“ Almost every owner of a TV or radio in the world has danced to James Brown’s inimitable grooves at some point in the last half century, even if they don’t know it. Recently, producer-songwriter Pharrell Williams sampled Brown’s hit My Thang on Kanye West and Jay-Z’s 2011 single Gotta Have It, while his 1970 hit Funky Drummer has been sampled a record 929 times. Altogether Brown’s tunes have been sampled 4,500 times by everyone from Eric B and Rakim to Public Enemy. Accordingly, I’d contest that he is the most influential single recording artist of all time.
“James Brown is magic,” declared an awe-struck Michael Jackson. “I’ve never dared speak to him, but I consider James Brown my greatest teacher.” Meanwhile Mick Jagger, who spent hours watching him as a youngster, admitted to “trying to steal everything I could,” from the master. . . ” / Continued at Alpha Magazine
◼ TEN OF THE MOST POPULAR POSTS visited here during 2014 confirm Shapers of the 80s as an “invaluable website” in the words of British historian Dominic Sandbrook. Grounded in the 1980s – the most explosive decade for British youth culture since the Swinging 60s – our eye witness reports and monthly reviews of British nightlife were originally published in magazines such as The Face, the “style bible” of its day. Our recent commentaries monitor fresh interest in the revival of 80s music and attitude during the past five years. Year-ending visit figures at Shapers of the 80s during 2014 have increased year-on-year by 16% to total 210,000.
Much unseen vintage video footage was discovered by the producers researching Spandau Ballet’s biopic, Soul Boys of the Western World, which proved an eye-opening slice of social history when it was released this year. Every frame reveals the sheer energy and commitment to hedonism and creative self-expression that characterised a generation of school-leavers who in the economic gloom of 1979 faced the threat of no jobs ever in their adult lives. The parallels with Britain’s protracted austerity today are obvious and we might hope the lessons of the 80s will again inspire the young to take their fate into their own hands.
Seminal spread in i-D issue one: the straight-up style is established with one then unknown New Romantic and one punkette. Photographed on the King’s Road in London by Steve Johnston
Real Blitz Kids versus the TV version: George’s boyfriend Wilf and Stephen Linard in 1979 (picture, Andy Rosen)… Daniel Wallace as a Linard lookalike and Douglas Booth as Boy George in Worried About the Boy, 2010 (BBC)
◼ HOT HIGHLIGHTS from the annual Popjustice Readers’ Poll nail exactly who mattered on the UK music scene in 2014, plus frank verdicts on those acts you really want to see turned over. We’ve avoided too many spoilers here – mainly teasers to send you to PJ for the teeming madhouse of Joe P’s opinion. . .
BEST SINGLES OF THE YEAR
Sia – Chandelier
Charli XCX – Boom Clap
Taylor Swift – Shake It Off
[Full chart online at PJ, along with Worst Singles]
BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
Taylor Swift – 1989
Sia – 1000 Forms of Fear
Ariana Grande – My Everything
[Full chart online at PJ, along with Worst Albums]
MAJOR ARTIST WITH DISAPPOINTING MUSIC MOST AT ODDS WITH ABILITY TO ACHIEVE BETTER
Cheryl
Calvin Harris
Lady Gaga
Match these acts to the remaining awards
MORE IN SIMILAR INSOLENT VEIN, SUCH AS:
Worst attempt at a solo career. . . Most ridiculous recording artist. . . Had it, lost it in 2014. . . Most deluded artist. . . Total bellend of the year (a bit hard on Louis Walsh, this one)
Best deejay. . . Best TV show with music. . . Best video and Shoddiest video. . .
Best new act to properly get going in 2014. . . Newish act most likely to save pop in 2015. . . Act we should send to Eurovision in 2015
Group most likely to split in 2015 (no direction needed to guess the first in a list of ten).
Sickest beat of the year as good excuse to get Lorde mentioned. And many more to keep you smirking.
Exiting the X Factor: a month ago Only The Young were tipped to become the best pop group in the country. (Photo: Syco)
◼ THERE’S NO JUSTICE IN POP – usually where Simon Cowell is involved – until Popjustice has spoken. And the nicest thing to happen to the ubertalented act booted off The X Factor finals this weekend – two girls, two boys called Only The Young – is to be told today exactly how to plan their career by Peter Robinson, the Svengali behind the brilliant comment website Popjustice, whose whole existence is “all about giving pop precisely the amount of respect it deserves”. And that demands more real deep-down loving for the daffy world of tinsel tunes and unrequited fan worship than dishing out easy kicks to the gut. PR is The Daddy and we don’t mean patronising, we mean paternal. He is a saint and PJ is a miracle melange of twitchy gotta-dance feet and non-cynical sarkiness. The real clue is in its name.
PJ’s editorial stance
So what can Only The Young discover today after their long dark Sunday of sobbing into their pillows because there’s no justice in TV talent contests? If they google themselves now they will find that Popjustice has rushed boldly into print with a letter of pure lurrrve and really shrewd advice drawn from years of knowing its way round the demented biz of pop.
PJ doesn’t rant on saying “They wuz robbed”. Instead it explains odd facts of life of about how a TV talent show can miscast an act, how it juggles its roster and how other talent-show rejects have shipwrecked their careers within five minutes. Then PJ tells Only The Young how brilliant they are and delivers a six-month action plan:
“Think of yourselves as a Wall’s Viennetta. Imagine that you are amazing, which shouldn’t be hard because you are, indeed, amazing. And imagine that you are in the freezer. You will still be amazing when you’re taken out of the freezer in six or eight months.”
This masterclass of pure-pop careers advice (easily worth 10% of their future contract) goes on for 1,000 words about which label to sign to, which producers to call, which acts not to emulate and which two to follow. The best tip of all is about haircuts.
Our synopsis does not contain spoilers and you really should click through to the full monty now.
➢ Choose “View full site” – then in the blue bar atop your mobile page, click the three horizontal lines linking to many blue themed pages with background article
MORE INTERESTING THAN MOST PEOPLE’S FANTASIES — THE SWINGING EIGHTIES 1978-1984
They didn’t call themselves New Romantics, or the Blitz Kids – but other people did.
“I’d find people at the Blitz who were possible only in my imagination. But they were real” — Stephen Jones, hatmaker, 1983. (Illustration courtesy Iain R Webb, 1983)
“The truth about those Blitz club people was more interesting than most people’s fantasies” — Steve Dagger, pop group manager, 1983
PRAISE INDEED!
“See David Johnson’s fabulously detailed website Shapers of the 80s to which I am hugely indebted” – Political historian Dominic Sandbrook, in his book Who Dares Wins, 2019
“The (velvet) goldmine that is Shapers of the 80s” – Verdict of Chris O’Leary, respected author and blogger who analyses Bowie song by song at Pushing Ahead of the Dame
“The rather brilliant Shapers of the 80s website” – Dylan Jones in his Sweet Dreams paperback, 2021
A UNIQUE HISTORY
➢ WELCOME to the Swinging 80s ➢ THE BLOG POSTS on this front page report topical updates ➢ ROLL OVER THE MENU at page top to go deeper into the past ➢ FOR NEWS & MONTH BY MONTH SEARCH scroll down this sidebar
❏ Header artwork by Kat Starchild shows Blitz Kids Darla Jane Gilroy, Elise Brazier, Judi Frankland and Steve Strange, with David Bowie at centre in his 1980 video for Ashes to Ashes
VINCENT ON AIR 2026
✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent has returned to JazzFM on Sundays 1-3pm… Catch up on Robbie’s JazzFM August Bank Holiday 2020 session thanks to AhhhhhSoul with four hours of “nothing but essential rhythms of soul, jazz and funk”.
TOLD FOR THE FIRST TIME
◆ 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
SEARCH our 925 posts or ZOOM DOWN TO THE ARCHIVE INDEX
UNTOLD BLITZ STORIES
✱ If you thought there was no more to know about the birth of Blitz culture in 1980 then get your hands on a sensational 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
CHEWING THE FAT
✱ Jawing at Soho Radio on the 80s clubland revolution (from 32 mins) and on art (@55 mins) is probably the most influential shaper of the 80s, former Wag-club director Chris Sullivan (pictured) with editor of this website David Johnson
LANDMARK FAREWELLS. . . HIT THE INDEX TAB UP TOP FOR EVERYTHING ELSE
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