The Buggles was ostensibly bass-playing production titan Trevor Horn, joined by keyboardist Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. The three began recording a selection of demos…
Browsing: Music – 1980s
Schism and sackings in the Dexys Midnight Runners camp in 1980 led to the formation of The Bureau and their brilliant debut single, Only For Sheep. Keyboard player…
The Business hailed from Lewisham in South London and along with Sham 69, Cockney Rejects, and Angelic Upstarts became one of the prime movers in the post-Pistols British…
Given they spent the last few decades plumbing new depths of musical blandness embracing the corporate dollar, it’s hard to imagine drug-crazed Texans Butthole Surfers…
Buzzcocks was formed in Manchester in 1975 by guitarist/singer Pete Shelley (real name Peter McNeish) and singer Howard Devoto (real name Howard Trafford). They shared…
This experimental band formed in Sheffield in 1974 and played their debut gig at a student disco in May 1975. Named after a Dadaist collective,…
In the fecund college-rock scene of the 1980s, Camper Van Beethoven from Redlands, California, were the experimenters, unafraid to delve into collisions of ska beats…
Formed in 1987, Australian band Candy Harlots drew inspiration from The New York Dolls and Mötley Crüe to deliver hard-edged rock & roll with lots of…
The Cars were the most successful American New Wave band in the late 70s/early 80s. With their sleek, mechanical pop-rock, the band racked up a string of…
Originally called Double Cross, the Catholic Girls hailed from New Jersey and became the first all-female new wave group to be signed to a major label, recording…
The Celibate Rifles, perhaps more than any other Australian band, took Radio Birdman’s hammered chords and The Saints’ blurred-riff overdrive at face value, creating a faster/louder sound…
Raised in Chicago and re-named by her local chapter of the Black Panthers (her real name is Yvette Marie Stevens) Chaka Khan brought both erotic maturity and…
This melodic, multi-layered guitar-pop quartet formed in Manchester in 1981, and originally comprised Mark “Birdy” Burgess (vocals & bass), Reg Smithies (guitar), Dave Fielding (guitar),…
A bunch of complete punk loonies from Bristol who started out as Vice Squad’s road crew plus some mates. The line-up eventually settled down as Ampex,…
Texan Charlie Sexton was a child prodigy – he got his first guitar at the age of four and played lead guitar in Joe Ely’s…
This pop duo from north London emerged as unexpected chart successes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. With both members already in their 30s…
Cheap Trick formed in Rockford, Illinois, USA in 1972. Main songwriter Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson had originally performed as The Grim Reapers, then Fuse…
Hailing from Rochester, New York, The Chesterfield Kings (named after a brand of unfiltered cigarette) began as a retro 1960s-inspired garage band evoking the sounds…
For a while, The Chesterfields’ charming, jolly guitar pop was very much in vogue. They were formed in Yeovil, Somerset, in the summer of 1984…
Chilliwack formed in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) in 1970 from the ashes of a band called The Collectors. Named after a city east of Vancouver,…