1986 - A Year in Music

As I scrolled through the music of '86 on the internet I noticed an album by Emerson, Lake and ...........Powell. Now, I'm no progist, and know nothing about such super-group noodling, but even I've heard of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, or ELP. But Powell? It turns out it was Cozy Powell, him of Rainbow and others. Imagine if this had become a trend. We'd have Crosby, Stills and Nas (hippie rap), Crosby, Stills, Nash and Run (hippie hip hop), Talking Sheds (David Byrne teams up with Rick Witter for Britpop with a twist), The Head Kennedy's (Motorhead vs US Punks in noise fest stand-off) or maybe Huey Lewis and the Muse (It's Hip to be in a Supermassive Black Square Hole). I think I've killed that one.

So, 1986. Notable for me for two conjoined reasons, the first being my attending the Glastonbury festival for the first and only time (seem to remember Microdisney being very impressive, and Billy Bragg being outstanding), and the second being Maradonna's Hand of God against England, the very same weekend. My girlfriend of the time bought the AC/DC single listed below, and I remember going through quite a big Howlin Wolf phase about the same time. Sadly, he had no big hit singles that year. I was quite taken by The Mission, who we seemed to go and see almost every weekend. The PIL album 'Album' (with contributions from Steve Vai, Ginger Baker, Bill Laswell, Ryuichi Sakamoto) was probably my favourite album of ther year, oh and Howlin Wolf London Sessions, but that had been released in 1971. While I loathed Peter Gabriel at the time, I now love the drippy In Your Eyes, but prefer the Jeffrey Gaines version.

AC/DC - You Shook me All Night Long
Big Black - Kerosene
Big Country - Look Away
Run DMC - It's Tricky
Paul Simon - Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
REM - Fall on Me
Public Image Ltd - Rise

Steve Earle - My Old Friend the Blues
The Stranglers - Always the Sun
The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down
Talk Talk - Give it Up

The Commodores - Nightshift
The Mission - Wasteland