Mark Wyman

An '80s history graduate writes: Wow, Scarisbrick was alive until yesterday? That's quite a surprise (but I see that's the Wiki-way of it).

Sympathy in spades with you there. Without divulging details, we've had a pretty challenging week in that department too.

Is it about Innumerate Dracula?

Thanks John, those prints were indeed loaned out repeatedly - I just can't recall who had them last!

This was Clapton's only entry in my 1980 chart. Tulsa, which is Oklahoma's second city, is best known as somewhere that one might be #24HoursFrom, as in the #Bacharach/David sing made famous by Gene Pitney. But here in south London, I'm a little under 24 minutes from Tulse Hill station, if I walk.

Tulsa Time (Live) YouTube video by Eric Clapton - Topic

Track 174 of 400: “TULSA TIME / COCAINE (live)” by Eric Clapton
Before Clapton's mammoth run of live gigs at the Albert Hall, there was his “Just One Night” LP, recorded at Tokyo's famed (but rather dull-looking) #Budokan theatre. “Tulsa Time” had been a recent country #1 in the US for Don Williams.

Cross is best known in the UK for 1981's “Arthur's Theme”, but this was his breakout US hit (#2 for a month in the Billboard charts; it barely scratched our official rundown). Andrea Calvetti's all-women mini #roadmovie for the song is more cinematic than any music video could dream of 45 years ago!

Christopher Cross - Ride Like The Wind (Official Music Video) [45th Anniversary] YouTube video by Christopher Cross

Track 175 of 400: “RIDE LIKE THE WIND” by Christopher Cross
The impetus to recreate my personal 1980 countdown was that last year, it was 45 years since I'd ranked all that 45 rpm vinyl. So it's pleasing to find Cross's classic AOR song from that year finally had an official video … 45 years later.

“No Easy Way” came from Gillan's 2nd album as a band: “Glory Road” would peak at #3 in the LP charts in 1980, and the next year "Future Shock" would go one better. But by 1984, singer Ian Gillan had recorded his one album with #BlackSabbath and had a Top 5 LP with a reformed #DeepPurple.

#80sRock

Gillan - No Easy Way YouTube video by dubguy123

Track 176 of 400: “NO EASY WAY” by Gillan
Back in 1980, I put this relentlessly driving single as the highest of three entries from the band known simply as #Gillan; in other words, my favourite of theirs that year. Which meant nothing to the UK's record buyers, as it didn't chart nationally at all.

Thanks for sharing those, John - they look great! I wish I knew where the prints of what I took on Horsenden Hill for Survival have got to. I might still have my negs but not really sure.

Featuring Tony Butler (later of #BigCountry) on bass, “Let My Love...” led with keyboards and harmonies, rather than the guitar rock conjured by the Who. It was the only Top 10 hit for Townshend in the USA and Canada, but got no higher than #46 in the UK. It has featured on many film soundtracks.

Pete Townshend - Let My Love Open The Door YouTube video by PeteTownshendVEVO

Track 177 of 400: “LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR” by Pete Townshend
Here's the second of three listings in my 1980 chart from the successful #Townshend solo album “Empty Glass”, and it's a surprisingly upbeat, poppy tune—certainly compared to the song I ranked highest in 1980. More on that story later.

I have no recollection of ever knowing it was a cover until today!

Unfortunately, this is a pretty shabby track and a very long way from #IronMaiden at their most powerful, but (obvs) I didn't know that then. It peaked at #35 in the UK. Also, I read today that it's also a cover version of a track by Aussie band Skyhooks, so I'll let the UK rockers ... off the hook.

Iron Maiden - Women In Uniform (Official Video) YouTube video by Iron Maiden

Track 178 of 400: “WOMEN IN UNIFORM” by Iron Maiden
Here's the first of 3 singles from early vintage Maiden, to which I was most partial back in 1980. No Bruce Dickinson on vocals yet, as on their first two albums the lungs were those of Paul Di'Anno. Back to the #NewWaveofBritishHeavyMetal we go!

(Many vintage cheesecake/beefcake images from c.1980 in that amateur video, BTW). Interesting to see an exec producer credit on this for Muff #Winwood —producer of Dire Straits' debut album, early LPs by Sparks, many Bay City Rollers hits etc, and elder brother to Steve. But no hits for The Quick.

The Quick - Ship to shore [1980 7" single] YouTube video by Disco & dance music rarities

Track 179 of 400: “SHIP TO SHORE” by The Quick
Even in a great year for music like 1980, some fine songs always, ahem, sink without trace. Here's a second track from the catchy new-waveish pop outfit previously listed in my chart at #378 with “Hip, Shake, Jerk”. Should've been a hit!

#Forgotten80s

Oh interesting, I hadn't thought of that.

Why yes, I am cheating a bit with that clip: it's from the phenomenal December '83 sessions that became Jonathan Demme's film “Stop Making Sense”, but it was too good (just #toofunky, thanks to Tina Weymouth's bass) not to. The original studio version is more abrasive, with Byrne snarling the words.

Talking Heads - Cities (Live 1983 - HD) YouTube video by Violet Addams

Track 180 of 400: “CITIES” by Talking Heads
A few places above that bizarre take on “Psycho Killer” in my chart, here's the band themselves with a track from their third LP “Fear of Music”. I'm sure Scottish-born #DavidByrne (hey, he shares my birthday!) was teasing in calling London a small city.

In retrospect, it's one of my favourite songs by Birmingham's finest ska-fuelled band. I guess it was early 1981 when I bought the dub-heavy 12” #vinyl version (which I still own, natch), so I clearly rated it more highly than this placing. Three more 1980 #Beat songs in the wings in this countdown!

The English Beat - Too Nice to Talk To (Official Music Video) YouTube video by RHINO

Track 181 of 400: “TOO NICE TO TALK TO” by The Beat
This was the 4th single released by The “English” Beat in 1980, but too close to the year's end to have proper impact on my annual round-up. Which is to say: I'd have put it much higher in a chart for 1981, where it peaked at #7 the next January.

But as great as Skids sounded, with that guitar energy from #StuartAdamson … I was Today Years Old when I discovered most of the lyrics to this one, because that's how impenetrable Richard Jobson's songs were. Did I know it refers to Vietnam, the iron rod, Tragen and human flares? Absolutely not.

The Skids ~ Working For The Yankee Dollar-video YouTube video by skidsvids

Track 182 of 400: “WORKING FOR THE YANKEE DOLLAR” by Skids
In my teens, I loved the sound that #Skids made, so here's the first of *five* singles by the Scottish band on release in 1980 that fell within my chart. This song peaked at #20 in the UK in that mid-January but spent 8 weeks in the Top 30.

The Best Worst Lines In Doctor Who Doctor Who is a television show with hundreds of episodes and thousands of lines of dialogue. Some of those lines are brilliant, inspiring, profound, they can lift your day and/or understanding of …

The best worst lines in Doctor Who, the ones where you can take most delight in the sheer terribleness: lmmyles.com/2026/02/06/t...

Spookily, I was eating biscuits* when I stumbled upon your thread just now. I am, though, absolutely positive that I bought them for myself.

*well, chocolate rice cakes

In April 1976, in a café at Cambridge railway station, Douglas Adams bought some biscuits. We know this because he told the story so many times that it somehow opened up a wormhole in the space-time continuum, travelling both forwards and backwards and, intriguingly, sideways in time. (1/some...)

Even by the standards of scandalous svengali McLaren's career, his overseeing of a band fronted by the 14 year-old Annabella Lwin with lyrics that were as, on this song, more than suggestive caused a lot of controversy. All the same, #BowWowWow 's chart impact was minor during 1980.
#80sCassettes

Bow Wow Wow - Louis Quatorze YouTube video by The Jukebox Rebel

Track 183 of 400: “LOUIS QUATORZE” by Bow Wow Wow
Radical format alert! So far, my 1980 countdown has been all about the vinyl. But here's "Your Cassette Pet", a mini-album *in that form only* from a band created by Malcolm McLaren. This was the lead track in a set of 8 allowed in the singles chart.