Now Yearbook Vault 1981

Welcome back to THE VAULT, the bolt on of the New Yearbook series that mixes singles that failed to trouble the top 30 but were really interesting with American hits that didn't do much over here in the U.K. and we're doing this vinyl style.

Part of that's a channelling of those tracks on our Ronco or KTel  albums that sandwiched between the surefire hits they added maybe thinking they'd do better than they did and anyway sometimes they interested us more  and part is music meant mainly vinyl for us back then.

Old rituals bring back memories. 

 It's three lps in one sleeve so as it's a bit thin be careful as it will soon crease or rip but at least the discs are polylined so they're well protected.

 

Time to open this bad boy up!

A year away from their Top 40 debut, record one opens with Simple Minds with ‘Sweat In Bullet’ from their ‘Sons And Fascination’ album and followed by Spandau Ballet with ‘Paint Me Down’ from their second album ‘Diamond’. Heaven 17 are up next with their debut single ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’, alongside the debut from Eurythmics ‘Never Gonna Cry Again’. 

John Foxx released ‘Europe After The Rain’ as the lead single from ‘The Garden’, and Gary Numan reunited with his former band members, now called Dramatis on the superb ‘Love Needs No Disguise’. Closing the side, Altered Images feature with their debut ‘Dead Pop Stars’, along with the 1978 debut ‘Young Parisians’ from Adam & The Ants – re-released to become a hit in 1981. Flip the LP over to celebrate some of ‘81’s best soul and disco featuring Rick James, Sister Sledge and Chaka Khan, ahead of funk-pop genre melding from Freeez, Shakatak and Level 42 before this first disc closes with reggae artist Sheila Hylton who made the Top 40 with her cover of The Police track ‘The Bed’s Too Big Without You’.

Bruce Springsteen starts record two with the title track from his #2 album ‘The River’ which gave him his first UK Top 40 single, and John Mellencamp – who would have to wait another year for his UK chart debut – with ‘Ain’t Even Done With The Night’, his first Top 20 hit in the US. REO Speedwagon are up next with a track, ‘In Your Letter’ from the years’ biggest-selling album in America Hi Infidelity and a big seller here), and Billy Joel released a live version of ‘Say Goodbye To Hollywood’, giving him a Top 20 hit there. Great singles from Elton John and Joan Armatrading lead to the side finishing with The Alan Parsons Project and another US hit, ‘Time’.

Side B opens with the Pretenders from their second album, and a single ‘Louie Louie’ that got a US, but not a UK release. Pat Benatar led into her ‘Precious Time’ album with ‘Fire And Ice’, and Generation X released ‘Dancing With Myself’, a track that lead singer Billy Idol would revisit in his solo releases. Echo & The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, and Dexys Midnight Runners all feature ahead of Joe Jackson covering the jazz/blues/swing standard ‘Jumpin’ Jive’, and The Manhattan Transfer – who had a huge US hit with their cover of doo-wop classic ‘Boy From New York City’, which closes the second record.

Record 3 opens with an brilliant run of alt-pop: The Creatures - Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie from Siouxsie And The Banshees - released their debut ‘Mad Eyed Screamer’ along with ‘Primary’, the single from The Cure’s ‘Faith’ album, New Order with ‘Procession’, plus The Psychedelic Furs with ‘Dumb Waiters’. The Clash released the non-album single ‘This Is Radio Clash’, and reggae and new-wave fusion from Scritti Politti with the sublime ‘The “Sweetest Girl” to which we were to more of in later years. The side closes with two chart regulars The Undertones and Squeeze with ‘It’s Going To Happen’ and ‘Is That Love?’ and the final side kicks off with Debbie Harry, as 1981 saw her release her first solo album ‘KooKoo’, and from it here the second single ‘The Jam Was Moving’. Donna Summer released ‘Cold Love’ from her ‘The Wanderer’,( her first for Warners), and Commodores feature with ‘Lady (You Bring Me Up)’. Steve Winwood follows on with ‘While You See A Chance’, and the final three begin with Journey and their rock ballad ‘Who’s Crying Now’, Rush with the epic ‘Tom Sawyer’, and closing the collection, Meat Loaf with the lead single from his album ‘Dead Ringer For Love’, ‘I’m Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us’.

This selection works well bring  a mixture of memories to many of us especially those of us with more ecliptic tastes while sounding more fuller than those old K Tel and Ronco discs did back then.

 

Wish you were here

 

June, traditionally the time of an all day school trip if not a residential usually involving some broadly speaking educational objectives so they will be a field trip with things to find and worksheets to work though either individually in in twos.

There also would be few fun things like some games and a treat such as an ice cream offered if we're good.

With a somewhat hectic week, frankly something like that has its appeal.

It's Summer - Beano Summer Special 2025

We're into June which means we are officially into summer  that for most of us means mentally at least the whole off school summer holiday period and the memories of going away with your family year on year with all the rituals that involved such as getting new summer cloths for playing on the beach or camp to take with you.

 Back then comics as distinct from magazines often of a commercially exploitative nature ruled the roost so when we landed we made a beeline to the newsagent for some reading matter in case of rain and back then most comics also had summer specials in colour with more stories.

Today that's different so really it's the Beano summer special most go for in in 2025 we run very much the notion of everybody going on their holiday in Beanotown in much the same way that industrial areas the town shut down for a fixed period.

Thus the adventures feature all our comic heroes and heroines often working together to get out of situations in one big adventure and we love adventure don't we?

This year's is up to the usual high standard.

Sacd round up - Rachmaninov

Sometimes it takes a short length of time for a whole series of recording to emerge complete and sometimes it can be a matter of years and that's before we hit the dead ends when a conductor dies mid way through.Sometimes in such instances a chosen successor steps in, more often than not it just stops.

Strangely enough we've just finished this three sacd (or HD download) Rachmaninov symphony series with his first, recorded around October last year and issued early this month.

Played by the reinvigorated since 2018 Sinfonia of London orchestra under the direction of the Gateshead, Northern English conductor John Wilson this like all the discs comes with shorter works before moving on the main symphony which is extremely well played, more than match for classic accounts from the 1970's and 80's.

Issued in 2023 but recorded in 2022, we got the second symphony.

It all began with the third symphony but the whole project was delayed by Covid and indeed this was recorded until September 2021 when conditions improved to point people could play close to each other which makes a big difference to sound (and I'd maintain the feel of a performance by taking your clues from each other).

These play on all cd player having a regular cd layer in addition to the super audio cd layer a dedicated player can read for higher quality reproduction.

Kicking it down the yard

The cooler spell returns here after the last ten days or so so we're not flagging - well apart from the consequences of being up to see Austria win Eurovision 2025 although I wasn't viewing so much as I find flashing lights make me very ill - so we'll be tuned in by the time I have written this for this years WSL FA Cup between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Let's say that's what I follow, had been much good on my feet I'd of been down to the park to play just like modern girls in these parts do and that's what I love about today whereas if you'd of asked for a game back in the day you'd of been told "Girls can't play football" which was a nonsense but was all about keeping advantages for boys and men.

Of course it could work the other way and that was wrong too.

If you have the ability and are prepared to put the effort in, why shouldn't you follow what interests you just because someone has sex based issues?

Anyway Chelsea won 3-0! Way to go.

Those missed first time around...

1986 was the year of the National Garden Festival at Etruria not far from here down the A500 "D" Road, it was just over two and half years since the launch of ILR radio here with Signal Radio based in Shelton where before I listened mainly to Beacon Radio based in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton who played more contemporary music than the local BBC station and had specialist shows covering a variety of music.

It was a rather mixed era when came to music formats as I had cubes of records, shelves of tapes and the first few of what was to become a large cd library and there was no real order as to which artists or titles were in any.

Getting anything resembling that was to take years. 

The Pet Shop Boys had come to my attention the year before via a track on a music magazine free flexidisc that featured a track by them and a compilation cassette and by the time I was inclined to buy their first album, Please, I'd gotten a cd player and so what was originally planned as a XDR tm tape purchase  became the cd bought from John Menzies in Newcastle Under Lyme.

Unlike some artists I didn't get the vinyl singles so recently I picked up the original UK lp version so I can play Opportunities, West End Girls and Love Comes Quickly on the much improved vinyl set up.

I did get Actually direct on cd although I had to save up for it as I was a bit short on money at the time but the album art just works better in lp size jackets.

This was the home of It's A Sin, What Have I Done To Deserve This that featured Dusty Springfield and Rent to which I had the Smash Hits posts with lyrics of.

There was a special imported version that had the 12" of Always On My Mind you could get but as didn't get around to it, the regular UK vinyl will suffice and in any event sounds just great.

Although Actually is an all digital recording the vinyl edition does sound fuller on my system to the cd.

Enter May, server down

Another month and we're in late Spring with last week being jolly hot until friday so layers were off, much liquid consumed and windows opened here.

It was an odd week for Fur Affinity as it was down with technical issues and is currently down as they need to reinstall the database and doing that checking everything is as it should be is taking time but is best done properly.

That of course meant no journals with blog links on site and comments, one reason I hung around Discord more than usual apart from concerns about one persons welfare.

 

Discourse around what girls *should* wear especially in regressive/re-enactment  contexts do really try my patience, especially of the "everything should be like it was xx years ago" nature cos there were very good reasons why we progressed as I recall female staff demanding the right to wear trousers at school and to basically do whatever you personally liked rather than saying in effect "Can I do this as a girl?".

So today we wear what we feel comfortable in, we work in fields that match our abilities not gender expectations and play whatever games or take part in sporting endeavours we wish and that's how I approach things personally.

You can understand people not being personally comfortable with some sorts of presentation when may remind them of things best forgotten but as someone whoes worst enemies tended to wear grey skirts and white socks I sometimes wonder if they consider how I might feel when they're being somewhat prescriptive about what to wear.

 Given like most girls today I've embraced change and like football for females it was hardly surprising that in my uniform are big girls sports shorts, designed for females fitting very well.

The world I'm around may be in 2025 even when my head is still in the 70's and 80's but I'm a modern girl at heart with a much fuller notion of what a girl is than some others.