Tag: singles

*1981’s Top 28 or so – 30th December 1981

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment
  1. B-Movie – Remembrance Day
  2. The Jam – Going Underground
  3. Angelic Upstarts – We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
  4. The Professionals – Just Another Dream
  5. Clash – Clash City Rockers
  6. Sex Pistols – No One Is Innocent
  7. UK Subs – Keep On Running
  8. Exploited – Dogs of War
  9. UK Subs – CID
  10. The Members – Solitary Confinement
  11. Generation X – King Rocker
  12. Bow Wow Wow – C30 C60 C90 GO!
  13. UK Subs – Tomorrow’s Girls
  14. The Damned – Dr Jykell and Mr Hyde
  15. The Mutants – Hard Time
  16. Tenpole Tudor – Who Killed Bambi?
  17. The Members – Sound of the Suburbs
  18. Stiff Little Fingers – Sound of the Suburbs
  19. Undertones – My Perfect Cousin
  20. The Professionals – 1-2-3
  21. Cockney Rejects – Here We Go Again
  22. The Damned – Wait For The Blackout
  23. Tenpole Tudor – Rock Around The Clock
  24. Stiff Little Fingers – Johnny Was
  25. The Damned – Curtain Call
  26. Sex Pistols – Black Leather
  27. Stiff Little Fingers – Just Fade Away
  28. Tenpole Tudor – Swords of a Thousand Men

3rd Feb 2023 – This list is from the back of my diary and on the page following is a revision, top 25 only, though it looks like I planned more. That list added Stiff Little Fingers – Picadilly Circus, Adam and the Ants – Stand and Deliver, Stiff Little Fingers – Silver Lining and Clash – Magnificent Seven.

Singles of the Year – 31st December 1980

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Dead Kennedys – Holiday in Cambodia
The Fall – How I Wrote ‘Elastic Man’

17th July 2021 – Holiday in Cambodia still sends chills down my spine. I would have first heard this on John Peel’s radio show I’m sure, as well as all the Fall singles. I listen to the Fall quite regularly still (still discovering parts of their huge back catalog), more so than the DK’s.

I’d scour the NME and Sounds ‘indie’ charts and marvel at all the weird names of bands and song titles, curious about everything. The genre ‘punk’ still encompassed so many different sounds around this time and even crappy little bands from places like Nowhere, Cornwall could sell 10,000 or more copies of their DIY 7″. I feel lucky to have been at just the right age to get caught up in it all.

At the time I wished I was older and could have gotten caught in the first punk wave but in retrospect that explosion seemed to alienate many after a year or two and it’s legacy, whilst worthy, perhaps wouldn’t have inspired such a life long dedication to these oddball sounds that I still hanker to find in new bands today.