80’s Flashback

For no particular reason, other than I’m in the mood and some of this stuff is classic, here are a bunch of songs (with videos) from early eighties Britain which prove the first seven years of my life weren’t all bad make-up, pixie boots and synthesizers (not that there’s anything wrong with a good Moog or an ARP).

1: The Clash – Rock the Casbah
To break everyone in nice and gently and to set the tone.

2: The Pretenders – Brass in Pocket
Even though Chrissie Hynde isn’t British, her band was (the guitarist was from Hereford, of all places!), and she married Ray Davies, so she’s got the passport. And just look at the caff she’s working in!

3: Billy Bragg – Greetings to the New Brunette
"How can you lie there and think of England when you don’t even know who’s in the team?"
This is one of my favourite Bragg songs. He re-recorded a more upbeat version of it in the early 90s with Johnny Marr playing almost everything, which leads us neatly on to…

4: The Smiths – Ask
"If it’s not love, then it’s the bomb that will bring us together."
You can’t argue with a bit of Mozzer and Marr – unless you want a bunch of flowers stuffed up your arse. Commenters on Youtube don’t seem to understand the irony in this line, and don’t know what it refers to. Maybe if enough people want my interpretation I’ll tell in the comments.

5: Blondie – Atomic
Another song about The Bomb. I think I like this song even more than Heart of Glass – and I love seeing Debbie Harry in Videodrome.

6: The Specials – Ghost Town and Too Much Too Young
Yay! A video full of abandoned Coventry! I couldn’t resist including the live performance of Too Much Too Young, because the band is so damn tight, and their energy levels are so high.

7: The Housemartins – Happy Hour
Who’s that in the first shot? It’s amusing to think that from the Housemartins, Quentin "Norman" Cook turned into Fatboy Slim, Paul Heaton founded the Beautiful South, and Hugh Whitaker, the drummer with the big ears, went to prison because he attacked someone with an axe.

8: Kirsty MacColl – Terry
Because this is all retro 50’s, Kirsty looks a lot better in this than the Top of the Pops appearance she made singing There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis. Yes, that is Ade Edmondson playing the jilted boyfriend in the video.

9: XTC – Making Plans for Nigel
OK, so this was released in 1979. ’79 is close enough for me. I’m amused by how much Colin Moulding looks like he could have been the model for Alan Partridge. Are XTC the best band to come out of Swindon? Probably. Shamefully, I have to admit that until very recently I knew Nouvelle Vague’s cover of this song better than the original.

10: The Slits – Typical Girls
Also from 1979. Apparently the Slits were the first all-female band who wrote all their own material. Sleater-Kinney were obviously watching.

11: Kate Bush – The Hounds of Love
A lot more "produced," quite a bit posher and less new wave than the rest of the stuff on this list, but considering the influence she’s had, could I really leave out Kate Bush? This one’s for the old man. I know he’s a fan.

If you want something with more new wave stylings, you might appreciate this recent re-interpretation.

12: Ian Dury – I Want to be Straight
Of course, any trawl I make through the (very) early eighties wouldn’t be complete without a bit of Blockheads. Ian was a fantastically engaging performer. This video was an unexpected find – I’d not heard the song before. It seems it came out as a single before the largely-forgotten album Laughter, but wasn’t actually part of that album. Maybe not his best song, but extremely infectious. I suspect Fat Les were well aware of this when they wrote Vindaloo.

And finally, as a bit of a bonus, I managed to find this little gem. Billy Bragg at Glastonbury performing a Billy Bragg song that wasn’t actually written by Billy.