Everything 80's

I remember it vividly as Grandstand went live to John Motson and at first I thought oh no, more hooliganism, but then it dawned on me that something bad was occuring and I watched in horror at what unfolded...I will never forget that day and being a Liverpool since a kid I've watched the game change and evolve and we have a fine team but I am just numb each time something about that terrible tragedy is shown. Next year is I think the last big anniversary - i think the City and its people have healed and proved that all those lies about the fans and City were complete rubbish. Finally exonerated a few years ago. I will never forget the 96 (yes I know it is 95 but everyone of them counts) and neither should any true football fan. YNWA.

Which bands were you into back then? I was indoctrinated into the delights of The Police by my friend at school but I also liked The Jam, Madness, The Specials etc but not all two-tone or ska. I think I liked an eclectic mix but wasn't into heavy rock or heavy metal and some of the usual stuff was pretty bad. I did like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet because it was less 'rage against the state' which at the time most of the music was aimed at. I remember the musical arm of the Labour Party back then, mostly railing against Mrs Thatcher and her cronies - they were called RED WEDGE and had luminaries like Billy Bragg who wrote a very good protest song about the Miners called 'Between the Wars'

I liked The Police but hated most of the pop music that was in the charts as my two older sisters drove me crazy with it day in,day out.My older brother got me into me into heavy music,Metallica,Iron Maiden and Exodus to name a few in '88 when I was six.I'd didn't understand the lyrics at that age but the music moved me and I've been into it ever since.

(26-11-2018 20:15 )rpj316 Wrote:  I liked The Police but hated most of the pop music that was in the charts as my two older sisters drove me crazy with it day in,day out.My older brother got me into me into heavy music,Metallica,Iron Maiden and Exodus to name a few in '88 when I was six.I'd didn't understand the lyrics at that age but the music moved me and I've been into it ever since.

Bringing back memories of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal my friend...Motörhead, Saxon and most fondly remembered from 1980 time was when Iron Maiden had that raw almost punk metal sound which absolutely blew me away when I first heard their debut album. Was a fan of Rainbow and Gillan as well around that time.

Loved that stuff and always will..

The American heavy metal stuff was a pale imitation-you only have to look at people like Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen who whilst being good rockers looked more like girls with their silly hairstyles and equally silly clothing. Lemmy from Motorhead wouldn't be seen dead in some of that get up. I think you lose a lot of credibility with all that lot.

I agree about the MTV hair metal/cheese rock shit but the big 4 of thrash,Metallica, Megadeth,Anthrax and Slayer along with Iron Maiden,Exodus and many others were and still are unparalleled in terms of intelligent lyrics and musicianship.

The same for me, back in the 80's when I first got into Heavy Metal (Whiplash by Metallica and the album Kill 'Em All was the spark that ignited my interest) the lyrics didn't mean much to me as it was the guitar riffs and drums that I was interested in. The hairdos on some were a bit outlandish and the fashion was also a bit bewildering to me, the skin tight denim jeans and so forth, but on the flip side it peaked my interest in wanting to learn to play the guitar back then and try to play some of those great riffs which I still do today. Some bands do take their lyrics to the extreme and some of it is absolute tosh! But as rpj316 says some of the great early bands have released great tracks with decent lyrics to match.

Remember when Motorhead appeared on The Young Ones that was quite something as not many heavy metal bands appeared that much on mainstream television. The 1980's were dominated by many genres like Two-tone, SKA, New Romantics, post-punk stuff and the cheesy absolute 'chewing gum pop' stuff which appealed to the teens. It was quite a decade, mind you the fashion was questionable too.

The greatest cartoon of the 80s

I remember watching The Young One's back in the 80's, which ran from 1982 - 1984, I remember the band Madness being in one episode singing 'Our House' and then near the end of the song it turned into a mass scrap with the band members going berserk with their fake guitars and trying to beat ten bails out of each other, the whole thing descended into anarchy, with a riot van turning up within seconds, out of nowhere, followed by an army truck but it was funny to watch back then.

Some other comedy show/sketches I remember were Spitting Image, The Benny Hill show, Hale and Pace to name a few.

But with Hale and Pace I'm not sure if you could get away with some of the sketches today that they did back then.