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)

Name After Name After Name

Celebrating Chris Cross aka Chris St. John aka Christopher Thomas Allen, 14th July 1952 to 25th March 2024.

 

The news broke yesterday (1st) on a day full of pranks and hoaxes but this one was sadly true. I've picked four Ultravox clips (five songs) that showcase Chris's talent...and lustrous locks. 

Oh, and I’ve twigged that none of the thumbnail images actually feature Chris.

 

Although my introduction to the band was with the ubiquitous Vienna single and album, I also became a big fan of the earlier exclamatory version led by John Foxx. So, starting off, here's a great clip from the Old Grey Whistle Test in December 1978 (also featuring Annie Nightingale RIP) of Ultravox! performing Slow Motion and Hiroshima, Mon Amour.

 

A little over a year and a half later, Midge Ure was established at the front, Vienna was a smash hit and the band had returned from a US tour to travel around the UK. Here's one of my favourites - Sleepwalk - from their gig at St. Albans City Hall in August 1980.

 

 

It's fair to say that the biggest gig of Chris' career would have been nearly 5 years later, on stage with Ultravox at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid. There are good quality clips of all of the songs they performed that day, including a couple where Chris straps on his bass and comes to the front. 

 

However, I've gone for Dancing With Tears In My Eyes as there's a wonderful bit at 2:46 where Chris is clearly in a moment of sheer joy, the enormity of this moment in time truly landing.

 

I had hoped to include a final live clip from the Ultravox reunion tours in 2012 and 2013 but Chris is either shrouded in darkness or completely out of shot. So, I've plumped for the video for Love's Greatest Adventure. It's not dated well, but Chris has a star turn and it's a far cry from the film noir seriousness of Vienna. 

 

Rest in peace, Chris.

Jubileever

Back to 1977, from platinum to silver and the first Jubilee that I can remember. I had the commemorative coin from Midland Bank, but I think I'd used it as currency by the early 80s, somewhat indifferent even then towards the monarchy, 

I won't pretend that I was listening to all of this music in 1977 at the age of 6. It was all Blondie, David Soul, Belle Epoque, The Stranglers and Patsy Gallant on Radio 1, usually played in my parents' Austin Maxi; they upgraded to an Austin Allegro a few years later.

My deep love for reggae via Gregory Isaacs, Horace Andy and Yabby You came much later, but it was seeded in 1977 with chart hits like Althea & Donna's Uptown Top Ranking. Likewise, disco prevailed with I Feel Love by Donna Summer, Everybody Dance by Chic and not forgetting Meco's cover version of the theme from Star Wars. It's fair to say that I wasn't sufficiently switched on in my primary school years to pick up on John Cooper Clarke, The Clash and John Cale, or John Foxx-era Ultravox, for that matter.

What a bloody great playlist it would have made, though. I'm as excited now by the music as I think I would have been, had I been introduced to it all simultaneously back in 1977. 

I love music, that's all there is to it. Nothing more, nothing less, only love.

 

1) One Chord Wonders (Album Version): The Adverts

2) (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear: Blondie

3) Silver Lady: David Soul

4) I Married A Monster From Outer Space (Live @ Electric Circus, Manchester, 1-2 October 1977): John Cooper Clarke

5) I Need You (Cover of The Kinks): The Count Bishops

6) Chicken Shit: John Cale

7) Slavemaster: Gregory Isaacs

8) Black Is Black (Single Version) (Cover of Los Bravos): Belle Epoque

9) The Man Who Dies Everyday (Black Sand Extended Edit): Ultravox

10) I'm So Bored With The U.S.A.: The Clash

11) That's What Friends Are For (Single Version) (Cover of Deniece Williams): Janet Kay

12) No More Heroes (Album Version): The Stranglers

13) From New York To L.A. (Single Version): Patsy Gallant

14) Blood A Go Run Down King Street: Yabby You

15) Mr. Bassie (Discomix By Everton Da Silva): Horace Andy

Jubileever (54:25)