Forgotten bands from the 80s

Discovered via Facebook that I live round the corner from Steve Skaith, singer with British political-popsters Latin Quarter.
Their hit:

 

good band, Big Area and The Motive are good tunes. Sugar Box is a nice romantic downtempo song

 

CS Angels

 

The Suburbs .... Credit In Heaven double-LP on TwinTone is fantastic!

 

Always liked that name.

 

The Railway Children. Pretty good band, I like songs that I heard, In the Meantime, Every Beat of the Heart, Brighter.

 

Dead or Alive

 

I remember them every time I watch Crocodile Dundee, the party scene is a classic

 

The Gumby's


The pride of El Monte

 

Donnie Iris and the Cruisers made Ah Leah and Love Is Like a Rock. Donnie Iris was in The Jaggerz that had a hit in 1970 called The Wrapper.

Michael Stanley Band made Lover and My Town. They were popular around Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Cleveland but maybe not elsewhere.

Gamma was a band formed by Ronnie Montrose in the late 70s and made I think 4 albums or so. Don’t think they were hugely popular. I remember my brother had a few of their albums.

 

A Flock Of Seagulls - The More You Live, The More You Love

 

The Silencers

A Letter From St. Paul is so terrific!

 

Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good

 

I'll throw a few more out there from 80's that were possibly popular for a time, but have gone mostly unnoticed or forgotten!
The B'zz--Get Up (from 1982) had brief hit "Too Much to Ask For" and their claim to fame was first unsigned band ever to appear on American Bandstand. gritty rock 'n roll!



Breathe---All that Jazz (1987) Yes, they had a few songs that received quite a bit of airplay in the late 80's, but not much is heard from them anymore (by the way, this is a much better album than just those few hits!)



The Kings--Are Here (1980) had huge hit "Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide and then had a follow up album (Amazon Beach) but it didn't do so well, and they kind of dropped off the radar. They did resurface with a later album in 90's and another one in early 2000's, but they reached their pinnacle in early 80's! I still love that song (and pull out that album from 1980 and listen to it!)

 

Hellenbach
Plasmatics

 

One of my favourite albums ever

 

Great band.

They are still putting out excellent albums, the most recent being The Pantomime Of Wealth, in 2018.

 

Loads of the seeds of Britpop and Shoegaze.

 

Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Some really slick stuff.






Canadian band Goddo. Get past the slightly odd style that the singer exudes, and they were pretty rockin. This song is '79 but they continued though the eighties.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa96Ct1el3o

 

Killing Joke - Love Like Blood

 

I don't think Flock of Seagulls is forgotten. I think many 80's compilations have their song. But even if not for music, then at least they are remembered for the hair

 

I think Nik is still remembered also, maybe not as much as Duran or The Cure, maybe Nik is more remembered in Europe than in US?

you're from Netherlands, right?
do people there still remember pop groups like Mai Tai, Time Bandits, Dolly Dots or Maywood? They are not known in US, but I think they were pretty successful Dutch 80's groups? Mai Tai even had a minor hit in US

 

I have "The More You Live, The More You Love" on a compilation album. But it is the only single that made the Top 40 here in the Netherlands.