– Countdown to Festive Season #3: 1980 at Fades in Slowly

1980 was a busy year. There was a Military coup here in Turkey, the Solidarity trade union was formed in Poland, Björn Borg won his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title, while in Australia the State of Origin rugby league series, possibly the world’s greatest sporting spectacle, was born. To make you feel really old, Christina Ricci, Chelsea Clinton, Venus Williams, Jessica Simpson, Macaulay Culkin and Jake Gyllenhaal were born in this year. Lest we forget, this was the start of the decade of debauchery, greed and excess, which could have been predicted when Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th US president in a sweeping victory. Hero of the year was a certain Alan Whipper Wells, who benefited greatly from loads of people not showing up at the Olympics to win the 100m men’s title in a time of about 15 seconds that wouldn’t even have got him to this year’s final.

A Flying Scotsman

In December, shortly before the broadcast of the Festive Fifty, Mark David Chapman murdered former Beatle John Lennon in New York. As a seven-year-old, I clearly remember the night it happened, I guess I was just about at that age where you can gauge the importance of events like this.

BBC NEWS reports John Lennon’s death, December 8th, 1980

The Festive Fifty was still ostensibly an ‘all-time’ list in 1980, although you’d be hard pressed to find anything in the top 50 dating back much further than 1977. You have to look to the extended 65 list to find a few old gems from the likes of Pink Floyd and The Who. Indeed, it was probably fear of this year’s one and two duking it out for top spot in the following years that prompted JP to change to the year’s best format that we came to know and love. If you’d like to listen to the shows, broadcast between 22nd and 30th December, 1980, you can do so here, here, here and here.

While we’re on the subject of festive charts, I should mention that this will be a joint operation between myself and Teenage Kicks Steve, who has just begun his half of the shift with the 1977 chart.

Written by Adam

December 1st, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Posted in 1977,1980,Festive 50

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1980:

1. Sex Pistols – Anarchy In The UK
2. Joy Division – Atmosphere
3. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
4. Jam – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
5. Clash – White Man In Hammersmith Palais
6. Dead Kennedys – Holiday In Cambodia
7. Undertones – Teenage Kicks
8. Damned – New Rose
9. Stiff Little Fingers – Alternative Ulster
10. Joy Division – Transmission
11. Public Image Ltd. – Public Image
12. Sex Pistols – Holidays In The Sun
13. Jam – Going Underground
14. Joy Division – Decades
15. Clash – Complete Control
16. Stiff Little Fingers – Johnny Was
17. Undertones – Get Over You
18. Cure – A Forest
19. Ruts – In A Rut
20. Joy Division – New Dawn Fades
21. Fall – Totally Wired
22. Joy Division – She's Lost Control
23. Sex Pistols – Pretty Vacant
24. Stiff Little Fingers – Suspect Device
25. Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen
26. Fall – How I Wrote `Elastic Man'
27. Stiff Little Fingers – Wasted Life
28. Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet
29. Damned – Love Song
30. Adam And The Ants – Kings Of The Wild Frontier
31. Dead Kennedys – California Uber Alles
32. Special AKA – Gangsters
33. Public Image Ltd. – Poptones
34. Public Image Ltd. – Careering
35. Killing Joke – Requiem
36. Killing Joke – Psyche
37. Siouxsie & The Banshees – Jigsaw Feeling
38. Fall – Fiery Jack
39. Clash – Armagideon Time
40. Spizz Energi – Where's Captain Kirk
41. Joy Division – Twenty-Four Hours
42. Damned – Smash It Up
43. Teardrop Explodes – Treason
44. Siouxsie & The Banshees – Switch
45. Siouxsie & The Banshees – Icon
46. Clash – Bankrobber
47. Siouxsie & The Banshees – Hong Kong Garden
48. Clash – White Riot
49. Fall – Rowche Rumble
50. Gang Of Four – Damaged Goods
51. Siouxsie & The Banshees – Love In A Void
52. Killing Joke – Wardance
53. Adam And The Ants – Dog Eat Dog
54. Ruts – West One (Shine On Me)
55. Who – My Generation
56. Mo-Dettes – White Mice
57. Stiff Little Fingers – Tin Soldiers
58. Stranglers – No More Heroes
59. Jam – Eton Rifles
60. Pink Floyd – Shine On You Crazy Diamond
61. Magazine – Shot By Both Sides
62. Public Image Ltd. – Death Disco
63. Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven
64. Joy Division – Dead Souls
65. Wah! Heat – Better Scream

entrailicus

1 Dec 08 at 2:27 pm
Thanks a bundle for the namedrop, Adam. What year are you to delight us with next?

So It Goes

8 Dec 08 at 9:46 pm
I’ve got to get a bit of a move on if I’m to get through the fifties. I haven’t even started on the 90s yet but the 80s are just so great!

I’ll be back on task in a day or so!

entrailicus

9 Dec 08 at 12:08 pm
incongruous things to be doing whilst listening to the 1980 festive 50?
I am sitting here sewing on a patch on a torn sheet. Does anyone even do this anymore in our time poor money rich society and if so what are the chances they will be listening to John Peel?

Grange girl

2 Nov 09 at 7:34 pm
One can only wish people still do. I hope the 1980 chart is providing suitable company.

Adam

2 Nov 09 at 8:12 pm
[...] Kirk (1979) Stiff little fingers Alternative Ulster (1978) The stone …- Countdown to Festive Season #3: 1980The John Peel appreciation blog … 40. Spizz Energi Where's Captain Kirk. 41. Joy Division [...]

spizz energi

5 Mar 10 at 9:14 am

Fades in Slowly