How Good Was The Year (in music) - 1986?

I wonder what promoted both Camper Van Beethoven and Love and Rockets to cover songs from Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in 1986.

Don’t think so. I went for London 0 Hull 4 in the albums nominations but Happy Hour’s still up for grabs.

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In that case nominate song - Happy Hour by The Housemartins

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Trivia corner: In 1986 as part of Michael Hurll’s revamp of Top of the Pops, the theme tune was changed to Paul Hardcastle’s The Wizard. Janice Long said the choice was influenced “by the likes of myself and [John Peel]…really picking up on the dance scene”.

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a perfect time capsule, that TV clip.

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Where did you get this footage of me doing today’s JAMuary?

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Right at the end of this totp clip you catch the opening chords of another stone cold 86 jam that I forgot about, thanks for the prompt

Gold

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Getting the song from that brief an intro is some impressive Midnight Star knowledge!

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Not sure if we’ve mentioned the NME’s influential indie-pop C86 compilation yet, allegedly “a byproduct of NME’s “hip hop wars” - a schism in the paper (and among readers) between enthusiasts of contemporary progressive black music (for example, by Public Enemy and Mantronix), and fans of guitar-based music, as represented on C86”. Either way, plenty of artists on here who went on to commercial or critical success - Primal Scream, Soup Dragons, Wedding Present, Half Man Half Biscuit, Pastels.

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That groove is unmistakable though

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I’d never heard it before - happy to have that rectified!

Such a joyful tune (and video)

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Anyone mentioned Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Tinderbox yet?

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Looking through the C86 tracklist reminds me about the great Birmingham band Fuzzbox (We’ve Got A Fuzzbox and We’re Gonna Use It, to give them their full name). They signed to a major in 1989, and smartened up into a top 20 chart-friendly girl-pop group, but I much prefer the ramshackle 1986 Bostin’ Steve Austin version.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1quZbpgLh7w

Nominate single: Cocteau Twins - Loves Easy Tears

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Don’t think this has been mentioned (Kraftwerk - Musique Non Stop)

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I still haven’t made it past A Kiss in the Dreamhouse when it comes to S&tB albums. Not that pumped to listen to Hyæna I guess, so it’s holding me up. I know the singles though an this is a great one.

Added Moving Targets’ album to my 1986 backlog and have been shuffling that list the last few days. What I’ve heard sounds great, thanks for mentioning.

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They’re a fantastic band. Sadly two of the original members died prematurely but thankfully Kenny Chambers (lead singer/guitarist) is still going and released a new Moving Targets album in 2020.

Love them - obviously Kenny Chambers is the man, but love Pat Brady’s drumming so much. The first three albums with the original line up are all amazing

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