Whatever we expected from Pete Shelley’s solo debut in 1981, after a string of superlative singles by Buzzcocks, a queer synthpop anthem came as a surprise.

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I loved this song when it came out in 1980. I suppose synth-pop was a novelty at the time; it was certainly not something I associated with Robert Palmer, famed for his blue-eyed soul singing, sharp suits and model girlfriends.

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Dwight Yoakam came along at just the right time for me, in the mid Eighties, launching a lifelong love of country music.

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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.

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Who would have thought a pasty-faced weirdo and his Manchester mates could create something as funky as Sly Stone’s original? Yet that’s exactly what Magazine manage to do.

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I’m a little late on this but I wanted to post a song by The Chills after the sad death of their main man Martin Phillipps at the age of only 61.

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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.”

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The Ramones had a late-career peak in 1985 when they released their first protest song, the anti-Reagan anthem Bonzo Goes To Bitburg.

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DAF’s minimalist electro and ironic lyrics are a far cry from the sweet synthpop coming out of the UK, and didn’t get past the radio censors in 1981.

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