Forgotten 80s

Sunday, 15 September 2019

SHOW #328 - "Like a funny film, it's kinda cute; they bought the bullets and there's no-one left to shoot..."

Aztec Camera "Oblivious"
Shakin’ Stevens "Come See About Me"

Spandau Ballet "The Freeze"
Tina Turner "What You Get Is What You See"

Bomb The Bass "Megablast"
The Clash "Bankrobber"

Cliff Richard "My Pretty One"
Cameo "She’s Strange"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack "Heaven Above Me"

Depeche Mode "See You"
Van Halen "Why Can’t Be This Love"

Kajagoogoo "Big Apple"
Sugar Minott "Good Thing Going"

Morrissey "Suedehead"
Pseudo Echo "Funky Town"

ABC "One Better World"
Bronski Beat "It Ain’t Necessarily So"

Debbie Gibson "Foolish Beat"
Europe "Rock The Night"

Madness "Yesterday’s Men"
New Musik "This World Of Water"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Squeeze "853-5937"

LAST ORDERS SEQUENCE:
Tears For Fears "Sowing The Seeds Of Love"
Alison Moyet "Love Resurrection"
Duran Duran "All She Wants Is"

All three tracks refer to "divine intervention" in the lyrics.

Sunday, 8 September 2019

SHOW #327 - "I sit and wonder whenever we're apart, would you do it, would you do it..."

Princess "Say I’m Your Number One"
Bruce Willis "Respect Yourself"

Rockers Revenge "Walking On Sunshine"
Billy Idol "To Be A Lover"

Kylie Minogue "Wouldn’t Change A Thing"
Soft Cell "What"

Change "The Glow Of Love"
Kiss "Lick It Up"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Gary Numan "Remind Me To Smile"

Beastie Boys "No Sleep Til Brooklyn"
Stephen TinTin Duffy "Icing On The Cake"

Stranglers "Grip 89 (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)"
RAH Band "Clouds Across The Moon"

Soul II Soul "Get A Life"
FR David "Words"

Sheena Easton "For Your Eyes Only"
Howard Jones "Look Mama"

Culture Club "Time (Clock Of The Heart)"
Style Council "Wanted"

Karyn White "Secret Rendezvous"
New Model Army "No Rest"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Gary Moore "Listen To Your Heartbeat"

LAST ORDERS SEQUENCE:
Madonna "Like A Prayer"
Sal Solo "San Damiano (Heart And Soul)"
Foreigner "I Want To Know What Love Is"

All three tracks feature a choir.

Sunday, 1 September 2019

SHOW #326 - "If only he would write me or call, a word of explanation, that's all, it would stop me climbing the wall..."

Aneka "Japanese Boy"
Public Enemy "Bring The Noise"

Erasure "You Surround Me"
Bucks Fizz "Talking In Your Sleep"

Double Trouble and the Rebel MC "Just Keep Rockin’"
Paul McCartney "Spies Like Us"

BA Robertson "Kool In The Kaftan"
Janet Jackson "The Pleasure Principle"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Tight Fit "Secret Heart"

Power Station "Some Like It Hot"
Barry White "Sho’ You Right"

Mobiles "Drowning In Berlin"
Five Star "The Slightest Touch"

Eurythmics "When Tomorrow Comes"
Curiosity Killed The Cat "Misfit"

Scritti Politti "Oh Patti (Don’t Feel Sorry For Loverboy)"
Bad Manners "Walking In The Sunshine"

Judas Priest "United"
Sinitta "Cross My Broken Heart"

The Alarm "Spirit of 76"
Rick Astley "Hold Me In Your Arms"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
REM "Fall On Me"

LAST ORDERS SEQUENCE:
Prince "If I Was Your Girlfriend"
Stefan Dennis "Don’t It Make You Feel Good"
Chas & Dave "Ain’t No Pleasing You"

All three song titles contain a grammatical error.

Sunday, 25 August 2019

SHOW #325 - "Someone is on our tail, we think they're opening up our morning mail, and now each time the telephone rings, we think of frightening things..."

Thompson Twins "We Are Detective"
Chicago "You’re The Inspiration"

London Boys "Requiem"
Kim Wilde "Water On Glass"

Swing Out Sister "Surrender"
Heaven 17 "This Is Mine"

Beatmasters featuring PP Arnold "Burn It Up"
Paul Simon "The Boy In The Bubble"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Wonder Stuff "Give, Give, Give Me More, More, More"

Kate Bush "Cloudbusting"
Then Jerico "What Does It Take"

Elvis Presley "It’s Only Love"
Darling Buds "Hit The Ground"

Crowded House "Don’t Dream It’s Over"
Donna Summer "Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)"

Matthew Wilder "Break My Stride"
The Cure "Catch"

Vixen "Cryin’"
King "The Taste Of Your Tears"

Curtis Hairston "I Want Your Lovin’ (Just A Little Bit)"
Spandau Ballet "Musclebound"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Fuzzbox "Fast Forward Futurama"

LAST ORDERS SEQUENCE:
Depeche Mode "Never Let Me Down Again"
Bill Wyman "A New Fashion"
Daryl Hall & John Oates "Method Of Modern Love"

All three song titles contain the title of a David Bowie hit.

Sunday, 18 August 2019

SHOW #324 - "How can I be sure you're breaking all the rules, how can I be sure I should be high above..."

Blancmange "Don’t Tell Me"
Everything But The Girl "I Don’t Want To Talk About It"

Echo and the Bunnymen "Never Stop"
Men Without Hats "Safety Dance"

Ian Dury and the Blockheads "I Want To Be Straight"
Transvision Vamp "Landslide Of Love"

Tyree "Turn Up The Bass"
Dire Straits "Twisting By The Pool"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Human League "Empire State Human"

Big Fun "Can’t Shake The Feeling"
Rolling Stones "Mixed Emotions"

Jimmy The Hoover "Tantalise"
Bangles "Hazy Shade Of Winter"

Siouxsie and the Banshees "Happy House"
Modern Talking "Brother Louie"

Communards "For A Friend"
Stranglers "No Mercy"

The Assembly "Never Never"
Heart "There’s The Girl"

Simple Minds "Ghostdancing"
Bananarama "I Can’t Help It"

JOURNEYS TO GLORY:
Survivor "American Heartbeat"

LAST ORDERS SEQUENCE:
Irene Cara "Fame"
The Jam "Absolute Beginners"
Chris Rea "Let’s Dance"

All three songs share their titles with David Bowie hits.

Forgotten 80s

This show is the successor to Q The 80s, which was a cult programme I was privileged to host on Q Radio across the UK from September 2010 to May 2013. When the radio station was discontinued by its parent company, I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to continue the programme as Forgotten 80s by Absolute 80s, and the first edition aired on Sunday 26th May 2013. It's a two-hour show and we start at 9pm.

The show features the underplayed and the almost completely forgotten hits of the 80s, with the intention of rehabilitating the music of a decade that too many people are quick to scorn. Naturally, on a radio station that plays 80s music 24 hours a day, one is preaching somewhat to the converted, but nevertheless we do like to go that little step further. Half of the songs on each edition of the show are requested by the audience.

The purpose of this blog is to act as a no-frills archive for the show's weekly setlists for people to visit after broadcast. No other material will appear on it. Below you will also find links to archives on Spotify of Didn't We Almost Have It All, When Will I Be Famous and The Nobody's Diary; the three features we have run on the show that have allowed us to play hundreds of songs from outside the UK Top 40. A new feature began in 2018 called Journeys To Glory, focusing on albums of the 80s, and there is an active archive running on Spotify.

Absolute 80s is available nationwide on DAB digital radio; on Freesat (channel 726), Sky Digital (channel 0200) and Virgin Media (channel 951); on mobile and tablet apps downloadable for free from your app store; on your smart speaker ("play Absolute 80s"); and via the Listen Live button on the official website. It has 1,800,000 listeners a week (RAJAR Q2 2019) and celebrates its tenth birthday at the end of 2019.

From Sunday 5th February 2017, we introduced a Listen Again facility for the show via a Forgotten 80s section on the Absolute Radio app for smartphone and tablet, downloadable from the Apple App Store, Google Play and Blackberry World. New editions of the show will appear on the app shortly after broadcast.

On Sunday 13th September 2015, during the 121st edition of the show, our hashtag - #forgotten80s - trended on Twitter for the first time at a ranking of 8. On Sunday 15th January 2017, during the 190th edition of the show, the hashtag was at number 1 in the trending charts across the UK for the first time. It went on to trend at number 1 for four consecutive weeks. The show trends in at least the Top 20 on Twitter every Sunday evening.

In 2019 thus far, we have celebrated both our 300th edition and our sixth birthday.

I am 46 and have been on the radio since 1990. You can email me via the Absolute 80s website and follow me on Twitter.

Thanks for visiting the blog!
Matthew Rudd
#forgotten80s

Forgotten 80s on Spotify!

There are four archives on Spotify associated with Forgotten 80s, all featuring music played on the show. Journeys To Glory is a feature that began on Forgotten 80s in January 2018. Here we play tracks from albums of the 1980s on the anniversary of their entering the UK album chart. We consider studio and soundtrack albums only, as they contain material original at the time. We play either non-Top 40 single releases or tracks only released as part of the album. The archive for Journeys To Glory, a feature of Forgotten 80s since January 2018, is on Spotify. We endeavour to add both featured tracks each week, subject to availability. The Blogger widget will only display a maximum of 100 songs; further songs are being added each week since this limit was reached in January 2019. Didn't We Almost Have It All? was a feature that ran on Forgotten 80s from May 2015 to December 2017. Here we featured songs from the countdowns featured on the show prior to Forgotten 80s, the Absolute 80s Chart, which would never get higher than 41. Every song played was chosen by the audience. The archive for Didn't We Almost Have It All?, is also on Spotify. The Blogger widget will only display a maximum of 100 songs; a further 141 songs were added to the archive on Spotify itself since this limit was reached in the summer of 2017. When Will I Be Famous? was a feature that ran on Forgotten 80s from August 2014 to May 2015. Here we featured unsuccessful early releases by artists who would later go on to stardom. Every song played was chosen by the audience. The archive for When Will I Be Famous?, is also on Spotify. The Nobody's Diary was a feature of Forgotten 80s from the show's inception in May 2013 to August 2014. Here we featured artists who would never make the UK Top 40, despite attaining a lower position in the charts at least once. Every song played was chosen by the audience. The archive for The Nobody's Diary, is also on Spotify.