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Shout, Shout, Let It All Out…it’s 1985 on the Afterword Almanac

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This is where we’ve been heading. For one last time let’s step into the wonderful and frightening world of the eighties. I was at university seeing bands like The Sisters of Mercy (no change there from the previous few years) and the excellent Prefab Sprout on the Steve McQueen tour. It was well and truly the year the charity single became a thing – as well as Live Aid (the end of 1984), USA for Africa, there were records in aid of the Bradford Football Fire and and against apartheid with ‘Sun City’.

And some headlines from the NME:

Spandau Sue
Spandau Ballet have issued a writ against Chrysalis Records, alleging negligence on the part of the label. The group have also stated their desire to be released from their current contract, which has a year to run.
Spandau’s lawyer claims ‘ The recent writ served against Chrysalis is a direct result of the group’s dissatisfaction over their company’s failure to honour its contract to support and promote the group as agreed. Overall, they feel they have not enjoyed the support to which a band of their proven stature nd success is entitled’
He added pointedly: ‘They are estimated to be currently responsible for 25 % of Chrysalis’ sales alone. They recently broke all box-office records prior to Christmas by selling out six successive Wemble dates and UK tour.’

Jesus & Mary Banned
Jesus and Mary Chain’s new single ‘You Trip Me Up’ has been held up because WEA’s pressing plant staff refuse to handle it, apparently offended by the B-side title ‘Jesus Suck’.
Other pressing plants turned it down unanimously, claiming it to be ‘obscene’ ‘blasphemous’ or ‘too controversial’. The group have been forced to record a new track and the single’s release has been delayed.
The band stated: ‘This is completely typical of the state of the stale-minded music business. Jesus & Mary Chain continually try to break the music business stereotype, but this time the cliche has affected even us’.

NMA – No Merit Artistically?
New Model Army appear to be the first victims of a tough new policy inaugurated by the American Immigration Department. With a major US tour already lined up, the British band have been refused work permits on the grounds that their work is of ‘no artistic merit’.
The decision – believed to have been made in the climate of the current pressure being applied to the US government by the censorship lobby – has left the band’s label EMI somewhat perplexed and stressing the strong moral tone the band’s lyrics often take.
Nigel Morton, NMA’s manager, siad ‘If its all down to the bands politics, it’s a bit strange because Billy Bragg and Poison Girls, whose politics are exactly the same as New Model Army’s, have all been allowed entry into the States recently. We’ve already appealed against the decision.
In New York’s, the band’s attorned Sandra Lavish claimed that she was ‘pretty certain’ that the US Immigration Autorities would change their minds.

Lastly it was the year of Live Aid – what’s left to say? Perhaps simply to reflect on a line-up that found time for Howard Jones in the UK. The USA line up looks a bit bonkers still – Billy Ocean into Black Sabbath into Run DMC is a segue to be relished.

UK
Status Quo, The Style Council, The Boomtown Rats, Adam Ant, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Elvis Costello, Nik Kershaw, Sade, Sting & Phil Collins, Howard Jones, Bryan Ferry, Paul Young, U2, Dire Straits, Queen, David Bowie, The Who, Elton John, Freddie Mercury & Bryan May, Paul McCartney, Band Aid.

USA
Bernard Watson, Joan Baez, The Hooters, Four Tops, Billy Ocean,Black Sabbath, Run DMC, Rick Springfield, REO Speedwagon, Crosby Stills and Nash, Judas Priest, Bryan Adam, The Beach Boys, George Thorogood (with Bo Diddley and Albert Collins), Simple Minds, Pretenders, Santana, Ashford and Simpson, Madonna, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Kenny Loggins, The Cars, Neil Young, The Power Station, Thompson Twins, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Led Zeppelin, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Duran Duran, Patti La Belle, Hall and Oates, Mick Jagger and Friends, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, USA for Africa.

We’re at another natural break point I feel, as bubbling away in Detroit is that thing called House that’s going to change a lot. A week’s break while we search for some new dilithium crystals, then onto another ear. Usual rules, anything and everything from 1985.

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Comments

    • Sisters, NMA, then Hüsker Dü? You are spoiling me, sir. New Day Rising is a great album, but it’s also the one where the trebly production of those SST Hüsker records grates the most. A bit more oooomph on the bottom end, and it’d be in all those classic album lists. My own favourite:

      and then from Flip Your Wig, this is one of their very best riffs, allied to amazingly prophetic lyrics

      They were bloody great, weren’t they?

  2. I don’t have good memories of 1985 – it seemed at the time that the chart was clogged up with humourless American or pseudo-American nonsense and that the sparkiness of punk and new-wave had been consigned to the dustbin of history.

    Looking back, though, it did give us some magnificent records – Hounds of Love, most of Meat is Murder, World Machine, Mad Not Mad, and -coming towards the end of the year like the cavalry to save the day, the sadly short-lived dream team of Grace Jones and Trevor Horn.

  3. I turned 11 in the autumn, old enough to join the local youth club. Amongst other delights this meant a disco every few weeks, where on one thrilling occasion I had the winning draw ticket at the end of the night and was presented with a 7″ single. I think I still have it somewhere.

    • I was a bit startled when that came out. I’d seen them on Whistle Test and they seemed to do very elaborate widdly-diddly songs that sounded like Tubular Bells.* And here they were with this power ballad. Was it a very deliberate attempt to get in the charts? It bloody worked, that was a huge record.

      (* to me at the time… that was the only proggy record I knew)

  4. Jazz was in the doldrums, even though Wynton Marsalis released two albums. There was one extremely high spot, the extraordinary Water from an Ancient Well by Abdullah Ibrahim. Every home should have a copy.

  5. 1985 probably marked the point where I went from listening to “alternative” stuff that I was nevertheless still finding via the charts (Bunnymen, Banshees, The Cure, New Order) to things – largely with a significant electronic component – that took a bit more effort to find.

    Like these…

    (“Nemesis” – Shriekback)

    (“I Want You” – Cabaret Voltaire)

    https://youtu.be/6bwRuQIbF_E

    (“Just Give ’em Whiskey” – Colourbox)

    • Yes I did like album but So in Love and Secret were weak and safe singles, I felt.

      88 Seconds in Greensboro, Bloc Bloc Bloc and The Native Daughters of the Golden West kept the OMD-are-bonkers quotient up. Who else comes up with such titles?

      “Interestingly” the album’s La Femme Accident is exactly the same tune – but slower – than another one of theirs, Maria Gallante.

  11. Propaganda – A Seret Wish, Bryan Ferry – Boys and Girls, Scritti Politti – Cupid & Psyche ’85…but let’s pick a track from Dead or Alive’s rather splendid album “Youthquake”; here’s my favourite track “It’s Been a Long Time”:

  14. Saw The Boss 4th July Wembley Stadium a very memorable show. Met up with a bunch of friends in and around the stadium. 80,000 people, no mobile phones. How did we do that?

  15. Australia had its share of mid-eighties horror, like The Models and so on, and in 1985 INXS were peaking with hits like “What You Need”, incorporating their trademark white funk with Michael Hutchence singing yet another one note melody over the top.

    But in amongst all that was the glorious pop of The Hoodoo Gurus, and this great single from their album Mars Needs Guitars – “Bittersweet”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohSGGALury4

  16. Based on the chilling fact that the average (average!) age of a US combat soldier in Vietnam was 19, this was a curious one-off number one song only promoted via this video. Paul Hardcastle had a couple more hits where he performed and sort of sang, but this was remarkable as it was pieced together from a genuine US news broadcast. I certainly remember it being danced to alongside the other hits of the day.

    • Because of the 10-year anniversary, Vietnam seemed to be everywhere in 1985 – the “19” samples actually come from a retrospective documentary from that year. Elsewhere, the BBC showed a hilariously bowdlerised version of Apocalypse Now which I have to say caused a gigantic question mark to hover in the air above my 11-year-old head.

  17. I got engaged in this year (do people still get engaged anymore?) And this album came out, I was disappointed in it at first but the years have revealed it’s beauty.

  19. A meta-comment on the decade and this thread from KJ. I saw them at Oxford Poly about this time, may have been 85 or 86. Incredibly violent atmosphere and a stage invader we knew got ‘bikechained’ by security after Youth attacked him with his guitar.

    • Another thing to acknowledge is we’re living in the golden age of the music video, from Bowie’s 20 min magnum opus to this. Every advance in video technology – for those of a certain age and job Quantel Paintbox has all the resonance of Photoshop or Final Cut Pro – made its way onto a music video pretty quickly. If you were an aspiring film director then music videos – Russell Mulcahy for example – were a way to break into the film or television world.

  22. The Jesus and Mary Chain debuted with the best rock album of he 1980s Psychocandy. It was beaten to the number 1 position in the NME albums of the year by the only slightly less magnificent Rain Dogs by Tom Waits who I saw live in London that year.

    Street Sounds released the first of the Jazz Juice compilations, more names to investigate. Earthworks released the mind blowing Indestructible Beat Of Soweto and Viva El Ritmo – Cuba Baila, superb introductions to South African and Cuban music.

    A very good year.

  23. NME list. Madness a little high I think. Never really got on with Psychocandy, unlistenable was my opinion I think.

    1. Rain Dogs – Tom Waits
    2. Psychocandy – The Jesus And Mary Chain
    3. Vu – The Velvet Underground
    4. Steve Mcqueen – Prefab Sprout
    5. Mad Not Mad – Madness
    6. This Nations Saving Grace – The Fall
    7. Live At The Harlem Club – Sam Cooke
    8. So Many Rivers – Bobby Womack
    9. New Day Rising – Husker Du
    10. Hounds Of Love – Kate Bush
    11. Meat Is Murder – The Smiths
    12. Centerfield – John Fogerty
    13. Don’t Stand Me Down – Dexys Midnight Runners
    14. Black Codes – Wynton Marsalis
    15. Intimate Storm – Shirley Brown
    16. Up To The Sun – Meat Puppets
    17. Bad Moon Rising – Sonic Youth
    18. Rum, Sodomy & The Lash – The Pogues
    19. Water Under The Bridge – Matilde Santing
    20. Our Favourite Shop – The Style Council
    21. Old Rotten Hat – Robert Wyatt
    22. Low Life – New Order
    23. Going Away – Al Green
    24. Will The Wolf Survive – Los Lobos
    25. There Are Eight Million Stories – The June Brides
    26. Caravan Of Love – Isley, Jasper, Isley
    27. Little Creatures – Talking Heads
    28. A Secret Wish – Propaganda
    29. Nail – Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel
    30. Fables Of The Reconstruction – Rem
    31. Single Life – Cameo
    32. Kings Of Rock – Run Dmc
    33. Flip Your Wig – Husker Du
    34. Radio Musc Man – Womack & Womack
    35. Suzanne Vega – Suzanne Vega
    36. Dream Of A Lifetime – Marvin Gaye
    37. Escenas – Ruben Blades
    38. Lost And Found – Jason And The Scorchers
    39. Decode Yourself – Ronald Shannon Jackson
    40. Halber Mensch – Einsturzende Neubauten
    41. The Evening Visits – The Apartments
    42. Boys And Girls – Bryan Ferry
    43. You’re Under Arrest – Miles Davis
    44. Father’s Lying Dead Upon The Ironing Board – Agnes Bernelle
    45. Live In Stockholm – Miles Davis & John Coltrane
    46. Shoulder To Shoulder – Test Department And The South Wales Miners Choir
    47. Rockin And Romance – Jonathan Richman
    48. Lilly Of My Valley – Ijahman Levi
    49. The Clock Comes Down The Stairs – Microdisney
    50. The First Born Is Dead – Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

  25. Now this was a monster hit that summer! Italo Disco band Scotch could be heard everywhere with “Delirio Mind”:

    Was Italo Disco a thing in Britain? Or was it just huge on the mainland…?
    Another big Italo hit from -85 was of course Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy”:

  28. Oh, and Madonna had her first U.K. Number One with Into The Groove. 22 of her 24 80s singles went top ten and she had SEVEN top 5 records in 1985 alone (including a post Live Aid return for Holiday).

  29. Following the Bradford City fire, a group of actors and singers got together, Band Aid style, to record You’ll Never Walk Alone in support of the Bradford City Disaster Fund.
    Led by Gerry Marsden, the full list of contributors (according to wikipedia) were:
    Bruce Forsyth, Denny Laine, Jim Diamond, Tony Christie, Rick Wakeman, John Conteh, The Barron Knights, Jess Conrad, Kiki Dee, the Foxes, Rolf Harris, Graham Gouldman, Kenny Lynch, Rick Wild of The Overlanders, Keith Chegwin, Tony Hicks, Colin Blunstone, Tim Hinkley, Johnny Logan, Zak Starkey, Girlschool, Black Lace, John Otway, Gary Holton, Nigel Holton, Hank Hancocks, Peter Cook, the Nolans, John Entwistle of The Who, Motörhead, Karen Clark, Dave Lee Travis, Graham Dene, Ed Stewart, Phil Lynott, Smokie, Joe Fagin, Eddie Hardin, Gerard Kenny, Chris Robinson, Tim Healy, Kin Kelly, John Verity, Rose Marie, David Shilling, Chris Norman, Pete Spencer, Bernie Winters, Robert Heaton, and Frank Allen of The Searchers.

    Perhaps not as star-studded as Band Aid, but provides an answer to the Pub Quiz question:
    Name a record featuring Black Lace, Bruce Forsyth and Motorhead

  31. I’m standing in Our Price with £5 and trying to decide between buying two albums.
    After much to-ing and fro-ing, The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy and The Lash wins the day.

    It would be over 30 years before I finally owned a copy of Dexys Midnight Runners – Don’t Stand Me Down

    • I got Don’t Stand Me Down from Our Price on Oxford Street in March 1986 for a quid. Hundreds of copies of the thing. Still one of my all time favourite albums.

  32. Marillion brought Prog into the 80s and placed at the top if the album chart (albeit for one week).
    The final track from the still magnificent Misplaced Childhood – Childhoods End/White Feather

  33. Films I saw in this year:
    Insignificance
    Witness – I saw this at a cinema in Boston, the first time I’ve see people stand up and shout and cheer at the screen
    The Breakfast Club
    The Purple Rose of Cairo
    Desperately Seeking Susan
    Subway
    Mishima
    Ran
    Prizzi’s Honour
    Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
    Commando
    Tampopo
    Reanimator (a friend left after ten minutes!)

    • Yes, I saw “Tampopo” in 1985, too.
      Then I didn’t see it again until … last Saturday.
      It wasn’t quite as great as I’d remembered. Oh well. That’s how it goes, sometimes, I suppose.

  34. 1985 for me was The Jesus And Mary Chain and Dexys.

    And it was chart pop like Tears For Fears.

    It was the high point of the Mid 80s Mod scene, people like The Prisoners, The Moment, The Direct Hits, Makin’ Time, a really big scene for me.

    But it was also, continuing from 1984 the year of Prince for me. Thanks to the old VCR player my best mate and me watched Purple Rain over and over again that year. Around The World In A Day was amazing. and now he’s not here. I’ve just made myself sad.

    Oh and The Bangles All Over The Place album was a big fave of ours that summer, we’d completed our exams and had left school. Massive massive moment.

    Have some Bangles to make us all smile again.

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