When the Guilty Pleasures virus swept across the UK, a generation of forty something’s found the excuse they’d always needed to buy that Blancmange or A-Ha greatest hits. Suddenly, pop as in popular was all the rage and we could all admit to liking the odd single by Spandau Ballet, Nick Heyward and China Crisis without feeling in the least bit ashamed.
What none of us realised at the time was that buried deep within the Guilty Pleasures concept and it’s dizzy rush of middle age hedonism, there lay a disturbing truth revolving around punk and the powerful rejection of its various cultural anathema’s that led to a refusal by my generation to enjoy anything not perceived as cool. And it wasn’t just punks who fell for it. A jaded self-consciousness swept British culture so absolutely and successfully it has continued ever since.
Coming straight after punk, the eighties was the first decade to suffer. Despite the plethora of truly remarkable music that evolved over those ten years, to this day pop criticism sticks rigidly to just two schools of thought. One complains that the eighties was all crass, commercial crap, breathing a sigh of relief that we made it through that shit while the other celebrates the cheesy fun of it all, the naïve silly singles, the big synthesiser’s and the even bigger hair.
Both of these rather narrow views seem intent on reducing the whole decade to simple nostalgic fodder, ghettoising an era that in truth was rich in innovation, brilliant one hit wonders, oddities and inexplicable flukes. It could even be argued that the eighties was the last great era for pop singles, the last time singles really mattered and the last time something totally unexpected captured the imagination.
In point of fact, the decade’s best songs offer some of pop history’s finest Secret Pleasures. That’s why you will never find aged rockists making arguments for the countless benefits of eighties music like they do for the sacred sixties or the seriously rock seventies. I’ve never been able to take any of those Neanderthal’s seriously. After all, surely anyone can hear the beauty in records like ‘Feels Like Heaven’, ‘Duel’ and ‘Wonderful Life’ and how they match those by their more hallowed contemporaries.
It may only have been pop, but it was pop of the most brilliant kind!
01. ULTRAVOX ‘Sleepwalk’ (January 1980)
02. ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK ‘Messages’ (May 1980)
03. THE PASSIONS ‘I’m In Love With A German Film Star’ (January 1981)
04. SPANDAU BALLET ‘Musclebound’ (March 1981)
05. HAIRCUT 100 ‘Favourite Shirts’ (October 1981)
06. KIM WILDE ‘Cambodia’ (November 1981)
07. A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS ‘I Ran (So Far Away)’ (March 1982)
08. BOW WOW WOW ‘I Want Candy’ (May 1982)
09. ICEHOUSE ‘Hey Little Girl’ (October 1982)
10. BLANCMANGE ‘Living On The Ceiling’ (October 1982)
11. HAYSI FANTAYZEE ‘Shiny Shiny’ (January 1983)
12. AFTER THE FIRE ‘Der Kommisar’ (April 1983)
13. NICK HEYWARD ‘Blue Hat For A Blue Day’ (September 1983)
14. THOMPSON TWINS ‘Hold Me Now’ (November 1983)
15. FICTION FACTORY ‘Feels Like Heaven’ (January 1984)
16. RE-FLEX ‘The Politics Of Dancing’ (January 1984)
17. THE BLUEBELLS ‘I’m Falling’ (March 1984)
18. BILLY IDOL ‘Eyes Without A Face’ (June 1984)
19. GODLEY & CRÈME ‘Cry’ (March 1985)
20. MATT BIANCO ‘More Than I Can Bear’ (March 1985)
21. PROPAGANDA ‘Duel’ (May 1985)
22. CHINA CRISIS ‘King In A Catholic Style’ (June 1985)
23. BELOUIS SOME ‘Imagination’ (January 1986)
24. IT’S IMMATERIAL ‘Driving Away From Home (Jim’s Tune)’ (April 1986)
25. FURNITURE ‘Brilliant Mind’ (June 1986)
26. A-HA ‘I’ve Been Losing You’ (September 1986)
27. BLACK ‘Wonderful Life’ (September 1986)
28. WESTWORLD ‘Sonic Boom Boy’ (February 1987)
29. CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT ‘Misfit’ (June 1987)
30. T’PAU ‘Heart And Soul’ (July 1987)
31. DEACON BLUE ‘Dignity’ (January 1988)
32. VANESSA PARADIS’ Joe Le Taxi’ (February 1988)
33. AZTEC CAMERA ‘Somewhere In My Heart’ (April 1988)
34. THE ADVENTURES ‘Broken Land’ (April 1988)
35. THE CHURCH ‘Under The Milky Way’ (April 1988)
36. VOICE OF THE BEEHIVE ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ (May 1988)
37. TRANSVISION VAMP ‘I Want Your Love’ (June 1988)
38. HUE AND CRY ‘Ordinary Angel’ (October 1988)
39. THEN JERICHO ‘Big Ares’ (January 1989)
40. TEARS FOR FEARS ‘Sowing The Seeds Of Love’ (September 1989)