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

I Love 1980 - appendix 9

A rather late addition to the I Love 1980 series, but a good excuse to feature the excellent Sounds of the 20th Century which has been running on Radio 2 now for some weeks.
For those who are not familiar, the hour long show has been featuring consecutive years each week, starting from 1951, mixing news and current affairs items with popular music of the year, and usually there are some damn excellent choices too.
The series reaches 1980 this week so among news of the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, the consequent US boycott of the Moscow Olympics, embassy hostages, and "The Lady who is not for turning" it's top tracks from Blondie, UB40, The Jam, Bowie, Gabriel, Abba and many more. The 1980 programme also more or less opens with the death of Ian Curtis and closes with that of John Lennon. Never thought about those two dying in the same year.

Listen again to this week's programme here until Thurs. 3rd November, when it'll be time for 1981 at 10 p.m. GMT.

Official Radio 2 page here
Unofficial series blog here
and on twitter

I love 1981, don't you?

Well that's enough about famous people dying...let's think positive and look forward to..1981.

After the successful and most enjoyable I Love 1980 series, due to popular demand Lost in Music's 30th anniversary celebrations of the eighties will continue with I Love 1981, the year when the eighties music ball really got rolling.
Look forward to the rise of the New Romantics, the return of Kraftwerk, the re-birth of The Human League, and the arrival of a whole bunch of new groups of pretty boys with "funny names".
Plus Britain in the grips of a harsh winter, social unrest, a Conservative government and a Royal wedding for the masses. Don't times change....?

Check out our tumblr sister-blog for more fun from '81!

I Love 1980 - Appendix 8

etc.etc.........

I Love 1980 - 30

Abba - Happy New Year

Although there are doubtless many other singles and albums from 1980 that deserved a mention in the I Love 1980 series, I can't think of a more appropriate way to wrap up the 30 year anniversary (the 30th in the series too, get it?) than benny & Bjorn's hogmanay croon-choon off the Super Trouper album. So after all the new wave sounds, the Gary Numans, the New Musiks and the like, ABBA were the ones who came out on top at the end of the year (save for John Lennon's posthumous chart success) with the Super Trouper album and single.

That said, it was the beginning of the end for Sweden's top export commodity: Trouper was their last UK number one single and except for 1981's disppointing The Visitors they only reached the number 1 album position with the various Greatest Hits, Singles and Golds compilation albums afterwards.
But no matter, their legacy has been strong enough to overcome various fashions, trends, electro-pop, SAW-pop, Brit-pop, and all the rest, right up to the mega-musical Mamma Mia in the noughties.

Happy New Year to all our readers. See you in 1981.............

I Love 1980 - appendix 7

The ones that got away...

Just before the final instalment in the I Love 1980 series here's a few tracks (and albums) from 1980 which for one reason or another didn't quite make it to the prestigious top 30.

I'd also like to thank all our readers and those who've commented on the series over the past year, and also the numerous internet sites which have been invaluable in my research, particularly Like Punk Never Happened - the Smash Hits archive which came along to inspire me just as I was flagging a little; whoever is behind the wonderful Chart Stats site, the many Wikipedia pages and the various official or fan-based (usually the better ones) band and artist sites.

Here we go, 2-3-4...

• Jon And Vangelis - I Hear You Now
• Martha And The Muffins - Echo Beach
• Genesis - Turn It On Again
• The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin
• Sky - Toccata
• Mike Oldfield - QE2 (album)
• Lipps Inc - Funky Town
• Electric Light Orchestra - I'm Alive / Xanadu (with Olivia Newton John)
• Splodgenessabounds - Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please
• Yellow Magic Orchestra - Firecracker
• Adam & The Ants - Ant Music
• Madness - Embarrassment
• Robert Palmer - Looking For Clues
• Visage - Fade to Grey*

(* more of them in 1981....)

Yellow Magic Orchestra - FIRECRACKER

I Love 1980 - 29

Jona Lewie - Stop the Cavalry
As good a track as any to celebrate the festive season, which quite by chance first came out in 1980.
We've already come across Mr Lewie earlier in the year with his marvellous Kitchen at Parties, and after the less successful Big Shot - Momentarily this excellent number, combining a seasonal brass band, faux-reggae synth-chug and anti-(nuclear) war sentiment, went to number 3 as early as 13th December and marched on the spot for an incredible five weeks, kept off the number one spot by mega-stars Abba, John Lennon (deceased) and St. Winifred's School Choir. About as great an injustice as Midge-Vox being kept of the top spot by...you know who.
Anyway, don your paper hats, put aside the wrapping, grab yer Granny and slip this one into your Christmas stocking-playlist.

Jona Lewie official
Jona Wikie

I Love 1980 - 28

UB40 - King/Food For Thought

As the year draws to a close, just time to mention one that nearly got away. UB40 came onto the charts scene (ergo public awareness) back in March 1980 with this cracking double A side which actually reached number 4 a month later. Not bad for a record which one one side tackles the subject of famine in Ethiopia and on the other the late Martin Luther King, "questioning the lost direction of the deceased leader's followers and the state of mourning of a nation after his death". Not to mention the name of the band itself which came from the 'unemployment benefit' form used when signing up for the dole, an increasingly common thing in those early Thatcher years. Neat.

Actually I'm not quite sure whether understood the message behind Food For Thought which was a rather jolly danceable-reggae thing, whereas King is a lot more obvious, and thus was played much less (banned?) on Radio 1 and I personally prefer it with all that skanky dub thang going on.

Brum's UB40 were certainly one of the UK's first 'mix race' bands and came up with some damn good music with their first two albums (My Way of Thinking, The Earth Dies Screaming, One in Ten..) combining social issues with a very pleasant bit of reggae, which could even get yer Granny's toes tapping. Pity they went too soft and commercial after that with the Red Red Wine kind of dross. (Why did that seem to happen with so many interesting bands back then?) Get their 1982 Singles Album for the better stuff (even though I am rather partial to 1986's Rat in Me Kitchen..)

Totally pointless "video" for King here but just sit back a bit and enjoy da sound...

King/Food For Thought - chart stats:

UB40 official site

I Love 1980 - 27

(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon

In October 1980 John Lennon's comeback was about as warmly received as Yoko Ono's presence in a Beatles recording studio in the late 60s. Amongst the emerging new wave sounds in the shiny new decade, Lennon's anachronistic (Just Like) Starting Over with it's rock n roll ballad style, faux-Elvis/Orbison vocals and "doo-wap" backing just spelt out "boring old fart". Lennon & Ono had left the UK in 1971 to settle in New York effectively 'betraying' Blighty and British fans. And while contemporaries such as Bowie, Brian Ferry and Elton John had all moved on and progressed, for many Lennon's recluse since 1975 had meant out of sight out of mind.
That said, the comeback single made a decent enough entry into the UK charts in November, gradually creeping up to the top 10 before dropping heavily after just 4 weeks. It was radio-friendly and Lennon's enthusiam for his return and the new album trickled through in the odd press interview. David Hepworth's 3 out of 10 review in Smash Hits was both scathing and brutally honest, ominously commenting that "Lennon needn't bother about a follow-up til 1999".

After Mark Chapman brutally shot and killed John Lennon on 8th December 1980, sales of the single and parent album rocketed and the opening "our life together is so precious..together" took on a whole new meaning.

Whatever you thought of of Lennon, Yoko or their Double Fantasy, (Just Like) Starting Over was, in hindsight, a cracking comeback single and a fine example of the Lennon genius. The tinkling bell at the start echoes and lighten up the opening chimes of "Mother" (bringing it all "full circle" in Lennon's own words), the 'let's start again' message is universal and multi-purpose, the rock n roll pastiche is note perfect and the treated voice of Yoko reciting poetry in the coda makes it just that little more interesting and modern.

The single became the UK Christmas Number One.

wikipedia
chart stats

nice long piece by Chris Hunt on Double Fantasy

I Love 1980 - appendix 6

John Lennon
shot dead 8th December, 1980

(yes, there are also some reasons why I don't love 1980...)

I Love 1980 - appendix 5

Streisand album, 1980

Streisand single, 2010

I Love 1980 - 26

Spandau Ballet - To Cut a Long Story Short
And yes it was 30 years ago this week, about, that five grown men in kilts, tablecloths and floppy fringes made their way onto Top of the Pops to perform their first single. Emerging from The Blitz scene which had been bubbling in London's underground clubs and things during the past year or so, this was the first hit single of the genre generally known as New Romantic, whatever that means, meant or was meant to mean. Some may argue the re- vamped Ultravox preceded and indeed inspired everyone else and Bowie's Scary Monsters album simultaneously drew from and fuelled the movement both in fashion, attitude, ....oh and the music, although Spandau Ballet are generally considered to be the first of their kind to hit the big time with several others to follow, including Brummy rivals Duran Duran who were still sweating it out in frilly blouses on the Midlands club circuit.

Sad in a way that the Spans soon abandoned the dish-cloth style and bold, rhythmic, electro-based music which first brought them onto the scene, preferring a more MOR "soul boy" approach within a couple of years with True and all that, suited though it was to the upcoming wine bar culture (itself the logical consequence of the Blitz scene?).
We immediately loved 'em just as they were, bringing in something new and exciting, and - as far as I was concerned more importantly than the kilts - vaguely electro (even tho the driving synth line had been mixed down vis à vis the original demo versh). It was foppish but laddish at the same time, a pint of lager with lipstick on the rim, epic poetry for the dancefloor ....listen to the sound of the Spandau Ballet..

To Cut a Long Story Short - chart stats
Spandau Ballet's first mention in Smash Hits (p.15)

I Love 1980 - 25

Organisation - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Organisation. An album from a faraway age when a band could be obscure, enigmatic, industrial, experimental, interesting, moving and still get to number 6 in the charts. Although it had come just months after their debut, Organisation was light (or dark) years away from the garage prototype synthpop of OMITD. The move to Advision Studios, the conscription of prog-musician Mike Howlett as producer , a "good haircut" and radical change of wardrobe did wonders for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, making them one of those rare outfits which suited both NME and Smash Hits.

It's hard for me to be objective about Organisation, such was its impact way back in the dark winter of 1980. To paraphrase others, men of mystery and imagination came crashing into my little world and nothing would ever be the same again.
But let's try.......The grey and black sleeve, the bleak cover picture, the semi-dark portrait on the back all served to give an indication of what this record was going to be like. You felt angstful just owning the thing.
The upbeat, already-a-hit single Enola Gay, albeit with a darker message, was there sure enough as the opening track but with its placing at the beginning of the opus the message was clear: Ok, that's the hit out of the way, let's get on with the album proper.
Indeed, it's the gloomy chimes of 2nd Thought which really get the Organisation ball rolling. "The order in our lives left some time ago, along the way" softly sings McCluskey to a steady electro beat and synthetic choral track which was to become their trademark. It’s typical of the album: soothing yet disquieting at the same time. Angst you can dance to.
The more angular VCL XI (get the hidden Kraftwerk reference?) brings us back to the Manoeuvres' more experimental mode with treated piano, irregular thrashing electronic percussion and lyrics which, to this day, remainincomprehensible . With Motion and Heart - briefly considered as a single - we're back in the pop mode and, although a more disciplined affair compared to it's Peel Session predecessor, it remains one of their most mysterious tracks.
The melancholic and heart breaking Statues closes side 1. Allegedly a tribute to Ian Curtis RIP ("The way you, move, I can't explain"), his suicide and the Closer album are said to be heavy influences on Organisation. Statues goes beyond that and lines like "I tried to care and understand" and the final cry "I can't imagine how this ever came to be" and fade-out have as much anguish and suffering as the Mancunian's "When routine bites hard" or "..people like you find it easy". Warning: this song may make you cry.

End of side one.

Side Two fades in with The Misunderstanding, a track rescued from McCluskey & Humphrey's The Id days and dutifully darkened for Organisation. Anger, confusion, frustration. It's all there.
The cover version of Warren & Gordon's The More I See You is often seen as the black sheep of the Organisation herd, a track which both McCluskey and Humphreys have since derided and regretted, but the dark twist on the original is perfectly in line with the album, and its minimal synth and drum pads make for top geeky dancing and air-drumming. Believe me.
Humphreys' atmospheric Promise (singled out by OGWT to promote the album) is a hardly an adequate match to McCluskey's solo efforts, (he would fare better with Souvenir the following year), but it's a perfect lead into the final, over-six-minutes long Stanlow, the album's crowning glory; moving, industrial, masterful, majestic and, yes, it's a love song about an oil-refinery on the Wirral.

End of Side Two... end of Organisation.



An interesting addition to the LP however was a four-track EP of a live performance of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark at Eric's Club in 1978. The unique performance's experimental instrumentation and atmospheres are well suited to Organisation, like Electricity, Messages and Enola Gay had never happened. Titles like Introducing Radios and Distance Fades Between Us again give us an idea of the band's combined ethos: the experimental and the sentimental.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - a decent haircut did them a world of good

I Love 1980 - 24

Enola Gay - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
"Many people simply don't know what it's actually about. Some even thought it was a coded message that we were gay. We were both geeks about WWII airplanes. The most famous and influential single bomber was Enola Gay. Obvious choice for us, really." Thus Andy McCluskey, OMD frontman and writer of this seminal 'eighties' song which started to climb the charts thirty years ago this week.
It may seem incredible after all this time people still don't know what the song's about, although to be fair there never was any direct reference to the first atom bomb used in warfare and the plane that dropped it on Hiroshime, either in the video, the cover or perhaps in the up-tempo happy go lucky music itself. (Was there something immorally wrong about a bouncy, electro-poppy dance tune which almost seemed to celebrate the plane and its doings?). But that's those geeky OMD boys for you ...they write a good song and you can whistle it, dance to it, and even please your parents with it but the lyrics almost always have a deeper meaning.
"It's 8.15, and that's the time that's it's always been" it's not about what time you get up in the morning but it's the hour at which the bomb was actually dropped. "Is mother proud of Little Boy today?" isn't about little Johnny coming top in maths it's the code-names used for the plane and the bomb respectively. "This kiss you give is nevr gonna fade away" isn't about the smacker your grlfriend gave you last Saturday night, it's the impact of the first atomic bomb falling to earth and how it affected the rest of history. Geddit now? Oh and no..it's nothing about being gay either.

The song was of course the band's breakthrough into the top ten and a wider audience, even after the success of Messages earlier in the year. Although it was the only single off the Organisation album (more of that later..) the track was strong enough to see them into the even more successful Architecture & Morality period almost a year later. Big hair was out, smart shirt n ties and granny-knit tank-tops were in in.

Whatever you may think about OMD's Enola Gay - cheesy, annoying, superficial, immoral, ace, totally brilliant, life-changing (ahem), - it's certainly one of those tunes that has entered into the public conscious worldwide; you can't mention "Enola Gay" in a historical context without feeling the urge to whistle a bar or two, and you can't hear it come on the radio without wanting to sing or hum along or even air-synth or do a funny dance to. No you can't. Just try.


Enola Gay chart-stats:

geeky video: OMD Andy McCluskey breaks down the structure of Enola Gay


Those wishing for something other than the tried and trusted hit version should give the more downbeat pre-Mike Howlett Peel Sessions version a listen or two, recorded earlier in 1980, and featured here. Avoid the dreadful 1998 Sash! remix like the plague..

Listen: OMD - Enola Gay (early version)

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

I Love 1980 - 22

XTC - Generals & Majors

I was quite surprised to see this one lurking in the lower reaches of the Top 40 of 30 years ago; firstly because I thought it came out much later (81?82?) and also because it's one of those songs and bands I've never stopped listening to since they first started having hits back then . .has it really been thirty years? Gor blimey.

Anyway here they be: Swindon's (and indeed the West Country's) finest having their taste of success, day-time radio play, charts, Smash Hits, Top of the Pops and all the rest of it with what is essentially and anti-war protest song. Perhaps it's 1980 timeslot is all the more surprising with it's "generals and majors always seem so unhappy unless they got a war" punchline sounding more like it was written for the Falklands/Malvinas crisis a couple of years later, not to mention more war-mongering in the Middle East in the decades to come. After 35 years of (relative) peace, Moulding, Partridge and friends reminded us only too well that said military chiefs "like never before are tired of being actionless".
Prophetic words indeed. One can only but shudder at the thought that General Leopoldo Galtieri et al may have been inspired by the song to launch their invasion on the up to then little known British islands far far away. Shudder also at the thought of British squaddies whistling and singing along to the track in a 'riding along in an army truck' fashion as they headed for the chilly South Atlantic. Brrrr.
Perhaps surprisingly Generals & Majors was the least successful of XTC's heyday singles - after going top 20 with Making Plans for Nigel, even the 'Majors' follow-up Towers of London faired slightly better and the reached their chart zenith with the military-metaphoric Sgt Rock in January 1982 and the marvellous (1-2-3-4-5!) Senses Working Overtime a year later.
XTC certainly deserved better although perhaps much of their charm and appeal lies within that 'never quite made it really big' status. They had all the backing of the Virgin label (Richard Branson appears in the G&M video) and a top producer in Steve Lillywhite. I regret not seeing them live back then although I read recently that they stopped playing live after the Black Sea album (why so?).
Generals & Majors was released as a limited edition double 7" pack, a tactic often used by Virgin at the time to boost initial sales. The three other tracks are now available on the Black Sea CD re-issue.


Generals & Majors on Chart Stats
XTC discography on chalkhills.org
Black Sea in The Lost Classics series

XTC: deserved better

Listen: XTC - Generals and Majors

I Love 1980 - 21

Let's face it, any album that opens with the words "and what if God's dead?" is never going to be a bundle of laughs. In fact this album turned out to be Numan at his most miserable, but I just loved it.
We'd already had the singles We Are Glass and I Die:You Die, leading up to the new album, but as the adverts said, neither of these were going to be on the highly anticipated Telekon.
A richer, fuller sound compared to the starker synthetic sounds of the previous Pleasure Principle, was also on the cards and as it turned out the guitars were very much back in, although the more traditional drums of TPP were in part replaced by drum machines and other electronically generated rhythm things. With new technology and plenty of cash to invest, a beefier, layered sound was what we were getting this time. Gazza had a Roland Jupiter 4 and he was gonna use it.
But what of the songs? Numan has basically two angst-ful themes running through the opus; firstly his preoccupation with the new found stardom and unease at al the attention from press and fans alike (Sleep by Windows, Remind Me to Smile, Remember I Was Vapour) and the usual dystopian vision of the future continuing from Replicas and The Pleasure Principle (I Dream of Wires, Telekon, The Aircrash Bureau). Our Gary of course was never happy in either of these scenarios. I Dream of Wires is the story of “the last electrician alive” looking back nostalgically on the days he actually could “wire” things, and The Aircrash Bureau is Ballardian both in title and gloomy content.
“Remember I could end all this” Gazza warns fans in “Vapour” and duly announced on Radio 1 during an interview with Peter Powell that after this album and tour he would be giving up live work. The Japanese lyrics on This Wreckage meant "I leave you now" or something and in fact said track which opens the album was his manifesto: "This wreckage I call "me" would like to leave you soon". No! cried the fans, and in fact a few years and a couple of albums later, Gazza was back on the "joy circuit" in all his pomp and glory.
No matter though; Numan's paranoia was excellent food for some of his best songs which appeared here on Telekon in September 1980. There was no hit single Cars here or even anything to follow up We Are Glass and the rather pretentious I Die:You Die but just one big black and red album whose tracks were basically inseparable (the CD issue with "Glass" inserted in the middle is both crass and unnecessary). A thicker soup than any of his previous work, it still has no equal in Numan's discography.

The subsequent Teletour was a massive sellout success, fuelled by Numan's pledge to stop live work after this tour was done, save for three nights in London a year later as a final "farewell". Both are well documented in Living Ornaments 80 and 81 respectively.
Telekon was also revived in 2006 for a new live performance (pic. left) of the album in its entirety with associated singles and b sides. Again, an excellent live recording is available, but somehow nothing can quite match listening to your original vinyl LP on your record player in a darkened bedroom. And I know all about that...


Listen: Gary Numan - Remind Me To Smile

I Love 1980 - appendix 4

Looking through the BBC archives (as you do) I came across this Tomorrow's World 'review of 1980' which was broadcast "before the summer break" not actuallt at the end of the year. Tomorrow's World was a kind of science and technology for non-geeks programme (and you had to be a geek in those days if you had anything to do with technology) which was always on before TOTP on a Thursday night, which is probably why I only ever used to see the end of it.

Anyways here's the aformentioned review which is a tad boring but bear with it until the end (17:00 mins in..) for the seminal feature where our man Prendiville (usually had the 'funny' bits) demonstrates some "electronically created sounds"...fascinating!

(click pic for link .. BBC vids don't embed . boooo!)



Dog barking sounds aside, TW also had a pretty cool electro-theme tune as from the beginning of 1980 too..thoise guys were always so ahead of their time.

Listen:
Tomorrows World - 1980s Theme Song

I Love 1980 - 20

David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes

Over half way into 1980 and we've had new wave, new music....then we had David Bowie with Ashes to Ashes....


Smash Hits described it as "a strange choice for a single", understandably perhaps on first listening.
But just as there's no-one else like David Bowie there's nothing else quite like Ashes to Ashes. No you can't dance to it, you can't whistle it and you can't really seriously sing along to it, but that's where the beauty lies in this monumental single. It's originality, it's uniqueness...and it's David Bowie-ness

After the heady 70s, the Berlin trilogy and all the rest of it, Bowie was effectively reinventing himself, celebrating the funeral of Major Tom (a guy that's been in such an early song) and his recent past (I've never good things, I've never done bad things..), and his desire to get away from his past (want an axe to break the ice, wanna come down right now), with the famous closing hook-line "My mamma said..." effectively cutting all ties with the Major Tom character.
This is Bowie learning from the past (as a person and as a musician) and clearing it away with his big Scary Monster bulldozer, opening up the road for ...new sounds, new styles, new shapes.... It's no coincidence that Steve Strange and Darla Jane Gilroy are among the mysterious black-clad cohorts in the video..


And yes, the video. Almost as complex as the song itself, costing a fortune and using all the latest techniques and again showing the way for the new decade, with the costumes, the make-up, loud new colour combinations.

Goodbye seventies. With Ashes to Ashes the 80s may now officially begin.

Ashes to Ashes chart stats
Scarey Monsters on Unmann Wittering

Listen: David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes
(and sing-along if you can)

thanks to Brian Damage for Smash Hits pages

Ashes to Ashes was first released on 08.08.80 - this post will be published on 08.08.2010 at 08:00.

I Love 1980 - 19

Abba - The Winner Takes It All

Number One thirty years ago folks....amazingly moving song in Abba's already vast repertoire. Always incredibly unfashionable in the face of new wave, new this and new that but I'd loved Abba since Waterloo and in fact they were secretly loved by many, and were an important part of the DNA of the new pop of the 80's, as well as being totally re-discovered, re-visited and re-purposed more recently with the various multi-million selling "Abba Gold"s, the "Mamma Mia" musical/movie (which features an excellent versh of Winner by Meryl Streep BTW..) and all that.

A cracking song though, and perhaps one of their last decent ones. Oddly they hadn't had a no. 1 in th UK since Take A Chance on Me in early 78 and popularity had waned a bit, but they managed it twice in 1980 with this one and Super Trouper towards Christmas.
Still manages to give me the shivers to this day when Agnetha sings.. "and I understand, you've come to shake my hand.." .. No Agnetha! No! Marry me please!
I'm posting the video this time as well as the mp3 cos you just gotta love Agnetha's expressions through all of this, plus the smart Abba-clobba..

Abba - The Winner Takes It All

Listen: Abba - The Winner Takes It All