Friday's 40th Five (8/81)

Remembering the music of 1981, week by week, in 2021. New releases, new entries, new number 1s, plus indie favourites and album cuts, all from this week 40 years ago.

Week 8: 23 February - 01 March

1. Altered Images - Dead Pop Stars

2. Toyah - Thunder in the Mountains (Four From Toyah EP)

3. Status Quo - Something 'Bout You Baby I Like

4. The Teardrop Explodes - Strange House In The Snow

5. Kiki Dee - Star

Friday's 40th Five (7/81)

Remembering the music of 1981, week by week, in 2021. New releases, new entries, new number 1s, plus indie favourites and album cuts, all from this week 40 years ago.

Week 7: 16 - 22 February

1. Depeche Mode - Dreaming of Me. Basildon synth-poppers release their debut single this week on Mute. It won't hit the Top 40 but is the start of something much bigger.

2. The Human League - Boys and Girls. Sheffield synth maestros are back with a new single and a new look after last year's split. The sound is still very much rooted in the group's past, however, and the titular 'girls' appear only on the record sleeve.

3. Roxy Music - Jealous Guy. Roxy's tribute to the late John Lennon hits the charts this week at no.21 and will rapidly get to the top spot in a matter of weeks.

4. Adam & The Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier. Originally released last summer, but to no avail, the Ant People re-release the title track from their no.1 album (while their back catalogue also gets more attention).

5. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Into the Light (Peel session). The group have their fourth Peel session broadcast this week, and the DJ plays their first 1977 session on the same night.*

*New Order also have their debut session broadcast this week, although sadly these tracks are not available for the Spotify playlist.

Friday's 40th Five (6/81)

Remembering the music of 1981, week by week, in 2021. New releases, new entries, new number 1s, plus indie favourites and album cuts, all from this week 40 years ago.

Week 6: 09 - 15 February

1. Beggar & Co – (Somebody) Help Me Out. UK jazz-funk outfit go along with the 'beggar' image for their TOTP performance this week. Watch out for them performing with another group later in the year.

2. New Musik - Luxury. Lead single from their upcoming album Anywhere, although will fail to meet the albeit modest success of last year's hits.

3. Toyah - It's a Mystery. From the band's Four From Toyah EP which will go on to give them (and her) their commercial breakthrough.

4. Steve Winwood - When You See a Chance. Only a minor hit for Winwood from his Arc of a Diver album, despite the gimmick release on the new cassette-single format on Island. 

5. Sheena Easton - Take My Time. The face of 1980 breaks into the new year although alas will fail to make the same impact as last year. 

Friday's 40th Five (5/81)

Remembering the music of 1981, week by week, in 2021. New releases, new entries, new number 1s, plus indie favourites and album cuts, all from this week 40 years ago.

Week 5: 02 - 08 February

1. Duran Duran - Planet Earth. Debut single for Brum-romantics out this week. 

2. The Pretenders - Message of Love. New entry this week at no.28

3. Freeez - Southern Freeez. Some cool Brit-funk in at no.34

4. The Stray Cats - Rock This Town. Up twenty-one places to no.14

5. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime. American art rockers hit the UK charts at no.38

28/2/81: U2 on Old Grey Whistle Test

On Saturday 28 February 1981, upcoming Irish rock band U2 performed live on the Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2. The group played three tracks from their debut album Boy, released in October 1980: The Ocean, 11 O'Clock Tick Tock and I Will Follow.

Despite having achieved critical acclaim and attention from the British music press, the band failed to have a hit single in the UK until 1983. Their second album October would appropriately reach the Top 20 in October '81.

U2's lead singer Bono Vox on the cover of NME, February 1981

source: BBC Genome, U2gigs.com

27/1/81 'Coming Home' sitcom begins

On Friday 28 February a new BBC sitcom called Coming Home began at 7.30 p.m. on BBC One.

Protagonist Donald Maddocks (Philip Jackson), a chemistry teacher, is happy with his disorganised life. His wife Sheila (Sharon Dukes) isn't happy with hers and when she receives a letter from her sister, she knows things can only get worse.

The British Comedy Guide website has reviewed the show as "eminently forgettable". The sitcom ran for just one series of six episodes.

Sources: BBC Genome, comedy, British Comedy Guide

26/2/81: Kim Wilde's debut on Top of the Pops

On Thursday 26 february 1981 pop singer Kim Wilde made her television debut on Top of the Pops on BBC One, performing her single Kids in America which was just outside the Top 40. This was the start of a successful career for Wilde (b. 1960) who would go on to have several hit records throughout the eighties and into the nineties.

Kim was the eldest child of Marty Wilde who had also been a successful singer and songwriter in the late fifties and early sixties. Brother Ricky co-wrote and produced Kim's recorded output until she took a break from pop music to focus on her family and take up gardening.

pic.: wilde-life.com

Kids in America went to no. 2 in the UK charts.

source: BBC, official charts archive,
video via lee nichols

25/2/81: Royal engagement in the UK press

On Wednesday 25 February 1981 UK and other newspapers carried the news of the announcement of the Royal wedding engagement from the previous day.

source: Princess Diana Remembered - click for more newspaper features.

24/2/81: Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer wedding announcement

On Tuesday 24 February 1981 the engagement of Prince Charles to Lady Diana was made official in an announcement by Buckingham Palace. 

The Lord Chancellor Lord Maclean made the following statement :

"It is with greatest pleasure that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh announce the betrothal of their beloved son the Prince of Wales to the Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the Earl Spencer and the Honourable Mrs Shand Kydd."

Prince Charles quipped that he was "delighted and frankly amazed that Diana is prepared to take me on", quipped Prince Charles, 32, while Diana shyly stated, "with Prince Charles beside me I cannot go wrong." Diana was 19 years old at the time.

source: BBC On This Day (video: goentertain )

23/2/81: 'Yes Minister' second series on BBC2

On Monday 23 February 1981 a new series of the UK sitcom Yes Minister started on BBC2. It was the second of three series broadcast between 1980 and 1984, later becoming Yes, Prime Minister for two more seasons from 1986-1988.

The series follows the fictitious character of  Right Honorable James Hacker MP, Minister for Administrative Affairs, played by Paul Eddington, trying to keep his head above nasty political waters, and usually up against Whitehall bureaucrat Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne).

Radio Times cover for the week from 21-27 February 1981

Famously accurate in the spirit of the relationship between civil servant and politician in the early 1980s, it was allegedly Margaret Thatcher's favourite show.

sources: BBC Genome (schedule & pic.), BBC archive.


....also On This Day: the "23-F" coup d'état took place in Spain, ending the following day, and on John Peel first play of debut singles by Altered Images, Depeche Mode and New Order.

22/2/81: Sunday Times magazine

Selected contents:

ATOMIC BOMB SURVIVORS - As Pope John Paul prepares for his pilgrimage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Murray Sayle visits the atom-bombed cities to see how each has come to terms with its horrific experience

(9½ pages)

BOBBY ROBSON - How Bobby Robson has survived twelve years as the manager of Ipswich Town

(3½ pages)

PIETRO ANNIGONI - Italy's most famous living artist, favourite of heads of state from Queen Elizabeth to President Kennedy, has, at 70, renounced worldly portraiture to spend much of his time at the Monte Cassino monastery near Naples painting - in return for his keep - an enormous fresco. John Pearson interviewed him near the end of his monumental task

(5 pages)

SHIRLEY CRABTREE (BIG DADDY) - "A life in the day of..."

source (pic. & text): crazyaboutmagazines.com 

21/1/81: Pope John Paul II in the Philippines

Between 17 and 21 February 1981 Pope John Paul II made his first official visit to the Philippines. Born in Poland in 1920 Karol Józef Wojtyła was the first non-Italian pope since 1523 and became the most-travelled pope up to then, making a total of 104 foreign trips including two to the Philippines. 

This photograph shows the Pope travelling among the crowds in a customised Filipino jeepney, one of the many variations of the "Popemobile", the term used to describe an open-top vehicle to drive the pontificate through crowds, and which would be made famous by John Paul II.

source: Jeepney Popemobiles

20/2/81: Depeche Mode's first single issued

On Friday 20 February 1981 pop group Depeche Mode issued their first 7" single on the independent Mute label.

Dreaming of Me (b/w Ice Machine) failed to make the Top 30 in the UK although was followed by two successful singles and a top 10 album Speak and Spell by the end of the year. Depeche Mode had been achieving critical acclaim in the UK music press as well as becoming live favourites in the club scene in and around the London area. The group's almost unique musical style of using only electronic instruments made them pioneers of the synth-pop music genre which would quickly become popular in 1981. 

Depeche Mode, 1981: (l-r) Dave Gahan, Vince Clarke, Martin L. Gore, Andrew Fletcher.

Despite their commercial success, founder member and principle song writer Vince Clarke inexplicably left the band in early 1982 in order to pursue other projects. Deepche Mode went on to become one of the most successful internationl acts and continue to record and play live around the world.


Also on this day: Sheffield based electronic band The Human League release their first single Boys and Girls after the group had split in late 1980. Like Dreaming of Me, this single also failed to chart although was followed by a string of hits throughout the year.

sources: discogs.com, wikipedia

19/2/81: Midge Ure on the cover of Smash Hits

On 19 February 1981, singer and musician Midge Ure was featured on the front cover of the new fortnightly issue of Smash Hits magazine in the UK. Ure was the lead singer with the group Ultravox who were enjoying success with their latest single Vienna.

pic scan: Like Punk Never Happened

Ure had joined the band in 1979 after the previous lead singer and founding member John Foxx had left to pursue a solo career. The new formation's debut album, also entitled Vienna, was released in the summer of 1980. Released as a single in 1981, the title track became a seminal eighties track, also thanks to its groundbreaking promo-video, although it was famously kept of the top of the charts firstly by the recently deceased John Lennon's Woman and then by Joe Dolce's novelty hit Shaddap You Face.

source. Smash Hits archive, Official Charts archive.

18/2/81: Margaret Thatcher gives in to miners

On 17 February 1981 the BBC announced that the Conservative Government led by Mrs Thatcher had withdrawn plans to close 23 coal mining pits in its first major u-turn since coming to power in 1979. The Secretary of State for Energy David Howell made the concessions at two hours of crisis talks in Whitehall involving union leaders and Department of Trade and Industry officials.

pic.: PA / guardian.com

In 2012 The Guardian reported how Thatcher had described the miners in personal papers as "basically reasonable people" and did not fear that they would follow leader Arthur Scargill to cause further disputes. Mr Scargill went on to lead the miners in a year-long strike - the longest ever in the UK - from March 1984, when the Coal Board announced the closure of 20 pits.

sources: BBC, guardian.

17/2/81: Queen demands answer from Diana

On Tuesday February 17 the Daily Mirror published an "exclusive" front page story on Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, who had returned from a holiday in Australia. The Queen was said to have pressured her son into getting an answer from Diana after his marriage proposal earlier in the month.

Also on this day: actor Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (below) and Paris Hilton, grand-daughter of American hotelier Conrad Hilton were born.

16/2/81: The sorry state of Soho (The Observer)

On Sunday 16 February 1981 The Observer featured an article lamenting the sorry state of the London district of Soho. The article by Patrick O'Donovan stated that the once "charming and graceful" area now has "more than 160 shops and establishments devoted to fringe sex and titillation".

pic.: Photoshot/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

O'Donovan goes on to blame the civic authorities such as Westminster City and the Greater London Council for the demise since they were the ones who licences the "massage parlours and saunas" and other "places of entertainment" in Soho.

On Valentine's Day 2006, a campaign was launched to drive business back into the heart of Soho. The campaign, called I Love Soho, was backed by the former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, the Soho Society, Westminster Council and Visit London.


source: Observer archive (guardian.com)


Also on this day:

BBC Radio 1 John Peel show:
- first play of The Human League's new single 'Boys and Girls'
- first transmission of New Order session
- first play of Simple Minds' new single 'Celebrate'

15/2/81: NBC News Update With Jane Pauley

A brief news bulletin broadcast on NBC, February 15, 1981.

   

News items include the Polish Communist leader in Czechoslovakia, the Atlanta murders, the cost of heating oil, and a possible Beatles reunion after the death of John Lennon.

Jane Pauley (b. 1950) was a newsreader and anchorwoman on NBC's Today news programme from 1976-1989 and from 1992-2003, she co-hosted NBC's Dateline NBC. In 2004 she began her own daytime talkshow which was then cancelled after one season.

Source: youtube, wikipedia.

14/2/81: Saint Valentine's Day

UK Royal Mail special stamp design for St Valentine's Day, 1981.

The stamp was part of a special Folklore set issued on 6 February.

source: Collect GB Stamps

13/2/81: Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' live in Dortmund

On Friday 13 February British rock band Pink Floyd played the first of eight consecutive nights in Dortmund, Germany as part of their 1980-1981 The Wall Tour. This was the first time that the concert had been performed in mainland Europe, after opening in the USA in a year previously and shows in the UK in August 1980.

pic.: artnet.com

These liver performances of the album The Wall were noted for their ambitious stage set-up whereby a wall was physically built up throughout the performance, effectively isolating the band from the audience, in line with the concept of the original album and writer and performer Roger Waters' feelings towards his music and performance.

Dortmund in West Germany was said to have been chosen as a location for the concerts in order to reflect the condition of the Berlin Wall, still in force at the time. At the end of the Pink Floyd show "The Wall" is demolished as part of the show.

source: brain-damage.co.uk