Let’s be clear about this: we all need a bit of Utah Saints in our lives from time to time. Leading their fantastic second album (they ran out of ideas for the title, and ended up just going with Two), this is the catchy Love Song:
Both charts in October was dominated by the return of The Future Sound of London, with Cascade 2020 holding the top spot on the album chart for the whole month, and the single Cascade finally knocking Pet Shop Boys‘ West End girls off the top of the singles half way through the month.
There was some back catalogue drama on the albums meanwhile, as demonstrated by this top ten from October 24th:
After a sixteen-year gap between their first two albums, they only waited a quarter as long for the next one, so The Avalanches seem to have returned very quickly (it’s still a four-year gap). The album We Will Always Love You is out in a couple of weeks, preceded by this single with Leon Bridges, Interstellar Love:
The 1983 ceremony was held on 21st February 1984, to celebrate the music of the preceding year. It was simulcast on BBC TV and BBC Radio 1, and was held at The Lyceum in London. It was presented by David Jensen and Sarah Kennedy. Unfortunately, relatively little information was available about the final ceremony at the time that this article was researched.
In the award for Best Single were True, by Spandau Ballet, in third place, and Duran Duran with Is There Something I Should Know? in second place.
Winner: Culture Club, for Karma Chameleon
Paul McCartney appeared on video at the awards, presumably having won something.
By the following year, the BPI Awards (later the BRITs) were swiftly gaining momentum, and were well on the way to becoming the definitive British music award ceremony. They were also fully televised, for the first time since 1977, effectively taking the place of the British Rock & Pop Awards. Whether that’s the reason why these awards were discontinued, or whether there’s some other reason, is long lost in the mists of time.
For comparison, the 1984 BPI Awards can be viewed here. Culture Club won there, and Spandau Ballet received a technical award, but Duran Duran were entirely overlooked.
If you weren’t aware of Sophie Ellis-Bextor‘s Kitchen Disco shows during the initial UK lockdown then you definitely missed a treat. The unfortunate irony that her resulting greatest hits album Songs from the Kitchen Disco came out just in time for the second lockdown is a shame, but the track listing looks great, as was this lead single, a cover of Alcazar‘s gloriously camp 2001 disco classic Crying at the Discothèque:
The 1982 ceremony was held on 9th February 1983, to celebrate the music of the preceding year. The ceremony took place at The Lyceum in London, and was presented by Anne Diamond and David “Kid” Jensen.
On 15th January, Tommy Vance and Kid Jensen voiced this promo for the awards for BBC Radio 1 (also trailed here). There’s some early coverage from Nationwide, below:
Winner: Alison Moyet
Winner: Boy George
Winner: Duran Duran, with Culture Club in second place and Dexys Midnight Runners in third.
Presented by Toyah Willcox. Winner: Simon Le Bon
Nominees included:
ABC ended up in third place; Madness in second; and the winner was Duran Duran
Nominees included:
Winner: Dexys Midnight Runners, with Duran Duran in second and Culture Club in third.
Winner: unknown
The 1983 BPI Awards can be viewed here, and was a very different ceremony. Alison Moyet wasn’t yet the ceremony favourite, and Boy George and Duran Duran failed to win too.
Why on Earth did none of you tell me about this? I rely on people like you to bring things like this to my attention. I just happened to be glancing at the German charts a few weeks back, and noticed that someone called Robin Schulz was riding close to the top with this updated version of Wes‘s 1995 hit Alane. It’s not quite as good as the original (obvs) but it’s not at all bad.
September started with Pet Shop Boys retaking the top of the singles chart with their lockdown version of West End girls, who then held onto the top slot for the whole of the month. The albums, meanwhile, belonged again to The Beloved, who held the top with their reissued Happiness for the whole month too.
Here are the top singles from September 19th:
This week, the random jukebox selected another track from Lamb, about whom I know very little, apart from the fact that – as I’ve probably said here before – I saw them play live once, but their gear hadn’t arrived, so they had to improvise an acoustic set, and ended up not being too great. Anyway, well done for trying – and this is Gabriel:
Music for stowaways 