“I don’t think there’s ever been such a rush towards insignificance in the name of the historical future as we’ve seen in the last 15 years.” — Robert Hughes concluding his TV series The Shock of the New in 1980
➢ War: the 20th-century way to build a new world — Robert Hughes laments the effects of war in The Shock of The New
◆ Who was who in Spandau’s break-out year of 1980? The Invisible Hand of Shapersofthe80s draws a selective timeline for The unprecedented rise and rise of Spandau Ballet –– Turn to our inside page
✱ Johnny Marr plays Manchester’s Albert Hall 4-5 Sept on his European summer tour propelled by his magical third solo album. Marr says: “Call The Comet is set in the not-too-distant future and is mostly concerned with the idea of an alternative society. It’s my own magic realism.”
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✱ Career-spanning collection featuring all of Midge Ure’s solo singles, select Ultravox recordings, previously unreleased material and collaborations with artists such as Kate Bush, Moby, Mick Karn and Sir George Martin. Soundtrack 1978-2019 is released on 20 Sept as 2CD+DVD set, priced £16
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✱ Shakespears Sister have announced their official reunion as a band, 26 years after they originally disbanded. They embark on a 14-date Ride Again UK Tour on 31 October. Meanwhile their album Singles Party (1988-2019) is out now
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✱ The 50-date Peter Frampton Farewell Tour is running through the summer in the USA. Frampton will retire from regular vigorous touring at the end of this year due to illness. $1 of every ticket sold will benefit The Peter Frampton Myositis Research Fund at Johns Hopkins. He says his latest album All Blues “kicks ass on every track”. Alas the British-born Face of ’68 is not saying farewell in his homeland
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✱ On 7 Oct deejay Gary Crowley is ‘Coming Home’ to The Cockpit Theatre in NW8, a neighbourhood stage where he once attended the weekly youth drama group. He will be discussing his career in music, radio and TV with writer Navaz Batliwalla. Plus other dversions, all for £10
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✱ Party Time! The current B-52s World tour continues across the States through September
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✱ The new track Dance In The Hurricane from Toyah Willcox’s album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen is out now… Toyah is performing live dates through summer to her Crimson Queen autumn tour – details at Toyah’s own website
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✱ Watch out for ex-Wag Club supremo Chris Sullivan’s new book Rebel Rebel for £11. It runs to 480 pages with rigorous appreciations of such heroes as Bowie, Iggy and Robert Mitchum, plus his own illustrations. Cheapest bought from Waterstones
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✱ Apart from being a seminal force in forging the new pop music of the Swinging Eighties, Blitz Club deejay Rusty Egan’s own “electro-diskow” album, Welcome to the Dancefloor, amounts to a superb sonic landmark. Read the full review at Shapersofthe80s
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✱ Jeff Young on Jazz FM last year made the new 18-track Siren his album of the week. This January it won the Bright Star Music Award for Best Soul / R& B Album 2018, brainchild of Colourful Radio. It was superbly crafted by Londoner Robb Scott, with strong supporting line-up, for the Expansion label. Soul Brother Records says: “A collection of classy soul/jazz grooves on that has jazz at its heart but with some superb soulful brushstrokes applied.” Purchase directly from the artist’s store
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✱ If you thought there was no more to know about the birth of Blitz culture in 1980 then get your hands on a sensational new book by an obsessive music fan called David Barrat. It is gripping, original and epic – a spooky tale of coincidence and parallel lives as mind-tingling as a Sherlock Holmes yarn. Titled both New Romantics Who Never Were and The Untold Story of Spandau Ballet! Sample this initial taster here at Shapers of the 80s
➢ Search for all on Bowie here
at Shapers of the 80s
✱ “I’m not a rock star” Bowie often said – No, David, you were a messiah – Obituaries and key videos on the godlike one
✱ Prince Rogers Nelson RIP: ‘A funny cat’ and ‘sole authentic genius’ of the 1980s
