Update: Ending up the first week of our emergency drive still halfway there. Absolutely grateful beyond description for the donations in the past few hours. You got us to the 50% mark, and that's a hopeful sign. I know it's a pain, hearing about this with every post, but I can't stress how much I need your help. At it stands, there is a very good chance of losing the Archive, which will mean all the recordings you've been hearing and would hear will be gone. When that happens there's no point in continuing with Newstalgia, as the whole reason for having this website was to make those recordings available to you, for free, for learning, for broadening your horizons. If you feel that's worth a buck or two (or as much as you can), please consider making a donation in order to keep this site up and keep the archives a vital source of history at your disposal. We can do it - I swear we can.

Keeping going with our spotlight on the homegrown; tonight it's The Pixies and a session they recorded for John Peel at the BBC Maida Vale Studios in 1988.

Here's the rundown from that session, recorded on October 9, 1988:

1. Dead
2. There goes My Gun
3. Manta Ray

And it officially starts the weekend!

Heading into the 80's tonight with a track by The Style Council. When The Jam called it quits, front man Paul Weller promptly switched gears from Punk icon to Blue-eyed Soul and Funk aficionado and baffled quit a few fans in the process. But for all the scorn he reaped from his old fans, his new ones came running and The Style Council created a lasting impression and a newly-found admiration base for Paul Weller.

Tonight it's a track off Introducing The Style Council, released in 1983. Long Hot Summer starts the album off and quickly eases into the groove that would be their trademark over the next several years.

And since we are heading on a crash course for Summer anyway . . . .

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.

The 80's tonight (if you couldn't already tell). Strawberry Switchblade were a Scottish Punk Duo consisting of Rose McDowell and Jill Bryson. Forming in 1981, the duo drifted away from the rough-edge of Punk and, taking a wardrobe nod from the New Romantic movement, dove into what would come to be known as Alternative/Dream Pop.

Sadly, they were commercially considered something of a one-hit wonder for a while and were largely overlooked for their contribution to an emerging genre. But the music business is vague enough and they have weathered a few storms and broke out of that singular hit stereotype with a hit cover of Dolly Parton's Jolene.

Tonight it's a session they recorded early on for the John Peel Program at The BBC. Recorded on October 4, 1982, it features the duo with additional backup musicians for a very nice and atmospheric batch of tracks.

They are:

1. 10 James Orr Street
2. The Little River
3. Secrets
4. Trees And Flowers

Taking the noise level down a bit further this evening.

With 8 days until Christmas (7 if you don't want to count Christmas day), it's getting about that time to get into the spirit of things and toss some Christmas music on the Roundtable.

Tonight it's by way of a sampler the late/great IRS Records put out in 1987 called Just In Time For Christmas, and I will most likely be featuring a lot of these tracks between now and the 25th because I don't think this little seven track sampler has been reissued anywhere and there's some pretty good stuff on it.

Like this one from Tirez Tirez. Christmas Time And You (Let's Put The X Back In X-mas) isn't one of those beat-you-over-the-nose-with-a-tire iron type Christmas songs. It's actually a great song and right up your alley if you want to get into the spirit but don't want to get all mental about it.

Like our Christmases, we like low-key - and this track nails it.

More tomorrow.

One of the things that made the 80's an interesting decade for music was the amount of social consciousness being displayed in song. Evolving from the 70's Punk ethos, early 80's was involved in specific issues in society. Race, poverty, the vanishing working and middle class, the Thatcher/Reagan years - they were all subjects of what became very powerful statements.

One of those bands most active in the social consciousness movement were without question The Jam. Evolving out of retro Mod, The Jam were, sadly not around that long. Getting started in the late 1970's and calling it quits by 1982. In their short time though, they managed to make a lasting impression and tracks like the one tonight, Just Who Is The 5 O'clock Hero? spoke directly to a working class struggling to exist.

Timely stuff - Could be yesterday - could be five minutes ago.

Continuing our foray into the 80's tonight with Haircut 100. More of a hit over in Europe and the UK than here. In fact I don't recall them making much of a dent here at all. But given the climate, it's no wonder. Music in the 80's was all over the place and sometimes it was just hard to keep up. As Punk slowly morphed into other genres, the playing field suddenly opened up for New Wave, New Romantic, Post-Disco, Electro-Pop, Experimental, Hard Rock (still), Post-Punk, Power Pop, Funk and a whole palette of genres in between.

But Haircut 100 were known as a very clean-cut, straight forward quasi-R&B/Funk outfit with a pile of good tunes and unfortunately, a short life expectancy. Having formed in 1981, the band lasted until 1984 where founding members bolted and became part of other bands or gave it up all together.

Tonight it's a 12" single issued in 1982 - Favorite Shirts is groove laden and loaded with hooks - something the 80's Pop scene became very much involved with as the decade progressed.

I eluded to getting into an 80's frame of mind this coming week, and to test the waters I thought I'd toss on some UB40. Although Reggae is timeless, UB40 were one of the bands closely identified with the 80's, just because they offered a refreshing alternative to what was becoming rapidly over-produced image driven groups.

Tonight's track, Cherry Oh Baby, opens their Labour Of Love album, which was a huge hit for them in 1983 with the hit single "Red Red Wine", coming from that album.

Perhaps you remember it?

Winding down Guilty Pleasures week with a band who got unjustifiably ignored by a lot of the public, mostly because the 80's were all over the place and Retro-Psych wasn't quite in the picture yet. The Three O'Clock were at the forefront of a somewhat obscure movement know as the Paisley Underground. Having initially began life as The Salvation Army in 1981 they went in for a name change and emerged as The Three O'Clock. Fortunes didn't exactly pick up from there, but there was enthusiasm on the parts of a couple of record companies which sustained them as they went in search of an audience who were ready for them.

A very competent band who were just slightly ahead of what would become a major revival, they called it a day just as grumblings from Madchester were being reported from across the pond.

In 1985 they issued probably their most commercial album to date via IRS Records. Arrive Without Traveling got lukewarm response from the press but had promising sales. One of the tracks off that album is up tonight - Simon In The Park has been pigeonholed as a sort of homage to the Eastern influence (i.e. quasi-sitar laced) but it's an energetic track loaded with hooks and riffs.

Sort of makes you wonder who else has been ignored for a lot of years.

Staying at The Electric Picnic in Ireland tonight and putting up an extended excerpt of a set by 80's Techno/Electronica pioneers OMD, recorded live by RTE FM2 this past Saturday (September 3rd).

I almost forgot just how many hits this band had throughout that decade and just how influential they were. Although by no means the only Techno band at the time, they were certainly one of the more popular and judging by the crowd at this festival, they still very much are.

Here's their set:

EXCLUSIVE PERFORMANCE - O.M.D

Enola Gay, Performing Messages, and Tesla Girl

Admit it, you remember this band really well.

Ah, the 80's.