1981 - A Year in Music

If you look at the Wikipedia page for 1981, under the heading of 'Events' it lists notable points in history for that year; Ronald Reegan became president of the USA, Rupert Murdoch bought The Times, Muhammad Ali entered the ring for the final time, and so on. But right there in April, somewhere between Bobby Sands winning a by-election and Mitterrand becoming president of France, is this

The rock band Yes splits up (regrouping in 1983).

Now, I'm all for music finding its rightful place in the priorities of life list, but surely, surely, this doesn't merit the words devoted to it. As if this wasn't bad enough, the bastards re-formed two years later, and it's that little bracket at the end which is like salt in the wound.

My top picks for the music of the year is a mixture of those that obviously registered with me at the time (The Specials, Stray Cats, Altered Images) due probably to Top of the Pops performances, and also songs and artists that I found I liked many years later (Randy Crawford, Mission of Burma, Colin Hay from Men at Work). I remember finding Under Your Thumb quite unnerving. Then again, most things were unnerving as I was 12.

On with the list then.

Altered Images - I Could be Happy

Bauhaus - The Passion of Lovers

Godley and Creme - Under Your Thumb

Hazel O'Connor - Will You

Human League - Love Action

Men at Work - Overkill

Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach for My Revolver

The Ramones - The KKK Took my Baby Away

Randy Crawford - You Might Need Somebody

Siouxsie and The Banshees - Spellbound

Soft Cell - Bedsitter

Teardrop Explodes - Reward

The Specials - Ghost Town

The Stray Cats - Runaway Boys

Keith West to The Wedding Present

Recently Kev did his musical history, my own is rather warty when it comes to warts and all, I like to think that the route taken was one that made me the person I am today, one that appreciates the niceties of most genres.
I was born in 1970, my first musical memory was a song that was being played but had been released in 1967, so I assume that Jimmy Saville or Ed Stewart was playing it for some reason, it was Excerpt from a Teenage Opera by Keith West, potentially the single saddest song ever recorded, or possibly not, but rather sad in its tone. I remember hearing it in the kitchen of our Donnington home.



The first song that I really recall and played time after time after time was one of my parents 7 inches, and it was the Johnny Cash schmaltz fest that is A thing called love, I absolutely loved this song and played it over and over and over, not from his glory days and bereft of god or murder, and the production on the original has thse dreadful female backing singers that seemed to be on a lot of his Colombia released albums, that single and the repeated plays of it was the start of a love affair with Johnny Cash that goes on today.



1976 and punk rock was just starting and the musical world was changing, for me though it wasn’t, Brotherhood of man had won Eurovision and I liked that, Jimmy Saville liked it too and unless Jimmy played it, it didn’t mean shit. I worked at Butlins up until the mid nineties and managed to watch Brotherhood of man quite a number of times, it was rather sad as in 30 years they hadn’t appeared to age, they seemed quite old on the Eurovision footage.



1980 was the year music changed for me, I was ten and had pocket money burning a hole in my pocket, older brother and sister influencing me more and more, and it was the year I bought my first single, or singles to be precise, bought from a Wallpaper shop in Donnington Telford, that had a sideline in selling records, in the back of course, behind the anaglypta. I bought 2 singles that day and the pop foundations were well and truly enforced, but pop of the most magnificent type. Blondie’s The tide is high and Abba’s Super Trooper, the former was just a record that I liked but the latter was the first tentative steps with the first band that I ever got into. For the next two years Abba would be a flirtation.



This may have of course sent out signals to my parents, after all it wasn’t Deep Purple or ACDC or some other manly band, it was Abba, I was going to allay any fears they may have had and asked my dad for a music album which I played a lot over 1981 and 1982 and that was You Can’t Stop the Music by The Village People. Ahem



1984 and 13 years old was the year that I started to love music and it started to mean more to me than just background fluff, In 1983 there was talk about a band that had made this record, but radio wasn’t playing it, but it was on 160 at the moment. I duly called dial a disc and pre digital telecommunications were not kind to it, but I liked what I heard. Frankie Goes to Hollywood were without doubt the first band that I truly truly loved to the point of buying every release on every format, and postering my room to an inch of its life with pictures of the band. I absolutely adored the band and for me realistically, 1984 was year one for music.



Frankie and me probably lasted 2 years, then one night I decided to listen to radio late at night, I hadn’t before, well I had but it tended to be Lee Vynon on Signal FM, now it may have been Peel, it may have been Gambacini, but someone was playing Bonzo Goes to Bitburg, the current single by The Ramones, and oh my, I had never heard anything like that at all ever, The Ramones were a life changing thing, and this is absolutely true, I ripped down all of my FGTH posters and gave away all their records the next day, I needed to get that Ramones single and investigate just how stunning they sounded. Over the next 3 years intensely and again recently, The Ramones just became my gods, they were the first band I ever saw, I wore their t-shirts, I made pilgrimages to Lndon to track down the gaps in my record collection. I loved that band.



I knew what I wanted from music from that moment, and it would not really change for quite a number of years, I liked guitars and that was the case when Alex Poulson introduced me in 1987 to The Wedding Present, Alex introduced me to a lot of music, notably Husker Du and The Clash, but his main contribution to my life was playing me George Best by The Wedding Present, a band that kickstarted my gigging years and probably had a retirement home built due to the ridiculous amount of money spent by me on them. I travelled the length and breadth of Britain watching them, payed stupid sums for a mispressed singles and the like and really should have known better.



So this brings us neatly up to 1987, 84-87 were the 80’s for me, and after 87 it gets a little crowded so my musical history can take a break until soon when I regale you with Peter: The Dance Years.

Cretin Hop

A right old rock n roll rumpus is happening off the back of the US elections. The Ramones have endorsed McCain and Palin, I know what you are thinking, but surely Peter, the fair majority of the core of The Ramones are dead, are they making endorsements from beyond the grave.

No.

You see Linda Cummings, (Linda Ramone?? Richie Ramone following the surgery???) has been out in the media using the name Ramone to aid the Republican campaign.

I see you are still scratching your head, Linda Cummings? She is the widow of former staunch republican Johnny Ramone. Someone forgot to tell Linda that Ramone wasn’t Johnny’s real name and to be honest that name was only really afforded to members of the band, ask Arturo Vega.

Any hoo Linda Cummings has got into a rumpus with Mikey Leigh (aah Mikey Ramone?, err, no.) Mikey is the brother of former singer in The Ramones, Joey Ramone. Joey unfortunately passed away a number of years ago.

So here is the skinny, someone not a Ramone, has criticised someone else not a Ramone, for endorsing a political party ¾ of the Ramones detested using The Ramones name, candidates who it has to be said one of whom has probably never heard of The Ramones and the other probably doesn’t know how to tie his own laces. This is politics American style.

On that note, the rather apt, The KKK took my baby away, the KKK refers allegedly to Johnny, the baby refers allegedly to Linda. The away refers to the fact, again allegedly that Joey was stepping out with Linda prior to her relationship with Johnny.