ABC - Poison Arrow

A classic song for Valentine's Day! A very much loved track from 1982 and released in the middle of the New Romantic period. Produced by Trevor Horn, who loved the idea of a big production, full of orchestra and drama. Written by the band and it came off their platinum selling debut album The Lexicon Of Love and the single reached number 6 in the charts. It was also helped by the 12'' remixes of the song which at this point was at the beginning of the 12'' club remix period for many of the early 80's bands who took advantage of this format to aim at another audience. A classic piece of pop that I don't think has aged at all and has lost none of it's sparkle!

Kraftwerk - The Model

Fitting with the fact that the Germans have landed in London, playing 8 nights at Tate Modern, I thought I'd Choose this single this week. This track originally was recorded and released in 1978, it came from the album The Man Machine but was never released as a single in the UK. Move forward 3 years to the release of the band's Computer World album and the single Computer Love. EMI decided to put The Model on the B Side of the track and the single got to the lower end of the top 40 charts. The DJ's had other ideas and started playing the B Side which made EMI swap the tracks over, so The Model became the A Side. By February 1982 the single reached number 1 and was in the top 75 for 20 weeks.

They never really had the chart success they really deserve, Autobahn was a classic and unusual sounding single back in 1975 and they have become pioneers of electronic music. I Saw them play live in 1992 in Sheffield and really they didn't do a great deal on stage but the presence of the band was enough, they had half a recording studio with them on stage but the music they created was mind blowing! The personnel in the band might have changed in the group with one original member, but we don't really care as the music speaks for itself, who knows they might even get round to releasing another album this year! Here's the single, a classic piece of electronic music that helped the soundtrack of the New Romantic movement too!

The Associates - Party Fears Two

This single hit the charts on the back of the New Romantic movement that was hitting the British music scene in the early 80's. The Associates were Billy MacKenzie & Alan Rankine, who had been on the scene since 1979 releasing several independent albums before hitting the top 20 with Party Fears Two and the album it came off Sulk. Billy's operatic vocal soared over this great keyboard based track and pushed it to number 9 in early 1982. The band released another couple of singles that hit the top 20 but by far this was the best track for me!

The band split up just as they were to go on tour promoting Sulk and left Billy to carry on under the bands name, but success wasn't there and in the 1990's he recorded under his own name. In 1997 Billy MacKenzie committed suicide after suffering from clinical depression, he was thinking of making a comeback at the time and the material he recorded before his death has been released.

He had such an awesome voice, the notes he reached were amazing and when you listen to this track those hairs on the back of your neck stand up. A classic slice of synthpop circa 1982!