With thanks again to Paul Browning for this photo
The pop music of the time would mostly reach my ears through the Union disco and/or the juke box in the main bar of the Students’ Union. I didn’t listen to much pop radio in those days – Radio One didn’t please me much at that time – nor was there much alternative back then outside London.
My habit was to tape from the radio at my parents house onto reel-to-reel…
…then make a cassette copy to play at Keele on my trusty Philips Spatial Stereo Ghettoblaster/Boombox:
Here’s the track listing of the spool I made during that Easter break – the first dozen during that Easter break – which I took back to Keele on cassette – the rest on my next visit to my parents:
- Blue Eyes, Elton John
- Party Fears Two, The Associates
- The Damned Don’t Cry, Visage
- More Than This, Roxy Music
- Ghosts, Japan
- Ever So Lonely, Monsoon
- Give Me Back My Heart, Dollar
- Just An Illusion, Imagination
- Fantastic Day, Haircut 100
- Six Months in a Leaky Boat, Split Enzz
- Black Coffee in Bed, Squeeze
- Really Saying Something, Bananarama & The Funboy Three
- Papa’s Got a Brand New Pig Bag, Pig Bag
- I Can Make You Feel Good, Shalamar
- Night Birds, Shakatak
- Is It a Dream, Classix Nouveaux
- Ball and Chain, XTC
- Perfumed Garden, The Rah Band
It’s an eclectic list. As usual when I revisit these tapes, some of the choices make me cringe, while others please me and might even become ear worms again, forty years after their first wriggle inside my head.
By the time you get to this article, some of the links below might have gone, but you should be able to hear and see most of the items from the list if you wish.
Some stand the test of time far better than others. But oh, the synthesisers…oh, the hair styles.