Posted by Steve.

In a complete coincidence, "Prince Charming" was the UK number 1 single immediately after Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" in September 1981!

Adam and the Ants was the brain child of Stuart Goddard (you really thought his parents - Mr and Mrs Ant - called their son Adam??) and when they formed in the late 70's they had more in common with London's punk scene than they did with the New Romantic scene where they gained most of their success. Due to them originally not fitting into any kind of scene they enlisted the help of Sex Pistols manager Malcolm Maclaren to help them with their image and he came up with the 'dandy' highway man look in 1979. This track was taken from their album "Prince Charming" which spawned 2 of his 3 number 1 hit singles (the other was "Stand and Deliver" and his third was as a solo artist - "Goody Two Shoes" - the first straight edge song!!??!! Just a joke.)

1981 was the year that Hollywood actor Ronald Regan became the 40th president of the United States of America. Within minutes of him gaining this post the 444 day Iranian Hostage Crisis ended! While the UK had the infamous riots in Brixton (London) and Toxteth (Liverpool) MTV launched in America - "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles was the first video shown!

Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Queensrÿche and Mötley Crüe (formed in January released their debut LP on Leathür Records in November!) all formed in the year of the rooster. "White Lace, Black Leather" by Helix, "Breaker" from Accept and Iron Maiden's sophomore release - and last with vocalist Paul Di'Anno - all hit the record stores.

Chariots of Fire won this years Oscar, Superman II was released and the World was introduced to Indiana Jones (Raider's of the Lost Ark). One of my dad's favourite film literally surfaced this year too - Das Boot. The New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup, and the Yankees were beaten by the LA Dodgers for the World Series. They always say when the year ends in a 1 Tottenham Hotspur wins the FA Cup, and indeed they did!



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Posted by Steve.

The 80's the rise of computer games (Pac Man), the Rubik's Cube, leg warmers, shoulder pads and cell phones the size of house bricks! And in 1980 the World was gripped with one question... who killed J.R.?

The turn of the decade was a bit of a bad year for rock music - AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, Ian Curtis - Joy Division front man and John Lennon all passed away this year. Manowar, Overkill, R.E.M., Bad Religion and New Order all formed. The debut release from Iron Maiden hit the record shops, so did Def Leppard's "On Through The Night". AC/DC's reinvented themselves a mere 5 months after Bon Scott's death with "Back In Black" and Judas Priest treated us all to some "British Steel".

The Empire Strikes Back hit the big screen (my favourite of the original 3!) along with the start of the Airplane! franchise. In the Flash Gordon movie Brian Blessed delivered his most famous line ever - come you all know it! Ordinary People won the Oscar. In the year of the Monkey, Monkey left British TV screens.

1980 was the year that America boycotted the Olympic games in Moscow - I wonder what would happen in 4 years time when the games would be in Los Angeles? The London Iranian Embassy siege was ended by the SAS and it made a great film (Who Dares Wins).

The Stanley Cup finally left Canada and headed to the trophy cabinet of the New York Islanders, The Philadelphia Phillie's won the World Series and in England Arsenal lost to West Ham in the FA Cup final.

Joy Division were an influential and critically praised band, but didn't sell many records. This was released in April, and like their other singles, it didn't chart. A month later, depressed over a broken marriage and poor health, Ian Curtis hanged himself. The single was re-released in June and became their first and only hit peaking at number 19 in the UK.




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Posted by Steve.

1979 - this was a pretty difficult year to pick a track from!

Before plumping for this one I nearly went for The Clash with "London Calling" - but I couldn't embed it! "I Was Made For Loving You" from Kiss was another nearly, so was "Rock Lobster", "Alternative Ulster", "Gangsters", "Eton Rifles" numerous contributions from The Police and Blondie.

The Ramones were one of the most influential punk bands at their home in Queens, NYC and the rest of America and also here in the UK. They pre dated the likes of The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned by 3 or 4 years.

This track was actually the B side to the 1979 single "She's the One" and featured on the '78 album "Road To Ruin". The video to this track was actually made in 1988!

In the year of the Ram disco reigned supreme, but looking at other genre's of music this year it was a real melting pot of styles. Disco, punk, new wave, metal, rock and Euro pop were all doing well in the charts. Judas Priest, Van Halen, Dire Straits, Specials AKA, AC/DC, M, The Damned, The Clash, ABBA, Scorpions and Sniff 'N' The Tears all released records.

INXS, Bad Brains, Venom, Was (Not Was), Europe, Diamond Head and Hanoi Rocks all form while The Runaways and Bachman-Turner Overdrive are amongst those disbanded. Ozzy is kicked out of Black Sabbath and replaced by Ronnie James Dio.

John Simon Ritchie (Sid Vicious) is found dead in a New York hotel, Snowy's dad's favourite actor John Wayne passes away too! John Diefenbaker and Angel of Death; Josef Mengele also dies this year.

Snow falls in the Sahara Desert. The IRA assassinates Lord Mountbatten and the Three Mile Island accident happens. The Iran hostage crisis starts and China's population hits 1 billion people!

Star Trek The Motion Picture, Alien, Kramer vs Kramer (one of my mum's favourite films!), Apocalypse Now and The Amityville Horror are all released in the cinema.

The Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series, Arsenal lifts the FA Cup and the Stanley Cup stays in Montreal as they beat the New York Rangers 4 games to 1.



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Getting back to the 35 years thingie and sticking to an Irish theme - all be it north of the border this time! From the year of the Horse is John Peel's favourite song ever and probably one of the few songs that I would ever attempt on karaoke if I ever plucked up the courage to attempt such a thing!

If you ever wanted to know what Feargal Sharkey was up to before he released "A Good Heart" in 1985 then look no further! Sharkey was the lead singer with Derry band The Undertones.

John Peel was an influential Radio 1 DJ in the Uk who made a habit of championing new wave, extreme grind bands and punk bands such as Napalm Death, Carcass, Exit Condition, Doom, The Fall and The Smiths. His Peel Sessions are legendary and go back to the late 60's. His first two from 1967 were a band called Tomorrow and Pink Floyd. When he received a copy of Teenage Kicks (the only promo single sent out by the band) Peel was so impressed with it he played it back to back. The song was played at his funeral in 2004 and "Teenage dreams, so hard to beat" is engraved on his tomb stone.

What else happened in 1978? Ted Bundy was captured in Pensacola, Fl. The Sex Pistols played their last show at San Fransisco's Winterland (until they ran out of money!) A 15 year old Rick Allen joins Def Leppard. Nancy Spungen and Keith Moon passed away. Dura Duran, Ratt, Dokken, Social Distortion and The Dead Kennedy's were all formed. Van Halen released "Van Halen"! "Hemispheres" by Rush, Judas Priest's "Stained Class" and "Outlandes d'Amour" by The Police were all released.

Grease and Superman were released and The Deerhunter won the years Oscar. Argentina won the World Cup. Ipswich Town won the FA Cup. The LA Dodgers were beaten by the Yankees in the World Series and the Stanley Cup remained in Montreal.



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The year of the Jedi, Snowy Snake for me is another no brainer of a song. For me it had to be the epic "Bat Out Of Hell" from Meat Loaf. This is the first track from technically his sophomore album (his first was released in 1971 - Stoney and Meatloaf!) This album marked the start of Meat Loaf and pianist Jim Steinman's fruitful partnership. Steinman himself has worked with some big names over the years; Billy Squire, Bonnie Tyler, Sisters Of Mercy, Def Leppard (before he got fired and Mutt Lange stepped in and the rest for them was history!) and even Hulk Hogan!

As I have said before I like long songs and this is pushing close to 10 minutes on the album and it just flies by. I can remember having this album in the house when I was still in school as my dad borrowed it from somebody, who I have no idea, but I do know it is still in my families possession - I have it upstairs!!!

Also in 1977 Star Wars was released. Miami reported it's first ever snow fall. The Chicago White Sox were the first opponents for the Blue Jays. The New York City blackout lasted for 25 hours and Son of Sam (David Berkowitz) was captured.

Led Zeppelin performed their last ever show - well until last year anyway - in Oakland. Ronnie Van Zant, Marc Bolan and Elvis all passed away. The B-52's, Def Leppard, Dire Straits and Stiff Little Fingers were all formed.

World Series champions were the Yankees, the Stanley Cup was won by the Canadiens again and Manchester United beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final.




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1976 was the launch pad for the punk revolution in the UK. The Sex Pistols released their debut single "Anarchy In The UK" in November 1976, but "New Rose" by fellow London punks The Damned is credited as being the first UK punk single released - a head of "Anarchy..." by a mere 35 days! They also have other notable firsts as being the first British punk band to release an album (Damned Damned Damned in February 1977) and the first British punk band to tour in America! They probably didn't get as much recognition and success as The Pistols or The Clash, but they can say they were first!

Random events also happening in the year of the Dragon... U2, Black Flag, Saxon and Diamond Head all formed. Toronto's CN Tower was completed and the Blue Jays from the same city were formed. It was the year of the first Concorde flight and the year that Son of Sam terrorized New York City.

The New York Yankees lost the World Series 4-0 to The Cincinnati Reds. The FA Cup was won by Southampton - beating Manchester United and Montreal's Canadiens beat the Flyer's for the Stanley Cup. Rocky won this years Oscar for Best Film.



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Posted by Steve.

This really has to be a no brainer of a choice!" How can you pick anything other than Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen's "A Night At The Opera" album?

This song marked the decisive point in Queen's career and set them on the way to become one of the World's most popular groups. Bohemian Rhapsody was accompanied by a groundbreaking promotional music video (one of the first to be made?) This helped establish the visual aspect for the modern band!

This song was released the day after my third birthday for the first time (then again in 1991 and 1992) and it was the last number one single of 1975 and the first of 1976 - it held the top spot for 9 weeks.

Also released in the year of the Rabbit; Alice Cooper's "Welcome To My Nightmare", Fleetwood Mac's self titled release, "Born To Run" from Bruce Springsteen and Ac/Dc unleashed some "High Voltage".

Some random events...

A youthful Steve Harris formed Iron Maiden and after departing Hawkwind, Ian Fraser Kilmister formed Motorhead. The original Dr Who - William Hartnell - passed away in April. Jimmy Hoffa "disappeared" and The Rocky Horror Show opened on Broadway. Australia got colour TV!

West Ham (Steve Harris' team!) won the FA Cup. The World Series was won by the Cincinnati Reds and The Flyer's were the Stanley Cup holders.

And please. No Wayne's World head banging while watching the video!! :D




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Welcome to the year of the Tiger! It's official 1974 wasn't very good for music :)

In the year that Tim Horton, Bud Abbott and Mama Cass shuffled off this mortal coil we celebrated the formation of New York's CBGB's club stalwarts Blondie, Talking Heads and The Ramones! Also forming this year was Van Halen, Helix, Krokus and Twisted Sister. Current Batman Christian Bale was born this year along with Buckcherry front-man Josh Todd and Yankee number 2; Derek Jeter. Some people may say that the arrival of Chad Kroeger this year may have been a travesty though! Not me though :::coughs:::

Liverpool beat Newcastle United to lift the FA Cup in England, West Germany won the World Cup and in America the Stanley Cup and World Series were won by The Flyer's and Oakland A's respectively. The Godfather II won the Oscar.

Musically Judas Priest released their debut Rocka Rolla (a truly bad record in my opinion!), two more albums from Queen (can you imagine that today? three albums inside two years?). Kiss self titled debut and second album Hotter Than Hell surfaced and the debut Rush album was released.

As with 1973 there is a lack of decent videos so I've plumped for Kiss performing Strutter recorded some where in 2003 - just to confuse matters!! I was never a huge Kiss fan - but my respect for them has grown since I saw them at The Download Festival earlier this year. They put on a solid performance and had all the theatrics that is missing from concerts today. With half of the year left I have to say the Kiss performance will rank in my top 5 shows of 2008!





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Welcome to 35 years of music! This is something I've been thinking about doing for a long time - and now here it is. I have to say this is gonna be hard to only have one or two tracks from each year, but I'll give it a go. I thought the early years would be pretty easy. How wrong was I? I had a list of about 30 songs and when I checked on you tube I had 22 videos to pick from, but having said that I use video in the loosest sense.

OK, onto the first year of my life - or at least the last 33 days of 1973! The year of the Ox!

Glam rock was alive and kicking (The Sweet, David Bowie, Slade, T Rex all released stuff that year.) On the heavier side Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple and Aersosmith were all on the record racks. One of Metallica's cover versions was released in '73 (Breadfan bt Welsh rockers Budgie) and we also saw the formation of AC/DC, Kiss and Y&T. The Sting won this years oscar and The Exorcist and The Wickeman were also released. The Stanley Cup was won by the Montreal Canadiens and the FA Cup in England was won by Sunderland.

Golden Earring are a Dutch band and are still going today after being formed back in 1961. I knew this song from the White Lion cover from their Big Game record before I knew of the original! The only other song I really know from Golden Earring is Twilight Zone - released 9 years later! The video for this is laughable, but why bother with spending money on videos when there was nowhere to show them? In the UK at the time there was only really Top Of The Pops and that was more of a studio performance than a video show.

Apparently the song has been covered over 250 times: Notable versions include Bryan Adams, U2, Crowded House, Def Leppard, R.E.M. and Carlos Santana. It has also been used in TV shows The Simpsons, The X-Files, Beverly Hills, 90210 and My Name Is Earl. Movie usages include The Break-Up, Pushing Tin and Wayne's World 2.




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