Decade IV: 1986

Side 1 of a cassette compilation, recorded 8th April 1990.

 

Okay, so we're back with the OG Decade tapes that I compiled in 1990, a new decade and the end of my teens ahead, ten years of life-shaping music behind me.

Time to address the elephant in the room. You may have noticed from the track listing below and in the previous fortnight that the selection leans heavily on alternative, guitar-based music, and very little in the way of club or pop music. 

Yes, I will admit that as well as receiving my first proper Valentine's card and the same person agreeing to be my first proper girlfriend, I was beginning to tap into my inner Goth. I think I bought my first pair of winkle picker boots with shiny buckles around age 15. And the shirts. Oh, the shirts. My local Boots was also doing quite well out of my regular custom for hair gel and hairspray. Yep, I was quite the catch. I don't know what she was thinking.

Anyway, for all that, the parallel story of my teens was also my propensity for a pop song. My nascent record collection happily included the likes of Heaven 17, Bronski Beat, Erasure, Giorgio Moroder with Phil Oakey, Pet Shop Boys, Cameo, Madonna, Propaganda and so on. 

The reason why you're seeing little of that here is that, when I had the idea in 1990 of recording a themed series of mixtapes covering the 1980s, I already had the overarching title, Decade. I also had the thought that there would be a second, parallel series of more club/pop-oriented songs, acknowledging my love of the 12" single and called Decadance (sic). I never got around to recording any of the latter series, but maybe an idea to revisit here one day...

I will also add that whilst I enjoyed a bit of gnarly guitar, I despised Bon Jovi with a passion. No surprise that at school, I was in the minority, as the bobbins hair metallers were especially popular with my female friends. Thankfully, my girlfriend was an exception, in many ways but crucially in her indifference to the hirsute charms of Jon and the lads.

Scene set, here’s the mixtape.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood open up, though a band very much on the downward slide by 1986. I bought the single but more out of a weakening sense of loyalty and I didn't even bother with the accompanying album, Liverpool, at the time. And I echoed the howls of protest when an interview with comic writing legend Alan Moore on Channel 4's The Tube was abruptly cut short to segue to the video of Warriors (Of The Wasteland). It wasn't Frankie's fault of course, but they bore the brunt of my disgruntlement.

John Lydon had made a triumphant return with Public Image Ltd. and the single Rise, ahead of an album that depending on the format you bought was titled 'Album', 'Cassette' or 'Compact Disc' or 'untitled', if you want to be contrary. Co-produced with Bill Laswell, it's big on percussion, like the musical equivalent of a left hook from Mike Tyson (who became the youngest heavyweight champion in history in November 1986, fact fans). I love 'Album' for lots of reasons, and follow up single Home is one of them.

The Godfathers are next in line, matching Tyson's left hook with a piledriver to the head. I bought I Want Everything on 12" and played it loud. My mum understandably hated it. Tick.

I'm not sure my parents were fans of Gene Loves Jezebel but for all their backcombing, lipstick and chiffon, Sweetest Thing was a brilliant pop song. This is one brotherly reunion that isn't likely to happen until hell freezes over, though there's much to love in their early 80s albums. Sweetest Thing only got to #75 in the UK yet Discover reached #32, the only UK Top 40 album in their career.

A perhaps surprising return for Wall Of Voodoo, after their first appearance in 1983. Mexican Radio had a least been a minor hit (#64). Far Side Of Crazy failed to make even that much of an impression, despite the added appeal of 12" B-side Dance You F***ers (the label's censorship, not mine!). I didn't buy this first time around though I acquired Far Side Of Crazy when it was itself included as a B-side to follow single, a cover of The Beach Boys' Do It Again, which fared equally poorly with record buyers in general. Andy Prieboy was now lead singer and it's worth mentioning that former frontman Stan Ridgway had a #4 hit with Camouflage in July 1986. That must have stung a little.

Also on the comeback trail was Iggy Pop, aided and abetted yet again by David Bowie, with a phenomenally successful album, Blah Blah Blah, to boot. Cry For Love was the opening salvo and whilst Iggy enjoyed greater success with the follow up cover of Real Wild Child, I prefer this.

 

I mentioned earlier that Bronski Beat didn't make it into this series, though Jimmy Somerville's next project does. I thought The Communards was a brilliant next step and the musical partnership with Richard Coles produced some fabulous music, politically charged pop, beautifully arranged and sung, with incisive, insightful lyrics. Disenchanted is perhaps the prime example of this. It could be taken as an update or reflection on Smalltown Boy, though it's many other things too. And that wonderful descending piano chord at the bridge. A shame that The Communards are generally remembered for their 80s revival of disco classics. All hits and all good, but they were so, so much more than that.

Depeche Mode began the second phase of their career in 1986, following the mega-selling Singles 81-85 compilation. Many of my classmates referred to them as 'Depress Mode', though my friend Ady and I were increasingly committed to this new direction. 1986 would bring the Black Celebration album and my first ever live gig, seeing Dave and the lads at the Colston Hall in Bristol. I loved lead single Stripped and I bought the 5-track 12" single without having heard a note of the song. I didn't need to. Still hits the spot, four decades on.

My first proper girlfriend and I shared a love of Talk Talk. The Colour Of Spring and it's attendant singles came out as our young romance was blossoming and so the music inevitably became very special for us both. To be truthful, Give It Up was 'our song' - sadly prescient, given that our relationship lasted mere months - yet I have had an enduring love for Living In Another World as it's arguably the least Talk Talk-like song that they ever recorded. And I love it for that.

After committing the crime of not including either E=MC² or Medicine Show in my 1985 mixtape - all the more unforgivable, as This Is Big Audio Dynamite was one of my favourite albums of that year - here they are at last. C'mon Every Beatbox was released to announce the arrival of second album, No. 10, Upping Street. It's a cracking single, from it's familiar riff on Eddie Cochran's C'mon Everybody, to Sam Sever's deft editing and scratching, to Mick Jones and Don Letts' superb trade offs. The 12" version is even better, even if my vinyl rip is sounding to my ragged ears like it might be running a tad too fast....

My second crime is the paucity of Julian Cope in this series. Apart from his appearance with The Teardrop Explodes in 1981, this side marks the first sample from Julian's solo career. Though what an example! World Shut Your Mouth had been demo'd but never finished before the Teardrops, er, imploded. It then provided the title of Julian's first album in 1984 though omitting the song itself.

World Shut Your Mouth finally saw the light of day at summer's end in 1986, the song beefed up by US producer Ed Stasium, famed for his work with Ramones, and with a remix 12" by fellow Americans Trouble Funk. This was a different Cope for sure: sexy, pouting, leather clad; though the climbing frame mike stand was a sure sign that he was still bonkers as ever. The Saint Julian album also proved to be a huge success (#11 in the UK) and for a brief moment, the world did shut its mouth and pay attention. 

Another hugely underrated and underappreciated act is It's Immaterial. Driving Away From Home had been a surprise Top 20 hit in April 1986 and the record label reasonably thought that Ed's Funky Diner, a flop single in 1985 yet an equally brilliant and quirky song, deserved another shot. 

 

As before, Ed's Funky Diner was given the full format treatment: 7", 7" double pack with an extra single, 12", limited edition remix 12". It did better than before, though by better I mean a peak of #65. Their debut album got a few places higher and that was the end of the band as a chart-troubling entity. Thankfully, despite a series of unfortunate events in the intervening decades, It's Immaterial are actively recording and releasing music in the 21st century and the world is a better place for it.

 

1) Warriors (Of The Wasteland) (Single Version): Frankie Goes To Hollywood

2) Home (Single Version): Public Image Ltd.

3) I Want Everything (Single Version): The Godfathers

4) Sweetest Thing (Album Version): Gene Loves Jezebel

5) Far Side Of Crazy (Remix): Wall Of Voodoo

6) Cry For Love (7 Inch Edit): Iggy Pop

7) Disenchanted (Album Version): The Communards

8) Stripped (Single Version): Depeche Mode

9) Living In Another World (Single Version): Talk Talk

10) C'mon Every Beatbox (Extended Vocal Version): Big Audio Dynamite

11) World Shut Your Mouth (Album Version): Julian Cope

12) Ed's Funky Diner (Album Version): It's Immaterial

 

Side One (46:19) (KF) (Mega)

Sandwich Bars & Barbed Wire

Cassette compilation recorded 5th October 1986, which I think makes it the oldest surviving C90 in my DIY collection. Strangely enough, I couldn't seem to manage to stretch a compilation over two sides. Side 2 was dedicated to a slight rejig of Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen, adopting the amended (and lawsuit-dodging) name used fot the album's release in the USA.

So, what was 15 year old me listening to? Well, the first two were more of a nod to my friend Stuart, who was a huge fan of U2. I didn't own any of their albums at the time but I had Sunday Bloody Sunday on an import 12" single. 

 

The Bridge by Cactus World News originally appeared on U2's Mother Records label, so again would have been of interest. I had the subsequent reissue on MCA Records, I suspect as part of a hard sell from Dave at Sound Seekers as I ended up with the 12" single and the limited edition 7" with free 2-track cassette. The original mixtape featured the album/single version but the running time was so short that I've swapped it here for the 12" remix.

Little needs to be said about Perfect Skin by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions. Simply one of the best singles of the 1980s from one of the best albums of the 1980s. I still get a joy from listening to it, nearly 40 years on.

 

I rescued the 7" single of Shakespeare's Sister by The Smiths from the ex-chart bargain bin at Woolworths. Worth the (reduced) price alone for the cover picture of Pat Phoenix alone, but a killer A- and B-side. 

 

Another slight tweak here, as the cassette originally featured the NME Version of Uncomplicated by Elvis Costello & The Attractions, from a cover mounted 7" single. I do still have it somewhere but I haven't got around to ripping it to MP3. Instead I've included the album version which I don't think is all that different, to be honest. 

 

Kick Over The Statues was also from a cover mounted 7" single, this time from the premiere issue of short-lived music magazine, The Hit. This was probably my first introduction to Redskins, although I would also have seen them on TV, on Channel 4's The Tube.  This song inevitably resurfaced when the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was pulled down and dumped into the Harbour water in 2020.

 

A brace of Liverpool bands produced by Ian Broudie. First up, The Icicle Works with Understanding Jane. I became obsessed with the band after buying their Seven Singles Deep collection. This was another Sound Seekers special purchase, as I recall. I got the 7" single with a free 7" single featuring two live songs and then the 5-track 'cassingle', with three more live songs. I managed to resist the temptation to buy the 12" single with an exclusive cover of Van Morrison. Understanding Jane is not the band's finest moment but the song gained an added resonance a few years later when I fell in love with a woman called Jane and it became one of 'our' songs.

 

The second Broudie production is of course Echo & The Bunnymen, with the brilliant The Back Of Love. At the time, I only owned their 'greatest hits' collection Songs To Learn & Sing, which I played constantly. It hasn't aged a bit.

 

Beggars Banquet seemed to be a label that had an inadvertent draw on me: the aforementioned The Icicle Works, The Cult, The Fall, Gary Numan; The Go-Betweens would come to me years later. And then these two: Gene Loves Jezebel and Bauhaus. I almost certainly encountered both in my brother's record collection, but then I'd also bought the One Pound Ninety-Nine various artists compilation, 12 songs for the bargain price of (you guessed it) £1.99.

 

I've previously written about buying the Bauhaus collection 1979-1983 and the first Gene Loves Jezebel album I bought was Discover, which came with a free live album, Glad To Be Alive. It's a patchy album but Sweetest Thing is a highlight. I'd liked All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Bauhaus since I first heard it on my brother's copy of The Sky's Gone Out and it's still up there for me.

 

The final three songs are a rather odd bit of sequencing. I suspect I had lost a grip on my timings at this point and was just looking for songs to fill the remaining space with less of a care about whether they fit with the rest of the compilation...!

 

I had Public Image Ltd.'s 1986 album on vinyl, so it was titled Album. The title changed to reflect the format, i.e. Cassette and Compact Disc. I also had the 12" single of Home, which also featured the album version of Round as a B-side. It's a good song (and album), albeit with a 'heavy' production characteristic of the time. 

 

The same can be said of Tears For Fears and Chris Hughes, with their huge, none-more-Eighties commercial smash Songs From The Big Chair. Broken was a recycled B-side that was used on the album to sandwich Head Over Heels. When the latter was released as a single, the same approach was adopted for the 12" single's Preacher Mix. The mixtape used the opening segment of Broken, Roland Orzabal doing a pretty ropey Martin Luther King impression, the rest of the song thankfully remaining instrumental. I've less love for Tears For Fears than I had in the early to mid Eighties and this track is definitely out of place on this compilation.

 

To bring things back to a suitable finish, The Jesus & Mary Chain crash in with Taste Of Cindy. This featured along with Redskins, The Style Council and Simply Red on The Hit magazine freebie 7" single and it was some years later before I bought Psychocandy, and a considerable time after I'd seen them live in concert, which seems bizarre in retrospect. A great song, over and done in one hundred seconds. 'Nuff said.

 

1) Sunday Bloody Sunday (Album Version): U2 (1983)

2) The Bridge (12" Remix): Cactus World News (1986)

3) Perfect Skin (Album Version): Lloyd Cole & The Commotions (1984)

4) Shakespeare's Sister (Single Version): The Smiths (1985)

5) Uncomplicated (Album Version): Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1986)

6) Kick Over The Statues (Ramsey McKinnock Mix): Redskins (1985)

7) Understanding Jane (Album Version): The Icicle Works (1986)

8) The Back Of Love (Album Version): Echo & The Bunnymen (1982)

9) Sweetest Thing (Album Version): Gene Loves Jezebel (1986)

10) All We Ever Wanted Was Everything: Bauhaus (1982)

11) Round: Public Image Ltd. (1986)

12) Broken (Preacher Mix): Tears For Fears (1985)

13) Taste Of Cindy (Album Version): The Jesus & Mary Chain (1985)

1982: The Back Of Love EP: 8

1982: The Sky's Gone Out: 10

1983: War: 1

1984: Rattlesnakes: 3

1985: Head Over Heels EP: 12 

1985: Psychocandy: 13

1985: Shakespeare's Sister EP: 4

1985: The Hit RED Hot EP: 6 

1986: Album: 11

1986: Blood & Chocolate: 5

1986: Discover: 9

1986: The Bridge EP: 2

1986: Understanding Jane EP: 7

Sandwich Bars & Barbed Wire (45:15) (Box) (Mega)

Kissing The Mix

Side 2 of a mixtape, recorded 21st April 2000. It's 80s indie-not-indie disco time with eight, count 'em, eight twelve inch chart smashes. Well, UK top 95, at least.

 

The Armoury Show formed in 1984 and had an impressive pedigree: Richard Jobson and Russell Webb (Skids), John McGeogh and John Doyle (Magazine); the band were very squarely aimed at the emerging MTV generation and its taste for big drums, kick-ass anthemic rock. Whilst arguably better than many of their contemporaries, The Armoury Show never really took off. McGeoch and Doyle left in 1986 and the subsequent line-up called it a day in 1988, with a second album incomplete and unreleased.

 

By 1987, Gene Loves Jezebel had taken the first bus out of Porthcawl, North Wales, bounced around in London for a bit and then crossed the Atlantic for a bit of satin chic and California. The focal (and vocal) point of the band were twins Michael and Jay Aston (no, not that one) and perhaps an apt subject for the as-yet-unmade Channel 5 show When Sibling Music Acts Go Horribly Wrong. Currently, there are two versions of Gene Loves Jezebel: Michael owns the copyright in the US, Jay in the UK. Actually, considering how things turned out for the latter's namesake's band, maybe a word of advice to any up and coming bands: if you have a member called Jay Aston, ditch 'em. Now, before it's too late.

 

After last week's post following the tragic news about Julee Cruise, hearing Roam, one of my favourite singles by The B-52's, has a strange effect on me after reading that this was the song Julee was listening to as she left this life. A heartbreaking and untimely loss, yet I feel incredibly moved by Julee's decision to leave on her own terms and to her chosen soundtrack. 

 

The Godfathers featured here last month and this is one of their rare forays into the twelve inch mix. Personally, I prefer Keith LeBlanc's remix to the original. The record buying public largely disagreed.

 

Blancmange (and the extended version of What's Your Problem?) appeared here in January in what's proving to be one of Dubhed's most visited posts so far this year. Neil Arthur continues to record as Blancmange and has released ten albums in the past ten years with a new one, Private View, due in September. I'm seeing Blancmange live in October with Dubhed regular Mike, so this one's dedicated to you.

 

The Psychedelic Furs and The Cure really need no introduction. One of these was a UK Top 10 hit, the other barely scraped the Top 100. No prizes for guessing which was which, but both great songs in my opinion.

 

Wrapping up the selection is Westworld, centred around the photogenic Elizabeth Westwood and securing a #11 hit with this song in 1987. They never achieved the same success again, but I really liked their look and sound at the time. Great fun.

 

1) Castles In Spain (Wubb Dug Mix By Nick Tauber): The Armoury Show (1984)

2)The Motion Of Love (Jezebel Mix By Julian Mendelsohn): Gene Loves Jezebel (1987)

3) House (Long Version By John Ashton & Laurence Diana): The Psychedelic Furs (1989)

4) The Lovecats (Extended Version By Phil Thornalley, Chris Parry & The Cure): The Cure (1983)

5) What's Your Problem? (Extended Version By Stewart Levine): Blancmange (1985)

6) She Gives Me Love (Keith LeBlanc Love Mix aka High Octane Mix): The Godfathers (1989)

7) Roam (12" Extended Mix By Nile Rodgers, Andres Levin & Tom Durack): The B-52's (1989)

8) Sonic Boom Boy (U.S. Remix By Mark Ferda & Danny Hyde): Westworld (1987)

Side Two (46:08) (KF) (Mega)

 

...and of course, being the 1980s and the golden period of MTV, every one of these beauties has an official video to accompany it. A few I'm really familiar with, several I haven't seen for many years and a couple I don't think I've seen until researching this post. All of their time, with some real flashes of creative genius. Enjoy!

Flying In The Face Of Fashion

A very special mix for a very special friend on a very special day. Happy birthday, Claire!

 

51 minutes of pure '80s, picked from the vinyl and mixtapes we used to listen to at yours on Sundays and after school, particularly Talk Talk 12" singles, and not forgetting two memorable gigs, seeing The Damned and The Psychedelic Furs live in concert. 

From those days as 15 year old dreamers to today, whether we've been in or out of contact, the world is a brighter place for having you on it. Have a wonderful day, my beautiful friend.

 

xx

1) Messages (10" Version): O.M.D. (1980)

2) Fade To Grey (Dance Mix): Visage (1981)

3) Love My Way (U.S Remix): The Psychedelic Furs (1982)

4) Blind Vision (Edited Version): Blancmange (1983)

5) A Question Of Lust (Album Version): Depeche Mode (1986)

6) Give It Up (Album Version): Talk Talk (1986)

7) World Shut Your Mouth (Julian Cope vs. Trouble Funk) (12" Mix): Julian Cope (1986)

8) Anything (Yet Another Mix): The Damned (1986)

9) Desire (Come And Get It) (Extended Version): Gene Loves Jezebel (1986)

10) Nightporter (Remixed By Steve Nye) (12"): Japan (1982)

1980: Messages (10"): 1

1981: Visage (USA 12"): 2

1982: Nightporter (12"): 10

1983: Blind Vision (USA 12"): 4 

1986: Anything (Limited Edition Yellow Vinyl Remix 10"): 8

1986: Desire (Come And Get It) (12"): 9

1986: Give It Up (12"): 6

1986: Pretty In Pink (12"): 3

1986: A Question Of Lust (12"): 5

1986: World Shut Your Mouth (Limited Edition Remix 12"): 7

 

Flying In The Face Of Fashion (51:06) (KF) (Mega)