The Blow Monkeys’ hit single Digging Your Scene symbolised the Eighties with their lavishly produced single, topical lyric, and stylish video.

It’s the first day of May, the hottest day of the year, and to celebrate, let’s journey back to the Eighties – a time of style, money and shit music. With one or two exceptions.

The Blow Monkeys er, blew into my world in 1986 with this overblown, overproduced and overwrought example of excess symbolising everything about the decade.

It still sounds great.

“Doctor” Robert Howard (not a real doctor) is the perfect Eighties pop star, all cheekbones, eyeliner, lipstick, perfect hair and uber-confidence.

Musically, it’s a very Eighties hybrid of pop, jazz and soul, the fabulous video is a hymn to Eighties excess, and lyrically it could hardly be more Eighties, being a critique of the homophobic hostility directed at people with HIV and AIDS.

Songs don’t come much harder hitting than the chorus line: “Tell me why is it I’m digging your scene? / I know I’ll die, baby.”

Apparently there was some criticism of Howard for this since he was married to a woman (and would soon remarry another woman) with several children.

Not sure I see what the problem is myself; I remember Tom Robinson chose a similar path after making his name with the song Glad To Be Gay.

Anyway, I must admit I always thought The Blow Monkeys were from Australia or New Zealand but it turns out that “Doctor Robert” (nicknamed after a Beatles song, apparently) was born in Scotland and spent just five years in Oz before returning to the UK.

This came from their second album, Animal Magic, and reached No.12 in the singles chart, though they topped that the following year with It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way, which made it to No.5.

Much to my surprise, they are still going strong today, having reunited after a 17-year hiatus in 2007, and released their 12th album last year, with live dates later this year.