Alabama Concert History. Blondie at the Odeon, Birmingham in January 1980 Blondie, UB40, Duran Duran and many more bands played there throughout the 1980s as part of their tours. [28], In early 1964 Dial Records and Decca both released compilation albums showcasing the breadth of the Birmingham music scene. [6] During the 1950s he fell under the influence of the Marxist Birmingham writer George Thomson and in 1956 founded the Ian Campbell Folk Group, initially as a skiffle group, but from 1958 performing politically charged folk songs including Fenian and Jacobite songs, and songs of miners, industrial workers and farmworkers. [200] By 1977 Martin Degville was designing and selling clothes from his own stall on Birmingham's Oasis fashion market and had become a legendary figure on Birmingham's club scene. [35] Although at this stage still within the R&B tradition, the music of the early Moody Blues already showed signs of the more experimental approach that would characterise their later career, with highly original musical compositions by Laine and Mike Pinder; live four-part harmonies that were far more expansive than anything used by bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Hollies or The Dave Clark Five at the time; and the zen-like repetition and rhythmic complexity of their piano parts prefiguring their future psychedelic style. [149] More significant still were the song's lyrics: the day before "Ghost Town" reached number 1, Britain's inner cities erupted in rioting,[150] and the song's despairing portrait of the collapse of Britain's cities come to symbolise the era, with its nihilistic line "can't go on no more the people getting angry" seeming retrospectively prophetic. Acid house nights such as Spectrum took place in Tamworth and at The Hummingbird in Birmingham. [185], During the late 1970s and early 1980s Birmingham was the home of a "vibrant but infamously fragmented and undervalued" post-punk scene. [33] Two more UK hit singles followed during 1966 alongside two highly successful albums, before the November 1966 release of their own composition "Gimme Some Loving" the group's masterpiece and one of the great recordings of the 1960s. Their lone eponymous album was released in January 1969, and re-released on CD by Sanctuary Records in 2002. [216], The city's cultural diversity also contributed to the blend of bhangra and ragga pioneered by Apache Indian in Handsworth. Britain's music map in the '80s | England's Puzzle [300] In 1993 they released their debut album Colourform and began to take their experimental live act around the country. [70] Their 1966 single "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" has been credited, alongside near-simultaneous releases by The Beatles and Pink Floyd, with establishing the childlike pastoral vision that would characterise English psychedelia, though Wood's songs were in not in fact LSD-influenced but based on a set of "fairy stories for adults" he had written while still at school,[71] and were intended as "songs about going mad, or just being a bit bonkers". Punch Records, in the Custard Factory, run street dance and DJ training courses. [121] With black music and black audiences often excluded from mainstream clubs in Birmingham City Centre[122] the 1960s and 1970s saw a distinctive West Indian culture of blues parties emerge in Birmingham districts such as Handsworth and Balsall Heath[123] as the urban equivalent of the all-night communal "tea parties" of rural Jamaica. In June 1980, after a last gig in London with U2, Luke James left the band, and later moved to the United States. [45] Other notable Birmingham folk clubs during the mid-1960s included the Eagle Folk Club at the Golden Eagle on Hill Street and the Skillet Pot Club above the Old Contemptibles on Livery Street. "[62] By the 1980s Drake's work had gained a cult audience, which grew throughout the 1990s and by the 2000s has reached a point of widespread fame. Def Leppard was formed in 1977 by vocalist Joe Elliott and later released their only EP to date entitled "The Def Leppard E.P." in 1979. [15] Techno's Birmingham sound combined the established sound of Detroit techno with the influence of Birmingham's own industrial music and post-punk culture. [141], The reggae subgenre lovers rock, would often be heard at blues parties during the 1970s and 1980s. Birmingham 1980s hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy a tribute to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive. Land of Oz at The Dome with Paul Oakenfold and Trevor Fung in 1989 which occurred on a Wednesday night, the same night The Happy Mondays played at The Hummingbird. Rhythm Doctor worked in one of the shops selling a lot of the early house 12"'s, Tempest. You only had to go out in Lozells or down the Soho Rd, there was loads going on, you could stand and listen to the music coming out of the houses, pubs and clubs. When I returned, I was surprised to find that Nick Drake was becoming famous. Formed in 1978 out of Birmingham's Rock Against Racism action group, this fiercely political three-piece took punk's radical spirit and fused it with funk and feminism on scorching, Peel-approved 1981 debut album Playing With A Different Sex.A taboo-trashing masterclass tackling subjects ranging from domestic abuse to unsatisfactory sex, it redefined pop's possibilities . [314] In 1992 he founded Metalheadz with fellow Birmingham-born DJ Kemistry[315] and the following year released "Angel", the track which marked the start of the demise of the dark sound he had earlier epitomised, incorporating samples from Brian Eno and David Byrne and becoming the first track to successfully take hardcore in a more musical direction without losing its essence. [231] In 1986 she released her debut album Women Hold Up Half the Sky, which had an unusually strong gospel influence for a 1980s soul record and was to prove both a critical and commercial success. It's all perception and reality, which are completely different"[331] The American National Public Radio described Trish Keenan as "an ambassador between the parallel worlds of what happened and what might have been", noting that she was "interested in memory less for nostalgic reasons and more for the world and lives it distorted and rewrote. [77] Their 1968 debut album The Birthday Party gained critical recommendations from musical figures as diverse as The Beatles, Marc Bolan, Kenny Everett and John Peel, but little commercial auccess, being too ambitious to gain mass popularity. [194], The most successful of Birmingham's eclectic soul- and jazz-influenced post-punks were Fine Young Cannibals, established in 1984 by two former members of The Beat guitarist Andy Cox and bassist David Steele who recruited Sparkhill-born former punk Roland Gift as a vocalist. [253] Napalm Death was formed in nearby Meriden in 1979 by Nik Bullen and Miles "Rat" Ratledge, influenced initially by hardcore punk bands such as Crass, Discharge and Birmingham's GBH. Singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading was the first British woman to have significant commercial success in the field of folk music[49] and the first Black British woman to enjoy international success in any musical genre. [207] Over the following years a network of local musicians and distributors emerged, recording in studios such as Zella in Edgbaston and distributing their work on cassette through local pubs and electrical goods shops. [50] Born on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts, she brought up from the age of 7 in the Brookfields area of Handsworth. [348] Their debut album Through the Windowpane was described by Mojo Magazine as marking "the rebirth of sweeping, experimental British rock music",[349] combining influences from indie pop, jazz, samba, swingbeat and psychedelia,[350] on an album that featured an orchestra, a colliery band, a guitar being played with an electric drill, a brass section and a song described by Stylus Magazine as "something approaching drum 'n' bass as played live and acoustic by idiot savants". [355] Although many of the scene's leading bands don't sound very similar,[356] critics have identified a common element as how the bands "all incorporate a slightly flippant attitude to their music, not concentrating on polishing their records to perfection, but playing for the joy of creating music and for entertaining their audiences."[357]. [40] These included songs of social protest and songs of everyday life referring to places in and around the city,[6] and reflected the area's underlying native rural traditions, its industrial culture and the influence of successive waves of incomers bringing and assimilating musical traditions from elsewhere. AllMusic described UB40's edgy, unique take on reggae that combined British and Jamaican influences as "revolutionary, their sound unlike anything else on either island". [268] Its influence would also extend well beyond the extreme metal and hardcore subcultures: its extensive radio airplay from John Peel saw it reach the indie Top 10[269] and the textures of its "unrelenting, intense sound" would attract the attention of exponents of wider experimental musical styles such as ambient music and free jazz. There were new styles and genres and with MTV, new ways to consume it. The Bash has a wide selection of 80s Bands for you to choose from for you next event: weddings, birthday parties, reunions, corporate functions, and more. (Image: Birmingham Post. [157] Swell Maps "took punk's no-rules, do-it-yourself, destruction-of-rock promises literally" and "proceeded to create some of the most challenging, foreign, distinctive, and truly rebellious music of recent decades". [178] Of wider long term significance were The Killjoys, who were led by future Dexys Midnight Runners singer Kevin Rowland and grew out of an earlier band called Lucy and the Lovers in 1976. [237] He followed this with two further multi-platinum selling records over the course of the decade 1986's Back in the High Life and 1988's Roll with It and series of singles between 1986 and 1990 that all reached number 1 in the American singles charts, including "Higher Love", "The Finer Things", "Back in the High Life Again", "Roll With It" and "Holding On". [251] Justin Broadrick later remembered: "it was really just a shitty pub in a really shitty area, which just meant that you could get away with a lot more. [183] G. B. H.'s influence helped codify the raw sound that would become known as street punk,[184] becoming a prime influence on the mid-1980s emergence of the thrash metal bands Metallica and Slayer. [34] By November they had secured a major international hit with their multi-million selling single "Go Now", which reached number 1 in the UK and number 10 in the US, and whose "soulful, agonized" vocal performance established lead singer Denny Laine as one of the most recognisable voices in British music. This page was last modified on 5 February 2023, at 14:34. Leftfoot is a soul jazz and funk night that has featured on BBC Radio 1. By Dave Freak 29th Jan 2022, 1:31pm [335], The roots of Birmingham's retro-futurist scene lay in the mid 1980s. The 200+ Best 80s Bands and Musicians, Ranked City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus: 1980s - 2010s [2], It was in 1963 and 1964 that Birmingham's existing largely underground music scene began to attract national and international attention. Cover Band from Montgomery, AL (39 miles from Alabama) Lisa & The E-Lusion is Alabama's number one rated band through gigmasters, and one of the Southeast's most requested cover bands!! Do you remember these Birmingham bands of the 1980s? Birmingham live music venues we have loved and lost [312] Born to the north of Birmingham in Walsall and brought up in foster homes and local authority institutions across the West Midlands county, he spent his early adult life in various cities including Birmingham, London, New York City and Miami. [58] The journalist Ian MacDonald wrote how "During the eighties I drifted away from the music scene. Birmingham's culture of popular music first developed in the mid-1950s. [321] Later Back 2 Basics work continued this trend with sparse bottom-heavy tracks such Northern Connexion's "Spanish Guitar" and Murphy's Law's even more pared-back "20 Seconds",[324] while a set of releases placing gangsta rap samples over "incredibly evil basslines" laid the foundations of the G-funk-based direction of jump-up.[324]. [264] By the time the B-side of the album was recorded 7 months later the band's personnel had changed almost completely, with Bullen and Broadrick leaving and being replaced by Lee Dorian and Bill Steer, and only Harris remaining from the earlier line up. The Vikings started as a skiffle group in Nechells in the spring 1957,[20] with Pat Wayne and the Deltas also emerging as a skiffle group in Ladywood around the same time,[21] spending the summer of 1957 busking on pleasure boats on the River Severn in Worcester. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Elton John, whose concert at the Birmingham Hippodrome in 1980 was the best Angela Stanley has ever seen1 of 26 10cc, who Mick Hoole recalls seeing at a "brilliant gig" at the Odeon,. [180] By 1978, in an early sign of the uncompromising eccentricity of Rowland's later career, the Killjoys were inspiring the hatred of punk audiences by performing Bobby Darin covers and country and western music at punk venues like London's 100 Club. "[220], The Singing Stewarts, a family of five brothers and three sisters who moved to Handsworth from Trinidad in 1961, were the first Gospel group to make an impact in Britain. Street Soul Productions is aimed at an Alternative UK Hip Hop. [citation needed], Party in the Park was Birmingham's largest annual music festival, at Cannon Hill Park, where up to 30,000 revellers of all ages listen to popular chart music. As the 1980s arrived, the Rum Runner nightclub played a significant role in rock music in the city, particularly in the case of New Romantic supergroup Duran Duran. [36], The television programme Thank Your Lucky Stars, broadcast by ABC Weekend TV from its studios in Aston between 1961 and 1966, was a major showcase for British pop music of the period,[37] hosting the network television debut of The Beatles on 13 January 1963. Artists and bands from Birmingham, England - AllMusic Instead, you had to take your life into your hands as you ventured through the city's subway shops and underground passages that are now filled in and long since vanished. The Accused released a single EP in 1979,[173] their self-deprecating style illustrated by their two most popular songs: the self-explanatory "We're Crap", and "W.M.P.T.E." [44], Two Birmingham musicians from the Ian Campbell Folk Group would become key exponents in the development of folk rock over the next decade through their involvement with the band Fairport Convention, which had formed in London in 1967. [339] The best known exponents of the scene were Broadcast, who formed in 1995 and of all the Birmingham retrofuturist bands were the most directly influenced by 1960s psychedelia. Perhaps the most famous band of Essex is Depeche Mode - one of the most iconic groups of the 1980s. . "[315] Timeless was the first drum and bass record to achieve substantial mainstream success. The Birmingham-based journalist, DJ and record collector Neil Rushton was one of the first outsiders to discover Detroit's emerging techno sound in the late 1980s. [195] The group's self-titled debut album mixed the influence of English pop, American soul and European dance music and met critical acclaim and some commercial success within the UK,[196] but it was their 1989 second album, The Raw & the Cooked that propelled them to international stardom, reaching number 1 in the UK, the US and Australia and producing two US number 1 singles. [320] The label and its associated producers continued to maintain their faith in "the kind of phat beats and oleaginous basslines that would harden your arteries"[320] over the following years while the wider jungle genre came to embrace more melodic forms. [284], In 2002 Regis went on to form Sandwell District, initially a label and later an international production collective that included the New York-based Function and the Los Angeles-based Silent Servant, both of whom would briefly relocate to Birmingham. [106] Paranoid also marked Black Sabbath's commercial breakthrough, reaching number 1 in the UK album charts and number 8 in the US. Do you remember these Birmingham bands of the 1980s? Birthplaces of Musicians and Bands on AllMusic . By Dave Freak 29th Jan 2022, 1:31pm Do you remember these Birmingham bands of the 1990s? Group was founded by. History 1960s-70s. [274] By the time of their fourth album Evansecence, however, Scorn's work had lost its metal elements and was increasingly based on sampling and electronic music, moving deeply into ambient dub. Frenchy (Constructive Trio) also worked in a record shop selling house Summit Records & Tapes as well as being involved in radio. [223] In 1969 they became the first Gospel Group to be recorded by a major record company when their classic and now extremely rare album Oh Happy Day was recorded by Cyril Stapleton for PYE Records. [citation needed], While there is a thriving music scene in the city and a number of rehearsal studios such as Robannas, Rich Bitch and Madhouse (many of which have their own demo recording studios) there are very few working at a professional level. BBC - Birmingham - BBC WM Introducing - Height Of Fashion [286] Sandwell District would in turn to create a major shift in world techno and influence another generation of techno musicians. "[225] In 1978 the Irish recording engineer Les Moir first heard the "astonishingly accomplished" work of lead singer Maxine Simpson and pianist Steve Thompson, subsequently recording the 1979 album Free at Last, which would prove groundbreaking for UK Gospel music. [299] The group most closely associated with the club was Higher Intelligence Agency, established at Oscillate by its founder Bobby Bird in May 1992 to improvise live tracks between records, releasing their first track on Beyond's first compilation Ambient Dub Volume 1. There were no Selfridges or Harvey Nichols, no Bullring as we know it today. But while those acts are justifiably mainstays of any decent '80s mixtape or playlist, the city produced dozens of other acts who packed such venues as The Rum Runner and Botanical Gardens, and . Birmingham in the late 1980s and early 1990s had a thriving hard rock and alternative music scene. Rum Runner (nightclub) - Wikipedia The Best Eddie Van Halen Guitar Solos Of All Time, Ranked. [57] Over the following two years Drake recorded and released two albums Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter of understated but harmonically complex songs that owed as much to jazz as to folk traditions,[58] but which sold poorly, partly due to his acute shyness and increasing reluctance to perform live. Birmingham-based tape recorder company, Bradmatic Ltd helped develop and manufacture the Mellotron. [164] The group's earliest origins lay in Hednesford to the north of the city, where a group of musicians including Robert Lloyd, P. J. Royston, Graham Blunt and Joe Crow formed in 1975 influenced by the New York Dolls and Neu!, originally calling themselves the Church of England, later The Gestapo and finally on the suggestion of Royston The Prefects. [99] This combination of intensity and finesse in Led Zeppelin's output redefined both mainstream and alternative rock music for the 1970s,[100] particularly in the United States, where they remain the fourth-best-selling act in music history. Liberty's, an old nightclub in Birmingham 10. Inside Ozzy Osbourne's Rough-And-Tumble Youth, The Best Bands Named After Things from the Bible. [271], In 1991 Mick Harris also left Napalm Death to pursue more experimental musical directions, teaming up with Nik Bullen to form Scorn,[272] whose first three albums brought a strong dub influence to bear on music that resembled Napalm Death slowed down to a crawl,[273] forming a hybrid ambient metal sound. [40], Ian Campbell, who moved to Birmingham from Aberdeen as a teenager, was one of the most important figures of the British folk revival during the early 1960s. Also in the late 1960s, there were psychedelic rock bands, such as Velvett Fogg a cult British psychedelic rock band. Summit Records sells mainly reggae and doubles as an Afro-Caribbean barbers. New Releases. With us, you get a full instrumentation, tight harmonies, and a fun show! It was a festival celebrating local independent music from the West Midlands. "[252] Promoter Daz Russell started booking hardcore punk bands at the venue in late 1984 and it quickly become an essential stop for touring punk bands and a focal point for fans from all over the country. [268], Justin Broadrick initially left Napalm Death in 1986 to play drums with the Dudley-based grindcore band Head of David, but again grew to feel increasingly constrained by their one-dimensional approach. Birmingham music: Do you remember these Birmingham bands of the 1980s? From legendary 1970s rock bandsLed Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, to 80s/90s super group Duran Duran, this compilation of Birmingham, UK, nativeartists features a wide range of genres, such as heavy metal, hard rock, alternative, R&B, punk, pop, folk, country, hip-hop/rap, jazz, reggae, and even blues. [95] Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 and was made up of two London-based musicians, one of whom was in The Yardbirds, and two from the Birmingham-based Band of Joy, marking an explicit combination of the musical influences of the two cities. Search from the best bands in the Birmingham, AL area. [86] Judas Priest came to epitomise heavy metal more than any other band,[119] with the fetishistic look of motorbikes, leather, studs and spikes adopted by lead singer Rob Halford coming to define heavy metal's visual style. By Dave Freak. Nathan dj'd at 49er's around this time, playing everything from Prince to House and Balearic. then look no further! In the 1980s in particular, Birmingham bands were among the biggest around. [251] Napalm Death soon became almost the house band at the Mermaid, with their growing local following ensuring good crowds for visiting bands. Sadly, many of the venues from those days have since climbed the stairway to heaven. "/"The Only Sound", that became a favourite of John Peel and his producer John Walters and was later learned to have been produced by Robert Plant. Pictures of Birmingham Gigs in the Early 1980s. "[123], During the 1960s and 1970s, the West Midlands developed a culture of Black British music that was unique,[132] remaining far less segregated from the white music scene than was the case in London. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 29th Jan 2022, 1:31pm. Bally Sagoo's 1994 single "Chura Liya" was the first Asian language record to enter the British mainstream top 20. [321] Notable releases included DJ Taktix's extremely rough cut-up 1994 track "The Way" and Asend & Ultravibe's later wistful laments "What kind of World", "Guardian Angel" and "Real Love". [25] The Fortunes had their 1964 recording "Caroline" adopted as its theme song by the pirate radio station Radio Caroline,[26] and followed this with three major international hits in 1965 "You've Got Your Troubles", a top 10 hit in both the UK and the US, "Here It Comes Again" and "This Golden Ring". I mean I was brought up in a white school, I work in a black area, and I play for a bhangra band so I've seen a lot of different cultures, and that does help the music a lot. Here's our selection of some great forgotten and overlooked Brum bands from the decade that gave us shoulder pads, indie music, Dallas and the Rubik's Cube! Kate Bush November 27, 1980 Odeon, Birmingham, UK November 28, 1980 University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK November 29, 1980 . [citation needed] Followed shortly after by Snapper club at the same venue, which was Jock Lee and John Maher's Friday night, along with Jock and John, DJ's such as Martin & Bear, Pretty Boy B, amongst others. [222] With their repertoire ranging from negro spirituals to traditional Southern gospel and carrying a distinct Caribbean influence, their appeal transcended cultural barriers to a then-unprecedented degree[221] and although they refused to sing secular music[221] their audience extended to white non-churchgoers across Europe. [343], Editors were one of the leading bands of the indie and post-punk revival that spread across Europe and America during the first years of the 21st century. The Rum Runner - Birmingham 1980s - YouTube [135] Birmingham bands were showing the influence of Jamaican music as early as 1968, when Locomotive had a minor UK hit with the ska single "Rudi's in Love",[136] and, by 1969, ska nights at Birmingham City Centre clubs were attracting early skinheads dressed in tonic suits and loafers,[137], Birmingham's first major home-grown reggae band was Steel Pulse,[138] who formed in Handsworth Wood in 1975[139] from a group of musicians who had been playing dub plates since the age of 15 and 16. [78], Traffic introduced musical textures and layers previously unknown to rock through their multi-instrumental line-up and their incorporation of jazz, folk and Indian influences, becoming one of the most successful bands of the early seventies internationally, with four US Top 10 albums. [310], Goldie was the first recognisable star of the genre of drum and bass,[311] the first indigenously British form of dance music. RMERFMCJ - Status Quo - portrait of the English rock band performing at the Birmingham International Arena in 1982. [218] British bhangra became increasingly important within India itself, influencing both traditional folk music of the Punjab and wider cultural phenomena such as the music of the Bollywood film industry. Electribe 101 hit the charts in 1988 with 'talking with myself'. [14] Grindcore was born in Sparkbrook from fusing the separate influences of extreme metal and hardcore punk. [304], Former Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris's Scorn project severed its last sonic links to its grindcore roots with its 1994 release Evanescence, creating "a dark digital domain where fancy danceable beats pop under thick clouds of textured samples, deep bass and minimal muted vocals";[305] that redefined ambient dub[306] by moving away from generic Roland TR-808 synthesiser elements and creating a sound much darker than that associated with Oscilllate. [228] By the end of the 1980s she was established as the most successful Black British female artist of all time, and the first to have six consecutive Top 20 hits. [176] The all-male Dangerous Girls started in 1978 with a post-punk sound influenced by Public Image Ltd, perversely moving in an increasingly punk direction for their series of singles,[177] that were re-released on three compilation albums in 2001 and 2002. List of Birmingham bands - Bhamwiki [226], During the 1980s the West Midlands lay at the centre of the development of a recognisably British soul style as a series of locally inflected contemporary R&B artists emerged from the area. [114], Also crucial to the emergence of heavy metal as an international phenomenon were Judas Priest,[115] who moved beyond the early sound of the metal genre in the later 1970s, combining the doom-laden gothic feel of Black Sabbath with the fast, riff-based sound of Led Zeppelin, while adding their own distinctive two-guitar cutting edge. [43] This was arguably the most important folk club in the United Kingdom during the 1960s,[44] and certainly the largest, attracting an audience that regularly reached 500 people a week. If you're wondering, "What musical duos, bands, or singing groups are from Birmingham, England?" [140] One of Britain's greatest reggae bands in terms of both critical and commercial success,[141] and one of very few bands from outside the island to have a significant impact on reggae within Jamaica itself,[142] Steel Pulse were also the most militant of Britain's reggae bands of the 1970s[143] with a reputation for uncompromising political ferocity. [325] The Streets' first album Original Pirate Material marked a major change in British music, moving beyond both the retro guitar-based indie bands of the early 2000s and the attempts of British rappers to imitate their more successful American counterparts, by rapping about the everyday details of English suburban existence in a recognisable Brummie accent. The band has over 41 #1 country records on the Billboard charts to their credit and have sold over 75 million records, making them the most successful band in country music history.