As for Depeche Mode and Eurythmics, I think I would select their late 1980s video albums “Strange” and “Savage” instead of a single video, though in regards to Depeche, I always thought the ‘reveal’ in the “I Feel You” video, where the curtain gets dropped behind Dave Gahan, to be a very excellent shot.

 

Agreed - the video album for 'Savage' was massively ahead of its time - wasn't it made by the Oil Factory? Sophie Muller, I think, who also did the run of superb Shakespears Sister videos.

 

:lol: @ russ.... "lady gargoyle" .... so bloody obvious, so apt!

 

lets face it, shows like this are popularity contests of little merit, most of the best artistic vids were made for acts that never got huge chart success. pity, i dont believe for 1 second 'thriller' really was the best vid ever. lets face it, its a pastche of several b movie horror flicks.

 

:P ... I agree about Thriller - the dance routine was fantastic - the rest of it? Too much money to play with, obviously.

Agreed - the video album for 'Savage' was massively ahead of its time - wasn't it made by the Oil Factory? Sophie Muller, I think, who also did the run of superb Shakespears Sister videos.

 

Well there is no faulting your knowledge as, without watching the VHS tapes again, I am 100% sure that you are completely correct. Out of all the video albums released in the 1980s, I think that ‘Savage’ is one of the best as it was not just a collection of random video clips. There was some kind of narrative thread going through the tracks which held it all together, which is rare for these types of work. Compare ‘Savage’ to Annie & Dave’s first video album ‘Sweet Dreams’, which was a collection of live tracks recorded at the Heaven Nightclub interspersed with videos for the singles, and then you can see how good ‘Savage’ actually was.

 

It has only been in the last couple of years, that I have got around to purchasing ‘Sweet Dreams’ on DVD as I did not like the album the first time it was released in the 1980s. From ‘Touch’ onwards I ended up getting all the other Eurythmics albums that BMG released, as well as the ‘We Too Are One’ and ‘Dave Stewart/Spiritual Cowboys’ videos. Those tapes have been in my collection for ages, but as it has been about 20 years since I last viewed either of the tapes, I cannot remember too much about them. I think both were ‘Behind The Scenes’ documentaries which had many live performances, though I think that the Spiritual Cowboys release also had the full video to the “Jack Talking” single on the tape as well.

 

I am not too bothered about having those releases on DVD and I doubt that The Spiritual Cowboys video would ever be re-issued by Sony, though I think that ‘Savage’ should have been by now, especially since the parent album has been re-issued a couple of times in the last few years. I am just hoping that Sony will get around to re-releasing that video album onto DVD quite soon as my old VHS copy is now starting to show signs of sound loss.

 

I think The Shakespears Sister videos were great as well, especially the ones where Fahey and Detroit are portrayed like a Goth version of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in the film 'Whatever Happened To Baby Jane'. I was quite surprised that both Shakespears Sister VHS tapes were re-issued onto one DVD by Warners [the first VHS includes “You’re History” and footage from Russia] as they have never re-issued the Bananarama VHS onto disc. I think it is quite strange as a new Bananarama compilation seems to be released every few years on CD and you would think that if Warners included the videos as well, it would make any new compilation a more popular release.

 

In addition to Bananarama, another 1980s act that I thought I would see compiled by Warners onto DVD is The Fine Young Cannibals. I will not spend to long talking about FYC here as I have only just recently mentioned them whilst talking about The Beat in another thread. However, I will say one thing, in that I always preferred the video to “Ever Fallen In Love” to “She Drives Me Crazy”, even though the latter was directed by the same people who did New Order’s “True Faith”.

 

“Ever Fallen In Love” was from an 1980s movie that I think was called something like ‘Wild Thing’ or ‘Wild At Heart’, and even though it is quite a cheesy video, I like how it uses the video clips of the film. For most of the time, promo videos for singles released in conjunction with films are dreadful, as for the majority of releases the videos tend to go ‘performance, film clip, performance’ with not much visual relevance between film clip and band.

 

Now I think that you will be the type of person who can easily come up with a good example of a pop video promo that was released in relation to a ‘blockbuster’ film which was not completely useless. I cannot think of any good ones at the moment, apart from the video to The Art Of Noise’s re-recording of the ‘Dragnet’ theme tune [as the film was broadcast on ITV1 the other day] which had the cast from the “Close To The Edit” video superimposed on top of clips from that Dan Aykroyd / Tom Hanks film. Otherwise I am just remembering Bryan Adams standing in a forest and Ronan Keating sitting on a bench. So can you think of any other good videos?

 

Loz

 

 

 

Now I think that you will be the type of person who can easily come up with a good example of a pop video promo that was released in relation to a ‘blockbuster’ film which was not completely useless. I cannot think of any good ones at the moment, apart from the video to The Art Of Noise’s re-recording of the ‘Dragnet’ theme tune [as the film was broadcast on ITV1 the other day] which had the cast from the “Close To The Edit” video superimposed on top of clips from that Dan Aykroyd / Tom Hanks film. Otherwise I am just remembering Bryan Adams standing in a forest and Ronan Keating sitting on a bench. So can you think of any other good videos?

 

Loz

 

hmm... I really loved 'Face to Face', the Siouxsie and the Banshees video from Batman Returns. Siouxsie looks fantastic, and the song remains one of my favourite Banshees moments.

 

Other than that, I'm struggling to be honest.... :huh:

Evanescence - Bring Me to Life was from a movie. It was "not completely useless"

Bjork's 'Play Dead' was a great song and video, too, and that was from a movie....

hmm... I really loved 'Face to Face', the Siouxsie and the Banshees video from Batman Returns. Siouxsie looks fantastic, and the song remains one of my favourite Banshees moments.

 

Yes that is a good choice, as that is one of my favourite Banshees tunes as well. Even though it was a great performance by Siouxsie, I cannot actually remember if the rest of the band were actually in the video. I just remember the image of Siouxsie dressed as that kind of ‘vampire Catwoman’ with the rings on her hand which were actually silver claws.

 

I think Budgie and Severin may have been shown briefly in the background, though I will need to look at the video again. I think at this point I may also be remembering the video to a song called “Bittermoon” by the early 1990s indie-dance band Candyland, which I think was very similar in tone and quite gothic too [you may also remember this song, the lyrics went something like “Do you ever dream of angels in Crimplene, their wings are polystyrene they cannot fly”].

 

I think Candyland were signed to Fiction records, just like The Cure. Now I think that The Cure are a great video band who, along with Madness, are probably the best video act from the 1980s. In comparison to The Banshees, many more videos come easily to mind, the majority of which would have been directed by Tim Pope.

 

The only other video by Siouxsie that instantly comes to mind would be the one for “Dear Prudence” which also features as a bonus on the ‘Nocturne’ DVD. I do not know if you own the ‘Nocturne’ DVD as well, but there is a very odd video-film as part of the extras that also features Robert Smith as part of The Glove, which is like a demented version of Alice In Wonderland.

 

Another ‘Goth’ act that I liked in the 1980s was The Sisters Of Mercy and a child I used to think that the video for “Dominion” was great. This was the video where Andrew Eldritch and Patricia Morrison [who at the time I thought was actually called ‘Morticia’] were shown in the desert, somewhere in the Middle East, all dressed in white. I guess this is also a reason why the video sticks in my mind as I would usually associate Goth acts with wearing black in Leeds city centre.

 

By the way, if you are wondering why earlier, when I mentioned The Cure and Madness, that I did not mention Depeche Mode as being ‘the best video act from the 1980s’ as well, then I would probably say that their catalogue of videos from the 1990s was actually better overall. I do not know if anybody else would agree or disagree with me on this fact, but as far as memorable videos go, I think it this point can also be applied to the Pet Shop Boys, even when regarding the tracks from the 'Television' VHS compilation, of which I am very fond of.

 

Loz

 

Kate Bush deserves a mention for best video artist of the 80s.

 

Babooshka, Breathing, Army Dreamers, Suspended in Gaffa, The Dreaming, Sat In Your Lap, There Goes A Tenner, Running Up That Hill, Cloudbusting, Experiment IV are all great.

 

Even the iffy vids like Big Sky, Sensual World and Hounds Of Love aren't bad and at least have imagination

 

 

Also with the Banshees, truth is they didn't have big hits so didn't get their vids seen often but there are some really good ones too -

Peek a Boo, Happy House, Spellbound, Fireworks.

 

 

Ultravox did some good video work - Vienna, Loves greta Adventure, Hymn, Thin Wall, Voice etc

 

 

Frankie Goes To Hollywood did at least two stone cold classic videos.

 

Peter Gabriel has great vids besides Sledgehammer - Big Time I always preferred, plus Shock The Monkey, Don't Give Up.

 

 

For me though best vid ever - Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy as well

Kate Bush deserves a mention for best video artist of the 80s.

 

Babooshka, Breathing, Army Dreamers, Suspended in Gaffa, The Dreaming, Sat In Your Lap, There Goes A Tenner, Running Up That Hill, Cloudbusting, Experiment IV are all great.

 

Even the iffy vids like Big Sky, Sensual World and Hounds Of Love aren't bad and at least have imagination

Also with the Banshees, truth is they didn't have big hits so didn't get their vids seen often but there are some really good ones too -

Peek a Boo, Happy House, Spellbound, Fireworks.

Ultravox did some good video work - Vienna, Loves greta Adventure, Hymn, Thin Wall, Voice etc

Frankie Goes To Hollywood did at least two stone cold classic videos.

 

Peter Gabriel has great vids besides Sledgehammer - Big Time I always preferred, plus Shock The Monkey, Don't Give Up.

For me though best vid ever - Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy as well

 

Agree about Kate Bush - the true video trailblazer from the 80s in my eyes. Also agree with The Sensual World - an absolutely orgasmic song (mmmmmmmmh yes :P ), but why oh why did she feel the need to use a fake forest? I remember reading the actor Guy Pearce is a massive Kate fan and he bid on the actual dress she wore in that video and bought it.

 

Peek-a-boo, apart from being my favourite ever Banshees track, was also a fantastic video - so ahead of its time, both song and promo.

 

And Come to Daddy is brilliant - another example of the genius of director Chris Cunningham.

I just remember the image of Siouxsie dressed as that kind of ‘vampire Catwoman’ with the rings on her hand which were actually silver claws.

I think Budgie and Severin may have been shown briefly in the background, though I will need to look at the video again.

 

I think those gorgeous rings she wears were by Vivienne Westwood.... a huge health hazard, but stunning all the same ;) The other two are in the video - not much, though.

 

Another ‘Goth’ act that I liked in the 1980s was The Sisters Of Mercy and a child I used to think that the video for “Dominion” was great. This was the video where Andrew Eldritch and Patricia Morrison [who at the time I thought was actually called ‘Morticia’] were shown in the desert, somewhere in the Middle East, all dressed in white. I guess this is also a reason why the video sticks in my mind as I would usually associate Goth acts with wearing black in Leeds city centre.

 

Great video - as was This Corrosion.

 

I don't remember Candyland at all..... the only Candyland I know was the Ian McCulloch / Elizabeth Fraser single.... which was magnificent.

 

I agree about the Depeche videos - whilst I think Anton Corbijn's work can be very dour, bland and samey, especially his grainy photography, some of the videos he did for DM were great. Other great Depeche videos... Only When I Lose Myself, Shake The Disease (one of my favourites by them) and It's Called A Heart.

You have lots of obvious people like Madonna, Michael, Duran Duran. But plenty of other artists made MTV into what it used to be. Eurythmics, Bananarama, Culture Club & the first ever female performer aired on MTV, Pat Benatar.

I think those gorgeous rings she wears were by Vivienne Westwood.... a huge health hazard, but stunning all the same ;) The other two are in the video - not much, though.

Great video - as was This Corrosion.

 

I don't remember Candyland at all..... the only Candyland I know was the Ian McCulloch / Elizabeth Fraser single.... which was magnificent.

 

I agree about the Depeche videos - whilst I think Anton Corbijn's work can be very dour, bland and samey, especially his grainy photography, some of the videos he did for DM were great. Other great Depeche videos... Only When I Lose Myself, Shake The Disease (one of my favourites by them) and It's Called A Heart.

 

 

I like both the Cocteau Twins and The Bunnymen, but that McCulloch/Fraser single does not come to mind as I only started to like those acts in the 1990s, around the time that McCulloch’s ‘Mysterio’ album and the “Lover Lover Lover” single was released.

 

I think the lead singer of Echo & The Bunnymen was called Noel at that time, as McCulloch had left for his solo career, and I think they may have gone indie-dance by that time, as I remember their album cover was very ‘psychedelic’ looking. I guess it was no wonder why Echo & The Bunnymen reformed in the mid 1990s with McCulloch on vocals, as apart they were not entirely successful.

 

If I remember correctly I think that the McCulloch/Fraser single only got to number 75 and so I think that they were actually listed as one of the ‘most unsuccessful one hit wonders’ in the Guinness Hit Singles Book, alongside Fish & Tony Banks.

 

I think the Guinness Hit Singles Book was edited by Mike Reid, Tim Rice & Paul Gambaccini at that point, a role they did ever since they invented the first edition back in the 1970s. When they stopped their involvement in the mid 1990s, the new editors thought it was dumb to this list these collaborations as separate acts and so that single was put under McCulloch’s solo list.

 

The band Candyland nearly featured on the list of ‘most unsuccessful one hit wonders’ as well, but their single “Fountain Of Youth”, charted a few places higher. Even though I still have their album somewhere at home [which has a purple banana on the front], I do not remember this single as well as “Bittermoon”, as it was not a record that was ever promoted much on TV. I thought that “Bittermoon” should have been a bigger hit, especially since the video was shown a few times on The Chart Show.

 

I do not know if the members of Candyland went on to form any other groups and unlike The Apples, who did have only one hit at Number 75 with “Eye Wonder”, I do not think they would have been people in the 1980s that we should have known about [The Apples featured members of Win and so probably members of The Fire Engines as well].

 

In regards to Depeche Mode, it has been many years since I have played all the early videos as they are all on a VHS and the DVD that I normally watch starts in 1986 with the ‘Music For The Masses’ tracks. The fact that it is on VHS is one reason why I have not bothered playing that collection in the last 10 years and also because I think that most of the videos feature Dave Gahan’s ‘specialised’ dancing style, which is very nearly of the Hugh Dennis kind [from The Mary Whitehouse Experience years].

 

Even though they were made a few years before his ‘Rock God’ period, from what I can remember I do not think “Shake The Disease” or “It's Called A Heart” featured any of this ‘embarrassing dad’ dancing. I cannot remember which of these two songs it was, but I remember that one was shot all at night under floodlights in a kind of corn field. That was probably the best video on the collection [‘Some Great Videos’].

 

In a way similar to the dance of Dave Gahan [and the ‘stage presence’ of other 1980s stars such as Andy Bell and Jim Kerr] as a child I thought that it was easy to mimic the movements of Kate Bush, which would be done by waving your arms about in a circular fashion whilst singing “Wow”. Even though that association has held firm in my mind from a very young age, I cannot be sure if I ever saw the original video to “Wow” or whether the mannerisms that I remember were actually taken from a parody by someone like Pamela Stevenson on ‘Not The Nine O’Clock News’.

 

Now that I have mentioned Not The Nine O’Clock News, I think I should mention “Nice Video Shame About The Song” at this point, even though it is an obvious reference to make. From what I remember about the sketch, I think was actually a parody of a New Romantic video like Bowie’s “Ashes To Ashes” and even though I cannot be certain of the year it was actually first broadcast, I think it may date from 1981, a period that featured many videos shot in studios that should actually be a 'Nice Song Shame About The Video' category.

 

I am trying to think of words to describe the ‘visual texture’ of these videos, though as I am having difficulty, maybe somebody else could come up with a good critique of the style and look that I am thinking about. The videos that I am remembering now include ABC’s “The Look Of Love” and a number of early Soft Cell videos like “Tainted Love”, which was so bad, it was replaced by a much better video in 1991 that made it on Marc Almond’s video hits collection.

 

I do not know if anybody else remembers that Monty Python sketch where they all looked out of the window and found that they were surrounded by ‘film’? That sketch made a point about all those old comedy shows showing a marked difference in definition between the interior studio shots recorded onto video and the outside footage shot on film. I think this difference is also apparent if you watch pop videos from the early 1980s, especially if you were to view a video like “The Look Of Love” and then watched “Ghost Town” by The Specials. Even though both are great records, the ABC video spoils your enjoyment of the track, whilst the “Ghost Town” video is still as ‘gritty’ as it was in the 1980s and really helps to promote the message of the track very well.

 

ABC, The Specials and David Bowie are all artists that I enjoy, so it is easy to pick out dreadful videos that they have made from their wonderful back catalogue and I guess that everybody on here who has mentioned a favourite video, has mentioned it because it is an artist or record that they like in the first place.

 

I suppose if a song was recorded by someone like Michael Bolton or Stock Aiken Waterman, and that song had the best video ever made, I doubt if anybody would want to remember it, let alone admit how good the video was, because the song and artist will always be the most important factor. Even though that was an ‘extreme’ example, I cannot think of any videos that would fall into that “Nice Video Shame About The Song” criteria and I do not know if anybody else could think of any examples. If you can, please post your examples here as I will be very interested to see what you can come up with.

 

Loz

 

I suppose if a song was recorded by someone like Michael Bolton or Stock Aiken Waterman, and that song had the best video ever made, I doubt if anybody would want to remember it, let alone admit how good the video was, because the song and artist will always be the most important factor. Even though that was an ‘extreme’ example, I cannot think of any videos that would fall into that “Nice Video Shame About The Song” criteria and I do not know if anybody else could think of any examples. If you can, please post your examples here as I will be very interested to see what you can come up with.

 

Loz

For me pretty much anything by Robbie Williams. I can't stand the guy or his music but he has done some videos that are pretty strong - Rock DJ, Tripping, Love Supreme and I've always liked Sexed Up too

 

I'd also add a fair few by Michael Jackson too but that's probably just me.

 

 

Oh and the NTNON sketch you refer to the band was called Lufthansa Terminal

 

If I remember correctly I think that the McCulloch/Fraser single only got to number 75 and so I think that they were actually listed as one of the ‘most unsuccessful one hit wonders’ in the Guinness Hit Singles Book, alongside Fish & Tony Banks.

The band Candyland nearly featured on the list of ‘most unsuccessful one hit wonders’ as well, but their single “Fountain Of Youth”, charted a few places higher. Even though they were made a few years before his ‘Rock God’ period, from what I can remember I do not think “Shake The Disease” or “It's Called A Heart” featured any of this ‘embarrassing dad’ dancing. I cannot remember which of these two songs it was, but I remember that one was shot all at night under floodlights in a kind of corn field. That was probably the best video on the collection [‘Some Great Videos’].

 

In a way similar to the dance of Dave Gahan [and the ‘stage presence’ of other 1980s stars such as Andy Bell and Jim Kerr] as a child I thought that it was easy to mimic the movements of Kate Bush, which would be done by waving your arms about in a circular fashion whilst singing “Wow”. Even though that association has held firm in my mind from a very young age, I cannot be sure if I ever saw the original video to “Wow” or whether the mannerisms that I remember were actually taken from a parody by someone like Pamela Stevenson on ‘Not The Nine O’Clock News’.

 

It wasn't a big hit at all, the McCulloch / Fraser duet, but it remains a very great record. Another Fraser collaboration worth checking out is the beautiful 'Downside Up', which she recorded with Peter Gabriel - there's a great live version on YouTube - absolutely lovely. Probably the best known of her collabs was her one with Craig Armstrong, the impossibly gorgeous 'This Love', which has been featured in several movies, most well known of these being Cruel Intentions from 1999. If you don't know the song, it's definitely worth checking on YouTube - stunning stuff.

 

Candyland.... I have a vague memory of a Smash Hits poster of them - were they kind of Madchester-ish? Baggies? And one of them with a bleached mop top haircut? Don't remember their music at all though...

 

The video by Depeche in the cornfield was It's Called a Heart, you're right - one of their weaker singles, but a great video all the same. Shake The Disease was the one with the band on wasteland, Martin Gore in a leather miniskirt, and it used some pretty, for the tiome, innovative camera work - I think the band actually had cameras strapped to their heads as they were moved upside down.

 

And I remember 'comedienne' (I use the term loosely) Faith Brown used to impersonate Kate Bush, too..... the kookiest of all the Bush videos, dancing wise, was Hammer Horror, I thought very clever and again miles ahead of its time, just her and a black-clad dancer doing a dance routine with Kate looking rather delicious.

Hammer Horror is hugely underrated both as a song and video

It wasn't a big hit at all, the McCulloch / Fraser duet, but it remains a very great record. Another Fraser collaboration worth checking out is the beautiful 'Downside Up', which she recorded with Peter Gabriel - there's a great live version on YouTube - absolutely lovely. Probably the best known of her collabs was her one with Craig Armstrong, the impossibly gorgeous 'This Love', which has been featured in several movies, most well known of these being Cruel Intentions from 1999. If you don't know the song, it's definitely worth checking on YouTube - stunning stuff.

 

Candyland.... I have a vague memory of a Smash Hits poster of them - were they kind of Madchester-ish? Baggies? And one of them with a bleached mop top haircut? Don't remember their music at all though...

 

The video by Depeche in the cornfield was It's Called a Heart, you're right - one of their weaker singles, but a great video all the same. Shake The Disease was the one with the band on wasteland, Martin Gore in a leather miniskirt, and it used some pretty, for the tiome, innovative camera work - I think the band actually had cameras strapped to their heads as they were moved upside down.

 

And I remember 'comedienne' (I use the term loosely) Faith Brown used to impersonate Kate Bush, too..... the kookiest of all the Bush videos, dancing wise, was Hammer Horror, I thought very clever and again miles ahead of its time, just her and a black-clad dancer doing a dance routine with Kate looking rather delicious.

 

Yes, that was indeed Candyland, a band who, whilst not being part of that old ‘Madchester’ scene, were an indie-dance act. I suppose you could say that they were a cross between EMF and Jefferson Airhead, acts who would have been releasing records around the same time as Candyland [i was going to say ‘The Mock Turtles and Jesus Jones’, but as Mike Edwards never gets good press these days, I decided EMF were a better reference]. The guy you remember with the bleached mop top haircut would have been the singer, though I cannot remember his name or what the album was called.

 

I think the album could have been called ‘Kingdom’, after the third single or had something to do with eating sweets. Even if the band used a pun on the phrase Candyland, I do not think the title was as bizarre as ‘Madstock, The Continuing Adventures of Bubble Car Fish’, which was from an album released by fellow indie-dance types Candy Flip.

 

I actually own that Candy Flip album, as it came in one of those American long-boxes that I liked to collect back in the early 1990s and was cheap enough to buy for the one song that I wanted. Even though I hated “Strawberry Fields Forever” I liked their single “Redhills Road”, a song which at the time reminded me of “Save A Prayer” era Duran Duran.

 

In relation to ‘The Greatest Video Ever Made’, I think most people will normally say that the best Duran video is “Save A Prayer, “Rio” or Girls On Film”, all of which would be usually found in those type of lists. I would disagree, even though the first two videos are the kind of ‘luxury travelogues’ that are always strongly associated with Duran Duran.

 

I would say that their best video is “All She Wants Is…” which was a completely animated video. It was done in a way similar to the ‘cut-away’ shots in the “New Sensation” video by INXS, whereby you move a band member one way and a florescence light the other, shot-by-shot. I think INXS and Duran also used the same video director a couple of times in the 1980s and his name was Russell, though it was not the same guy who created the “All She Wants Is…” video. This person also directed the last Arcadia video using the same visual effects but “All She Wants Is…” is the better song.

 

Another 1980s act that I remember having very watchable videos was Talk Talk. This was because most of their videos were directed by Tim Pope, who also directed all The Cure videos in the 1980s, as well as other ‘natural history’ shoots such as “Charlton Heston” by Stump [the video that included a million frogs].

 

One video that I did not like by Talk Talk, was the one where they are all standing in a field, on a farm at about 6am in the morning. It would have been alright if it was a straight performance piece, but there were parts in the video where the music stops and the band start doing these ‘comedy interludes’. Not only does Mark Hollis speak into the camera, saying something like “Cor blimey Gov’nor look at my trousers”, but the song is repeated three times on the video collection, as the band have shot alternate back-to-back versions of the video, in the same location, within a time period of about 30 minutes.

 

I do not think there is any similar problems with Peter Gabriel as all his videos are usually faultless. I would say that he is definitely an artist whose work I was introduced to by the medium of video [“Sledgehammer”, “Big Time” etc].

 

Even though I own his video collection on DVD and VHS, I have never got around to buying any of his albums from before 1986, whether solo or with Genesis [i suppose also due the Phil Collins association problem], and generally I am not too good at remembering album tracks on a day-to-day basis.

 

“Downside Up” is not a record that comes to mind but I may have that track on the “Ovo” album, as I know that album features many guest vocalists such as Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile. Buchanan also appears on my Craig Armstrong album as well, doing an orchestral version of "Let's Go Out Tonight" [one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite albums].

 

“This Love” also appears on that album, but I have not listened to the album yet as I think most of the tracks will be instrumental pieces from films that Armstrong has scored. I do not fancy listening to an album like that at the moment, as I prefer listening to compilation albums by artists, such as The Wedding Present, where I know many of their hits. The Wedding Present’s ‘Ye Ye’ singles collection was the album that I listed to last night, but I do not know how any of their videos would go.

 

I do not know if you remember any of the videos from their monthly singles campaign of 1992, but I think that all 12 videos from that ‘Hit Parade’ series have now been re-issued onto DVD [‘Dick York’s Wardrobe’]. I would quite like to buy that DVD as I only ever bought the vinyl singles the first time around. Even though I would like a Wedding Present DVD collection, I am worried that it will be a waste of money. I fear that the promos could be the kind of scrappy camcorder recordings that you would get on the Chart Show’s Indie Chart in 1986 when there were no Mute Records releases to be played, the kind of videos that would only usually be good enough for bonus footage. I have bought DVDs like that before and do not wish to waste my money again, so if you remember what they were like I would be very grateful indeed.

 

Loz

 

 

Was the Duran director Russell Mucahy? And I agree, the videos from that era were great - in fact, one of my favourite Duran records was from that Big Noise (?) period - 'Do You Believe In Shame?' whhich, alongwith 'Come Undone' was, IMO, their career highlight - but hardly set the charts alight.

 

I'd say the best Duran video was for 'The Chauffeur' - again, a fantastic song.... the video, all in black and white, with the girl in the back of the car getting eyed up by the chauffeur in the front seat... who turns out to be female, too. Lots of nipples and strange dancing - sexist as hell - but a very gorgeously shot video.

 

Wedding Present - I can't ever say I was a fan of them to be honest..... always seemed a bit loud, laddy and jangly for me...?

 

And Talk Talk - surely, alongwith Squeeze and XTC, Britain's most underrated band of all time.

Was the Duran director Russell Mucahy? And I agree, the videos from that era were great - in fact, one of my favourite Duran records was from that Big Noise (?) period - 'Do You Believe In Shame?' whhich, alongwith 'Come Undone' was, IMO, their career highlight - but hardly set the charts alight.

 

I'd say the best Duran video was for 'The Chauffeur' - again, a fantastic song.... the video, all in black and white, with the girl in the back of the car getting eyed up by the chauffeur in the front seat... who turns out to be female, too. Lots of nipples and strange dancing - sexist as hell - but a very gorgeously shot video.

 

Wedding Present - I can't ever say I was a fan of them to be honest..... always seemed a bit loud, laddy and jangly for me...?

 

And Talk Talk - surely, alongwith Squeeze and XTC, Britain's most underrated band of all time.

 

 

Yes, Russell Mucahy is the director’s name, though I thought it could be Russell Malachy or Russell Mullhern. “The Chauffeur” is one of my favourite early Duran songs as well, alongside “Save A Prayer”, and yes, those other songs that you mention are very much under-rated.

 

I do not remember the video for “Do You Believe In Shame?” as it is not included on their ‘Greatest’ singles DVD. Thankfully, it looks like EMI will be re-issuing Duran Duran’s entire back catalogue as 2CD/DVD sets so I will be able to get the videos on those releases when they come out. ‘Notorious’ should be next as they are already up to the Arcadia album. I do not know if they will bother re-issuing The Power Station album as well, though obviously Robert Palmer should have been already mentioned in this list for his female video backing band.

 

“Do You Believe In Shame?” is from the Duran album called ‘Big Thing’, so I think you might be remembering The Age Of Chance instead. I think their album may have been called ‘Big Noise’ after one of their singles which had the title “Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Noise”. I remember that the covers for ‘Big Thing’ and The Age Of Chance would have been similar, as both artworks featured a lot of brightly covered type.

 

I like The Age Of Chance’s VHS, even though it is only 10 minutes long. Thankfully I did not pay the original £10.99 asking price for it, as I picked it up when it was only a pound in the Virgin Megastore sale. As well as “Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Noise”, the VHS features the videos for “Kiss” and “Don’t Get Mad…Get Even”.

 

At that point The Age Of Chance reminded me of an indie-dance-punk ABC at the point where Fry & White had David Yarratu and Eden in the line up [‘Zillionaire’]. I think that The Age Of Chance should have been as big as PWEI or Jesus Jones, as a record like “Info-freako” sounds quite similar to the Sheffield group.

 

The Age Of Chance album that I own is the one that they released in 1990 after changing singers. From what I can remember of the album, I think it sounded very much like a male-fronted version of ‘1234’, the album released by Propaganda in the same year [i suppose you could say they were not the ‘real’ Propaganda at that point as only one member was left from the ZTT days].

 

In regards to Talk Talk, Squeeze and XTC, I can only agree with you as they are bands that I like and their singles are always very welcome when I hear them on the radio [though ‘Absolute 80s’ should play more of their tunes].

 

I came to XTC quite late so I cannot remember any of their videos apart from the one for “Dear God”. This video is still a very vague memory in my mind and from what I can remember it could be a Talk Talk video that I am thinking of.

 

All I remember is that the video features somebody standing in a field under a tree. I think that this person starts off as a boy who ‘turns’ into Andy Partridge as the video progresses. I cannot remember anything else about the video apart from that and the fact that the boy reappears at the end of the shoot.

 

I do not think there were any DVDs ever released by XTC, which is a shame. On the other hand, there were loads released by Squeeze, of which I own a few different re-issued video collections.

 

Of their early videos, it is the one for “Cool For Cats” that comes to mind first, though generally the videos by Squeeze that are easily remembered, are the ones released from the ‘Babylon & On” album. I think it is because the videos for songs like “Hourglass” and “Trust Me To Open My Mouth” are quite ‘wacky’ and that is why those videos are so memorable for me. I think you could say at this point, Squeeze had become more like Madness and [The] Madness had become more like Squeeze.

 

I think a lot of these videos may have been influenced by the television career of Jools Holland, who I seem to remember collaborating with people like Vic Reeves and Roland Rivron at that time. In the video for the single “8535937”, Holland is replaced by a cardboard cut out as he was making a comedy show and therefore was unavailable for filming. At the time I think he was recording the show where he meets an alien and the two of them go off on a journey around Britain, travelling in a modified Rolls Royce that has a squashed roof. I do not know if you remember this show but it used to be on Channel 4 late at night, which after his live link ‘slip-up’ was the only place Channel 4 would dare put him.

 

I remember watching ‘The Tube’ and know that they used to make a lot of videos for new acts that they had discovered. I have regularly seen the videos they made for The Proclaimers and Frankie Goes To Hollywood [perhaps one of the most important videos of the 1980s, more important than the two videos ZTT released for Frankie], but I cannot remember any other acts, so if anybody else can remember who they saw on The Tube, please let me know in this thread.

 

Loz