1984 - A Year in Music

1984 - one of those balmy happy-go-lucky Thatcher years, where all was well with the world, apart from the miners strike, the IRA bombing in Brighton, Reegan winning another election, and John Hurt having his face chewed by a rat. In contrast to this misery if you turned on the radio you could hear Agadoo, Wake me Up Before You Go Go, Karma Chameleon and other such classics. The first Band Aid single came out (Live Aid was the following year), and Frankie finally made it to number one with Relax. Rather like 1982 it was a bumper year for quality songs, although Peter is going to moan about the Cockatoo Twins being included (but secretly love Van Halen).

Blue Nile – Tinseltown in the Rain

Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy
Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark
China Crisis – Wishful Thinking
Cocteau Twins – Lorelei
Echo and The Bunnymen – Seven Seas
Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes
Husker Du – Something I Learned Today
Killing Joke – Eighties (poor quality video clip, but they sound great)

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Forest Fire
Meat Puppets – Lake of Fire
Mighty Wah – Come Back
REM – Pretty Persuasion
Spear of Destiny – Liberator

The Cult – Spiritwalker
The Smiths – Reel Around the Fountain
The Stranglers – Skin Deep
Van Halen - Panama

Mould

A friend of mine commented the other day on what a joy it had been to hear Husker Du in the car while being given a lift to work. This is the second time in a few days that I have been led to Bob Mould (Husker Du were Bob Mould, Grant Hart and Greg Norton) as this morning I ended up looking at the Anti record label store to find out how much the new Swell Season album was, and discovered that Bob Mould is on the same label.

Husker Du, formed in about 1979 in Minneapolis and managed to release 8 albums in about as many years, before splitting up fairly acrimoniously. The thing for me that set them apart from other similar bands was their songwriting (split fairly evenly between Mould and Hart) and a more melodic approach to post punk. It's no surprise that they are lauded for their influence on the so-called alternative rock scene.

Bob (I can't bring myself to call him just Mould, or Mr. Mould) went on to make several solo albums, that range from I-Want-My-Money-Back to the pure brilliance of 1989's Workbook. He went on to form the band Sugar, who provided the soundtrack (Copper Blue album) for most of the washing up (a lot of Linda McCartney pies I remember) I did in 1992 as it was one of the few tapes my ancient machine didn't want to chew.

So, Bob's back, in fact it was me that went away, not him. There's a new release called Life and Times, which isn't the Best Of that it sounds like. With such a long title it really should be an American Music Club song, but it isn't, so here's Bob with I'm Sorry Baby But You Can't Stand in my Light Anymore.