Smint

'Don't Stand So Close to Me' is awesome - yes it's controversial and wouldn't be a hit nowadays (especially since the attraction is consummated) but sonically it's so menacing and hits you straight away. Along with 'Walking on the Moon' this is probably my favourite Police song. 'Baggy Trousers' is original enough but meh, not just that keen on them. Not my thing (although some of their less representative tracks I enjoy). 'DISCO' is another one of 1980s cheesy but guilty pleasures! :D

Driscoll seems really good. So upfront, honest and wanting to help the people. Much better than a Starmer stooge.

But the good news is that John Swinney may go for it - and he was a name lots of people wanted to go for the role when Sturgeon had first resigned as he's very experienced as her deputy

On the same day as possible resignation by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. :o If both happen, bad day for left wing politics. As inevitable Kate Forbes (anti trans rights, gay marriage) will get in.

'Modern Girl' is as good as '9 to 5' by Sheena Easton but I find it hilarious that the subject matter of the two songs are polar opposites - '9 to 5' has her as a subservient domesticated woman who spends all day waiting for her man to get home and 'Modern Girl' she's an independent woman, not needing a man to make her happy. :D Randy Crawford's track is really beautiful. 'Beyond the Reef' is better than 'It's Only Love' with the nautical backing track.

As does 'Austin' and 'I Remember Everything' It seems that virtually every country song references John Barleycorn!

Really getting into her. I've seen so many Kate Bush comparisons. I imagine it's due to her high pitched voice but Kate's style was never that conventional pop of the time (Billie is more Kate I would say). Much more like Marina - hopefully more successful. Anyway she's great new addition to an exciting year in the charts - hope it goes top 10.

Perhaps now the press will realise what an unpopular, unsuccessful grifter she is. That was her last chance of relevance- noonre wanted Truss to save them from anything! :basil:

'Eighth Day' by Hazel O'Connor is absolutely amazing - spacey, quirky, arresting but so catchy. Reminds me a bit of the 1979 wonder 'Lucky Number' by Lene Lovich.

Lots of rumours going around that a General Election to be called next week. Although not as excited as before with Labour, I so can't wait for the Tories to go.

They removed the 'New Vocal' version of Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights' from Spotify. OK that wasn't the version that made no.1 in 1978 but very familiar/first heard version for many as it was this but not the original featured on her over million selling compilation 'Whole Story'.

Shame if only for the fact that Humza Yousaf is 100% anti Israeli genocide but he doesn't have the glue that Sturgeon had.

Wow that's a very rare actually decent policy from Labour. Most of Europe has nationalised rail and its fine and much cheaper than the UK. Maybe there's something to be said for not giving millions of public money to wealthy shareholders for essential services rather than investing, eh? :rolleyes: Not that I expect prices to tumble but what a step in the right direction. And very little right wing pushback. They know they've lost this one.

What a hideous create Liz Truss is - admittedly she was only pro LGBT rights when it was politically expedient but she really hates them (or maybe she doesn't care, she is setting up herself to earn loads on the US Far Right circuit). https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/04/24/liz-...t-ally-gb-news/ But people like her are normalising hate language against LGBT people.

Can't believe I've never actually watched the 'Ashes to Ashes' video. It's amazing - so so weird and wonderful. Bowie such an innovator. Never blown away by the Jam but 'Start' with that riff is amongst their best. Agreed with TheSnake about Kelly Marie being joyous - that, Liquid Gold, Stacy Lattishaw, Lipps Inc etc So much infectious happy disco music around (as well as the darker stuff) makes 1980 a classic year.

Hopefully Taylor Swift will knock 'Fast Car' and 'Snooze' out of the top 100 for good - although 'Cruel Summer' could well dodge recurrency if it climbs back into the top 25 the following week.

I'm sure they can stop the project even without changing the law and Labour have made encouraging noises about it. They will almost certainly do that if it's perceived as an absolute disaster by the public, However, it is Keir Starmer as PM and so his default position is to go as right wing rather than left, so if there is any support for the project (even in reality it is a complete shitshow) then I wouldn't bet my life on him scrapping it. Another Labour leader yes, him no.

As well as being morally wrong, isn't this shit going to cost an absolute fortune - already has to be honest. This will only prompt, when the inevitable legal challenges happen, very unpleasant gammony calls from Farage and the usual suspects to leave the ECHR, pretending it's a foreign court when it is an international court which we helped to form. Just another step into fascism.

'Oh Yeah(On the Radio)' is probably my favourite Roxy single so glad it was a top 10. '9 to 5' or 'Morning Train' is cheesy but catchy as hell and sef one if my favourite guilty pleasures of the year. Sheens generally got worse after her first two singles. Gap Band 'Oooops Upside Your Head' is a great early 1980s disco classic but very difficult to separate in my mind from the Snap cover from 1990 which I heard first as a child! George Benson is very strong and stands the test of time.

'The Winner Takes It All' I absolutely loved for decades and decades. Like many other songs on Abba Gold, I find them suffer from overplay and now I prefer their more obscure singles like 'The Day Before You Came', 'Head over Heels', 'Summer Night City' etc but no denying it's power and poignancy.

One of the most (out of many, many) depressing themes in modern politics is when even the most minimal attempts to reverse the undisputedly scientifically proven damage of climate heating is met with the most well funded aggressive, mendacious, non compliant reaction. What hope have we - the science and environment doesn't care about people's reaction. What kind of future are we providing for the next generation? Re: the London mayoral election, I note the Evening standard (owned by a Russian Tory donor) had on its cover the other day picture of Khan and Hall's profile with a headline saying that Susan Hall was closing the gap in Mayoral opinion polls. You would have assumed from the cover that it was neck and neck but it turned out that Khan was still NINETEEN points ahead and she had only reduced the gap by 7 points. So misleading like so much of our toxic, biased rubbish media.

Kate Bush! 'Babooshka' despite being one of her biggest hits isn't in my top tier of Kate singles but that's because she sets the bar so damn high. Great storyline though which predates the Tindr/Grindr phenomena of using fake profile to catch a cheating partner out by several decades. And oh my at that video! :o Despite being one of her biggest hits in the UK she never performed it live or on a TV promo here but a couple of interesting European TV performances exist on YouTube.

I'll definitely be voting Sadiq Khan over Susan Hall in London and despite all the horrific abuse he gets, don't think he's got anything to worry about in terms or the result.

And more grim news - Iran has started to attack Israel (in retaliation for Israel striking the Iranian consulate in Syria earlier this month) Really scary stuff.

Interesting! There was so much dark and mysterious music in the early 80s. I prefer it before it all went Live Aid/Stadium/Big superstars/Bright or whatever you want to call it. The Specials were really a great band (my pet peeve re: Too Much Too Young lyric notwithstanding) - so much more than their signature song which is coming next year. 'FunkyTown' was fun and futuristic. When I first heard it at the end of the 80s I absolutely loved it for several decades although kind of 'over it' now.