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

I must've seen you post this alternate tracklisting in a previous thread because this is the way I've listened to Hysteria for a couple of years now. It is sooo much better. Thank you!

 

I remember the length of time between Dare and the follow-up being widely discussed at the time. This is presumably why they issued the Fascination EP in the meantime.

Anyhow, another of my favourite Top 10 hits of 1983 was Heaven 17's excellent Come Live With Me. I'm generally not that bothered by lyrics but I really like them here.



Surprisingly, I don't think I'd ever seen the video until today!

 

I was raving about 'Come Live With Me' in a Human League thread only last week. It's easily my favourite Heaven 17 track and it's always reminded me of 'Louise'. Similar sounds and mood (or something).

 

The best thing Phil released in 1984 and performed live by the HL IIRC

 

Yes quite possibly, as I did it a couple of years ago, although I hadn't uploaded the artwork before.

This would be one of my top 20 albums of all-time, if it existed.

EG.

 

Wonderful song. Bought the single back then. Picked up the original Human League Greatest Hits CD mainly for that song. Great sounding CD, btw.

 

Not unlike the U.S., where at the start of the 1980's, there was Billboard with their "Hot 100," then there were the rest: Cash Box (Top 100) and Record World (The Singles Chart) - plus another publication, Radio & Records, that only charted radio airplay and didn't factor store sales. Billboard is considered "official" in the States for a variety of reasons, beginning when Joel Whitburn began a relationship with them in 1969 that has lasted to this day, followed the next year by the debut of the syndicated weekly radio series American Top 40. Up to then, CB and RW were up there in terms of chart legitimacy with BB. Then there were other U.S. record charts, such as those published by weekly Variety which would be a headache to uncover.

 

I think we were lucky in Australia as we had one official chart — the Kent Music Report — from 1974 to 1988, without any competing charts muddying the waters. In 1988, the Australian Recording Industry Association began compiling its own ARIA chart and that became the official one. The Kent Music Report struggled on until the late 90s (rebranded as the Australian Music Report) but nobody paid any attention to it after it became "unofficial".

Maddeningly, there isn't an online chart archive for the Kent Music Report — at least, not one as great as the UK Official Charts archive. There's an incomplete archive (of sorts) at Rate Your Music, but it's pretty crap and stops in mid-1983.

Kent Music Report - RYM/Sonemic

 

Which was actually the B side. The A side was Simon Templar but it got flipped by most DJs. I think the third track ofn the EP was Michael Booth's Talking Bum. Or was that on the Two Little Boys EP?

 

thanks for these threads Bobby, I've been trying to keep an eye on the '70s one... learning a lot! I actually think ye should do a podcast or some kind of YouTube Zoom panel thing... I'd definitely tune in

anyhoo these were two early '80s comps I found in the stash of records left behind by the older siblings. The 'Hot Wax' one was in okay shape, I think I was able to check out every song but the Chartblasters one was a wreck, scratched to hell, so most of those tracks are still unknown to me...

Various - Hot Wax
Various - Chartblasters '81

 

Glad you like them. They both very random and scattershot. Just as they should be.

But it’s hard work responding to all the posts. I went out this afternoon for about 3 hours. When I got home I had 74 alerts.

 

Some unusual tracks on those LP comps, btw. I’m on a mission to get some great 70s and 80s CD comps. Many of them cover the same ground.

 

Looks like Our Price had their own chart too!

 

Yes, WH Smiths did too. That carried on into the 90s, and ended up causing quite a big hoo-ha between the retailers and the record labels.

EG.

 

Looking at that chart reminded me that I was playing Dionne Warwick’s Heartbreaker CD this week. It sounded great. Probably because I bought it in 1987.

 

Ah, so they carried on with their charts years after Music Now's 1971 demise (that publication's charts only sampled Smiths stores). Is there any way to scare up what chart positions were of their charts from 6 March 1971 onwards?

 

I came across my copy last night, putting some more 80s CDs into wallets...it's a nice all-silver Arista disc.

EG.

 

Same here.

 

That's awesome. The Rod Stewart review is gold.

Wonder if Eleanor Levy saw the 2022 Rodders at the Jubilee last week? Considering she was already referring to the arthritic groin grinder in 1984...

 

She even got his full first name wrong - it was Roderick, from what I recall. And she wasn't all that enamoured of Tina Turner's major career turning point either . . .

 

Reviewers were terribly cruel - and personal - back then.

 

Record Mirror was very pop/alternative oriented by 1984, when I started buying it. It usually laid into the old guard, and especially US rock. I remember Heart getting 1-star in 1987.

EG.

 

I was a bit shocked by the arthritis comment — Rod was only 39 in June 1984!

 

Thanks @Bobby Morrow for this great thread

I start buying records in the spring or summer 1983. The first single that I got was a gift from my mother Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) "Maid Of Orleans"

 

That is one of those records I never want to hear again. I appreciate that Dionne Warwick is an absolute legend and in its way that is probably a fine album but from 1981 - 1983 I worked in a record shop and when that album came out one of my co-workers played it constantly to the point where I just couldn't stand it anymore. To make matters worse, I was still in my teens and Dionne's record just seemed so middle aged to me at the time.

Having said that, we were not allowed to play anything too extreme so when it was my turn I think I played Elton's Too Low For Zero, Toto IV and The Hurting by Tears For Fears quite a lot.