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What were you listening to 30 years ago?

Sloop John B

Sloop John B

And any old music will do…
30 years ago, I headed off to University.

Some of us are getting together again and I'm trying to get a play-list together without the benefit of hindsight.

What immediately springs to mind for me is Bruce, U2, Lloyld Cole and the Commotions and Sade.

Without googling, what were you grooving to in 1984-85?


SJB
 
A whole mix of rock and pop stuff, e.g. Durutti Column, Smiths, ACR, New Order, REM, FGTH, Propaganda, Billy Bragg, Lloyd Cole, Blue Nile, GoBetweens, Fall etc etc, plus discovering a lot of punk/new-wave and Krautrock stuff I'd missed out on (Wire, Can etc).

Most significantly it was the year I discovered jazz. IIRC the Blue Note 50th Anniversary compilation LP was released in 84, it cost £1.99 and didn't have a dud track anywhere near it. I've since lost the album along the way somewhere, but I still have the mug! I also landed another compilation on RCA and between them I was off buying all kinds of stuff. I can remember my first three 'proper' jazz purchases were Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else, Kenny Burrell Midnight Blue and Mingus Black Saint And The Sinner Lady. Jazz has been my main musical interest ever since.
 
I started my first job and on my walkman for the walk to work i over-played kate bush hounds of love, billy idol vital idol and frank zappa them or us. A great mix
 
Sloop John B said:
3 Bruce, U2, Lloyld Cole and the Commotions and Sade.
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All of those above but not Sade. Big Country, The Smiths, New Order, Lone Justice, . Anyone remember Power Station - half of Duran Duran + Robert Palmer, produced by Nile Rodgers? I liked that album a lot.
 
Was DJ-ing at the time. Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics, Nena, Laura Branigan, ZZ top, Police... Makes me cringe...
 
Well I'd like to say it was all cool but I remember a funny phase with coffee table albums. If Im honest it was the sort of selection you would find in a dealers dem room. It was all about making my system sound good.

Two years onto my boring job, I was probably listening mostly to a a mix of Sade, Judie Tzuke, Dire Straits and even Phil Collins :D Include Julfs list above :) It was a disaster in terms of cool. I was having that American Psycho moment :) Joy Division was on a backburner

I did like the things John Peel was playing but my Ceremony and Wild Swans 12" were heavily outnumbered.

I certainly wasnt a hipster as you can tell. I remember one girlfriend looking through my fifteen CDs :) and thinking this guy is an effing square! :)

I still hadnt really got into The Fall. Just being honest as I hide away behind a computer. Of course I tell my partner that I was at all the really cool gigs and helped discover the Manchester scene :D
 
More or less what I listen to now.
Just listened to Len's Death of a Ladies' Man before coming on here.
 
1984 was the year before I went to University. The new stuff I was into was the so called Paisley Underground - REM, Rain Parade, Long Ryders, Green on Red. Plus Talking Heads, The Cure and The Chameleons. I'd just discovered The Doors and The Velvet Underground too.

It seems incredible now, but when I got to University, REM were regarded as a really weird band. I got tons of flak from all the Meat Loaf and Foreigner fans (i.e. the not-so-silent majority). Brothers In Arms was everywhere.
 
Thinking about it, those couple of years were spent mainly focused on playing my own music...so I missed out on quite a bit that I had the pleasure of catching up with when I realised I wasnt going to be a rock star.
 
I was a year into my doctorate and my eldest son had just been born (not a good combo in retrospect) . I was listening to The Smiths, Husker Du, Meat Puppets, Tom Waits, REM, Costello and just getting into jazz - Garon records in the covered market in Oxford was great for part exchanging dodgy old 70s vinyl for jazz - out with Focus and Frampton in with Miles and Mingus. At that point quite a lot of what I explored was really shaped by bands on The Tube as well as Peel and the NME
 
Julf said:
Was DJ-ing at the time. Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics, Nena, Laura Branigan, ZZ top, Police... Makes me cringe...
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Exactly same thing here. Let's add Kajagoogoo, David Bowie (Let's Dance was the only thing I knew by him at the time !!), Boy George and Michael Jackson. Well, all this spiced up with some Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams so as to make the lot look a little less awkward.
 
Best gigs of that time for me

Jack Bruce & friends, four gigs from 1983 - 85
Tom Waits, Rain Dogs tour
Roger Waters, Pros and Cons w Clapton
BB King playing a stripped-down, no showbiz, pure Blues set
 
I was also DJing at the college radio station. Played stuff in rotation like The Smiths, Husker Du, Minutemen, REM, This Mortal Coil, Camper van Beethoven, Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo and the Bunnymen, and older Bowie, VU.
 
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