Mid-80s British pop

I liked The Style Council a lot, as well as The Housemartins.

Actually, the Housemartins could have been an '80s reboot of The Monkees. Same vibe.

Late 80s - people were so bitchy about Sowing The Seeds of Love, saying it was so derivative of The Beatles - I heard it recently and I think it's as wonderful as ever.

Just discovered Pale Fountains.

Love this sound.

Felt!

Orange Juice!

I sing to express my belief that sweet talk like candy rots teeth:

OMG PREFAB SPROUT. I love them so, so, SO much.

This is freaky, OP. I just this a.m. had the same thought, and listened to Joe Jackson on YouTube and then went on Amazon to find the essential 80's compilation. Have about three in mind now, but still looking for Swing Out Sister ("Breakout").

EBTG's first three albums will always have a special place in my heart.

Scritti Politti's Cupid & Psyche is still one of my favorite albums all these years later

Not only are EBTG an excellent band, but Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn are both excellent writers (though I still haven't read Thorn's last book)

Sade gets a bad rep sometimes as elevator music, but some of the stuff from the first two albums was really cool.

byumpa

Still love this song. I always thought Nik Kershaw was cute, no relation to the 90's country singer Sammy Kershaw, the queen of the double wide trailer.

For some reason this song was inexplicably remade 2 years later and put into the film Pretty in Pink.

I remember liking the original better.

Blow-Monkeys...

Digging your scene...

Nik Kershaw had another great song "The Riddle" a few years later.

Feargal Sharkey sang the hell out of "A Good Heart."

Paddy was ridiculously pretty in his youth.

I know he looks a bit offbeat these days, but with all his health ailments I'm just glad he's managing and still making music. I have nothing but love for that man.

Whooops, forgot link.

Nik Kershaw's "Wouldn't It Be Good" is a masterpiece.

I am the OP of this thread and remembered its existence - someone mentioned the Style Council in another thread, so re-booting this one (and no I am not the five year old thread troll).

"Mary's Prayer" by Danny Wilson. 1987. I was *O B S E S S E D* with this song. They were one-hit-wonders I guess? I had this on 45" and I wore it the hell out. Anyone else remember this tune?

Ooh I didn't see that the actual video to "Mary's Prayer" was on Youtube. It's about the most 80s thing you could imagine. Doesn't serve the song, even a little bit. But it's fun to remember this era of music videos.

R22 Yes, I remember that song! It was sort of their only really good song, but it was a lovely one.

R1 - I love The Housemartins' "Sitting on a Fence."

I am so psyched that there's a Style Council documentary.

I was too young for the Jam and have only intermittently enjoyed Weller's solo work, but loved the SC so, so much and had such a crush on Paul.

My all time favorite is the Jesus and Mary Chain.

They are great R27 but I wouldn't necessarily group them with the bands/singers we're discussing here? They'd fit more with the indie stuff, I would think - more with the Cure, Siouxsie and the like.

Gah. Weller was just so fucking hot.

China Crises was sooooo smooth. Here is "You Did Cut Me".

R1 don't you think the Housemartins embrace of hard-core communism might have hurt their mass-market appeal?

I'm a big fan of Associates...RIP gorgeous Billy

*NERDY TEARS FOR FEARS ANALYSIS ALERT*

R2, I was as big a Tears For Fears superfan as you could get. And I liked the actual song "Sowing The Seeds of Love" but it was obvious to anyone with ears, that they were explicitly appropriating The Beatles' "I Am The Walrus" for this song. They were not in the closet about it in interviews, that it was fully a Beatles experiment. It's still a great song so there's not shade intended. It's obviously got great chords, major hooks, a great vocal, good production--it's a well-constructed song.

Beyond that title track though, I personally was VERY turned off by the jazz elements of the "Seeds of Love" album as a whole. And the bringing in Oleta Adams. Nothing against her, and I think the song "Woman In Chains" is gorgeous. But I just did not want THAT kind of music from THAT band. I expected TFF to continue to represent me as an angsty teen. Then they started making literal adult contemporary music, and it was like "ewwwwww."

"Songs From The Big Chair" was an evolution from "The Hurting," but it worked. But "Seeds of Love" was such a left turn from "Big Chair," that really it's like two different bands when you put "The Hurting" and "Seeds of Love" next to one another. And, I mean, they made us wait a long time for that third album, too. Three years. And then after waiting and waiting.... it was such a complete disappointment to me, it almost felt like a bad dream that you can't wake up from. I know, fucking MARY! But that's how it felt at the time, to my 15 year old self.

And they never were that previous band again. So for me, it's those first two perfect records, and then a bunch of other subsequent shit.

Like this shit here....Compare this song to "Mad World" or "Shout." It's adult comtemporary/easy listening drivel.

"Down to Earth" was my favorite song of the short lived band, Curiosity Killed the Cat.

R20 I agree "Wouldn't It Be Good" is truly a miracle of a song. And speaking of Nik, I have had a resurgence of love for Haircut 100 and I am loving playing my old vinyl records.

Simply Red's "Holding Back The Years." Unbeatable classic.

Sade's music is made for lovers, not elevators! Unless you are having sex in an elevator.

An early prototype, of course.

So clear now the entire album was George's love letter to Jon.

R37 I recently played that out of the blue and just SOBBED. My mother loved that song. *sob*

I loved Come To My Aid, although it sounded suspiciously similar to Money's Too Tight to Mention which was a bigger hit.

Cannot believe I had forgotten about Lisa Stansfield! This song is soooooooooo good! God, her voice.

Exquisitely haunting, beautiful, jazzy song. What every happened to "Double" (pronounced Doo-Blay)?

I loved the 80s indie bands. The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Echo and the Bunnymen, Bauhaus, The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division.

R43 Here's a thread to do a deep dive on those bands and that sound (I love them too)

I'm gonna be the one completely unsubtle gay boy who posts this one.

R45 there is something so amazingly erotic about how Tony Hadley holds that little microphone in that video. I'm guessing he is a very gentle lover.

Fell in love with Everything But the Girl when I moved to NYC at the end of the 80s along with a group of friends who did as well. We were all set to go to the concert when it was announced that it was canceled and we were bummed. I called it Everything But the Concert and we had a good laugh about that for weeks. We didn’t know that Ben Watt had a devastating disease that was consuming his organs and barely survived.

R45 R46 One of the best songs ever in existence. My only qualm is that, because of the video, and his singing voice in general, I really fully thought Tony Hadley was gay. He used to seem so delicate and fey. Imagine moi surprise when he was in the news in the past couple years, and he looks like your average bloated, middle-aged hard-drinking, football supporting dad of four, which he is.

R47 Omg, what?!

R48, I know. I had hoped too that he had aged into a DILF.

Unfortunately, he looks like he has aged into an old Irish drunk. I wonder how his voice is?

Not the 80s, but Everything But The Girl's album "Walking Wounded" is a god damn trip-hop masterpiece. Glad Ben survived his ordeal. I kinda remember now that there was an illness that derailed the band for a few years. So I guess this album would have then being their return to the scene after a long hiatus? Well, they crushed it.

How about Bronski Beat?

R49 He wrote a memoir about it and R51 is right that the title was referencing the experience. It’s miraculous that he survived and his health is very precarious to this day.

One hit wonders Strawberry Switchblade had this perfect little pop song.

R53 Poor guy! How utterly random and awful for him.

Don't shoot the messenger, folks, but Bananarama actually released a really good song in 1986, called "Trick of the Night." I used to listen to this song on repeat in the dark fantasizing about this certain boy. We used to ride bikes with around my apartment complex and I think we went to the county fair together once and had a total blast.

I think he started to sense I was laughing a little TOO HARD at all of his jokes, and was maybe a little TOO eager to see his dumb gawky ginger ass bike by on any given afternoon. So suddenly, he just....disappeared. Stopped biking by my apartment. Just poof, he was gone. Cue the heartache. Oof. It hurt. I didn't even know then quite why. I just ached and felt like shit, and felled deeply compelled to listen ONLY to songs that amplified my longing and despair. In the dark. And cry.

ps Here's the song.

Ultravox

I've loved EBTG since their first album - I was stunned to hear about his illness, too. As noted above he wrote a fantastic memoir about it. It really fueled their renaissance, and their last three albums were phenomenal. (They did lose the plot a little in the middle, with some tame cover albums and the like.)

Tracey and Ben both tweet a lot and Tracey has a column she writes for an English newspaper, and Ben still has to be careful know as his immune system is not strong. Tracey and Ben basically have to keep distance in the same house.

BTW, Ben's three solo albums, all released in the last few years, are great. They aren't quite EBTG - a bit more of a folkish classic rock feel, but all very good.

[quote] So I guess this album would have then being their return to the scene after a long hiatus?

Amplified Heart, the one that contained the original version of Missing, was the return to the scene.

Walking Wounded was the album they did after Missing became a big hit.

I was SHOCKED at how different they both looked in this video. I thought for sure when I first saw Ben here that he was dealing with full blown AIDS. This was also around the time (before their books came out) that it became clear that they were, in fact, a couple.

The first three EBTG albums, especially, are just (yes, you can MARY! me) etched onto my soul.

And they were so amazing and so versatile

The jazz pop sound

....to the jangly, Smiths-sounding guitar album

I always thought Tracy Thorn was a lesbian, and was surprised to eventually learn that she was not.

.....and then a 180, whereupon Tracey channels Miss Dusty Springfield

There were a few years where they went a bit adult contemporary - they've said they were running out of ideas for a while - but even then, there was this song, which was amazing.

and Ben looks so fuckable and delicious in the Driving video.

EBTG wow. That’s a lot of good stuff. So much range. I like the easy laidback stuff.

They do have so much good stuff, R67, and they are very underappreciated.

I liked the sort of more adult contemporary stuff too, but loved the early and later stuff even more.

And speaking of delicious and fuckable

Miss Mari Wilson

EBTG are my all-time faves. I just became aware of Tracey singing Over the Rainbow on Sade's trumpet player's album. It's beautiful. Only released in Japan.

How could I get this far and not mention Alison Moyet?

And this, of course.

My mother came down the hall when she heard this and gave me the strangest look, like, "What ARE you listening to?" She said something like, "My kids have listened to a lot of screaming and hollering but I never expected any of them to listen to this!"

London Boys

Their aesthetics seem so contemporary now.

I wanted to post my favorite song and video, "Have You Ever Had It Blue," but it appears to have been yanked from all spots on the Internets.

I had a brief crush on Paul Young. His first two solo albums are nice - the best of them being the singles, of course.

Star Hits or some similar magazine ran some item about him having a rather sizeable endowment, which probably also added to my curiosity.

PS great song, hilariously bad video.

R76 One of my favorite songs from the era, thank you for posting. I too thought Paul Young was super cute for a second when I was young. He did not age well, but that's not a crime.

Love the sparse jazzy vibe of this track. Classic Tracy Thorn sentiments about love and support and feelings and relationship.

Jimmy!

My beloved Kirsty

Swing. Out. Sister. Huge in Japan. Big at live jazz festivals. For real.

I swooned over Tall Tony

ABC with Martin Fry and The Look of Love.

I remember thinking the singer from Swing Out Sister was so gorgeous and artistic-looking and just kind of adorable. I only knew that one video. But it looks like she really was strikingly beautiful. Great hair.

Oh wow Swing Out Sister has newish music...And I love it. What a surprise. This is a treat!

Level 42!

Yiiikes, I have most of these records in my collection.

Always like this British pop group - Alphaville and there song - Forever Young.

I don't know many of these 80s songs here. So I'm very grateful to you all for brining them to our attention. I know I will like them thank you!

The The - Infected

Scottish one-hit wonders Hipsway

"The Honeythief"

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer 1986.

Quite a groundbreaking and quirky video at the time.

And Big Time also 1986 from the album " So" .

Another quirky video.

Finally Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush with Don't Give Up. Again from the album "So".

How can we have forgotten this band?

Annie Lennox & Dave Stewart - Eurythmics

Sweet Dreams.

It was released in 1983 but this track has to be included as a quintessential eighties classic.

This video has had 529,087,097 views on YouTube!

My fav Fine Young Cannibals track doesn't get enough notice

Johnny Come Home

I'd forgotten about Matt Bianco.

I really don't know his work much but I'm remembering in one of the books by Ben and Tracey that they were being chased in some town in Europe by fans who mistook them for Matt Bianco. Which led to Ben having to scream at the fans "No, you idiots, we are *not* Matt FUCKING Bianco!" LOL

I can kinda see where the confusion would lie, though.

Huh - I never realized that Matt Bianco was a band name, not a person's name

AND

The female singer in that video is none other than Basia!

R97 good call. But Roland Gift always gave me the creeps for some reason.

Simple Minds 'Don't You Forget About Me.'

George Michael, 'Careless Whisper' and 'A Different Corner'.

I really loved Bananarama's album "True Confessions" from 1986. Just a ton of fun, and lookswise, they never looked hotter than this album and videos. They sort of were ripping off Madonna's "Lucky Star" and "Like A Virgin" era style, but they owned it.

This is my favorite ever video of theirs. Hot boys, hot girls, hot song. So fun to dance to! God I used to go nuts to this track.

The Mighty Wah! - Come Back

R74, both London Boys and one of their wives died in a car crash.

Yet another tedious Klan Granny thread. These whores cannot keep to one thread and continue on their quest for Datalounge domination. They deserve to be Prancing Ponied.

You may be lost r105

This thread is the soundtrack to my life.

Here’s one I love from The Blue Nile.

Whoops sorry, wrong thread

For fellow Prefab Sprout fans (and anyone else) a deeper cut but my favourite.

1989 is not "mid-80s" but I'm posting this anyway. I lived for this song and album.

ABC is 80s Brit Pop Royalty All hail Martin Fry...

Not British, but same time frame.

R110 Yassss kween!

We built a party around this song.

And I have started parties with this song, R113. I think your parties might have been edgier than mine lol

Fun fact: lead singer of Haircut 100 is your beloved "Wouldn't It Be Good" songsmith Nik Heyward.

Not full on British, but still delightful mid 80s pop.

I always loved this guy. We thought the lyrics were dong to Johnny Versace.

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Song From The Edge Of The World

I didn't know there'd be an official video for this.

Don't forget the Pet Shop Boys! West End Girls is one of the best mid 80s pop songs.

Just watched the SC documentary.

*sobs*

R70 Of course the full title of the band is Mari Wilson and the Wilsations featuring the Marines and Marionettes.

Swing Out Sister - Breakout

I've had a huge thing for Style Council as well, Roxy Music I am just getting into. They're like a better version of the Cars. Bryan Ferry reminds me a lot of Scott Walker. Slick and classy vocalist. 1980, but not out of place for 1985.

R110 and R112 while The Lexicon of Love is a brilliant album it was from 1982. For mid-80's ABC you have to skip over Beauty Stab (nobody liked Beauty Stab) and go with How To Be A ...Zillionaire. Martin Fry had gotten so overwhelmed with the touring and the fans and the hype during Lexicon that he tried to flush his gold lamé suit down a Tokyo toilet in a vain attempt to revamp his image. Unfortunately, the revamped image for Zillionaire was to become a cartoon character (see the video below) and grow out his hair (this if from the same period where Rick Astley and Jason Donovan also had longer hair). Mark White went the opposite route with a buzzed head and a sculpted Tin Tin forelock. Not the best look for either of them but the album produced a few hits including Be Near Me.

Love and Money wasn't the biggest band back then (and it was 1988-89) but their debut album is incredible. Title track in link.

Many of these bands are still recording and have had albums in the last two years. ABC's Lexicon of Love Part II captures the old magic, Nik Kershaw just released something, and of course PSB - 2020's Hotspot is really worth a listen. Paul Weller's latest album On Sunset (not a Donna Summer cover) is SUBLIME.

Great thread. So many of these songs have aged well.

Personally I adore Tears for Fears' Advice for the Young at Heart. Gorgeous song.

Swing Out Sister's Jimmy Webb-influenced album, Kaleidoscope World, is fabulous. More late '80s than mid-'80s, though.

Adore Roxy Music's Avalon. Every single track is beautiful.

Kaleidoscope World isn't late 80s. It's absolutely timeless.

Great Swing Out Sister

Actual mid 80s British soul

The Cur e - DISINTEGRATION AND HEAD ON THE DOOR

SUBLIME GOTH POP

I loved OMD way before the Pretty in Pink crap.

Close Lobsters, A Prophecy

It was the Psychedelic Furs who sang Pretty in Pink not OMD.

R133 “If You Leave” by OMD featured prominently in Pretty in Pink.

R114 Sorry, but Nick Heyward of Haircut 100 is not "Wouldn't It Be Good" songsmith Nik Heyward.

R114 Sorry, but Nick Heyward of Haircut 100 is not "Wouldn't It Be Good" songsmith Nik Kershaw.

Oh L'Amour....

He got a man who sounded like a woman who sounded like a man...

Nick Heyward did have a lovely solo hit with “Whistle Down the Wind” which I think is played in Pretty in Pink.

OMD’s original song for Pretty in Pink. They had to scrap in and write and record a new one (“If You Leave”) in days when they changed the film’s ending. Gave them a big hit but saccharine song.

scrap IT although scrap in kinda works

Bump