Child Of The 1980's

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.

Instantly recognisable from their glasses, jeans and thick Scottish accent when singing, Letter From America made them household names when it shot to number 3 in the charts. They had a unique style at the time, being both pop and almost folk music at the same time, the folk influence coming from the warbling sections of the song which is probably why the song was so popular, as everyone loved joining in with that particular bit.

They followed up with I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) which reached number 11 and has now become something of an anthem for Scottish football fans. This song also featured further strange voice work, and I can imagine that going down very well when sung by a stadium of football supporters!

Read more…

• Tweet

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.

The programme has a very memorable theme tune, but it came as quite a surprise to most people when Anita Dobson, aka Angie Watts, the Queen Vic landlady, released a record which put lyrics to the theme song.

The lyrics may well be considered cheesey now (and probably was back in 1986 when it was released) but it has to be said that Anita Dobson didn’t actually have a bad singing voice, so whilst it was most likely the popularity of EastEnders that saw the record reach number 4 in the UK charts, at least there was some talent involved in the production of the record.

The EastEnders theme tune was originally composed by Simon May, with the lyrics added afterwards by Don Black. It was produced by Dobson’s husband Brian May. That’s right, the big haired Brian May from Queen! Well, it’s nice that he supported his wife, isn’t it?

Read more…

• Tweet

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.

Playing at the event will be some of the biggest names of the 1980′s (see the list below). The Open Air Theatre last played a concert in 1986, and not long after this the venue closed and fell into disrepair. However it is being renovated and The Greatest Eighties Party is to be a fitting event to mark its reopening.

The full list of acts is:

• Boy George
• Rick Astley
• Paul Young
• Nik Kershaw
• Midge Ure
• Heaven 17
• Kid Creole and the Coconuts
• T’Pau
• Hazel O’Connor
• Toyah

Tickets went on sale on Friday 26th February and start at just £25 (with additional booking fee). You can get them from Ticketline on 0871 424 4444 or via the Ticketline website.

• Tweet

Last August saw the first 80s Rewind Festival occur in Henley on Thames, and by all accounts it went down a storm. There was a great line up of eighties pop acts over the two main days on the festival, plus a funfair and late night disco tent, and over 30,000 people turned up to enjoy some great live music.

The festival proved so popular that it is set to return this again this year, with dare I say it an even better line up of music acts that before. The currently confirmed list of artists is as follows:-

Read more…

• Tweet

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.

Read more…

• Tweet

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.

Erasure were a double act comprised of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell. Whilst Bell was the exuberant front man it was actually Clarke who was the initial driving force behind the group. Prior to starting Erasure Clarke had been a member of several early eighties bands including Depeche Mode, Yazoo and The Assembly, but in 1985 he placed an advert in Melody Maker magazine and chose Andy Bell from the many applicants to fill the position of vocalist.

The group’s first releases failed to set the UK charts alight however, although they had some success with Oh L’amour, their third single, in Australia and France. Their next song changed all that though. Sometimes made its way to number two in the charts and this helped propel their first album, The Circus, to number six in the album charts, which eventually went platinum.

Read more…

• Tweet

Back in the eighties, way before the Internet as we know it was born, the only way to keep up to date with the latest news from your favourite bands was by reading one of the popular music magazines.  There were many magazine vying for your attention, such as Smash Hits, New Musical Express and Melody Maker, so they often tried to woo new readers with covermounted goodies.

Whilst posters and lyric books were always popular, the ultimate lure was to give away some actual music, and the way in which this was often done was to use a Flexi-Disc record stuck to the front cover.

For the most part Flexi-Discs looked just like a normal single vinyl record, but they often came in various bright colours (yellow, green and red were always very popular).  The biggest difference was that unlike a vinyl record, Flexi-Discs (as their name suggests) were flexible.  Really flexible!  They could be carefully rolled up into a tube if you so wished, although doing so was not really to be recommended if you want the thing to lie flat on your record deck!

Read more…

• Tweet

If you take a perusal of the songs I’ve featured in the Music – Songs category of this site you’ll soon realise that most, if not all, are novelty songs of some kind or another.  Part of the reason for this is that as a kid I was never really into music in a big way, and certainly wasn’t a fan of any one band in particular, so the songs which I tend to remember most vividly, perhaps regrettably, are the rather less serious ones.

Apology out of the way here’s todays whimsical offering – John Kettley is a Weatherman, by A Tribe Of Toffs.  This little ditty was released in 1988 and although many people will remember it even now it only actually made its way to number 21 in the UK charts.  The chorus lyrics were simple and straight to the point:-

The main verses went through a series of well known people at the time and a little something about them, such as Johnathan Ross collects moss (possible I guess?), Andy Crane has no brain and Simon Parkin is always larking.  Amusingly enough whilst Simon Parkin was a childrens TV presenter at the time of the record he is now, wait for it, a weatherman on ITV!

Read more…

• Tweet