Ok the final five tunes from my personal 1980 collection are... A nice slice of NZ New Wave from the Finn brothers before they morphed into the more successful Crowded House later..
British Electronic and Synth Pop was taking off and Scousers, OMD were among those leading the way... This is from their eponymous debut album...
Whiteley already posted King from this album from Brummie mixed race Reggae band UB40s debut album Signing Off, but I'm including it for the special memory of being part of the group (me and my mates) that had the nerve to get up and dance at their gig at the Gaumont when the Southampton audience were being typically reticent!..
And finally I couldn't end 1980 without posting something from this man. No other celebrity death has affected me as much prior or since and I can still remember the moment I heard as clear as day now. If it had been any other Beatle it wouldn't have shook me so profoundly and I had no idea why this was so. In the years since I know now that I was subconsciously taking in the messages in his songs and that they were shaping the way I looked at things too. I have read a bit about him and it turns out that he wasn't a totally likeable human being, he was a hypocrite and a bully who liked to humiliate people in public and had an uncontrolled anger. This could be down to him being effectively orphaned at an early age and I really think that he was coming to terms with his issues after the birth of his second son and self imposed exile from the limelight (the song I have chosen is about this break). By the time he had recorded and released this song from the album Double Fantasy he was in the most happy and positive period of his adult life... 1981 starts tomorrow..
I have this album on vinyl. One of the best gigs I saw was George Benson with the London Philharmonic orchestra. Amazing evening.
Jeez SA, you either dated my sister or you and her are one and the same. The more you post about music, the more I think about that. In fact, I’ve never seen you and her at the same time. You should have been the big brother I never had!
I got a lot of my love of Bowie, Lou Reed and all kinds of Prog from my older brother, I drew the line at his wearing his Oxford bags, tank tops, platforms and centre parted long hippy hair though!...
Ok, on to 1981 and as I mentioned last time I spent most of the year claiming benefit along with 3 million others (thanks Thatcher). It was mind numbingly boring and soul destroying and when I finally found a job it was on a production line assembling storage heaters for Dimplex on the Millbrook Industrial Estate and that turned out to be just as mind numbingly boring and soul destroying but at least I could afford to buy the LPs and 45s that I couldn't before. Here are some of them... This one is from Brummie's Au Pairs' Post Punk debut album Playing with a Different Sex...
This was a track off of the brilliant Go-Go's debut album Beauty and the Beat that has been described as a cornerstone of New Wave...
