I HEART 80's

Jones, Oran ‘Juice’ – Curiosity / The Rain

Well well well. What was I thinking of? Again, this is far more my brother's taste than mine so I really must confess that I don't know what took me when I bought it. Listening to The Rain, the more senior of the pair in this two record set, it seems like Oran 'Juice' is at times whinging about his girl going with another man then standing over her hustling her out of his apartment having cancelled all of her credit cards and such like. Indeed in the video the last shot shows her trying to cross the freeway with her worldy possessions in a single holdall. It's the worst kind of naked misogyny and deserves to be stuck in the 80's.

For the record (I can't even be bothered to make the point that I just made a pun there), the single The Rain with reference Def Jam A 7303 was a hit in the UK singles chart between November 1986 and February 1987. Its highest chart position was number 4 and it spent a total of 5 weeks in the top ten over the Christmas period. There is no listing on any of my sources for the double pack that I bought (Def Jam OJJD 2) - and this is another of those singles that I didn't get round to scribing my name and the day that I bought it on the sleeve.

Heaven 17 Announce UK Tour of Seminal Penthouse and Pavement Album & Tickets…

Mel and Kim – That’s The Way It Is

As far as my street cred goes, I really really wish that I hadn't bought any of Mel and Kim's offerings. Not through any slight intended towards them you understand. They were a pair of perfectly pretty young girls living the life of pop stars - albeit as puppets controlled by Stock Aitken and Waterman, but pop stars nonetheless. Their career was only a short one, with four singles and four entries into the top ten of the UK singles chart. This was the fourth such offering and the only one that I bought on 7" - I bought the others on 12"!

This one was released in February 1988 after Mel had been diagnosed with spinal cancer. Indeed her illness was made public at the time of its release. It spent a total of 7 week sin the UK singles chart, scoring its highest position of number 10 in the w/e 12th March. In truth, it's probably the least well known of the girls' offerings - I certainly can't remember how it goes! Here's a link to a youtube video anyway:

Oh, no I've just had a listen. It really is as bad as all the other SAW offerings. Really dated and stuck in the 80's - that plastic sounding drum machine and synth. Ach!

Observations: Still Hup for the Wonder Stuff – Independent

I wasn't much into these guys, but Don't Let Me Down, Gently was a tremendous single, possibly only topped by Size Of A Cow, but then since that was a nineties single, I honestly don't know why I've even mentioned it here... LOL!

Observations: Still Hup for the Wonder Stuff - Independent

via 1980's music - Google News on 15/04/10

Observations: Still Hup for the Wonder Stuff Independent In my class at school in the West Midlands, some time around the turn of the 1980s, your indie credentials rested on whether you were a ...

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Calmer chameleon: Boy George on doing drugs, doing time and stomping the ……

Love him or loath him (there's no in between) young George O'Dowd certainly was then and is now an 80's icon. There's no denying his musical or pop-cultural abilities and the knack of spotting what was what really did make him stand out.it is perhaps a shame that his addictive personality contributed to the implosion of Culture Club and the subsequent problems he himself encountered.

Calmer chameleon: Boy George on doing drugs, doing time and stomping the ... - Independent

via 1980's music - Google News on 10/04/10

Calmer chameleon: Boy George on doing drugs, doing time and stomping the ... Independent After 16 years of sobriety, in 2003 he fell back into the drug-taking ways that claimed so much of his life during the 1980s, and began again to use heroin, ...and more »

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Cure (The) – Just Like Heaven

1980's music gold.

Maybe, just maybe The Cure weren't a singles band?  I mean, this one released in October 1987 was another peach of a single, yet it only made number 29 in the UK singles chart, staying for just 5 weeks.  Were they bothered?  Probably not.

Anyway, enough about the ins and outs of chart positions.  Fact is, this was a peach of a single.  Melodically it's very upbeat, as usual, and initially so lyrically too.  But then Smithy wakes from his dream to realise that his girl is gone - taken and drowned by the raging sea.  Well that's how I read the lyrics.  The single is probably most important as the one that finally broke The Cure into the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.  It was the third of four singles taken from 1987's album Kiss Me,Kiss Me,Kiss Me.

Cure (The) – Close To Me

If In Between Days highest chart position was a travesty, then what about this one? Released in the w/e 21 September 1985, hot on the heels of its predecessor, it managed only number 24 in the UK singles chart. I faithfully did my bit, buying it on 18 October, but it was to no avail.

Cut this open and it says 1980's music, like a stick o' Blackpool rock.

In terms of dark themes this goes even further than In Between Days. To start with, there's less of an attempt to jolly the melody along - the hand-claps at the start really do set the tempo for the entire piece, although there are a couple of uplifting solos from wind instruments. And the lyrics, in which Smithy sings about wishing that the day would end; that the night could be close to him and hoping that seeing his head on the door was a dream, are even more gloomy. That said, it really is a great song, another which really does have 1980's music stamped all over it.

Cure (The) – In Between Days

If any group or band epitomises the 80's more than The Cure then bring them to me now.  I just don't think that such a thing exists.  Yet when you look at their UK singles chart performance, their highest ever chart position was only number 5 for 1989's Lullaby, taken from the album Disintegration.

Stuff from the high altar of 1980's music.

But enough of that, let's get back to In Between Days.  The first single from the 1985 album The Head On The Door, it was released in July 1985 and entered the UK singles chart in the w/e 27 July.  I bought it on 1 August as it slowly made its way to its highest position of 15.  FIFTEEN!?  That just shows what utter peasants the UK record buying public could be at times - but having said that, at the time this was released we had Live Aid with all the spin off benefits that it produced.  We also had huge number one hits from Sister Sledge (Frankie), The Eurythmics (There Must Be An Angel), Madonna (Into The Groove).

Musically, it's classic Cure.  Upbeat in tempo, but decidedly downbeat as far as the lyrics go.  As some lifting synth melodies augment the thumping bass and guitar sections Smithy sings about fear and ageing and loss.  For example, the two verses start with respectively, 'yesterday I got so old, I felt like I could die' and 'yesterday I got so scared, I shivered like a child'.  I guess there's more than a little mischief going on with chief mischief maker Smith actually having a whale of a time.

Just check out all of that hair in the video. Don't try guessing at the band's hairspray bill. I don't think that there are enough number on the calculator.

Marillion – Kayleigh

If the name sounds Tolkien-esque, that's because it is. They were first called Silmarillion after 1977's posthumously published work. However, the group wisely decided to drop the Sil- bit to avoid any issues with the great man's estate.

1980's music - an uber cool example, no mistake.

As for this single, it was easily the band's most successful one although as more of an albums group that's hardly saying a tremendous amount. It's Fish's song lyrically - he meant it as a way to say sorry to all the girls whose hearts he had broken in pursuit of his career as a rock star. The melody was written by the rest of the band. It was released in May 1985 and first made it into the UK singles chart in the w/e 18 May. I bought it on 7 June as it was hurtling towards the number 2 spot - it was only The Crowd's rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone that prevented it making number 1.

It's a wonderful song, very evocative of the decade and as befits such a great song it spent a total of 14 weeks in the UK singles chart, half of which were spent in the top ten.

Transvision Vamp – I Want Your Love

1980's music - a classic example, pictured yesterday.

I really loved this song.  It was a later 80's release (1988) so unfortunately I didn't write the date that I bought it on the sleeve.  Looking back on the Vamp, they were probably a bit naff, although they were one of the first bands that I saw, in the Mountford Hall, University of Liverpool, sometime in October / November 1988.

Lead-signer Wendy James was possessed of an almighty roar, which she used to good effect.  The rest of the band were, I guess just towed along in her slipstream.  I remember the gig well, one incident in particular still amuses me now.  At one point, our Wendy asked the audience (300 sweaty and hormonal 18, 19 or 20 year  lads), 'who wants to see some tit?'  To which we all replied in the affirmative.  'Good, that's what I though you'd say' she replied and stepped aside to allow the drummer to come forward and take his top off.  Good on yer Wendy!

Anyway, the song was released w/e 25 June 1988 and rose to its highest position of 5 in the UK singles chart for the w/e 23 July.  It spent a couple of weeks there before easing itself gently off the scene.  A proper 80's sound from a bona fide 80's phenomenon.