Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1986 - (page 212)

[RobMCFC]

Great write-up @Black&White&BlueMoon Town , and a very good initial song selection. Although I heard it at the time, I didn't get into Crowded House until the Woodface album, but "Don't Dream Its Over" is also one of my favourite songs. There are few pop bands who can live with Crowded House's initial four albums between 1986 and 1993. The song was on my list of four, which opens another slot. As noted on the album thread "Blood & Roses" by The Smithereens is another gem I discovered earlier this year, although obviously I knew than band from their 11 album.

REM recording at Mellencamp's Belmont Mall eh? Another nice link between 1985-1986 and 1987.

Happenings in 1986 - I remember sitting in the Loreto college library reading about the Chernobyl disaster and thinking what the hell? Of course, the 1986 World Cup, with the "Hand of God" and some fantastic matches was also another highlight. I also started my course at Manchester Polytechnic.

This is the year I "entered" music. Until then, nothing really caught my ear, but on Friday 3rd January, I was sitting in the little cinema in Middleton watching Back to the Future when, for some inexplicable reason, a song really shifted something inside me. It was "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & The News. It got me off my backside to go and buy the soundtrack, which wasn't really that great, followed by the Rocky IV soundtrack and from there I was off and running with a small list of bands including ZZ Top and Survivor.

"The Power of Love" - Huey Lewis & The News

Later that year, I got to see Huey Lewis & The News at the Apollo and they were supported by Bruce Hornsby & The Range, who were touring their debut album The Way It Is. The instrumental version of the title track had been used left, right and centre by BBC sport as a backing for various pieces, but the full version with lyrics, as well as being a superb bit of piano, is an anti-racism song. I think it was The Way It Is that got me into all of these weird instruments - mandolin, hammered dulcimer, accordion, that would become so important to me on a certain album in 1987.

"The Way It Is" - Bruce Hornsby & The Range

As well as buying Born in the USA this year, I was aware of Bruce's mighty Live 75-85 box set - the daddy of all live albums. I didn't actually get around to buying it until January 1987 but it introduced me to fantastic versions of songs from his other albums, and one particular song that Bruce has played in various guises hundreds of times but has never seen a studio release. It's a sublime slowed-down boogie with some hard-hitting unemployment-focussed lyrics.

"Seeds" - Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band

Finally, an overlooked band with a classic 1986 single from an equally brilliant album.

"Ley My People Go" - The Rainmakers

 

[RobMCFC]

1986
Here we go!

The greatest year of my so far 62 years on planet earth.

Musically for me it was about a few bands, but one in particular dominating proceedings.
The Smiths released (for me) the greatest album by any band of any time.
The Queen Is Dead.
The album had been produced in 1985, indeed the two singles from the album, Bigmouth Strikes Again and The Boy With The Thorn In His Side were released that very year.
I bought the album the day it came out - 16th June. The day before me and my mate Jim drove down in my Ford Escort Mk2 Estate to Glastonbury for the first of my two visits there (1989 being the other). We slept in the back of the car, with the back seat folded down. Perfect.
I promised Jim I wouldn't listen to the album until on our way down in the car, so got home and recorded the album onto a C60 cassette with the sound off.....
The next day off we went and played the album on repeat the whole way down. We were staying at a friend's house in Chard, Somerset until Friday 20th.
I had borrowed a friends Macro Cash 'n Carry card and had bought 100 large cartons of My Mum's brand of orange, pineapple and apple juice for 33p each to take with us and flog.
We stopped off at Taunton and headed for the HMV to buy tickets for Glastonbury which were 19 quid each. They had no tickets left but called their Bridgewater branch who did and they put them to one side and off we headed back up the M5 to Bridgewater and then back to Taunton and onto Chard.
Jim and our mutual friend went off to get supplies and I was left alone to play the album. I must have played There Is A Light maybe 8 times over and over again in their absence. A song I said then would be one of the greatest songs ever and a claim I still make today as it being THE greatest......
Off we went to Glastonbury with the UK's media obsessed that the New Age Travellers were on their way and allegedly causing mayhem along en route..
It was a stinking hot Glastonbury. Sunshine all the way. Scousers were there selling sunglasses.
Friday night, The Waterboys, The Pogues and then headliners The Psychedelic Furs.
Saturday Lloyd Cole & The Commotions and The Cure. As soon as The Cure came on, it rained! We put up with it for an hour and had had enough. What had been bone dry land had now become a mud bath in an hour...... The Scousers were now selling bin bags. The rain stopped pretty much after The Cure finished and in the morning the land was bone dry again.
Sunday, well we had a dilemma. England were playing Argentina in the Hand of God game and The Housemartins were on stage early afternoon. We left early and missed The Housemartins and arrived back in Sale around 5pm, a few hours to spare before the game.
Previous World Cup games over the weekend were being shown in a big tent. Someone in the Eaves family was recording them and then bringing the video to the tent and playing it on a big screen. The fantastic game between France and Brazil went to extra time and penalties. Half way through the shoot out the tape had finished and the person recording it didnt know the score so neither did we...... it was in the morning listening to the sports news on Radio 2 in the car when we found out......
Oh, remember the orange juice? Well I walked around all the tents on the Saturday morning and sold them all very quickly for 75p each....... The 42 quid profit covered our 38 quid for 2 tickets and half of our petrol costs.....

GMEX
This former train station in Manchester hosted The Festival Of The 10th Summer, celebrating 10 years since the Sex Pistols gigs at the Lesser Free Trade Hall.
13 quid and you saw New Order, The Smiths, The Fall, OMD, Pete Shelley, Howard Devoto and Steve Diggle (all in different bands not together), Sandie Shaw, Frank Sidebottom sweeping the stage, Derek Hatton walking on stage on crutches, cracking a joke about Ron Atkinson and getting a few smacks from a punter who climbed onto the stage and thumped him!
The Smiths performance was the least favourite of the 5 gigs I saw them at - not that the band were at fault, the jingly jangly sound just bounced around the cavernous building and being on stage around 5pm in daylight meant no light show either. The band, now a 5 piece with Craig Gannon added on rhythm guitar were at the height of their career. New Order came on last, their heavier sound more suited and amicable to the venue and the light show adding to the atmosphere too. I even started a round of the Mexican wave, popularised by the World Cup! Ian McCulloch from the Bunnymen came on stage for the encore and Ceremony was well received by the crowd. It is hard to believe but this gig with a 9,000 capacity did not sell out......
The very next day The Smiths performed an intimate gig at the Maxwell Hall in Salford University - the best gig I ever attended and Johnny Marr and Mike Joyce have both said the same thing!
The atmosphere was the closest I've ever been to at a gig that was like being at a football match. The crowd was very male and very working class. People say The Smiths were a student band. Not then they weren't - in the same way Joy Division and Nirvana were not initially but became a student band. The main difference with The Smiths is the front man didn't kill himself for the band to achieve that status.......The Salford Lads were out to defend their territory. Between every song the cry of "Salford, Salford, Salford" bellowed out. It was Morrissey who defused the tension after the third time this happened, replying back in a childish voice "Stretford, Stretford, Stretford" to much laughter and the threat of violence (to anyone daring to shout out the name of any other district) receded.
It was very hot inside and many of the crowd were topless, tucking their t shirts inside their jeans. It was a bizarre juxtaposition of so many "hard lads" hypnotised by such effeminate / homoerotic songs Morrissey was belting out. The final song played, Hand In Glove, ends with the line "and I'll probably never see you again....." I turned and just happened to share that glance with the topless, shaved headed lad dancing along next to me (I still had my t shirt on LOL) and without any of us saying anything, we hugged. And I never did see him again. The gig ended in chaos with a full on stage invasion, that apparently caused the ceiling of the room below the stage to buckle........... what a fucking night.
In October, the band played the Free Trade Hall to promote the single Ask. I don't recall too much about this gig compared to GMEX and Salford Uni, but it was notable for being the last gig they played as a five piece band with Gannon departing afterwards, and also it was their penultimate live gig. Their final live gig being in December at Brixton Academy. The band did play live on the Tube in 1987, but little did we know when piling out of the Free Trade Hall that 9 months later that the greatest band of my generation would be know more.......

Two other albums of note that had my attention.
The Housemartins "London 0 Hull 4" was fantastic. Political pop at its finest. Despite the Glastonbury disappointment, the band played an autumn tour to promote the single "Think For A Minute" and they were the first band to play at the former Carousel Club on Dickenson Road that was now known as The International 2.
The venue was rammed and clearly over capacity and it could have been worse when a section of the lighting above the stage fell and missed Paul Heaton's head by inches!

The second album was "Infected by The The. Again a politically charged album that captured a time and a place.

Other gigs were Siouxsie & The Banshees at the Apollo promoting the "Tinderbox" album. The lead single was "Cities In Dust" though it was released in 1985.
James played 2 free gigs the same day in the council chamber at Manchester Town Hall. I grabbed a ticket for the afternoon gig.

So. Three songs for the play list......

1. The Smiths "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
Predictable I know, I tried to pick another one, an obscure b side to one of the singles, but in the end just could not not put in the greatest song ever produced.

2. The Housemartins "Get Up Off Of Your Knees"
A great 3 minute call to arms
"Don't wag your finger at them, and turn and walk away, don't shoot someone tomorrow, who you can shoot today"

3. The The "Heartland"
The lead single off the album with the end refrain that Britain is the "51st state of the USA"
"All the bankers getting sweaty, beneath their white collar, as the pound in their pocket turns, into a dollar...." Social commentary at its finest and up there with The Specials "Ghost Town" and UB40's "1 In 10" in putting Thatcher's Britain onto a 7 inch vinyl record.

Oh, and City's Youth Team beat the rags in the final of the FA Youth Cup to lift the trophy for the first time!
Someone should write a book about that........

I enjoyed reading that. I was wondering what the significance of the orange juice was so nice that it paid off (for you and me reading it!).

 

[Mancitydoogle]

1986
Here we go!

The greatest year of my so far 62 years on planet earth.

Musically for me it was about a few bands, but one in particular dominating proceedings.
The Smiths released (for me) the greatest album by any band of any time.
The Queen Is Dead.
The album had been produced in 1985, indeed the two singles from the album, Bigmouth Strikes Again and The Boy With The Thorn In His Side were released that very year.
I bought the album the day it came out - 16th June. The day before me and my mate Jim drove down in my Ford Escort Mk2 Estate to Glastonbury for the first of my two visits there (1989 being the other). We slept in the back of the car, with the back seat folded down. Perfect.
I promised Jim I wouldn't listen to the album until on our way down in the car, so got home and recorded the album onto a C60 cassette with the sound off.....
The next day off we went and played the album on repeat the whole way down. We were staying at a friend's house in Chard, Somerset until Friday 20th.
I had borrowed a friends Macro Cash 'n Carry card and had bought 100 large cartons of My Mum's brand of orange, pineapple and apple juice for 33p each to take with us and flog.
We stopped off at Taunton and headed for the HMV to buy tickets for Glastonbury which were 19 quid each. They had no tickets left but called their Bridgewater branch who did and they put them to one side and off we headed back up the M5 to Bridgewater and then back to Taunton and onto Chard.
Jim and our mutual friend went off to get supplies and I was left alone to play the album. I must have played There Is A Light maybe 8 times over and over again in their absence. A song I said then would be one of the greatest songs ever and a claim I still make today as it being THE greatest......
Off we went to Glastonbury with the UK's media obsessed that the New Age Travellers were on their way and allegedly causing mayhem along en route..
It was a stinking hot Glastonbury. Sunshine all the way. Scousers were there selling sunglasses.
Friday night, The Waterboys, The Pogues and then headliners The Psychedelic Furs.
Saturday Lloyd Cole & The Commotions and The Cure. As soon as The Cure came on, it rained! We put up with it for an hour and had had enough. What had been bone dry land had now become a mud bath in an hour...... The Scousers were now selling bin bags. The rain stopped pretty much after The Cure finished and in the morning the land was bone dry again.
Sunday, well we had a dilemma. England were playing Argentina in the Hand of God game and The Housemartins were on stage early afternoon. We left early and missed The Housemartins and arrived back in Sale around 5pm, a few hours to spare before the game.
Previous World Cup games over the weekend were being shown in a big tent. Someone in the Eaves family was recording them and then bringing the video to the tent and playing it on a big screen. The fantastic game between France and Brazil went to extra time and penalties. Half way through the shoot out the tape had finished and the person recording it didnt know the score so neither did we...... it was in the morning listening to the sports news on Radio 2 in the car when we found out......
Oh, remember the orange juice? Well I walked around all the tents on the Saturday morning and sold them all very quickly for 75p each....... The 42 quid profit covered our 38 quid for 2 tickets and half of our petrol costs.....

GMEX
This former train station in Manchester hosted The Festival Of The 10th Summer, celebrating 10 years since the Sex Pistols gigs at the Lesser Free Trade Hall.
13 quid and you saw New Order, The Smiths, The Fall, OMD, Pete Shelley, Howard Devoto and Steve Diggle (all in different bands not together), Sandie Shaw, Frank Sidebottom sweeping the stage, Derek Hatton walking on stage on crutches, cracking a joke about Ron Atkinson and getting a few smacks from a punter who climbed onto the stage and thumped him!
The Smiths performance was the least favourite of the 5 gigs I saw them at - not that the band were at fault, the jingly jangly sound just bounced around the cavernous building and being on stage around 5pm in daylight meant no light show either. The band, now a 5 piece with Craig Gannon added on rhythm guitar were at the height of their career. New Order came on last, their heavier sound more suited and amicable to the venue and the light show adding to the atmosphere too. I even started a round of the Mexican wave, popularised by the World Cup! Ian McCulloch from the Bunnymen came on stage for the encore and Ceremony was well received by the crowd. It is hard to believe but this gig with a 9,000 capacity did not sell out......
The very next day The Smiths performed an intimate gig at the Maxwell Hall in Salford University - the best gig I ever attended and Johnny Marr and Mike Joyce have both said the same thing!
The atmosphere was the closest I've ever been to at a gig that was like being at a football match. The crowd was very male and very working class. People say The Smiths were a student band. Not then they weren't - in the same way Joy Division and Nirvana were not initially but became a student band. The main difference with The Smiths is the front man didn't kill himself for the band to achieve that status.......The Salford Lads were out to defend their territory. Between every song the cry of "Salford, Salford, Salford" bellowed out. It was Morrissey who defused the tension after the third time this happened, replying back in a childish voice "Stretford, Stretford, Stretford" to much laughter and the threat of violence (to anyone daring to shout out the name of any other district) receded.
It was very hot inside and many of the crowd were topless, tucking their t shirts inside their jeans. It was a bizarre juxtaposition of so many "hard lads" hypnotised by such effeminate / homoerotic songs Morrissey was belting out. The final song played, Hand In Glove, ends with the line "and I'll probably never see you again....." I turned and just happened to share that glance with the topless, shaved headed lad dancing along next to me (I still had my t shirt on LOL) and without any of us saying anything, we hugged. And I never did see him again. The gig ended in chaos with a full on stage invasion, that apparently caused the ceiling of the room below the stage to buckle........... what a fucking night.
In October, the band played the Free Trade Hall to promote the single Ask. I don't recall too much about this gig compared to GMEX and Salford Uni, but it was notable for being the last gig they played as a five piece band with Gannon departing afterwards, and also it was their penultimate live gig. Their final live gig being in December at Brixton Academy. The band did play live on the Tube in 1987, but little did we know when piling out of the Free Trade Hall that 9 months later that the greatest band of my generation would be know more.......

Two other albums of note that had my attention.
The Housemartins "London 0 Hull 4" was fantastic. Political pop at its finest. Despite the Glastonbury disappointment, the band played an autumn tour to promote the single "Think For A Minute" and they were the first band to play at the former Carousel Club on Dickenson Road that was now known as The International 2.
The venue was rammed and clearly over capacity and it could have been worse when a section of the lighting above the stage fell and missed Paul Heaton's head by inches!

The second album was "Infected by The The. Again a politically charged album that captured a time and a place.

Other gigs were Siouxsie & The Banshees at the Apollo promoting the "Tinderbox" album. The lead single was "Cities In Dust" though it was released in 1985.
James played 2 free gigs the same day in the council chamber at Manchester Town Hall. I grabbed a ticket for the afternoon gig.

So. Three songs for the play list......

1. The Smiths "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
Predictable I know, I tried to pick another one, an obscure b side to one of the singles, but in the end just could not not put in the greatest song ever produced.

2. The Housemartins "Get Up Off Of Your Knees"
A great 3 minute call to arms
"Don't wag your finger at them, and turn and walk away, don't shoot someone tomorrow, who you can shoot today"

3. The The "Heartland"
The lead single off the album with the end refrain that Britain is the "51st state of the USA"
"All the bankers getting sweaty, beneath their white collar, as the pound in their pocket turns, into a dollar...." Social commentary at its finest and up there with The Specials "Ghost Town" and UB40's "1 In 10" in putting Thatcher's Britain onto a 7 inch vinyl record.

Oh, and City's Youth Team beat the rags in the final of the FA Youth Cup to lift the trophy for the first time!
Someone should write a book about that........

Great write up, I was at the Salford Uni gig and never took my shirt off either.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Great write up, I was at the Salford Uni gig and never took my shirt off either.

So it wasn’t you I hugged them!

 

[Mancitydoogle]

So it wasn’t you I hugged them!

No it definitely wasn’t me ! I’d have remembered:-)

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

I enjoyed reading that. I was wondering what the significance of the orange juice was so nice that it paid off (for you and me reading it!).

I’ve always had that bit of a Del Boy in me with an eye for a profit. I figured the gangsters would have beer and drugs covered and didn’t want to piss any of those off and figured folk would appreciate a nice drink of pure juice in the morning. I just wondered around the tents around 9am when folk were getting up. Probably sold the lot in 90 mins and was gutted I didn’t take more!

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Great summary of an incredible time. You should have written a companion book about the senior team and called it That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore.

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible…..

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

I too have been looking forward to 1986 so I could include in its entirerity one of the best Side 1's of any album I have ever heard. Bold claim I know but here goes: 'Strange Times' by The Chameleons.

Track 1 - 'Mad Jack'
Track 2 - 'Caution'
Track 3 - 'Tears'
Track 4 - 'Soul in Isolation'

If you want to hear the end of track 4 then you need to listen to the final 20 seconds of the last track on Side 2.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the Strange Times album or the first song "Mad Jack" in the US on Spotify, so my apologies in advance on this.

I found the other 3 songs (tracks 2-4) on other compilations or live, so I've added as best I can, but if there's something else out there that has this, please let me know and I'll swap it out. Sorry about this.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Great write-up @Black&White&BlueMoon Town , and a very good initial song selection. Although I heard it at the time, I didn't get into Crowded House until the Woodface album, but "Don't Dream Its Over" is also one of my favourite songs. There are few pop bands who can live with Crowded House's initial four albums between 1986 and 1993. The song was on my list of four, which opens another slot. As noted on the album thread "Blood & Roses" by The Smithereens is another gem I discovered earlier this year, although obviously I knew than band from their 11 album.

Yes, I figured I'd be taking the CH song from your plans, but I was deliberate in leaving others as I'll note below. B&R was such a great song, I had that track from the playlist already picked before you nominated the 11 album, so again, upset with myself I couldn't guess the album clues that week!

REM recording at Mellencamp's Belmont Mall eh? Another nice link between 1985-1986 and 1987.

That was a deliberate nod for you as well, glad you caught that. I too found that pretty interesting when stumbling upon that.

Happenings in 1986 - I remember sitting in the Loreto college library reading about the Chernobyl disaster and thinking what the hell? Of course, the 1986 World Cup, with the "Hand of God" and some fantastic matches was also another highlight. I also started my course at Manchester Polytechnic.

The Polytechnic schools are tops in my book too, no matter the locale. ;-)

This is the year I "entered" music. Until then, nothing really caught my ear, but on Friday 3rd January, I was sitting in the little cinema in Middleton watching Back to the Future when, for some inexplicable reason, a song really shifted something inside me. It was "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & The News. It got me off my backside to go and buy the soundtrack, which wasn't really that great, followed by the Rocky IV soundtrack and from there I was off and running with a small list of bands including ZZ Top and Survivor.

"The Power of Love" - Huey Lewis & The News

I was anticipating this one last year, but I realize you didn't see the movie until 1986, so I get it. I passed it by twice for you. ;-)

Later that year, I got to see Huey Lewis & The News at the Apollo and they were supported by Bruce Hornsby & The Range, who were touring their debut album The Way It Is. The instrumental version of the title track had been used left, right and centre by BBC sport as a backing for various pieces, but the full version with lyrics, as well as being a superb bit of piano, is an anti-racism song. I think it was The Way It Is that got me into all of these weird instruments - mandolin, hammered dulcimer, accordion, that would become so important to me on a certain album in 1987.

"The Way It Is" - Bruce Hornsby & The Range

Another song I was tempted to take, but I figured it was better left for you. My girlfriend and I saw Bruce Hornsby & The Range play at our university back in Jan 1987, and I think that was the only big performer other than "Mighty Max" Weinberg do his book tour of The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers when he came around on campus during that time.

As well as buying Born in the USA this year, I was aware of Bruce's mighty Live 75-85 box set - the daddy of all live albums. I didn't actually get around to buying it until January 1987 but it introduced me to fantastic versions of songs from his other albums, and one particular song that Bruce has played in various guises hundreds of times but has never seen a studio release. It's a sublime slowed-down boogie with some hard-hitting unemployment-focussed lyrics.

"Seeds" - Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band

I was also considering a track from the Live 75-85 box set too, which I had in cassette format back then. "Trapped" was on my shortlist. I knew this would get some representation with the Springsteen contingent here.

Finally, an overlooked band with a classic 1986 single from an equally brilliant album.

"Let My People Go" - The Rainmakers

One I don't know, great selection. Is it "country"? ;-) ;-)

 

[hallsteve62]

Unfortunately, I cannot find the Strange Times album or the first song "Mad Jack" in the US on Spotify, so my apologies in advance on this.

I found the other 3 songs (tracks 2-4) on other compilations or live, so I've added as best I can, but if there's something else out there that has this, please let me know and I'll swap it out. Sorry about this.

Hi mate. They were known as Chameleons UK in the States. The album is definitely on Amazon Music if you have access to it.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

1986
Here we go!

The greatest year of my so far 62 years on planet earth.

Musically for me it was about a few bands, but one in particular dominating proceedings.
The Smiths released (for me) the greatest album by any band of any time.
The Queen Is Dead.
The album had been produced in 1985, indeed the two singles from the album, Bigmouth Strikes Again and The Boy With The Thorn In His Side were released that very year.
I bought the album the day it came out - 16th June. The day before me and my mate Jim drove down in my Ford Escort Mk2 Estate to Glastonbury for the first of my two visits there (1989 being the other). We slept in the back of the car, with the back seat folded down. Perfect.
I promised Jim I wouldn't listen to the album until on our way down in the car, so got home and recorded the album onto a C60 cassette with the sound off.....
The next day off we went and played the album on repeat the whole way down. We were staying at a friend's house in Chard, Somerset until Friday 20th.
I had borrowed a friends Macro Cash 'n Carry card and had bought 100 large cartons of My Mum's brand of orange, pineapple and apple juice for 33p each to take with us and flog.
We stopped off at Taunton and headed for the HMV to buy tickets for Glastonbury which were 19 quid each. They had no tickets left but called their Bridgewater branch who did and they put them to one side and off we headed back up the M5 to Bridgewater and then back to Taunton and onto Chard.
Jim and our mutual friend went off to get supplies and I was left alone to play the album. I must have played There Is A Light maybe 8 times over and over again in their absence. A song I said then would be one of the greatest songs ever and a claim I still make today as it being THE greatest......
Off we went to Glastonbury with the UK's media obsessed that the New Age Travellers were on their way and allegedly causing mayhem along en route..
It was a stinking hot Glastonbury. Sunshine all the way. Scousers were there selling sunglasses.
Friday night, The Waterboys, The Pogues and then headliners The Psychedelic Furs.
Saturday Lloyd Cole & The Commotions and The Cure. As soon as The Cure came on, it rained! We put up with it for an hour and had had enough. What had been bone dry land had now become a mud bath in an hour...... The Scousers were now selling bin bags. The rain stopped pretty much after The Cure finished and in the morning the land was bone dry again.
Sunday, well we had a dilemma. England were playing Argentina in the Hand of God game and The Housemartins were on stage early afternoon. We left early and missed The Housemartins and arrived back in Sale around 5pm, a few hours to spare before the game.
Previous World Cup games over the weekend were being shown in a big tent. Someone in the Eaves family was recording them and then bringing the video to the tent and playing it on a big screen. The fantastic game between France and Brazil went to extra time and penalties. Half way through the shoot out the tape had finished and the person recording it didnt know the score so neither did we...... it was in the morning listening to the sports news on Radio 2 in the car when we found out......
Oh, remember the orange juice? Well I walked around all the tents on the Saturday morning and sold them all very quickly for 75p each....... The 42 quid profit covered our 38 quid for 2 tickets and half of our petrol costs.....

GMEX
This former train station in Manchester hosted The Festival Of The 10th Summer, celebrating 10 years since the Sex Pistols gigs at the Lesser Free Trade Hall.
13 quid and you saw New Order, The Smiths, The Fall, OMD, Pete Shelley, Howard Devoto and Steve Diggle (all in different bands not together), Sandie Shaw, Frank Sidebottom sweeping the stage, Derek Hatton walking on stage on crutches, cracking a joke about Ron Atkinson and getting a few smacks from a punter who climbed onto the stage and thumped him!
The Smiths performance was the least favourite of the 5 gigs I saw them at - not that the band were at fault, the jingly jangly sound just bounced around the cavernous building and being on stage around 5pm in daylight meant no light show either. The band, now a 5 piece with Craig Gannon added on rhythm guitar were at the height of their career. New Order came on last, their heavier sound more suited and amicable to the venue and the light show adding to the atmosphere too. I even started a round of the Mexican wave, popularised by the World Cup! Ian McCulloch from the Bunnymen came on stage for the encore and Ceremony was well received by the crowd. It is hard to believe but this gig with a 9,000 capacity did not sell out......
The very next day The Smiths performed an intimate gig at the Maxwell Hall in Salford University - the best gig I ever attended and Johnny Marr and Mike Joyce have both said the same thing!
The atmosphere was the closest I've ever been to at a gig that was like being at a football match. The crowd was very male and very working class. People say The Smiths were a student band. Not then they weren't - in the same way Joy Division and Nirvana were not initially but became a student band. The main difference with The Smiths is the front man didn't kill himself for the band to achieve that status.......The Salford Lads were out to defend their territory. Between every song the cry of "Salford, Salford, Salford" bellowed out. It was Morrissey who defused the tension after the third time this happened, replying back in a childish voice "Stretford, Stretford, Stretford" to much laughter and the threat of violence (to anyone daring to shout out the name of any other district) receded.
It was very hot inside and many of the crowd were topless, tucking their t shirts inside their jeans. It was a bizarre juxtaposition of so many "hard lads" hypnotised by such effeminate / homoerotic songs Morrissey was belting out. The final song played, Hand In Glove, ends with the line "and I'll probably never see you again....." I turned and just happened to share that glance with the topless, shaved headed lad dancing along next to me (I still had my t shirt on LOL) and without any of us saying anything, we hugged. And I never did see him again. The gig ended in chaos with a full on stage invasion, that apparently caused the ceiling of the room below the stage to buckle........... what a fucking night.
In October, the band played the Free Trade Hall to promote the single Ask. I don't recall too much about this gig compared to GMEX and Salford Uni, but it was notable for being the last gig they played as a five piece band with Gannon departing afterwards, and also it was their penultimate live gig. Their final live gig being in December at Brixton Academy. The band did play live on the Tube in 1987, but little did we know when piling out of the Free Trade Hall that 9 months later that the greatest band of my generation would be know more.......

Two other albums of note that had my attention.
The Housemartins "London 0 Hull 4" was fantastic. Political pop at its finest. Despite the Glastonbury disappointment, the band played an autumn tour to promote the single "Think For A Minute" and they were the first band to play at the former Carousel Club on Dickenson Road that was now known as The International 2.
The venue was rammed and clearly over capacity and it could have been worse when a section of the lighting above the stage fell and missed Paul Heaton's head by inches!

The second album was "Infected by The The. Again a politically charged album that captured a time and a place.

Other gigs were Siouxsie & The Banshees at the Apollo promoting the "Tinderbox" album. The lead single was "Cities In Dust" though it was released in 1985.
James played 2 free gigs the same day in the council chamber at Manchester Town Hall. I grabbed a ticket for the afternoon gig.

So. Three songs for the play list......

1. The Smiths "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
Predictable I know, I tried to pick another one, an obscure b side to one of the singles, but in the end just could not not put in the greatest song ever produced.

2. The Housemartins "Get Up Off Of Your Knees"
A great 3 minute call to arms
"Don't wag your finger at them, and turn and walk away, don't shoot someone tomorrow, who you can shoot today"

3. The The "Heartland"
The lead single off the album with the end refrain that Britain is the "51st state of the USA"
"All the bankers getting sweaty, beneath their white collar, as the pound in their pocket turns, into a dollar...." Social commentary at its finest and up there with The Specials "Ghost Town" and UB40's "1 In 10" in putting Thatcher's Britain onto a 7 inch vinyl record.

Oh, and City's Youth Team beat the rags in the final of the FA Youth Cup to lift the trophy for the first time!
Someone should write a book about that........

Some great vivid memories there, thanks for writing that up! Thank you Google, re: flog.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Hi mate. They were known as Chameleons UK in the States. The album is definitely on Amazon Music if you have access to it.

Yes, I can see both bands listed in Spotify, but I'm just not seeing that song on that platform. The other 3 songs do show up in Spotify attributed to The Chameleons as should be listed too.

Sorry, I'm not using Amazon Music for the playlist, and I don't know how to link that platform into Spotify, which I am using and have access to.

 

[Out on blue 6]

I think this is the year that Hip Hop moves up into the mainstream.

Widely considered to be one of the greatest and most important albums in the history of hip hop music and culture.
Raising Hell peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, and number one on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums (at the time known as the "Top Black Albums") chart, making it the first hip hop album to peak atop the latter.

Raising Hell has been ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1987, it was nominated for a Grammy Award, making Run-D.M.C. the first hip hop act to receive a nomination. In the same year, the album was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Rap Album at the 1987 Soul Train Music Awards. In 2017, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Everyone knows Walk This Way and is a bit of a classic but I would prefer something different so...

Run DMC - You Be Illin'

 

[hallsteve62]

Unfortunately, I cannot find the Strange Times album or the first song "Mad Jack" in the US on Spotify, so my apologies in advance on this.

I found the other 3 songs (tracks 2-4) on other compilations or live, so I've added as best I can, but if there's something else out there that has this, please let me know and I'll swap it out. Sorry about this.

Hi again. I believe you can take songs from You Tube and put them onto a Spotify playlist. Don't ask me how though!

 

[OB1]

First playlist pick for 1986, Eric Clapton: It’s In The Way That You Use It.

 

[Out on blue 6]

Sandwiched between Lowlife and Substance Brotherhood is a bit of a lost NO album but not without it's merits.
Supposedly a guitar/rockier side to a synth/dancier side even Stephen Morris admits it didn't quite work and it does include some fairly typically bad Bernard lyrics.

New Order - As It Is When It Was

 

[RobMCFC]

Hi again. I believe you can take songs from You Tube and put them onto a Spotify playlist. Don't ask me how though!

That would involve extracting the audio from YouTube, saving it as an MP3, uploading it to Spotify but even then it would only be available locally to the person that did it.

We've had this discussion about people who prefer Apple Music or Amazon or whatever, but the bottom line is that most people use Spotify and that's what we use for playlists on several of the music threads.

In this case, I think we can save B&W the bother and just recognise that you've "Virtually" added the track by calling it out here :)

 

[threespires]

Sandwiched between Lowlife and Substance Brotherhood is a bit of a lost NO album but not without it's merits.
Supposedly a guitar/rockier side to a synth/dancier side even Stephen Morris admits it didn't quite work and it does include some fairly typically bad Bernard lyrics.

New Order - As It Is When It Was

How can an album with Bizarre Love Triangle be lost? :-) It's ludicrously over the top but that's why it's brilliant!

And Every Little Counts proves you can turn four Mancs (sort of) into rock dance gods but you can't necessarily make them grow up and not behave like arses.