80s Arena

Quentin Crisp - The Return!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:54:00 -0500

That fine actor, John Hurt, will be returning to our TV screens soon playing a role he ‘created’ way back in 1975. That was when he played the part of the extrovert British gay man, Quentin Crisp in the dramatisation of Crisp’s autobiography, ‘The Naked Civil Servant’. in that piece, the young Hurt (naturally) mainly played the young Crisp. In the new drama, named ‘An Englishman in New York’, Hurt will play the older Crisp during his years in America in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

More from the Beeb HERE

Meanwhile, here’s a clip of Hurt in the Naked Civil Servant...

And this is Gina X with her song, ‘No GDM’ (No Great Dark man) - dedicated to Quentin Crisp...

Blondie Tour

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:39:00 -0500

Blondie will tour this summer to mark the 30th anniversary of their album Parallel Lines. The tour kicks off in the USA this June. In July, Blondie will perform in Glasgow, Liverpool (they will do two shows with the Stranglers) and the Guilfest festival. More shows will be announced later...

Nicolas Cage is No Chihuahua Thief!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:22:00 -0500

Breaking news: fans of the actor Nicolas Cage and lovers of small wrinkly dogs with big staring eyes will be overjoyed to hear that Cage is not guilty of stealing a Chihuahua....

According to the BBC...

US actor Nicolas Cage has accepted a public apology from Kathleen Turner over claims made in her autobiography....

Cage took action against Turner after she alleged he was arrested twice for drunk-driving while they were making the 1986 film Peggy Sue Got Married.

You see, there is an 80s link to this story.

Turner also alleged he was arrested for stealing a Chihuahua.

... Cage's UK solicitor Simon Smith said the Oscar-winning actor was "extremely pleased" with the outcome of the case "since he has never been arrested for drink driving, dog theft or anything else".

Read It All

The Edge Of the Eighties

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:08:00 -0500

There are so many 80s music collections being released these days that I must admit to being more than slightly bored by most of them. The trouble is, so many of them are either padded out with singles that are so obscure that I can’t even remember them or they have the same repetitive handful of hits from the likes of Culture Club, Duran and Dead Or Alive. If I get one more CD with ‘You Spin Me Round’, I swear I’ll tear up my leotard!

I’m glad to say that the newly released Edge Of the Eighties (3 CD) set is a good deal better than the average. It begins magisterially with two of the truly great songs of the early ‘80s, Ultravox’s Vienna and Visage’s Fade To Grey… But then it branches out into some less obvious highways and byways of 80s music. There’s Soft Cell singing the wonderful ‘Torch’ rather than the more frequently anthologized ‘Tainted Love’. There’s David Bowie singing the far from obvious ‘Up The Hill Backwards’ - and there is, inevitably, Dead Or Alive but (for a nice change) singing one of their other hits - ‘That’s The Way (I Like It)’.

There is a pretty good mix of 80s music here, as a matter of fact - ranging from the super well-known performers such as Adam and the Ants and Siouxsie and the Banshees to the unjustifiably forgotten (by all but their fans, that is!) bands such as Telex and Swansway.

Get over to Amazon for a look at the full track listing.

Meanwhile, as a tantalizing taster, here is a live recording of a great track from the album, Our Daughter’s Wedding (ODW) singing Lawn Chairs... I remember seeing ODW once. In the Hammersmith Palais, I believe. If my memory serves me well, they were then support act to Classix Nouveaux. What a great line-up!

Telex - Moskow Diskow

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:05:00 -0500

Somehow Telex passed me by in the ‘80s, which is odd as I am a huge Kraftwerk fan and Telex’s music bears more than a passing resemblance to Kraftwerk. Telex are a Belgian group and they are still going strong. Their web site is at: http://www.telex-music.com/

The ‘80s Telex track, ‘Moskow Diskow’ is one of the songs on a new triple CD set called ‘The Edge Of the Eighties’, which I’ll write about in more detail shortly. In the meantime, here is that Telex track...

Flying Lizards - That's What I Want!

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:57:00 -0500

Yesterday I posted a video (not the original) of The Flying Lizards’ best known song, Money. YouTube does, in fact, have the original video on site but the sound quality is pretty ropey. However, I have been doing a bit of research and found original Fling Lizards videos for two other songs, which I give you below...

These are wonderful. In my view, just as good as Money. Why, then, did The Flying Lizards never have another major hit? I suspect it’s because they were just a bit too strange. The first video below, TV, is practically a mini David Lynch film. But if David Lynch seems reasonably mainstream now, after the TV series Twin Peaks and films such as Mulholland Drive, the same could not be said back in 1979 when this Flying Lizards video was made (Twin Peaks wasn’t even broadcast until 11 years later!). ‘Coquilles Saint-Jacques indeed!”

The second video is a rather unusual cover version of the 1958 rock’n’roll song, Dizzy Miss Lizzy. What can I say - sheer genius.

More on The Flying Lizards here: http://www.markallencam.com/theflyinglizards.html

Ashes To Ashes Soundtrack

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:25:00 -0500

Regular readers of this blog cannot fail to have noticed that my favourite TV series these days is the BBC’s wonderful Ashes To Ashes. With a name taken from a Bowie song, this follows on from two earlier series with a name taken from a different Bowie song - Life On Mars.

Ashes To Ashes is a time-travelling copy show set in 1981. It’s both dramatic and funny - and, as an added bonus, it features a terrific range of songs. Some of the best will be on the soundtrack album due tor release on March 17th. This is the full track listing:

1. Introduction - Dialogue: Alex Drake
2. David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
3. Visage - Fade To Grey
4. The Human League- Love Action
5. Duran Duran - Girls On Film
6. Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno
7. OMD - Souvenir
8. The Stranglers - No More Heroes
9. The Clash - I Fought The Law
10. Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing
11. Interlude - Dialogue: You're Nicked
12. Edmund Butt - Gene Genie (Gene Hunt's theme from `Ashes To Ashes')
13. The Passions - In Love With A German Film Star
14. Altered Images - Happy Birthday
15. Joe Jackson - It's Different For Girls
16. Flying Lizards - Money
17. The Beat - Doors Of Your Heart
18. The Ruts - Staring At The Rude Boys
19. The Teardrop Explodes - Reward
20. Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men
21. Bryan Ferry - Let's Stick Together
22. Ultravox - Vienna
23. Edmund Butt - Title Music from `Ashes To Ashes'
24. Epilogue: Dialogue: Fandabydozy

At the risk of venturing slight away from our usual ‘80s theme, I think I’ll pick track number 16 for today’s retro-video. From 1979, it’s the very wonderful Flying Lizards... (not the original video - but pretty good all the same)

Thriller Bollywood-style

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:48:00 -0500

Thanks to Freddie Valentine for bringing to my attention this very wonderful Indian musical video which, I venture to suggest, bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain other well-known pop video of the ‘80s... actually, I have to say I prefer the Indian version ;)

Electric Dreams - Clubbing 80s-style

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:04:00 -0500

Here on the ‘80s Empire the 1980s is the decade that never ends. I’m glad to see that we are not alone. Electric Dreams is a London Nightclub dedicated to living the ‘80s nightlife to the full. It describes itself as

“A London nightclub for eighties new wave and synthpop. Bringing over 11 years of eighties new wave, goth, industrial and electronica to London...”

- which sounds pretty good to me. Apart from the fact that i no longer live in London so probably won’t have the chance to go there

For those of you who do have the chance, the next Electric Dreams nights are:

- Friday 14th March 2008
- Friday 11th April 2008
- Friday 9th May 2008
- and every second Friday in the month thereafter...

http://www.electricdreamsclub.com/

And here is the song that gave the club its name...

John Foxx - Europe After The Rain

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:19:00 -0500

No reason for posting this other than it’s a great song. Foxx was the original Ultravox singer. In the early ‘80s he went solo and recorded a groundbreaking hard-electro album, Metamatic. This song comes from 1981’s more acoustic, melodic alum, The Garden.

Foxx still records and performs regularly and has his own web site here:

http://www.metamatic.com/

His MySpace site is here:

http://www.myspace.com/foxxmetamatic

Great stuff!

Visage, Steve Strange, The Blitz, Ashes To Ashes

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:01:00 -0500

In my last blog entry, I posted a video which includes a recreation of The Blitz Club from the TV series Ashes To Ashes. That clip didn’t include the original soundtrack of Steve Strange singing the Visage hit, Fade To Grey, however. Some nice person has now posted a better Blitz clip - complete with Steve Strange. As I’ve said Ashes To Ashes does a pretty good job of recreating The Blitz in all its sardine-packed splendour. I don’t remember the toilets being quite that clean though. And did Visage really ever perform Fade To Grey there? I rather doubt it. But if anyone has information to the contrary, please let me know...

Ashes To Ashes Gets Blitzed

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:53:00 -0500

This week’s Ashes To Ashes (the BBC’s time-travelling ‘80s detective drama) ventures into The Blitz Club - the squalid little club which was once at the heart of the whole New Romantic thing. The recreation of The Blitz on the show wasn’t bad - it managed to convey the grimy, sweaty claustrophobia of the place. The show got one thing very wrong though - the rich geezer in the white jacket would never have been let into the place. The dress code was stricter than Lady’s Day at Ascot - and middle-aged men in white jackets were definitely not on Steve Strange’s list of desirable clientele.

Anyway, for those of you who missed it, here are almost 8 minutes from this week’s show (the Blitz segment comes about 5 minutes in - though, for some reason, minus the ‘Fade To Grey’ soundtrack - yup, that really is Steve Strange singing on the stage there)...

And, for the sake of comparison, here’s a glimpse of the original ‘80s Blitz...

Hot and Sweaty 80s' Hits

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:27:00 -0500

Miquel Brown’s So Many Men, So Little Time (see last blog post) got me thinking of other videos featuring hot and sweaty body builders. The best known is probably Olivia Newton John’s Physical....

My personal favourite though, is Dead or Alive’s That's The Way (I Like It). Enjoy...

So Many Men, So Little Time

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:14:00 -0500

Blogging the video of Evelyn Thomas’s High Energy Recently has got me in am ‘80s disco mood. So no apologies for posting this gratuitous video of Miquel Brown’s very wonderful So Many Men, So Little Time (from 1983)...

Madame Sin Goes Free!

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:08:00 -0500

On this day in 1987, Cynthia Payne was acquitted of nine charges of controlling prostitutes at her home in south west London. Thanks to the BBC for reminding me of that.

The courtroom burst into applause after decision of the jury - of eight men and four women - was announced after just over five hours of deliberation.

Mrs Payne, 53, said: "This is a victory for common sense. But I have to admit all this has put me off having parties for a bit."

Mrs Payne first hit the headlines in 1978 when police raided her home to find a sex party in full swing, attended by middle-aged and elderly men exchanging luncheon vouchers for sexual entertainment.

New, Free 80s Magazine!

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:34:00 -0500

Back in the 80s, when I was writing for pop magazines, the idea of a magazine that you could read on a computer would have seemed like pure science fiction. Magazines back then were designed, quite literally by ‘cutting and pasting’ (the text would be printed on paper that was then cut up and pasted alongside any pictures on a big bit of board that was sent off to the printers who did some secret magic with big noisy machines and coloured inks to turn the whole lot into glossy paper pages - ah, how quaint and old-fashioned it all sounds now...)

Anyway, by the miracles of modern science, the latest 80s mag, Retrorama, is completely paper free. It is published as a PDF which can be delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: www.retromag.blogspot.com

The first issue, due out this month, promises...

The new Knight Rider - Has someone finally out-cheesed the Hoff? Game Over - Why we loved Space Invaders so much. Grange Hill - The gates have finally closed forever, but how will we remember this iconic show? Plus Back to the Future, Space Hoppers, Wispa bars, Moonwalking and much much more.

Meanwhile, � propos of nothing (other than the fact that I like it!) here is a fab video of one of the best disco hits of the 1980s, Evelyn Thomas’s wonderful High Energy. Dig those groovy high notes!

Tony Hadley - DJ

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:20:00 -0500

Did you know that Tony Hadley is now a DJ? Yup, the ex - Spandau Ballet singer now presents his own show on Virgin Radio every Friday and Saturday at 6pm. Tony says:

“In Spandau Ballet we were at the forefront of the 80s music scene, a time known for cutting edge style, which continues to have a cult following today. I'll be recreating that with a mix of classic 80s music and my own personal favourites every Friday night.”

Visit Tony Hadley's Party Classics on the Virgin radio site and you can also listen live online.

In the meantime, here’s a video of Spandau Ballet’s Paint Me Down (if you’re easily shocked - be warned, this has lots of naked Spandau flesh):

Ashes To Ashes Preview

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:36:00 -0500

Every Thursday on BBC starting at 9 o’clock on BBC 1. The series moves out of the ‘70s and slap bang into 1981. Lots of men with perms, lots of Adam Ant and New Romantic Music. Even a visit to the Blitz Club.... ah, I’m feeling nostalgic already.

Anyhow, to whet your appetite the Beeb has a put a short ‘behind the scenes’ documentary online. Grab a look HERE.

Classix Nouveaux - Thank God For YouTube!

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:39:00 -0500

Sal Solo was one of the most criminally under-appreciated singers from the ‘New Romantic’ period of the early ‘80s. His band, Classix Nouveaux, came up with some marvellous songs and Sal was just such a great front man. So why weren’t they more successful?

Looking at their videos now on YouTube (I’m pleased to see that there are plenty of them there!) it’s easy to suppose that Classix Nouveaux must have been huge in the ‘80s. Sadly, as I’ve pointed out before that isn’t the case.

Strange. To this day, I can’t really figure it out. Anyhow, here’ a great Classix vid to enjoy...

The Glory of Spandau Ballet

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:24:00 -0500

I make no secret of the fact that, in my opinion, Spandau Ballet were far, far better before they embraced expensive suits and a ‘funky’ musical style. I’ve posted the very wonderful video for To Cut A Long Story Short on the blog before. Here is another early song from their debut, ‘Journeys To Glory’ album - The Freeze. And, just for good measure, this comes with another pretty decent early Spandau song, Musclebound, tacked onto the end...