Due to circumstances beyond our control, the concert we originally planned this weekend just wasn't happening technically. So as a substitute, here is a Talking Heads concert from Milwaukee recorded in 1984.

One of those bands that skirted New Wave, Post-Punk, Experimental and Avant Garde without actually being labeled one of those specifically, Talking Heads were a breath of fresh air and a change in direction for a lot of contemporary music at the time. Inventive while also having large appeal with the mainstream, they managed to bridge several camps at the same time, and achieved a huge amount of success in the process.

1984 was a good year for the band and this is an exceptionally good concert from that period.

Enjoy - play loud . . .you know the drill.

While Music was going through it's realignment and recovering from the shock of the Punk movement, a new genre was creeping into the lexicon; New Wave. Spearheaded by bands like The Knack, New Wave sought to bridge the gap that existed between hardcore Punk and 70's Rock. It created something of a safe and commercial middle ground from all the disparate movements at the time. Blondie fit into that category nicely and were wildly popular through the late 70's and into the 1980's.

Here they are, just about at their peak in a BBC Radio concert recorded live in Glasgow on New Years Eve 1979.

A full hour's worth for you to catch up on what you probably haven't heard in a while.

Enjoy.

(In 1978 radio was changing)

KROQ was one of those radio stations that, in the 1970s, had numerous brushes with disaster before coming up with a formula that worked. Resurrected from the ashes of free-form KPPC, KROQ sought to become a serious top-40 FM station and quickly went bankrupt in the process. By the time it hit on its mixture of Punk, New Wave and Hard Rock, disc jockies were forced to bring in their own records and dig up their own ads (a bit like the free-form days of the mid-1960s). Because the station was too broke to make demands, the DJ's had pretty much free reign and an audience was born. Typical of the on-air talent at KROQ during the period of the late 1970s was Frazer Smith, whose gleeful insanity captured a huge radio audience and helped established KROQ as an off-the-wall cutting edge station with an adventuresome playlist.

Here is a one-hour excerpt of his show from December 1, 1978.

Yes, radio was different - even in the 70's.

(Martha & The Muffins - Name was temporary but it stuck)

In the off chance you're not feeling highbrow tonight (as in The Newstalgia Mid-Week Concert), but rather fancy a dose of New Wave from 1980, the box of 45's keeps turning up stuff. Tonight it's Canadian Art Rock/New Wave Martha & the Muffins whose only hit was Insect Love from 1978. This track, Saigon was off their first album and was issued as a single, but it went nowhere more or less solidifying their status as a nice band but not cutting edge.

Truths to tell, they actually were a pretty good band, but at the time there were so many bands flocking to the New Wave genre that many got lost in the shuffle, Martha & The Muffins were one of them.

Although the band have gone through numerous personnel changes over the years, there is the persistent rumor they're still together. How current that information is you can only guess.

But in the meantime, here's another dose of early 1980's.

(The Dream Academy - by 1986 the genres were blurring)

I was thinking of playing "Life In A Northern Town", the big hit by The Dream Academy. But since Newstalgia is a believer in exploring unfamiliar territory, I thought I would put up one of their lesser known singles which, although played a lot didn't achieve the hit status "Northern Town" did. Still, The Dream Academy were a great group and they managed to blur the genres as a lot of bands were starting to do by the mid-1980s. They were considered Folk but with New Wave/New Romantic leanings and a bit of synth-pop tossed in. All in all, it was a good formula and it worked for them. Though they didn't achieve the worldwide status their first album and single (Northern Town) did, they put out several good albums and a number of follow-up singles which this track, Indian Summer is one, released in 1986.

Always nice to check out the b-sides and lesser hits to find out what you might have been missing.

In case Anti-Road Rage Wednesday isn't quite up your street tonight, and the charming-soothing sounds of Chabrier just aren't you - here's a taste of the 80's tonight, by way of Siouxsie & The Banshees from 1983.

Their version of the Lennon-McCartney classic, Dear Prudence.

You can play it loud. Honest.

A track I heard almost non-stop when it was first released in 1981. Robert Williams' Buy My Record was an instant anthem on a lot of the free-form/New Wave Radio stations around the country at the time.

Trouble was, it came and went in a flash and not much has been heard from him since. Well, not if you're concentrating on the mainstream. Williams, a former drummer with Captain Beefheart and an experimental musician in his own right, has been issuing material since that 1981 release - just not on A&M.

But tonight it's that signature track. And since it's off the original A&M EP, it slides effortlessly right into the next track, Black Yard, which may or may not be familiar with you.

The 80's.

Every time I think of Simple Minds I immediately gravitate to their mega-hit Don't You Forget About Me, and that brings Pretty In Pink to mind and the flood of John Hughes films from the period. But Simple Minds were a lot more than a footnote in Popular Culture of the late 70's/early 80's. Most bands don't start off wanting to be associated with Teen Angst. But truths to tell, it wasn't anybody's fault that happened. It did amazing things for Simple Minds as a popular band, and the mega hit was highly evocative of a place and time, and I don't begrudge them any of the notoriety that came with that. Good on them, as they say.

But I wanted to go back a bit further, towards the beginnings of the band, just at the tipping point between Punk, Post-Punk and the evolving New Wave, to get an idea of what they sounded like early on.

So tonight it's a session Simple Minds cut for the John Peel Program at the BBC. Recorded December 19, 1979 the four numbers on the player are:

1. Changeling
2. Premonition
3. Citizen (Dance of Youth)
4. Room

A good and popular band who are still together who made some great music.

Heading into some familiar territory tonight. One of the really great (and sadly under-appreciated here in the U.S.) bands from the early 1980's, Aztec Camera centered around the talents of singer-songwriter Roddy Frame, who cranked out an impressive number of hits before the band itself dissolved, leaving Frame to continue as pretty much a solo act from the late 1980's to now.

Still performing and recording (he's on tour right now), Frame scored some memorable hits with classics off his debut lp, High Land - Hard Rain in 1983. Tonight it's one of those hits, Walk Out To Winter.

Hard to imagine it's been almost 30 years since this track first saw the light of day. It still sounds fresh.

Maybe that's what the definition of a Classic really is - the ability to stay fresh almost indefinitely.

Here comes the weekend.

Tonight's band is something of a mystery - and it appears to be intended that way. Toy are a quasi-New Wave/Psych/Alternative band from London who have just released their first single fifteen days ago and who are, right this very minute, on tour around the UK opening for The Horrors. And from what I understand, the press and the crowds have been very warm in their enthusiasm for this new batch of musical upstarts.

Other than press mentions and blogs, there isn't any information. I tried. I checked their website. I checked their record company website (Heavenly Records) and everyone is tight lipped.

So I don't know what to tell you, other than tonights track is the b-side to their debut single. Clock Chime is a nice mix between 90's neo-Psych and Experimental/Alternative. Basically, a good band with an interesting point of view. And if you go to Heavenly Records website you can download the single for free - of if you want to get really crazy about it, go there and order a special limited edition 45 rpm hunk of vinyl.

Either way you can't go wrong.