1982
Frida is the brunette from ABBA and I See Red is a song from her solo album back in 1982, produced by Phil Collins.
In their heyday in the early 1980s, it was impossible to ignore pop-soul trio Imagination with their infectious dance hits and flamboyant front man Leee John.
The New Romantics didn’t do much for me but like everyone else, some of the songs did. Especially Culture Club’s first hit in 1982.
ABC fused the attitude of punk with the sophistication of disco – and great tunes – to create hits like Poison Arrow on The Lexicon Of Love.
Who remembers Los Angeles rockabilly band The Red Devils? Certainly not me. I didn’t even know there was a thriving cowpunk scene, fusing rockabilly and country, in early-Eighties LA.
Here’s a second-wave punk band I don’t remember hearing before, probably because my tastes had evolved by the time they formed in 1981.
I first stumbled across this Bradford band by accident when they supported punk also-rans Chelsea at the Marquee one night in 1981 – billed as “Sudden Death Cult.”
Do You Believe In The Westworld is an epic with its thunderous tribal drums, the mighty clang of that guitar riff, the slightly sinister sax and the dubwise echo that matches the cinematic sweep of Kirk Brandon’s mini-Western in words, carried by his stentorian vocals.
Simultaneously smooth, smouldering AND funky, this tune helped give soul singer Gwen McCrae a second lease of life on the Northern Soul circuit in the UK.