Blending old-school power chords with hardcore thrash, Bad Religion formed in Woodland Hills, California, in 1980. The debut album from these SoCal brats scarcely resembled…
Browsing: Music – 1980s
Originally made up of the three Morris brothers – Jim (guitar, keyboards, recorder), Mark (vocals, bass) and Des (drums) – Balaam and The Angel began…
Singer/songwriter Brendan Kibble formed The Bam Balams in Sydney in August 1984. The line-up of Kibble, Brad Fitzpatrick (ex-Division 4), Steve Cole and Matt Manchester…
Formed in 1981 in Collie, a dusty mining town south of Perth in Western Australia, The Bamboos met with little success until they made their…
This British female dance-pop vocal trio, comprising Siobhan Fahey, Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin, came on the scene just as MTV was becoming an influential…
Bob Geldof (ex-Boomtown Rats) was watching television in October 1984 when he saw the news reports on the famine crisis in Ethiopia. Driven to action,…
In 1981, a folk-rock singer named Susanna Hoffs rang up a couple of garage-rocking sisters from Northridge on the northern rim of the San Fernando…
Despite a cheerfully self-deprecating stance, London’s Barracudas offered quite an enjoyable sentimental journey through assorted American traditions on Drop Out. Some tunes plunged headlong into dense,…
Bauhaus were the founding fathers of Goth-rock, creating a minimalist, gloomy style of post-punk, driven by jagged guitars and cold, metallic synthesizers. Throughout their brief career,…
Heavily influenced by Def Leppard, this Australian hard rock band emerged in 1987 from the ashes of an Adelaide heavy metal band called Boss. BB…
As Virgin Records’ first Australian signing, Beargarden were briefly big big news. Their first single, Finer Things, was released in 1984 and promoted via mega tours…
Coming from white, middle-class, Jewish families, New York rappers Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz, Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “MCA” Yauch were always going to…
Ska revivalists The Beat were formed in Handsworth (a racially mixed area of Birmingham immortalised by reggae band Steel Pulse with their Handsworth Revolution album) in…
This studio team of British musicians was formed by Norman Cook after the break up of The Housemartins. The core team was Cook (bass), Lindy…
The brainchild of former Housemartins Paul Heaton and Dave Hemmingway, The Beautiful South smuggled political lyrics into jaunty, singalong tunes and acerbic commentary on domestic…
Belle & The Devotions began as just singer Kit Rolfe, who released two singles – Where Did Love Go Wrong? and Got To Let You…
London’s Belle Stars came together in 1981 from the ashes of 2 Tone act, The Bodysnatchers when it was Rhoda Dakar, not Jennie McKeown fronting the band. They…
Emerging from the Southern California punk and new wave club circuits and fronted by singer Terri Nunn, Berlin became one of the defining American mainstream…
Born Anne Martin in Whitstable Kent, Bette Bright was a founding member of Liverpool cult favourites Deaf School. Criminally underused in that group, she released…
Big Audio Dynamite was formed in London in 1984 by ex-Clash guitarist Mick Jones, who was still under contract with CBS. He recruited Dan Donovan,…