Friday's 40th five (no.48/80)

Week by week we're listing 5 tracks which were big music news in the charts, on your radio or even in your record collection 40 years ago, this week in 1980:

1. ABBA - On and On and On. ABBA did the double this week with Super Trouper the single and Super Trouper the album both at no.1 in the UK. Here's a banger from side one of the album which was also released as a single in some countries (but not in the UK).

2. AC/DC - Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution. This single, taken from the Back in Black album, was the highest new entry in the Top 40 this week. Eventually got to no.15.

3.  Darry Hall & John Oates - Kiss On My List. Another new entry this week and the first UK Top 40 hit for the American duo.

4. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Israel. Released as a 'stand-alone' single on 26th November, this was their attempt at a "Christmas" song. Sadly it only made no.41 in the UK, although unsurprisingly on heavy rotation on John Peel's show.

5. Blondie - Live It Up. Random track choice from Blondie's new Autoamerican album, highest new entry at no.3 in the UK this week. 

Movement

Now then, how many of you remember staying up "late" (after 10 p.m. was "late") to listen to the John Peel radio show of a weekday night, late 70s/early 80s? Well, for the uninitiated John Peel's nightly show was the place for the real alternative post-punk music that was going around at the time - you'r hear stuff here that you would not hear anywhere else, not even on Kid Jensen. Most of the stuff was so obscure that it basically remained such although the late, great Mr. Peel was famous of course for championing (he even championed the verb "to champion") many an obscure band who then went on to become quite successful, eg. Siouxsie & the Banshees, Generation X, XTC, The Undertones, The Jam, Joy Division and the like.
Each night Peely also featured usually two different "sessions", ie. bands who had gone in to the BBC studios to record three or four tracks especially for the show. These were often religiously taped and duly bootlegged, although many have already seen the light of day since as official releases (OMITD, Ultravox, Gary Numan, New Order to name but a few).

Anyway here comes possibly the first official  'Best of Peel sessions' release: Movement brings together many of those bands and more from the all-important 1977-1979 period. There's quite wide range of styles, not just the new-wavers but also ska from the likes of Madness, The Specials and Selecter and reggae from UB40, Aswad and Steel Pulse - all styles which were covered by Peel.

Of note to LiM is the inclusion of  Being Boiled by The Human League, recorded for their only session in 1978 which has never had an official release, only bootlegs. So here's hoping it's been properly dusted down for the occasion. It's a unique version in that it's kind of half way between the original Fast version and the radically re-vamped Holiday '80/Travelogue version. Well, Blind Youth geeks will know what I mean anyway.

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.