22nd April 1980

 

2 weeks for Madness on their Nightboat To Cairo, as Dexy’s and Blondie threaten, 2 UK chart-toppers but only one will top my chart too. Place your bets... Highest new entry is the late great Errol Brown with Hot Chocolate, in at 10 for 10 years of top 10 hits, with the spooky, moody, synthy No Doubt About It, all very much about UFO’s. While I don’t believe for a single second in actual alien visitors (I’ll do an essay on it one day, but basically people don’t really grasp how mindbogglingly MASSIVE the universe is) I do very much love the idea of it, and always will. I love this record, one of their great ones.

 

The Buggles get a third top 20, clean, cleaning the charts, and Rupert Holmes gets a third top 20, too. Ooh, get Him. In at 19, Macca is back with a bang, the amusing popstar video pastiche (all of them Paul in disguise, including as his young Beatles self) didn’t hurt the delightful riffy, poppy, synthy, catchy Coming Up, a sudden change in direction for his first real solo album in a decade, as Wings had started to get a bit plodding, give or take the odd single. America, though, didn’t know what to make with the new Macca and opted for a Live Wings B-side version as the A side. It’s just not as good, I’m afraid, but that didn’t stop it topping the US Hot 100. Motown’s Jimmy Ruffin is also back after a 5-year lay-off, and ten years after debuting, with his first proper new recording in years, a Robin Gibb song gift as The Bee Gees backlash started to take hold, and they started writing songs for others. The Gibbs, like Jimmy, drifted in and out of fashion, but it made no difference to me whether they sold or didn’t, they were still good throughout, and usually brilliant. Hold On To My Love is merely OK though it was great to have Jimmy back.

 

Elsewhere: Elvis Costello in the 40 again, lots of dance tracks, The Nolans return with a decent pop song, Phil Lynott leaves Lizzy for a bit again, for a spot of lonely heart letter-writing, The Beach Boys revival helps Oh Darling into the chart, off the new album Keepin’ The Summer Alive (frankly not nearly as good as LA (Light Album), Godley And Creme join their ex-10CC chums in the chart with White Boys, their second entry since leaving the band, and a few spot behind Graham Gouldman’s solo movie track. Finally, at 63, a great storming pop debut from Christopher Cross, and his best record by far, the terrific Ride Like The Wind.

 

1 ( 1 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO Madness

2 ( 8 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

3 ( 2 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

4 ( 11 ) CALL ME Blondie

5 ( 4 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

6 ( 6 ) MISSING WORDS The Selecter

7 ( 3 ) TURN IT ON AGAIN Genesis

8 ( 5 ) KOOL IN THE KAFTAN B.A. Robertson

9 ( 7 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

10 ( NEW ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

 

11 ( 13 ) TALK OF THE TOWN The Pretenders

12 ( 9 ) LET’S DO ROCK STEADY The Bodysnatchers

13 ( 28 ) CLEAN CLEAN The Buggles

14 ( 20 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

15 ( 22 ) HIM Rupert Holmes

16 ( 12 ) ECHO BEACH Martha And The Muffins

17 ( 24 ) MY OH MY Sad Cafe

18 ( 10 ) MY WORLD Secret Affair

19 ( NEW ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

20 ( 15 ) ATOMIC Blondie

 

21 ( 18 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

22 ( 36 ) TOCCATA Sky

23 ( 29 ) NO-ONE DRIVING John Foxx

24 ( 17 ) HAPPY HOUSE Siouxsie And The Banshees

25 ( NEW ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

26 ( 14 ) JANUARY FEBRUARY Barbara Dickson

27 ( 25 ) SEXY EYES Dr. Hook

28 ( NEW ) CHECK OUT THE GROOVE Bobby Thurston

29 ( 16 ) POISON IVY The Lambrettas

30 ( 39 ) MY PERFECT COUSIN The Undertones

 

31 ( 23 ) STOMP The Brothers Johnson

32 ( 21 ) SPIRIT OF RADIO Rush

33 ( 19 ) NE-NE-NA-NA-NA-NA-NU-NU Bad Manners

34 ( 42 ) DON’T PUSH IT DON’T FORCE IT Leon Haywood

35 ( 30 ) DANCE YOURSELF DIZZY Liquid Gold

36 ( 35 ) HEARTBREAKER Pat Benatar

37 ( 27 ) CUBA The Gibson Brothers

38 ( 31 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

39 ( 74 ) HIGH-FIDELITY Elvis Costello

40 ( 26 ) TURNING JAPANESE The Vapors

 

41 ( 58 ) ROUGH BOYS Pete Townsend

42 ( 33 ) OUTSIDE MY WINDOW Stevie Wonder

43 ( 32 ) ANOTHER NAIL FOR MY HEART Squeeze

44 ( 37 ) ALL NIGHT LONG Rainbow

45 ( 40 ) DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME Captain and Tennille

46 ( NEW ) LIVE EVERY MINUTE Ali Thomson

47 ( 54 ) TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY Smokie

48 ( 43 ) I HEAR YOU NOW Jon And Vangelis

49 ( 34 ) THE LIQUIDATOR Harry J and The All Stars

50 ( 47 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

 

51 ( 48 ) BRASS IN POCKET The Pretenders

52 ( 51 ) ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2) Pink Floyd

53 ( 50 ) WALKING ON THE MOON The Police

54 ( 38 ) SO LONELY The Police

55 ( 55 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

56 ( 69 ) ALL FOR LEYNA Billy Joel

57 ( NEW ) DON’T MAKE WAVES The Nolans

58 ( 59 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

59 ( 60 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

60 ( 57 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

 

61 ( 62 ) LOVE’S NOT FOR ME (from ANIMALYMPICS) Graham Gouldman

62 ( 41 ) TAKE THAT LOOK OFF YOUR FACE Marti Webb

63 ( NEW ) RIDE LIKE THE WIND Christopher Cross

64 ( 75 ) WHEELS OF STEEL Saxon

65 ( 53 ) CARRIE Cliff Richard

66 ( NEW ) OH DARLING The Beach Boys

67 ( NEW ) ANOTHER MISS LONELY HEART Phil Lynott

68 ( 52 ) ROCK WITH YOU Michael Jackson

69 ( NEW ) WIDE BOY Godley And Creme

70 ( 67 ) SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN The Bee Gees

 

71 ( 49 ) TOO MUCH TOO YOUNG The Special AKA

72 ( 64 ) TUSK Fleetwood Mac

73 ( 44 ) GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS Peter Gabriel

74 ( 65 ) GIMME GIMME GIMME (A MAN AFTER MIDNIGHT) Abba

75 ( 66 ) MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE The Police

 

TV 12-18 Apr

1 Soap

2 The Kenny Everett Video Show

3 Tiswas

4 Not The 9 O’Clock News

5 The Phil Silvers Show

6 The Outer Limits

7 Top Of The Pops

8 Kelly Monteith

9 Halls Of Anger

10 Barney Miller

11 Whicker’s World

12 Butterflies

13 Taxi

14 Wonder Woman

15 Film 80

16 Young Maverick

17 Dallas

18 Happy Days

19 The Banana Splits

20 James Burke

 

 

At home I recorded grandma, down for a week from Liverpool, talking about her ancestors on reel-to-reel. Tragically, after she died in 1989 I couldn’t bring myself to listen to it again, and now the player doesn’t work. I need to find some professional with 4-track facilities to record it for me so I can save it onto CD/DVD. It would be very odd hearing her talk again after all these years.

Oh, and Eurovision Song Contest 1980 on the 19th:

 

My ratings:

 

1.Greece (Anna Vissi) and France (Profil) on 90%

 

3. Italy 89%

4. Ireland 88%

5. UK 87%

6. Netherlands 86%

7. Luxembourg

8. Sweden

9. Belguim

10. Austria

11. Portugal

12. Germany

13. Norway

14. Denmark

15. Turkey

16. Switzerland

17. Spain

18. Morocco

19. Finland

 

Results?

1. Ireland

2. Germany

3. UK

4. Switzerland

5. Netherlands

6. Italy

7. Portugal

8. Austria

9. Luxembourg

10. Sweden

11. France

12. Spain

13. Greece

14. Denmark

15. Turkey

16. Norway

17. Belguim

18. Morocco

19. Finland

 

So, not too far out, except Greece and France my two faves did badly. Just as well, as Johnny Logan was much better (the winner for Ireland)!

29th April 1980

 

Dexy’s Midnight Runners take Geno to the top, back in ‘68 in a sweaty club - I was far too young to know Geno Washington, actually, but this punksoul single was fab. Blondie hit 3, Paul McCartney gets into the top 5 solo for the first time since Another Day hit 1 in 1971, though counting Wings singles he’d done it every year since 1971, and 1968 including Beatles singles. He’s still Coming Up with the goods 12 years on, or 17 years on since they would have made my top 5 had I been charting at age 5.

 

David Essex also gets virtually a top 10 hit each year, as he does it for the 10th time since Rock On debuted in 1973, Silver Dream Racer, though, remains his last really good single, he was merely good from here on. The Pretenders make it 3 top 10’s in a row, The Undertones go top 20, and Pete Townsend goes top 40 with some rough boys, Billy Joel does it too with Leyna, and Smokie with Bobby Vee’s oldie. The Jam, in re-issue fever, get several re-entries in the UK charts and also pop in with 4 older singles, led by Strange Town at 30.

 

Johnny Logan is in at 29, after his winning Eurovision performance for Ireland, What’s Another Year, though? New Musik get a 4th entry with the catchy This World Of Water, new electronic pop music to my ears, at 42, while Phil Spector helps The Ramones to chart at 53 with my fave Ramones single, Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio? No, I’m not that old, but with all the 50’s revivals in the 70’s and 80’s it felt like you were there. Michael Jackson has the 4th single off Off The Wall at 64, and the second best, the actual heart-breaking vocal performance of She’s Out Of My Life, and his most touching vocal since Ain’t No Sunshine in 1972. 2nd hits fro martha And The Muffins, Narada Michael Walden, a welcome return for Average White Band 5 years since Pick Up The Pieces, as the fab Let’s Go Round Again is in at 75, and Kate Bush sneaks in at 71 with the haunting Breathing, complete with nuclear fallout pregnancy video. Yes that old cliched deviant baby topic regularly crops up in pop songs, eh?

 

 

1 ( 2 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

2 ( 1 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO Madness

3 ( 4 ) CALL ME Blondie

4 ( 19 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

5 ( 3 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

6 ( 14 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

7 ( 5 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

8 ( 9 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

9 ( 11 ) TALK OF THE TOWN The Pretenders

10 ( 10 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

 

11 ( 8 ) KOOL IN THE KAFTAN B.A. Robertson

12 ( 7 ) TURN IT ON AGAIN Genesis

13 ( 13 ) CLEAN CLEAN The Buggles

14 ( 6 ) MISSING WORDS The Selecter

15 ( 17 ) MY OH MY Sad Cafe

16 ( 22 ) TOCCATA Sky

17 ( 30 ) MY PERFECT COUSIN The Undertones

18 ( 15 ) HIM Rupert Holmes

19 ( 12 ) LET’S DO ROCK STEADY The Bodysnatchers

20 ( 18 ) MY WORLD Secret Affair

 

21 ( 28 ) CHECK OUT THE GROOVE Bobby Thurston

22 ( 39 ) HIGH-FIDELITY Elvis Costello

23 ( 20 ) ATOMIC Blondie

24 ( 16 ) ECHO BEACH Martha And The Muffins

25 ( 25 ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

26 ( 34 ) DON’T PUSH IT DON’T FORCE IT Leon Haywood

27 ( 21 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

28 ( 41 ) ROUGH BOYS Pete Townsend

29 ( NEW ) WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR Johnny Logan

30 ( NEW ) STRANGE TOWN The Jam

 

31 ( 26 ) JANUARY FEBRUARY Barbara Dickson

32 ( 56 ) ALL FOR LEYNA Billy Joel

33 ( 31 ) STOMP The Brothers Johnson

34 ( 24 ) HAPPY HOUSE Siouxsie And The Banshees

35 ( 47 ) TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY Smokie

36 ( NEW ) DAVID WATTS The Jam

37 ( 29 ) POISON IVY The Lambrettas

38 ( 33 ) NE-NE-NA-NA-NA-NA-NU-NU Bad Manners

39 ( 46 ) LIVE EVERY MINUTE Ali Thomson

40 ( 57 ) DON’T MAKE WAVES The Nolans

 

41 ( 32 ) SPIRIT OF RADIO Rush

42 ( NEW ) THIS WORLD OF WATER New Musik

43 ( 23 ) NO-ONE DRIVING John Foxx

44 ( 27 ) SEXY EYES Dr. Hook

45 ( 38 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

46 ( 35 ) DANCE YOURSELF DIZZY Liquid Gold

47 ( 37 ) CUBA The Gibson Brothers

48 ( 67 ) DEAR MISS LONELY HEART Phil Lynott

49 ( 66 ) OH DARLING The Beach Boys

50 ( 40 ) TURNING JAPANESE The Vapors

 

51 ( 63 ) RIDE LIKE THE WIND Christopher Cross

52 ( 50 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

53 ( NEW ) DO YOU REMEMBER ROCK ‘N’ ROLL RADIO The Ramones

54 ( 48 ) I HEAR YOU NOW Jon And Vangelis

55 ( 55 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

56 ( 58 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

57 ( 59 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

58 ( NEW ) SAIGON Martha And The Muffins

59 ( 53 ) WALKING ON THE MOON The Police

60 ( 52 ) ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2) Pink Floyd

 

61 ( 69 ) WIDE BOY Godley And Creme

62 ( 60 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

63 ( 51 ) BRASS IN POCKET The Pretenders

64 ( NEW ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

65 ( 45 ) DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME Captain and Tennille

66 ( 44 ) ALL NIGHT LONG Rainbow

67 ( NEW ) EASY STREET Sister Sledge

68 ( 43 ) ANOTHER NAIL FOR MY HEART Squeeze

69 ( 64 ) WHEELS OF STEEL Saxon

70 ( NEW ) I SHOULDA LOVED YA Narada Michael Walden

 

71 ( NEW ) BREATHING Kate Bush

72 ( 54 ) SO LONELY The Police

73 ( NEW ) ALL AROUND THE WORLD The Jam

74 ( 36 ) HEARTBREAKER Pat Benatar

75 ( NEW ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

 

 

TV 19-25 Apr

1 Soap

2 Terry Wogan Meets JR

3 The Outer Limits

4 Tiswas

5 Eurovision Song Contest

6 Profile: Mel Brooks

7 Butch Cassidy And The Sundance kid: film

8 Barney Miller

9 Taxi

10 Top Of The Pops

11 Not The 9 O’Clock News

12 Life On Earth

13 Love Story: film

14 The Banana Splits

15 Whicker’s World

 

It was back to College for my final term, which was enormously sad, but it was great to go back to Lincoln and my friends for now though I felt guilty leaving grandma and mum, both wanted me to stay home longer. When we met up for meals some of the girls had new hairdo’s. I made no comment. That’s not always the best course of action, I learned... Ian made a comment, which is worse than making no comment, we both learned.

 

For studies, read a book on LBJ, quite a unique admirable President in so many ways, then played snooker, chatted much on Eurovision, my new popstar cartoon attempts, and especially with Jane and some in-depth great topics (ie me!). Got an assignment back (“very good”) from English Lit, Max my tutor overheard my giving art advice to a second year (Anne) - I’m afraid I can’t do the whole “deep and significant” artist thing, as it’s just too pretentious for me and I cut through the bull. Anyway Max called me “anarchic”, which I choose to take as a compliment as Max was great!

 

Played tennis with Paul’s new girlfriend first year Jenny, and she joined me and the gang for Top Of The Pops in my room. In Art I had to give a lecture on my work, helped by some encouragement from the mature students, and Emma and Jo, then played tennis with Bev - and got beaten. Pah! On the news the Iran situation annoyed me - this one, of course, has just kept on going ever since. On TV Tiswas was hilarious and manic, and packed full of stars, while in Lincoln town I bumped into 2 school teachers from 6th form, Mr Dodd and Mr Cant and in the evening Saturday dave and jane had a Chinese-meal-themed party.

6th May 1980

Geno gets a 2nd week on top for Dexy’s, as Paul McCartney gets his 3rd number 2 with Coming Up, and Hot Chocolate go top 5 for the first time in 2 years. Sky and Sad Cafe sneak into the top 10, both with their most successful records, and New Musik shoot up the rapids of their world of water to 11, their 3rd top 40 in a row. Kate Bush is breathing heavily, meanwhile, at 22 after climbing 49 chart places. Phew!

 

Highest new entry is a 2-year-old track from Don McLean getting some UK chart action after a 5-year gap since the wonderful Wonderful Baby. Crying is an old Roy Orbison hit from before my time, but Don manages the impossible in doing a cover version that is as good as the original Roy version. Slowed-down drastically, it makes the climax even bigger when it comes. So to speak. Fantastic, and over 8 years since Don’s chart debut. The Ramones rock it big into my 30, let’s go! Saxon and Christopher Cross both go top 40 and more Groove-based funk dance tracks enter and climb - clearly, despite the hype in the States, rumours of the death of disco are a bit premature in the UK.

 

New entries: in at 27, The Beat’s best record, the brilliant Mirror In The Bathroom, the ska groove and the urgent sax both fab backdrops to a great song. At 32, it’s a debut for one of the key 80’s bands, The Cure, all goth New Wave in a Siouxsie kinda way, but a bit more acoustic and synthy both. A Forest was a great single, for me it sounded like nothing else, which is always a bonus. At 51, Man Tran are back and in a dancee-stylee a world away from the 1940’s-era beginnings - what they’d lost in retro charm they’d gained in using the theme tune to the fab Twilight Zone TV series as a backdrop to a disco tune.

 

At 70, Air Supply debut with the gorgeous ballad Lost In Love, an Aussie band who just went very well on American radio, the delicious melody of this track was just such a delight I still can’t believe this record flopped when the less-good follow-up hit. A good vocal performance didn’t hurt either. In the bottom 5, a clutch of lesser punk-new wave tracks, all a bit late for the punk party, including the old Jam track back again, and not for the last time.

 

 

1 ( 1 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

2 ( 4 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

3 ( 3 ) CALL ME Blondie

4 ( 2 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO Madness

5 ( 10 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

6 ( 6 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

7 ( 5 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

8 ( 7 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

9 ( 16 ) TOCCATA Sky

10 ( 15 ) MY OH MY Sad Cafe

 

11 ( 42 ) THIS WORLD OF WATER New Musik

12 ( 14 ) MISSING WORDS The Selecter

13 ( 12 ) TURN IT ON AGAIN Genesis

14 ( 11 ) KOOL IN THE KAFTAN B.A. Robertson

15 ( 17 ) MY PERFECT COUSIN The Undertones

16 ( 8 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

17 ( 29 ) WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR Johnny Logan

18 ( 9 ) TALK OF THE TOWN The Pretenders

19 ( 25 ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

20 ( 21 ) CHECK OUT THE GROOVE Bobby Thurston

 

 

 

21 ( 13 ) CLEAN CLEAN The Buggles

22 ( 71 ) BREATHING Kate Bush

23 ( NEW ) CRYING Don McLean

24 ( 35 ) TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY Smokie

25 ( 53 ) DO YOU REMEMBER ROCK ‘N’ ROLL RADIO The Ramones

26 ( 26 ) DON’T PUSH IT DON’T FORCE IT Leon Haywood

27 ( NEW ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

28 ( 70 ) I SHOULDA LOVED YA Narada Michael Walden

29 ( 27 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

30 ( 23 ) ATOMIC Blondie

 

 

31 ( 20 ) MY WORLD Secret Affair

32 ( NEW ) A FOREST The Cure

33 ( 19 ) LET’S DO ROCK STEADY The Bodysnatchers

34 ( NEW ) THE GROOVE Rodney Franklin

35 ( 18 ) HIM Rupert Holmes

36 ( 38 ) NE-NE-NA-NA-NA-NA-NU-NU Bad Manners

37 ( 40 ) DON’T MAKE WAVES The Nolans

38 ( 69 ) WHEELS OF STEEL Saxon

39 ( 39 ) LIVE EVERY MINUTE Ali Thomson

40 ( 51 ) RIDE LIKE THE WIND Christopher Cross

 

 

41 ( 28 ) ROUGH BOYS Pete Townsend

42 ( 31 ) JANUARY FEBRUARY Barbara Dickson

43 ( 30 ) STRANGE TOWN The Jam

44 ( 32 ) ALL FOR LEYNA Billy Joel

45 ( 24 ) ECHO BEACH Martha And The Muffins

46 ( NEW ) FOOL FOR YOUR LOVING Whitesnake

47 ( 64 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

48 ( 48 ) DEAR MISS LONELY HEART Phil Lynott

49 ( 33 ) STOMP The Brothers Johnson

50 ( 45 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

 

51 ( NEW ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

52 ( 58 ) SAIGON Martha And The Muffins

53 ( 34 ) HAPPY HOUSE Siouxsie And The Banshees

54 ( 56 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

55 ( 57 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

56 ( 55 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

57 ( 22 ) HIGH-FIDELITY Elvis Costello

58 ( 59 ) WALKING ON THE MOON The Police

59 ( 41 ) SPIRIT OF RADIO Rush

60 ( 52 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

 

61 ( 54 ) I HEAR YOU NOW Jon And Vangelis

62 ( 37 ) POISON IVY The Lambrettas

63 ( 36 ) DAVID WATTS The Jam

64 ( 60 ) ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2) Pink Floyd

65 ( 75 ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

66 ( 62 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

67 ( 67 ) EASY STREET Sister Sledge

68 ( 47 ) CUBA The Gibson Brothers

69 ( 46 ) DANCE YOURSELF DIZZY Liquid Gold

70 ( NEW ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

 

 

71 ( NEW ) IN THE CITY The Jam

72 ( NEW ) STARING AT THE RUDE BOYS The Ruts

73 ( 50 ) TURNING JAPANESE The Vapors

74 ( NEW ) SOMETHING’S MISSING The Chords

75 ( NEW ) THE GREATEST COCKNEY RIP-OFF The Cockney Rejects

 

TV Apr 26 - May 2

1 Tiswas

2 Soap

3 Barney Miller

4 Top Of The Pops

5 Life On Earth

6 Not The 9’O Clock News

7 Taxi

8 The Outer Limits

9 Tribute To Alfred Hitchcock

10 Wonder Woman

 

 

Back in my world, I was still enjoying my random visits from friends on Teaching Practice while I was lecture-based and a bit bored at so much time to myself, especially Ian and Pete getting to go out to the same schools, leaving me feeling left-out. Oh poor me, get over it! I played tennis, snooker, and heard the news Alfred Hitchcock, horror-drama Director-extraordinaire had died. I grew up watching his TV series too, repeated in Singapore, and he was quite the character. I read Animal Farm, ooh little bit of social politics going on, and had an American Studies exam. I drew some animals for school work cards for Sue, and Jane and Pete and myself took the piss out of the piss-poor News At Ten scripts, depressing and trashy.

 

Mr Davies tried to persuade me to get into playwriting as a career, in Literature, really bigging me up. Pity I give up so easily....! More realistic he suggested teaching Secondary School, journalism and creative writing. I did try journalism and writing to be fair to me, for 2 years, before I realised I was getting nowhere. And so are dreams shattered! One of my school-teachers, Miss Goodrich, had called me “bright” - modesty aside, I am, but I have real flaws of character that stop me achieving. Doh! All that talk of careers gave me a bad night of stomach trouble. On TV the last of the series for Tiswas was a fab highlights episode. I AM bright, honestly, custard pies, flam flingers and celebrities up for a laugh, what’s not to love!

 

At the cinema, I saw Spielberg’s sprawling College comedy 1941: some good one-liners, some good scenes, impressive sets, but ultimately not in the same league as Animal House as the characters were insane, not rebellious. A lot of the humour came over a bit forced. I opined: “Belushi was a twat, Robert Stack stole the film without trying” and overall I was massively disappointed after my all-time fave film Close Encounters that we got this effort. I haven’t seen it in decades, much like the rest of the world, I think!

13th May 1980

 

One of my fave bands of the 70’s dabble with a UFO sci-fi-themed atmospheric synth-heavy-ballad - of course it was going to top my chart! Errol was a pop hero of mine, and a throughly ego-free varied talent, No Doubt About It - and this was Hot Chocolate’s 10th year of charting, a 9-year span of number ones, and yet only their 3rd chart-topper to date. Don McLean is up to 4, his highest chart position to date, and New Musik get a second top 10, and The Beat rocket to 10, with that mirror in the bathroom reflecting their achievement. Ouch!

 

Michael Jackson finally gets moving and She’s Out Of My Life leaps to 13, the fourth top 20 track off Off The Wall, Kate Bush, The Cure and errr Smokie, go top 20. By this stage Smokie had a good 5-year run of singles, few of them classic pop records, but always OK. The Cure were now starting a good run of singles themselves, many of them minor classics. Highest new entry is the VERY familiar theme tune from the brilliant MASH TV show - but the original ‘Suicide Is Painless’ vocal version from the anti-establishment anti-war 1970 movie cult classic, and which was quite old-fashioned easy-listening 60’s sounding but the odd lyrics gave it a depressing edge which I can’t listen to anymore. Not least bearing in mind the suicide of Ritchie from Manic Street Preachers who covered the song. In the movie Painless was a dentist who felt sorry for himself, and they dragged him out of his self-pity attempted suicide with comedy. In the real world, I can’t condone lyrics that might be taken to view it as an option for depression and mental illness.

 

In at 26, Mystic Merlin, a sort of magic show sultry soul act, I love the vocals and the sexy sax, and the slow-build to a great song with a great chorus climax. Just Can’t Give You Up, I can’t. A cut above most of the dance tracks in the UK chart at the time. In at 38, a great reggae social commentary song from Junior Murvin, Police And Thieves is still delicious, a great vocal, a fab groove, and good lyrics. TV’s Tiswas was a huge fave of mine. I also loved boyhood band fave The Scaffold, 60’s hitmakers of Lily The Pink fame. I can’t excuse The Four Bucketeers novelty hit at 40, though, Chris Tarrant, Bob Carolgees and Sally James, and Scaffold’s John Junkin notwithstanding!

 

At 44, a huge departure in sound from Jona Lewie, a subdued synth riff backdrop for a semi-novelty lyric that also hit home to shrinking violets like me, who often liked to move out of the front room in parties! Jona was previously known for his alter ego Terry Dactyl And The Dinosaurs and their retro-sounding Seaside Shuffle Top 3 hit in 1972, accordion-tastic novelty fun, so I was delighted to welcome him back on Top Of The Pops, backed (it became obvious in later years) by Kirsty MacColl.

 

2 brand new debuts, key bands of the 80’s for me, OMD at 55 with the awesome Messages, an exciting, frantic new synthpop sound that blew me away, it sounded faaaabulous loud. The other synth band had a lower-profile debut with an EP that centred around a synth version of Gary Glitter’s best record (far and away) Rock And Roll. It’s not as classic as the original, but has it’s charm and Phil Oakey was star-in-the-making when he popped up on Top Of The Pops, minus the girls, but plus future Heaven 17 members. It didn’t hurt getting name-checked in The Undertones My Perfect Cousin at 14, either...

 

Finally, at 70, Prelude were back 6 years on from covering Neil Young’s After The Goldrush a capella, and doing it beautifully. Platinum Blonde was more orthodox folkrockpop for the time, but was pleasant enough. Motorhead get a 3rd entry, as do Matchbox and their Midnite Dynamos, another slice of rockabilly rambling fun, after the fab Buzz Buzz A Diddle It. Look, it’s fun, OK!? Having a laugh! Kirsty MacColl also joined in on a single with them later in their career. Good enough for me! At 74, Boney M sneak in with My Friend Jack. Frank Farian obviously was a fan of obscure 60’s band The Smoke, and to be honest, so was I - my dad had got hold of a bunch of 45rpm singles stamped “Not For Sale” promo copies around 1966/67, and My Friend Jack was one of them, so it was a song I knew well. The psychedelic pop charm of the original was much better than Boney M’s version, though so that’s the version I’m featuring!

 

 

1 ( 5 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

2 ( 1 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

3 ( 2 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

4 ( 23 ) CRYING Don McLean

5 ( 3 ) CALL ME Blondie

6 ( 4 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO Madness

7 ( 11 ) THIS WORLD OF WATER New Musik

8 ( 6 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

9 ( 8 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

10 ( 27 ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

 

11 ( 7 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

12 ( 9 ) TOCCATA Sky

13 ( 47 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

14 ( 15 ) MY PERFECT COUSIN The Undertones

15 ( 22 ) BREATHING Kate Bush

16 ( 12 ) MISSING WORDS The Selecter

17 ( 17 ) WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR Johnny Logan

18 ( 19 ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

19 ( 32 ) A FOREST The Cure

20 ( 24 ) TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY Smokie

 

21 ( 13 ) TURN IT ON AGAIN Genesis

22 ( 10 ) MY OH MY Sad Cafe

23 ( 14 ) KOOL IN THE KAFTAN B.A. Robertson

24 ( 16 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

25 ( 18 ) TALK OF THE TOWN The Pretenders

26 ( NEW ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

27 ( 51 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

28 ( 28 ) I SHOULDA LOVED YA Narada Michael Walden

29 ( 34 ) THE GROOVE Rodney Franklin

30 ( NEW ) JUST CAN’T GIVE YOU UP Mystic Merlin

 

 

31 ( 37 ) DON’T MAKE WAVES The Nolans

32 ( 75 ) THE GREATEST COCKNEY RIP-OFF The Cockney Rejects

33 ( 72 ) STARING AT THE RUDE BOYS The Ruts

34 ( 20 ) CHECK OUT THE GROOVE Bobby Thurston

35 ( 30 ) ATOMIC Blondie

36 ( 29 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

37 ( 26 ) DON’T PUSH IT DON’T FORCE IT Leon Haywood

38 ( NEW ) POLICE AND THIEVES Junior Murvin

39 ( 46 ) FOOL FOR YOUR LOVING Whitesnake

40 ( NEW ) BUCKET OF WATER SONG The Four Bucketeers

 

 

41 ( 25 ) DO YOU REMEMBER ROCK ‘N’ ROLL RADIO The Ramones

42 ( 21 ) CLEAN CLEAN The Buggles

43 ( 31 ) MY WORLD Secret Affair

44 ( NEW ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE iamspamspamamiAT PARTIES Jona Lewie

45 ( 40 ) RIDE LIKE THE WIND Christopher Cross

46 ( 39 ) LIVE EVERY MINUTE Ali Thomson

47 ( 43 ) STRANGE TOWN The Jam

48 ( 52 ) SAIGON Martha And The Muffins

49 ( 36 ) NE-NE-NA-NA-NA-NA-NU-NU Bad Manners

50 ( 65 ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

 

 

51 ( 38 ) WHEELS OF STEEL Saxon

52 ( 33 ) LET’S DO ROCK STEADY The Bodysnatchers

53 ( 35 ) HIM Rupert Holmes

54 ( 50 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

55 ( NEW ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoevres In The Dark

56 ( 55 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

57 ( 54 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

58 ( 56 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

59 ( NEW ) HOLIDAY EP (ROCK AND ROLL) Human League

60 ( 70 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

 

61 ( 45 ) ECHO BEACH Martha And The Muffins

62 ( 42 ) JANUARY FEBRUARY Barbara Dickson

63 ( 58 ) WALKING ON THE MOON The Police

64 ( 60 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

65 ( 49 ) STOMP The Brothers Johnson

66 ( 71 ) IN THE CITY The Jam

67 ( 66 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

68 ( 61 ) I HEAR YOU NOW Jon And Vangelis

69 ( 64 ) ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2) Pink Floyd

70 ( NEW ) PLATINUM BLONDE Prelude

 

71 ( NEW ) GOLDEN YEARS LIVE EP Motorhead

72 ( NEW ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

73 ( 41 ) ROUGH BOYS Pete Townsend

74 ( NEW ) MY FRIEND JACK Boney M

75 ( 69 ) DANCE YOURSELF DIZZY Liquid Gold

 

 

3rd-9th May TV

1 Soap

2 Tiswas

3 The Outer Limits

4 Barney Miller

5 Not The 9’O Clock News

6 Wonder Woman

7 Top Of The Pops

8 The Banana Splits

9 Taxi

10 Whicker’s World

 

 

In College, I lost at tennis to Joe, watched aTV tribute to the great James Stewart, and was half-way through John Wayne’s Rio Lobo movie when a newsflash about a hostage siege took over the media, hostages shot, SAS sent in, terrorists shot. All very horrifying. I called in on Alan and Helen one evening, Sue popped down another, Jane on Top Of The Pops thursday for an evenings in-depth discussion on all-sorts, Art lecturer Max took me to get some glass cut for my art prints frames, in his van, above and beyond, what a great lecturer! Back home for the weekend in Mansfield, I bought some 1960’s nostalgia first day covers of Battle Of Hastings and snowmen christmas stamps. It’s cool, honest, to collect stamps. In an alternate universe....

20th May 1980

 

2 weeks for Hot Chocolate on top, as The Beat hit 3 in the Bathroom. Kate Bush makes it 5 top 10 out of 6 singles, as Breathing the fall-out in at 6 confirms she can do no wrong. Ditto Michael Jackson, a decade of top 10 hits with me, and still only 21, just like Kate. I was six months older, and not having many chart hits...!

 

Up 49 places to 11, Air Supply’s Lost In Love emotes beautifully upwards, Mystic Merlin abracadabra their way to 13, and in at 20 the highest new entry from Crown Heights Affair, 2 years on from Galaxy Of Love, and now You Gave Me Love, for a massive whooping, guitar riffing, minor disco great. It’s an exciting record, that chorus is just fantastic. In at 23 Roxy Music keep the comeback strong, as they exclaim gently that they are Over You. Well, get you! 8 years of chart entries though, and moving towards classy low-key ballads and wider appeal, but this wasn’t a move I generally approved of, give me early Roxy anyday.

 

Matchbox rockabilly it up into the 40, and entering at 37 it’s Gazza Numan back with a 4th chart hit, We Are Glass, catchy and synthtastic riffs still on form. At 39, the Average White Band finally get into the 40 with the terrif Let’s Go Round Again, and at 47 The Hollies return for the first time in 6 years with the touching ballad Soldier’s Song - a typically lovely orchestral Mike Batt song, and it was great having Allan Clarke’s vocals back, and giving the lads 12 years of chart entries. Others: Peter Gabriel has no self control, Jermaine Jackson is a little more serious thanks to an assist from Stevie Wonder, a reggae version of the TV western Bonanza theme is a bit of ska fun from Carlos Malcolm, Gerry Rafferty walks Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, and there’s a debut entry from Karel Fialka, the catchy The Eyes Have It, emphasis on the “it” - it was to be another 7 years before he got his first proper hit, with a bit of an assist from his own young son, the fab Hey Malcolm!

 

 

1 ( 1 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

2 ( 4 ) CRYING Don McLean

3 ( 10 ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

4 ( 2 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

5 ( 3 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

6 ( 15 ) BREATHING Kate Bush

7 ( 13 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

8 ( 5 ) CALL ME Blondie

9 ( 6 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO Madness

10 ( 7 ) THIS WORLD OF WATER New Musik

 

11 ( 60 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

12 ( 9 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

13 ( 30 ) JUST CAN’T GIVE YOU UP Mystic Merlin

14 ( 8 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

15 ( 28 ) I SHOULDA LOVED YA Narada Michael Walden

16 ( 18 ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

17 ( 19 ) A FOREST The Cure

18 ( 11 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

19 ( 26 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

20 ( NEW ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

 

 

21 ( 31 ) DON’T MAKE WAVES The Nolans

22 ( 12 ) TOCCATA Sky

23 ( NEW ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

24 ( 27 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

25 ( 40 ) BUCKET OF WATER SONG The Four Bucketeers

26 ( 44 ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE iamspamspamamiAT PARTIES Jona Lewie

27 ( 14 ) MY PERFECT COUSIN The Undertones

28 ( 38 ) POLICE AND THIEVES Junior Murvin

29 ( 39 ) FOOL FOR YOUR LOVING Whitesnake

30 ( 33 ) STARING AT THE RUDE BOYS The Ruts

 

 

31 ( 24 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

32 ( 32 ) THE GREATEST COCKNEY RIP-OFF The Cockney Rejects

33 ( 17 ) WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR Johnny Logan

34 ( 29 ) THE GROOVE Rodney Franklin

35 ( 16 ) MISSING WORDS The Selecter

36 ( 72 ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

37 ( NEW ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

38 ( 21 ) TURN IT ON AGAIN Genesis

39 ( 50 ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

40 ( 23 ) KOOL IN THE KAFTAN B.A. Robertson

 

 

41 ( 20 ) TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY Smokie

42 ( 35 ) ATOMIC Blondie

43 ( 25 ) TALK OF THE TOWN The Pretenders

44 ( 36 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

45 ( 22 ) MY OH MY Sad Cafe

46 ( 34 ) CHECK OUT THE GROOVE Bobby Thurston

47 ( NEW ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

48 ( 37 ) DON’T PUSH IT DON’T FORCE IT Leon Haywood

49 ( 49 ) NE-NE-NA-NA-NA-NA-NU-NU Bad Manners

50 ( NEW ) NO SELF CONTROL Peter Gabriel

 

 

51 ( 55 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoevres In The Dark

52 ( NEW ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

53 ( 47 ) STRANGE TOWN The Jam

54 ( 54 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

55 ( 59 ) HOLIDAY EP (ROCK AND ROLL) Human League

56 ( 56 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

57 ( 57 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

58 ( 43 ) MY WORLD Secret Affair

59 ( 74 ) MY FRIEND JACK Boney M

60 ( 58 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

 

61 ( 42 ) CLEAN CLEAN The Buggles

62 ( NEW ) BONANZA SKA Carlos Malcolm

63 ( 41 ) DO YOU REMEMBER ROCK ‘N’ ROLL RADIO The Ramones

64 ( 71 ) GOLDEN YEARS LIVE EP Motorhead

65 ( 63 ) WALKING ON THE MOON The Police

66 ( 64 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

67 ( 45 ) RIDE LIKE THE WIND Christopher Cross

68 ( NEW ) THE ROYAL MILE Gerry Rafferty

69 ( 67 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

70 ( 70 ) PLATINUM BLONDE Prelude

 

71 ( 53 ) HIM Rupert Holmes

72 ( NEW ) THE EYES HAVE IT Karel Fialka

73 ( 52 ) LET’S DO ROCK STEADY The Bodysnatchers

74 ( 69 ) ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2) Pink Floyd

75 ( 68 ) I HEAR YOU NOW Jon And Vangelis

 

TV May 10th-16th

1 Catch-22: film

2 Soap

3 The Mary Tyler Moore Show

4 Mork And Mindy

5 Taxi

6 Not The 9’O Clock News

7 The Outer Limits

8 Top Of The Pops

9 Class Of 44

10 The Waltons

11 Happy Days

12 Hart To Hart

13 The Pink Panther Show

14 The Sky At Night

15 Tomorrow’s World

 

 

In College, I was feeding chicks for Julie, (yes actual baby hens). I played tennis with Jenny, the weather so hot I was forced to roll my shirt sleeves back which caused much comment at tea-time (I never bared my arms in public, the matchstick look would have caused too much mirth). On the sunny grass outside Julie took her chicks out for a spin, and they sheltered under my legs, sooooo cute! On TV The Waltons centered on black prejudice, something I felt strongly about (against it!), and in between stuff it was revision, more revision, and the ending of lectures from some of the duller ones (Hooray!).

 

In American Studies we had a mock exam paper, one about the Frontier which one wag chose to write about the Swedish frontier, as it wasn’t exactly specified to be the American frontier in the question. Funny, though. Found out my art work was to be put on exhibition in the Steep Hill art gallery for the course-end finale, out of the way and obscure, which didn’t impress me nor Max, my lecturer. We protested. On saturday, it was the big May Ball, so I danced till 1.45 with Sue. I could have danced all night - no not really. Actually I’d forgotten I used to dance at discos, could have sworn I mostly avoided it. The guest band were The Mandy Moreton Band a sort of west coast rock/folk fusion. Music of the night was chart heavy, current dance tracks. Mum and dad dropped by on their way home from Skegness, during a TV show on John Williams/Star Wars, so I was a bit rude trying to watch that.

27th May 1980

 

3 weeks on top, No Doubt About It, which leaves Don still Crying at 2. Jacko and Kate Bush both go top 5 though, so hooray for good taste! Jona Lewie grabs a top 10 too, evading parties but hitting 6 in my charts. Gary Numan makes it 4 out of 4, as We Are Glass rushes up to 8, hopefully no more in danger of smashing than The Beat’s mirror at 3. The fab Crown Heights Affair is at 10, just behind the MASH theme tune. Rushing into the 40, it’s Karel Fialka, the eyes have IT.

 

New entries: The Specials are back with a Rat Race, a 4th top 40 in a row, as a million unemployed people were very much not working for the rat race at the time. Not working at all in fact, the economy was not rosy. ELO are at 31 with a Xanadu movie single - they did the soundtrack to the Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton-John film, but I’m Alive wasn’t one of their best singles. Elton is in laidback mode at 33, with the sweet Little Jeannie, as always bigger in the USA than the UK in those days. At 34 the puntastic Lipps Inc have a good ol’ Funky Town chanting up the charts, catchy and fun, still.

 

In at 48, The Korgis finally get a decent follow-up to the fab If I Had You, and the even-fabber Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime, gentle, emotive and just wonderful. So wonderful it was rehashed by Marc Et Claude, and covered by numerous people, such as Yazz, Baby D and Erasure. The covers keep on coming and show no signs of slowing down. Cos it’s classic, a song that improves with age. At 52, the marvellous Roberta Flack lends her flawless vocal stylings to long-time friend and duet partner the then-recently-late Donny Hathaway. Both of them were great jazz-soul singers, and had won a grammy for the classy and melodic Where Is The Love in 1972, followed by many other awards for Roberta Flack for great solo singles. Donny wasn’t so lucky, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a troubled life, he eventually killed himself in 1979. His 1972 live album is critically rated as one of the best live albums of all-time on some lists, and his final 1973 album lyrically showed his troubled mind. Flack & Hathaway had been working together again, Back Together Again being one of the last songs they recorded before his death, and it was posthumously released to a poignant chart chart success. The circumstances around the recording made it a sad return.

 

At 53, B.A. Robertson can’t wait for his Kaftan to disappear before he’s back with some witty Shakespeare parody and punning, as the backdrop to an amusing love song. To Be Or Not To Be? Well, that is the question. The answer is B.A. was terrific. Squeeze are busy pulling mussels at 71 before an unavailable, obscure mega-OTT ballad UK-only single drops in at 73. You just can’t buy it unless you have a spare grand for a second-hand copy, and given Grace Slick is such a big, long-term rock-star from The 60’s Jefferson Airplane through 1980’s Jefferson Starship to 1985’s Starship, it’s a mystery to me why I can’t bloody download the show-stopping Dreams. It’s amazing, I want it on my ipod and I’m going to scream and scream until I get my way. Grace, can you please get your finger out, it’s fantastic and the album was a Grammy nominee for heavens sake!

 

 

1 ( 1 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

2 ( 2 ) CRYING Don McLean

3 ( 3 ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

4 ( 7 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

5 ( 6 ) BREATHING Kate Bush

6 ( 26 ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE iamspamspamamiAT PARTIES Jona Lewie

7 ( 4 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

8 ( 37 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

9 ( 19 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

10 ( 20 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

 

11 ( 11 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

12 ( 5 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

13 ( 13 ) JUST CAN’T GIVE YOU UP Mystic Merlin

14 ( 23 ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

15 ( 9 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO Madness

16 ( 8 ) CALL ME Blondie

17 ( 12 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

18 ( 24 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

19 ( 14 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

20 ( 15 ) I SHOULDA LOVED YA Narada Michael Walden

 

21 ( 10 ) THIS WORLD OF WATER New Musik

22 ( 39 ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

23 ( 28 ) POLICE AND THIEVES Junior Murvin

24 ( 25 ) BUCKET OF WATER SONG The Four Bucketeers

25 ( 16 ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

26 ( 18 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

27 ( 72 ) THE EYES HAVE IT Karel Fialka

28 ( NEW ) RAT RACE The Specials

29 ( 21 ) DON’T MAKE WAVES The Nolans

30 ( 36 ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

 

 

31 ( NEW ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

32 ( 29 ) FOOL FOR YOUR LOVING Whitesnake

33 ( NEW ) LITTLE JEANNIE Elton John

34 ( NEW ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

35 ( 52 ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

36 ( 17 ) A FOREST The Cure

37 ( 31 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

38 ( 51 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoevres In The Dark

39 ( 50 ) NO SELF CONTROL Peter Gabriel

40 ( 22 ) TOCCATA Sky

 

41 ( 27 ) MY PERFECT COUSIN The Undertones

42 ( 33 ) WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR Johnny Logan

43 ( 47 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

44 ( 42 ) ATOMIC Blondie

45 ( 40 ) KOOL IN THE KAFTAN B.A. Robertson

46 ( 38 ) TURN IT ON AGAIN Genesis

47 ( 35 ) MISSING WORDS The Selecter

48 ( NEW ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

49 ( 70 ) PLATINUM BLONDE Prelude

50 ( 44 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

 

 

51 ( 34 ) THE GROOVE Rodney Franklin

52 ( NEW ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

53 ( NEW ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

54 ( 62 ) BONANZASKA Carlos Malcolm

55 ( 43 ) TALK OF THE TOWN The Pretenders

56 ( 56 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

57 ( 57 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

58 ( 54 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

59 ( 49 ) NE-NE-NA-NA-NA-NA-NU-NU Bad Manners

60 ( 60 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

 

 

61 ( 41 ) TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY Smokie

62 ( 68 ) THE ROYAL MILE Gerry Rafferty

63 ( 53 ) STRANGE TOWN The Jam

64 ( 45 ) MY OH MY Sad Cafe

65 ( 65 ) WALKING ON THE MOON The Police

66 ( 66 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

67 ( 30 ) STARING AT THE RUDE BOYS The Ruts

68 ( 46 ) CHECK OUT THE GROOVE Bobby Thurston

69 ( 69 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

70 ( 58 ) MY WORLD Secret Affair

 

71 ( NEW ) PULLING MUSSELS FROM A SHELL Squeeze

72 ( NEW ) TEENAGE U.K. Subs

73 ( NEW ) DREAMS Grace Slick

74 ( 75 ) I HEAR YOU NOW Jon And Vangelis

75 ( 74 ) ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2) Pink Floyd

 

 

TV May 17th - 23rd

1 The Mary Tyler Moore Show

2 Soap

3 Top Of The Pops

4 The Outer Limits

5 Taxi

6 Star Wars - John Williams

7 Olivia Newton-John

8 Life On Earth

9 The Banana Splits

10 Question Time

 

My College lectures were entering their final week, some happily, some very unhappily to be no-more. I had breakfast in the cafeteria with Campion who told me his troubles getting out of Rhodesia to study, and quite emotionally, as things weren’t easy for Black Rhodesians (Zimbabwe these days). He wanted to go to the USA to study and work, I hope he made it.

 

Some snooker games silliness, and I playfully poked Ian’s stuffed badger round Petes’ room door for a minor laugh. Less amusing were the Miami race riots on the news. I marked some schoolwork for Jane, which I enjoyed. Made a point of attending the Student Union Hustings votes. Voted for all candidates. Legally, I hasten to add, there weren’t many fighting for the posts! On TV the award-winning episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Chuckles The Clown dies. It’s hilarious, based around people’s reaction to the manner of Chuckles death - Chuckles dressed as a giant peanut, an elephant on the same parade tried to shell him. It’s funny trust me, as Mary finds none of the remarks in good taste at all, and then it builds up to the funeral! Youtube it. Ed Asner and Betty White are in it, too, what more do you need!

3rd June 1980

 

Don McLean gets his first number one 8 years after he grabbed his first USA and UK number ones, with American Pie and Vincent respectively, both top 10’s here. The Roy Orbison cover left me Crying though, just so great I even preferred it to the Big O’s version, and Roy is virtually impossible to improve on. The Mash-up at 2 is a peak for them - I’ll be honest though, I prefer the TV instrumental version of the theme song. Air Supply rise to 4, Lost In Love and gorgeous melody it is too, as Mystic Merlin magic into the top 10, Manhattan Transfer get their final top 10 4 years on from Tuxedo Junction, from 40’s to dance and various other styles along the way. OMD get their debut top 10, up 29 places with the blissful Messages.

 

Lipps Inc, ELO, Elton John, Average White Band all join new entry Theme From Midnight Cowboy inside the 20. The John Barry instrumental movie theme from 1969 is only slightly older than the theme from MASH, but MUCH better. One of the most hauntingly pathos-inducing beautiful movie themes of all time. Love it love that harmonica. These are all testament to the power of Noel Edmunds on Radio One, he seemed able to generate enthusiasm for all sorts of oddities. Rocketing into the 40, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway get their biggest hit together since Where Is The Love went top 3 in 1972, and the Korgis get a second gorgeous top 40 track. The Hollies get their first top 40 track in 6 years and a sweet 12 year span of them, and B.A.Robertson makes it 4 in a row.

 

In at 29, Paul McCartney is back with his 3rd solo record of the year, and it’s a sparse and synthy ballad, the lovely Waterfalls giving Macca some consistency in quality releases missing for at least 4 years. At 38, The Lambrettas get a swift return, d-a-a-ancing, as do The Detroit Spinners, If I’m reading the Body Language right at 45, while none-hit-wonder Robbie Dupree has the fab Steal Away at 47, another one of those American radio hits that really should have charted in the UK - if the UK wasn’t so busy with various hot new music movements. Others: Sister Sledge, Thin Lizzy, Liquid Gold and Genesis all pop in with lesser tracks.

 

 

1 ( 2 ) CRYING Don McLean

2 ( 9 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

3 ( 1 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

4 ( 11 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

5 ( 10 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

6 ( 6 ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE KITSCH TON AT PARTIES Jona Lewie

7 ( 8 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

8 ( 13 ) JUST CAN’T GIVE YOU UP Mystic Merlin

9 ( 38 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoevres In The Dark

10 ( 18 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

 

11 ( 4 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

12 ( 34 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

13 ( 3 ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

14 ( 14 ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

15 ( 7 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

16 ( 31 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

17 ( 33 ) LITTLE JEANNIE Elton John

18 ( 22 ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

19 ( 5 ) BREATHING Kate Bush

20 ( NEW ) THEME FROM MIDNIGHT COWBOY Original Soundtrack (John Barry)

 

 

21 ( 52 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

22 ( 28 ) RAT RACE The Specials

23 ( 15 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO (WORK REST & PLAY EP) Madness

24 ( 17 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

25 ( 12 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

26 ( 16 ) CALL ME Blondie

27 ( 48 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

28 ( 35 ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

29 ( NEW ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

30 ( 30 ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

 

 

31 ( 19 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

32 ( 39 ) NO SELF CONTROL Peter Gabriel

33 ( 20 ) I SHOULDA LOVED YA Narada Michael Walden

34 ( 23 ) POLICE AND THIEVES Junior Murvin

35 ( 27 ) THE EYES HAVE IT Karel Fialka

36 ( 43 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

37 ( 25 ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

38 ( NEW ) DA-A-ANCE The Lambrettas

39 ( 21 ) THIS WORLD OF WATER New Musik

40 ( 53 ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

 

41 ( 49 ) PLATINUM BLONDE Prelude

42 ( 26 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

43 ( 37 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

44 ( 29 ) DON’T MAKE WAVES The Nolans

45 ( NEW ) BODY LANGUAGE The Detroit Spinners

46 ( 32 ) FOOL FOR YOUR LOVING Whitesnake

47 ( NEW ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

48 ( 44 ) ATOMIC Blondie

49 ( 40 ) TOCCATA Sky

50 ( 42 ) WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR Johnny Logan

 

 

51 ( 36 ) A FOREST The Cure

52 ( 24 ) BUCKET OF WATER SONG The Four Bucketeers

53 ( 50 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

54 ( 54 ) BONANZASKA Carlos Malcolm

55 ( 45 ) KOOL IN THE KAFTAN B.A. Robertson

56 ( 46 ) TURN IT ON AGAIN Genesis

57 ( 57 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

58 ( 56 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

59 ( 62 ) THE ROYAL MILE Gerry Rafferty

60 ( NEW ) SUBSTITUTE Liquid Gold

 

61 ( 47 ) MISSING WORDS The Selecter

62 ( 58 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

63 ( 60 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

64 ( 73 ) DREAMS Grace Slick

65 ( NEW ) CHINATOWN Thin Lizzy

66 ( 41 ) MY PERFECT COUSIN The Undertones

67 ( 65 ) WALKING ON THE MOON The Police

68 ( 66 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

69 ( 71 ) PULLING MUSSELS FROM A SHELL Squeeze

70 ( 69 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

 

71 ( 59 ) NE-NE-NA-NA-NA-NA-NU-NU Bad Manners

72 ( 51 ) THE GROOVE Rodney Franklin

73 ( 55 ) TALK OF THE TOWN The Pretenders

74 ( NEW ) DUCHESS Genesis

75 ( NEW ) REACH YOUR PEAK Sister Sledge

 

 

TV 24th-30th May 1 Little Big Man: film

2 Top Of The Pops

3 The Mary Tyler Moore Show

4 The Producers: film

5 The Outer Limits

6 The Phil Silvers Show

7 Mork And Mindy

8 Oliver: film

9 Dallas

10 Taxi

 

On TV lots of 50’s and 60’s black & white classics, Phil Silvers and The Outer Limits, and movies, like the good (but long-forgotten) Little Big Man, an ambitious dark western vehicle for Dustin Hoffman, on the side of the Native Americans, Mel Brooks classic comedy The Producers, and musical Oliver, songs very much a part of my childhood as we had an EP of 4 of them. A great edition of Top Of The Pops, and top new show is Mork And Mindy, the late Robin Williams astounding as an alien.

 

Back at College, I finished off 3 screen prints to lots of compliments from some 2nd year girls sharing the art room with me - “Sad! It might be my last screen print for a helluva long time” I commented to myself after finishing the last one. Too right, tragically, it’s been 35 years so far and counting, and I’d still like to do some more.Had dinner with Paul and Jane, and David, the young Audio-Visual department College employee, chatting about holidays. I liked him, regretted not talking more to him over the 3 years. Julie helped me pick the best 3 of the screen prints in the evening. Ian and Paul came round for chats.

 

Tutor Max helped me decide which works to use for my exhibition, revision for exams, and my prints were quite the hit with everyone (it was based on a Close Encounters scene which appealed to all the soon-to-be teachers). I din’t feel I could sell it as the base photo was Spielberg not me. I loved it too, though. Close Encounters of The Third Kind was an obsession of mine, visually stunning. First exam up: American Studies. Snooker for light relief afterwards. Kid Jensen’s final Top Of The Pops show was brill, I opined, lots of old 70’s fave acts on it just for me. Friday, went to the Usher Art Gallery with Max, and Emma, Anne & Maureen to look at the walls, and back again later with the works ready to display in the rather posh Art Gallery on a hillside overlooking much of Lincoln. Max then got me to weed out some of my work, which rather upset me, and just use one wall for what was left. Less is more, is the theory.

 

Kid Jensen was also doing his last Rosko’s Roundtable new singles review show, with Elton John and Frankie Valli. Quite the line-up! Arthur C. Clarke, another hero of mine, was interviewed on a Time Out Of Mind TV special Sunday.

10th June 1980

 

2 weeks for Crying on top as OMD hit 3, and Lipps Inc go top 10 with the infuriatingly catchy Funkytown. Joining them the sublime John Barry movie theme, and Roxy Music’s pleasantly laid-back Over You, their 8th, or Bryan Ferry’s 13th, depending on how you look at it. The highest new entry at 36 is Joan Armatrading, telling us all about Me Myself I almost a decade ahead of De La Soul adding an “and” and a different song to the title. Joan’s first bonafide hit since Love And Affection in 1976, it’s almost got a Pilot feel to it (as in Magic or January), rather appropriately as her next and last hit would be Drop The Pilot in 1983.

 

Into the 40, Robbie Dupree, Liquid Gold and The Detroit Spinners, as Bernadette Peters exclaims 1950’s stylee Gee Whiz! I miss that lost phrase, and this cover of a 16-years-of-age Carla (daughter of Rufus) Thomas song from 1960 has so much doo-wop charm, I still play it, though the original is just as good, if not better. Bernadette is a big star of musical theatre, one of the biggest award-winning Broadway stars, but I knew her from TV and films, parts in Ray Bradbury’s TV miniseries The Martian Chronicles, The Muppet Show, Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie, Steve Martin’s The Jerk, and other quirky roles.

 

At 46, Siouxsie And The Banshees return with their 5th chart entry, the fabulous Christine, a dark uptempo fave of mine, and their best record to date. At 47 Darts are also back looking for the bullseye with another UK chart hit with the latest in a long run of bands releasing Four Seasons covers - this time Let’s Hang On. It’s not bad, but not as good as Frankie & the lads. Elkie Brooks returns for 3 years of largely minor hits, bar a couple of goodies, with Why Don’t You Say It, rock band Journey debut with Anyway You Want It at 62, as I remain oblivious to their future status as best-selling 80’s track in the UK in the 21st century, the million-selling Don’t Stop Believing, future anthem and obscure minor 80’s hit in the UK.

 

Pete Townsend is back with another solo entry, and still doesn’t challenge Roger Daltrey’s solo career with Let My Love Open The Door at 65, Bad Manners get a 2nd fun-time ska entry with Lip Up Fatty at 73, and two great dance tracks (or disco if you will), as Odyssey finally get a big follow-up to the fantastic Native New Yorker, Use It Up And Wear It Out entering at 70, and Teena Marie’s very good Behind The Groove drops in at 68. The big news though is Olivia Newton-John’s duet with ELO on the movie theme Xanadu. The movie bombed, despite Gene Kelly co-starring, but the theme was huge, being very frantic-orchestral ELO-sounding, and which very-much suited Livvie’s luvverly tones, a terrific pop record with a fantastic tune.

 

 

1 ( 1 ) CRYING Don McLean

2 ( 2 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

3 ( 9 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoevres In The Dark

4 ( 3 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

5 ( 7 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

6 ( 12 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

7 ( 10 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

8 ( 14 ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

9 ( 20 ) THEME FROM MIDNIGHT COWBOY Original Soundtrack (John Barry)

10 ( 5 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

 

11 ( 6 ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE iamspamspamamiAT PARTIES Jona Lewie

12 ( 16 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

13 ( 4 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

14 ( 21 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

15 ( 17 ) LITTLE JEANNIE Elton John

16 ( 11 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

17 ( 8 ) JUST CAN’T GIVE YOU UP Mystic Merlin

18 ( 28 ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

19 ( 13 ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

20 ( 18 ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

 

21 ( 15 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

22 ( 22 ) RAT RACE The Specials

23 ( 27 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

24 ( 30 ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

25 ( 38 ) DA-A-ANCE The Lambrettas

26 ( 32 ) NO SELF CONTROL Peter Gabriel

27 ( 24 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

28 ( 29 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

29 ( 23 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO (WORK REST & PLAY EP) Madness

30 ( 47 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

 

 

31 ( 60 ) SUBSTITUTE Liquid Gold

32 ( 25 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

33 ( 36 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

34 ( 26 ) CALL ME Blondie

35 ( NEW ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

36 ( 34 ) POLICE AND THIEVES Junior Murvin

37 ( 19 ) BREATHING Kate Bush

38 ( 45 ) BODY LANGUAGE The Detroit Spinners

39 ( NEW ) GEE WHIZ Bernadette Peters

40 ( 40 ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

 

 

41 ( 33 ) I SHOULDA LOVED YA Narada Michael Walden

42 ( 65 ) CHINATOWN Thin Lizzy

43 ( 31 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

44 ( 37 ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

45 ( 35 ) THE EYES HAVE IT Karel Fialka

46 ( NEW ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

47 ( NEW ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

48 ( 42 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

49 ( 43 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

50 ( 59 ) THE ROYAL MILE Gerry Rafferty

 

 

51 ( 39 ) THIS WORLD OF WATER New Musik

52 ( 48 ) ATOMIC Blondie

53 ( NEW ) WHY DON’T YOU SAY IT Elkie Brooks

54 ( NEW ) BIGGEST PART OF ME Ambrosia

55 ( 75 ) REACH YOUR PEAK Sister Sledge

56 ( NEW ) THE SCRATCH Surface Noise

57 ( 58 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

58 ( 57 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

59 ( 53 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

60 ( NEW ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

 

61 ( 46 ) FOOL FOR YOUR LOVING Whitesnake

62 ( NEW ) ANYWAY YOU WANT IT Journey

63 ( 62 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

64 ( 63 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

65 ( NEW ) LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR Pete Townsend

66 ( 56 ) TURN IT ON AGAIN Genesis

67 ( 55 ) KOOL IN THE KAFTAN B.A. Robertson

68 ( NEW ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

69 ( 50 ) WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR Johnny Logan

70 ( NEW ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

 

71 ( 67 ) WALKING ON THE MOON The Police

72 ( 68 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

73 ( NEW ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

74 ( 70 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

75 ( NEW ) BREAKING THE LAW Judas Priest

 

 

 

31st May-6th Jun

1 The Outer Limits

2 Reputations

3 Barney Miller

4 Broken Lance

5 Time Out Of Mind

6 Legend Of The Golden Gun

7 Hawaii 5-0

8 Barney Miller

9 Mork And Mindy

10 The Waltons

 

At College I was carrying two heavy glass and chip-board mounted large-sized screen-prints of mine to the Usher Art Gallery, a la all those comedy movies of two men carrying a plate of glass across a busy road, only on my own. My arms and hands suffered for my Art. Got my poetry exam question essay back: “Fine”. Pete slagged off my Don McLean obsession in fun, as I played the 45, so I slagged off his Eagles and Bob Seger which he played loudly in the evening to get me back (our rooms were adjacent). Hah! Snooker in the evening with the gang. Tennis, revision, chatting, hot weather, and a TV profile on Robert Kennedy, Reputations.

 

My final American Studies lecture ever was a combined 3-tutors mock exams results extravaganza. I got an A for geography, and mused I will miss their lectures (and I do). I got told one of my art pieces had fallen off the wall in the Usher Art Gallery overnight and set off the alarms! I rushed down in the heat of the day to find it wasn’t my work at all! I stuck more nails in mine anyway to be sure. Paul popped in with the fab news we were going to Knebworth Festival with Ian too, if he could get the tickets (he did!), yay! Mum & dad popped in on their way to Skeggy, Roundtable had Bev Bevan, DLT, Trevor Horn and Paul Gambaccini, then I left for the Usher open evening, chatting to some mature students, my Close Encounters piece really was the hit all round really. Pity it wasn’t mine in my eyes....

17th June 1980

OMD, as they became known, get their first chart-topper as the fabulous Messages becomes the first EDM chart-topper since Donna Summer’s 1977 I Feel Love, and 8 years since Hot Butter’s Popcorn was the first. From here-on, though, they came thick and fast. John Barry outdoes his previous Top 5 theme tune from The Persuaders, though as writer/producer The Theme From Midnight Cowboy remains just behind another Donna Summer hit, the theme to The Deep, Down Deep Inside which peaked at 2, also in 1977. The highest new entry is also the highest old entry, as The Police, who were sizzling hot, decide to release an album track as a single, Bed’s Too Big Without You, revamped, more uptempo and extremely annoyingly only available by buying 5 Police singles I already had bought. As this was extortion by any other name, I started my policy of not buying any product I had already bought, and which these days applies to “deluxe” editions of albums designed to make you buy it twice. The record industry remains myopic when looking at the bigger picture of artist longevity, preferring always a quick buck. Hey ho, the single could have been a big hit instead of middling, but as the only track I charted it’s in at 7.

 

Roberta & Donny get a second top 10 single 8 years after the first, and Roberta rather shockingly only her 3rd in total, while The Korgis doggedly get their 2nd top 20, and The ratty Specials their 4th. Siouxsie & Co leap Christine into the 40, and Rod Stewart enters at 40 with a very long statement that didn’t quite catch on as much his previously long-titled double A Side cover in 1977. Hey ho, it’s a 1972 Luther Ingram song, and as usual I don’t go a bundle on his cover versions, though amiable enough. At 44, Queen are playing the game, or as I reflected at the time, safely hedging their bets with a fairly standard single. New at 59, New Zealander Shona Laing gets an entry with obscure decent track Don’t Tell Me, shortly before getting on the road with Manfred Mann’s Earthband, as Elvis Costello continues his run of chart entries (now at 3 years) with one of his most melodic, New Amsterdam being rather unappreciated - I’m guessing a bit more venom was expected, and the gorgeousness of the tune passed most fans by. At 71, Denny Laine gets a solo entry with Japanese Tears - a decade after I first noticed him as a solo act, with the lovely Say You Don’t Mind, later covered as a 1972 classy chart-topper for me in 1972 by Colin Blunstone, another 60’s band veteran. Denny, of course, had hit the top several times with Macca in Wings. At 73, and lastly, UB40 get that follow-up entry, My Way Of Thinking.

 

 

1 ( 3 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoevres In The Dark

2 ( 1 ) CRYING Don McLean

3 ( 9 ) THEME FROM MIDNIGHT COWBOY Original Soundtrack (John Barry)

4 ( 2 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

5 ( 5 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

6 ( 4 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

7 ( NEW ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

8 ( 6 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

9 ( 14 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

10 ( 7 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

 

 

11 ( 8 ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

12 ( 12 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

13 ( 10 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

14 ( 15 ) LITTLE JEANNIE Elton John

15 ( 18 ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

16 ( 11 ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE iamspamspamamiAT PARTIES Jona Lewie

17 ( 23 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

18 ( 13 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

19 ( 22 ) RAT RACE The Specials

20 ( 16 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

 

21 ( 28 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

22 ( 25 ) DA-A-ANCE The Lambrettas

23 ( 17 ) JUST CAN’T GIVE YOU UP Mystic Merlin

24 ( 24 ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

25 ( 46 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

26 ( 30 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

27 ( 21 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

28 ( 35 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

29 ( 31 ) SUBSTITUTE Liquid Gold

30 ( 19 ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

 

31 ( 20 ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

32 ( 33 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

33 ( 27 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

34 ( 29 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO (WORK REST & PLAY EP) Madness

35 ( 40 ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

36 ( 26 ) NO SELF CONTROL Peter Gabriel

37 ( 42 ) CHINATOWN Thin Lizzy

38 ( 68 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

39 ( 39 ) GEE WHIZ Bernadette Peters

40 ( NEW ) IF LOVING YOU IS WRONG (I DON’T WANT TO BE RIGHT) Rod Stewart

 

 

41 ( 34 ) CALL ME Blondie

42 ( 54 ) BIGGEST PART OF ME Ambrosia

43 ( 32 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

44 ( NEW ) PLAY THE GAME Queen

45 ( 65 ) LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR Pete Townsend

46 ( 37 ) BREATHING Kate Bush

47 ( 62 ) ANYWAY YOU WANT IT Journey

48 ( 56 ) THE SCRATCH Surface Noise

49 ( 38 ) BODY LANGUAGE The Detroit Spinners

50 ( 36 ) POLICE AND THIEVES Junior Murvin

 

51 ( 43 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

52 ( 60 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

53 ( 53 ) WHY DON’T YOU SAY IT Elkie Brooks

54 ( 49 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

55 ( 55 ) REACH YOUR PEAK Sister Sledge

56 ( 52 ) ATOMIC Blondie

57 ( 48 ) FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ KING UB40

58 ( 47 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

59 ( NEW ) DON’T TELL ME Shona Laing

60 ( 41 ) I SHOULDA LOVED YA Narada Michael Walden

 

61 ( 57 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

62 ( 58 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

63 ( 75 ) BREAKING THE LAW Judas Priest

64 ( 73 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

65 ( 64 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

66 ( 63 ) LONGER Dan Fogelberg

67 ( 50 ) THE ROYAL MILE Gerry Rafferty

68 ( NEW ) NEW AMSTERDAM Elvis Costello

69 ( 51 ) THIS WORLD OF WATER New Musik

70 ( 44 ) HOLD ON TO MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

 

 

71 ( NEW ) JAPANESE TEARS Denny Laine

72 ( 59 ) WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU The Detroit Spinners

73 ( NEW ) MY WAY OF THINKING UB40

74 ( 74 ) NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN The Moody Blues

75 ( 72 ) I HAVE A DREAM Abba

 

 

TV 7th -13th June

1 The Outer Limits

2 It’ll Be Alright On The Night 2

3 The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean: film

4 The Phil Silvers Show

5 The Likely Lads

6 Barney Miller

7 ChiPs

8 At The Mill

9 Tomorrow’s World

10 The Banana Splits

 

In between revising for exams I watched a film from 1972 I’d gone to see at the cinema with then-mate Andrew, The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean, a Paul Newman western Directed by John Huston, and with a dozen movie and TV stars in it. It was OK, but I don’t think I’ve seen it since, sadly, as I’d be curious to see young Victoria Principal, long-gone Roddy McDowell (always great) and a host of others again. Tuesday was exam day, cruelly cut-off mid-flow in the middle of an answer 2 minutes earlier than expected. Pah! I played table tennis with Bev and Pete afterwards as stress relief. Thursday another exam, one of the papers a swine, and got out to find mum and dad waiting with a new T shirt for me, on their way back home from Skeggy. Rest of the day I confidently avoided revising, fed up with it, and sure I already knew what I needed to know. The one area I didn’t prepare for much was the Art examiners, assuming it was just a formal discussion.

 

My last exam (for a few years at any rate) was on friday, and I found it hard to concentrate, annoyingly. Then in the afternoon was my interview with the external Nottingham University examiners at the Usher Art gallery. I went in smiling friendly-like. “What are you smiling for?” the younger “Art” turd demanded. That was the highlight of the grilling, it pretty much went downhill after that as I got crucified by the 2 examiners as they aggressively attacked all my work which left me stuttering and breathless, unable to defend myself of any of my work. I consoled myself outside with art student Anne who had also had a grilling, then moaned to my tutors about their attitude. My various friends helped to try and cheer me up in the evening. In fairness to them, some of my artwork (which I still have) wasn’t great, but in fairness to me Art “Experts” are conceited arrogant pretentious pricks trying to justify an opinion as if it’s an absolute. I should have got angry about it and ignored everything they said. The reality was I was so devastated by it I gave up totally anything to do with art, creativity, photography, screen printing, drawing for decades, not wanting to have anything to do with people like that and the bullying Art mafia, as I saw them. Pity, as I could do with meeting up with them now, I’m more than capable of saying what I think to anyone I see holding those sorts of attitudes towards other people and sod the consequences. At the weekend mum and dad came to see my artwork at the gallery, as I bumped in to Anne on her way in to officially complain about the external examiners. I should have done that....

24th June 1980

 

2 weeks at 1 for OMD, as Roberta and Donny hit 3 equalling Where Is The Love in 1972. The Police get a 6th top 5 with the Bed’s Too Big, or 6-pack all in one go, whatever. ELO get 2 big leaps into the top 10 from Xanadu, I’m Alive at 6 and the infinitely better title track at 9. At this stage I was such an ELO fan that they could fart into a spaceship and I would like it - not that I’m Alive is that bad, but it’s their weakest single since, well, the last time they failed to make my top 10 in 1974: Daybreaker, and in retrospect the least-good single they did in their career up to this point. Xanadu was one of their best. Banging up to 7, Christine gives The Banshees their second top 10, and first in 2 years since debut Hong Kong Garden, Paul McCartney makes it two out 2 as he gets his 16th top 10 hit since the Fabs split-up, not to mention as many again and more inside The Beatles. Elton John also takes Little Jeannie into the 10 for a pleasantly sweet 14th top tenner.

 

Highest new entry at 23 is the funny and punkily odd Two Packets Of Lager, which definitely rang a bell - Time gentleman please! - with anyone waiting in vain to get served in a busy pub before it closed at 11. Yes in those days it was unheard of to stay open late! Splodgenessabounds is one of the great band names, to boot. The Stranglers pose a philosophical question at 26 - to which the answer seems to be “every ruthless twat on the planet” - as Elvis Costello rockets up to New Amsterdam inside the 40, as Darts fly up to 34 and UB40 think about it at 38. young Stacey Lattisaw proves that disco is not only not dead, it’s still pretty good, and Jumps To The Beat new in at 32.

 

The Beach Boys are Trying To Keep The Summer Alive, with a new album and tour headlining Knebworth - which was any day now for me. In at 39, flattered a bit as a consequence, as The Sex Pistols fizzle out with a reasonable cover of a Monkees B Side (Itself a cover of their main early songwriters Boyce & Hart’s song as recorded by Paul Revere And The Raiders). The Monkees version is pure 60‘s garage rock and spits venom and passion. For all the critical rubbish written about both bands, The Monkees is the perfect punk version and the The Sex Pistols version was merely a kitsch cash-in. So I’m posting the classic version....

 

 

 

Elsewhere, US band Spider pop in with the good New Romance, Odyssey re-enter with the future UK chart-topper Use It Up Wear It Out, still sounds good, let’s be honest, Donna Summer’s more laid-back Sunset People glides in at 66, and 2 nu-metal bands are back, one I don’t rate at all (it is Iron Maiden after all), and the other is pretty damn good (Saxon’s 747). I know metal fans seem to be under the delusion it’s the other way round, but hey Saxon rocks at 71. Phil Lynnot is back solo again for the 3rd time, and he doesn’t even have the decency to wait for Thin Lizzy to drop out of the 40 as his tribute to Elvis Presley pops in at 75, and finally it’s an oddly low new entry for a Bob Marley classic, as he notches up the reggae beats to Could You Be Loved, one of his best records, in at 73. Within months he’d be dead from cancer, refusing early treatment, and all I can wonder is how many great records we’ve lost from his far-too-early death.

 

 

1 ( 1 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

2 ( 2 ) CRYING Don McLean

3 ( 9 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

4 ( 7 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

5 ( 4 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

6 ( 12 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

7 ( 25 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

8 ( 21 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

9 ( 52 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

10 ( 14 ) LITTLE JEANNIE Elton John

 

 

11 ( 5 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

12 ( 6 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

13 ( 15 ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

14 ( 17 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

15 ( 3 ) THEME FROM MIDNIGHT COWBOY Original Soundtrack (John Barry)

16 ( 13 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

17 ( 22 ) DA-A-ANCE The Lambrettas

18 ( 10 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

19 ( 26 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

20 ( 28 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

 

21 ( 38 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

22 ( 44 ) PLAY THE GAME Queen

23 ( NEW ) TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS Splodgenessabounds

24 ( 8 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

25 ( 11 ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

26 ( NEW ) WHO WANTS THE WORLD The Stranglers

27 ( 68 ) NEW AMSTERDAM Elvis Costello

28 ( 24 ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

29 ( 35 ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

30 ( 32 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

 

31 ( 20 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

32 ( NEW ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

33 ( 16 ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE iamspamspamamiAT PARTIES Jona Lewie

34 ( 58 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

35 ( 37 ) CHINATOWN Thin Lizzy

36 ( 45 ) LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR Pete Townsend

37 ( 27 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

38 ( 73 ) MY WAY OF THINKING UB40

39 ( NEW ) TRYING TO KEEP THE SUMMER ALIVE The Beach Boys

40 ( 42 ) BIGGEST PART OF ME Ambrosia

 

 

41 ( 48 ) THE SCRATCH Surface Noise

42 ( 33 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

43 ( 23 ) JUST CAN’T GIVE YOU UP Mystic Merlin

44 ( 18 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

45 ( 19 ) RAT RACE The Specials

46 ( 34 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO (WORK REST & PLAY EP) Madness

47 ( NEW ) I’M NOT YOUR STEPPING STONE The Sex Pistols

48 ( 40 ) IF LOVING YOU IS WRONG (I DON’T WANT TO BE RIGHT) Rod Stewart

49 ( 30 ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

50 ( 53 ) WHY DON’T YOU SAY IT Elkie Brooks

 

51 ( 43 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

52 ( 29 ) SUBSTITUTE Liquid Gold

53 ( 41 ) CALL ME Blondie

54 ( 59 ) DON’T TELL ME Shona Laing

55 ( NEW ) NEW ROMANCE (IT’S A MYSTERY) Spider

56 ( 64 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

57 ( 31 ) LET’S GO ROUND AGAIN Average White Band

58 ( 54 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

59 ( 63 ) BREAKING THE LAW Judas Priest

60 ( 36 ) NO SELF CONTROL Peter Gabriel

 

61 ( 61 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

62 ( 62 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

63 ( 47 ) ANYWAY YOU WANT IT Journey

64 ( RE ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

65 ( 56 ) ATOMIC Blondie

66 ( NEW ) SUNSET PEOPLE Donna Summer

67 ( 67 ) THE ROYAL MILE Gerry Rafferty

68 ( 39 ) GEE WHIZ Bernadette Peters

69 ( NEW ) WRITTEN ON YOUR BODY Ronnie Bond

70 ( 51 ) SILVER DREAM MACHINE David Essex

 

 

71 ( NEW ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

72 ( 65 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

73 ( NEW ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

74 ( NEW ) SANCTUARY Iron Maiden

75 ( NEW ) THE KING’S CALL Phil Lynott

 

 

 

 

TV 14th-20th June

1 Planet Of The Apes: film

2 Wonder Woman

3 The Outer Limits

4 The Phil Silvers Show

5 Taxi

6 Q9

7 The Banana Splits

8 The Waltons

9 Happy days

10 Knotts Landing

 

On TV, 60’s classic movie Planet Of The Apes and a Wonder Woman TV movie with alien bodysnatchers (fab cheese!). I psycho-analysed why whenever I see mum and dad (they popped in again) I got depressed - it was talk of the future and my total lack of preparedness for the onrushing end of College life. Tickets for Knebworth arrived, hooray! College Hustings meant voting for student body reps for the next year, so we listened and voted, and a fun evening with friends as Jane prepared a lesson on Islam for the kids, based on her artwork after we’d been to Tunisia.

 

I met up with tutor Max for an indication of my degree results. I was not surprised to hear it was going to be a division 2 (average) as my best work in Art was graded 2:2 but a lot was rated less than that. As I’d never been what you call a hard-worker I couldn’t really complain. One of our friends borrowed Sue’s bike (unbeknownst to Sue) to go to the Lincolnshire Show, they shall remain nameless but I did say “it’ll get nicked!”, and bumped into her later bursting into tears cos it had been nicked. Confession is good for the soul fortunately, and it was forthcoming to Sue who took the news rather well I thought.

Saturday 21st June 1980: Knebworth Festival

 

Paul drove Ian and I to Stevenage, and a stop-off at a Little Chef for Paul to clean-up after his packet of sauce burst in his pocket (Ick!). Knebworth was BIG, lots of stalls, lots of current and recent music playing over speakers, and a mass of people were already there when we arrived. I didn’t like our early positions near the back of the crowd (sat down) so went scouting for photo positions and nearer spots. Found one! THE BLUES BAND (Manfred Mann’s Paul Jones) were on first, and the sound was better here (even if the view was a bit restricted). they were pretty good, actually even though I’d not rated what I’d heard from them before. The next up were LINDISFARNE, Paul’s faves, and the crowd crowded more towards the front. I got to recognise many in the crowd from my frequent trots to take photos: “weird woman in shorts and top” “topless hippie in shorts” “guy with swinging beer container” and so on. Lindisfarne went down well, fairly lively with greats Lady Eleanore, Meet Me On The Corner, Fog On The Tyne and Run For Home.

 

SANTANA were up next: Santana’s very laid-back groove got a couple of hippies in front of us dancing and grooving to it, as other stoned-hippies wandered about glassy-eyed. The day was getting hot and sunny. She’s Not There, Samba Pa Ti were good but largely it was fairly unexciting to me (and it would be another 20 years before I became converted) - the World War II yankee bomber displaying overhead to the Jackson 5’s Skywriter impressed me more. ELKIE BROOKS BAND up next, very much in a rock-chick blues stylee was a powerful singer, but did none of her singles disappointingly. Paul reported the toilet facilities were holes in the ground with planks to stand on, which didn’t impress me at all as my shy bladder would be in crisis. By the time I got home at 2 in the morning I was in agony and unable to pee, despite a roadside toilet stop on the way. Ouch!

 

MIKE OLDFIELD was next, a bit more laid back, and a pissed bloke with Rod Stewart hair-do tried to pee during the set without bothering to go to the toilets. Couldn’t blame him, but it was amusing to us. Guilty and Tubular Bells were up, we moved forward, very good sound and set, and a good view of the stage - which took ages to set up as it started to rain for the full British festival experience. Oldfield was “brilliant, best of the day, with Lindisfarne” and finished with Portsmouth and Blue Peter. As darkness drew in we decided to move forward for a great view of the headliners, and a long list of “hand-related records” to go with the blow-up hand bobbing about on stage, such as Angel Fingers (Wizzard). Dry-ice, lights, cameras (It was filmed) and...action!

 

THE BEACH BOYS were brilliant, and they even had Brian Wilson on stage with them, it was the classic line-up all together plus regular Beach-Boy friend Bruce Johnstone for a whole non-stop run of famous songs (plus a couple of new ones). “Classic, excellent, magic” and other superlatives dropped out of my mouth, as my jaw dropped to greats, and that was after a medley of tracks such as California Girls/Darlin’/Do It Again/Heroes And Villains - so many hits they can spare a few thrown away together. Lady Lynda, their big comeback hit, was done twice, before the non-stop dancing of Help Me Rhonda, Surfin USA, I Get Around and others which got the crowd going, and got me going. The encore, though, Good Vibrations, Barbara Ann and Fun Fun Fun were climactic, rather suitably. I’ve seen the video of the concert since, and it doesn’t capture the feeling of being there properly - Live concert experiences are never the same on TV, it’s so difficult to capture the mood and noise and feeling of being in the crowd. The sound isn’t explosive, and you’re not moving about living it. This was the concert that persuaded me going to concerts was well worth it. The finale was a big fireworks show, followed by a lesson in crowd-control: it’s useful to have some. Basically, the whole crowd tried to exit through one narrow entrance, you were swept along whether you like it or not, and it was getting to seriously piss me off as everyone squeezed in on me more and more. “Beam me up Scotty!” shouted one wag, which was amusing, but I could see how easily crowds can get ugly and unmanageable and decided to avoid getting inside one that big again without proper controlled exits and entrances. I was pissed off at the dumb-ass organisers.

 

1st July 1980

3 weeks on top for OMD, as ELO and ONJ knock on their initialed door at 2. Not to mention PJM at 3. Macca’s 2nd of the year to go top 3, while ELO and Livvie repeat what they did in 1979, and 1978, and ELO did in 1977, 1976, 1973 and 1972 (going top 3). Splodgeness abound into the top 10 (arf!) with two pints of lager, with the Korgis snapping at their heels cos, you know, everybody’s gotta learn sometime, and a second magnificent top 10 for the lads.

 

Stacey Lattisaw jumps to the top 20 beat from 32, Teena Marie a little behind the groove at 18, and Queen scrape into the top 20 yet again as they continue to fall short of the 10 for 18 months-worth of singles, a far cry from 3 chart-toppers out of 4 in 1974/5. The Sex Pistols and Darts both climb with inferior covers, as Odyssey finally get cracking and Use It Up into the top 30, without wearing it out, and Saxon fly up to 28 in a 747 (feel free to groan at these links) as a bit of pop Nu-Metal agrees with me nicely. We were strangers in the night, but not anything to do with Frank Sinatra’s slightly better song. In at 38, The Blues Band take old song Diddy Wah Diddy into the 40 (not to be confused with Paul Jones Manfred Mann Do Wah Diddy Diddy, which is a better record, but fresh off Paul Jones’ Knebworth gig wot I saw), and Tavares return after a gap with I Don’t Want You Anymore for a 4th year of hits.

 

Daryl Hall & John Oates return running from paradise, and their first entry for 3 years, and 4 years on from the gorgeous She’s Gone. The soon-to-be solo Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto debuts as the Yellow Magic Orchestra with a space invaders synth instrumental theme, which was quite catchy, but not one I’ve managed to buy yet, and proving beyond doubt that having a hit record is no guarantee you’ll be able to buy it or stream it decades down the line. New Musik are back with a 4th gem synthpop single, looking for Sanctuary at 53, Carlene Carter covers her dad’s Ring Of Fire at 55, Rupert Holmes extends his run of singles at 66 and The Detroit Spinners do the same at 68 as they cover Sam Cooke’s Cupid, and follow in Johnny Nash’s 1969 shoes in charting it. Janis Ian gets a 3rd chart entry flying too high, as per her previous entry, so much so that she reaches the other side of the sun, and very nice too, though not as memorable as 1975’s heart-breaking At Seventeen.

 

 

1 ( 1 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

2 ( 9 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

3 ( 8 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

4 ( 2 ) CRYING Don McLean

5 ( 3 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

6 ( 7 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

7 ( 4 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

8 ( 23 ) TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS Splodgenessabounds

9 ( 14 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

10 ( 5 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

 

 

11 ( 6 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

12 ( 19 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

13 ( 20 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

14 ( 32 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

15 ( 11 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

16 ( 12 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

17 ( 16 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

18 ( 21 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

19 ( 22 ) PLAY THE GAME Queen

20 ( 17 ) DA-A-ANCE The Lambrettas

 

21 ( 13 ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

22 ( 27 ) NEW AMSTERDAM Elvis Costello

23 ( 10 ) LITTLE JEANNIE Elton John

24 ( 24 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

25 ( 34 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

26 ( 47 ) I’M NOT YOUR STEPPING STONE The Sex Pistols

27 ( 64 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

28 ( 71 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

29 ( 18 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

30 ( 35 ) CHINATOWN Thin Lizzy

 

 

31 ( 38 ) MY WAY OF THINKING UB40

32 ( 15 ) THEME FROM MIDNIGHT COWBOY Original Soundtrack (John Barry)

33 ( 25 ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

34 ( 36 ) LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR Pete Townsend

35 ( 29 ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

36 ( 26 ) WHO WANTS THE WORLD The Stranglers

37 ( 39 ) TRYING TO KEEP THE SUMMER ALIVE The Beach Boys

38 ( NEW ) DIDDY WAH DIDDY The Blues Band

39 ( 31 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

40 ( NEW ) I DON’T WANT YOU ANYMORE Tavares

 

41 ( 55 ) NEW ROMANCE (IT’S A MYSTERY) Spider

42 ( 37 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

43 ( 42 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

44 ( 28 ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

45 ( 33 ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE iamspamspamamiAT PARTIES Jona Lewie

46 ( 44 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

47 ( 56 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

48 ( NEW ) RUNNING FOR PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

49 ( 40 ) BIGGEST PART OF ME Ambrosia

50 ( NEW ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

 

 

51 ( 45 ) RAT RACE The Specials

52 ( NEW ) SING OUT (BREAKING/ ATMOSPHERE) Voyager

53 ( NEW ) SANCTUARY New Musik

54 ( 46 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO (WORK REST & PLAY EP) Madness

55 ( NEW ) RING OF FIRE Carlene Carter

56 ( 53 ) CALL ME Blondie

57 ( 51 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

58 ( 73 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

59 ( 49 ) MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM The Beat

60 ( 66 ) SUNSET PEOPLE Donna Summer

 

 

61 ( 61 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

62 ( 62 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

63 ( 43 ) JUST CAN’T GIVE YOU UP Mystic Merlin

64 ( 54 ) DON’T TELL ME Shona Laing

65 ( 58 ) GOING UNDERGROUND The Jam

66 ( NEW ) PARTNERS IN CRIME Rupert Holmes

67 ( 41 ) THE SCRATCH Surface Noise

68 ( NEW ) CUPID - I’VE LOVED YOU FOR A LONG TIME The Detroit Spinners

69 ( 30 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

70 ( 65 ) ATOMIC Blondie

 

71 ( 52 ) SUBSTITUTE Liquid Gold

72 ( 75 ) THE KING’S CALL Phil Lynott

73 ( NEW ) THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SUN Janis Ian

74 ( 72 ) CONFUSION/ LAST TRAIN TO LONDON E.L.O.

75 ( 59 ) BREAKING THE LAW Judas Priest

 

 

 

TV 21st - 27th June

 

1 The Mary Tyler Moore Show

2 The Outer Limits

3 Wimbledon (friday)

4 Wimbledon ’79

5 Animal Olympics

 

In my life, in the last full week of June, I was well into watching Wimbledon on TV, Borg and McEnroe both doing well in the first week of play. It was Pete’s 22nd birthday and 2 of our gang decided Pete needed a douse in the bath to celebrate, and tried to enlist me to do some heavy-mob impressions. No amount of cajoling, threats or persuasion convinced me it was a worthy endeavor (I don’t give in to peer-group pressure) so they had a mighty struggle with Pete, who threw up afterwards, before helping the same two give Julie a thoughtful bath too. Teachers all, you know, bar one.....!

 

College American Studies outside examiner interview on Tuesday before the goodbye’s to other students started gradually. One of my friends got the awful news she’d failed teaching practice, and hadn’t qualified after 3 years, upset and packing to leave the next day or two. Pete’s family were going back to Germany, and he would be joining them unless he got a summer job. I noted that we’d probably never see him again, if I knew Pete (which I did, being my best mate and all at College). So it was. He eventually married a Japanese girl, and moved to Japan, had a son and then lost touch sometime in the late 80’s. TP-failing, though, turned out not so tragic as she is now a Reverend, married to a Reverend, and living in a Parish in Wales. I didn’t like all this gang-breaking-up one bit, not at all, and predicted the next few months (at least) would be very depressing. I didn’t know the half of it....

 

I kept myself busy writing a fiction story and printing black & white photos in the College darkroom, as everyone gathered in my room wednesday evening for hysterical laughs watching TV. As we gathered Thursday evening I taped-recorded us all chatting and mucking about - and haven’t been able to listen to it since, with my reel-to-reel player having died, it’s a major loss to me that I didn’t convert it to mp3 years ago while it was just about working. I need to find someone to do it for me so I can hear how embarrassing I was at the time.

 

Friday, grandma and granddad dropped by with mum and dad, on their way through Lincoln, Paul took a few of us for a pub evening, Ian, Bev, Sue, which ended on a sour note thanks to an unfortunate comment, but otherwise was fun, Saturday was snooker (yet more), more bargain bin singles purchases in town, played Ian at tennis which was great fun, he was always a laugh, sorry I’ve lost touch these days. Then team table tennis after eating before an evening at Alan & Helen’s flat, where we had an Alan-guitar singalong and laughs with most of the gang there. From here to another goodbye party at Jo and Elaine’s, but not that many in attendance, so our smaller gang (Ian, Pete, Julie, Jane) just mucked about till 1-ish, and Charades till 2. It was so not a party, it was hilarious.

8th July 1980

The first chart after my final week of College, and it’s Olivia Newton-John getting a second number one (following You’re The One That I Want) and ELO getting a 9th, leaving them behind only The Beatles and Abba for most chart-toppers, though old mucker Roy Wood also totals 9 in various guises, including one with ELO (10538 Overture). Co-incidentally Macca is at 3, and ELO themselves are also at 4 with another Xanadu single, I’m Alive. I over-rated it as I’d managed to get hold of a cut-price copy of the single and they were coming off the back of 3 chart-toppers in a row.

 

Joan Armatrading gets Me Myself I into the 10, her 2nd, as Stacy Lattisaw gets a jumping first. Saxon, Odyssey and The Hollies all go top 20, Odyssey’s 2nd, The Hollies 7th or so in a 12-year span. Into the top 40 go Yellow Magic Orchestra’s space invaders, Spider, Voyager, The Detroit Spinners and Bad Manners, not to mention classic Bob Marley. Lower down we find the new entries rushing in with many a classic: Kate Bush is back with the sensational video Russian babe of Babooshka, Joy Division debut with the timeless and influential Love Will Tear Us Apart, even though lead singer was already dead, having committed suicide in May. Both tracks remain brilliant. Almost as good: The Undertones bring Wednesday Week in at 74. a melodic gem and a welcome change of pace from the boys, Kim Carnes huskily covers Smokey Robinson to fabulous effect at 68 ahead of her UK breakthrough a year later with an even greater track, and Change debut with the Chic-ish delight of A Lover’s Holiday at 48.

 

Others: The Rolling Stones have a decent comeback with Emotional Rescue, still in disco groove mode at 57, Sad Cafe have a 5th entry with the terribly titled Nothing Left Toulouse, John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett get a second hit 3 years on from Really Free, with the abrupt-change of direction of DK 50-80, a quirky synthrock track that was ahead of it’s time, The Vapors get another entry (News At Ten) and Bill Nelson comes back without Be Bop Deluxe, 4 years after Ships In The Night hit my top 10, now dreaming in colour.

 

 

1 ( 2 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

2 ( 1 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

3 ( 3 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

4 ( 11 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

5 ( 4 ) CRYING Don McLean

6 ( 6 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

7 ( 5 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

8 ( 8 ) TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS Splodgenessabounds

9 ( 13 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

10 ( 14 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

 

11 ( 9 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

12 ( 7 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

13 ( 28 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

14 ( 10 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

15 ( 18 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

16 ( 27 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

17 ( 19 ) PLAY THE GAME Queen

18 ( 12 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

19 ( 69 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

20 ( 16 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

 

21 ( 25 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

22 ( 50 ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

23 ( 31 ) MY WAY OF THINKING UB40

24 ( 26 ) I’M NOT YOUR STEPPING STONE The Sex Pistols

25 ( 35 ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

26 ( 15 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

27 ( 34 ) LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR Pete Townsend

28 ( 24 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

29 ( 17 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

30 ( 30 ) CHINATOWN Thin Lizzy

 

31 ( 20 ) DA-A-ANCE The Lambrettas

32 ( 41 ) NEW ROMANCE (IT’S A MYSTERY) Spider

33 ( 38 ) DIDDY WAH DIDDY The Blues Band

34 ( 52 ) SING OUT (BREAKING/ ATMOSPHERE) Voyager

35 ( 40 ) I DON’T WANT YOU ANYMORE Tavares

36 ( 68 ) CUPID - I’VE LOVED YOU FOR A LONG TIME The Detroit Spinners

37 ( 21 ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

38 ( 47 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

39 ( 64 ) DON’T TELL ME Shona Laing

40 ( 58 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

 

41 ( 48 ) RUNNING FROM PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

42 ( 22 ) NEW AMSTERDAM Elvis Costello

43 ( 23 ) LITTLE JEANNIE Elton John

44 ( 43 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

45 ( 39 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

46 ( 42 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

47 ( 29 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

48 ( NEW ) A LOVER’S HOLIDAY Change

49 ( 53 ) SANCTUARY New Musik

50 ( NEW ) BABOOSHKA Kate Bush

 

 

51 ( 33 ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

52 ( 55 ) RING OF FIRE Carlene Carter

53 ( 32 ) THEME FROM MIDNIGHT COWBOY Original Soundtrack (John Barry)

54 ( 46 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

55 ( NEW ) NOTHING LEFT TOULOUSE Sad Cafe

56 ( 37 ) TRYING TO KEEP THE SUMMER ALIVE The Beach Boys

57 ( NEW ) EMOTIONAL RESCUE The Rolling Stones

58 ( 60 ) SUNSET PEOPLE Donna Summer

59 ( 36 ) WHO WANTS THE WORLD The Stranglers

60 ( 66 ) PARTNERS IN CRIME Rupert Holmes

 

 

61 ( 61 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

62 ( 62 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

63 ( 44 ) MIDNITE DYNAMOS Matchbox

64 ( 54 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO (WORK REST & PLAY EP) Madness

65 ( NEW ) LOVE WILL TEAR US APART Joy Division

66 ( 57 ) COMING UP Paul McCartney

67 ( 56 ) CALL ME Blondie

68 ( NEW ) MORE LOVE Kim Carnes

69 ( NEW ) DK 50-80 Otway & Barrett

70 ( 45 ) YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE iamspamspamamiAT PARTIES Jona Lewie

 

 

71 ( 71 ) SUBSTITUTE Liquid Gold

72 ( 73 ) THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SUN Janis Ian

73 ( NEW ) NEWS AT TEN The Vapors

74 ( NEW ) WEDNESDAY WEEK The Undertones

75 ( NEW ) DO YOU DREAM IN COLOUR Bill Nelson

 

 

TV June 28th - 4th July

1 Wimbledon

2 Q9

3 The Mary Tyler Moore Show

4 Mork and Mindy

5 Firecreek

 

On TV the striking BBC staff kept Top Of The Pops off the air for half the summer, which was a bummer, not to mention other TV shows, which, along with a week of partying hard as we all left College, meant I watched hardly any TV, unusually for me in those days. The last single I was playing to death was OMD, and the last single I bought at College was a gatefold sleeve version of Xanadu. I borrowed Julie’s camera flash and went to the Usher Art Gallery and took photos of my work on the wall, allowing myself a bit of sad ego-boosting amongst the crushing comments of the Uni examiners, then tutor Max helped me remove them and the helped shift piano’s and the like. American Studies tutor John Davies praised my writing, suggested further reading to widen my experience and gave me my marks in graph form for each year at College, rising steeply with The Immigrants, and stood up for me in the end results for marks, overall 65% (Grade 1). I always like John Davies and wish I could stayed as enthusiastic for myself as he was on my behalf!

 

Mum, dad, grandma & granddad dropped by with a new watch for me! I am still wearing it, a dozen batteries later, a scratched clock face, and 35 years on. I do like to take care of stuff! Ian, Sue, Paul Julie & Jane gathered, Alan came by, and off we went in a tie I borrowed from Sue for the goodbye dinner, a lecturer came over to chat to me and made a very unexpected personal comment out of the blue which I'm still not clear on what he saying but I went bright red! That left speeches from the Principal and Union Rep Mark, and then to the bar and union disco for SAVVY, College band of the day, and the final record of the disco was When Will I See You Again. How depressing. Next few days: Tennis, snooker, socialising, some exciting Wimbledon matches (Chris Lloyd beating Navratilova), and conversations on the inhumanity of man amongst all the laughs, and on the last evening we split into two groups, Sue, Bev, Pete, Julie stayed in watching TV, Ian, Jane, Paul, Dave went to a double movie feature: Saturday Night Fever (dull despite the fab music) and Grease (better than first time round) which with it’s final scenes of the ending of High School was sort of saying it all really. We gathered for a chat, and that was it, end of an era, College over, just the goodbye’s and the packing to do. I popped up to Sue’s room, she was as upset as me I think at it all ending, everyone handing in keys, and Pete disappeared in a rush without a proper goodbye. I asked Sue to say goodbye for me, because I kinda knew he wouldn’t be meeting up with the gang after college and that would be the last time I saw him, ever, and which gutted me somewhat. And so it was. Sue was the one that saw me off when Brother and dad came for me and my stuff. “See you in 6 weeks” was my goodbye, it helped knowing we were meeting up but I was fighting back tears the whole way home.

 

And that was the end of the good times for a decade or so...

15th July 1980

2 weeks for Xanadu on top, as I start my 2-years job-search, living and breathing application forms. This had such a negative effect on me that I stay with crappy jobs rather than put in a job application, just to avoid the whole sorry stressful experience. Not a good career move, overall. Music, though, was fab: Macca gets his 2nd number 2 of the year, as Saxon get their first top 10, flying up with 747, Odyssey get a second, using it up and wearing it out, and Teena Marie gets behind the groove and pops up to 9.

 

Joy Division go up a whopping 50 places to 15 with the classic Love Will Tear Us Apart, and Kate up 33 with a classic babooshka to 17, and classic Marley at 18 with Could You be Loved. That’s a buncha classics! Change have a holiday at 23, and New Musik make it 4 top 40’s in a row as they look for Sanctuary. The Rolling Stones take an Emotional Rescue inside the 40, a funky falsetto groove miles away from their petulant earthy blues chart debut Honky Tonk Women 11 years earlier.

 

In at 39, Leo Sayer seems to have given up writing his own material, and opts for a great Bobby Vee 60’s oldie, More Than I Can Say, removes the charm and slows it down. Dexy’s make it 3 in a row at 46, There There My Dear! The Whispers cover My Girl, Hot Chocolate enquire about the amount of happiness I’m getting and is it enough, which is polite of them, and to which the answer was and is “No”. A bit of a disappointment for me, though, after No Doubt About It. In at 71, AC/DC get a 3rd entry, with reactivated flop Whole Lotta Rosie, the final Bon Scott vocals hit they had, and a Punk-Metal classic for me. From here on they were more Pomp-Metal. Finally Gene Chandler gets a good soul ballad ebtry at 74, Does She Have A Friend he asks, while Billy Joel is more positive stating (quite rightly) that it’s still rock ‘n’ roll to him at 75, no matter what new name it has. Clever lyrically, tuneful and catchy, as ol’ Billy tended to be when he was in the mood, and 5 years on now from The Piano Man debut.

 

1 ( 1 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

2 ( 3 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

3 ( 2 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

4 ( 10 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

5 ( 9 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

6 ( 13 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

7 ( 6 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

8 ( 16 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

9 ( 15 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

10 ( 5 ) CRYING Don McLean

 

11 ( 7 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

12 ( 4 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

13 ( 8 ) TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS Splodgenessabounds

14 ( 17 ) PLAY THE GAME Queen

15 ( 65 ) LOVE WILL TEAR US APART Joy Division

16 ( 22 ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

17 ( 50 ) BABOOSHKA Kate Bush

18 ( 40 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

19 ( 21 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

20 ( 12 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

 

 

21 ( 11 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

22 ( 23 ) MY WAY OF THINKING UB40

23 ( 48 ) A LOVER’S HOLIDAY Change

24 ( 24 ) I’M NOT YOUR STEPPING STONE The Sex Pistols

25 ( 20 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

26 ( 49 ) SANCTUARY New Musik

27 ( 14 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

28 ( 34 ) SING OUT (BREAKING/ ATMOSPHERE) Voyager

29 ( 57 ) EMOTIONAL RESCUE The Rolling Stones

30 ( 25 ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

 

 

31 ( 18 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

32 ( 19 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

33 ( 33 ) DIDDY WAH DIDDY The Blues Band

34 ( 38 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

35 ( 36 ) CUPID - I’VE LOVED YOU FOR A LONG TIME The Detroit Spinners

36 ( 28 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

37 ( 35 ) I DON’T WANT YOU ANYMORE Tavares

38 ( 26 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

39 ( NEW ) MORE THAN I CAN SAY Leo Sayer

40 ( 29 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

 

41 ( 74 ) WEDNESDAY WEEK The Undertones

42 ( 55 ) NOTHING LEFT TOULOUSE Sad Cafe

43 ( 32 ) NEW ROMANCE (IT’S A MYSTERY) Spider

44 ( 27 ) LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR Pete Townsend

45 ( 39 ) DON’T TELL ME Shona Laing

46 ( NEW ) THERE THERE MY DEAR Dexy’s Midnight Runners

47 ( 41 ) RUNNING FROM PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

48 ( 44 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

49 ( 30 ) CHINATOWN Thin Lizzy

50 ( 68 ) MORE LOVE Kim Carnes

 

 

51 ( 52 ) RING OF FIRE Carlene Carter

52 ( 31 ) DA-A-ANCE The Lambrettas

53 ( 46 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

54 ( 45 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

55 ( 56 ) TRYING TO KEEP THE SUMMER ALIVE The Beach Boys

56 ( 37 ) LET’S GET SERIOUS Jermaine Jackson

57 ( 54 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

58 ( 75 ) DO YOU DREAM IN COLOUR Bill Nelson

59 ( 47 ) TWILIGHT ZONE/TWILIGHT TONE Manhattan Transfer

60 ( 60 ) PARTNERS IN CRIME Rupert Holmes

 

61 ( 61 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

62 ( 62 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

63 ( NEW ) MY GIRL The Whispers

64 ( 42 ) NEW AMSTERDAM Elvis Costello

65 ( 43 ) LITTLE JEANNIE Elton John

66 ( NEW ) ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH HAPPINESS Hot Chocolate

67 ( 51 ) OVER YOU Roxy Music

68 ( 73 ) NEWS AT TEN The Vapors

69 ( 69 ) DK 50-80 Otway & Barrett

70 ( 64 ) NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO (WORK REST & PLAY EP) Madness

 

 

71 ( NEW ) WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE AC/DC

72 ( NEW ) FANTASY Gerard Kenny

73 ( 53 ) THEME FROM MIDNIGHT COWBOY Original Soundtrack (John Barry)

74 ( NEW ) DOES SHE HAVE A FRIEND Gene Chandler

75 ( NEW ) IT’S STILL ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO ME Billy Joel

 

 

 

 

TV 5th-11th July

1 Wimbledon Final

2 Soap

3 Mork and Mindy

4 The Phil Silvers Show

5 Taxi

6 Happy Days

7 Buona Sera Mrs Campbell: film

8 The Banana Splits

9 Are You Being Served

10 Dallas

 

 

In the real world I had the delight of standing in line at the Unemployment Office for 2 and a half hours to “sign on” as we used to say, and granddad came round to do some DIY. Grandma and Grandad were moving into their new council house in Mansfield, from Clipstone, which was the end of an era for me - they had only ever lived in the school caretakers house in Clipstone, and all the immediate family in Mansfield were round to help move in and with painting, wallpapering etc. This was followed by granddad getting the news his sister had cancer and 6 months to live, not a good start to a new house.

 

We also badgered mum into giving in and getting our first state-of-the-art £299 videorecorder (well, dad did at any rate). Tapes £20 for 2 hours!

 

Rest of the week painting walls and doors at home, as a prelude to the movie of the year, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: “A treat! I didn’t guess Darth Vader’s secret and the muppet wasn’t so bad” (as expected, that’ll be Yoda then) “MUCH better than I’d anticipated: not the uniformity of plot-ending of Star Wars, and humour less apparent, therefore not as impressive. BUT effects were brilliant as before plus much originality and the characters weren’t two-dimensional this time” I opined, it was more a series of adventures and chase than an actual plot until half-way through, and I got pissed off at having to wait 3 years for the cliff-hangar resolution, that was a long time!

 

My top 8 sci-fi movies of all time after viewing?

 

Close Encounters of The Third Kind

Star Trek

Star Wars

Alien

The Empire Strikes Back

Superman

Planet Of The Apes

2001: A Space Odyssey

 

That order is substantially different these days and Star Trek, Superman have dropped out of my top 100 entirely, 2001 is classic but not a fave.

 

22nd July 1980

 

3 weeks for Xanadu on top but with Abba’s brilliant, adult and sophisticated new ballad in at 2, it looks like The Winner Takes It All imminently. It signalled a new maturity after a pop disco phase, and critically as well as commercially Abba were getting appreciated. About time. Saxon at 3 give metal a boost, while at the lower end Whitesnake and Hawkwind join in. Dexy’s Midnight Runners shoot up 39 places to 7, for 3 out of 3 great singles, and are joined in the top 10 by classic Kate and brilliant Bob.

 

Change, New Musik, Rolling Stones, and The Sex Pistols all go top 20 but it’s The Undertones with a Wednesday Week rush to 19 who stand out with one of their best singles. Greedy ELO meanwhile get yet another Xanadu track All Over The World newly in, and while it’s not startlingly different from previous singles it ticks the pleasure box for me and drops in at 27. Diana Ross is back with a Chic-bang at 31, Upside Down in one fell swoop is her best single in 4 years, and by a long way. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards effectively finished being pop stars with Chic, and moved over to writing and producing for bigger stars. Hey presto 35 years on and Nile Rodgers is quite rightly revered. Diana has a dozen years of chart activity, a chart veteran.

 

In at 30, another new single from The Beach Boys, Santa Ana Winds, pleasant enough, The Whispers go top 40 with My Girl, as Johnny Bristol enters with My Girl 6 years on since his last entry Hang On In There Baby - and it’s a mash-up with My Guy, and Amii Stewart continuing her cover version career. Both songs were conveniently written by Smokey Robinson, as was More Love nestling beautifully at 48 for Kim Carnes. The Gibson Brothers grab a 4th top 40 with Mariana at 40, keeping those fab latin rhythms going strong.

 

At 51, it’s a remarkable debut for model legend Grace Jones, who oozes style and attitude throughout her career, starting with a Sly & Robbie-produced cover of Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders song Private Life. Slowed-down, half-spoken half-sung, sexy and throbbing, Chrissie gave it the compliment that Grace made it sound like she imagined it would sound. At 69, debuting with a new lead singer (John Foxx having been and gone) in the shape of Midge Ure, then of Slik and Rich Kids fame, it’s Ultravox and Sleepwalking joining the synthpop party, having been early pioneers of it. That leaves The Mo-Dettes covering the Rolling Stones Paint It Black at 70, as the Stones own Emotional Rescue is somewhat higher at 18.

 

 

1 ( 1 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

2 ( NEW ) THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL Abba

3 ( 6 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

4 ( 5 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

5 ( 2 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

6 ( 3 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

7 ( 46 ) THERE THERE MY DEAR Dexy’s Midnight Runners

8 ( 17 ) BABOOSHKA Kate Bush

9 ( 18 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

10 ( 4 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

 

 

11 ( 7 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

12 ( 8 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

13 ( 15 ) LOVE WILL TEAR US APART Joy Division

14 ( 9 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

15 ( 23 ) A LOVER’S HOLIDAY Change

16 ( 26 ) SANCTUARY New Musik

17 ( 10 ) CRYING Don McLean

18 ( 29 ) EMOTIONAL RESCUE The Rolling Stones

19 ( 41 ) WEDNESDAY WEEK The Undertones

20 ( 24 ) I’M NOT YOUR STEPPING STONE The Sex Pistols

 

 

21 ( 11 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

22 ( 16 ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

23 ( 12 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

24 ( 19 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

25 ( 13 ) TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS Splodgenessabounds

26 ( 39 ) MORE THAN I CAN SAY Leo Sayer

27 ( NEW ) ALL OVER THE WORLD E.L.O.

28 ( 34 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

29 ( 33 ) DIDDY WAH DIDDY (BLUES BAND EP) The Blues Band

30 ( NEW ) SANTA ANA WINDS The Beach Boys

 

 

31 ( NEW ) UPSIDE DOWN Diana Ross

32 ( 22 ) MY WAY OF THINKING UB40

33 ( 20 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

34 ( 14 ) PLAY THE GAME Queen

35 ( 35 ) CUPID - I’VE LOVED YOU FOR A LONG TIME The Detroit Spinners

36 ( 25 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

37 ( 37 ) I DON’T WANT YOU ANYMORE Tavares

38 ( 63 ) MY GIRL The Whispers

39 ( 71 ) WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE AC/DC

40 ( NEW ) MARIANA The Gibson Brothers

 

 

41 ( 36 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

42 ( 21 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

43 ( 27 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

44 ( 32 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

45 ( 31 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

46 ( 40 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

47 ( 51 ) RING OF FIRE Carlene Carter

48 ( 50 ) MORE LOVE Kim Carnes

49 ( 30 ) TO BE OR NOT TO BE B.A. Robertson

50 ( 28 ) SING OUT (BREAKING/ ATMOSPHERE) Voyager

 

 

51 ( NEW ) PRIVATE LIFE Grace Jones

52 ( 48 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

53 ( 38 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

54 ( 74 ) DOES SHE HAVE A FRIEND Gene Chandler

55 ( 66 ) ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH HAPPINESS Hot Chocolate

56 ( 45 ) DON’T TELL ME Shona Laing

57 ( 75 ) IT’S STILL ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO ME Billy Joel

58 ( 47 ) RUNNING FROM PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

59 ( 68 ) NEWS AT TEN The Vapors

60 ( 53 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

 

61 ( 62 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

62 ( 61 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

63 ( 57 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

64 ( 72 ) FANTASY Gerard Kenny

65 ( 55 ) TRYING TO KEEP THE SUMMER ALIVE The Beach Boys

66 ( 42 ) NOTHING LEFT TOULOUSE Sad Cafe

67 ( 58 ) DO YOU DREAM IN COLOUR Bill Nelson

68 ( 43 ) NEW ROMANCE (IT’S A MYSTERY) Spider

69 ( NEW ) SLEEPWALKING Ultravox

70 ( NEW ) PAINT IT BLACK The Mo-Dettes

 

71 ( NEW ) MY GUY/MY GIRL Amii Stewart and Johnny Bristol

72 ( 49 ) CHINATOWN Thin Lizzy

73 ( NEW ) READY AND WILLING Whitesnake

74 ( NEW ) SHOT DOWN IN THE NIGHT Hawkwind

75 ( 54 ) SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE Michael Jackson

 

 

TV 12th - 18th July

1 Rhoda

2 Soap

3 The Phil Silvers Show

4 Taxi

5 The Outer Limits

6 Q9

7 The Banana Splits

8 Ancient Astronauts

9 Hong Kong Beat

10 Space 1999

11 The Pink Panther

12 Happy Days

13 Superstar Profile: Roger Moore

14 Dallas

15 What’s On Wogan

 

At home, I got rid of some old clothes, which saddened me actually, as it was my teen life going in the bin. Mum found out she had to go into hospital yet again, which was worrying, though I was more happy to be able to give them half my new UB40 £20 a week, and have a bit left over for some new clothes (brown cords trousers). Did my first job application: the CHAD local newspaper (Artist/Visualiser): my expectations would eventually drift downwards and more realistically. My new chart was done on Friday 18th (but is still dated 22nd July as at that time it was still the week-ending date before the new chart was announced on Tuesdays). I think the day I did my chart varied more from here on, but tended to be after Top Of The Pops broadcasts so it could be up-to-date.

29th July 1980

Abba get their 14th consecutive number one, and 15th in total, with the sublime The Winner Takes It All, heartbreak perfection. Only The Beatles could claim to be bigger - depending on whether you include a separate Beatles chart in 1976 as bonafide. I sorta do cos most of their career was pre-my-chart and singles and album tracks would have been just as chart-topper-y as Abba’s, who would have had considerably more chart-toppers had I allowed album tracks such as Eagle, Tiger, If It Wasn’t For The Nights and Hole In Your Soul to chart. Diana Ross meanwhile leaps upside to 3, her highest charting since 1976, and highest-charting new material since 1972. Kate Bush gets a 4th top 5, ELO keep the run of top 10 singles running to 5 years, and Change go top 10 too.

 

Gibson Brothers go top 20, Beach Boys blow up to 20, and Hall & Oates get a first top 20 entry four years on from the brilliant She’s Gone with Running From Paradise, up 39 places after pottering about a bit. Billy Joel adds another top 40 to his list, but it’s still rock ‘n’ roll to me, as The Gap Band turn sitting in a line on the floor into a rowing fad with Oops Upside Your Head entering at 28. Hot Choc hit the 40, Black Sabbath get a 3rd top 40 hit with Neon Knights, a decade since Paranoid premiered, and Grace Jones makes the 40 with her Private Life. Sheena easton debuts, a reality TV star, wholesome and shrill and Scottish, with a not-Dolly-Parton 9 To 5 song which went on to top the charts in the USA under it’s alternate title (in brackets here). Dolly is more famous these days, and Sheena shocked when she moved to the States and went all raunchy in the mid-80’s, but for now we had to make do with a fairly dated bland pop ditty.

 

Kim Carnes and Gene Chandler finally make the 40 with 2 minor gems that should have been bigger gems, and Racey return with a less chirpy pop song Rest Of Your Life at 47, it wasn’t bad, while a funk classic aiming for Jamaica is in at 54 for Tom Browne. Not the BBC singles UK Radio Chart rundown DJ Tom Browne, though. Pity! Bodysnatchers are back looking for an Easy Life, Roxy Music quip “Oh Yeah”? as they hit a new laid-back low (for me) at 63, and quirky Piranhas debut with 50’s cover, all cockernee-stylee, Tom Hark. Chirpy and catchy. Jacko gets his 5th single off Off The Wall, and it’s mate and future estranged-mate Macca’s song, Girlfriend, in at 66. Not a finest moment for either party, but pleasant enough. Finally, John Foxx joins his ex-bandmates Ultravox, in a Burning Car at 71.

 

 

 

1 ( 2 ) THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL Abba

2 ( 1 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

3 ( 31 ) UPSIDE DOWN Diana Ross

4 ( 8 ) BABOOSHKA Kate Bush

5 ( 7 ) THERE THERE MY DEAR Dexy’s Midnight Runners

6 ( 27 ) ALL OVER THE WORLD E.L.O.

7 ( 9 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

8 ( 3 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

9 ( 15 ) A LOVER’S HOLIDAY Change

10 ( 4 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

 

 

11 ( 5 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

12 ( 22 ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

13 ( 16 ) SANCTUARY New Musik

14 ( 6 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

15 ( 40 ) MARIANA The Gibson Brothers

16 ( 18 ) EMOTIONAL RESCUE The Rolling Stones

17 ( 10 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

18 ( 19 ) WEDNESDAY WEEK The Undertones

19 ( 58 ) RUNNING FROM PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

20 ( 30 ) SANTA ANA WINDS The Beach Boys

 

 

21 ( 12 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

22 ( 26 ) MORE THAN I CAN SAY Leo Sayer

23 ( 57 ) IT’S STILL ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO ME Billy Joel

24 ( 13 ) LOVE WILL TEAR US APART Joy Division

25 ( 28 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

26 ( 39 ) WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE AC/DC

27 ( 17 ) CRYING Don McLean

28 ( NEW ) OOPS UPSIDE YOUR HEAD The Gap Band

29 ( 55 ) ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH HAPPINESS Hot Chocolate

30 ( 23 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

 

31 ( 11 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

32 ( 14 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

33 ( NEW ) NEON KNIGHTS Black Sabbath

34 ( 21 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

35 ( 51 ) PRIVATE LIFE Grace Jones

36 ( NEW ) 9 TO 5 (MY BABY TAKES THE MORNING TRAIN) Sheena Easton

37 ( 38 ) MY GIRL The Whispers

38 ( 25 ) TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS Splodgenessabounds

39 ( 48 ) MORE LOVE Kim Carnes

40 ( 54 ) DOES SHE HAVE A FRIEND Gene Chandler

 

 

41 ( 32 ) MY WAY OF THINKING UB40

42 ( 24 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

43 ( 36 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

44 ( 33 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

45 ( 29 ) DIDDY WAH DIDDY (BLUES BAND EP) The Blues Band

46 ( 69 ) SLEEPWALKING Ultravox

47 ( NEW ) REST OF YOUR LIFE Racey

48 ( 35 ) CUPID - I’VE LOVED YOU FOR A LONG TIME The Detroit Spinners

49 ( 37 ) I DON’T WANT YOU ANYMORE Tavares

50 ( 41 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

 

 

51 ( 44 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

52 ( 43 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

53 ( 34 ) PLAY THE GAME Queen

54 ( NEW ) FUNKIN’ FOR JAMAICA Tom Browne

55 ( 52 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

56 ( 20 ) I’M NOT YOUR STEPPING STONE The Sex Pistols

57 ( 45 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

58 ( 59 ) NEWS AT TEN The Vapors

59 ( 46 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

60 ( NEW ) EASY LIFE The Bodysnatchers

 

61 ( 61 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

62 ( 62 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

63 ( NEW ) OH YEAH Roxy Music

64 ( NEW ) TOM HARK The Piranhas

65 ( 53 ) WE ARE GLASS Gary Numan

66 ( NEW ) GIRLFRIEND Michael Jackson

67 ( 67 ) DO YOU DREAM IN COLOUR Bill Nelson

68 ( 71 ) MY GUY/MY GIRL Amii Stewart and Johnny Bristol

69 ( 60 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

70 ( 56 ) DON’T TELL ME Shona Laing

 

71 ( NEW ) BURNING CAR John Foxx

72 ( 70 ) PAINT IT BLACK The Mo-Dettes

73 ( 73 ) READY AND WILLING Whitesnake

74 ( 63 ) LOST IN LOVE Air Supply

75 ( 42 ) EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME The Korgis

 

 

 

TV 19th-25th July

1 Fawlty Towers

2 Olympics 1980

3 Soap

4 Rhoda

5 Q9

6 Horizon: The Bermuda Triangle

7 Porridge

8 Moviola: Garbo & Gilbert

9 The Good Life

10 Moviola: Scarlett O’Hara

11 Moviola: Marilyn Monroe

12 Space: 1999

13 What’s On Wogan

14 Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em

15 Fantasy Island

That leaves TV chat - mostly 70’s sitcoms, as it happens, plus the 1980 Olympics, a batch of Hollywood Golden Age greats on Moviola TV Biog miniseries, and also a bit of Spike Milligan. In my life, dad bought me a jacket in Nottingham, I bought myself some Legion Of Super-Heroes comics (even though I couldnt afford them, I had to have them), and mum’s cousin Pauline was out of hospital OK, though family life was tense and terse as mum waited anxiously to go into hospital herself. Various relations came round to visit during the week until mum went in on Sunday, anxious about her operation. To say the least, and so was I.

 

In the Olympics Duncan Goodhew won gold in the swimming, Ovett vs Coe, Alan Wells, Daley Thompson, loads of UK athletes doing the biz; Peter Sellers died far too young in shock news, I wrote: “A blow, too young, top of career etc. A damn funny man - it’s never fair. No wonder older people are cynical.” As indeed I am now. ON TV show Fantasy Island guest star was Marcia Wallace, of Bob Newhart Show USA fame, who I’d watched live on The Match Game in LA a year earlier - and I had no-one to tell! No-one had heard of her, or cared. I liked her, and she eventually gained TV immortality as Mrs Krabappel in the Simpsons. So now I can tell someone.

5th August 1980

 

Abba stay on top with the classic classy The Winner Takes It All, as Nile Rodgers goes up to 2 with Diana Ross. That’s Upside Down isn’t it? ELO go top 5, and highest new entry is Olivia Newton-John’s fab moody ballad Magic - that’s just greedy, cos Xanadu from both of ‘em is still top 3! Such a shame the film wasn’t as good as the music. The Undertones tunefully marvellous Wednesday Week goes top 10, and Leo Sayer gets a top 20 for the first time in 3 years, Billy Joel his third, and Sheena Easton her first.

 

Roxy Music hit the top 30, Oh Yeah they do, while duetting Johnny Bristol and Amii Stewart take the old Motown classics into the 40 for a final chart time for Johnny and the last for a while for Amii. Ultravox sleepwalk into a debut top 40 entry, Racey get the last of their 4 or 5, and the Piranhas fun 50’s cover steams jollily up to 36, ooh hark at them! New in, well, 10 years late, Deep Purple’s Black Night overshadows other newer tracks, such as George Benson demanding the Night, his return after a couple of goodies in 1977 and another in 1975. Ray Gomez covers Lovin’ Spoonful’s 60‘s classic Summer In The City to lesser effect, at 50, and Don McLean covers the 50’s doowop classic Since I Don’t Have You a year after Art Garfunkel did the same, both versions sweet enough for me. Sue Wilkinson hustles in at 64, Nick Straker walks in at 69, and everything works for Cheap Trick’s 2nd hit at 72. It’s another old-sounding track, sort of punk surfer, and a spot of Summer Fun for the Barracudas, totally endearing at 73 while The Manhattans are smoothly back with Shining Star, 4 years on from Kiss And Say Goodbye.

 

1 ( 1 ) THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL Abba

2 ( 3 ) UPSIDE DOWN Diana Ross

3 ( 2 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

4 ( 4 ) BABOOSHKA Kate Bush

5 ( 6 ) ALL OVER THE WORLD E.L.O.

6 ( NEW ) MAGIC Olivia Newton-John

7 ( 9 ) A LOVER’S HOLIDAY Change

8 ( 5 ) THERE THERE MY DEAR Dexy’s Midnight Runners

9 ( 10 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

10 ( 18 ) WEDNESDAY WEEK The Undertones

 

 

11 ( 13 ) SANCTUARY New Musik

12 ( 7 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

13 ( 11 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

14 ( 12 ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

15 ( 15 ) MARIANA The Gibson Brothers

16 ( 20 ) SANTA ANA WINDS The Beach Boys

17 ( 22 ) MORE THAN I CAN SAY Leo Sayer

18 ( 8 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

19 ( 23 ) IT’S STILL ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO ME Billy Joel

20 ( 36 ) 9 TO 5 (MY BABY TAKES THE MORNING TRAIN) Sheena Easton

 

 

21 ( 35 ) PRIVATE LIFE Grace Jones

22 ( 16 ) EMOTIONAL RESCUE The Rolling Stones

23 ( 17 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

24 ( 25 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

25 ( 24 ) LOVE WILL TEAR US APART Joy Division

26 ( 14 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

27 ( 28 ) OOPS UPSIDE YOUR HEAD The Gap Band

28 ( 21 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

29 ( 29 ) ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH HAPPINESS Hot Chocolate

30 ( 63 ) OH YEAH Roxy Music

 

 

31 ( 33 ) NEON KNIGHTS Black Sabbath

32 ( 68 ) MY GUY/MY GIRL Amii Stewart and Johnny Bristol

33 ( 19 ) RUNNING FROM PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

34 ( 46 ) SLEEPWALKING Ultravox

35 ( 47 ) REST OF YOUR LIFE Racey

36 ( 64 ) TOM HARK The Piranhas

37 ( 37 ) MY GIRL The Whispers

38 ( 40 ) DOES SHE HAVE A FRIEND Gene Chandler

39 ( 42 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

40 ( 27 ) CRYING Don McLean

 

41 ( 26 ) WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE AC/DC

42 ( 31 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

43 ( 54 ) FUNKIN’ FOR JAMAICA Tom Browne

44 ( 34 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

45 ( 32 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

46 ( 43 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

47 ( NEW ) BLACK NIGHT Deep Purple

48 ( 30 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

49 ( NEW ) GIVE ME THE NIGHT George Benson

50 ( NEW ) SUMMER IN THE CITY Ray Gomez

 

 

51 ( 44 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

52 ( 66 ) GIRLFRIEND Michael Jackson

53 ( 38 ) TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS Splodgenessabounds

54 ( 41 ) MY WAY OF THINKING UB40

55 ( 55 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

56 ( 51 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

57 ( NEW ) SINCE I DON’T HAVE YOU Don McLean

58 ( 39 ) MORE LOVE Kim Carnes

59 ( 71 ) BURNING CAR John Foxx

60 ( 52 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

 

61 ( 62 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

62 ( 61 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

63 ( 48 ) CUPID - I’VE LOVED YOU FOR A LONG TIME The Detroit Spinners

64 ( NEW ) YOU GOTTA BE A HUSTLER Sue Wilkinson

65 ( 45 ) DIDDY WAH DIDDY (BLUES BAND EP) The Blues Band

66 ( 57 ) STEAL AWAY Robbie Dupree

67 ( 50 ) FUNKY TOWN Lipps Inc

68 ( 49 ) I DON’T WANT YOU ANYMORE Tavares

69 ( NEW ) A WALK IN THE PARK Nick Straker Band

70 ( 59 ) YOU GAVE ME LOVE Crown Heights Affair

 

71 ( 60 ) EASY LIFE The Bodysnatchers

72 ( NEW ) EVERYTHING WORKS Cheap Trick

73 ( NEW ) SUMMER FUN The Barracudas

74 ( 69 ) GENO Dexy’s Midnight Runners

75 ( NEW ) SHINING STAR The Manhattans

 

 

TV 26th Jul-2nd Aug

 

1 Olympics

2 Parkinson

3 The Phil Silvers Show

4 Soap

5 Rhoda

6 Guyana Tragedy

7 Des O’Connor

8 Taxi

9 Superstar Profile

10 The Banana Splits

 

In my world, I cleaned my tropical fish tank, and watched Alan Wells win silver at the Olympics and helped our Polish widow neighbour friend Renee with her TV trouble, all to keep myself busy while mum was in hospital for her operation and I was stressed and anxious about it, as was dad. The phone rang all evening from friends and relatives wanting to know how it went, and mum’s friend Pat, who was my age more or less, popped round. By Wednesday mum was sat up in hospital and looking much better. Dad took grandma to see her as a surprise, mum burst into tears straight away. As she did when my brother Mark and girlfriend Sue visited on Saturday and Sunday, emotional and still in pain in her stomache, but improving. Mark & Sue gave me a double album of Donna Summer greatest hits, out of nowhere and just because, which surprised me, I didn’t want to accept it as it was really for Sue. I still have it.

 

Meanwhile, Alan from College rang me with his final grade results (same as me, surprisingly for us both) while other friends got the expected Grade 1. Paul meanwhile had got a teaching job in Rotherham, so he dropped by on Friday evening, excited about his new job, for a chat. We heard that Jane had got a job in Oxford, and went to the pub for an hour. It was terrific having a friend to talk to, it had been 5 weeks since College and I was feeling lonesome amongst the anxiety.

12th August 1980

 

It’s a 3rd week at 1 for the Abba classic, and a Xanadu movie 3,4,5, as The Gibson Brothers get a 4th top 10 in a row, and New Musik make it 3 in a row. Billy Joel still thinks it Rock ‘n’ Roll to him, and grabs his first actual top 10 after 5 years of chart entries with his US chart-topper. Leaping into the 20 50’s oldie Tom Hark is revived by a fishy band, while Lip Up fatty displays Bad Manners in the top 20 for the 2nd time. Roxy, though, make it 8 years of top 20 entries, which is all of their singles to date, and most of Bryan Ferry’s solo singles. Oh Yeah!

 

George Benson gets his biggest chart peak since 1977, and highest new entry is veteran 60’s Brit pop star Mike Berry, starring then in sitcom Are You Being Served, in at 27 with oldie Sunshine Of Your Smile. He had previously covered a Billy Swan cover of an Elvis classic which had hit my top 10 in 1972 for The Berries (formerly Rockin’ Berries) - Don’t Be Cruel made my top 20 in 1975, and you will never ever hear the Berries cover, as it was a novelty cover featuring an impression of paedophile DJ Jimmy Savile. Not that they knew that then, as it wouldn’t have been that amusing. This song, though, was positively archaic, published in 1913 in the UK of British songwriters, covered by many from 1914 onwards, though not covered by anyone still-well-known until Frank Sinatra did it in 1941, almost 30 years later. So, this version was an amazing 67 years old, which was historical to me at that time, and I rather took to the sweet old-fashioned-ness of it.

 

At 28, Ray Dorset of Mungo Jerry returns a decade after In The Summertime and many others - well, at least his song returns him, as he donates it to Kelly Marie, Feels Like I’m In Love pure disco cheese, and a bit of fluff fun. Tom Browne funks into the 40, and Sheena Easton gets a 2nd top 40 with previous flop single Modern Girl entering at 35 as 9 to 5 goes up to 19. Modern Girl is better. Sue Wilkinson hustles into the 40, too, and Don McLean gets his 5th - Since I Don’t Have You does what Art Garfunkel’s did the year before. Finally Bowie is back with a bang, a hot new single and video and image, the Steve Strange-featuring New Romantic masterpiece that is Ashes To Ashes at 40.

 

Other new entries: The Clash at 50 with Bankrobber, all moody and dub reggae, and for me their best single to date - I was very much in the minority though, at the time, to think that. Another oldie song, Just Like Eddie, a tribute 60’s song from Heinz referencing Eddie Cochran, is covered synth-style by the Silicon Teens in a decent version at 63. Jermaine Jackson returns and he’s Burning Hot at 65 - well at least he was quite warm - and Elton is showing off his Sartorial Eloquence at 67, a decent ballad. Roger Daltrey gets his first solo entry in 3 years, and 7 years since his first outside of The Who, a song from a prison drama movie McVicar which he starred in, Free Me at 70. Girlschool debut at 73 with a cover of 60’s rock classic Race With The Devil, The Village People are back for the 4th time at 74, and a new lead singer, also from a movie of the same name: Can’t Stop The Music. I didn’t rate the record much, and the somewhat camp film (to understate the case) was directed by comic actor Nancy Walker, who I was a huge fan of in her roles in Rhoda (see my TV list she appears at 2) and McMillan & Wife. Finally, Late In The Evening, and sneaking in at 75, Paul Simon extends his run to 11 years of many classics with a jazzy mellow upbeat US hit.

 

1 ( 1 ) THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL Abba

2 ( 2 ) UPSIDE DOWN Diana Ross

3 ( 3 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

4 ( 5 ) ALL OVER THE WORLD E.L.O.

5 ( 6 ) MAGIC Olivia Newton-John

6 ( 15 ) MARIANA The Gibson Brothers

7 ( 4 ) BABOOSHKA Kate Bush

8 ( 11 ) SANCTUARY New Musik

9 ( 8 ) THERE THERE MY DEAR Dexy’s Midnight Runners

10 ( 19 ) IT’S STILL ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO ME Billy Joel

 

 

11 ( 7 ) A LOVER’S HOLIDAY Change

12 ( 36 ) TOM HARK The Piranhas

13 ( 9 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

14 ( 16 ) SANTA ANA WINDS The Beach Boys

15 ( 24 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

16 ( 30 ) OH YEAH Roxy Music

17 ( 10 ) WEDNESDAY WEEK The Undertones

18 ( 12 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

19 ( 20 ) 9 TO 5 (MY BABY TAKES THE MORNING TRAIN) Sheena Easton

20 ( 21 ) PRIVATE LIFE Grace Jones

 

 

21 ( 49 ) GIVE ME THE NIGHT George Benson

22 ( 13 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

23 ( 27 ) OOPS UPSIDE YOUR HEAD The Gap Band

24 ( 17 ) MORE THAN I CAN SAY Leo Sayer

25 ( 29 ) ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH HAPPINESS Hot Chocolate

26 ( 32 ) MY GUY/MY GIRL Amii Stewart and Johnny Bristol

27 ( NEW ) SUNSHINE OF YOUR SMILE Mike Berry

28 ( NEW ) FEELS LIKE I’M IN LOVE Kelly Marie

29 ( 14 ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

30 ( 18 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

 

 

31 ( 43 ) FUNKIN’ FOR JAMAICA Tom Browne

32 ( 28 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

33 ( 26 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

34 ( 34 ) SLEEPWALKING Ultravox

35 ( NEW ) MODERN GIRL Sheena Easton

36 ( 23 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

37 ( 22 ) EMOTIONAL RESCUE The Rolling Stones

38 ( 64 ) YOU GOTTA BE A HUSTLER Sue Wilkinson

39 ( 57 ) SINCE I DON’T HAVE YOU Don McLean

40 ( NEW ) ASHES TO ASHES David Bowie

 

 

41 ( 35 ) REST OF YOUR LIFE Racey

42 ( 33 ) RUNNING FROM PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

43 ( 40 ) CRYING Don McLean

44 ( 25 ) LOVE WILL TEAR US APART Joy Division

45 ( 39 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

46 ( 50 ) SUMMER IN THE CITY Ray Gomez

47 ( 47 ) BLACK NIGHT Deep Purple

48 ( 31 ) NEON KNIGHTS Black Sabbath

49 ( 46 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

50 ( NEW ) BANKROBBER The Clash

 

 

51 ( 38 ) DOES SHE HAVE A FRIEND Gene Chandler

52 ( 73 ) SUMMER FUN The Barracudas

53 ( 42 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

54 ( 44 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

55 ( 55 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

56 ( 41 ) WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE AC/DC

57 ( 69 ) A WALK IN THE PARK Nick Straker Band

58 ( 51 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

59 ( 45 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

60 ( 61 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

 

61 ( 62 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

62 ( 48 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

63 ( NEW ) JUST LIKE EDDIE Silicon Teens

64 ( 56 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

65 ( NEW ) BURNING HOT Jermaine Jackson

66 ( 53 ) TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS Splodgenessabounds

67 ( NEW ) SARTORIAL ELOQUENCE Elton John

68 ( 60 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

69 ( 37 ) MY GIRL The Whispers

70 ( NEW ) FREE ME Roger Daltrey

 

71 ( 52 ) GIRLFRIEND Michael Jackson

72 ( 72 ) EVERYTHING WORKS Cheap Trick

73 ( NEW ) RACE WITH THE DEVIL Girlschool

74 ( NEW ) CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC The Village People

75 ( NEW ) LATE IN THE EVENING Paul Simon

 

MY TV CHART

Aug 3- Aug 9

1 Soap

2 Rhoda

3 The Mary Tyler Moore Show

4 The New Avengers

5 Top Of The Pops

6 Doctor Who (Tues)

7 The Rockford Files

8 Taxi

9 Doctor Who (Fri)

10 The Kelly Monteith Show

11 Laverne & Shirley

12 Doctor Who (Thurs)

13 Newsnight (Fri)

14 Jupiter

15 Film Greats

 

On TV American sitcom heaven for me, plus some old episodes of Doctor Who featuring Lallah Ward’s debut. In my life I was getting stressed about getting nowhere in terms of deciding about career decisions, mum was improving in hospital, which was a relief, and granddad & grandma were round helping dad with a new loft-ladder, then we took them back and had tea. At the cinema to see The Black Hole, Disney’s attempt to cash-in on sci-fi blockbuster action. My review: “the good points: Roddy McDowell & the humour of the robot; some of the effects; a theoretically good cast. The bad points: the rest of it!!!” I ranted on for a while about it, but essentially concluded it was garbage. It’s not repeated much on TV these days...

 

I passed my time with Record Mirror, Smash Hits, and buying a load of cheap-ex-chart singles (as usual) and the new-look much-improved Top Of The Pops, and TV special on planet Jupiter, being as Voyager had amazing photos from the last year which had actually focused attention on the planet-sized Galilean moons, they were far more interesting than Jupiter, not least the tantalising ice-world Europa and it’s potential sub-surface ocean which was mind-bogglingly exciting. I also spent a whopping £19 (huge amount in those days) on a blank video to record Star Trek and The Martian Chronicles (the TV series based on my absolutely adored Ray Bradbury collection of short stories which I first read in 1970), both about to air on TV: that also meant I got to start my selective recording of pop music videos and TV clips from this day on, and re-watch fave TV shows many times. This was pure science-fiction joy! On friday Aunty Ann (my age) and my little cousins came round, my other grandma (mum’s mum) was stopping with us, down from Liverpool, and I was shopping for a suit for my brother’s wedding. Dad paid for much of it (£50). At last, on Saturday, mum came home from hospital - that meant cleaning up the house first, ready for her arrival with Aunty Eileen and my growing cousins (9 & 7 years old). This was the start of a very long list of family visitors while mum laid down on the sofa, not to mention Renie Modelefski, old neighbour friend and Polish war refugee. Aunty Ann then asked mum & dad, and me (!) to be godparents to baby cousin Neil. Unexpected but very nice to be asked, although I then worried about my brother’s feelings getting hurt at not being asked. Just to round off the week, the stress of the week caused me to be up with stomach pains half the night, my default anxiety reaction. On Sunday, Sue was poorly, so we got the doctor round (flu) and generally everybody was on top of everyone in an over-crowded stressed house, and bickering in between part 2 of the long-list of visitors from mum’s side of the family and her friends. Mum is loved by almost everyone in her life.

 

That’s a busy week for someone who should just be saying: Unemployed. Looked for job. My life has never been that simple, though, it’s been an ongoing soap opera, and even doing nothing is generally doing quite a lot in reality.

19th August 1980

 

 

4 weeks on top for Abba’s classic, with ELO as so often in support at 2, from Xanadu and All Over The World. Shooting up to 3, though it’s Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes, his first top 3 since Sound And Vision in 1977, while Billy Joel hits a new peak of 7, and Tom Hark slips into the top 10. Highest new entry is an absolute stormer from New Zealand band Split-Enz, who featured among the line-up future members of Crowded House, brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. Split-Enz were sort of New Wave sounding and rockabilly looking, and were consistently good. I Got You remains their best record, and it’s epic and very under-rated.

 

Up into the 20 it’s Kelly Marie doing Mungo Jerry, and it feels like I’m in love in the summertime, George Benson demands the night, and Racey wish to be with someone for the rest of their life, a pretty decent song by Racey standards. New at 30, Cliff is back with a good Dreaming pop song that sounded like an old standard Cliff song done new-stylee, but wasn’t, while The Clash are robbin’ banks at 33 a couple of years on from fighting the law and calling London. There’s big climbs for both Roger Daltrey and Elton John into the 40, 7 years on from Giving It All Away for Rog (or 11 years on from Pinball Wizard if you count The Who records), and 9 years on for Elton from Your Song.

 

A measly 2 other new entries at 44, Hazel O’Connor debuting with the New Wave movie Breaking Glass soundtrack hit Eighth Day, and at 71 it’s Bow Wow Wow, fronted by 13-year-old Annabella Lwin and managed by Malcolm McLaren. Rather naughtily Malcolm nicked Adam & The Ants, minus Adam, and their drumbeat burundi sound, and took the rather young Annabella into the charts with a song pushing the latest teenage music format, the cassette, C-30 C-60 C-90 Go. Happily Adam re-grouped with new musicians and wasn’t far behind....

 

1 ( 1 ) THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL Abba

2 ( 4 ) ALL OVER THE WORLD E.L.O.

3 ( 40 ) ASHES TO ASHES David Bowie

4 ( 5 ) MAGIC Olivia Newton-John

5 ( 2 ) UPSIDE DOWN Diana Ross

6 ( 3 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

7 ( 10 ) IT’S STILL ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO ME Billy Joel

8 ( 12 ) TOM HARK The Piranhas

9 ( 6 ) MARIANA The Gibson Brothers

10 ( 27 ) SUNSHINE OF YOUR SMILE Mike Berry

 

 

11 ( 8 ) SANCTUARY New Musik

12 ( NEW ) I GOT YOU Split-Enz

13 ( 7 ) BABOOSHKA Kate Bush

14 ( 9 ) THERE THERE MY DEAR Dexy’s Midnight Runners

15 ( 28 ) FEELS LIKE I’M IN LOVE Kelly Marie

16 ( 16 ) OH YEAH Roxy Music

17 ( 21 ) GIVE ME THE NIGHT George Benson

18 ( 15 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

19 ( 41 ) REST OF YOUR LIFE Racey

20 ( 20 ) PRIVATE LIFE Grace Jones

 

 

21 ( 35 ) MODERN GIRL Sheena Easton

22 ( 13 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

23 ( 11 ) A LOVER’S HOLIDAY Change

24 ( 18 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

25 ( 31 ) FUNKIN’ FOR JAMAICA Tom Browne

26 ( 38 ) YOU GOTTA BE A HUSTLER Sue Wilkinson

27 ( 17 ) WEDNESDAY WEEK The Undertones

28 ( 34 ) SLEEPWALKING Ultravox

29 ( 23 ) OOPS UPSIDE YOUR HEAD The Gap Band

30 ( NEW ) DREAMING Cliff Richard

 

 

31 ( 24 ) MORE THAN I CAN SAY Leo Sayer

32 ( 14 ) SANTA ANA WINDS The Beach Boys

33 ( 50 ) BANKROBBER The Clash

34 ( 22 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

35 ( 32 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

36 ( 25 ) ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH HAPPINESS Hot Chocolate

37 ( 39 ) SINCE I DON’T HAVE YOU Don McLean

38 ( 19 ) 9 TO 5 (MY BABY TAKES THE MORNING TRAIN) Sheena Easton

39 ( 70 ) FREE ME Roger Daltrey

40 ( 67 ) SARTORIAL ELOQUENCE Elton John

 

41 ( 33 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

42 ( 30 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

43 ( 48 ) NEON KNIGHTS Black Sabbath

44 ( NEW ) EIGHTH DAY Hazel O’Connor

45 ( 29 ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

46 ( 52 ) SUMMER FUN The Barracudas

47 ( 43 ) CRYING Don McLean

48 ( 63 ) JUST LIKE EDDIE Silicon Teens

49 ( 36 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

50 ( 57 ) A WALK IN THE PARK Nick Straker Band

 

 

51 ( 42 ) RUNNING FROM PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

52 ( 26 ) MY GUY/MY GIRL Amii Stewart and Johnny Bristol

53 ( 46 ) SUMMER IN THE CITY Ray Gomez

54 ( 49 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

55 ( 55 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

56 ( 37 ) EMOTIONAL RESCUE The Rolling Stones

57 ( 45 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

58 ( 75 ) LATE IN THE EVENING Paul Simon

59 ( 74 ) CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC The Village People

60 ( 44 ) LOVE WILL TEAR US APART Joy Division

 

61 ( 60 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

62 ( 61 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

63 ( 53 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

64 ( 54 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

65 ( 47 ) BLACK NIGHT Deep Purple

66 ( 58 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

67 ( 51 ) DOES SHE HAVE A FRIEND Gene Chandler

68 ( 64 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

69 ( 59 ) BEHIND THE GROOVE Teena Marie

70 ( 62 ) I’M ALIVE Electric Light Orchestra

 

71 ( NEW ) C30 C60 C90 GO Bow Wow Wow

72 ( 56 ) WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE AC/DC

73 ( 73 ) RACE WITH THE DEVIL Girlschool

74 ( 68 ) THEME FROM M*A*S*H The MASH

75 ( 65 ) BURNING HOT Jermaine Jackson

 

 

 

MY Top TV 10th-15th Aug 1980

1 Star Trek: By Any Other Name

2 Soap

3 Top Of The Pops

4 The Martian Chronicles

5 Rhoda

6 Laverne & Shirley

7 The Mary Tyler Moore Show

8 The Outer Limits

9 The Awakening Land

10 Taxi

11 Carry On Up The Jungle

12 The Phil Silvers Show

13 Superstar Profile

14 CHIPS

15 Summer Holiday

In life, mum was still in bed a lot recovering from her op, while dad when stressed got argumentative and short-tempered and tactless with mum and everyone else. Grandma tried to stop the arguing, and failed. This made grandma burst into tears when she was alone with me “I feel so sorry for your mam” which is how mum felt about grandma and her partner Jack. I did my best to console her and assured her I’d look after mum, before taking her to catch the bus back to Liverpool. I’m still sticking to my word, looking after her, and dad.

 

Mum’s cousin Pauline & hubby Pete came to see mum, I printed some b&w photos in my “darkroom” curtains, blanket over my bedroom window, with chemical trays and portable negative enlarger. Other visitors; Auntie Ann & my little cousins, grandma & grandad, and meanwhile I went house-hunting with brother Mark & Sue, mum whittled about odd “dandruff-sores” in my hair around my head - still have them, so urging me to see the doctors not necessary, and it’s not lack of washing for sure! Might be the opposite though. Thursday I babysat for cousins Rachel & Lisa, and on Saturday, college friend Bev gave me a lift to Nottingham’s Victoria Centre, where I met college mate Ian - it was SO great having friends to talk to again away from home stresses, I was on a hyper-high all day as we met up with Paul, Jane & Dave, Julie, Joe & Sue.

 

Joe: “How are things?”

Me: “Fine. How are yours?”

 

Bit giddy I think! A pub drink, then we all went 10-pin bowling for a fun fun fun time, loved it. Out round Nottingham for a meal, then we lowered the tone in a posh bar, and then decided to go ice skating: well, Julie & I skated, Joe, Dave & Ian all learnt to skate, the others passed. I didn’t fall over during races. Result! Then, yet MORE 10-pin bowling, before going back to Dave’s place to look at my college slides and nostalgia for times past all of 2 months ago. Dave was keen on buying a new-fangled video-recorder-player - I sold him on the idea, Jane was less keen. Oops! Finally, a bus back to Mansfield and reality. Hey ho.

back after a lay-off, it's the oldies charts...

 

26th August 1980

 

It’s a new number as David Bowie’s groundbreaking video for Ashes To Ashes takes him to the top of my charts for the 3rd time, 5 years since he last topped with Space Oddity. UK chart-topper Kelly Marie sneaks her Ray Dorset way into my top 10, The Clash rob da bank at 12, a new chart peak for them, for me, and Modern Girl outdoes 9 to 5 for Sheena.

 

Highest new entry is The Jam, and Start, in at 14 and off the back of a chart-topper, Going Underground, a great single following a fab single. Cliff is into the 20 for the umpteenth time in the week he appears on Rosko’s Roundtable to review new singles, and Bow Wow Wow’s cassette-single, a sign of the times, rockets up to 25. In at 32, Gary Numan makes it 5 top 40‘s in a row, as I Die You Die keeps him hot, a great single. In at 40, it’s the decade-old Paranoid: I’d missed the original run, out of the country, so this was like a new old gem and only the second chart hit for Black Sabbath, 2 years on from Neon Knights. Ozzy Osbourne’s biggest days, of course, still lay 25 years into the future. Who woulda thought!

 

New at 42, it’s Shaky’ second hit, Marie Marie, very singalongaElvis, as the Korgis lovely third hit, If It’s Alright With You Baby, pops in. At 53, The Selecter keep the short run of singles cracking out, this one The Whisper, shhhh don’t tell anyone! Best Friend, another ska hit, also keeps The Beat’s profile going at 59, and a good 4th single for Secret Affair is in at 65, Sound Of Confusion. The Skids run of hits is nearing an end as Circus Games scrapes in at 74, and Peter Gabriel’s song for South African activist Stephen Biko takes up the last new spot.

 

 

1 ( 3 ) ASHES TO ASHES David Bowie

2 ( 1 ) THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL Abba

3 ( 4 ) MAGIC Olivia Newton-John

4 ( 2 ) ALL OVER THE WORLD E.L.O.

5 ( 8 ) TOM HARK The Piranhas

6 ( 7 ) IT’S STILL ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO ME Billy Joel

7 ( 15 ) FEELS LIKE I’M IN LOVE Kelly Marie

8 ( 6 ) XANADU Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra

9 ( 10 ) SUNSHINE OF YOUR SMILE Mike Berry

10 ( 5 ) UPSIDE DOWN Diana Ross

 

 

11 ( 12 ) I GOT YOU Split-Enz

12 ( 33 ) BANKROBBER The Clash

13 ( 21 ) MODERN GIRL Sheena Easton

14 ( NEW ) START The Jam

15 ( 9 ) MARIANA The Gibson Brothers

16 ( 16 ) OH YEAH Roxy Music

17 ( 20 ) PRIVATE LIFE Grace Jones

18 ( 30 ) DREAMING Cliff Richard

19 ( 14 ) THERE THERE MY DEAR Dexy’s Midnight Runners

20 ( 17 ) GIVE ME THE NIGHT George Benson

 

 

21 ( 11 ) SANCTUARY New Musik

22 ( 13 ) BABOOSHKA Kate Bush

23 ( 25 ) FUNKIN’ FOR JAMAICA Tom Browne

24 ( 28 ) SLEEPWALKING Ultravox

25 ( 71 ) C30 C60 C90 GO Bow Wow Wow

26 ( 26 ) YOU GOTTA BE A HUSTLER Sue Wilkinson

27 ( 50 ) A WALK IN THE PARK Nick Straker Band

28 ( 18 ) LIP UP FATTY Bad Manners

29 ( 22 ) ME MYSELF I Joan Armatrading

30 ( 46 ) SUMMER FUN The Barracudas

 

 

31 ( 24 ) COULD YOU BE LOVED Bob Marley And The Wailers

32 ( NEW ) I DIE YOU DIE Gary Numan

33 ( 44 ) EIGHTH DAY Hazel O’Connor

34 ( 23 ) A LOVER’S HOLIDAY Change

35 ( 29 ) OOPS UPSIDE YOUR HEAD The Gap Band

36 ( 40 ) SARTORIAL ELOQUENCE Elton John

37 ( 31 ) MORE THAN I CAN SAY Leo Sayer

38 ( 34 ) WATERFALLS Paul McCartney

39 ( 19 ) REST OF YOUR LIFE Racey

40 ( NEW ) PARANOID Black Sabbath

 

 

41 ( 32 ) SANTA ANA WINDS The Beach Boys

42 ( NEW ) MARIE MARIE Shakin’ Stevens

43 ( 41 ) MESSAGES Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

44 ( 37 ) SINCE I DON’T HAVE YOU Don McLean

45 ( 35 ) USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT Odyssey

46 ( 42 ) 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) Saxon

47 ( 38 ) 9 TO 5 (MY BABY TAKES THE MORNING TRAIN) Sheena Easton

48 ( 47 ) CRYING Don McLean

49 ( 59 ) CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC The Village People

50 ( 39 ) FREE ME Roger Daltrey

 

51 ( NEW ) IF IT’S ALRIGHT WITH YOU BABY The Korgis

52 ( 27 ) WEDNESDAY WEEK The Undertones

53 ( NEW ) THE WHISPER The Selecter

54 ( 54 ) NO DOUBT ABOUT IT Hot Chocolate

55 ( 55 ) MONKEES EP (LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE/ I’M A BELIEVER/ A LITTLE BIT ME A LITTLE BIT YOU/ DAYDREAM BELIEVER) The Monkees

56 ( 49 ) JUMP TO THE BEAT Stacey Lattisaw

57 ( 58 ) LATE IN THE EVENING Paul Simon

58 ( 45 ) THEME FROM INVADERS Yellow Magic Orchestra

59 ( NEW ) BEST FRIEND The Beat

60 ( 51 ) RUNNING FROM PARADISE Daryl Hall & John Oates

 

61 ( 61 ) DON'T BRING ME DOWN E.L.O.

62 ( 62 ) GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME Gerry Rafferty

63 ( 43 ) NEON KNIGHTS Black Sabbath

64 ( 57 ) LET’S HANG ON Darts

65 ( NEW ) SOUND OF CONFUSION Secret Affair

66 ( 48 ) JUST LIKE EDDIE Silicon Teens

67 ( 66 ) BED’S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU (6 PACK) The Police

68 ( 63 ) CHRISTINE Siouxsie And The Banshees

69 ( 64 ) BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

70 ( 56 ) EMOTIONAL RESCUE The Rolling Stones

 

71 ( 60 ) LOVE WILL TEAR US APART Joy Division

72 ( 53 ) SUMMER IN THE CITY Ray Gomez

73 ( 68 ) SOLDIER’S SONG The Hollies

74 ( NEW ) CIRCUS GAMES The Skids

75 ( NEW ) BIKO Peter Gabriel

 

 

 

TV 16th-22nd Aug

 

1 Star Trek: Return To Tomorrow

2 The Martian Chronicles

3 Top Of The Pops

4 Laverne & Shirley

5 The Awakening Land

6 Rhoda

7 Doctor Who (Tues)

8 The New Avengers

9 Taxi

10 Kelly Monteith

11 The Time Of Their Lives

12 The Outer Limits

13 WKRP In Cincinatti

14 Ray Bradbury Profile

15 Doctor Who (Mon)

 

On TV, The Martian Chronicles and Star Trek kept my sci-fi fixes going, while the writer of the brilliant sci-fi book of connected short stories The Martian Chronicles (or The Silver Locusts as I knew it), the poetic, dark, inventive, wistful and admirable Ray Bradbury gets a TV profile. There’s a great Top Of The Pops episode, and I’m into TV sitcom cheese as Laverne & Shirley get my chuckles.