eccentric clothing and Blitz-era dance classics such as To Cut a Long Story Short and The Freeze and even the spruced up Beat-Route boys of Chant No. 1 or Instinction. Communication, Gold and Lifeline off 1983's number one album True (knocked off the top spot by Thriller) are still bearable although the sickly sweet sleeze of the title track was the shape of things to come. Only When You Leave, I'll Fly For You and Round and Round off Parade a year later were very much the soundtrack of wine bar smooching and such like up and down the country ....

Oddly The Spans' success hardly went much further than this, with later albums Through the Barricades and Heart Like a Sky producing relatively modest sales. The courtroom was just around the corner...

Spandau Ballet circa 1984 . ...do we look mid-eighties in this? Oh dear..

Spandau Ballet chart stats

P&P included

Heaven 17 are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their Penthouse & Pavement album a year early (it's not 1981 yet!) with a special tour and no less than two documentaries on BBC2.
The tour will feature H17 members Martyn Ware and Glen Gregory preforming the seminal album 'in it's entirety' for the very first time, together with loads of special artists and guests you can read about here.
Two separate documentaries about the making of P&P, and the 30th Anniversary show, are confirmed for transmission Sunday 16th May on BBC2 at 11.20pm (concert) and Monday 17th May (making of), same time same channel.
The album which effectively mixed electronics and funk, perhaps for the first time, was only luke-warmly received when it was originally issued. Apparently misconstrued, and perhaps not unsurprisingly, as a 'yuppie' kind of album with it's business-like image and approach, despite the opening (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang and digs at the new money-centred society, war-mongering and other subjects such as organised religion.

Although the 'Penthouse' A side provided the more poppy singles (none of which even reached the top 40), I was fonder of the 'Pavement' B side which was more akin to the full-electronic former-Human League sound (you can imagine Oakey singing some of those). Particulary good was the repeated 'for a very long time' on the vinyl run-out which didn't always work (damn those automatic turntables) and which no way could be converterted to digital / CD format..hurrah foy vinyl!

La Edad de Oro

La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age) was an Spanish TV popular arts programme which ran from 1983 to 1985, and is considered to be a cult TV show of the time..something like the Beeb's OGWT..but even more cult ...and pop....and continental.
The show, presented by one Paloma Chamorro (pic.), was an important milestone in Spanish pop culture in the post-Franco years and featured many trendy bands of the time, including such names as The Durutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire, Culture Club, Aztec Camera and many more. Bands would perform live sets of 5 or 6 songs usually accompanied by an interview with Ms Chamorro.
A John Foxx performance and interview from 83 recently cropped up on youtube and is now circulating as a bootleg DVD. As far as I can see only programmes featuring Spanish bands have appeared in official DVD form, although if anyone knows anything to the contrary please let me know.
I was pleased to come across an Edad de Oro performance by China Crisis dating from early 1984 on youtube (see this user's channel for more bands and info). It's a a tight set by the Chinas featuring tracks from their first two albums (just prior to recording and releasing Flaunt the Imperfection) including this rare performance of No Ordinary Lover (anyone know who the drummer is as it's not Kevin Wilkinson).

Smash Hits is back!

I am indebted to my friend Martin Birdsong for helping me discover a wonderful new(ish) blog and its sister-flickr site featuring full editions of near-legendary pop/rock fornightly Smash Hits, appropriately from 30 years ago.
Brian McCloskey has taken on the mammoth task of adding a new issue of Smash Hits to his fab blog Like Punk Never Happened every fortnight, with all the pages on the flickr site, on the thirtieth anniversary of the original publication date. So that means I get to (re)read Smash Hits all over again as in 1980! Hurrah!
I was an avid reader until about end '83/84 (when music went a bit cr*p) taking in every single word, picture, review, advert in every issue. Oddly, or perhaps not, browsing through the pages on flickr I seem to have every single one of them imprinted on my brain somewhere. I was particularly glad to see the amount of favourable attention given to John Foxx with the launch of his solo career, and to Gary Numan from Tubeway Days onwards (before the backlash..)
Anyways I shall be updating some of my I Love 1980 posts with Smash Hits pages and thanks to Brian I shall be able to follow that magic year as chronologically as possible (is that English?).
Cheers.
The thoroughly modern Skids adorn the front cover of SH in late 1979. Sadly Big Country was just around the corner..

I Love 1980 - 7

John Foxx - No-One Driving, double 7"

Can't remember quite what convinced me to decide to cycle some 15 miles to get this double 7" single from the nearest decent record shop (think I got it from Boots' in the end), but I did and never regretted it. Underpass had already scarred my memory (see I Love 1980 - 1) and although I'd still failed to get the Metamatic album even as a tape copy (was I the only
one in town that liked John Foxx?) I just had to get this single I'd probaly heard on the radio... with the three extra tracks to boot...as seen in NME.
And it must have been one of the first times that I loved the pic sleeve (still quite rare at the time) and artwork as much as the music. The monochrome images of an enigmatic man in a grey suit, which remain with Foxx to this day, were so incredibly stylish, part Bowie, part Gary Numan but just so unmistakeably and uniquely Foxx. And the music was no disappointment. Even though it only just scraped into the Top 40 No One Driving was a prototype for the catchy and danceable synth-pop which was just around the corner. It even had a sing along chorus, although the lyrics were still mysterious and tell some kind of story which was so open to interpretation (JG Ballard inspired, it turned out).

..but then to the 'B sides'. Glimmer, a memserising instrumental using synths only that takes you off into a dream only to return to (another) earth with This City which was strong enough to stand as a single itself, again with some kind of dystopian story being told ("All the kisses taste of dust here, but it's too late to change my mind..") and a great sing-along-a-Foxxy chorus (this city, this city oooohhh!), and then back again to another electro-instrumental Mr No with it's sci-fi clicks, whirrs and drones letting your imagination run wild and letting you make up your own film to this mini-electro soundtrack before coming to a grinding halt. Then start again...

Totally brilliant. Never beaten. I love the No One Driving double 7"

get the original version of No One Driving on Metamatic together with the other tracks, and the single version on Modern Art.

I Love 1980 - 6

The Jam - Going Underground

Ver Jam had always been one of those bands you might read about in the NME and sort of moving around the fringes of late 70s pop / rock music, but which I never really got to hear or listen to properly. Too 'laddish', too 'London' perhaps for this boy's tastes. But Going Underground really did seem to come out of nowhere .. and went straight to number 1. We took notice.
Not only to the music, the sound but also to Paul Weller's scathing social-comment lyrics. To an increasingly politically aware mind, lines like "I want nuffin this society wants" and "you'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns" as Thatcher's war and money-centred politics began to take hold really did hit home somehow.
Plus you could jump around to it. It was our punky moment. A short sharp shock to your system, as well as to the establishment and, why not, to our parents. Play loud. Did it get banned by Radio 1? Thankfully not and there was even a cool video on TOTP with Bruce Foxton sitting down tapping his foot (always associated more with hime than with Wellah). I love Going Underground.

Malcolm McLaren dies

I was just thinking about him the other day when I was walking down the King's Road, so just wanted to spare another thought for the late Malcolm McClaren.
Never cared much for his big headed attitude although without him we would probably never would have had the Sex Pistols, Bow Wow Wow and, er, Buffalo Gals. "All that scratcin' is making me itch" still often comes to mind.
Anyway definitely a revolutionary in art, music and fashion plus a fellow Acquarian and a bit ginger so..respect!

Bow Wow Wow's "C30 C60 C90 Go" on youtube

Anyone for China?

I am occasionally prompted by a good friend of mine to go back and find out what Liverpool combo China Crisis are up to these days. Never ones for a high profile (save for a few months in the mid-eighties) the Chinas still marvellously publish news of gigs and things via good old myspace (sooo 2000's). So judging by the events list on there, whether you're in Palma or Portsmouth, London or Liverpool then you should get a chance to check 'em out.

I was also pleased to see loads of footage of the Chinas from their golden era has cropped up on youtube including this little gem on the ORS in 82 (?). Just a tad too much dry ice, but they were so brilliantly young and innocent...



Their music always had that Spring into Summer kind of feel to it (first three albums
are def. pre-autumnal equinoxe stuff) so let's get the good times rolling. And to that end glad to see Saltyka and his friends' China Crisis page is still up (As featured on LIM yonks ago..).

or
watch / listen to my China Crisis video playlist

Floppy fringes at the ready ..

...for seminal New Romantic band Duran Duran release their debut eponymous album this week in remastered, expanded, extra-tracked, DVD-added format. As well as the debut in it's entirety on CD1 you'll get an extra CD with unreleased demos, remixes, Radio 1 session and all that plus DVD with TOTP, OGWT and Swap Shop performances and two naughty "uncensored" Girls on Film video. Gotta be worth the 18 quid...

Here's the Durannies back in the good old days before yachts and sun-tans when the Brummie-boy-band were considered 'experimental' enough to go on The Old Grey Whistle Test:

I Love 1980 - 5

The Cure - A Forest

Well as I've done a Siouxsie posting for 1980, better do a Cure one too. Never really took much notice of this lot until 1981 or even 1982 when the angst-factor really began to kick in but thankyou to Benge for reminding me that this track is actually from April 1980.
Not much to write about it so I'll just post the TOTP performance this time (yes you will see Paul McCartney for a split second at the start) .. listen again and again and again and again and again...

Micromusic

Just found out via youtube that Numan's legendary videotape Micromusic will soon be available on DVD for the first time.
Previously available only as VHS (officially, but torrent users may know otherwise) this film of Gazza's 1981 Wembley Arena London "farewell" concert will feature 25 tracks from the albums Tubeway Army , Replicas, The Pleasure Principle, Telekon and the still to be released Dance, with the usual spectacular Numan-esque visuals with one of biggest stage sets ever built in the UK.
The DVD will be made available at Numan's forthcoming Scala show, London on 13 April, and then through the official Numan site who assure that the footage and sound are fully re-mastered.
An hour long exclusive interview with Gary Numan talking frankly about the Wembley period is also included. Fun for all the family.
More info and orders : numan.co.uk

I Love 1980 - 4

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Happy House

I thought this track was from 1979 but trusty old Wikipedia informs me thatthis gem is 30 years old this year too, almost to the day.
Although Siouxsie & the Banshees had started off well with debut single Hong Kong Garden in 1978, these London punks had followed the almost 'novelty' hit with a couple of rather dark and dour albums, laying the foundations for goth and 'dark' music but too harsh for these ears still tuned into Abba and ELO.
A breath of fresh air then with Happy House which with it's catchy hooks and singalong lyrics striking the right balance between post-punk and (dare I say it) new-wave pop, tinged some deeper meaning. You had to dance and think at the same time.
The happy house (a pseudonym for the madhouse, of course) was originally about the group's fan club although turned out to be a snide comment on the emerging new Britain...well that's how I saw it anyway. "We've done no wrong, with our blinkers on" chants our Siouxsie as the youth danced along on TOTP.
So after a shaky start to the band's career Happy House opened the way for a solid track record for SATB throughout the 80s and into the 90s and which in some form or other continues to this day. Success with singles, albums and much critical acclaim has made Siouxsie and pals to be one of the most influential groups of the 20th century...and quite right too.

listen / watch here
get it on Best of or Kaleidoscope (1980)

Siouxsie Sioux . ....she's happy here.

I Love 1980 - 3

Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers / Biko

Although Peter Gabriel's first two solo abums had practically passed me by (save perhaps for the folky Solisbury Hill some years earlier during my own folky period..) the new single Games Without Frontiers from the upcoming third solo album quickly took our attention through a lot of radio play and publicity. The sparse electronics, easy sing-along lyrics ("Willy is happy again!") and hook lines made it a classroom/bedroom favourite ... oh and Kate Bush sexily singing 'jeeeeuuux sans frontières' as an added bonus. It was also an anti-war statement of course which boded well for my increasing political awareness and upcoming pacifist anti-nuclear stance. Great single.

I came across Biko in bargain bin some months later - unlike Games it had received next to no radio play and was probably banned from the already Thatcher driven BBC radio and TV. It deals with apartheid in South Africa and in particular the death of Stephen Biko, who I learned about only from the back of the single sleeve. It's amazing really how little apartheid was discussed in those days, at least in the UK. I remember our religious studies teacher bringing it up once (but can't remember he name, bless her) and that's probably all we ever knew about it. The song still gives me the shivers now.


In the usual style I never got to hear the ensuing PG 3 album until some years later, via a tape copy, although I have to admit it still sounds good today in remastered mp3 form. Tracks like The Intruder, No Self Control (also featuring Kate) and Lead a Normal Life show a very dark side to Gabriel although things are lightened up with the stomping I Don't Remember, And Through the Wire and aforementioned Games.

Peter Gabriel 3 - info page

Journeys to.....pants!

Spandau Ballet have recently re-released their 1981 debut album Journeys to Glory in 're-mastered' and expanded CD special edition, although judging by the reviews, the results are less than favourable.
One reviewer on amazon.co.uk described the new issue as "Absurdly unlistenable. Harsh, painful, tinny. Spandau's best album ruined", while another states "It is physically hard to listen to, compressed, squashed, tinny, flat, and incredibly harsh and metallic." Another punter while lamenting the sound quality also complains about the omission of the Musclebound 12" and lack of DVD visual material.
LIM also has a first hand description of the albums 'digipak' packaging which is equally pants with bad printing and sloppy overall design. Oh dear.
Ths Spans' second album Diamond has also undergone the re-issue treatment although sound quality is apparently better. Something to do with the originals?

Let's hope fellow-New Romantic pioneers Duran Duran fare better with their re-release of their eponymous debut due the end of this month with re-mastered sound, B sides, extended versions etc. and DVD!

read The Quietus' excellent review of both Spandau albums and their collocation in time here.


ver Spans circa 1981 .. "pretending it's art.." - quite.

BBC 6: The Look of Love - The New Romantics

The Look of Love - The New Romantics

via bbc.co.uk

with Martin Fry of ABC

Posted via web from Lost in Music

Music for alienated youth, and Germans*

A BBC documentary entitled Synth Britannia will be shown on BBC on October .. th. The programme follows the origins and rise of synth-pop on the British music scene from the late 70s into the 80s and explores the impact of electronic music on popular culture in Britain. Artists such as Gary Numan, Martin Ware, Andy McCluskey and Martin Gore contribute interviews to the programme which will feature The Human League, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and non - British Kraftwerk. "Gary Numan's 1979 appearance on Top Of The Pops heralded the invention of synthpop, which would provide the soundtrack as Britain entered a new, ruthless era in the Eighties" - BBC Press Office.

*post title (c) Martin L Gore, seetrailer:




OMD - Electricity (1980 Dindisc version)