From the pages of Smash Hits to your stereo!
Everybody's favourite DJ, Gary Crowley, has been back down the music mines, digging up another trove of rare and unfamiliar treasures for his latest collection of lost gems from the best decade of all and picking some lesser-known songs from better-known names and tracks you might have forgotten about or missed completely the first time around.
The sixty-five songs are arranged across four discs, each with its own theme. Disc 1 - A Beat Confection - kicks off in lively style with The Style Council's Mick's Up and keeps moving with Madness, Elvis Costello, Fine Young Cannibals, The Monochrome Set - when the chorus of Jacob's Ladder kicks in, I am instantly fifteen again and studying for my O levels! - and The Undertones at their most transcendent in Save Me.
Disc 2 - A Rock And A Dance Place - will get your toes tapping even more with The Waitresses, Nick Heyward, Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy and the sublimely timeless Free Yourself, by The Untouchables.
The dance party continues on Disc 3 - Ear And Foot Refreshment - where Kid Creole, Linx and the B-52's jostle for your attention with Blancmange, Sade and Dennis Bovell's remix of Animal Nightlife's Native Boy.
Disc 4 - The Vinyl Curtain - rounds things off in spectacular style with The Human League's Hard Times and extended mixes from Thompson Twins and Big Audio Dynamite, as well as Medium Medium's wonderfully angular Hungry, So Angry and the Special Dance Mix of General Public's Tenderness - two of the highlights of the whole set.
Other highlights include unlikely covers - Bananarama's version of No Feelings and Staples Singers tackling Life During Wartime - and The Valentine Brothers with the original version of Money's Too Tight To Mention and the whole package includes a book containing Gary's track-by-track notes and eighties-era reminiscing from Mick Talbot, Dr Robert, Glenn Gregory and others. I've said it before and I'll say it again: we were spoiled then and Gary is still spoiling us now with yet another essential collection - the soundtrack of your summer and beyond.
Gary Crowley's Lost 80s is available from Amazon UK and Amazon - and you can find even more news and information about the set on Facebook.
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