The End

It's the last day, the last hour and the last minute of the year 2020, and this will be the final Lost In Music post. Thanks for reading and keeping up with us over the years.

Goodbye.

40 Years On: Down the Hill Backwards - a 1980 playlist

 As we say goodbye to 1980 (and good riddance to 2020) here's a final playlist of selected tracks from the year, in reverse chronological order:

1. Visage - Visage
2. Spandau Ballet - To Cut a Long Story Short
3. OMD - Enola Gay
4. Kate Bush - Army Dreamers
5. XTC - Towers of London
6. David Bowie - Fashion
7. Madness - Baggy Trousers
8. Adam & The Ants - Dog Eat Dog
9. The Police - Don't Stand So Close To Me
10. The Skids - Circus Games
11. The Jam - Start!
12. David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes
13. Gary Numan - I Die: You Die
14. Sheena Easton - Modern Girl
15. Ultravox - Sleepwalk
16. Bow Wow Wow - C30, C60, C90 Go!
17. ABBA - The Winner Takes It All
18. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
19. OMD - Messages
20. The Human League - Being Boiled (Holiday '80)
21. John Foxx - Underpass

Friday's 40th five (no.52/80)

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. And here's the final five for this year. 

It's Christmas week. We won't mention the number one, but instead try and pick out the best of the rest.

1. Adam & The Ants - Cartrouble. In the wake of recent success with Antmusic etc., the group's back catalogue (ca.1978) is being revisited and this one is at the top of the Indie charts this week.

2. The Look - I Am The Beat. Another one that's "bubbling under" this week, and will finally get into higher ground in the new year.

3. The Fall - How I Wrote Elastic Man. John Peel begins his festive Fifty this week. This one is at no.26 and the man himself pronounces it as his favourite single of the year.

4. The Undertones - Whizz Kids. Smash Hits was a request only edition this week, but as this one was included we'll put it in too as one that may have slipped through our radar, from their 1980 album Hypnotised.

5.  John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band - Happy Xmas (War Is Over). Several Lennon songs in the charts this week, understandably, and this one is up at no.4.

Happy Christmas 1980/2020.

Friday's 40th five (no.51/80)

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. The Beat - Too Nice To Talk To In a fairly stagnant chart (with John Lennon outselling everything by several miles) this is the highest new entry this week down at no.31, and opening this week's Top of the Pops.

2. Specials - Do Nothing. Another new entry at no.34 and also on Top of the Pops this week.

3. The Clash - The Magnificent Seven. Their triple album Sandinista is a new entry this week at no.19 (Super Trouper manages to hold back John Lennon, dec.) 

4. In Camera - Co-Ordinates. Quirky indie track of the week, recorded for Peel session broadcast 16/12. Signed to 4AD.

5. Gary Numan - Photograph. Numan was back in the charts, and on TOTP, this week with the single This Wreckage, lifted from the Telekon album. This is the previously unreleased B side.

Friday's 40th five (no.50/80)

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. John Lennon - Imagine Lennon was brutally murdered outside his home in New York this week in 1980. His signature song was naturally being played everywhere.

2. The Police - De Do Do Do De Da Da Da. Sting 'n' pals' new single was the highest new entry in the charts this week, from Top 10 album Zenyatta Mondatta. 

3. The Nolans -Who's Gonna Rock You. Ireland's finest siblings are still in the mood for dancing and getting even raunchier with this new single in at no.40.

4. Magazine - A Song From Under the Floorboards. From the group's live album Play which entered the lower reaches of the charts this week, only te disappear again thus guaranteeing cult status.

5. Orange Juice - Simply Thrilled Honey. Postcard release fom Glasgow newcomers highest new entry on RM indie chart this week.

Friday's 40th five (no.49/80)

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:

Adam & The Ants - Antmusic Follow-up to the Dog Eat Dog breakthrough hit, another tarck from the Kings of the Wild Frontier album. 

Jona Lewie - Stop the Cavalry. This perhaps unintended Christmas song was the highest new entry on the charts this week at no.15 and remains a "classic" of the yuletide genre.

Stay Cats - Runaway Boys. US rockabilly nostalgics get their first UK hit this week with thsi one entering the Top 40 at no.23.

The Jam - Pretty Green. Only ABBA could stop this album entering the charts at no.1, and they did. Opening track from The Jam's new long-player Sound Affects.

Queen - Flash The British rockers' theme to the new Flash Gordon movie, written and mostly played by Brian May. Released this week.

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. 

Friday's 40th five (no.47/80)

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. Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short. One of the defining bands of the eighties made their Top 40 debut this week with their debut single, and the highest new entry at no.18.

2. Madness - Embarrassment. The Nutty Boys are also new on the charts this week (no.31) with this track off Absolutely, allegedly about Lee Thompson's teenage sister.

3. John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him (from Double Fantasy). ABBA were straight in to the album charst at no.1 this week, while Lennon & Ono's comeback album entered at a more modest no.27. Penned and sung principally by Yoko, this track was later remixed highlighting only Lennon's vocal for the 1984 compilation album Every Man Has a Woman. 

4. Bow Wow Wow - Louis Quatorze (from Your Cassette Pet). Opening track form the 'revolutionary' mini-album by Mlcolm McLaren's latest project which, as it wasn't released on vinyl, wasn't classified as an album at all, but only as an Ep and as such failed to make the singles Top 40. 

5. Motels - Days Are OK. Lead singer Martha Davis got the Record Mirror cover this week, with a full feature on the band inside "on the eve of their UK tour". British audiences hardly warmed to this Blondie-esque US band however and the single made slow progress.

6. Boomtown Rats - Banana Republic. First new material from the Rats in 1980, and the lead single from new album coming in '81. This new single was a new entry at no.23 this week and would eventually reach no.3 by Christmas.

Friday's 40th five (no.46/80)

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 - Super Trouper. And they're back with a strong new single and "feeling like a number one". This single (and album) did eventually reach the top although it would also be their last one to do so. Highest new entry this week at no.13

2. Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out. Nothing to do with LGBT, and indeed Ross was apparently horrified when she discovered the double meaning of the phrase after the song had been written and recorded. Another track off her Diana album released back in May. new entry this week and eventually reached no.13.

3. Adam & The Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier. Title track of the band's new album, a new entry this week at no.4. 

4. The Professionals - Join The Professionals (Peel session). More post-punk fun from two former Sex Pistols and a friend. This session was recorded and broadcast by Peel although a self-titled debut album never emerged. 

5. Roxy Music - Same Old Scene. Another single is squeezed out of the Flesh+Blood album and makes it to no.12, its peak position, this week.

Friday's 40th five (no.45/80)

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. Blondie - The Tide Is High. Blondie are back with a surprising cover version of a 1969 Jamaican reggae number. Hisghest new entry this week in 1980 at no.5

2. John Lennon  - Just Like Starting Over. Another comeback although we've waited even longer for new material than we had with Blondie. More tinges of rock n roll nostalgia in Lennon's ode to both his wife and his career in music. Into the charts at 30.

3. Rod Stewart - Passion. Another lead single from another upcoming new album, Foolish Beahviour, Rod's tenth. A fairly modest new entry at 37 but would go higher.

4. Motorhead - Ace of Spades. The heavy metal revival starts here, with the album and its title track both in the charts this week. Saxon and Whitesnake were also coming out with new material around this time.

5. Modern English - Gathering Dust. Rock of a different kind for this band's new single release on burgeoning independent 4AD label. They also recorded their first Peel session later in the month (listen here).

Friday's 40th five (no.44/80)

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. David Bowie - Fashion. The Duke's follow-up to Ashes to Ashes is the highest new entry this week.

2. Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids. From the album of the same name, this is the band's first single on Virgin (with David Sylvian looking dandy on the cover of Smash Hits).

3. Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls - Mr X. New single getting plenty of radio play on the alternative programmes, and is certainly one of the album's strongest tracks.

4. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - 2nd Thought. OMD's new album, their second of the year, is the highest new entry at no.6.

5. Joy Division - Atmosphere. A late release on Factory, and ultimately Ian Curtis' epitaph, is straight into the indie charts at no.1  

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

It was 40 years ago today...

Another occasional series!

So many 'fortieth anniversaries' this year as, yes you've worked it out right, it's 40 years since that magic year of 1980, the year that the Future really began.

As well as being a crucial year for me as I reached 16 years of age, did O levels, left secondary school, did some proper work for the first time, and moved on to 6th Form college and the Big City, there was some great music too, stuff which really went on to shape my tastes and my life in general.

Luckily I also kept a very interesting and fairly detailed diary in that year, mostly noting down what I was up to, the banalities of routine, school, parents, friends, and of course music which I was hearing, listening to and eventually buying whenever 'pocket money' allowed it!

An important entry came about half way through the year, on 12th July, a Saturday. I'd finished my O levels, left school (waiting to go to 6th form) and was grafting hard out in the fields strawberry picking and crucially earning my own money! Thus I'd saved uo enough to buy my very first radio cassette player. I could now tape stuff off the radio! Revolutionary!

That very same day I also bough both Smash Hits and the NME, which featured Phil Oakey of The Human League, with his characteristic haircut, on the front cover (see pic.) with a group feature and the famous 'consumer guide to synthesisers' on the inside. The band also featured in Smash Hits (full issue here) with an interview, the lyrics to Empire State Human and the memorable full page colour pic/poster of the four members looking down into the camera lens (pc. left). I had the brilliant idea of sticking this page onto my bedroom ceiling directly above my bed, so for many weeks I had the Human League watching over all I did on and in my bed  (!).

Although I and many others didn't know it at the time, these press articles were a last ditch attempt to get some kind of commercial success for what would be this 'first version' of The Human League who had some critical acclaim but not so many sales, especially in the lucrative singles sector. Their "Holiday 80" EP/double 7"/singles package had failed to chart (some consumer confusion?) even after lead track Rock n Roll had been performed on prime-time TOTP, and Virgin were now trying again with the Empire State Human single release, a track from not the latest but thie debut album dating back to almost one year ago. Alas, we know how it all went, the group split into two in the autumn and the rest is history.

But going back to my radio/cassette recorder/player, NME also ironically enough carried an article about home taping which was 'killing music'. Forty years into the Future and although music has not been completely killed, it's certainly more easily avaiable to all, which basically was what we were aiming at with home taping, be it either with cassette copies of LPs or songs recorded off the charts, fingers ready on pause/rec button as appropriate.

Friday's 40th five (no.14/80)

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. Genesis - Behind The Lines. Opening track form their new album which goes straight into the album charts at no.1 this week.

2. Madness - Night Boat to Cairo. the Nutty Boys' Work, rest & Play EP is the highest new entry this week at no.14.

3. Pretenders - Talk of the Town. New material from the band fronted by Chrissie Hind is also a new entry at no.26.

4. Dr Hook - Sexy Eyes. This one is up an amazing twenty-nine places to no.9 this week.

5. David Essex - Silver Dream Machine. Essex makes yet another comeback an bikes into the chart at no.40

Friday's 40th five (no.03/80)

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

1. Jon & Vangelis - I Hear You Now: an unlikely debut hit for an unlikely duo - highest new entry at no.25 this week.

2. Rupert Holmes - Escape (The Pina Colada Song). Another debut hit for this American singer/songwriter and another new entry at no.38

3. The Regents - 7 Teen. Another debut at no.31 for these post-punksters getting a lot of radio play.

4. Magazine - A Song From Under The Floorboards. From the band's fourth Peel session, first broadcast this week.

5. New Musik - Living by Numbers. 1980s computer-age ennui starts here. Still outside the Top 40 but on TOTP and tipped for the top.

6 Music: 28.01.2019

Another week ahead for BBC 6 music as the new schedule settles in. We're still not used to hear Keaveny in the afternoon although his morning absence is in part atoned by Hawkins' extra half-hour. They seem to be 'over-promoting' themselves a bit still, as if people were really thick and not realising Laverne is now in the breakfast slot etc. She was even on The One Show this week to promote her own show. Desperate?
Anyway this week Lammo is on his travels as he visits 'independent' venues around the UK starting with Edinburgh on Monday, York on Tuesday, Worcester on Wednesday, Bedford on Thursday and winding up at the 100 Club on Oxford Street no less for the Specials, er, special live performance. Good to see they've chosen the not so obvious usual cities (Liverpool, Manchester, Brum et al.)

This week's playlist begins to see some new stuff at last although 2018-veterans Maribou State, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stealing Sheep and Lizzo are still coming up more or less every hour - not that we disdain any of those of course. However, the best new track of 2019 so far seems to be this new one from Foals which is very catchy and even has a kind of 80s-production vibe to it. It's rightly on the A list (and on Radio 1's B list). New album coming in March (and another in the autumn!) Meanwhile,enjoy:

6 Music: 07.01.2019

The much anticipated new daytime schedule is already in full swing on 6 Music with - if you needed reminding - the following line-up as from Monday 7th Jan.:

• 5.00 - 7.30 am Chris Hawkins (extra 1/2 hour)
• 7.30 - 10.30 am Lauren Laverne "Breakfast Show"
• 10.30 am - 1.00 pm Mary Anne Hobbes Morning Show
• 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm Sean Keaveny "Lunchtime Show"

Hawkins seems to be dealing quite well with the extra half-hour (he calls it the new conservatory extension), which is also quite welcome. He's introduced the new "Exit Music" feature towards the end of the show (penultimate track played) whereby listeners can request a song for leaving the house in the morning.
Laverne is trying very hard (too hard?) with the arduous task of taking over from Keaveny although of course it's practically an impossible task and she is quite rightly doing her own thing. We here at LiM are still sadly missing the earworms, the Parkinson theme, Hill Street Blues and even Let's Play..Pontoon! (and Georgie).
Admittedly we haven't been listening to Hobbes or even the new Keaveny properly in order to pass any judgement. Time will tell.
Lamacq plods on and this week is featuring forgotten 80s tracks (thanks for reading our mail, Steve). Roundtable Thursday afternoon and Friday Free For All carry on as usual.

Radcliffe & Maconie (sans Maconie, for now) take over the weekend Breakfast Show but we're not expecting any big surprises there, although wondering how he/they will cope with the early start!

25 Years of Rock has been extended to include the extra 5 years of 30 Years of Rock, which finishes on Friday, to be replaced by Alan Freeman's epic 1994 series The Story of Pop starting Saturday.

Movement 2019

New Order have announced a bumper re-issue package for their 1981 debut album Movement. A series of replica 12" singles from the same period, characteristically not included on the original album, will also be issued in the run-up to the Movement box-set date, 5th April 2019.
The 12" re-issues are:

1. Ceremony (version 1) / In A Lonely Place  
2. Ceremony (version 2) / In A Lonely Place 
3. Everything's Gone Green / Cries And Whispers, Mesh
4. Temptation / Hurt

The Movement "definitive" four disc box set contains the original album both on 180 gr. vinyl and on CD (remastered?), a second CD of 18 previously unreleased tracks (demos, rehearsals etc.), and a DVD of live concerts, TV performances of Movement tracks. The box is currently available to order with a price tag of around £110.00.

More details here and here

Solo Sylvian re-issues

The first three solo albums by David Sylvian, Brilliant Trees (1984), Gone To Earth (1986) and Secrets of the Beehive (1987) and the "intermediary album" An Index of Possibilities (1985) are all to be re-issued on 180g 'deluxe vinyl' in 2019. Although it's not specified if the audio has been remastered in any way, there are some changes to the artwork and presentation. Whiole retaining the same front cover photo, the solo debut Brilliant Trees is now housed in a gatefold sleeve, while the other three LPs all feature brand new artwork with printed inner bags. The revised artwork has not found favour with many die-hards although via facebook, the man himself had this to say:

As the original art for my albums had been lost/destroyed on its journey from one label's stewardship to another, I decided against scanning pristine copies of the original vinyl covers (as Universal did with the recent Japan reissues) and instead create a series that works as a ‘collection’ incorporating new photographic prints and design elements. With no budget, but access to Yuka's archives and Chris’ design contributions, we feel we've created something beautifully expansive as will be evident once the set is seen in its entirety.

(full statement here, more details and ordering here)

The re-issues are scheduled for 22 February 2019.

Gone to Earth 2019 gatefold sleeve

6 Music: week ahead (17-23.12.18)

the first in an occasional series..

After the nearly-Christmas 'end of an error' festivities on Friday, 6 Music starts off the week running up to Christmas with quite a few 'stand-ins' as presumably folks are off to do their Christmas shopping.

• Chris Hawkins had plenty of time off just recently so he's back in his early morning slot (5.00-7.00 am) and apparently already has his Christmas show 'in the can'. Plink Test, Wednesday whines, etc. continue as normal, although there's an Apollo 8 special programme coming up on Friday.
• Shaun Keaveny is still contractually billed in The Breakfast Show although Nemone is standing in all week. Earworms are still featured although of course we will sadly miss Hill Street Blues, Dead Zone and other audible tomfoolery.
• More sitting-in mid-morning with Tom Ravenscroft standing in for Lauren Laverne, who is presumably limbering up for her daunting new Breakfast Show assignment.*
• Business as usual for Radcliffe & Maconie, although of course it's still a one-man show as the countdown to the New Year and their new weekend slot continues.
• Steve Lamacq launches the TV Quiz Themes World Cup. His programme site still publicises the 25 at 25 feature although the audio recordings are no longer available (plenty of reading to do though). Thursday's Roundtable is a best of 2018 edition.
• Marc Riley picks up where he left off last Thursday with his best of 2018, tunes and sessions, continuing until this Thursday. He'll then be back in the New Year. 
• Gideon Coe continues relentlessly with archive live recordings and sessions and still manages to break the record for the number of bands featured that you've never heard of. The Jam in concert at the 100 Club in 1977 on Tuesday should be a good one. Wednesday & Thursday see special Christmas shows and on Sunday 30th there will be special 2018 Obit show.
• The excellent 25 Years of Rock documentary series continues. Amazing to think this was first broadcast in 1980. It ends with 1979 on Friday although hurrah! - the series morphs into 30 Years of Rock taking us from 1980 to 1984 on Christmas Eve. Tape recorders at the ready.
• The Wish You Were There? vintage live concert reviews also get a re-run starting Monday. Queen's Hyde Park performance in 1976 is featured on Friday.
• Liz Kershaw has a special Xmas request show on Saturday. Followed by the much-plugged (ratings down?) Giles Peterson, who in turn is followed by Craig Charles and his Funky Festivities, if you like that sort of thing. This GP show in particular is being plugged, "celebrating 10th anniversary of Brain Feeder"
• Actor Cillian Murphy returns on Sunday, playing his favourite artists in a special pre-Christmas show. Expect a lot of Irish music. At midnight (into Christmas Eve) there's also a repeat of a Murphy show from back in April when he stood in for Iggy Pop.
• Followed by Amy Lamé who is joined by non other than Tony Visconti, "ahead of a solo album in 2019".

• Full schedule can be found starting here.

*errata corrige: LL is back from Tuesday, TR having stood-in one day only. That's not to say she wasn't preparing her new Breakfast Show mind.