S18 Contemporary Music

[Jonno]

I know Mr Morgan has already posted about his fave tunes from the period elsewhere but I personally think there's roomi in these sub-forums for a thread to accompany each season we revisit? One that'll be easy to locate and add to as we go through each of the season's stories?

So, here's my thoughts on the period from late August to late September 1980 while The Leisure Hive was on TV.

There's some very good Number 1s here - from Bowie's Ashes to Ashes when Part 1 aired to the Jam's Start for Part 2 and then Kelly Marie's rather camp disco hit Feels Like I'm In Love for the rest of the story. See if the video for the latter is on YouTube - it probably is - and check out the two sailors dancing and prancing around!

The Ashes to Ashes video is a particular favourite, though it did creep me out at the time (I was 11) - especially the scene of the digging machine following them along the beach - and Bowie in that clown costume - no wonder the clown imagery was used in the first series of TV's Ashes to Ashes a couple of years ago to spooky effect. I didn't know who Bowie was back then so I had no idea it was a sequel of sorts to Space Oddity, that link would be made years later as my musical knowledge expanded.

Top of the Pops was always essential viewing back then but I do recall that in the summer there was a musician's strike and the programme was off air for several weeks, I believe it came back just about as S18 was starting - do you recall that, Stephen?

Here's some of my other favourites riding high in the charts from those 4 weeks with their peak positions :

Tom Hark - Piranhas (6)
Eighth Day - Hazel O'Connor (5)
One Day I'll Fly Away - Randy Crawford (2)
Paranoid - Black Sabbath (14)
A Walk In The Park - Nick Straker Band (20)

[Stephen Morgan]

Top of the Pops was always essential viewing back then but I do recall that in the summer there was a musician's strike and the programme was off air for several weeks, I believe it came back just about as S18 was starting - do you recall that, Stephen?

Excellent idea for a thread in this sub forum Jonno wish I'd thought of it myself after enthusing about my favourite tunes from days gone.
I do recall that TOTPs strike, and do have a few 1980 recordings from the old UK Gold days, must dig those out sometime. It's rumoured that BBC4 are to show a series of old TOTPs very soon, we'll have to keep our eyes out for those.
Anyway back to the subject at hand. I'm so glad you've picked out some of your faves Jonno, especially Randy Crawford's One Day I'll Fly Away, that song has haunted me again this last few weeks. Nice to see you've remembered some of the other stuff too, I'd imagine that Piranhas track to be a fairly obscure hit, my guess is you must have had the single at some point, the track is gleefully mad isn't it
You also mention Hazel O'Connor whose track Eighth Day comes from the Punk film, Breaking Glass, which is a film worth looking out for as a social document of the period, although the New Romantics are just around the corner and the film would pretty soon seem out of date. Another track of Hazel O'Connor's from the soundtrack is Will You, another sublimely haunting track dominated by a soaring saxophone that will break your heart. The Soundtrack to the film was produced by none other than Tony Visconti, husband of one time Op Knocks winner, Mary Hopkin, and producer of many a David Bowie album. Incidentally, when O'Connor toured to promote Breaking Glas, her support group were none other than then up and comers, Duran Duran.
New entries for this very week thirty years ago include Gilbert O'Sullivan's last top twenty hit, What's In A Kiss, Matchbox When You Ask About Love their fourth hit in less than a year, a couple of disco tracks from Casanova and Lynx, and the highest new entry from Gillan with a live version of Trouble. Still at #1 The Police, Don't Stand So Close To Me.

I'm sure Jonno you'll have some more to add here. Tell me what you remember of one of next week's new entries, Sweet People Et Les Oiseaux Chantaient.

[Jonno]

A great read there, Stephen, and thanks for the heads-up on BBC4, I really hope that happens. TOTP2 was never enough for me, I'd much rather see whole editions with all the links etc. I don't know if you listen to R2's Pick of the Pops but in a fortnight they'll be covering the w/e 16/10/80 which is looking like a great chart. I'll mention it again closer to the time.

Elsewhere, I do indeed remember and love Will You from the following summer - I've got both singles on compilation CDs. Both very different styles! I may have watched Breaking Glass, but if so I can't really remember it. Was Hazel in Jubilee - I certainly remember watching that with some very vivid scenes!

I never bought Tom Hark but at this time I wasn't buying singles or albums - I was only 11! I only really started buying music the following year. But Tom Hark is such a catchy tune I just remember it well from the time and still love it!

My idea with this thread was to let it evolve and each time we cover a new story in the season I'll add to it and look at the singles in that 4 or 6 week period. It'll keep it manageable and if nothing else will make the thread grow with several replies! So I'll get to Sweet People when we do Meglos...

[Stephen Morgan]

I may have watched Breaking Glass, but if so I can't really remember it. Was Hazel in Jubilee - I certainly remember watching that with some very vivid scenes!

Jubilee was a 1977 film with Toyah Willcox, if memory serves me correctly the score for that one was done by Brian Eno. It's a film I've only seen once, many moons ago though.

[Stephen Morgan]

I don't know if you listen to R2's Pick of the Pops but in a fortnight they'll be covering the w/e 16/10/80 which is looking like a great chart. I'll mention it again closer to the time.

I rarely listen to Pick of the Pops these days, I'm not too keen on the blandness of Dale Winton. Perhaps I'll come back to it when Tony Blackburn takes over in November.

[Anthony Williams]

There were some pretty significant albums released in 1980, particularly in the world of heavy metal. Of course, not all of these were released while Season 18 was airing, but it gives you an idea of what was around. I've put the ones I own in bold...

AC/DC - Back in Black
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel III
Genesis - Duke
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Judas Priest - British Steel
KISS - Unmasked
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Queen - The Game

There are probably many, many other albums of significance that I've missed out on, but that gives you a flavour of what was out there...

Ant x

[Jonno]

Ant, you haven't got Back in Black? You surprise me, even I've got that! Unless you don't like AC/DC of course! Hard to believe it's 30 years old, along with Iron Maiden's debut, which I have a copy of courtesy of someone who shall remain nameless!

As for Ace of Spades, I'll be getting to the single later in this thread...

[SiHart]

What about Super Trouper by ABBA. That was prertty significant, for some of us anyway!

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

Ahem!

There were other albums from 1980! These include:

Joy Division - Closer
David Bowie - Scary Monsters and Super Creeps
Talking Heads - Remain In Light
Abba - Super Trouper

Though looking at the charts, Heavy Metal was quite dominant in this period.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

If I remember correctly, wasn't S18 the era of Adam and the Ants mania?

Double checking - it is indeed! This was pretty much the time of Bucks Fizz/Tight Fit and Joe Dolce's Shaddap You Face keeping Ultravox's Vienna from number 1.

But not all bad - you've got great acts like the Human League and Madness coming to the fore. And the excellent David Bowies Ashes to Ashes video. In fact wasn't it pretty much 1980 which was if not the birth of the music video, then when it came into it's own?

[MacNimon]

I wasn't an Adam & The ants fan, but I enjoyed (and still enjoy) listening to most of the chart music mentioned here. Of which Bowie, Ultravox, Hazel O'Connor and Randy Crawford in particular are favourites...but it's Ant's list of rock albums which is more up my street. There are some great albums in that list!

And of course Back In Black merits a mention...I'm not a big AC/DC fan but Back In Black is an excellent album, as is it's predecessor Highway To Hell...despite the death of Bon Scott, 1979/1980 remains their strongest period musically; unfortunately they haven't had recorded anything much worth listening to (with a few key exceptions) in the 30 years since. Derivitive and repetitive pretty much sums up their career ever since...

[Stephen Morgan]

Metal was not my favourite type of music, however, for some reason I couldn't escape Ace Of Spades, dunno why that one seemed to stick with me. It seemed natural to stick with the charts, there were singles that appealed to me, and singles that didn't, but TOTP's was always fun and I rarely missed it, whether it featured a Heavy Metal band or a pop band, Adam and the Ants or ABBA, there was always something to enjoy.

[Jonno]

Onto October 1980, and Number 1 for all 4 weeks that Meglos was on air were The Police with Don't Stand So Close To Me. This is one of my favourite Police tracks and I remember it well from the time, not least because the video was set in a school and I'd just started secondary school! Of course, I was far too young and innocent to understand what the song was about!

Other personal favourite tracks with their peak chart position in October :

DISCO - Ottowan (2)
Baggy Trousers - Madness (3)
My Old Piano - Diana Ross (5)
I Got You - Split Enz (12)
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley & The Wailers (17)

Steven asked me about Sweet People's And The Birds Were Singing which peaked at 4 that month. Well, I have no recollection of it at all from the time, but I do have it on an 80s CD and it really is quite bizarre, no idea how that did so relatively well!

[Stephen Morgan]

Steven asked me about Sweet People's And The Birds Were Singing which peaked at 4 that month. Well, I have no recollection of it at all from the time, but I do have it on an 80s CD and it really is quite bizarre, no idea how that did so relatively well!

I was waiting for you to comment on it Jonno, I have it playing right now, and, as you say, it's quite bizarre, and I don't know how it did so well either. For those not familiar with it it's an instrumental played on some kind of moog synthesiser and has bird song all through it, cuckoos mainly. It came upon the charts from nowhere and went top ten. I can't find anything in Wikipedia about it, it has to be a Scandinavian track or German maybe (it's on that there You Tube thing if anyone cares to look), there was an album, Summer Magic, but after this one single hit in UK, they didn't bother the charts again. If memory serves me correctly I think it was David Hamilton on his afternoon show that picked up on it and inflicted it on us, it was indeed fortunate there was nothing else from them.
There are a couple of interesting new entries this very week thirty years ago Jonno, Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark (as they still were at this time) with Enola Gay, a song about the plane that took the bomb to Hiroshima, Air Supply's All Out of Love, one of those power ballads, and is actually quite good, Kate Bush is in there too with Army Dreamers, as is the Quo with What You're Proposing, another slice of 12 bar blues from them, usual fare, you know it well. And Streisand with one of my personal faves 'cos it's written and produced by Barry Gibb. Give it a couple of weeks and it'll be #1, stopping Ottawan in their tracks.

[Jonno]

Enola Gay, All Out of Love and What You're Proposin' are big faves of mine, too - saving them up for November when they peaked!

[SiHart]

Super Trouper is one of their best songs. In fact it was the first ever single I ever owned. I still have it tucked away safely somewhere. I remember hearing it on the radio all the time when it came out.

Si xx

[Stephen Morgan]

On 18th October 1980 one of the earliest New Romantic singles entered the charts, but only spent two weeks there getting to the giddy heights of number 60. I'm talking about David Sylvian's band Japan, the single was Gentlemen Take Polaroids from the album of the same name.
Sylvian formed Japan in 1974, modelling themselves on the Glam Rock movement that was by then fading. They released their first single and album, Adolescent Sex, in 1978. It wasn't until their third album, Quiet Life, in early 1980 that the band really got themselves noticed, although Quiet Life didn't really get going until they released their fifth and biggest album, Tin Drum, in 1982.
Sylvian's vocal style was often compared to that of Bryan Ferry, and it was actually the comparison to Ferry that drew me to Japan's albums at this time. The aforementioned Gentlemen Take Polaroids contained several top twenty hit singles in 1982 that went unnoticed on its original release in late 1980. It was the release of Tin Drum and its singles Cantonese Boy, Visions of China and Ghosts, the group's biggest hits, and the ones that brought them to the attention of the great British record buying public. Ironically by this time the band had split, citing creative dificulties tearing them apart.
Sylvian sought a solo career, and his first album, Brilliant Trees spawned two top forty hits in Red Guitar and The Ink In The Well, and also, along with Ryichu Sakamoto, the soundtrack to the Film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, which starred David Bowie in 1983. Although Sylvian's later chart success was very patchy, his albums were, and still are, critically acclaimed, the music and style very avant garde, and tbh, an acquired taste.

More on the New Romantic movement later as we fade to grey.

[Jonno]

There was no published chart for w/e 03/01/81 as S18 resumed after its festive break. I believe that officially it's the same as the Christmas chart, i.e. St Winifred's School Choir, but I did read once online that it was suggested it was John Lennon's Happy Christmas (War Is Over) which entered at #4 on the Christmas chart w/e 27/12 and was #2 w/e 10/01. One thing is for sure - during parts 2-4 of Warrior's Gate it was John Lennon's Imagine on top of the pile.

My personal favourites with peak positions in January 1981 included :

Antumusic - Adam and the Ants (2)
Flash - Queen (10)
Rabbit - Chas & Dave (8)
I Am The Beat - The Look (6)

[Andrew Curnow]

I never thought that Chas 'n' Dave's Rabbit would be more popular than Flash! Crikey!

[Jonno]

If it helps, Flash did spend 3 weeks stuck at #10 whereas Rabbit spent just the one week in the Top 10, but it is one of those chart oddities and Flash really should have done better! Mind you, there's a much bigger chart injustice to report on shortly just as the Doctor was returning to N-Space...