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Today, Kylie Minogue is looked up to as a very popular singer and an inspiration after her battle with cancer, but back in the eighties, she perhaps wasn’t taken quite so seriously.
Kylie Ann Minogue (now an OBE!) was born 28th May 1968 in Melbourne, Australia. She is the oldest of three children, with her sister Dannii also being an actress and singer, whilst her brother Brendan is a news cameraman in Australia. As a child Kylie had bit parts in several Aussie soaps (including The Sullivans, which I remember was one of Mum’s favourite programmes when I was a kid), but initially Dannii was the sibling who enjoyed the greater success.
In 1985 this changed when Kylie was cast with one of the lead roles in The Henderson Kids, and then in 1986 she really made a name for herself playing tomboy Charlene Ramsey in Neighbours. Dannii was to follow in Kylie’s footsteps from them, as she then got a role in rival soap Home and Away, and then went on to launch her own singing career.
In 1987 Kylie entered the world of music with a cover of The Locomotion which topped the Australian charts. She came to England and signed up with Stock, Aitken and Waterman, releasing what most people in the UK will recognise as her first single – I Should Be So Lucky. Legend has it that Stock, Aitken and Waterman didn’t really know who Kylie was and had forgot she was coming to visit them, so ended up writing this track for her while she waited in the studio. The song was a phenomenal success, reaching number one in the UK, Australia, Germany and many other places.
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The Eighties saw more than its fair share of musical styles, what with New Romantics, House, Sound Sample Mixing and several others. Much of the reason for this was the advances in music technology which brought us the synthesiser keyboard, and so was born Synthpop, and one of the biggest proponents of that particular style were Erasure.
Think back about the band Bros. If you remember them then I bet you immediately think of Matt and Luke Goss, the blonde twins in ripped jeans and leather jackets. If you weren’t a fan then you may have forgotten that Bros actually consisted of a third member, that being Craig Logan. Well, I’d forgotten about him, anyway.
In 1982 Musical Youth burst onto the charts with their first hit, Pass The Dutchie, a song which I still vividly remember to this day for its cool reggae beat and bizarre lyrics, especially the bom-bom-bom-bom-bom-bom-biddly-bom bit. Â The fact that the song was sung by a group of kids, the youngest of which was around my age at the time, also helped them win popularity from me.
The Eurovision Song Contest has had a lot to answer for over the years, but one thing I won’t hold against the contest is bring Bucks Fizz to the world. Â OK, the band may be looked back on now as being a bit cheesey, but at the time they were very popular and whilst I wouldn’t consider myself a fan as such I still remember many of their songs today, and hearing them always conjures up happy childhood memories for me.
Spandau Ballet have recently announced that they are reforming to tour the UK in October this year, so let’s take a quick look at the band as they were back in the 1980’s.
The decade that was the 1980’s can lay claim to many distinctive bands in both musical and visual style, unlike many of todays indentikit groups. Â One such band that had a string of hits during the early part of the decade were Dexys Midnight Runners.
Wham! were undoubtedly one of the biggest bands of the 1980’s, with George Michael (real name Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou) and Andrew Ridgley becoming household names for a large proportion of the decade. Whilst most of the credit (and fans adoration) for the band generally goes to George, being main vocalist and song writer, it was Andrew who kept the style of the band fresh, adapting their look to match the songs they created.
