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1980 for me was my middle years in high school. Playing in the academy 1st 15 and generally found in the common room with albums in hand. Spending evenings walking between friends bedrooms with armfuls of vinyl to play and generally being told to ‘get your hair cut’ by mum.
The proper music press at the time was dominated by a trio of publications known collectively as ‘the inkies’. These were newspapers, not the glossy nonsense which followed but weeklies which made your fingers dirty with newsprint. People generally had their particular read, The NME or Melody Maker. Not for me, I followed the third way, the broadsheet that was Sounds.
Sounds ran from October 70 to April 91, the heydays being the late 70s to early 80s which coincided with me forging my own path away from the music of older siblings. It was a touch more subversive in its content than the other more mainstream competitors. One cover which has always stuck in my memory, for very obvious reasons, was guitarist extraordinaire and notoriously difficult persona Richie Blackmore in stocking and suspenders. Don’t believe me?……and by happy (worrying) coincidence that was from 1980 too.
In late 79, the journo’s of Sounds created an acronym and by 1980 it became a genre defining handle which still resonates to this day: N.W.O.B.H.M – the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. They championed the bands and gave them a platform for the likes of me. They informed and publicised bands which were to stay with me all of my life, from albums bought to gigs attended.
These days there are new genre and sub-genre appearing every week. Some obvious, some obviously marketing manipulation. It appears that to be quite mediocre today you need a handle to further describe and define what you are trying to do. Back in 1980 we had a new generation of Heavy Metal. I prefer simply Rock of the Hard or Heavy variety to be honest. Metal has its roots in the late 60s, a combination of blues, psychedelic and acid rock. This evolved into complex sounds based on distorted guitar, extended solos of all kinds, emphatic beats and volumes to wake the neighbours…..what’s not to like about that when you’re 15?
Did you know that the first noted use of ‘Heavy Metal’ in a song lyric was, well you’ll mostly all know it, referencing a motorcycle (surprise) in Steppenwolf’s ‘Born to be Wild’…“I like smoke and lightning. Heavy metal thunder. Racin’ with the wind. And the feelin’ like I’m under”.
A lot of my time in 1980 was spent being late for school on the day of album releases or late home because I’d stopped into the local record shop. The shop of choice was Europa Music in the High Street in Alloa – one third of the way to school, or two thirds of the way back from school. Europa, because the original owner drove a Lotus Europa. The shop still exists but it migrated to Friar Street in Stirling where it still operates. Oddly it’s now just a few doors up the road from my other haunt, the basement that was Grapevine Music.
[Below: Iain at home, with his records and his Bagpuss proudly guarding his hi-fi system!]
