The Venus Hunters - Starburst

Here is the Venus Hunter's only single, from 1982, well that's what the makers of the TV show Hunting Venus wanted us to think! The one off show for Yorkshire Television was shown in April 1999 and Starred Martin Clunes & Neil Morrisey. The plot was getting the band from the 80's back together from their lives in 1999 for one more show at the BBC. It is an amazing show and I'm really surprised it has never been released on DVD as it is a period piece from the 1980's complete with an 80's soundtrack!

Starburst is about looking forward into the future about moving and exploring and giving hope to the human race, well it is supposed to be but really the song is full of double entendres about having a wank (I sent my children skywards) and puns and one liners. The track really was written by Joolz Holland for the show, but it is so 80's sounding and if it had have been a single in the early 80's I'm sure it would have charted. A great song from a great TV show! Here is the sleeve to the soundtrack album with a picture of the Venus Hunters!

Julee Cruise - Floating Into The Night

Probably most well known for singing Falling (from Twin Peaks) Julee recorded Floating Into The Night in 1989 with David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti after she had previously recorded a song for Lynch's Blue Velvet movie. David Lynch also used some of the album's music for his Industrial Symphony No 1 in which he filmed Julee singing on stage.

When David Lynch was filming Twin Peaks he used 2 tracks off this album in the show, plus Falling (the instrumental version was the theme to the show). The album is full of dreamy vocals with a darker side to the lyrics typical David Lynch I guess. Rocking Back Inside My Heart was the second single off the record but didn't really do a lot in the charts but the album went silver in the UK. It is a gorgeous album to listen to, heart tugging songs, full of emotions with a twist in the lyrics. One of the best songs is Into The Night, but the album always gets a full play!

Ultravox - Vienna

January 15th 1981, this classic piece of a synth ballad, appeared out of nowhere. It was so different from what was happening in the charts at the time, but fitted in with the New Romantic scene so right. It summed up the time, all drama, over the top production, electronic music, plus the classic video that made the single showed that image and music could go together to make more of a complete package.

The single came off the album of the same name and was the third single off the L.P. Sleepwalk was the first and made a modest entry into the top 30, Passing Strangers was a great track but didn't crack the top 40. I guess it was such a risk to release a track like this at the time, after a flop single, would it get radio play or would anyone bother with it? It was released (like all Ultravox singles) in clear vinyl but it sold on the song, not the gimmick and reached number 2 for 4 weeks. The ground breaking video (slightly inspired by The Thrid Man) was cheaply shot in Covent Garden and in parts, in Austria as the video made you believe it all happened in Austria! I really believe it was this video that started the video revolution here in the UK. Here is the single, plus the clear vinyl scan!

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

The ultimate song, of finding your own strenght from a breakup, this song I guess is the biggest gay anthem I know as everyone can identify with some line of this song. Released in late 1978 at the height of Disco, I Will Survive originally was going to be on the b side of Gloria's latest single Substitute. DJ's in the disco's picked up on the b side and quickly made that the track they played in the clubs.

The record company quickly started pressing the single with Survive on the a side and quickly began to storm up the charts. Released here in January 1979 the single finally got to number 1 and went gold. The simple video to go with the single is the iconic girl on the roller skates with Gloria singing the track in the night club. The single is one of the most well known disco tracks ever, it is always played at parties and one of those songs that is going to be around for ever!

Sinead O Connor - Troy (The Phoenix From The Flame)

This could be my all time favourite Trance track, strange concidering it wasn't originally a dance track and I didn't really like the original

The original just simply called Troy was released in 1987 off her debut album The Lion And The Cobra, but never charted here. It would be her next single Mandinka that would make her a popular name (sometimes for all the wrong reasons)

So jump forward into 2002 and dance music is huge thanks to the DJ culture and Trance was still around from the end of the 90's. Someone had the great idea to have the track remixed and brought in German producer Push. He remixed the song to an amazing dance track, complete with echo on her voice and turned it into an awesome track. It got to number 48 on the charts but managed to top some of the club charts. It was released on a CD single and a remix 12'' single. I caught the track by accident one night channel surfing through the music channels. Check it out on Youtube and play loud!

Gary Glitter - I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am)

Controversally I put this one on here, more to highlight that even your heroes can let you down. In 1973 when I was an 8 year old lad, Gary Glitter could do no wrong. He had a massive following since Rock N Roll Parts 1&2, his debut hit as Gary Glitter (he had recorded under various names but had no chart hits) was released in 1972 he was very much amongst the big glam acts of the early 70's. This single was to be his first number 1 and another two were to follow. After this he became known by his fans as the Leader plus the sound and the beat of the music was known as the Glitter stomp. The song like nearly all the Gary Gliiter tracks were recorded by him and his producer Mike Leander playing all instruments and producing the tracks. Gary had the Glitter band but they were more for live gigs and TV performances.

I still think this is a really good record, still good to hear and still got a lot of power there and even live (I saw him live in 1985) it still was a good track. During the mid 70's Glitter's success began to fade and with a drug addiction he went into tax exile for a couple of years but didn't stop him going bankrupt. It was the mid 80's before he had the comeback he really wanted with a couple of hits in the 80's and well recieved concerts, epecially his Christmas shows proved he was on his way back.

In 1999 he was convicted of child pornography and did 4 months in prison, when he got out he left the UK and ended up in Vietnam where in 2005 he was arrested again for under age sex with 2 girls and jailed. He was released from prison in 2008 and had to come back to the UK. I remember my sister waiting to find out if he was to plead guilty or deny the charges in 1999. When he pleaded guilty she took all the singles she had of his and smashed them against the garden wall.

His name is cropping up again with the news about Jimmy Saville (who was another childhood hero) who has allegedly raped young girls for 6 decades and the latest alleged rumours and that Jimmy and Gary both had under age girls in Jimmy's dressing room.

It is sad but when I listen to his singles however good they are, these titles, do they all have a second meaning? Leader of The Gang, which gang is this? Do You Wanna Touch Me, was that his was of getting the girls? Do I need to go on, but it is so sad! Here is the single!

Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

Released towards the end of 1978 and got to number 1 in January 1979, this Ian Dury single showed that the the mixture of clever lyrics and great music was a hit with the record buying public. Released on Stiff records and was backed with There Ain't half Been Some Clever Bastards, the single sold just under a million copies and in 1985 was remixed but wasn't a patch on the original.

The song came from lyrics Dury had written a few years earlier, slightly changed and inspired from the piano riff from Wake Up And Make Love With Me (off Dury's New Boots & Panties album). After several takes of the song they used one of the earlier takes for the single although not many of the band were happy with the mix. Listening to the single you get to realise just what a great songsmith Ian was, but the band were equally as good, the band playing on the single were amazing, they were so good Stiff Records often used the band as the label's inhouse band for their solo artists to record with. Ian Dury died in March 2000 but the band still play on, with guest vocalists, however good the singers are, no one can match Ian Dury!

Judas Priest - Unleashed In The East

Venturing into heavy metal, this was the first metal album I really listened to and it just blew me away. The sheer power from the music, the amazing vocals of Rob Halford and those awesome twin guitars of KK Downing and Glen Tipton made this album make me want to listen to more of this Heavy Metal that was slowly making noise in the charts amongst the new wave and punk bands.

Unleashed In The East, or Unleashed In The Studio as it is sometimes is known, is a very polished live album, that's why it has a maybe unfair extra title as it does sounds like a heavily overdubbed live album. Everything on the album sounds so clear, but Rob Halford has said that it is a totally live album but he had to overdub his vocals in a live setting as the original concert vocals (which were recorded from 2 shows in Japan) had been damaged. There are a couple of really good covers on this album, Fleetwood Mac's Green Manalishi and a great version of Joan Baez Diamonds And Rust featuring Rob's soaring high vocals and the trademark twin guitars. Released in 1979 the album hit the UK Top 10 and started Judas Priest on a world wide domination of the metal scene.

The Doll - Desire Me

The charts in 1979 were an exciting time, lots of new bands with new fresh sounds were hitting the charts and appearing on Top Of The Pops. This was where I saw this band perform this fantastic single. I remember the band fronted by Marion Valentine playing the track and she was wearing a leopard skin suit to match her guitar and got all the boys talking about her. The single only reached number 28 in the charts during it's 8 week spell in the top 40. It got released as a double single (a new format in those days) 12'' & normal 7'' singles but couldn't push it any higher, but classic songs don't always have to sell huge amounts.

The band split shortly after the single, but a newly reformed band recorded the follow up single and an album but neither hit the charts again and the band split for good in 1980.

Tom Robinson Band - 2 - 4 - 6 - 8 Motorway

Tom Robinson formed the band in 1976 and within a few months of gigging and riding the current wave of Punk music, the band were spotted by EMI Records and within a few short months of forming, they had a record deal and 2-4-6-8 Motorway was the band's debut single. It was released in October 1977 and managed to climb up to number 5 and earn the band a silver disc. It is one of those singles with the chug along beat and singalong chorus that still makes the single a great listen today and is featured on many of the driving compilation cd's that get released every so often. They released several singles afterwards, but nothing was successful as this one, the debut album was a hit but never contained the single, they managed another album before the band split in 1979.

My memory of this single was of a late Saturday night listening to the very missed Radio Luxembourg, with a mono earpiece connected to a radio. I shared my bedroom with my younger brother and couldn't listen to the radio until he had gone to sleep, then I had my chance to listen to the stations chart, which I heard this gem on, as the frequency kept drifting in and out, something you no longer get in this age of digital broadcasting!

Squeeze - Cool For Cats

The second single from the album of the same name, Cool For Cats hit the charts in March 1979. Helped by the single being released in pink vinyl, the song complete with Cockney rhyming slang and the Cockney vocals of Chris Difford became the band's biggest hit at that point reaching number 2. The video with dancing, singing girls to the chorus was shown a lot on TV at the time as it was still a rare thing to have a video to a single in those days. When I bought the single it was one of the first few singles I managed to buy in coloured vinyl, it was also released in a rarer deep pink vinyl too!

Nazareth - This Flight Tonight

This powerful reworking of a Joni Mitchell album track hit the charts in 1973 and got to number 11. Originally off Mitchell's album Blue, the band completely changed the sound of the song, turned it into a hard rock track and basically made it their own. It was produced by Roger Glover from Deep Purple and was the band's third hit of 1973 and was off their album Loud N Proud. By this time the band had a huge fan base, which is still present today as they are still together touring and recording.