1980

1980

Memory – at grandparents house. I went out to the kitchen and put radio on to hear charts – a Sunday evening. I was already obsessed by the charts. This particular instance I remember “Baby I Love You” Ramones, Dexys, Bowie – Alabama song. It must have been early in 1980 but I always remembered it being a bit earlier.

I feel I gravitated very quickly to alternative music. I liked novelty I think and new sounds, so ate odd sounding music up voraciously. As soon as the bug bit I wanted a radio-cassette player so I could tape stuff straight from the radio. Strong in my memory are Queen singles Crazy Little Thing Called Love – which must have been prominent when my parents bought me the cassette player – then through 1980 Save Me, Play the Game and Another one bites the dust. In fact The Game was on my list of wants for a while. But it didn’t fit in the direction I was going – things were a bit tribal in those days – and I was already spreading myself too thinly between two ‘tribes’, futurists and Mods; hadn’t yet made a decision which way to go. TBH I never really did.

Hazel O’Connor and Breaking Glass. I was remarkably independent already at age 13. It was at this time that I made my own music choices, and was able to walk in to town and see a film on my own. I had a routine of record outlets (bargain bins). I was only interested in girl’s clothes and far too scared to admit that, even to myself, so I never went clothes shopping like most other teenagers would have done.

Saw Bronco Billy this year too. The other Eastwood films I saw tended to be on video or tv, but saw Pale Rider in 85.

This really was the year of New Romantics. Spandau Ballet’s “To cut a long story short” came out in November and I was enthusiastic.

John Lennon being shot was a major event for me. I’d been listening to the Beatles but till then I wouldn’t have been able to say who was who. I listened to the last interview and the songs. The charts became filled with Lennon and that dreary version of Jealous guy by Roxy Music.

Xmas 1980 – I had a voucher from a distant aunt – I spent it at WH Smith on “Flash” by Queen. Then in 1981 Queen made a record with bowie that I absolutely loved. I probably bought it soon after – remember being really annoyed that the pristine cover got trashed by someone I lent it to because he put it in his school bag! It wouldn’t be until 1984 that I felt able to enjoy a new Queen record again. Though I took the piss out of it – I kind of liked it: Radio Gaga.

I gradually lost interest in 2-tone and sold them off

Library – at some point I discovered the music library. All vinyl. It meant I could start listening to artists that I was curious about without making a huge financial commitment (huge for a kid). Stuff that got played on the radio was very limited – often the same few tracks on rotation. The list of artists I started to discover: Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Doors,

Journeys to glory by Spandau came out in March and I borrowed it off someone (SH?) – and I put it on a C90 along with Duran Duran’s debut which didn’t come out till June ’81.

I used the music centre at my grandparents house to tape albums. Attempts to hook up a tape machine to record player was rarely satisfactory – often producing noise, or poor quality, sometimes mono. The record player itself was prone to a intermittent loss of stereo sound too – very frustrating.

Music came into my orbit via the music press, via radio, via, charts, and via peers.