Several of you have answered my query about the teen "girl" market and I think we are finding something interesting, that the market was not being catered for in the early to mid eighties. The closest would be Wham! However, they wrote superior pop; which was probably true of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, who were all popular with older buyers and probably had aborad fan base.
Naff teenybop seemed to be out. When it returned it was also aimed at gay men as well as the female teen market in the guise of SAW (ha ha: naff formulaic pop until it gets good with Kylie c. 1990) and also Bros (who were straight out of the seventies tradition) and New Kids and eventually Take That--but all aimed at gays too.
There are actually some possible reasons for this. A famous sociological study by--I think Sheryl Garrett ex-editor of the Face found that the Bay City Rollers fans of the mid seventies were very much aiming at early marriage; while by the 1990s young teenage girls were starting to get more career first focused, so perhaps their musical taste was a bit more sophisticated?
So far everything has confirmed my point. Fascinating and thanks for all the suggestions.
IMO Bucks Fizz have more in common with the Brotherhood of Man. Both groups were basically two men and two women who sang but presumably didn't play any instruments on their records (somehow the two guys in the BoM never looked convincing strumming guitars on TOTP ) and as far as I know neither of them wrote any of their own hits (I'm not suggesting that the New Seekers did). The careers of both groups started after they won the Eurovision Song Contest and each act enjoyed three No. 1 hits (BoM in the 1970s and Bucks Fizz in the 1980s).
In 2006 I watched a series on Channel 5 called 'The Seventies: That Was The Decade That Was' and one week it showed excerpts of the New Seekers on TOTP doing 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' and 'Circles'. I'd like to know where they got hold of the 'Circles' footage in sharp, pristine colour because it clearly came from the 22 June 1972 show which the BBC wiped and as far as I know only exists as a substandard, washed-out print which turned up at BBC Glasgow circa 2001 (link below).
I'd love to see the clip of Circles again and it is a sublime version now a tribute to its writer the wonderful Harry Chapin.:)
Bucks Fizz I think transcended both the New Seekers and the Brotherhood of Man. They quickly showed that they themselves and their team were much more than Eurovision winners. What has always surprised me is that their hit career was no longer than five years. Except that they really were badly affected by that terrible 1984 car crash as well as by Jay Aston leaving.:)
BOM and the New Seekers were much more tin pan alley middle of the road groups, and I think both groups had real highs. They just lacked the chutzpah and experimental creativeness of Bucks Fizz, so perfectly over the top for the 1980s.:)
Fave St, unlike the blond lead chap from the group Child (having checked the Buzzcocks ID parade clip) Nick Heyward appears to still be very much the boy (man) next door, and seems as cute and smiley, with his own hair as ever he was! People often forget that after the brief spell with Haircut 100 he actually had some pretty decent solo hit singles albeit not as big as in the group.
There was a brief potted history of Haircut One Hundred on Top Ten: Teen Idols which aired on Channel 4 in the 1990s covering the rise and break-up of the band and Nick Heyward's chequered solo career.
Here is a link to this in case you missed it or would like to see it again:
I saw guitarist Graham Jones and bass player Les Nemes on one of the Buzzcocks ID parades in the early 2000s but there is a VH1 programme on YouTube which I skipped through called 'Bands Reunited' from 2004 in which all six members of Haircut One Hundred are brought together to play on stage. If you are curious to see what they looked like, they all appear in the same room at 32:26 to be interviewed before the gig:
I am afraid that I am going to challenge you here. By "joke" I meant that their hits with Trevor Horn refer to the band's image a shaving been two lovers who were always fighting. If you listen to the lyrics of hand Held in Black and White, there are references to a big gossip story that saw them having a row in Tokyo. Also, Mirror Mirror is perfect for David Van Day who was extremely handsome and knew it. The songs gently spoofed their image, so my use of "joke" was not quite there; and anyway I see these songs as excellent, even if there was a bit of humour going on.:)
Challenge away! Where would we be with just an eternal pop music love in on these threads. I understand your point above more clearly now, and am pleased you see these songs as excellent.
I could never for the life of me understand why David Van Day decided to join in with Bucks Fizz alongside Mike Nolan. He had a list of his own work with Dollar to be proud of, and should have toured as Dollar, not join Bucks Fizz. I hated that. There was a rather sad programme some 7 or 8 years ago featuring Bobby Gee and the acrimony of the use of the name and the split between the two touring Bucks Fizz groups. I just wanted to put them all in a room together, lock the door and tell them to sort it out!
I do know that David Van Day has got a bit of a......how to say,....puffed up reputation. I was really let down when Dollar appeared on ITV's Davina McCall presented Reborn In The USA back in 2003 and were the first act booted off the show, eventually won by Tony Hadley of course. The most memorable part of that show was Van Day's vicious argument with the scouse singer Sonia, who should have been sent packing first! Sorry Gatherer.
Tony Hadley and Spandau Ballet have of course gone on to have many Stateside hit singles in the past decade.....:D
Thanks Fave St for your links, I'll be checking them out!
Harry Chapin, his song Cats in the cradle always used to make me feel so sad, very poignant lyrics.
Strangely - or maybe not, considering the lyrics - it's a song I remembered from 1974 but it's only in more recent years (since my dad died) that it's had that impact - now it's pretty much guaranteed to bring a tear to the eyes ... A quite simple but nevertheless brilliant exercise in songwriting. :cool: And criminal that Chapin's original never charted in the UK! :mad::(
Challenge away! Where would we be with just an eternal pop music love in on these threads. I understand your point above more clearly now, and am pleased you see these songs as excellent.
I could never for the life of me understand why David Van Day decided to join in with Bucks Fizz alongside Mike Nolan. He had a list of his own work with Dollar to be proud of, and should have toured as Dollar, not join Bucks Fizz. I hated that. There was a rather sad programme some 7 or 8 years ago featuring Bobby Gee and the acrimony of the use of the name and the split between the two touring Bucks Fizz groups. I just wanted to put them all in a room together, lock the door and tell them to sort it out!
I do know that David Van Day has got a bit of a......how to say,....puffed up reputation. I was really let down when Dollar appeared on ITV's Davina McCall presented Reborn In The USA back in 2003 and were the first act booted off the show, eventually won by Tony Hadley of course. The most memorable part of that show was Van Day's vicious argument with the scouse singer Sonia, who should have been sent packing first! Sorry Gatherer.
Tony Hadley and Spandau Ballet have of course gone on to have many Stateside hit singles in the past decade.....:D
Thanks Fave St for your links, I'll be checking them out!
No need to apologise Rich, I agree with you! I much prefer Dollar to Sonia (no contest between Therese and Sonia!) and I thought Sonia came across as a really nasty person on that show. I wanted Dollar to win! (But I do like "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" - although nowhere near as much as "Give Me Back My Heart"!)
Challenge away! Where would we be with just an eternal pop music love in on these threads. I understand your point above more clearly now, and am pleased you see these songs as excellent.
I could never for the life of me understand why David Van Day decided to join in with Bucks Fizz alongside Mike Nolan. He had a list of his own work with Dollar to be proud of, and should have toured as Dollar, not join Bucks Fizz. I hated that. There was a rather sad programme some 7 or 8 years ago featuring Bobby Gee and the acrimony of the use of the name and the split between the two touring Bucks Fizz groups. I just wanted to put them all in a room together, lock the door and tell them to sort it out!
I do know that David Van Day has got a bit of a......how to say,....puffed up reputation. I was really let down when Dollar appeared on ITV's Davina McCall presented Reborn In The USA back in 2003 and were the first act booted off the show, eventually won by Tony Hadley of course. The most memorable part of that show was Van Day's vicious argument with the scouse singer Sonia, who should have been sent packing first! Sorry Gatherer.
Tony Hadley and Spandau Ballet have of course gone on to have many Stateside hit singles in the past decade.....:D
Thanks Fave St for your links, I'll be checking them out!
Thanks for this. Now I agree totally. I was really narked that Dollar got booted off that show and glad when they got in a performance at the end of it. They were streets ahead of Sonia who was a SAW puppet.
Anything Van Day gets up to will never surprise me. I also could not get why he wished to get his spokes in with Bucks Fizz. I mean I think both acts were great (if both could be annoying too sometimes) but what Van Day had to do with Bucks Fizz in the 1980s I do not know.
Did not know about the Spandau recent hits in the US. True back in the 1980s was one of the most played records on US radio, but back then they only also scored with Only When I Leave (and maybe Gold, cannot remember). Hadley has a great voice in my view.They should have had even more hits.:)
Did you click on the link to the black and white clip from TOTP?
There was a brief potted history of Haircut One Hundred on Top Ten: Teen Idols which aired on Channel 4 in the 1990s covering the rise and break-up of the band and Nick Heyward's chequered solo career.
Here is a link to this in case you missed it or would like to see it again:
I saw guitarist Graham Jones and bass player Les Nemes on one of the Buzzcocks ID parades in the early 2000s but there is a VH1 programme on YouTube which I skipped through called 'Bands Reunited' from 2004 in which all six members of Haircut One Hundred are brought together to play on stage. If you are curious to see what they looked like, they all appear in the same room at 32:26 to be interviewed before the gig:
I took a look at the Circles clip and think I remember the show. Whoever wiped TOTP from the early seventies (and before) should be reprimanded. Ha ha. However, surely eventually we'll get them back: by the early seventies people must have been recording the shows themselves more.:)
Haircut 100 probably did get some of the early teen market in 1982 when they were huge, but their focus was a little bit older and they had a really broad fan base (their album Pelican West was huge). Heywood as a solo artist never had a huge base, more is the pity. However, all in all he has not done too badly.:)
Did not know about the Spandau recent hits in the US. True back in the 1980s was one of the most played records on US radio, but back then they only also scored with Only When I Leave (and maybe Gold, cannot remember). Hadley has a great voice in my view.They should have had even more hits.:)
They did an episode of 'Modern Family' where Ed Norton played 'the guitarist from Spandau Ballet' in full New Romantic gear, and a big part of the gag was that he only wanted to play 'True' because he was stuck in the past. I think America see them as one-hit wonders. A bit like in The Simpsons where Homer band beat Dexy's Midnight Runners to the Grammy Award and then he remarks 'We haven't seen the last of them!'.
I think that one issue that the TOTP repeats are starting to raise is that marketing is changing in term of the singles chart.
We have spent a while discussing how Child, who were heavily marketed did not replace the Bay City Rollers partly because the early mid teen market was changing.Partly because they were not that good.
The British Record Industry was thrown off its hinges by the New Wave. They could handle disco and dance, which was bigger than the New Wave and also of long term influence, but they did not get the scruffy gobby characters who were the punks; who despised the British Record Industry. The market was changing as British youth culture was changing and they were caught hopping.
But not for long . . .
We're already seeing the emergence of bands who were just great bands but who rode up with the New Wave.Blondie were produced by Mike Chapman who of course had produced Mud and Suzi Quatro and Sweet (who HAD been big in the States; as we are now in July/August 1978 they were in the US top ten thirty five years ago for the fourth time with Love is Like Oxygen.) Blondie started their success in the UK.
Similarly starting in 1978 in the UK were the Police who eventually went through the roof in the States. They were a New Wave band.
Elvis Costello was big in the States by 1979
And then there were the Clash,perhaps the greatest of the New Wave bands, who spurred on by OTT rave reviews in the States were about to break America. It destroyed them, of course, It was easy to market these bands in the States as new British bands, but the bands had to change for US tastes.
That was America. The singles chart was big business in 1978 and 1979 and this may have been helped by diversity. Changing youth culture may have confused the marketing people but they began to find the new electronic and New Romantic bands by 1980, which did suit the changing youth culture.
I think that one issue that the TOTP repeats are starting to raise is that marketing is changing in term of the singles chart.
We have spent a while discussing how Child, who were heavily marketed did not replace the Bay City Rollers partly because the early mid teen market was changing.Partly because they were not that good.
The British Record Industry was thrown off its hinges by the New Wave. They could handle disco and dance, which was bigger than the New Wave and also of long term influence, but they did not get the scruffy gobby characters who were the punks; who despised the British Record Industry. The market was changing as British youth culture was changing and they were caught hopping.
But not for long . . .
We're already seeing the emergence of bands who were just great bands but who rode up with the New Wave.Blondie were produced by Mike Chapman who of course had produced Mud and Suzi Quatro and Sweet (who HAD been big in the States; as we are now in July/August 1978 they were in the US top ten thirty five years ago for the fourth time with Love is Like Oxygen.) Blondie started their success in the UK.
Similarly starting in 1978 in the UK were the Police who eventually went through the roof in the States. They were a New Wave band.
Elvis Costello was big in the States by 1979
And then there were the Clash,perhaps the greatest of the New Wave bands, who spurred on by OTT rave reviews in the States were about to break America. It destroyed them, of course, It was easy to market these bands in the States as new British bands, but the bands had to change for US tastes.
That was America. The singles chart was big business in 1978 and 1979 and this may have been helped by diversity. Changing youth culture may have confused the marketing people but they began to find the new electronic and New Romantic bands by 1980, which did suit the changing youth culture.
Amazing times to be young.
Totally agree they were amazing times to be young - but re the BIB ...
The Clash didn't change for US tastes. If that had been their intention, they would've ended up sounding like Styx or REO Speedwagon. And they certainly wouldn't've littered their albums with reggae tracks or any of the politics that was so much part of the group's DNA.
From 1977 to 1982, The Clash went on a musical odyssey and their fans went with them. They didn't stick with the basic three-chord thrash they started off with, instead drawing on increasingly broad influences and imbuing them with their own identity: dub, jazz, reggae, funk, rap, rockabilly, disco ... As has been previously discussed on this thread, of the punk/new wave acts, only Blondie rival them for musical diversity.
It wasn't the music, their record company, or any particular market that destroyed The Clash. It was manager Bernie Rhodes, who drove a wedge between band members - something Joe Strummer later openly regretted and wished he hadn't gone along with.
There are actually some possible reasons for this. A famous sociological study by--I think Sheryl Garrett ex-editor of the Face found that the Bay City Rollers fans of the mid seventies were very much aiming at early marriage; while by the 1990s young teenage girls were starting to get more career first focused, so perhaps their musical taste was a bit more sophisticated?
So far everything has confirmed my point. Fascinating and thanks for all the suggestions.
I doubt it! - If anything they were LESS sophisticated! :eek:
- Think about what we had in the early 80's (Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Haircut 100..) compared to the early 90's (Take That, East 17, New Kids on The Block..) - would you call their music sophisticated? - No! - it's anything but - and still aimed at the topic of love & marriage!
Totally agree they were amazing times to be young - but re the BIB ...
The Clash didn't change for US tastes. If that had been their intention, they would've ended up sounding like Styx or REO Speedwagon. And they certainly wouldn't've littered their albums with reggae tracks or any of the politics that was so much part of the group's DNA.
From 1977 to 1982, The Clash went on a musical odyssey and their fans went with them. They didn't stick with the basic three-chord thrash they started off with, instead drawing on increasingly broad influences and imbuing them with their own identity: dub, jazz, reggae, funk, rap, rockabilly, disco ... As has been previously discussed on this thread, of the punk/new wave acts, only Blondie rival them for musical diversity.
It wasn't the music, their record company, or any particular market that destroyed The Clash. It was manager Bernie Rhodes, who drove a wedge between band members - something Joe Strummer later openly regretted and wished he hadn't gone along with.
Hopefully TOTP 1979 will get an airing and Bernie Rhodes will get a name check on "Gangsters" by the Special AKA... and not in a flattering light either.
The 18 year old I was online with last night while watching the show wanted to know why young people in the 70's and 80's were all so ugly! How do you answer that? I've pointed him in the direction of a few of those good '78 dance numbers and more.
I think I might have an answer (or two). Firstly, we live in a much more image-conscious society now. Most of today's popstars have to look glamourous to stand any chance of making it big. It was less important back then. Secondly, the average age of popstars in the 70s and 80s was quite a lot higher, I'm sure. It seemed much more common for people in their 30s and 40s to be having top 40 hits back then. It would be interesting to see what the statistics are. If he was talking about the teenagers in the studio, then it's more to do with the fashions at the time (hair and make-up as much as clothes).
BTW, I agree with you on the exquisite-sounding Dollar hits. I love Trevor Horn's unashamed OTT production. 'Give Me Back My Heart' was one of my favourite singles of 1982, along with 'See You' by Depeche Mode (I was feeling the pain of my first unrequited love!).
"Give Me Back My Heart" is one of the greatest singles of all time, absolutely superb. But it is a fact that both Dollar and Buck's Fizz were considered naff at the time by a lot of people (although probably driven by the music snobs of "Sounds", "Melody Maker" and "NME" who always looked down on pure pop).
That's not at all true of the NME in the early 80s. They were the ones who coined the term 'New Pop' (Kim Wilde, ABC, Culture Club, Haircut 100, and Dollar). NME writers such as Paul Morley and Julie Burchill praised these sort of acts no end. The magazine put them on the cover frequently. The NME's top records list of 1982 contains plenty of pure pop:
Did not know about the Spandau recent hits in the US. True back in the 1980s was one of the most played records on US radio, but back then they only also scored with Only When I Leave (and maybe Gold, cannot remember). Hadley has a great voice in my view.They should have had even more hits.:)
Sorry if my attempt at a little sarcasm fell short! They didn't as far as I know.
Reborn In The USA did not lead to the Re-birth In The USA of any acts on the show, even the winner Tony Hadley. How could it really ever have done?
Gatherer mentioned the argument on that show with David Van Day and Sonia. I thought Sonia sounded vile too, but the person I really felt for during that show was Thereze Bazar caught in the middle. I think she had come out of some kind of semi retirement in Australia to take part in good faith, and it all went flat, and she appeared a bit "lost" from memory. She could leave Sonia on the start line while she had finished the race in the sex appeal stakes! The first time I ever heard of a singer called Sonia, before seeing her, my pre-conceived idea of her was that I imagined her to be a bit like Sabrina, the "Boys" singer from the summer before (1988). How wrong could you be!
Very happy to see so much Dollar loving here. I'm presuming they put in a studio appearance on TOTP later in the year with their debut UK hit?
Comments
Naff teenybop seemed to be out. When it returned it was also aimed at gay men as well as the female teen market in the guise of SAW (ha ha: naff formulaic pop until it gets good with Kylie c. 1990) and also Bros (who were straight out of the seventies tradition) and New Kids and eventually Take That--but all aimed at gays too.
There are actually some possible reasons for this. A famous sociological study by--I think Sheryl Garrett ex-editor of the Face found that the Bay City Rollers fans of the mid seventies were very much aiming at early marriage; while by the 1990s young teenage girls were starting to get more career first focused, so perhaps their musical taste was a bit more sophisticated?
So far everything has confirmed my point. Fascinating and thanks for all the suggestions.
I'd love to see the clip of Circles again and it is a sublime version now a tribute to its writer the wonderful Harry Chapin.:)
Bucks Fizz I think transcended both the New Seekers and the Brotherhood of Man. They quickly showed that they themselves and their team were much more than Eurovision winners. What has always surprised me is that their hit career was no longer than five years. Except that they really were badly affected by that terrible 1984 car crash as well as by Jay Aston leaving.:)
BOM and the New Seekers were much more tin pan alley middle of the road groups, and I think both groups had real highs. They just lacked the chutzpah and experimental creativeness of Bucks Fizz, so perfectly over the top for the 1980s.:)
Did you click on the link to the black and white clip from TOTP?
There was a brief potted history of Haircut One Hundred on Top Ten: Teen Idols which aired on Channel 4 in the 1990s covering the rise and break-up of the band and Nick Heyward's chequered solo career.
Here is a link to this in case you missed it or would like to see it again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSkp1VotrcA
I saw guitarist Graham Jones and bass player Les Nemes on one of the Buzzcocks ID parades in the early 2000s but there is a VH1 programme on YouTube which I skipped through called 'Bands Reunited' from 2004 in which all six members of Haircut One Hundred are brought together to play on stage. If you are curious to see what they looked like, they all appear in the same room at 32:26 to be interviewed before the gig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gj0OKa6hIE
Challenge away! Where would we be with just an eternal pop music love in on these threads. I understand your point above more clearly now, and am pleased you see these songs as excellent.
I could never for the life of me understand why David Van Day decided to join in with Bucks Fizz alongside Mike Nolan. He had a list of his own work with Dollar to be proud of, and should have toured as Dollar, not join Bucks Fizz. I hated that. There was a rather sad programme some 7 or 8 years ago featuring Bobby Gee and the acrimony of the use of the name and the split between the two touring Bucks Fizz groups. I just wanted to put them all in a room together, lock the door and tell them to sort it out!
I do know that David Van Day has got a bit of a......how to say,....puffed up reputation. I was really let down when Dollar appeared on ITV's Davina McCall presented Reborn In The USA back in 2003 and were the first act booted off the show, eventually won by Tony Hadley of course. The most memorable part of that show was Van Day's vicious argument with the scouse singer Sonia, who should have been sent packing first! Sorry Gatherer.
Tony Hadley and Spandau Ballet have of course gone on to have many Stateside hit singles in the past decade.....:D
Thanks Fave St for your links, I'll be checking them out!
Although Chris obviously has seen it, and taken screenshots of it. Intriguing!
Strangely - or maybe not, considering the lyrics - it's a song I remembered from 1974 but it's only in more recent years (since my dad died) that it's had that impact - now it's pretty much guaranteed to bring a tear to the eyes ...
No need to apologise Rich, I agree with you! I much prefer Dollar to Sonia (no contest between Therese and Sonia!) and I thought Sonia came across as a really nasty person on that show. I wanted Dollar to win! (But I do like "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" - although nowhere near as much as "Give Me Back My Heart"!)
'Pass the sick bucket!'
Gets me every time that one. And W.O.L.D.:)
Anything Van Day gets up to will never surprise me. I also could not get why he wished to get his spokes in with Bucks Fizz. I mean I think both acts were great (if both could be annoying too sometimes) but what Van Day had to do with Bucks Fizz in the 1980s I do not know.
Did not know about the Spandau recent hits in the US. True back in the 1980s was one of the most played records on US radio, but back then they only also scored with Only When I Leave (and maybe Gold, cannot remember). Hadley has a great voice in my view.They should have had even more hits.:)
I took a look at the Circles clip and think I remember the show. Whoever wiped TOTP from the early seventies (and before) should be reprimanded. Ha ha. However, surely eventually we'll get them back: by the early seventies people must have been recording the shows themselves more.:)
Haircut 100 probably did get some of the early teen market in 1982 when they were huge, but their focus was a little bit older and they had a really broad fan base (their album Pelican West was huge). Heywood as a solo artist never had a huge base, more is the pity. However, all in all he has not done too badly.:)
They did an episode of 'Modern Family' where Ed Norton played 'the guitarist from Spandau Ballet' in full New Romantic gear, and a big part of the gag was that he only wanted to play 'True' because he was stuck in the past. I think America see them as one-hit wonders. A bit like in The Simpsons where Homer band beat Dexy's Midnight Runners to the Grammy Award and then he remarks 'We haven't seen the last of them!'.
We have spent a while discussing how Child, who were heavily marketed did not replace the Bay City Rollers partly because the early mid teen market was changing.Partly because they were not that good.
The British Record Industry was thrown off its hinges by the New Wave. They could handle disco and dance, which was bigger than the New Wave and also of long term influence, but they did not get the scruffy gobby characters who were the punks; who despised the British Record Industry. The market was changing as British youth culture was changing and they were caught hopping.
But not for long . . .
We're already seeing the emergence of bands who were just great bands but who rode up with the New Wave.Blondie were produced by Mike Chapman who of course had produced Mud and Suzi Quatro and Sweet (who HAD been big in the States; as we are now in July/August 1978 they were in the US top ten thirty five years ago for the fourth time with Love is Like Oxygen.) Blondie started their success in the UK.
Similarly starting in 1978 in the UK were the Police who eventually went through the roof in the States. They were a New Wave band.
Elvis Costello was big in the States by 1979
And then there were the Clash,perhaps the greatest of the New Wave bands, who spurred on by OTT rave reviews in the States were about to break America. It destroyed them, of course, It was easy to market these bands in the States as new British bands, but the bands had to change for US tastes.
That was America. The singles chart was big business in 1978 and 1979 and this may have been helped by diversity. Changing youth culture may have confused the marketing people but they began to find the new electronic and New Romantic bands by 1980, which did suit the changing youth culture.
Amazing times to be young.
Totally agree they were amazing times to be young - but re the BIB ...
The Clash didn't change for US tastes. If that had been their intention, they would've ended up sounding like Styx or REO Speedwagon. And they certainly wouldn't've littered their albums with reggae tracks or any of the politics that was so much part of the group's DNA.
From 1977 to 1982, The Clash went on a musical odyssey and their fans went with them. They didn't stick with the basic three-chord thrash they started off with, instead drawing on increasingly broad influences and imbuing them with their own identity: dub, jazz, reggae, funk, rap, rockabilly, disco ... As has been previously discussed on this thread, of the punk/new wave acts, only Blondie rival them for musical diversity.
It wasn't the music, their record company, or any particular market that destroyed The Clash. It was manager Bernie Rhodes, who drove a wedge between band members - something Joe Strummer later openly regretted and wished he hadn't gone along with.
I doubt it! - If anything they were LESS sophisticated! :eek:
- Think about what we had in the early 80's (Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Haircut 100..) compared to the early 90's (Take That, East 17, New Kids on The Block..) - would you call their music sophisticated? - No! - it's anything but - and still aimed at the topic of love & marriage!
I'm confused by that, too. How did Chris get his screenshots and very specific info on links if he doesn't have a copy?
I think I might have an answer (or two). Firstly, we live in a much more image-conscious society now. Most of today's popstars have to look glamourous to stand any chance of making it big. It was less important back then. Secondly, the average age of popstars in the 70s and 80s was quite a lot higher, I'm sure. It seemed much more common for people in their 30s and 40s to be having top 40 hits back then. It would be interesting to see what the statistics are. If he was talking about the teenagers in the studio, then it's more to do with the fashions at the time (hair and make-up as much as clothes).
BTW, I agree with you on the exquisite-sounding Dollar hits. I love Trevor Horn's unashamed OTT production. 'Give Me Back My Heart' was one of my favourite singles of 1982, along with 'See You' by Depeche Mode (I was feeling the pain of my first unrequited love!).
Was it repeated on UK Gold?
Or perhaps he 'knows' someone, who 'knows' someone etc.
Whatever it was, it's an excellent blog to look at.
The only criticism I have is, it's not mobile friendly!
That's not at all true of the NME in the early 80s. They were the ones who coined the term 'New Pop' (Kim Wilde, ABC, Culture Club, Haircut 100, and Dollar). NME writers such as Paul Morley and Julie Burchill praised these sort of acts no end. The magazine put them on the cover frequently. The NME's top records list of 1982 contains plenty of pure pop:
http://www.nme.com/bestalbumsandtracksoftheyear/1982
Sorry if my attempt at a little sarcasm fell short! They didn't as far as I know.
Reborn In The USA did not lead to the Re-birth In The USA of any acts on the show, even the winner Tony Hadley. How could it really ever have done?
Gatherer mentioned the argument on that show with David Van Day and Sonia. I thought Sonia sounded vile too, but the person I really felt for during that show was Thereze Bazar caught in the middle. I think she had come out of some kind of semi retirement in Australia to take part in good faith, and it all went flat, and she appeared a bit "lost" from memory. She could leave Sonia on the start line while she had finished the race in the sex appeal stakes! The first time I ever heard of a singer called Sonia, before seeing her, my pre-conceived idea of her was that I imagined her to be a bit like Sabrina, the "Boys" singer from the summer before (1988). How wrong could you be!
Very happy to see so much Dollar loving here. I'm presuming they put in a studio appearance on TOTP later in the year with their debut UK hit?
The bloke from Child & David Van Day.
Sure theres more if I went through my Dvds!