REO Speedwagon’s biggest hit here in Australia was Keep On Loving You. It made it to number 3 on the Australian charts but hit number 1 in the US, selling over 1 million copies.

I loved Richrath’s playing on the song the first time I heard it. His solo sounds awesome – rather than heaps of notes he’s going for the less is more approach and making each note count.

Funny thing about this video – I never knew it had the extra bit at the start and end with the singer on the psychiatrist’s couch. When I saw it in the 80’s on music programs they never showed those bits – they just edited it to show the song.

In fact the problem that Bob had was getting most people to agree to play at Live Aid. He’d announced the Live Aid concert and only had a few months to arrange it. None of the big artists were keen to do it originally so Bob had a bit of work to do. Once Bowie and Jagger said they were in, then others followed.

Status Quo were given the opening spot at the Wembley gig, coming on in the early afternoon.

I remember watching them at home – here in Australia it was later at night and I was 16 years old. I planned on staying up for most of the weekend to see the whole show – both the UK and US parts of it.

Being a guitar player, I’d played a few Status Quo songs (in fact they’re all much the same!) and even had a couple of their albums.

It was great seeing them live on stage – remember, this was pre-internet and YouTube so the only way we got to see footage of these bands playing was on TV.

The Status Quo guys played a great set that was received well by the enthusiastic crowd. Many people who reported on Live Aid said that Status Quo really set the tone for the whole day.

Of course, the Quo are still going (which is great to see). Here in Australia, they feature in commercials for Coles supermarkets with their ‘Down, Down’ ads. I guess they’re still living the dream!

If you want to see something funny, try watching the video without sound. It looks kind of weird!

And here the guys are making a quid in more recent days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdV4pr4frd4

This album was huge.

It won a massive 8 Grammys at the 1984 Grammy awards. 8 American Music Awards and 3 MTV Music Video Awards. In 2009 it was certified 29x platinum in the US – this means it had sold over 29 million copies. Even today, it’s estimate that around 130,000 copies of Thriller are sold each year.

Michael engaged Quincy Jones to produce the album – they’d also worked together on Michael’s Off The Wall Album. They used some of the best musicians around – they guys from Toto, Paul Jackson Jr (one of my favourite guitarists) and Eddie Van Halen who played the solo on Beat It.

There are so many memories from this album. I remember the TV premiere of the Thriller video clip. I remember Michael’s dance moves on Billy Jean. I can’t forget Beat It, particularly the video clip (and Eddie’s guitar solo).

We used to spend a bit of time at our cousin’s house in the 80’s and they had built on an extra room our the back that had a pool table. My brother and I would play 8 ball with our two cousins in that room while mum and dad would sit and talk with my aunt and uncle. My cousins were a few years older and could afford to buy more records. The Thriller album was one of those that we listened to over and over in that room, playing 8 ball. Every song on that album was a good song – there wasn’t a filler track on it. There were seven singles released and all seven made it to Billboard’s Top 10.

I remember tracks from this album being played at school socials and Blue Light Discos. I had friends who wore the one white glove, just like Michael.

I don’t think we’ll ever see another album enjoy the success that this one had. Taylor Swift’s 1989 album has sold over 1 million copies since it was released last year and was the biggest selling album of 2014. It’s estimated that around the world, Thriller has sold over 65 million copies! At it’s peak, it was selling 1 million copies worldwide each week.

This was the biggest album of the 80’s and will probably be the biggest album of my lifetime.

Michael was a strange character and it’s difficult to separate the fact from fiction when it comes to his life (llamas anyone?) but no-one can deny – this is a great album.

The story goes that Phil Collins was messing around with beats on a drum machine when he came up with the idea for the chorus. The rest of the same developed rather quickly after that.

I was never a massive Phil Collins fan, but I did love In The Air Tonight, especially the bit where the real drums come in. I’ve grown to like One More Night – it’s a well written song and it’s not over-produced.

Did you know that the clip was mostly recorded in a pub owned by Richard Branson?

One More Night Lyrics

One more night, one more night
I’ve been trying ooh so long to let you know
Let you know how I feel
And if I stumble if I fall, just help me back
So I can make you see

Please give me one more night, give me one more night
One more night cos I can’t wait forever
Give me just one more night, oh just one more night
Oh one more night cos I can’t wait forever

I’ve been sitting here so long
Wasting time, just staring at the phone
And I was wondering should I call you
Then I thought maybe you’re not alone

Please give me one more night, give me just one more night
Oh one more night, cos I can’t wait forever
Please give me one more night, ooh just one more night
Oh one more night, cos I can’t wait forever
Give me one more night, give me just one more night
Ooh one more night, cos I can’t wait forever

Like a river to the sea
I will always be with you
And if you sail away
I will follow you

Give me one more night, give me just one more night
Oh one more night, cos I can’t wait forever
I know there’ll never be a time you’ll ever feel the same
And I know it’s only words
But if you change your mind you know that I’ll be here
And maybe we both can learn

Give me just one more night, give me just one more night
Ooh one more night, cos I can’t wait forever
Give me just one more night, give me just one more night
Ooh one more night, cos I can’t wait forever

If you were a teenager in the 80’s in Australia, then you know this song. The Uncanny X-Men released this in 1985 and it reached number 6 on the Australian charts. It’s from their “Cos Life Hurts” album.

I was 16 when this came out and remember the video clip well. Being a guitarist I was impressed by the image of their guitar player standing in the stream, playing his solo on his Fender Telecaster. In fact, I wanted a Tele after I saw this clip (never got one, though).

This song was played at every school social and Blue Light disco that I attended and everyone sung along to the chorus. Of course, we all promised we’d keep in touch and catch up ‘in 50 years’ but none of us really intended to follow through on that.

One kid I went to school with had the Brian Mannix look going on – the blond hair, earring, sunglasses – he did it well. The girls also seemed to like it.

The Uncanny X-Men were named after the Marvel comic of the same name. Of course, the X-Men movies hadn’t come out at that stage, and Marvel probably didn’t care about bands in Australia infringing on their copyright.

I used to play this song in a band. In hindsight we were awful, but that didn’t stop us having fun. I actually sat down and worked out how to play the guitar introduction and the solo for this song. I never had the patience to do that for too many songs, but I did for this one.

50 Years Lyrics

its nearly time we were leaving
we’ll have one more for the road

it dont mean nothin x2

so we gather ’round the table
raise our champagne in the air

it dont mean nothin x2

cause weve got, this night together
well have hear and now forever
dont tell me now…
you can write me a letter

where will we be in 50 years (in 50 years)

so while we’re still together
there aint no need to cry

it dont mean nothin x2

chorus

like to say, say to you
like to say, say its true (yeah yeah yeahay)
and theres no one i would rather than you (oh no no),

lets talk about it, some day
when we’re old

it dont mean nothin x2

chorus x2

where will we be in 50 years X4

I loved watching this – they talk about the story behind each song. Did you know Everybody Wants To Rule The World was originally called Everybody Wants To Go To War? Thankfully they changed the title!

They wanted to write a ‘big sounding’ song (like Springsteen) – that’s where Head Over Heels came from.

And they even do a great version of Mad World – their first song in Australia.

This is a great session. It’s good to see these guys still playing and still sounding great. Which makes me ask the question – if they were releasing these songs for the first time today, would they be hits?

Here’s the Spotify playlist.

They came together under a new project called Max Q (Max was the name of Ollie’s dog!). Featuring Hutchence, Olsen and other Melbourne musician friends of Olsen.

The main hit off the album was called Way Of The World which featured a great video which was guaranteed to help them get some exposure in the US.

Whilst the album did ok, the band never played live to promote it and the project finished after the one album.

Of course, Billy Squire is better known here in Australia for his big 80’s hit, The Stroke.

It’s nice to see something else he did in the 80’s.

So, it doesn’t look like Fairground Attraction had too much more success apart from this song. According to Wikipedia, this song hit number one on the UK singles chart and their album went to number two.

It’s a great song and is still receiving airplay today and features in ads we hear on TV. It’s been on something on TV recently because we’ve been singing it in our house this past week!

Here’s the clip – what horrible (but typical) UK weather!

Were you a Fairground Attraction fan? Do you remember this song?

Leave a comment below and let us know what this song means to you.

At the time, Tears For Fears were enjoying a lot of success and appeared on Countdown to play some songs and also guest-host a portion of the show.

This video shows the hosting portion of the show (love the shirts).

And here they are playing Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Well, not actually ‘playing’ the song, but really miming along to the track. Doesn’t matter. It’s the 80’s.

The funny thing is that I wasn’t actually a huge Tears For Fears fan back in the 80’s. Their music seems to have grown on me over the years.

What are your thoughts on Tears For Fears / Countdown / the 80’s in general? Leave a comment below.