MOMENTS FROM THAT DECADE
FLAME-HAIRED singer Toyah Wilcox was a Top Of The Pops regular throughout the 1980s.
“Top Of The Pops was an event, every time,” she says. “It’s a show I used to watch with my family and to actually be on it was an honour. On my first appearance, my costume didn’t arrive and I had to wear a dress I bought as a back-up. It was the first time I’d worn a dress as a singer. Ironically I think it made me more approachable to the Top Of The Pops audience, less confrontational image-wise.
“I worked and I worked and I worked and I worked – there was no time for celebration.
A hit meant more work and more work; the management kept us going 24/7. The excitement knowing I was at number four in the charts with Four From Toyah/ It’s A Mystery was immense. That alone was a celebration. I’d toured five years solidly for that success so, when it came, I kept working.”
Toyah is among the 80s music stars coming out to play this summer as Let’s Rock stages 14 oneday festivals across the country. She says she has plenty of souvenirs from the decade. “I have warehouses full of every costume, every photo shoot, every acting costume I have ever worn. They are my life, a life I am immensely proud of.”
Fellow singer Sonia laughs: “I kept a huge mobile phone from the 80s – it’s like a brick. I also kept all my early costumes from when I was 18.” Liverpudlian Sonia topped the UK charts in 1989 with You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You.
When he looks back at the Eighties, Level 42’s Mark King remembers the band’s TOTP debut. “When we got our first appearance in 1981 my mum and dad sent us a telegram wishing us luck. A telegram! Ha ha ha.
“When Lessons In Love went to number one in Germany, Boon Gould and I shared a very cold beer in a hotel bar in Viareggio, Italy. Happy days indeed.”
OMD’s Andy McCluskey says: “I have all my gold and platinum albums and my press cuttings. I am a sentimental old fella.”
Graham
He and fellow band member Paul Humphreys enjoyed chart success with Enola Gay and Maid Of Orleans and Andy remembers their first hit, Messages.
“Neither Paul Humphreys nor I had telephones in our parents’ houses where we were still living in early 1980. I remember going to the local phone box (now an OMD museum) and calling our manager to get the chart position of our single Messages. He told me that it was number 13 – our first top 20 hit. I started to run to Paul’s house, but he was on the way to the phone box. We met up on the corner outside the old sweet shop that we used to go to as kids and we were jumping up and down like small children, shouting at each other that we had a hit.”
ABC’s Martin Fry still owns the distinctive gold lamé suit he wore in the 1980s and says he remembers leaping in the air and celebrating with a pint of Boddingtons when the group’s single Poison Arrow got to number one.
“When I go to Soho House in White City, in the old BBC building, I get the occasional Top Of The Pops flashback,” he says. “Memories are many... nodding to David Bowie in the corridor before the show rates pretty high, as does mixing with the cast from Tenko around the vending machines.”
Ska singer Pauline Black of The Selecter remembers when The Selecter, The Specials and Madness were all on Top Of The Pops together. “It was a 2 Tone takeover. A memorable moment for a small label.
“We kept loads of memorabilia, hats, photos, scarves, badges, vinyl pressings, which all came in very useful when the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry had a 2 Tone retrospective exhibition, which
thousands of people attended, during the celebrations for Coventry City Of Culture 2021.”
Jaki Graham remembers performing Could It Be I’m Falling In Love on her Top Of The Pops debut. “It was such an iconic show that practically everyone watched.
“I remember a huge sense of disbelief before I hit the stage as I couldn’t believe I’d made it to this point. That, along with major nerves and excitement all rolled into one. A memory I will never forget. I never throw anything away. I’ve still got stage dresses, my leather jacket, even that signature red dress from Set Me Free.”
Mark King reveals he still has his Jaydee Supernatural bass guitar. “It was the first bass I ever owned and is the best souvenir I have and still use. I bought it in 1980 and it has carried me through so many amazing experiences in my career that I would never part with it.”
LET’S ROCK
FESTIVAL BRINGS BACK THE 80S, MARION McMULLEN ASKS THE STARS OF THE SHOW TO RELIVE
THEIR GOLDEN
We met up on the corner outside the old sweet shop that we used to go to as kids and we were jumping up and down like small children, shouting at each other that we had a hit.”
OMD’s Andy McCluskey recalls the band’s early success
■ The Let’s Rock Festival dates run from May 21. Squeeze are making their Let’s Rock debut and other acts appearing include Adam Ant, Billy Ocean, Wet Wet Wet and Human League. Visit letsrock80s. com for details.