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George Michael may have had great success as one half of Wham!, but it wasn’t until he went solo that he could truly claim to have become a superstar of the pop world. George left Wham! because he was fed up with catering to a mainly teenage audience, and spurred on by the success of Careless Whisper, arguably a more mature sounding song than most of their repertoire, he finally decided to go it alone in 1986.
1987 then saw the release of his first solo album, entitled Faith, which was entirely written, arranged and produced by George, further cementing the fact that he was a very talented singer and musician. Faith hit the number one spot in the album charts of the UK, USA and several other countries, and went on to sell over 20 million copies!
That impressive sales figure is set to increase now that the album has been remastered and is to be reissued on 27th September 2010. Containing ten tracks, six of which managed to reach the top slot in the singles chart, I’m sure you’ll recognise most of the songs instantly. As well as the song that forms the title of the album, Faith, there’s also Father Figure, Monkey and I Want Your Sex. That last one can probably be played on the radio without any problems these days, but on release many radio stations played the alternative version I Want Your Love instead.
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I was driving in the car the other day when Joe Le Taxi by Vanessa Paradis suddenly came on the radio. I had forgotten all about this song until then, and hearing it again instantly took me back to my childhood, with memories of looking up the lyrics in my sisters copy of 
School trips were always fun for several reasons. First, it always seemed like a day off school. Secondly, you sometimes got to go to some interesting places. Thirdly, the coach trip often descended into what can only be described as mayhem! Fun mayhem that is!
99 Red Balloons was a number one hit for Nena, which was both the name of the female singer of the song and her band too, in February 1984. This was the English translation of the original German version, which was called 99 Luftballons, and between the two versions Nena managed to achieve the number one slot in the charts in at least ten countries, including the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada and home country Germany.
Back in the eighties I remember a lot of Hollywood films mentioning a TV channel called MTV, and wondering what it was all about. It got to a point where if teenage characters in a movie was meant to be cool, they would just have to mention MTV and that was it – instant coolness.
Scottish identical twins Charlie and Craig Reid formed their two man band, The Proclaimers, in 1983, but it wasn’t until 1986 that they would hit the big time. A fan sent a demo tape of theirs to English band The Housemartins, who were so impressed they invited them to tour with them. This led to an appearance on Channel 4 music show The Tube, which gave them their first UK hit single, Letter From America.
It was the mid eighties when the BBC launched their soap opera EastEnders with much fanfare, causing my Mum and mothers across the land to tune in eagerly for a dose of market trading folk from a small London suburb. Such was the popularity of the show back then that the characters who made up the original cast are still fondly remembered today.
I you’re a fan of the music from the Eighties then you might be interested to hear about The Greatest Eighties Party Ever, which is set to take place on July 31st 2010 at the Scarborough Open Air Theatre.
