worst 80s band- thompson twins or level 42

Surely BONEY M   was the worse band of all time

Jul 7, 2017 -- 10:19AM, Mick Sturbs wrote:

Surely BONEY M   was the worse band of all time

technically 70s mick, so not qualified although i agree with comments, dont even think sang on thier records like blackbox and kenny.

Jul 7, 2017 -- 8:00AM, doridoru wrote:

The crazy thing about all these crap 80s bands that did well, while here in the UK the simply brilliant Talk Talk had songs like Its My Life and Such A Shame that didn't even reach the top 40 when released! These days Its My Life is played more than most of the big 80s hitters, how did it only get to 46 in 1984 such a great song, guess Radio 1 ignored it at the time...

totally agree, and my original post is based on bitterness i had at the time and have still got ( im 52 and should really let it go ) , bands that were imageless ie pale fountains, friends again,love and money, go-betweens, the bible, releasing great singles yet no chart success for any of them, yet dress up in bohemian clothing, dye your hair wear a stupid hat, release a s hit single and roberts your uncle.

Yup even sadder is the genius behind Talk Talk...Mark Hollis retired in 1998! all the music he could have made, while the usual 80s suspects are churning out their crap on 80s tours

talk talk should get a mention, only cos they were fooking superb

Talk Talk were on the verge of massive world stardom in 1986 after The Colour Of Spring album...Hollis pulled the plug, no more live gigs or chart singles...Spirit Of Eden followed along with Laughing Stock, never bothered about the money, shame or we would have had more music lol.

But like Morpteh what the heck was happening in the 80s with good bands ignored here? Talk Talk never appeared on the covers of singles or albums, never had an image...never played the game, just brilliant music, but were massive in Europe, Such A Shame top 10 in 1984 all over the place...UK not even top 40!!?!?

Culture Club, Wham? just dated trash...check out Talk Talk, fresh as a daisy!

Talk Talk were brillinat - but disagree about air play - used to play those two a lot on Radio 1  .  Too much pap was stopping a lot of good records reaching the 10 and 20 - a bit like now lol .

if you listened to music a lot though you wouldn't have missed anything  then -  radio Laser (south east ) also played a lot of good tunes

i saw talk talk supporting duran duran

(and first saw duran duran supporting hazel o'connor)

i bought most of talk talks singles up to about 1985

talk talk was my favourite, but that was a reworking of his previous bands song

a top band, and most under rated

Have long had the Thompson Twins down as the worst ever but must say I heard one of their hits a while back and it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Would probably now go for Culture Club. Just cannot listen to them. Gimmicky sh!te.

love them too reform, that live gig in france from "86 on youtube is top stuff

U2

Jul 7, 2017 -- 12:15PM, donny osmond wrote:

i saw talk talk supporting duran duran (and first saw duran duran supporting hazel o'connor)i bought most of talk talks singles up to about 1985talk talk was my favourite, but that was a reworking of his previous bands songa top band, and most under rated

Lucky you, wish I had seen them at their peak in 1986, from top synth band to guitar to inventing modern prog rock to retire before 40...genius.

That buck toothed bass slapping midget from level 42 deserved a good slap.

Yeah Culture Club are exact opposite to Talk Talk, aged so bad where Talk Talk's music has become timeless even though most of us Brits ignored it back then, massive in Italy etc, one thing Euro's got right lol

Went to a wedding with some mates in the 80's, the DJ played Get Up, Stand Up by Bob Marley so we all got up and stood up. Then he played Jump by Van Halen so we all jumped. Then he played Sit Down by James so we all sat down. Then he played Come on Eileen by Dexy's and that's when we were thrown out.

Anyway, anything produced by Stock, Aitkin and Waterman.

U2 weren't just the worst band of the 80s, they were also the worst support band of the 80s. Saw them at the Lyceum in the Strand in spring 1981 supporting John Cale. I know it was U2, because they had some lengths of guttering behind them on the stage spelling out U2 in big letters, just to prove it.

The audience started out bored and indifferent, then threw out a few jeers as the band plodded on with a set straight out of 1975. And plodded on and on and on ... When would it ever end? It was simply plain embarrassing, as though the previous 5 years had never happened. The Pistols, Television, Joy Division ... it had all just passed these lads by.

The worst of it was, they weren't even supposed to be there. Subway Sect was the support on the tickets, and my mate and I had been looking forward to seeing them for the first time. They were a notoriously hard act to pin down, and frontman Vic Godard managed to miss yet another appointment here. I think he was moonlighting with a job in a Mecca betting shop at the time. In the end he went on to become a postman, while the frontman out of U2 defied the boo boys, going on to become Pope, and then ending world poverty.

Funny old world.

Well screaming, I love guitar bands and most from the 70 onwards, you just confirmed why I can't stand U2, one of the most overrated bands of all time.

Johnny Hates Jazz
Cutting Crew
Bros
Nik Kershaw Band
Climie Fisher

....there really is stiff competition

Brother Beyond!

They really were armpit!

Go West and Wet Wet Wet must be SEETHING not to have made the frame.

Late 80s (and early 90s) bands Jesus Jones and Pop Will Eat Itself somehow deserve a mention IMHO.

Saw level 42 out in Seattle, that's 45 minutes of my life I'll never get back they opened for Madonna so my evening didn't improve much ! Milli Vanilli take some beating Imo

Hold Me Now by The Thompson Twins is a great song, as is Level 42's Leaving Me Now, imo...

Haircut 100 is fatally serious omission.

To really scrape the barrel of the 80s you would have to look stateside

Adam and the Ants shocking ommision.

Only a short thread(so far) but still enough to give you nightmares.

Jul 7, 2017 -- 8:45PM, Slicer wrote:

Haircut 100 is fatally serious omission.

cant have that mr slicer, love plus one, great pop song

Jul 7, 2017 -- 9:22PM, Deplasterer wrote:

Adam and the Ants shocking ommision.

magnificent shout mr deplasterer, always baffled me even as a 15-16 yr old how were they so popular with me fellow pupils ?
i was into squeeze/xtc whilst classmates considered themselves ant-people. god they were s hit.

Classix Nouveaux were beyond terrible but like a lot of bands of that era hilarious to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAiKC1FEc-A

Level 42 ?   wash yer mouth out with soap FFS.  They had some classic tracks. Mark King not much of a singer but his bass is right up there.

Thomson Twins not my cuppa tea but don't think they were that awful, there were loads worse than them in the 80s.

They did a music vid near a greyhound track gotta get respect for that.

Jul 8, 2017 -- 11:52AM, The_KAMIKAZEE_DRINKING_MACHINE wrote:

Classix Nouveaux were beyond terrible but like a lot of bands of that era hilarious to watch.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAiKC1FEc-A

always remember review of their sinlge ' is it a dream ? ' in the nme- review just said - 'no, its a bloody nightmare'.
again another style over substance band,being bald always a good gimmick and give yourself a stupid name

was driving along today when

"I ran" by a flock of seagulls came on the radio

a real classic


the dj reckoned that mike score is now bald as a coot

Saw A Flock Of Seagulls at the Electric Ballroom in Camden on the last Friday before Christmas, 1979. Fourth on the bill beneath the Bunnymen, the Teardrops and Scritti Politti.

They mooched on stage after a decent set by an act from Leeds called the Expelaires, only for one of the Seagulls to be unhappy with his tuning. Of course, once he'd re-tuned, everyone else was out of tune. Cue arguments, sulking and a right racket, as everybody turned out to have a different idea of what "E" should sound like. Then one of the Seagulls took exception to the advice that was beginning to be offered from the audience, and after a lively exchange of views the whole band stomped off stage left, never to re-emerge.

Four decades on, and they turned out to be probably the most successful of all the talent on display that night.

seemingly the score brothers were latterday gallaghers with their fall outs

screaming from beneaththewaves    08 Jul 17 23:00
...then one of the Seagulls took exception to the advice that was beginning to be offered from the audience, and after a lively exchange of views the whole band stomped off stage left, never to re-emerge...

and they ran?

think i've thought of an 80s band worse than thompson twin but had no longevity( think they knew they were s hit, unlike tt or level 42 who thought they had an iota of credibility).

ladies and gentlemen i give you- sigue sigue sputnik

King, just dreadful..saw them at Liverpool royal court in about 84.. Did a 45 minute set ending with love and pride, came on for the encore and did love and pride, came back on for 2nd encore and yet again played love and pride..just bilge

I'm with m.m. as well on Haircut 100. Not my thing at all but they had their place in the 80's market at the time. Clean cut, catchy pop music and they had a lot of success. Nick Heyward is a very pleasant bloke, he was a Beckenham lad and I spent a lot of time there in my late teens and he was invariably in the pubs on the High Street as well and was always very amiable. By Christ that man must have had thousands of chicas over the years as they used to literally hang off him, me and my mates used to fight over his cast offs

i can here you now slippy "you don't sweat much for a fat bird"

Went to see level 42 last month, decent

depeche mode ,dozens of hits ,none any good !

cant agree with that ^

Don't rise to the bait terry, Depeche Mode are my favourite band of all time and if you have never seen them live before then I could not recommend them highly enough. Truly magnificent.

howard jones
communards
men without hats
bow wow wow
hayzi fantazee

the list is endless

If there is one human on the planet I am glad never to have met it would be Mark King
The grinning balding bass slapping midget clown of level 42 brings out an anger I struggle to describe.

SADE


Zzzzzzzzzzz

Black Lace

Modern Romance seem to be flying below the radar here

yes, everybody salsa is remarkably bad

Terence Trent D'Arby a shocking omission on this thread as are Dire Straits who in my humble opinion were aptly named.

Agree with everything said about Talk Talk who I must have got into thru Kid Jensen/John Peel or maybe radio Luxembourg at the time as they were deffo on my radar yet clearly not on the radar of the dodgy jocks of the time

Cant agree with the U2 comments - for me easily one of the best bands of recent times if not ever - first saw them at Gateshead International Stadium in 1982 supporting then one of the biggest bands around.... The Police and whilst they were still pretty raw back then you knew they had an awful lot about them

And Slippy Blue if you read this...... I see that Johnnie Hates Jazz gets a mention on the thread..... reason I mention it is that in the mid 90s when I was a regular at Brough Park their album was constantly on loop in btwn races on tannoy so I think I know all the words to some of their songs lol

problem with dire straits is started off quite decent with 'sultans of swing ' etc then knopfler had a brain freeze and released absolute s hite- eg ,twisting by the pool,walk of life,  money for nothing. dont know if record company pushed him n a certain direction.

smirnoff were your dog bets giving you 'shattered dreams' ?

spot on wiv everything you said m2 the one that got away footy wise  but I wish I could turn back the clock

And wazza/ willieshafter in his latest guise did at least help me get the jackpot up one night and its all different seasons

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Johnny+Hates+Jazz+Different+Seasons&&vi...

dire straits was formed in the 70s

some cracking tunes and probably extended their life by being one of the first cds available

cant have them as bad, despite their fall in standards

nor terrence trent darby who i saw at kilburn national ballroom when he supported simply red

he was brilliant live, but after his first album he had some bad songs

romeo and juliet one of knoflers highlites imo

and he was / probably still is a top guitarist

we all see it differently Donny but that's all good as its what makes the world go round.

Never got TD personally but then I'm a sad sack that first saw Paul Young in 83 at the city hall and went onto see him a further 23 times all over the country over next 9 yrs cos I had never heard anyone sing like him.


I never knew the song when I first heard it but his version of Love Will Tear Us Apart by joy division is right up there with the best covers ever surely - think it was only an album song but hey ho google it cos its an amazing song

//www.bing.com/videos/search?q=love+will+tear+us+apart+paul+young+youtube&view=detail&mid=E82063D0A8E84D455DB7E82063D0A8E84D455DB7&FORM=VIRE

judge for yourselves lol

i saw paul young when he was in the q tips, he was very good possibly 1980 ish

as you say its how you see it , but no harm in differing opinions in music


joy division were a band and a half mind !

I was never a fan of Paul Young personally but having said that "Common People" was quite a good tune.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVmjKHkgxis

q-tips' live at last' is a great album

young and daft then lads - was some singer wiv the two birds helping him out

i think q tips just missed mtv else they would probably have been huge

great 5 a side team..terence trent darby county.

Haircut 100 weren't my sort of thing, but I found myself at one of their gigs in Hamburg in May 1982, and despite being 20 years old and possibly the oldest person there, I have to say, it wasn't a bad evening. The editor of German music mag Sounds offered his verdict on the event:






"Gut klingen, gut aussehen, gut unterhalten." ("Sound good, look good, good entertainment.") Can't argue with that.

Around that time I was more into The Clash, but I saw Haircut 100 at the student union and it was a brilliant night.

Also saw the Q Tips and a band called Graduate - who went onto become....?

With regard to many of the other bands mentioned, I think Top Of The Pops had a lot to answer for.

I watched an old TOTP over the weekend 1984.  Of course, NONE of the acts were singing live.  Should TOTP insisted on acts singing live, a lot of dross would never have released records.

Graduate - TFF?

I like Reggae and I am sure someone will defend them but I simply detest UB40.

I found UB40 just irritating, but I'm not going to defend them. If anyone should have been the mainstream face of reggae at that time, it was Sly and Robbie, with all the quality stuff they were doing for people like Grace Jones and Black Uhuru. But the public preferred UB40.

You can understand why acts were happy to mime on Top Of The Pops. New Order were, as far as I know, the only band to perform genuinely live on Top Of The Pops that decade, and after listening to the GBH they thereby inflicted on Blue Monday, who'd want to follow that example?

i saw ub40 half a dozen times and thought they were great too

more so their earlier stuff .... signing off album

not a huge fan of their love of cover versions


i never really thought of them as a proper reggae band,





not only did bands mime on totp but novelty songs found it easy to
reach the charts...joe dolce, spittin image, don estelle




still got "graduate" lp...acting my age and managed to download onto
my ipod, elvis should play ska was something of a must play at our parties
back then

I couldn't be doing with UB40 personally, One In Ten was a good song but for me forget the rest.
I spent pretty much the entire 80's going to gigs and have pretty much seen everyone that I wanted to including a few that I went to not expecting a great night but ended up rocking myself silly, Bruce Springsteen for example. I had never bought any of his records and didn't know many of his songs but that man put on an unforgettable show. I never saw Tears For Fears though, I just didn't get around to it but I'm sure they would have been excellent, Woman In Chains is one of my favourite songs. I saw Big Country at Hockenheim when they supported The Rolling Stones and they were absolutely fantastic, The Stones weren't that bad either.

Saw Transvision Vamp in the Octagon Centre at Sheffield Uni in 1989...

Wendy James came on to a chorus of get your t1ts out for the lads - at which point she said she was a serious musician and stomped off never to reappear!

Even funnier was when some dungaree clad 20 year old from the Student council came on stage to tell everyone to show some respect or the night would be cancelled.

You can guess the rest.

Love UB40 and also went to see them last month

It was there that Level 42 were the supporting act, great night

Thommos, I worked with someone who was at Brighton Poly with Wendy James. Apparently she was a very "friendly" lady on campus

She did look stunning if I remember correctly - which is unlikely - but not sure thigh length leather boots and a skimpy see through top scream "serious musician"!



Talking of friendly ladies, a famous Newsnight presenter was knocking around Sheffield at this time and used to drink in a pub in a studenty part of town. She was also rather popular!

wendy james was in spinning disk record shop in sunderland with one of these record pluggers, i walked in and they she was trying to get me to buy transvision vamps debut single, just said 'nah im after the go-betweens new single '. she wasnt impressed. 

SADE


Zzzzzzzzzzz

Fxck off TheBetterBettor many a time I had my bum bouncing with a bit a Sade playing in the background

Anyone else been considering Emily Maitlis in thigh-length leather boots and a skimpy see-through top? And just had the mood spoiled by ufcdan there?

I hadn't finished with Kirsty Wark yet

Or Laura Kuenssberg ? Lovely legs

Sorry screaming, did I catch you mid stroke

Easy to slate the 80s but a lot of fantastic pop songs from that era sh*t all over the tuneless R&B & reality tv fodder churned out in the last 10-15 years. How about Terence Trent D'Arby or Swing Out Sister? Another shocking omission. Give me Supertramp, China Crisis, Talk Talk… people love to slate Duran Duran but Ordinary World/Save A Prayer/Rio are pop gems imho.

Every era has some absolute shockers who are, for some inexplicable reason, rated and enjoy plenty of air time. Should start a list like this for the 90s and Noughties - M People, Toploader, The Darkness, Scouting For Girls, Stereophonics… absolute sh*te, & that's just off the top of my head.

dont doubt whatsoever what you're saying, just picked on a decade and highlighted imo 2 worst bands. could easily be done for other decades too. trust me , and i've stipulated this there were a lot of great pop songs in the 80s- state of art - friends again  ,if there's a better pop tune than this i'm yet to hear it.
just highlighted 80s as probably ate 70s/early 80s my era. judging by response/comments lot of other peoples  too, except  donny osmond who is pretending it is, when he really was a 50s kid.

Duran Duran and A-ha were quality pop, just look at their fantastic bond themes, put anything these days to shame.

Culture Club and Wham pure trash, Its My Life by Talk Talk abs quality 80s tune overlooked for Club Tropicana and Karma Chameleon!?!?!?!

Another Talk Talk fan signing in, Such A Shame is another brilliant song by them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxwXNICZ5DI&list=RDKxwXNICZ5DI#t=3

saw the q tips circa 1980 when they had a surprise special guest eddie Floyd,a great gig turned into greatness.
good call with " love will tear us apart again" youtube it and found a live version from "83 on the Friday show "the tube", that blondie has some at$e on her

Yep Slippy they made fantastic songs, just wish they had made a few more commercial albums before he retired before 40!

Incredible that along with It's My Life neither singles reached the UK top 40 when released in 1984, what happened back then, Radio 1 must have not played them at all that year!

"Such a Shame was released as the album's second single in 1984 (see 1984 in music) and became a big hit in continental Europe in 1984 and 1985, reaching the Top 10 in several countries, and becoming a number one in certain territories (their third number one single after the remixed version of their song "Talk Talk" which topped the South African charts in 1983 and the single "It's My Life" which was number one in the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play in 1984); but strangely this single was largely ignored in the UK. In the US, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play."

Okay this is slightly off topic as such and it makes me sound a right pedant but anyway. There are hundreds of hits from the 80s, so it annoys me that nearly every radio station which has a greatest hits from the 1980s style slot  plays a track that wasn't a Top 40 hit in the 80s in fact it was a hit in 2009 thanks to that sh!te, Glee. I give you Don't stop believin by Journey.  In the 80s it never was a hit and apart from that it is also a dog turd.

level 42 had a few hits?

does the boomtown rats qualify? seventies back end? 1977-1985?
they were dire.

I disagree. 'A tonic for the troops' is a very good album.

Marilyn

Of that era, I saw Earth, Wind and Fire at Wembley Arena and they were absolutely magnificent. There must have been about 70 people on stage grooving away, it was a fun night.