Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1984 - (page 198)

I've not contributed to this thread so far as my first foray was glam rock in the earlyish 70s when I was really too young to appreciate music (still like The Sweet though). 1979 was when I came back in and what a year that was.

My love of punk started with Machine Gun Etiquette by The Damned. Remember seeing the album in WH Smith and thinking great name, great cover so I'll spend my record tokens on that. From Ladies and Gentlemen Howdo to Nibbled To Death By An Okapi it started a journey for me following The Damned to this day (tickets bought for Wembley next year).

1979 was so much more though from Are Friends Electric, Cool For Cats, Another Brick In The Wall, Olivers Army, Eton Rifles to Babylon's Burning, it was a fantastic year.

My favourite tune of that year was The Sound Of The Suburbs by The Members. How much did I want the clear 7" but got the black vinyl instead. Rectified many years later.

Great memories!
 
PeteMcFC said:
I've not contributed to this thread so far as my first foray was glam rock in the earlyish 70s when I was really too young to appreciate music (still like The Sweet though). 1979 was when I came back in and what a year that was.

My love of punk started with Machine Gun Etiquette by The Damned. Remember seeing the album in WH Smith and thinking great name, great cover so I'll spend my record tokens on that. From Ladies and Gentlemen Howdo to Nibbled To Death By An Okapi it started a journey for me following The Damned to this day (tickets bought for Wembley next year).

1979 was so much more though from Are Friends Electric, Cool For Cats, Another Brick In The Wall, Olivers Army, Eton Rifles to Babylon's Burning, it was a fantastic year.

My favourite tune of that year was The Sound Of The Suburbs by The Members. How much did I want the clear 7" but got the black vinyl instead. Rectified many years later.

Great memories!
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Welcome to the thread. Lets put that on the playlist mate. If you put future nominations in bold it helps and means it wont get missed :-)

The Sound Of The Suburbs by The Members.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Welcome to the thread. Lets put that on the playlist mate. If you put future nominations in bold it helps and means it wont get missed :-)

The Sound Of The Suburbs by The Members.
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I'm going to be a bit controversial here and say that that record is one of the worst from that era. The very epitome of plastic punk : (
 
hallsteve62 said:
Don't worry mate. It's not like you were having a pop or anything. What do you think of my choice?
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You are asking the wrong person mate. Not really my year at all but from what I can remember Teardrop Explodes were an interesting band. The track you nominated is not typical 'punk' by any means and rocked along quite nicely. The brass arrangement at the beginning and the end was quite a surprise too. Ask me one about Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel or Yes ;-)
 
Saddleworth2 said:
You are asking the wrong person mate. Not really my year at all but from what I can remember Teardrop Explodes were an interesting band. The track you nominated is not typical 'punk' by any means and rocked along quite nicely. The brass arrangement at the beginning and the end was quite a surprise too. Ask me one about Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel or Yes ;-)
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Shag, marry, avoid? ; )
 
PeteMcFC said:
I've not contributed to this thread so far as my first foray was glam rock in the earlyish 70s when I was really too young to appreciate music (still like The Sweet though). 1979 was when I came back in and what a year that was.

My love of punk started with Machine Gun Etiquette by The Damned. Remember seeing the album in WH Smith and thinking great name, great cover so I'll spend my record tokens on that. From Ladies and Gentlemen Howdo to Nibbled To Death By An Okapi it started a journey for me following The Damned to this day (tickets bought for Wembley next year).

1979 was so much more though from Are Friends Electric, Cool For Cats, Another Brick In The Wall, Olivers Army, Eton Rifles to Babylon's Burning, it was a fantastic year.

My favourite tune of that year was The Sound Of The Suburbs by The Members. How much did I want the clear 7" but got the black vinyl instead. Rectified many years later.

Great memories!
Click to expand...
Sounds similar to my story 2 pages back
 
hallsteve62 said:
I'm going to be a bit controversial here and say that that record is one of the worst from that era. The very epitome of plastic punk : (
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For me this song is a great new wave track.
The plastic punk stuff was the Toy Dolls and Nellie the fucking elephant and the Monks Nice legs shame about the face and The Dickies
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
For me this song is a great new wave track.
The plastic punk stuff was the Toy Dolls and Nellie the fucking elephant and the Monks Nice legs shame about the face and The Dickies
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Because I'm a nice well brought up lad I didn't contribute to the bottling off the stage of the Toy Dolls when they came to my student union. Can't really remember but I think they had two songs to perform and by the third rendition of Nelly the Elephant everyone had had enough.

Nowhere near as entertaining as the night they put on Divine alongside a Guinness and Cider promotion that meant you could get a pint of poor man's black velvet for about 30p. Absolute carnage. It has to be said Divine was a big lad who was very game and no one got the better of him.
 
I'm Flirtin' with Disaster by not choosing Dream Police, I Want You to Want Me, Just the Same Way, Every Time I Think of You, Cheap Sunglasses, or loads of other rock classics released in this year. Punk and New Wave - pfft, I don't know what all the fuss was about!

This song from Randy Bachman, the writer of American Woman and You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, was a minor hit in '79, but definitely has that distinctive BTO sound - Let's Rock!

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Sweet Lui-Louise - Ironhorse
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
For me this song is a great new wave track.
The plastic punk stuff was the Toy Dolls and Nellie the fucking elephant and the Monks Nice legs shame about the face and The Dickies
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New Wave my arse. It's like The Jam. Punk light.

The term New Wave seems to have encompassed a whole manner of bands these days.

Numan, Human League, DM, OMD, Visage...etc etc...New Wave.
 
BimboBob said:
New Wave my arse. It's like The Jam. Punk light.

The term New Wave seems to have encompassed a whole manner of bands these days.

Numan, Human League, DM, OMD, Visage...etc etc...New Wave.
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To me new wave was “not quite punk’ but not post punk.
Blondie for example the classic new wave band. Elvis Costello another. At a push even the Police and Talking Heads too.

The bands / artists you named to me were New Romantic
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
To me new wave was “not quite punk’ but not post punk.
Blondie for example the classic new wave band. Elvis Costello another. At a push even the Police and Talking Heads too.

The bands / artists you named to me were New Romantic
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New Romantic was Spandau Ballet, Culture Club, Duran Duran...etc etc. Born out of the club scene where clothing/ make up/ being different matters. They all looked the same though.

Numan, DM, OMD etc etc were not part of this scene and were New Wave. Synth led mainly.

It's all got a bit mixed up over the years, merged together, lumped into one big group. At the time, and I flitted in and out of the club scene, they were two different movements. It was broadened in the US to include nearly everything.
 
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BimboBob said:
New Romantic was Spandau Ballet, Culture Club, Duran Duran...etc etc. Born out of the club scene where clothing/ make up/ being different matters. They all looked the same though.

Numan, DM, OMD etc etc were not part of this scene and were New Wave. Synth led mainly.

It's all got a bit mixed up over the years, merged together, lumped into one big group. At the time, and I flitted in and out of the club scene, they were two different movements. It was broadened in the US to include nearly everything.
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Yeah the.Blitz scene in Camden certainly were the New Romantics and personally I think it all merged into one with DM,(the early electro pop era), Human League - the Dare period not the Being Bioled / Sound of the Crowd era.
The Smash Hits bands as I called them, not meant in a derogatory way, that’s who Smash Hits featured along with Adam Ant and Haircut 100 and Kim Wilde!
 
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