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

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

On the jazz front the somewhat divisive Wynton Marsalis was hitting his stride and Bill Evans had a good album out too.

Bill Evans the saxophonist, I take it? I quite like him. I'm hugely fond of Bill Evans the pianist, whose demise as you know was 1980 (although records continued to be released after his death). Probably the pianist I admire the most, along with Monk.

Here's a strange thing about Marsalis. I saw him at the Vienne Jazz Festival. Must have been in the nineties, maybe a bit later, even the noughties. With the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Obviously supremely competent musicians — you don't get the gig with the LCJO unless you're at least that — led by a man who has been acclaimed as the most technically perfect trumpeter of his time. Packed auditorium, well disposed as they tend to be when an acknowledged star takes the stage. People always like to feel they've chosen well. It validates their own good taste.
As the concert went on, it was just like air slowly going out of a balloon. Of course, it was technically perfect. Marsalis officiating over the tradition like the high priest at mass. By the end, you could palpably feel the indifference in the audience. I was feeling it myself. The applause got more and more feeble, as one number followed another. Marsalis made a perplexed, sarcastic comment at the end. I've never seen a gig quite like it, I think, either in rock, jazz or classical. I wonder if anyone else has experienced that.
It was perfect. Too perfect. Perfect — and, in fact, soulless.

 

[Jazzman]

1983 was the year where I encountered the so called Neoprog Rock. Specifically Marillion released their debut Album Script for a Jester's Tear. This group and in particular lead singer Fish became very, very important to me. I still know many of their lyrics by heart. I know they released an EP in 1982, but I only found out about them in 83. Late as usual. Let me nominate the title song

Script for a Jester's Tear - Marillion

 

[Protein Junkie]

1983 was the year where I encountered the so called Neoprog Rock. Specifically Marillion released their debut Album Script for a Jester's Tear. This group and in particular lead singer Fish became very, very important to me. I still know many of their lyrics by heart. I know they released an EP in 1982, but I only found out about them in 83. Late as usual. Let me nominate the title song

Script for a Jester's Tear - Marillion

I saw them a couple of times in their formative years before they became well known and enjoyed both gigs.
I totally interest when Fish departed.

 

[threespires]

Bill Evans the saxophonist, I take it? I quite like him. I'm hugely fond of Bill Evans the pianist, whose demise as you know was 1980 (although records continued to be released after his death). Probably the pianist I admire the most, along with Monk.

Here's a strange thing about Marsalis. I saw him at the Vienne Jazz Festival. Must have been in the nineties, maybe a bit later, even the noughties. With the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Obviously supremely competent musicians — you don't get the gig with the LCJO unless you're at least that — led by a man who has been acclaimed as the most technically perfect trumpeter of his time. Packed auditorium, well disposed as they tend to be when an acknowledged star takes the stage. People always like to feel they've chosen well. It validates their own good taste.
As the concert went on, it was just like air slowly going out of a balloon. Of course, it was technically perfect. Marsalis officiating over the tradition like the high priest at mass. By the end, you could palpably feel the indifference in the audience. I was feeling it myself. The applause got more and more feeble, as one number followed another. Marsalis made a perplexed, sarcastic comment at the end. I've never seen a gig quite like it, I think, either in rock, jazz or classical. I wonder if anyone else has experienced that.
It was perfect. Too perfect. Perfect — and, in fact, soulless.

No I did mean Loose Blues which was released 20 years after the original recordings and which I like for quite specific reasons, so I should have worded it better! I do know and like the other Bill Evans though mostly through his collaborations. I'm not at all surprised about the Marsalis concert. I thought he was the bees knees when he came along, until for want of a better phrase I had my horizons expanded. What was it Davis said to him 'here comes the police' ? The more I listened to stuff the more I preferred Branford despite him being a supposed 'lesser' figure. Sometimes dazzling virtuosity isn't in and of itself enough.

 

[Saddleworth2]

I saw them a couple of times in their formative years before they became well known and enjoyed both gigs.
I totally interest when Fish departed.

I live in the town Fish was born in. He used to have a recording studio just down the road in Haddington. I was like you and enjoyed their early stuff although if i remember I was a bit sniffy about them 'ripping off Gabriel Genesis'.

 

[BimboBob]

Second choice time.

From the rather excellent debut album, The Hurting, which I played to death when it came out. And still do from time to time.

Suffer The Children - Tears For Fears

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

My third choice is left field for me but there’s something eternally refreshing about The Tubes -She’s a Beauty.

Your left field track was right down the strike zone for the video I was watching on Friday Night Videos the night my almost unexpected first kiss from Lisa after years of being friends. While there are few things I remember where and when I was that year, that was one night of driving 45+ minutes up to the Philly suburbs to see if what I was sensing was actually taking place, and I was happily (at the time) proven correct. At least for that night and the days that would follow. But only for a moment.... as what was once what I thought a promising start, I learned early then that trying to date above your league was really a tough thing, and was never going to work in this case. This song and video after the fact took on a life of its own over the years, and I'd like to say I stayed in touch with the girl who remained a friend after that, but like most things in life, that didn't exactly happen either.

But don't fall in love
'Cause if you do, you'd find out she don't love you
(She's one in a million girl)
One in a million girl
(Why would I lie?)
Now, why would I lie?

Ah, so now that you were able to snag that one, I think I'll just follow this up with the song and album I was heavily into in seeing live in Philly the following year after this came out that fall of '83. Only one team in my intramural European football league was named "Stylistic Audacity", and I'll take full credit for that one too.

I'm moving through some changes
I'll never be the same
Something you did touch me
There's no one else to blame

"Changes" - Yes

 

[OB1]

In 1983 I has heavily in to American Football and also a BBC2 programme called “Entertainment USA “and they used to show video clips of songs big in America.
I will never forget one track which was an instant wow, that is different and I love it.
Def Leppard -Photograph.

My musical tastes had moved away from heavy and prog and more towards the US radio friendly tunes. Maybe a sign of those times.
My number one female vocalist is Ann Wilson of Heart and one their best songs came out namely How Can I refuse.

My third choice is left field for me but there’s something eternally refreshing about The Tubes -She’s a Beauty.

To cement the shifting sands of the period I am going end up with two more US artists.
Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield
Journey - Separate Ways

Photograph was on my short list. Tubes track wasn’t but should have been. I like all those tracks though.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

1983
A great year for me musically (as ever, it was City bringing me down!)
The year started off with two corkers with U2's New Years Day and Echo & The Bunnymen's The Cutter getting many plays by me on the pub jukebox. Then The Cure were weighing in with The Walk and Let's Go To Bed which I bought on a special 12 inch EP Japanese Babies. Robert Smith was juggling his time with The Cure and being a full time (on a temporary basis) Banshee.
The Fun Boy Three came out with Our Lips Are Sealed, a song the married Terry Hall co-wrote with one of The Go Go's, who he was having a fling with whilst both bands toured together. The Go Go's also released the song and I bought them both.
More crucially, New Order released Blue Monday, a song that would remain in and out of the charts throughout the last 8 months of the year.
At home, as I reached aged 20 in February, the yearning to leave home, escape from whatever it was I wanted to escape was growing stronger.
To quote Eddie & The Hot Rods from a few years ago, "I was tired of doing day jobs, with no thanks for what I do, I'm told I must be someone, so I'm gonna find out who..."
I had a friend who had moved to the US with his family a few years before and they said I could come over and stay with them. I stayed in night after night, only going to the odd gig and every City game, saving up and eventually in June I flew to Boston and my friend picked me up and I spent the summer in Rhode Island.
The day before I arrived they had installed cable and the next thing MTV was on heavily. Mostly British bands as Yank bands hadn't produced promo videos, so The Police, Duran Duran, Culture Club, David Bowie and The (English) Beat were all on heavy rotation, as were Def Leppard too. And my mate Billy Idol was causing waves with Rebel Yell, yelling his way up the US Billboard charts.
During my 3 month stay, a friend of my friend suggested going to see Elvis Costello in Providence, supported by Aztec Camera. Now I like Costello and it was a very good gig, very good indeed, but Roddy Frame (in my opinion) blew him off the stage. Considering he was 19 at the time, it was an incredible performance. I was familiar with Oblivious and a couple of other singles but this gig had me (upon return) going out and buying the lot.

One other band caught my ear and eye on MTV. A band playing a fast rockish song with a keyboard intro (but not Def Leppard / Poodle Rock type rock) and the singer was very Jaggeresque in the video. I had assumed they were Yanks on the basis that I knew they weren't British. I bought the song on 7 inch and when returning to Blighty I played it to friends excitedly and then disappointingly as none of them shared my enthusiasm. "You've been in America too long", they said, "It's fucked your musical taste up" they said.
Six years later this band were on top of the world, with me reminding new converts of their stance from 1983...... The name of the band? Oh, turns out they weren't Yanks, but Aussies....... the song was "Don't Change" by INXS.

I returned to England, and my parents house in Coventry, knowing before i even touched down that I needed to move out. Nothing against my parents, I had just outgrown the nest and needed my own place to do nothing in.

My love for The Banshees was still high. The Creatures had released an album, called "Feast", recorded in Hawaii and the singles Miss The Girl and Right Now charting decently. In the October, I hitched down to London on a Friday to see The Banshees at the Royal Albert Hall. Dear Prudence was riding high in the top 5. The two gigs on the Friday and Saturday were recorded for the live album and video "Nocturne", so somewhere amongst half of the songs you can hear me cheering. I slept on a bench overnight in Paddington Station, got a bus at 6am to the beginning of the M1 in Cricklewood and two hitches later I am at Rugby and caught the Leicester & Rugby OSC branch coach to Maine Road for the home win v Grimsby Town.
At the same time as Dear Prudence was at the top, PIL were in the top 5 with This Is Not A Love Song.
October 31st, a Monday, I moved out of the family home in Coventry and moved into a bedsit in Sale, a mate of mine lived in another flat in the large Victorian house on Priory Road. A week that ultimately changed my life..... The next day I bought a black and white portable TV from a second hand TV shop on Washway Road, Sale. On Friday 4th November, I turned on Channel 4's The Tube, as I always had (apart from when in the States).
The video of a band came on, not a live performance. No idea who the band were or where they were from. It was 2 mins and 41 seconds of mouth open wide, asking "who is this?, where have they come from?"

It was my introduction to a four piece Mancunian beat combo who, over 40 years later, are still a (slight) obsession in my life....... The band, The Smiths, the song, "This Charming Man" - a title I played on 9 years later when producing my own City fanzine "This Charming Fan"
I bought the single, yet strangely, it wasn't the A side, the song played on The Tube, that endeared me to the band, but the B Side, "Jeane". Having moved into a freezing cold bedsit merely 4 days prior to The Tube, in "Jeane", the lines 'There's ice on the sink where we bathe, so how can you call this a home, when you know it's a grave?' resonated greatly.
It summed up where I was at that exact point. It was freezing with an electric meter that swallowed 50p's like crazy if i put the two bar fire on. It was a grave but it was my grave........

I ended 1983 in my own place, having escaped the horrors of working in a garage parts department, had a great 3 months in the sun in the USA, escaped living in Coventry and was now signing on at Stretford Job Centre every other week and City games were a Number 99 bus ride away rather than a 2 hour coach ride from the West Midlands.......
Morrissey sang "And if you must go to work tomorrow, well if I were you, I wouldn't bother" - I knew he was talking directly to me...... but that song was released in 1984, so I'll leave it there...... 1984 is going to be a great year......

Songs for the playlist
INXS - Don't Change
Aztec Camera - Oblivious
The Creatures - Right Now

PS Two TV series that I loved from 1983 was Willy Russell's "One Summer" (starring Morrissey, OK, not that one, and the very first repeat on TV of the late 60's series, "The Prisoner"

 

[hallsteve62]

1983
A great year for me musically (as ever, it was City bringing me down!)
The year started off with two corkers with U2's New Years Day and Echo & The Bunnymen's The Cutter getting many plays by me on the pub jukebox. Then The Cure were weighing in with The Walk and Let's Go To Bed which I bought on a special 12 inch EP Japanese Babies. Robert Smith was juggling his time with The Cure and being a full time (on a temporary basis) Banshee.
The Fun Boy Three came out with Our Lips Are Sealed, a song the married Terry Hall co-wrote with one of The Go Go's, who he was having a fling with whilst both bands toured together. The Go Go's also released the song and I bought them both.
More crucially, New Order released Blue Monday, a song that would remain in and out of the charts throughout the last 8 months of the year.
At home, as I reached aged 20 in February, the yearning to leave home, escape from whatever it was I wanted to escape was growing stronger.
To quote Eddie & The Hot Rods from a few years ago, "I was tired of doing day jobs, with no thanks for what I do, I'm told I must be someone, so I'm gonna find out who..."
I had a friend who had moved to the US with his family a few years before and they said I could come over and stay with them. I stayed in night after night, only going to the odd gig and every City game, saving up and eventually in June I flew to Boston and my friend picked me up and I spent the summer in Rhode Island.
The day before I arrived they had installed cable and the next thing MTV was on heavily. Mostly British bands as Yank bands hadn't produced promo videos, so The Police, Duran Duran, Culture Club, David Bowie and The (English) Beat were all on heavy rotation, as were Def Leppard too. And my mate Billy Idol was causing waves with Rebel Yell, yelling his way up the US Billboard charts.
During my 3 month stay, a friend of my friend suggested going to see Elvis Costello in Providence, supported by Aztec Camera. Now I like Costello and it was a very good gig, very good indeed, but Roddy Frame (in my opinion) blew him off the stage. Considering he was 19 at the time, it was an incredible performance. I was familiar with Oblivious and a couple of other singles but this gig had me (upon return) going out and buying the lot.

One other band caught my ear and eye on MTV. A band playing a fast rockish song with a keyboard intro (but not Def Leppard / Poodle Rock type rock) and the singer was very Jaggeresque in the video. I had assumed they were Yanks on the basis that I knew they weren't British. I bought the song on 7 inch and when returning to Blighty I played it to friends excitedly and then disappointingly as none of them shared my enthusiasm. "You've been in America too long", they said, "It's fucked your musical taste up" they said.
Six years later this band were on top of the world, with me reminding new converts of their stance from 1983...... The name of the band? Oh, turns out they weren't Yanks, but Aussies....... the song was "Don't Change" by INXS.

I returned to England, and my parents house in Coventry, knowing before i even touched down that I needed to move out. Nothing against my parents, I had just outgrown the nest and needed my own place to do nothing in.

My love for The Banshees was still high. The Creatures had released an album recorded in Hawaii and the singles Miss The Girl and Right Now charting decently. In the October, I hitched down to London on a Friday to see The Banshees at the Royal Albert Hall. Dear Prudence was riding high in the top 5. The two gigs on the Friday and Saturday were recorded for the live album and video "Nocturne", so somewhere amongst half of the songs you can hear me cheering. I slept on a bench overnight in Paddington Station, got a bus at 6am to the beginning of the M1 in Cricklewood and two hitches later I am at Rugby and caught the Leicester & Rugby OSC branch coach to Maine Road for the home win v Grimsby Town.
At the same time as Dear Prudance was at the top, at the same time PIL were in the top 5 with This Is Not A Love Song.
October 31st, a Monday, I moved out of the family home in Coventry and moved into a bedsit in Sale, a mate of mine lived in another flat in the large Victorian house on Priory Road. A week that ultimately changed my life..... The next day I bought a black and white portable TV from a second hand TV shop on Washway Road, Sale. On Friday 4th November, I tuned on The Tube, as I always had (apart from when in the States).
The video of a band came on, not a live performance. No idea who the band were or where they were from. It was 2 mins and 41 seconds of mouth open wide, asking "who is this?, where have they come from?"

It was my introduction to a four piece Mancunian beat combo who, over 40 years later, are still a (slight) obsession in my life....... The band, The Smiths, the song, "This Charming Man".
I bought the single, yet strangely, it wasn't the A side, the song played on The Tube, that endeared me to the band, but the B Side, "Jeane". Having moved into a freezing cold bedsit merely 4 days prior to The Tube, in "Jeane", the lines 'There's ice on the sink where we bathe, so how can you call this a home, when you know it's a grave?'
It summed up exactly where I was at that exact point. It was freezing with an electric meter that swallowed 50p's like crazy if i put the two bar fire on. It was a grave but it was my grave........

I ended 1983 in my own place, having escaped the horrors of working in a garage parts department, had a great 3 months in the sun in the USA, escaped living in Coventry and was now signing on at Stretford Job Centre every other week and City games were a Number 99 bus ride away rather than a 2 hour coach ride from the West Midlands.......
Morrissey sang "And if you must go to work tomorrow, well if I were you I wouldn't bother" - I knew he was talking directly to me...... but that song was released in 1984, so I'll leave it there...... 1984 is going to be a good year......

Songs for the playlist
INXS - Don't Change
Aztec Camera - Oblivious
The Creatures - Right Now

Fantastic post mate. Fair play to you!

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

...

I ended 1983 in my own place, having escaped the horrors of working in a garage parts department, had a great 3 months in the sun in the USA, escaped living in Coventry and was now signing on at Stretford Job Centre every other week and City games were a Number 99 bus ride away rather than a 2 hour coach ride from the West Midlands.......

Great 1983 you had there, much more interesting than mine still in high school.

Songs for the playlist
INXS - Don't Change
Aztec Camera - Oblivious
The Creatures - Right Now

Unfortunately, given I'm up in Vermont looking for covered bridges around a trip to the Ben & Jerry's factory and Stowe, I'll be the one to break it to you that "Don't Change" was already on our 1982 playlist as it was released in October of that year.

On the bright side, you've still got 2 left!?

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Great 1983 you had there, much more interesting than mine still in high school.


Unfortunately, given I'm up in Vermont looking for covered bridges around a trip to the Ben & Jerry's factory and Stowe, I'll be the one to break it to you that "Don't Change" was already on our 1982 playlist as it was released in October of that year.

Bloody hell, I never knew that!!!!!

 

[BimboBob]

My final two offerings are a result of many a night clubbing in that there London. Myself and my Cousin had moved on from the Blitz scene and were into clubs that played a lot of imported music plus homegrown 12" records. Our favourite place was still a place to pose but to be fair there were loads of places you could go for the latest tunes and to stand around looking cool...or so we thought. I went through pots and pots of hair gel. And started to chat up page 3 girls. There were also an abundance of pop stars milling about but this had been going on for a few years so we were blasé about it...unless they were Claire Grogan. She was stunning. As was Kim Wilde. Natural beauties. Wednesday night was always a good time to go out as Top Of The Pops was recorded the day before it was broadcast and a lot of the stars went out after.

First up is an Australian band that moved to the UK in the early 80's. A sort of what was to come from Depeche Mode, this single is classed as industrial electronica. Probably. All I know is that we used to go mad when it came on.

SPK - Metal Dance 12"

Obviously I was going to pick a Depeche Mode track. This next song is a non album track that sort of bridged the gap between A Broken Frame from '82 and Construction Time Again in '83. This was the first song with the new boy, Alan Wilder, and the first song to use the Synclavier. Also one of the first to use an actual guitar.

Depeche Mode - Get The Balance Right (Combination Mix) 12"

 

[Saddleworth2]

1983
A great year for me musically (as ever, it was City bringing me down!)
The year started off with two corkers with U2's New Years Day and Echo & The Bunnymen's The Cutter getting many plays by me on the pub jukebox. Then The Cure were weighing in with The Walk and Let's Go To Bed which I bought on a special 12 inch EP Japanese Babies. Robert Smith was juggling his time with The Cure and being a full time (on a temporary basis) Banshee.
The Fun Boy Three came out with Our Lips Are Sealed, a song the married Terry Hall co-wrote with one of The Go Go's, who he was having a fling with whilst both bands toured together. The Go Go's also released the song and I bought them both.
More crucially, New Order released Blue Monday, a song that would remain in and out of the charts throughout the last 8 months of the year.
At home, as I reached aged 20 in February, the yearning to leave home, escape from whatever it was I wanted to escape was growing stronger.
To quote Eddie & The Hot Rods from a few years ago, "I was tired of doing day jobs, with no thanks for what I do, I'm told I must be someone, so I'm gonna find out who..."
I had a friend who had moved to the US with his family a few years before and they said I could come over and stay with them. I stayed in night after night, only going to the odd gig and every City game, saving up and eventually in June I flew to Boston and my friend picked me up and I spent the summer in Rhode Island.
The day before I arrived they had installed cable and the next thing MTV was on heavily. Mostly British bands as Yank bands hadn't produced promo videos, so The Police, Duran Duran, Culture Club, David Bowie and The (English) Beat were all on heavy rotation, as were Def Leppard too. And my mate Billy Idol was causing waves with Rebel Yell, yelling his way up the US Billboard charts.
During my 3 month stay, a friend of my friend suggested going to see Elvis Costello in Providence, supported by Aztec Camera. Now I like Costello and it was a very good gig, very good indeed, but Roddy Frame (in my opinion) blew him off the stage. Considering he was 19 at the time, it was an incredible performance. I was familiar with Oblivious and a couple of other singles but this gig had me (upon return) going out and buying the lot.

One other band caught my ear and eye on MTV. A band playing a fast rockish song with a keyboard intro (but not Def Leppard / Poodle Rock type rock) and the singer was very Jaggeresque in the video. I had assumed they were Yanks on the basis that I knew they weren't British. I bought the song on 7 inch and when returning to Blighty I played it to friends excitedly and then disappointingly as none of them shared my enthusiasm. "You've been in America too long", they said, "It's fucked your musical taste up" they said.
Six years later this band were on top of the world, with me reminding new converts of their stance from 1983...... The name of the band? Oh, turns out they weren't Yanks, but Aussies....... the song was "Don't Change" by INXS.

I returned to England, and my parents house in Coventry, knowing before i even touched down that I needed to move out. Nothing against my parents, I had just outgrown the nest and needed my own place to do nothing in.

My love for The Banshees was still high. The Creatures had released an album, called "Feast", recorded in Hawaii and the singles Miss The Girl and Right Now charting decently. In the October, I hitched down to London on a Friday to see The Banshees at the Royal Albert Hall. Dear Prudence was riding high in the top 5. The two gigs on the Friday and Saturday were recorded for the live album and video "Nocturne", so somewhere amongst half of the songs you can hear me cheering. I slept on a bench overnight in Paddington Station, got a bus at 6am to the beginning of the M1 in Cricklewood and two hitches later I am at Rugby and caught the Leicester & Rugby OSC branch coach to Maine Road for the home win v Grimsby Town.
At the same time as Dear Prudence was at the top, PIL were in the top 5 with This Is Not A Love Song.
October 31st, a Monday, I moved out of the family home in Coventry and moved into a bedsit in Sale, a mate of mine lived in another flat in the large Victorian house on Priory Road. A week that ultimately changed my life..... The next day I bought a black and white portable TV from a second hand TV shop on Washway Road, Sale. On Friday 4th November, I turned on Channel 4's The Tube, as I always had (apart from when in the States).
The video of a band came on, not a live performance. No idea who the band were or where they were from. It was 2 mins and 41 seconds of mouth open wide, asking "who is this?, where have they come from?"

It was my introduction to a four piece Mancunian beat combo who, over 40 years later, are still a (slight) obsession in my life....... The band, The Smiths, the song, "This Charming Man" - a title I played on 9 years later when producing my own City fanzine "This Charming Fan"
I bought the single, yet strangely, it wasn't the A side, the song played on The Tube, that endeared me to the band, but the B Side, "Jeane". Having moved into a freezing cold bedsit merely 4 days prior to The Tube, in "Jeane", the lines 'There's ice on the sink where we bathe, so how can you call this a home, when you know it's a grave?' resonated greatly.
It summed up where I was at that exact point. It was freezing with an electric meter that swallowed 50p's like crazy if i put the two bar fire on. It was a grave but it was my grave........

I ended 1983 in my own place, having escaped the horrors of working in a garage parts department, had a great 3 months in the sun in the USA, escaped living in Coventry and was now signing on at Stretford Job Centre every other week and City games were a Number 99 bus ride away rather than a 2 hour coach ride from the West Midlands.......
Morrissey sang "And if you must go to work tomorrow, well if I were you, I wouldn't bother" - I knew he was talking directly to me...... but that song was released in 1984, so I'll leave it there...... 1984 is going to be a great year......

Songs for the playlist
INXS - Don't Change
Aztec Camera - Oblivious
The Creatures - Right Now

PS Two TV series that I loved from 1983 was Willy Russell's "One Summer" (starring Morrissey, OK, not that one, and the very first repeat on TV of the late 60's series, "The Prisoner"

Some great detail there. I look forward to 1984.

 

[RobMCFC]

Bloody hell, I never knew that!!!!!

Keep up, mate. 'Twas me that nominated the great INXS for the 1982 playlist.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

1983
A great year for me musically (as ever, it was City bringing me down!)
The year started off with two corkers with U2's New Years Day and Echo & The Bunnymen's The Cutter getting many plays by me on the pub jukebox. Then The Cure were weighing in with The Walk and Let's Go To Bed which I bought on a special 12 inch EP Japanese Babies. Robert Smith was juggling his time with The Cure and being a full time (on a temporary basis) Banshee.
The Fun Boy Three came out with Our Lips Are Sealed, a song the married Terry Hall co-wrote with one of The Go Go's, who he was having a fling with whilst both bands toured together. The Go Go's also released the song and I bought them both.
More crucially, New Order released Blue Monday, a song that would remain in and out of the charts throughout the last 8 months of the year.
At home, as I reached aged 20 in February, the yearning to leave home, escape from whatever it was I wanted to escape was growing stronger.
To quote Eddie & The Hot Rods from a few years ago, "I was tired of doing day jobs, with no thanks for what I do, I'm told I must be someone, so I'm gonna find out who..."
I had a friend who had moved to the US with his family a few years before and they said I could come over and stay with them. I stayed in night after night, only going to the odd gig and every City game, saving up and eventually in June I flew to Boston and my friend picked me up and I spent the summer in Rhode Island.
The day before I arrived they had installed cable and the next thing MTV was on heavily. Mostly British bands as Yank bands hadn't produced promo videos, so The Police, Duran Duran, Culture Club, David Bowie and The (English) Beat were all on heavy rotation, as were Def Leppard too. And my mate Billy Idol was causing waves with Rebel Yell, yelling his way up the US Billboard charts.
During my 3 month stay, a friend of my friend suggested going to see Elvis Costello in Providence, supported by Aztec Camera. Now I like Costello and it was a very good gig, very good indeed, but Roddy Frame (in my opinion) blew him off the stage. Considering he was 19 at the time, it was an incredible performance. I was familiar with Oblivious and a couple of other singles but this gig had me (upon return) going out and buying the lot.

One other band caught my ear and eye on MTV. A band playing a fast rockish song with a keyboard intro (but not Def Leppard / Poodle Rock type rock) and the singer was very Jaggeresque in the video. I had assumed they were Yanks on the basis that I knew they weren't British. I bought the song on 7 inch and when returning to Blighty I played it to friends excitedly and then disappointingly as none of them shared my enthusiasm. "You've been in America too long", they said, "It's fucked your musical taste up" they said.
Six years later this band were on top of the world, with me reminding new converts of their stance from 1983...... The name of the band? Oh, turns out they weren't Yanks, but Aussies....... the song was "Don't Change" by INXS.

I returned to England, and my parents house in Coventry, knowing before i even touched down that I needed to move out. Nothing against my parents, I had just outgrown the nest and needed my own place to do nothing in.

My love for The Banshees was still high. The Creatures had released an album, called "Feast", recorded in Hawaii and the singles Miss The Girl and Right Now charting decently. In the October, I hitched down to London on a Friday to see The Banshees at the Royal Albert Hall. Dear Prudence was riding high in the top 5. The two gigs on the Friday and Saturday were recorded for the live album and video "Nocturne", so somewhere amongst half of the songs you can hear me cheering. I slept on a bench overnight in Paddington Station, got a bus at 6am to the beginning of the M1 in Cricklewood and two hitches later I am at Rugby and caught the Leicester & Rugby OSC branch coach to Maine Road for the home win v Grimsby Town.
At the same time as Dear Prudence was at the top, PIL were in the top 5 with This Is Not A Love Song.
October 31st, a Monday, I moved out of the family home in Coventry and moved into a bedsit in Sale, a mate of mine lived in another flat in the large Victorian house on Priory Road. A week that ultimately changed my life..... The next day I bought a black and white portable TV from a second hand TV shop on Washway Road, Sale. On Friday 4th November, I turned on Channel 4's The Tube, as I always had (apart from when in the States).
The video of a band came on, not a live performance. No idea who the band were or where they were from. It was 2 mins and 41 seconds of mouth open wide, asking "who is this?, where have they come from?"

It was my introduction to a four piece Mancunian beat combo who, over 40 years later, are still a (slight) obsession in my life....... The band, The Smiths, the song, "This Charming Man" - a title I played on 9 years later when producing my own City fanzine "This Charming Fan"
I bought the single, yet strangely, it wasn't the A side, the song played on The Tube, that endeared me to the band, but the B Side, "Jeane". Having moved into a freezing cold bedsit merely 4 days prior to The Tube, in "Jeane", the lines 'There's ice on the sink where we bathe, so how can you call this a home, when you know it's a grave?' resonated greatly.
It summed up where I was at that exact point. It was freezing with an electric meter that swallowed 50p's like crazy if i put the two bar fire on. It was a grave but it was my grave........

I ended 1983 in my own place, having escaped the horrors of working in a garage parts department, had a great 3 months in the sun in the USA, escaped living in Coventry and was now signing on at Stretford Job Centre every other week and City games were a Number 99 bus ride away rather than a 2 hour coach ride from the West Midlands.......
Morrissey sang "And if you must go to work tomorrow, well if I were you, I wouldn't bother" - I knew he was talking directly to me...... but that song was released in 1984, so I'll leave it there...... 1984 is going to be a great year......

Songs for the playlist
INXS - Don't Change
Aztec Camera - Oblivious
The Creatures - Right Now

PS Two TV series that I loved from 1983 was Willy Russell's "One Summer" (starring Morrissey, OK, not that one, and the very first repeat on TV of the late 60's series, "The Prisoner"

There's a good thriller film to be made — maybe with Steve McQueen in another generation, or Bruce Willis in more recent times — Escape from Coventry.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

It's not the subject of the thread, but reading MES's post brings up the fascinating subject of how you can change countries, cultures, jobs, friends, family (in my case), languages (in my case) on basically a chance encounter. It is the road taken, as opposed to the road not taken (apologies to Robert Frost).

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

A great year for me musically (as ever, it was City bringing me down!)

Re. that. I personally did not so much as have an inkling, in 1983, of the long desert that was to stretch before us (with occasional oases — oasises? – along the way). We were a big, big club, just going through a bad patch. That's the way I saw it. I suspect many on here saw it the same way.

 

[Mancitydoogle]

It wasn’t till 1984 that I first saw The Waterboys live supporting U2 at the Manchester Apollo and what a great double gig that was.But was a fan as soon as I heard their first single
‘A GIRL CALLED JOHNNY’ written as a sort of tribute to Patti Smith who I was also a fan of.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Keep up, mate. 'Twas me that nominated the great INXS for the 1982 playlist.

Wait a minute there, you mean we're at a minimum encouraged to actually listen to the playlists too?! ;-)

You don't really need to find out what's goin' on
You don't really wanna know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Keep your ..