The U.K. 80s Singles & Albums Chart General Discussion Thread.

I really like 'Strip' (the single). The lyrics are a bit cringeworthy but it has a great chorus and I love the use of strings. The last minute is fantastic. Plus, it features Frida in the female spoken part!

 

Had no idea about this......but I guess it makes perfect sense.

Frida + Phil Collins - 1982
Phil Collins + Adam Ant + Frida - 1983

 

'Goody Two Shoes' was a #1 hit in Australia, too. "Ant-mania" hit quite big down here. My sister was only eight when 'Antmusic' reached the top in 1980 but I remember she joined the Ants fanclub. She wasn't even that interested in music, but I guess her head was turned by Adam!

Here's a clip of A&TA performing 'Antmusic' on our TOTP equivalent, Countdown. This was some time after it had hit #1 and I believe they performed two or three songs that episode. It was a big deal.



I've always thought 'Goody Two Shoes' was a great track — the last big hurrah for Adam — and the single version with the reverb drums is so much better than the re-recorded album version. But for me, the best Adam & The Ants song was 'Stand & Deliver'. Wonderful in every way.

 

Adam & The Ants were the biggest act here in the UK during late 1980 through to the end of 1981, and then solo Adam kept that going until halfway through 1982.

I loved it all.

Didn't actually start buying records until late 1983, early 1984, but I do vividly remember the charts from January 1980.

EG.

 

He actually got the producers to let him use three of four stages for his elaborate choreography on the Top Of The Pops appearance for Goody Two Shoes......so at that particular point in time - he was really that big.

 

Yes, I'm the same. I was only 9 but I have indelible memories of the music of 1980. It was the first year I actively started listening to music and began asking my parents to buy me compilation records (I still have them).

Here's my first:

 

Now it's time for a look at the #1's from NME and Melody Maker for the second quarter of 1980, in the middle of which there was a strike against at least some of the papers (and definitely Melody Maker), so the May chart positions were listed retrospectively ex post facto. Now . . .

NME #1's

12 Apr: "Dance Yourself Dizzy" by Liquid Gold (BMRB #2, MM #2)
26 Apr: "Call Me" by Blondie
3 May: "Geno" by Dexy's Midnight Runners
17 May: "What's Another Year" by Johnny Logan
31 May: "No Doubt About It" by Hot Chocolate (BMRB #2, MM #2)
7 Jun: "Theme From 'M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless" by The Mash
21 Jun: "Funky Town" by Lipps, Inc. (BMRB #2, MM #2)
28 Jun: "Crying" by Don McLean


Melody Maker #1's

19 Apr: "Working My Way Back To You / Forgive Me, Girl" by The Detroit Spinners (BMRB #1, NME #3)
26 Apr: "Call Me" by Blondie
3 May: "Geno" by Dexy's Midnight Runners
24 May: "What's Another Year" by Johnny Logan
31 May: "Theme From 'M*A*S*H' (Suicide Is Painless)" by The Mash
28 Jun: "Crying" by Don McLean

All six of the "official" #1's in this stretch also topped the Melody Maker chart, while five managed to reach #1 on NME's chart.

 

The wonderful 'Someone's Looking At You' by The Boomtown Rats. Released in January 1980 and peaked at #4 in February. Their best single, IMO (although the sound quality isn't great in this clip)

 

Friend Or Foe is pretty awesome and I love Puss 'n Boots but yeah Goody Two Shoes is probably his last great one.

 

Top 20 songs of the 80's? no way. Here's my top 25 from the year 1980.

Visage - Fade To Grey
The Specials - Do Nothing
The Beat - Too Nice To Talk To
Roxy Music - Same Old Scene
UB40 - The Earth Dies Screaming
Orchestral Manoevres - Messages
The Police - Don't Stand So Close To Me
Bad Manners - Special Brew
Black Slate - Amigo
Linx - You're Lying
Odyssey - If You're Looking For A Way Out
Change - Searchin'
Split Enz - I Got You
Tom Browne - Funkin' For Jamaica
David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes
New Musik - Sanctuary
Thin Lizzy - Chinatown
The Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime
Narada Michael Walden - I Shoulda Loved Ya
Average White Band - Let's Go Round Again
Madness - Night Boat To Cairo
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
Jon & Vangelis - I Hear You Now
The Brothers Johnson - Stomp!
Genesis - Turn It On Again

 

Not ashamed to say that I rather like "Daytrip To Bangor"

 

Yeah they were huge down under. "Stand & Deliver" is probably just in front of "Prince Charming" & "Ant Rap" for me

 

I love the early 80's compilations..

 

The UK charts were incredibly interesting in 1980-81. You had the 2-Tone/ska movement, great post punk bands like Siouxsie, Magazine and Joy Division, the mod revival with The Jam, the last gasps of disco, and the emergence of my favourite genre, synthpop, with the New Romantics. There were also lots of oddities like the already mentioned Fiddlers Dram, Marti Webb's 'Take That Look Off Your Face', that totally bizarre "Et Les Oiseaux Chantaient' by Sweet People... there was a lot going on. I guess the 80s was trying to find its feet.

 

Strip is actually my favourite Adam Ant album. I’ve taken a lot of stick for that on here.

 

Hopefully everything will get discussed on the thread in time.

 

Oh me too.

You could always rely on the U.K. to have a - shall we say - quirky record like that in the charts every so often. Usually around Christmas time! Daytrip is a really sweet song with a great hook!

 

Great choice. This wasn't a hit anywhere else but the UK, so I only discovered it a few years ago. It's gorgeous.

 

My favourite Boomtown Rats single was I Don’t Like Mondays. A magnificent song and their biggest hit here.

Someone’s Looking At You was one of their final hits in the U.K.. Alongside Banana Republic.

 

I'd forgotten about Puss 'n Boots! What a weird song. Really fun though!

 

Catchy as hell too. A highlight of Strip.

 

You're really pushing that album, aren't you! I do own a copy on vinyl. I must dust it off.

 

Well, I meant the top 30 in the US and U.K. didn’t share a hit.

Though I certainly missed Please Don’t Go and No More Tears!

So really they shared 2 singles that week. A very low number. Even by the usual standards

 

I have that LP. It came with a ‘sexy’ foldout poster of Adam, IIRC.

 

A visual striptease!