Agree . I love AWSN myself. It was the original B-side of Good times. I always considered that single to be a double A as 'A warm summer night' is so mesmerizing.

It must just be me but I love the film! It's one of the films I ever saw but I loved it.

A mention of something I forgot to post a few weeks ago when Island Of Lost Souls by Blondie was in the chart. It actually reminds me more of a Madonna song that she would have put out later in the decade around 1987 about the time of La Isla Bonita. Listening to Island Of Lost Souls you could easily imagine Madonna's vocals and her doing that song instead five years later. No wonder it brought the end of Blondie's chart career rather abruptly in summer 1982.

'Island Of Lost Souls' is awful, it was Blondie going into freefall. On the other hand 'La Isla Bonita' is a brilliant song by Madonna!

I was fortunate enough to see Madonna live at Wembley Stadium on the Who's That Girl tour in 1987 on consecutive nights whilst her career was stratospheric and paparazzi were chasing her round Hyde Park etc. It was quite an experience to be there & the atmosphere & energy was electrifying. The Bhundu Boys as support were hard work though.

The Madonna concert wasn't quite as momentous an occasion as going to Wham-the Final at Wembley the Year before, with special guest Elton John playing the old joanna whilst dressed as Ronald McDonald.

Ridgeley surplus to requirements as per.

I agree - the two songs are nothing alike - except for having the theme of an "island" as a connection.


I remember seeing 'The Virgin Tour' on TV & thinking Madonna looks quite cool there & that I wouldn't mind seeing her live when she comes to the UK. Then when she came to the UK in 1987 with 'Who's That Girl' tour - she had changed her image so dramatically (& for the worse, I hasten to add) that I never bothered going.
Now her tickers are so crazily overpriced, I don't think I'll ever have the urge again to see her in concert!

Wham is one group I'm glad to say I've never seen live - although at least when they called their last tour 'Wham the Final" it actually was their final & they didn't reappear again 10 years later, reformed like most old bands do!

They both have a vaguely caribbean feel, but i don't think they are really alike. "Islands Of Lost Souls" feels fairly lifeless when placed alongside Blondie's previous hits. It is unfortunate that the group went out on a whimper, after a truly fine collection of inspiring single releases. It is the type of song that isn't totally free of virtue, but it was a very poor choice of single at the time. Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" is at the other end of the spectrum, in it having great commercial potential, and a sparkle. I have to give Madonna her due that she was good at re-invention, and especially as her own core musical talent was never the greatest. However, this may be one of the very few times that i'd take a Madonna single over that of Blondie. Debbie Harry leaves Madonna for dead, for much of the time, in a musical sense, in my opinion, but Madonna was clever, and knew how to capitalize on what did have (including of course the potential of MTV), even if she was much more limited than some.

Not just Madonna tickets, most tickets are crazily overpriced now, even for less popular artists.

Being a bit 'careful' with the capital (read tight-fisted), once a ticket goes over the £30 mark I begin to question the value of who I'm thinking of seeing.

Terrible to think that way, but lately I read due to lower returns from the sale of music & the advent of internet piracy it becomes harder for some artists to make a living once the entertainment behemoths have taken their cut.

The Human League are playing round our neck of the woods & I was tempted, but at £42.50 a pop plus the obligatory booking fee (even when you collect the tickets yourself from the bloody venue I hasten to add!), it becomes a bit like the housing ladder for music.

That's cheap though compared to Lionel Richie who recently played Eirias Park at c.£75+ per ticket, Elton John was £85 and the rest.

God only knows what the price would be should ABBA ever decide to reform, you could probably add a couple of zeroes.

The Wham ticket at Wembley Stadium was £13.50 for an afternoon/evening concert with Gary Glitter (eek!) and Nick Heyward for support.

Most concerts seem to sell out though whatever the cost, so what do I know?

Same with the Premier League games, there seems to be no shortage of people clamouring to attend & pay to travel to the other side of the country despite the eye-watering cost of tickets & travel.

Long gone are the days Ursula when going to a gig was a couple of quid and the carpets were guaranteed to be sticky!

Outside of the attraction of there only being one Elton John, and an appreciation of being in his presence, Elton's shows in more recent years have been terrible in terms of his diminishing vocal ability. If he was judged in a way many of us are at our jobs, purely on the quality of his singing, Elton would have been shown the door at least two decades ago. However, being a 'living legend' gives you certain privileges. I wouldn't pay £25 to see him, never mind £85.

I have got to the grand old age of 59 and can happily say that despite it ambushing me at Xmas and Bank Holidays when switching on, I have managed to avoid seeing it, and long may that situation last.

Yes I feel the same way & agree with you here Andy, (although I apologise for accidently calling Madonna tickets her "TICKERS" in my post - it was 3am)!! I'm sure her tickers are suitably priced! Haha!

Like you - I am happy to pay up to about £30/£35 for a gig these days - but anything more than about £40 has to be one of my Top 10 favourite artists. - Luckily with my good taste in music - most of the punk/new wave bands that I like are from the late 70s & early 80s & still manage to tour the smaller venues at reasonable prices of usually less than £30!

I'm so thankful I'm not a teenager into all these Boy Bands & Girl Groups who endlessly play Arena shows, as I would have to be asking for a lot of pocket each month!! The other thing about Arena tours are that unless you are sat in the first block down the front - you may as well take along your binoculars!!


Yes - you're so right. How many endless inspections, targets, league tables etc, come into everyday professions with jobs on the line if you underperform? - I fear a few artists would soon be given the chop if they were in any other line of work. The perks of being a famous pop star eh?

Yes, i saw Hazel O'Connor for under £20 a few months back, and it was a great show. Pop becomes a great deal less intimate often too, when artists play those large arenas. Many of those artists from the late seventies/early eighties who haven't sustained a successfully commercial career, but who are still touring, can often be seen for a reasonable price.

I don't believe many people would consider " Why", Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards crowning glory, exactly, but i think in the context of the chart sounds of 1982, it stands up very well. If it had been released in 1979, for example, i am a little unsure as to whether it would have appeared quite the standout track, because the competition would have been much stronger, and not forgetting also including Chic's own music and collaborations. "Why" doesn't especially sound like a 1979 track to me - it appears instrumentally from the early eighties period. However, for me, it still offers a degree of class, which i think becomes harder to find the deeper into the eighties we get.

Grading these Top Of The Pops episodes isn't always too easy, if you compare them with the general standard set in previous years. What may appear a pretty fine track in a 1982 episode, would only seem average a year or two earlier. Not that that is always the case, mind, but it is frequently. For the sake of remaining positive it is often better to compare these songs with those sharing the chart. Not that i always fully achieve that!

Yes - I saw her too last Christmas time. I can't remember the exact price but it was definitely very reasonable & they showed the film 'Breaking Glass' too at the same concert.
It just shows how you can still get to see some of your favourite acts in intimate venues, without being ripped off by promoters & the music industry!

Off to see two of my teenage crushes next month, Paul Young and Midge Ure, both tickets under £30

I saw the Undertones in Glasgow last Saturday, they were fantastic and well worth the £25.

Funnily enough, I can't remember having many teenage crushes on popstars in the early 80s!


Lucky you!! The Undertones are one band I have still yet to see. I only wish Feargal was still with them.

One of the interesting things about Why by Carly Simon IMO is the way that some aspects of it, especially the bass-line, are almost like precursors of the style of Let's Dance by David Bowie which was released just a few months later. But it's taken me a few decades to realise this.

.....

I bought Queen's 'A Night At The Odeon' CD the other day. Inside the cover there's a reproduction of a poster from 1975 advertising the concert. Ticket prices ranged from £1-£2.50. So even the top priced one's are equivalent to only about £23.50 in today's money.

I love looking at old concert tickets - the prices steadily go up with inflation throughout the 70s! - I think the best one I saw recently was a weekend ticket to the Reading Rock Festival in about 1972 (including the campsite) - £2 !!!

Even with inflation tickets are definitely overpriced these days. I wonder what would happen if all the fans one month decided not to purchase any tickets for any artist over the price of say £50 - would promoters suddenly bring the prices down?
( I have a feeling it would never happen though, as there are always some super fans out there, who will pay anything to see their idols )!!

Totally agree Robbie. IOLS is easily Blondie's worst single.

It's absolutely awful. Though 'The Tide Is High' isn't much better... and the much loved on here at DS 'Rapture' isn't that great either.

To me, Blondie went downhill after 'Call Me'. For me their golden era is still 1978 to mid 1980. Every single they released during that time is a gem.

One fantastic and quite intimate venue on my doorstep is Cleo Lane's The Stables at Wavendon, next to MK here in North Bucks. It gets a constant stream of really good names including many that have appeared on TOTP during the period we've been watching these last 5 years. Hazel O'Connor is appearing next year again, many acts return to the venue and the tickets are not extortionate either.

Just £17 to see Kiki Dee this Saturday for example. Barron Knights for £21 on 3rd December. Barbara Dickson is a bit pricey at £36 for some reason. Hazel O'Connor next March is just £20, then Elkie Brooks a few days later at £34. Howard Jones is £23 next March too. Echo & The Bunnymen's frontman Ian McCulloch appears next April for £19.50. Leo Sayer next May for £30 or a lot more if you want to meet him afterwards! The Furey's who we saw chart in late 1981 with their minor retro hits are still going and appear at this venue too. How about Jilted John, aka John Shuttleworth in January for £17.50. A constant stream of good comedy names as well as music. I notice the alleged comedienne Lucy Porter is there in February for £14, she who set in motion the events that ultimately led to a certain presenter being airbrushed away. Quite a lot of tribute bands also appear such as Bootleg Blondie for £15, but I tend not to like that kind of thing.

http://www.stables.org/Whats_on


In my previous post last night I never said that Island Of Lost Souls and La Isla Bonita were similar by the way.

Evening all!

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