Remembering the 80's

Blimey, didn't realise we had so many closet 80's music fans on this forum, and a lot of you posted on the old Groovehandle forum too and never uttered a word.

So, now you've all outted yourselves and know there's no shame in it , let's have a thread for you all to reminisce your favourite (or maybe not so favourite ) musical moments from the 1980's...

Yep that's right voodoo. There was a series of NOW albums released circa 1993 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the NOW (That's What I Call Music) compilation series. Each album was a double disc set, but didn't exactly mirror the track listings of the original NOWs (and in two cases I can think they substituted remixed versions the original hit single version ). I originally believed that the first 9 NOW albums were never available as double albums, only the cassette and vinyl were doubles, the CD was only a single disc with a cut down selection of the tracks from the fully fledged cassette/LP. I've since been told by Dom that double CD versions of 1-9 were available, but only as promos. WadiaMiester, admitted to a room full of us the other day that he has a double CD copy of Now 3, but couldn't find it at the time to prove to me, and you all thought he was Mr Rock'n'Roll?

There was also another run of NOW 19xx retrospective series in 1998 IIRC, which had 1980/81/82/83 added to complete the 80's years, and was distinguishable from the initial offerings by being in single thickness CD double cases (instead of double thickness) and with different art work. I collected 1980-1983 in this second series, as I already had 1983-1989 from the initial series.

IMHO, any self respecting fan of 80's pop should have a complete collection of NOW albums from that decade, and preferable the original releases too (I have 1-14 on vinyl and 9 onwards on CD). So there we go, the Now album is my defining musical memory from the 80's. What's yours?

 

I think I once owned a now album. 18? Not sure. Had "Unchained melody" on it and "english man in new york"

That's not to say I aprove!

 

How can you be a fan of 80s pop and be self-respecting?

I'll get me coat.

-- Ian

 

MO!

That was indeed Now 18. One of the mOre mediocre 80's Now albums IMO. That album's also got that awful song by Timmy Mallet (TV-AM / Wide Awake Club presenter)... There were some decent novelty songs around in the decade, but that wasn't one of them.

 

Well Ian, I'm able to admit to the fact and still hold my head up high so I guess that qualifies?

 

(I went to the same school as Timmy Mallet)

People pay mad money for these Now comps?! They are mostly full of cr*p are they not? Or is it just kitsch value, or to complete the set?


Culture Club/Spandau Ballet/Duran Duran/Human League/A-ha/Madonna/Bangles/Berlinda Carlisle...good 80s pop mash...the list is endless.


However, didn't Bros and Five Star exist in the 80's. Surely that ruins the whole decade?

 

i own a i (heart) the 80's compilation..
i recently bought the dammned's phantasmagoria.
i am at this very moment listening to the pet shop boys disco (this is also one of the very few bits of vinyl i have along with now something or other - but i'm listening to the cd)
belinda carlisle, the who, the stranglers, the go-go's, early stuff from moby, 808 state, megadeth, metallica, the cult, the klf / timelords / whoever they were for that week of fame.

if you're talking about old compilations. i've got an old top of the pops one on vinyl which i got at arround the same time as my cousin bought abba's arrival (the one with the helicopter on the front?)

what a decade!!!
cheers

julian


how could i forget banarama and kylie (purely aesthetically though)

 

The 80s did indeed have some good stuff but I'm not a big fan. Since the 80s were my school years I tend to remember the songs more fondly merely because of the memories I associate with them - it's also why I can usually place an 80s track to the year (and sometimes even month) in which it came out as soon as I hear it.

Rather than the stuff I still like (very little - Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, A-Ha :shame: ) I mostly remember the stuff I hated:

- Ska and Two Tone (Specials, Madness etc) still hate all that stuff.
- Anything produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman (80s Kylie, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley :chunder: ). Their production company was called "The HIT factory", prompting jokes like:

Q: "What's missing from the HIT factory?"
A: "The S"

Michael.

 

The 80s were the best of times and the worst of times for pop.

The best was outstanding. Starting with Talking Heads' Remain in Light in 1980 (I heard Once in a Lifetime on the radio the other day, and it sounds as fresh today as it did then) and concluding with the drug-fuelled supernova of the Happy Mondays, there was much to enjoy. However, the 80s record, that really does it for me is The Smiths' This Charming Man. As unexpected and delightful as ever. Still makes my skin tingle.

Then there was the crap. Oh so much crap. Nostalgia has its uses but too often lapses into the creeping menace of selective recall, and no amount of TOTP2 specials will convince me that the likes of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Wham, Howard Jones, Stock Aitken and ********, and countless others were anything more than unadulterated, unspeakable, unlistenable shite.

As for NOW! it's the seething pit of pox from which crawled the compilationitis that blights the pop and classical charts of today. Got a 'mood' or a 'lifestyle ambience'? Chill Out? Summer Loving? Wind in the Hair? Let some marketing arse come up with the perfect 'soundtrack' for it. No sign yet of the ones I really want to hear: Stress! Stress! Stress!; Premenstrual Tension; So There Is Such Thing As Too Much Fibre; When Was Her Nappy Last Changed?; My Personal Pension Is Worth How Much?

 

Aaaargh!!! Mikey baby, wotcha saying????

Ska and two tone, the specials, selecter, the beat et al were one of the few good things to come out of the 80's.

And you liked duran duran and a-ha!!!! FFSake!!!!!

I dont think I've ever disagreed with someone so much A complete 180 so to speak.

Oh well, horses for courses or something like that.

 

Lamboy, you're right, Michael should ban himself immediately!

-- Ian

 

As a fellow countryman of the detestable a-ha I can only apologise...
Top 80s band... Felt!

 

Well - maybe I should give that Ska and two tone stuff another listen, but I don't think I'm going to change

It didn't help by being the early 80s when I had just got to a British boarding school having never lived in the UK before, and never having listened to anything but classical at home...

Ska was perhaps not the best introduction to "popular" music!

Still, I've never really liked Reggae either [dons flame proof gear again ] and the Ska beat is a lot like speeded up Reggae, with a lot of the same influences. Of the 80s genres there's no doubt that Ska etc were amongst the musically more competent and meaningful but they just don't do it for me!

Depeche Mode though - what's wrong with them? Duran Duran and A-Ha - OK, they're shite, but I still liked them (and even got some albums on CD in later life...)

Michael.

 

My favourite 80's stuff:

Human League - I love this early electronic sound

New Order - I am a Joy Division fan, and I like the early electronic sound so new New Order are one of my favourite bands, I love Blue Monday.

Spandua Ballet - I don't know as much I as would I like about them but I love all the stuff I heared.

T'Pau - I have a huge memory sat in a pub on the way back to see father christmas and "china in the your hand" was playing, so I am guessing this was Decemeber 1987 as it was number one in around october 1987. I was 6 years old at the time btw!

Fleetwood Mac - They released a lot of good stuff in the late 80's. Alhough not an 80's band.

SAW - Stock Acktain Waterman - They made some truly shocking music (if you can call it that) but I grew up with Kylie and Jason etc.

I like the whole 80's cheese thing too. Because I am a happy none serious kind of person.

 

If you're into 80's check out Grand Theft Auto - Vice City. The soundtracks all 80's stuff and is just classic. Found myself singing along to Go West whilst gunning some hoodlums down last night!

Jay

 

Nobody remember "It bites"
3 albums of excellence in my opinion that is.......



Robert

 

Do I need therapy?

The early NOW albums were good IMHO, 1-11 being the best ones I reckon, and possibly upto 17, but after that it all gets a bit patchy. I don't know why NOW albums, espeicially the CDs are worth so much on Epay these days. I remember back about 10 years ago when it seemed that second hand record shops wouldn't even touch an 80s NOW album if you tried to punt it on to them, consequently it was hard to complete your collection. I paid about £6 per album (on vinyl) to complete my collection, and about £8 for CDs. Still have a few gaps in my NOW CD collection that I'd like to fill, but not at the current inflated prices. Content just to have all of them in one format or another - vinyl better for the early ones IMO. Kitch value? Yes, probably! :shame:

They sure did! Wasn't much of a fan of Bros, but liked Five Star - bought a greatest hits collection of theirs recently.

Ah, the sound track to the recent(ish) BBC TV series of the same name. One of the best 80's retrospective TV show ever, IMHO. I wish they'd re-run it again so that I can commit them all the video tape (or recordable DVD - don't have one at the moment but I'd buy one specially for the purpose if I had enough advance warning).

I always associate those compilations with the late 70, but guess they were still releasing new ones in the early 80's? Certainly remember them for the front covers, especially the scantily clad chicks :JOEL:, but not so much for the music which wasn't familiar to me at all (back then).

You and domfjbrown would get on like a house on fire! Maybe you 2 should start up your own record company!

A-ha! So, that's 3 people on this forum who own an A-ha album. I won't shame the 3rd in public unless they want to reveal all themselves!

Nicely summed up there amazingtrade, same goes here. :beer: I'll remember to quote that next time someone asks me why I like 80's music.

Sure, I remember "Calling All The Heroes" , although never heard any of their albums.

 

Calling All The Heroes is a great tune. I've got the album it's from, The Big Lad In The Windmill, but haven't heard it yet. Francis Dunnery is in the process of or has re-released all the It Bites albums on CD through his website. www.francisdunnery.com. He also added some excellent guitar work to Robert Plant's Fate of Nations album in 1993. Only heard the odd track since, but a talented musician for sure.

The 80's have certainly provided us with some classic cheese, why people diss it all is beyond me. Sure, there's some crap to come out of it (New Kids on the Block for example), but that's the same of any decade that you can mention.

At least there was a lot of variety in what was being released, even if it was being aimed at the same markets, now it all sounds the same. Will people in 20 years time be raving about Westblueblazinzone or whatever they're called? I somewhat doubt it.

As for compilations, I'm all for them if there's some variety, but near enough all of them now come out within a week of each other, and of about 35 tracks, they'll have 30 in common. Half the people who buy them will have already bought the singles anyway, it's all a blatant marketing con that works.

The last really great compilation I can remember buying (apart from the schooldisco.com sets) was a late 70s/early 80s one called Once In A Lifetime, had a red cover. Some top stuff on there. Was surprised to see the latest addition to the best... album ever series, a 3cd progressive rock set. Wouldn't have thought it'd sell well enough for a record company to go for it. Surely most people who would buy it would own the tracks anyway?

 

Hi

I have to throw my hand up here & say the 80s were/are a big part of my life. At the start of the 80s I was nearly 15 & I was nearly 25 by the end. I saw a lot of bands & heard alot of music. I bought a fair bit first time round & even more since. It's amazing what you can pick up when you buy record collections.

Another big factor is that I am a DJ. I have made my name playing retro music. One gig I Dj at is a bar called "The 80's music bar". I also do a retro Student night playing 60's 70s & 80s.

There was some top notch stuff in the 80s & well as the dross. 80s are very popular because a lot of the people who go out were kids or in the teens/early 20s when the music first came out.

I have great memories when I look or sort through the 80s stuff in my record & cd collection. Most of the original stuff that I have bought, I can remember the time & place of purchase.

Here is some of the stuff I like.

I like the 2 tone/ 2nd wave ska/reggae stuff from the early 80s. eg. Specials, Madness, Bad Manners, UB40

I like some the early 80s electronica/new romantic stuff. eg. John Foxx, Human League

I like some of the early 80s post post/indie stuff. eg. Echo & the Bunnyman, Scritti politti, Teardrop Expoldes, Au pairs etc.

I like the post disco/pre house dance music. e.g. Shannon, The System, D train, Talking Heads, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Level 42, etc

I like the old skool rap/hip hop & electro of the early 80s. e.g. African Bambatta & the Soulsonic Force, Run DMC, Mann Parrish, Cybotron etc

I like the newer skool hip hop of the late 80s. e.g. Schoolly D, Beastie Boys, NWA, Public Enermy etc

I like the mid/late 80s house/Acid house/Detroit Techno. e.g. Adonis, Steve 'silk' Hurley, Marshal Jefferson, Derrick May, Kevin Sanderson/Inner City, Ten City etc.

I like those quality pop moments such as Frankie goes to Holloywood, ABC, Lotus Eaters, New Order, etc.

I have the first Now complilations on vinyl plus loads of albums & 7"& 12" singles (alot with picture sleeves). I have a few picture discs as well. I have a full collection of Record Mirrors & the face mags from that period. Add to this the many other books & mags I have from the period.

Good grief! I still have some of the clothes from that era.

An interesting decade.

SCIDB

 

I think you're suffering from a severe case of nostalgia mate. The manufactured bands of the 80s were surely no better than what we see today. People will definitely be raving about Steps and Boyzone in 20 years because they are the records that generation will remember. I bet you Take That has already got a cult following. Can you hand on heart say that Duran Durans records were good? They were horrendous even by boyband standards (Wild Boys = guaranteed headache).
And there is variety in the charts, as we speak the no.1 is a goth-rock number!