Child Of The 1980’s

The first time I heard of Culture Club was one evening when they appeared on Top of the Pops. Said show was on TV, and Culture Club were playing their first big hit “Do you really want to hurt me?“. My Dad walked in and, never being one to mince his words, said, “That’s a bloke singing!“, referring of course to Boy George. Of course, being still of primary school age both my sister and I refused to believe him, since the person on TV was clearly a woman in our eyes, what with the heavy make-up and wearing what appeared to be a white dress.

After “Do you really want to hurt me?” the band went on to have a string of Top Ten hits including “It’s a miracle” and “Karma Chameleon“, the latter being probably their best known hit. As a kid I originally thought it was “Comma Chameleon“, which made very little sense to me. When I was told it was “Karma” it made even less sense…

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Black Lace are responsible for more heinous music than you can shake a big stick at, and whilst The Birdie Song may have the dubious honour of starting the make-an-idiot-of-yourself disco section at weddings, it’s the guys from Black Lace that drag it out to a full half hour or so. Every song they did had “actions” to go with it, which for some reason everybody knows - they must be tapping into some primal urge to look like a complete fool on the dance floor that resides in all of us somewhere. Not me, you say! Well, maybe not now, but if the evidence at weddings is anything to go by, wait until your a grandparent or old uncle or aunt…

Anyway, they are best known for their hit Agadoo. You know it, and the dance, even though you don’t want to. It’s a song with a touching holiday romance story attached to it, with some guy going to Waikiki and falling for one of the local beauties, who taught him to dance in the moonlight. All very romantic sounding, except the dance involves waving your arms back and forth, jumping up and down and going “to the knees”, whatever that means.

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Suggs and co., seen here doing their trademark too-close-together walk, are one of those bands whose songs you’ll instantly recognise whenever you here one. They have been variously categorised as a Punk or Ska band, but according to Wikipedia they are neither of these, but instead something called 2 Tone, which is a fusion of the two aforementioned musical styles. So there you are fact fans! Now you know!

Anyway, the band formed in 1976, but during the 80’s they had no less than 13 top ten singles, and are the record holder when it comes to most weeks spent in the UK singles chart during that decade - 214 weeks no less! They had a number 1 with House of Fun, whose lyrics went completely over my head as a 9 year old, but didn’t stop me singing along. This was in 1982, which also saw the release of Driving in my Car and Our House, two more of their best known songs. I think one of the reasons I liked their songs as a child must have been that they were about normal things, so you could relate to them as a pre-teenage boy much more easily than most pop songs that generally revolve around the concept of love.

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