I’ve been watching the 1981 run of Top of the Pops with particular interest as this was the era I started being a bit more aware of music and I remember where I was sitting down to watch it. There was some astonishing music in 1981 – The Specials, Madness etc (even Bad Manners appearances are always entertaining and ridiculous), Dexys, AntMusic, Britfunk bands like Beggar & Co and the now obviously tongue-in-cheek Imagination, yer New Romantics, early Human League and Depeche Mode (Depesh-ay Mode as Simon Bates and Peeder Powell like to call them), and NWOBHM is in full swing so bands like Motorhead and Saxon are charting. On the whole a vibrant and very varied scene – with the still extraordinary ‘Ghost Town’ at No.1 – however I think I’ve identified a strain of music in there which is the most useless ever.
Initially I was going to say that terrible retro 50s pastiche thing peddled by Shaky, Coast to Coast, Matchbox et al. Having seen a recent episode I’m saying the worst genre of music ever is officially the Handclap Medley – and on the TOTP I watched tonight we got ‘treated’ to three of the fecking » Continue Reading.