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Which 80s pop classics have surprisingly stood the test of time?

Never liked Frankie, thought they were crap at the time & still do.

I've always liked sides 1 and 2 of Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Realistically it was all Trevor Horn and his production team anyway, and the beat driven stuff appealed to me. The 12' mixes of Two Tribes I thrashed. I don't play sides 3 and 4. Its also one of those rarities where the original Lp sounds better that anything re-issued after it, IMV.

But, each to their own... Not everyone likes DM:(
 
I've always liked sides 1 and 2 of Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Realistically it was all Trevor Horn and his production team anyway, and the beat driven stuff appealed to me. The 12' mixes of Two Tribes I thrashed. I don't play sides 3 and 4. Its also one of those rarities where the original Lp sounds better that anything re-issued after it, IMV.

But, each to their own... Not everyone likes DM:(
I think music is of its time, I cannot think of a context where I would want to listen to certain tunes from the 80s.
 
Try the Fruitness mix of Welcome to the Pleasuredome.

Or if you think your speakers are up to it. the 12" 'sex' mix of Relax. As a child of the 80's I love a good remix and that one is the top of the pile for me. It's fantastic and brutal in equal measure
 
Realistically it was all Trevor Horn and his production team anyway, and the beat driven stuff appealed to me.

That is unfair, FGTH could very definitely play, and play well. Most of them had been in bands previously. They absolutely weren’t a ‘manufactured band’. Trevor Horn certainly polished them and brought something unique and new, but he was more George Martin than Stock Aitkin & Waterman. As I understand it FGTH had their hits written prior to getting a deal.
 
As I understand it FGTH had their hits written prior to getting a deal.
They were certainly a feature on The Tube in 1983 playing Relax long before they signed to ZTT.


Unsurprisingly this performance video is fairly out there for the times and the transmission time, but the interview afterwards with Jools Holland they mention they are not yet signed. I remember getting seriously strange looks from my parents for watching this. The Tube was obligatory watching in my youth.
 
Unsurprisingly this performance video is fairly out there for the times and the transmission time, but the interview afterwards with Jools Holland they mention they are not yet signed.

Even after they signed to ZTT Relax was around for an age before it actually charted, at least 6 months as I recall. I have the original issue 33rpm ‘Sex Mix’ and it sounds far to the film at the State Ballroom shown on The Tube than the final 7”. It never goes into the ‘song’ bit at all! To this day I still check every copy I see for a -1 matrix!
 
I seem to recall an American band called The Smithereens who either played the Tube or Friday Night Live a lot. Have always wanted some of their albums but never knew where to start.
 
Loved it...was a bit too young at 16 in 1983 to go...only went once.
Icicle Works, Gun Club...?
1984 looks like.
 
The Tube was essential viewing on Friday evenings, and Frankie's first appearance was just incredible. They absolutely blew the TV apart.
Frankie provide one of my best musical moments. I used to live in Leeds and do a lot of rock climbing. One Sunday we had been out in the Dales somewhere and were driving back through Ilkley just before 7pm. It was warm and all the cars waiting at the traffic lights on Brook Street had their windows open. As the chart countdown on the radio got to 1, Two Tribes, you could see and hear every car rocking to the beat and every driver was bashing it out on the roof of the car. A wonderful moment!
 
Any of XTC's '80s releases:

Black Sea
English Settlement
Mummer
The Big Express
Skylarking
Oranges & Lemons

Plus the two they did as Dukes of Stratosphear:

25 O'Clock
Psonic Psunspot
 
I seem to recall an American band called The Smithereens who either played the Tube or Friday Night Live a lot. Have always wanted some of their albums but never knew where to start.

Do them in chronological order - "Especially For You", "Green Thoughts", "11" are the ones with the "hits", but there's good stuff on all their subsequent releases too, they continued releasing material into the new century. Taken as a whole their material can seem a bit homogeneous, there wasn't a lot of experimentation or growth over the years. You may be done with the first three. Singer/songwriter Pat DiNizio had some serious health problems beginning in the 1990s, and died in 2017.
 
Do them in chronological order - "Especially For You", "Green Thoughts", "11" are the ones with the "hits", but there's good stuff on all their subsequent releases too, they continued releasing material into the new century. Taken as a whole their material can seem a bit homogeneous, there wasn't a lot of experimentation or growth over the years. You may be done with the first three. Singer/songwriter Pat DiNizio had some serious health problems beginning in the 1990s, and died in 2017.
Thanks, I will check those out, they came across as a really, really good bar band. The singer had pattern baldness I seem to recall which for whatever reason stuck with me.
 


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