You've got to love 80's music

For Christmas in 1982 I received a piece of technology that slightly changed my life. It was a cassette player with a record feature. I remember it as grey/silver with big buttons on the front, a handle and a counter that had a reset button.

It looked something like this....

http://cdn.dipity.com/uploads/events/2d3184e0727744ab4c83cb1950d75444_1M.png

For the same Christmas I received a new album on cassette, Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants. This album had been released the month before and was pretty popular. I was nine, just a bit younger than my eldest. I listened to that album over and over again, turning down the volume when the song S.E.X. started to play.

With an 80's theme day a few weeks hence I am thinking that dressing up as a new romantic popstar like Adam Ant might be fun, so I dug out the old album. Obviously I don't have it on cassette anymore but it is electronically stored on my phone and bluetoothed through my car stereo it took me back thirty years plus. It's funny how those songs stick in your mind, the words recalled easily as I sung along driving home.

I had forgotten about the Adam and the Ants song Five Guns West, with the classic lyrics;

I'm a big tough man, with a big tough plan,

Gonna have a big tough ride, with my big tough bride.

As my daughter is the same age as I was back then I thought it only fair that I introduced her to these songs, better still the videos. We watched Prince Charming and Stand and Deliver; I love the Prince Charming dance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ1zcLM1Iqw

This spurred me on to show the kids some other eighties videos, including Rio and Reflex by Duran Duran. I always remember the effect where the waterfall floods out of the big TV screen onto the concert audience in Reflex, however, it really isn't as good as I remember. Who didn't want to be Simon Le Bon on the front of that boat?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDnNF5cHCdo

After a few others I culminated the 80's music video montage with Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer. What an awesome music video, just exceeding 5 mins long, the ideas and animation certainly grabbed the attention of my kids. Well who wouldn't like a video which contains a singing face made of fruit, some expert 80's Dad dancing and some dancing dead poultry?!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJWJE0x7T4Q

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