War! What Is It Good For? Two Sides Of A C60 Cassette!

Sides 1 and 2 of a C60 cassette, collating classic live compilation Urgh! A Music War, created 14th July 1992.

When I used to visit my brother's bedsit on the edge of St. Paul's in Bristol city centre, I would always try to get this album on the turntable. I was a little obsessed with it, to be honest. 

The sleeve itself was fascinating: text-heavy with a camouflage background and the illustration of a dodgy loooking character pulling a vinyl record from within his long overcoat.

My brother's copy also had, stamped firmly in embossed gold lettering, the notice that this was a promo, not for resale. For years, I mistakenly thought this meant that the album had never been officially released, let alone that it was the soundtrack to the 1981 film of the same name by Derek Burbidge.

Two slabs of vinyl squeezed into a slightly oversized sleeve (no gatefold), twenty-seven songs packed into the grooves, six on Side 1, seven on Sides 2, 3 and 4. As advertised, all previously unreleased live performances by bands that I knew and many that I didn't.

As my music obsession grew during my teens, so did my DIY cassette compilation, which continued through my twenties. I'd seize opportunities to rip my brother's vinyl to cassette and I nabbed Urgh! A Music War when circumstances meant that we were both back living with our parents, our music collections in adjoining rooms.

I'm pretty sure I could have fit most if not all of the album onto a C90 cassette, so I don't recall why I instead ended up with a cut down 17-track version on a C60 instead. Maybe there was only a limited window to get the album recorded and I didn't have a 90-min tape available. 

As such, today's selection is missing Au Pairs, The Cramps, Pere Ubu and Gang Of Four, although back in 1992 I would have been less bothered at leaving off Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, John Otway or Jools Holland.

Side 1 of the mixtape literally copies and pastes the entirety of the vinyl's first side, in order, finishing off with Side 4's opener and the closing song of Side 2.

The flip side of the C60 bounces from Side 3 to four straight songs from Side 2 to two from Side 4, before returning to Side 3 for the epic closer.

By the 2000s, and access to the internet, I had acquired not only a vinyl rip of the album - the source of today's selection - but also the ten 'bonus' performances from the film, lifted from its DVD release in the 1990s.

There are a few gems, with John Cooper Clarke, Dead Kennedys, Pere Ubu and UB40 with a great performance of Madam Medusa and, but I think the 1981 vinyl track list pretty much got it right first time.

Side One

1) Driven To Tears (Live @ The Frejus Amphitheater, Paris, 28 August 1980): The Police

2) Back In Flesh (Live @ The Santa Monica Civic, Santa Monica, 16 August 1980): Wall Of Voodoo

3) Dance (Live @ The ICA, London, 05 September 1980): Toyah

4) Enola Gay (Live @ Guild Hall, Portsmouth, 19 September 1980): O.M.D.

5) Ain't This The Life (Live @ The Whisky, Hollywood, California, 17 August 1980): Oingo Boingo

6) Respectable Street (Live @ The Frejus Amphitheater, Paris, 28 August 1980): XTC

7) Shadow-Line (Live @ CBGB's, New York, 21 August 1980): The Fleshtones

8) Ku Klux Klan (Live @ The Rainbow Theatre, London, 18 September 1980): Steel Pulse

Side Two

1) Uncontrollable Urge (Live @ The California Theater, San Diego, 20 August 1980): Devo

2) The Puppet (Live @ The Lyceum Ballroom, London, 07 September 1980): Echo & The Bunnymen

3) We Got The Beat (Live @ The Whisky, Hollywood, California, 17 August 1980): Go-Go's

4) Total Eclipse (Live @ The Ritz, New York, 22 August 1980): Klaus Nomi

5) Where's Captain Kirk (Live @ The Lyceum Ballroom, London, 17 September 1980): Athletico Spizz 80

6) Nothing Means Nothing Anymore (Live @ The Whisky, Hollywood, California, 17 August 1980): Alley Cats

7) Beyond And Back (Live @ The Santa Monica Civic, Santa Monica, 15 August 1980): X

8) Model Worker (Live @ The Santa Monica Civic, Santa Monica, 16 August 1980): Magazine

9) Down In The Park (Live @ The Hammersmith Odeon, London, 16 September 1980): Gary Numan

Side One (29:42) (GD) (M)

Side Two (30:06) (GD) (M)

If you have a couple of hours to spare, then treat yourself to the movie, available in full online. 

It's a thrill to see O.M.D., Echo & The Bunnymen, XTC, Steel Pulse and Magazine. The sight of Gary Numan tootling about on stage in his precursor to the Sinclair C5 is perhaps unintentionally amusing in 2026, whilst Klaus Nomi is a fantastical being that perhaps would only be imagined via CGI these days. Tragically, Klaus died barely two years after the release of Urgh! A Music War, one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS.

If you've never seen Urgh! A Music War, or haven't for a long while, give it a go. I suspect that there's nothing better on TV this Sunday (especially if you're in the UK)>

Short, Long, Long

A trio of tunes that buzzed in my ear at the weekend and are likely to stick around for a while. 

The Hidden Cameras are unexpectedly remixed by Pet Shop Boys - I'm hoping that there will be an extended remix to follow.

London-based duo Beyond The Struttosphere are new to me, but Rich Lane has been a familiar name in the past few years and his remix of Storming Heaven ticks all the boxes for me.

Johnson Somerset has been creating official and unofficial remixes for well over two decades now. I think I first discovered him via a Simple Minds or Duran Duran extended remix. A few days ago he posted a 10-minute rework of a Gary Numan classic, which doesn't outstay its welcome.

1) How Do You Love? (Pet Shop Boys Remix): The Hidden Cameras

2) Storming Heaven (Rich Lane's American Dream): Beyond The Struttosphere

3) Are 'Friends' Electric? (Johnson Somerset Remix): Tubeway Army

 

In The Dark, Dark Room Was A Dark, Dark Dog

It's another one of those Fridays, so here's Gazelle Twin remixed - and guest-starring - Gary Numan in a new remix of Black Dog, the title track of her current, delicious dark album.

The original version was unsettling enough, but the sight and sound of Elizabeth Bernholz overlaid with Gary Numan may have you reaching for your comfort blanket.

The video reflects one of the inspirations for Shadow Dogs, as revealed by Bernholz in a recent press release:

"When making Black Dog, a persistent obsession I had was the link between 

audiovisual tech and the nature of ghosts. 

I thought about Edison’s Ghost Machine, early EVP experiments, 

and the ‘ghosting’ of transmitted images on the first televisions. 

All recordings are ghosts of sorts, and so came the idea 

of inviting musicians that I really admire, 

to create ghost or shadow versions of these songs, 

and together form a new pack – Shadow Dogs."

All great stuff and a precursor to the companion album Shadow Dogs, featuring this and other reworks by Keeley Forsyth, Penelope Trappes and Beak>. Released today (6th), it should hopefully be available on Gazelle Twin's Bandcamp page by the time you read this.

Decade I: 1981

Side 2 of a mixtape compiled 4th February 1990.

 

After setting the bar high with side 1, could I hope to match it on the flipside? Well, this is 1981 we're talking about here...

 

Although I didn't start buying records in earnest for another few years, when I had a Saturday job and therefore money to spend, 1980 and 1981 were perhaps the two years when my love of music became an obsession. 

 

I started sticking posters on my wall, mostly from Look-In, occasionally Smash Hits or one of the other pop mags that included pin-ups and lyrics for all the chart hits. I used to send blank cassettes to my uncle so that he could borrow albums from his local library and help build my collection. I was fascinated by the New Romantic and synthpop bands that would pop up with alarming regularity on kids' TV shows. 

 

And pop videos! It was a perfect time, musically speaking at least.

Making a return visit on this side are Visage, The Human League and O.M.D., others for the first time but destined to reappear in later volumes. Again, I'm really happy with the sequencing of this selection, although I ran out of tape on the original recording and had to go back and fade out Heaven 17 early in order to squeeze in Gary Numan. No such ignominy in this digital age, so you get the full version of (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang, as intended.

I will return to this series over the next few weekends but I have to confess that Decade volumes II and III (1982-1985) were lost many years ago on my travels. I don't have a note of the track listings either so I will aim to recreate selections that reflect what was in my collection at the time.

In the meantime, get that trench coat on, back comb that hair and go stand on a street corner looking moody whilst listening to this on your Walkman!

1) Vienna (Album Version): Ultravox

2) Europe After The Rain (Album Version): John Foxx

3) Mind Of A Toy (Album Version): Visage

4) Passionate Friend (Album Version): The Teardrop Explodes

5) Pretty In Pink (Album Version): The Psychedelic Furs

6) Grey Day (Album Version): Madness

7) Bedsitter (Album Version): Soft Cell

8) The Sound Of The Crowd (Album Version): The Human League

9) Joan Of Arc (Album Version): O.M.D.

10) New Life (Remix): Depeche Mode

11) (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (Album Version): Heaven 17

12) She's Got Claws ('Modern Dance' Edit): Gary Numan

1st March 1981: Vienna (#3): 1

22nd March 1981: Penthouse And Pavement (#45): 11

29th March 1981: Visage (#13): 3

10th May 1981: 7 (#4): 6

24th May 1981: Dare (#12): 8

5th July 1981: Talk Talk Talk (#43): 5

2nd August 1981: Speak & Spell (#11): 10

30th August 1981: Dance (#6): 12

30th August 1981: The Garden (#40): 2

27th September 1981: Wilder (#25): 4

8th November 1981: Architecture & Morality (#5): 9

29th November 1981: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (#4): 7

Side Two (46:24) (GD) (M)

I Belong Here Where The World Bends

A return to Gary Anthony James Webb, better known to you and me as Gary Numan.

Attempting a career-spanning retrospective, especially when you've allowed yourself between 45 minutes and an hour, is clearly a fool's errand. Luckily, I am a card-carrying cretin and this was no obstacle. So, here it is, 11 songs and 48 minutes of the (nu)man's work, from 1978 to 2017 (I haven't yet heard Gary's most recent album, Intruder, released in 2021).

The selection starts off with Faces, which was the B-side of the first Gary Numan single I bought - and an unlikely choice perhaps - I Can't Stop from June 1986. I liked it enough to buy the 10" and 12" singles, different mixes on the A-side but exactly the same B-side on both. Apart from a bit of vocodered vocal at the start which is probably Gary, the rest of the song drops in samples that appear to have been taped off of the telly. I don't know if it's more to do with familiarity but I've always had a soft spot for Faces.

 

I didn't get the earlier Gary Numan albums until well over a decade later. Up to then, I had a C90 crammed with choice picks ripped from my brother's copy of the 2CD Beggars Banquet compilation Exhibition, which came out in 1987.

Gary left Beggars Banquet in 1983 and released music on his own Numa label, apart from a couple of albums on I.R.S. in 1989 and 1991. From an ignorant person's perspective (yep, me again), the decade from 1984 to 1995 was something of a wilderness period. My only memories were the more distracting and less kind newpaper inches about Gary's flying (or landing) a plane, hair transplant surgery and support for the Tories and Margaret Thatcher, none of which did him any favours.

 

I generally haven't read much about Gary Numan's life but he has been quoted as saying that his "career was in tatters" by the early 1990s. Less surprisingly in retrospect, given the influence that they've had on his subsequent music but salvation came in the form of Depeche Mode's 1993 album Songs Of Faith And Devotion. A present from his wife, the album literally changed Gary's life, reigniting his love of music and setting him on a new course. Gary expands on this a bit more in a 2013 edition of What's In My Bag?

 

Admittedly, you have to dig deep at times but there are some gems to be found in this period, including Empty Bed, Empty Heart, the B-side of 1984 single Berserker, and the title track of eighth album Strange Charm from 1986. 

 

I only started to catch up with Numan's later output in the last decade. Sacrifice, released a year after Songs Of Faith And Devotion, was the "rebirth" album, a heavier, darker sound, consolidated on (lucky) 13th album, Exile. Again, no great surprise to find that another of Gary's What's In My Bag? picks is Nine Inch Nails. The stop-start dynamics, orchestral synths, merciless beats and lyrics that range from the deeply personal to the grand themes of God and The Devil. It sounds little like the super-smooth plastic soul sound of the previous decade, yet there is a thread that follows back to Gary's earlier attempts at a singular, angular sound through electronics and lyrical themes of alienation and isolation.

I thought that this selection may sound like the aural equivalent of a crazy quilt, bits stitched together but horribly mismatched. Yet, Everything Comes Down To This from 2013 seems comfortably sandwiched between two tracks from 1986, and the closing trio of Empty Bed, Empty Heart (1984), Pray For The Pain You Serve (2017) and The Joy Circuit (1980) seems a perfect complement and belies the nearly four decade gap between the songs.

Whilst my go-to albums will always be Replicas, The Pleasure Principle and Telekon (and the Living Ornaments live collection, whilst we're at it), there's much to enjoy in Gary Numan's subsequent work, up to and including his 21st century albums. This selection might send you off down a rabbit hole of your own.

 

1) Faces (1986)

2) Everything Comes Down To This (2013)

3) Strange Charm (1986)

4) When The Sky Bleeds (Sasha Raskin & Dolgof Remix) (2012)

5) Cars (DJ Coldheart's Mix) (2010)

6) Complex (Demo Version) (1978)

7) War Songs (1982)

8) Innocence Bleeding (Album Version) (1997)

9) Empty Bed, Empty Heart (1984)

10) Pray For The Pain You Serve (2017)

11) The Joy Circuit (1980)

 

1980: Telekon: 11

1982: I, Assassin: 7 

1984: Berserker EP: 9

1986: I Can't Stop EP: 1

1986: Strange Charm: 3

1997: Exile: 8

2009: The Pleasure Principle (30th Anniversary Edition 3x CD): 6

2010: Cars EP (bootleg MP3): 5

2012: When The Sky Bleeds EP: 4

2013: Splinter: Songs From A Broken Mind: 2 

2017: Savage: Songs From A Broken World: 10

 

I Belong Here Where The World Bends (48:30) (KF) (Mega) 

 

If that's not enough Numan for you, head back to my previous post in August 2023 for nearly an hour more of Gary goodness.

Light Fades Out

Gary Numan in the mix, literally, as today's selection teases out some classics from 1979 to 1982, to near breaking point in some cases.

The nine songs are mostly bootleg re-edits, including one by yours truly, interspersed with a few original 12" and album versions and all over the five-minute mark.

Play loud.

 

1) Cars (Long Original Ultrasound Version) (2009)

2) She's Got Claws (Extended) (1981) 

3) M.E. (Album Version) (1979)

4) I Die: You Die (Extended) (Re-Edit By M) (2020)

5) Are 'Friends' Electric? (My Friends Are Eclectic Re-Edit By Khayem): Tubeway Army (2014)

6) Music For Chameleons (Extended Version) (1982)

7) We Are Glass (Extended) (Re-Edit By M) (2020)

8) Complex (1978 Demo) (Magnum's Extended Mix) (2013)

9) Remind Me To Smile (Extended Mix By Pure Salvation) (2013) 

 

Light Fades Out (58:00) (KF) (Mega)

Cut The Night

Twelve inches of indie(ish) pop pleasure for the weekend, with a selection of well-known and lesser known songs, spanning the upper and the nether regions of the UK singles chart. 

Troubling the Top 30 with their selected songs back in the day were Echo & The Bunnymen (#30), Gary Numan (#19) and The Beat (#9). Bringing up the rear were Kirsty MacColl (#80) and Win (#63). Having trouble getting the car started were Flesh For Lulu, Paul Haig and INXS, who didn't make the Top 100 and where's the justice in that?

 

As it's Friday, the forty-five minute/C90-friendly rule be damned, here's a full-fat, forty-eight minutes of goodies to usher in the weekend. 

1) Silver (Tidal Wave): Echo & The Bunnymen (1984)

2) Every Little Word (Remix): Flesh For Lulu (1989)

3) Big Blue World (12" Version): Paul Haig (1984)

4) Music For Chameleons (Album Version): Gary Numan (1982)

5) The One Thing (Extended Version): INXS (1983)

6) Hands Off... She's Mine (12" Version): The Beat (1980)

7) Innocence (The Guilt Mix): Kirsty MacColl (1989)

8) Super Popoid Groove (12 Inches For Love God): Win (1987)

 

Cut The Night (48:25) (Box) (Mega)

It Goes Something Like This...

Zeus B. Held aka Bernd Held (see what he did there?) was born in 1950s, started as a musician in the 1970s and gained a reputation as a producer in the latter part of that decade, becoming a renowned remixer during the 1980s. Zeus is still going strong today, dividing time between Germany and England.

Today's selection is very firmly rooted in his 1980s remix work. I first discovered Zeus B. Held via his work with Fashion, producing and remixing their second album, Fabrique, in 1982. From there, Zeus popped up on albums and 12" singles by Alphaville, Dead Or Alive, Simple Minds, John Foxx, Men Without Hats and Spear Of Destiny.

Zeus' 1987 remix of Gary Numan's 1979 single Cars was a hit not once but twice. Whilst it couldn't match the original's #1 peak in the UK, it reached #16 in 1987 and #17 in 1996. The latter was relabeled the Premier Mix on the back of the song featuring in a lager commercial. 

Beggars Banquet, the label that re-released Cars in 1987 were obviously enamoured of Zeus B. Held's prodigious skills at the (re)mixing desk as, in a surprise move, he was also commissioned to produce three remixes of Hit The North by The Fall. Mark E. Smith's views at the time are lost in the mists of time and it likely divided fan opinion, then and now. Personally, I love them. 

Gina X aka Gina Kikoine proved to be a great foil for Zeus B. Held. No G.D.M. is an absolute classic which I've enthused about previously and present again in another version from the remixed and re-released single in 1985. Gina X makes a second appearance, providing guest vocals on Love Shadow by Fashion from 1982.

Whilst Sinful! by Pete Wylie is a deserved classic (and Zeus B. Held co-production), I've gone for the equally majestic Diamond Girl, featuring the fabulous Josie Jones. Sadly, the UK record buying public in 1986 disagreed. #57? Seriously?! Philistines!

From the last gasp of the 1980s, Win was formed by Davy Henderson, time-wise sitting roughly between his other bands The Fire Engines and The Nectarine No. 9. Unashamedly power pop, Win deserved greater commercial success than they had. Transvision Vamp achieved that success, albeit briefly, their first big hit in the UK being I Want Your Love, a #5 smash in June 1988. 

I had intended to pare the selection down to ten songs and one hour. I failed spectacularly. Instead, if you can spare just under ninety minutes, here are fourteen 12" bangers from the 1980s, remixed solely or collaboratively by Zeus B. Held. 

Enjoy!

 

1) Pop Goes The World (Dance Mix): Men Without Hats (1987)

2) What's Love If You Can Kill For Chocolate (12" Mix): Win (1989)

3) Sanity (The Roman Mix): Killing Joke (1986)

4) Ghostdancing (A Special Extended 12" Remix): Simple Minds (1986)

5) Never Take Me Alive (Extended Version): Spear Of Destiny (1987)

6) Big In Japan (Extended Remix): Alphaville (1984)

7) Diamond Girl (The Glorious Extended 7" Mix): Pete Wylie ft. The Fabulous Josie Jones (1986)

8) Cars (Extended 'E' Reg Model): Gary Numan (1987)

9) No G.D.M. (Extended): Gina X (1985)

10) What I Want (Dance Mix): Dead Or Alive (1984)

11) Hit The North (Part 4) (12" Remix): The Fall (1987)

12) Wings And A Wind (Extended Version): John Foxx (1983)

13) Love Shadow (Mutant Mix): Fashion ft. Gina X (1982)

14) I Want Your Love (I Don't Want Your Money Mix): Transvision Vamp (1988)

It Goes Something Like This... (1:29:29) (Box) (Mega)

Car Trouble

My car's currently sitting in the snow outside my house, where it's been for over a week now. I won't bore you with the full story, but it's out of action and, after a garage inspection and service didn't resolve the issue, I now have to wait until 11th January when the nearest Vauxhall garage, north of Bristol, can take a look. It'll require a recovery vehicle to get it there, with an uncertain but undoubtedly expensive outcome. 

The week has therefore involved some creative efforts to traverse the county for work. Getting to Gloucester (approx. 25 miles away) took the best part of two hours via bus and train (thankfully on the day when they weren't on strike). Yesterday, I was able to work a bit closer to home (approx. 5 miles) which took about an hour, door to door. It was the same driver on the homeward bound journey. At that point he'd already worked seven hours and had another three to go. He told me he'd been doing this for twelve years and had had enough of rude people, delivery drivers blocking the roads whilst dropping off parcels and the godawful snow and ice. I didn't really know what else to say other than to empathise and thank him for getting me home safe and sound.

Things will be difficult - and expensive - this month and next, but I try to keep a sense of perspective. When employees get to the point where they have to go on strike, you know things are bad. And those who are criticising and vilifying the very same people who they clapped every week during the lockdown, shame on you.

 

Back to cars and music, today's selection has taken my sorry, first-world problem as inspiration, offering up 45 minutes of car-related musings. 

 

Adam & The Ants to start with Cartrouble. I've got the original vinyl issue of the Dirk Wears White Sox album on Do-It from 1979 but here I've plumped from the label's cash-in remix and reissue from 1982 on the Antmusic EP, following Adam & co's commercial success on CBS. Do It cannily drafted Chris Hughes - one of the two CBS-era drummers in the band - to remix Cartrouble. Unsurprisingly, the drums are a lot bigger here. I believe the Antmusic 12" split parts 1 & 2 across the two sides of vinyl but I got the unedited version with 2004's expanded CD edition of Dirk...

 

I couldn't resist including 4ft Car from Chris Morris' incredible Blue Jam radio series, later including in a CD of choice sketches released on Warp Records and then recreated for Channel 4's TV series, simply titled Jam. Kevin Eldon is the irate car owner in both, effing and jeffing all the way through. Seemed apt as the duff car in question is a Vauxhall. "Who do they think I am? Fucking Noddy?!" still makes me laugh out loud.

 

(By the way, the music underpinning 4ft Car is Go Faster by Propellerheads, seguing into Day For Night by Moloko).

 

Cars by Gary Numan is of course one of the greatest songs of all time about the motor vehicle and this demo version from 1979 shows that he was bang on it from the start.

 

And the selection had to end with Prefab Sprout. I bought this as a 10" single back in 1988 and it still holds a special place in my heart, 35 years later. Paddy McAloon is a superlative songwriter, but weren't Wendy Smith, Martin McAloon and Neil Conti fantastic also? Given it's the festive season, maybe it's a good time for a Sprout selection...

 

1) Cartrouble, Pts. 1 & 2 (Remixed By Chris Hughes): Adam & The Ants (1982) 

2) Car Crash: TrIcky ft. Costanza Francavilla (2003)

3) In The Back Of Your Car: Client (2005)

4) The Wrong Car (Single Version): The Twilight Sad (2010)

5) Killy Car Thieves (Special Mix): Band Of Holy Joy (1988)

6) 4ft Car: Chris Morris ft. Kevin Eldon (2000)

7) Cars (Demo Version): Gary Numan (1979)

8) Carwreck (Wagon Christ Mix By Luke Vibert): Funki Porcini (1996)

9) Fast Car / Slow Traffic (Erland & The Carnival Carnivalization): Paul Weller (2010)

10) Car: Built To Spill (1994)

11) Cars And Girls (Album Version): Prefab Sprout (1988)

1988: From Langley Park To Memphis: 11

1988: Gigantic! (Melody Maker magazine promo cassette): 5

1994: There's Nothing Wrong With Love: 10

1996: Carwreck EP: 8

2000: Blue Jam: 6

2003: Vulnerable: 2

2004: Dirk Wears White Sox (Expanded Edition): 1

2005: Pornography EP: 3

2009: The Pleasure Principle (30th Anniversary Edition): 7 

2010: Wake Up The Nation/Change Up The Nation (Deluxe Edition): 9

2010: The Wrong Car EP: 4

Car Trouble (45:09) (Box) (Mega)

A Kick Up The Eighties

Side 1 of a mixtape, recorded 22nd January 1990, and an early Eighties retrospective, a few weeks into the new decade.

This side firmly focuses on 1980 to 1985, with half of the tracks from 1982, now unbelievably (to this listener, at least) four decades ago. It's mostly hits and perhaps obvious choices, with a few oddities from albums and B-sides. All personal favourites.

The title is a nod to the BBC2 TV comedy sketch show of the same name that ran for two series from 1981 to 1984, featuring Rik Mayall, Tracey Ullman, Miriam Margoyles and (from the second series) Robbie Coltrane. A full episode from the first series has been posted on YouTube and is worth a look, if only for the brilliant Rik Mayall as investigative reporter Kevin Turvey.

The cover photo is a even more obscure, a scene from 1987 sci-fi movie, Cherry 2000. You wouldn't know it, but the person precariously hanging on to the car is none other than Melanie Griffith. I've watched the film once, which was possibly one time too many, but the picture seemed a good fit with the title. 

Happy listening!

1) Visage (Album Version): Visage (1980)

2) Today (Single Version): Talk Talk (1982)

3) Europa And The Pirate Twins (Album Version): Thomas Dolby (1981)

4) The Chase (Album Version By Stephen Lipson & Trevor Horn): Propaganda (1985)

5) The Beach: New Order (1983)

6) Blind Vision (Album Version By John Luongo): Blancmange (1983)

7) Night Suit: John Foxx (1981)

8) We Take Mystery (To Bed) (Single Version): Gary Numan (1982)

9) Mad World (Album Version By Chris Hughes & Ross Cullum): Tears For Fears (1982)

10) The Ring: Fad Gadget (1984)

11) The Walk (Album Version): Eurythmics (1982)

1980: Visage: 1

1981: The Garden: 7

1982: The Golden Age Of Wireless: 3 

1982: The Hurting: 9

1982: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This): 11

1982: Today (7" single): 2

1982: We Take Mystery (To Bed) (7"): 8

1983: Blue Monday (12" single): 5 

1983: Mange Tout: 6

1984: Gag: 10

1985: A Secret Wish: 4 

Side One (45:27) (Box) (Mega)

Another Modern Dance

Back to 1981 and the rest of K-Tel's Modern Dance compilation, originally featured last month. As with the previous selection, I've split the original, crammed vinyl Side 1 into two, expanding a few tracks into the more spacious 12" versions. Quiet Life was first released as a B-side in 1980, but it's re-release as an A-side in September 1981 saw it reach #19 in the UK, their biggest hit until Ghosts the following year. I think I've cheated a bit with the John 'Tokes' Potoker remix of Heaven 17, as I don't think it's from 1981. My (now very crackly) vinyl version came from the Contenders 12" double pack single and it featured simultaneously on their Endless remix cassette, both from 1986, but I prefer it to the original 12" version, so here it is. Sweat In Bullet was the first Simple Minds 12" I bought, albeit probably also circa 1985-86, but what a song. My copy used to jump part way through, and I remember having to weight the needle with a blob of Blu Tack to get an uninterrupted play. The Garden was the first John Foxx album I bought, mainly for the single which I'd seen on Top Of The Pops. A surprise to find three decades on that it only got to #40 at the time. She's Got Claws suffered a particularly harsh K-Tel cut to less than three and half minutes on the original album, so I've gone to the other extreme with this selection and included the full 12" version which clocks in at over six minutes. 

 

Modern Dance is one of a few compilations that have stayed with me over the years, none of the songs becoming over familiar or overplayed. 1981 was a great year for slightly off-kilter pop music.

 

Side One (22:41)

1) Joan Of Arc (Album Version): O.M.D. (1981)

2) Quiet Life (7" Version): Japan (1980)

3) Love Action (I Believe In Love) (12" Edit): The Human League (1981)

4) Penthouse And Pavement (12" Mix By John 'Tokes' Potoker): Heaven 17 (1981)

5) New Life (Remix): Depeche Mode (1981)

Side Two (21:26)

1) Sweat In Bullet (Remix): Simple Minds (1981)

2) Europe After The Rain (Album Version): John Foxx (1981)

3) Charlotte Sometimes (Single Version): The Cure (1981)

4) She's Got Claws (Extended): Gary Numan (1981)

 

Side One (22:41)

Side Two (21:26)