Aces Of 1980s Brit Bass (Part 2)

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Kev Hopper

Some years ago, we spotlighted some of the British bass players who, mainly influenced by Bernard Edwards, Jaco Pastorius, Louis Johnson and Stanley Clarke, brought some of the freshest grooves to 1980s pop music.

It seemed that every half-decent post-punk, New Pop, New Romantic or Britfunk band had a good bassist, and the dancefloor was the main target.

But there was some great Brit bass players investigating other corners of music during the 1980s too – here are a few of them.

Martin McAloon
The Prefab Sprout man brought a meaty tone (often tuning down a half-step to accompany his brother Paddy’s guitar) and great hook-up with drummer Neil Conti. Deceptively simple bass parts which were little compositions in themselves. Key tracks: ‘Hey Manhattan!’, ‘When The Angels’, ‘When Love Breaks Down’, ‘Horsin’ Around’

Ged Grimes
The Danny Wilson man is the very definition of bass solidity, supplying endless well-composed parts especially in combination with drummer David Palmer (Grimes now plays with Simple Minds). Key tracks: ‘Mary’s Prayer’, ‘I Can’t Wait’, ‘I Was Wrong’, ‘Lorraine Parade’

Richard Nolan
The It Bites man had three distinct phases – there was the early poppy stuff, with a trebly WAL sound and light strings, the middle-period ‘rock’ sound, then the sophisticated six-string playing of the band’s late period. It was all good and others were listening – he was later recruited by Tony Banks and Ray Davies, with whom he works to this day. Key tracks: ‘Whole New World’, ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Positively Animal’, ‘Midnight’, ‘Calling All The Heroes’

Steve Severin
The flanger/plectrum combo was invented for the Siouxsie & The Banshees man. Every track featured a good bassline or good idea. Key tracks: ‘Cascade’, ‘Monitor’, ‘Spellbound’.

Mo Foster
The London bass legend was a mainstay of the capital’s studios during the 1980s, playing with everyone from Cliff Richard to Scott Walker and contributing to many hits. He died in 2023. Key tracks: Jeff Beck’s ‘Space Boogie’, Dennis Waterman’s ‘I Could Be So Good For You’, Gary Moore’s ‘Empty Rooms’, Elkie Brooks’ ‘No More The Fool’, Howard Jones’ ‘No One Is To Blame’

Sting
In the early 1980s he came up with brilliant, memorable lines, often scrappily played, but returned for 1987’s …Nothing Like The Sun as a model of taste and groove. Key tracks: ‘Voices Inside My Head’, ‘Rehumanise Yourself’, ‘Secret Journey’, ‘Be Still My Beating Heart’, ‘Lazarus Heart’

Matthew Seligman
Cyprus-born Matthew played great bendy basslines with The Soft Boys, Thompson Twins and Thomas Dolby, and even ended up playing Live Aid with Bowie. He died in 2020. Key tracks: ‘Living In Europe’ by Thompson Twins, ‘Absolute Beginners’ by David Bowie, ‘Screen Kiss’ by Thomas Dolby, ‘Magic’s Wand’ by Whodini

John McKenzie
Son of actor Liz McKenzie (Mrs Brumby in ‘Get Carter’), the late London bassist played some fantastic stuff on the Morrissey Mullen album Life On The Wire, then worked extensively with Eurythmics. Pretenders, Five Star, Bob Dylan and Dexys Midnight Runners too. He died in 2020. Key tracks: ‘Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)’

Alan Thomson
Another of the many great Scottish bassists of the decade, Glasgow-born Thomson excelled himself on the fretless during his valuable collaboration with John Martyn, and also played with Julia Fordham, Rick Wakeman, Robert Palmer and others. Key tracks: John Martyn’s ‘Blood Money’, ‘Couldn’t Love You More’, ‘Glorious Fool’, ‘Hiss On The Tape’, ‘John Wayne’, especially the BBC In Concert version…

Kev Hopper
Influenced by Brand X’s Percy Jones, Hopper only made a few full-length recordings with Stump during the decade but left his mark with fantastically bendy fretless sounds/effects and intrepid lines. Has gone on to make some enjoyably weird music to this day. Key tracks: ‘Tupperware Stripper’, ‘Our Fathers’, ‘Eager Bereaver’, ‘Buffalo’, and everything, really…

Camelle Hinds
Ipswich-born Hinds was a founder member of Britfunk band Central Line and often the go-to guy when you needed excellent slap bass in the 1980s. He played great stuff with Beggar & Co, The The, B.E.F., Style Council and Heaven 17. Key tracks: The Kane Gang’s ‘Looking For Gold’

Bobby Paterson
The late Glasgow-born Love And Money bassist added some of the funkiest grooves of the late 1980s on his Fender Precision and MusicMan. Key tracks: ‘Jocelyn Square’, ‘Strange Kind Of Love’, ‘Candybar Express’.

Ewen Vernal
His playing on the two Deacon Blue albums of the late 1980s featured excellent, nimble five-string playing with loads of memorable lines and he always made sure each note was given its full value. Key tracks: ‘Fergus Sings The Blues’, ‘Chocolate Girl’, ‘When Will You Make My Telephone Ring’.

Gary ‘Gazza’ Johnson
His tenure with China Crisis brought some memorable lines and grooves. He played fretless on their early hits and was an early adopter of the octave pedal for added depth/punch. Key tracks: ‘Working With Fire And Steel’, ‘The Highest High’, ‘Day After Day’, ‘Strength Of Character’, ‘Red Sails’, ‘King In A Catholic Style’

This playlist brings together some of their best work.

Wendy & Lisa: Fruit At The Bottom (1989) Revisited

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Despite massive record industry buzz, Wendy & Lisa’s 1987 debut album, rush-released after they were asked to leave Prince’s Revolution, failed to set the world on fire.

It was time for a rethink, and time to sell some albums. They were sober, sane and serious, and it seemed as if ‘pop’ stardom might be just around the corner if they could just combine some catchy songs with their exemplary musicianship.

But which way to go on the sophomore release? The first album hinted at a Bangles/Fleetwood Mac/Joni Mitchell direction. In the end they went pretty much Full Prince – with varying degrees of success, though once again Fruit At The Bottom demonstrated what a superb multi-instrumentalist Wendy Melvoin was blossoming into.

Released in March 1989, the album was also a chance for Wendy and Lisa to demonstrate just how influential they had been on Prince’s music. They dusted off the Linn LM-1 drum machine (‘Are You My Baby’ even starts with almost the same snare fill as ‘The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker’, via Weather Report’s ‘Teen Town’?) and Wendy got busy with some slap bass and funky, sometimes varispeed rhythm guitar.

Aided by trusted engineer (and Prince veteran) Susan Rogers, who recorded and mixed all the basic tracks at Avatar Studios in New York, lots more time was taken over the drum sounds and Wendy and twin sister Susannah’s (also a Prince veteran and his ex-fiancée) vocals.

The lyrics were far more sexual/sensual than before too, but let’s be blunt – it was very difficult for two highly photogenic gay artists wanting to prove themselves as musicians and not kowtow to a mostly male music industry wanting ever more salaciousness (see the ladies’ slightly uncomfortable interview on GMTV, when they seemed to have arrived from a different universe).

It was also quite a big responsibility for Wendy to suddenly become frontwoman in a touring band (they were very good at London’s Town & Country Club in May 1989, one of the coolest gigs of that year).

Listening to the album again recently, it’s clear that they frontloaded it with three great singles, and took a lot of time over these (Prince even had a bash at remixing ‘Lolly Lolly’). ‘Satisfaction’ even briefly gatecrashed the UK charts, peaking at #26.

But the rest of the album – with the exception of ‘I Think It Was December’ – sounds worryingly like a succession of B-sides, despite Lisa’s always interesting chord changes and synth textures. There’s far too much minimalist/mid-tempo filler with rather hippy/drippy lyrics: ‘Everyday’, ‘Someday I’, ‘Tears Of Joy’, ‘Always In My Dreams’.

It’s quite a shock to hear Wendy’s dirty guitars on ‘From Now On’ but the track doesn’t quite cut through and lacks a good chorus, despite the fine efforts of drummer Carla Azar.

What a shame they couldn’t fashion seven or eight tracks of killer dancefloor material, with one or two ballads. Despite a great review in Q magazine which compared the album to Stephen Sondheim and Bill Evans, FATB stalled at #47 in the UK and failed to chart in the US.

Still, Melody Maker’s Caroline Sullivan interviewed them at length and they appeared on ‘Rapido’ and ‘Top Of The Pops’. They also became quite the live draw in Europe with a great band including Azar, guitarist Chris Bruce and Susannah.

But it was their third album Eroica, released in summer 1990, that probably best showcased their formidable skills and wide influences. But by then the game was up in terms of mainstream success.

Rumours abound that there’s a 1992 album in the vaults somewhere produced by Trevor Horn, after they had worked successfully together with Seal and on the ‘Toys’ soundtrack. C’mon Universal Music, let’s hear it…

Sting: Bring On The Night @ 40

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Sting’s Bring On The Night, released 40 years ago this month, seldom makes it into the pantheon of ‘classic’ 1980s live albums (usually including Stop Making Sense, Alchemy, Under A Blood Red Sky, No Sleep Til Hammersmith, Exit…Stage Left).

But it probably should if you like brilliant playing, good singing and an interesting setlist, apparently with no post-production ‘sweetening’ too (even Rush admitted to some studio retakes after the event).

Former Police live mixer and occasional road manager Kim Turner spent most of 1985 recording Sting’s world tour (this writer was at a Royal Albert Hall gig of January 1986).

The result was probably his most underrated album, out of step with pretty much anything else released in 1986, the one that let his superb Dream Of The Blue Turtles band loose. Sting was obviously fond of it too, designing the cover and writing copious notes on each song which even allowed for a little self-criticism (‘Children’s Crusade’).

In a contemporary interview, he claimed that he shared all the album’s songwriting royalties with the band, so much did he value their contributions. With good reason: you could set your watch to Kenny Kirkland’s vamps and countermelodies. Sting worked very hard with backing vocalists Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis (demonstrated on the tour doc directed by Michael Apted, of which more another time…) and their voices mesh beautifully.

Drummer Omar Hakim is at his absolutely peak with delicious, flowing fusion and funk playing, fresh from classic albums with Weather Report, John Scofield and Dire Straits. Bassist Darryl Jones gets on with his work fairly anonymously, but embellishes the back end of ‘Consider Me Gone’ with a few remarkable bebop lines.

Some Police material is improved. An atmospheric ‘Tea In The Sahara’ gets the tempo right, Kirkland resplendent in Herbie mode and Sting doing a decent Andy Summers impression. ‘Low Life’ grooves along tastily while The ‘One World’/’Love Is The Seventh Wave’ medley is brilliant, with its weird key changes and Sting’s Wes Montgomery-style guitar break.

He apparently always hated the chorus on the Police version of ‘Bring On The Night’ so it gets a makeover here with some major-seventh chords and nice, breezy R’n’B feel. Kirkland’s epic solo is one of the great piano statements of the 1980s.

The B-side ‘Another Day’ is effervescent and funky (in a different key to the studio version) despite some of Sting’s most depressing state-of-the-world lyrics ever.

But a lot of the softer stuff is underwhelming: ‘Moon Over Bourbon Street’ barely registers, while ‘I Burn For You’ comes sans Omar’s blowout from the doc. ‘Been Down So Long’ is a light-hearted, corny blues with ill-advised ‘sexy’ Sting vocals, despite another beautiful Hakim performance. ‘We Work The Black Seam’ adds little to the leaden studio version.

In general, the album maybe could have done with more up-tempo reggae, and it’s surprising the A&M bosses didn’t demand the inclusion of some bigger Police hits.

Many critics were quick to label the album as ‘fusion’, but if you listen to what Branford Marsalis is actually playing, his chief influences seem to be King Curtis and Grover Washington Jr. The Wayne Shorter/Coltrane licks only really come out on ‘Children’s Crusade’.

Upon its June 1986 release, Bring On The Night only hit #16 in the UK, didn’t chart in the USA (?) but 18 months later won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.

Meanwhile Sting was becoming the Sting we know today. He had presented Quincy Jones his Grammy for Record Of The Year (‘We Are The World’) in February 1986. In June, he duetted with Mark Knopfler at the Prince’s Trust Wembley gig and did the Artists Against Apartheid Clapham Common gig organised by Jerry Dammers. He then reformed The Police for the Conspiracy Of Hope Amnesty tour leading, of course, to the disastrous ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me ‘86’ single.

The next stop was the Bahamas to record …Nothing Like The Sun, another career high point and a return to the bass. He would never record with Omar Hakim or Darryl Jones again…

Tales Of The Unexpected: The Flypaper (1980)

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If you were a British kid of a certain age circa 1980, there was plenty of spooky material around on TV: ‘Hammer House Of Horror’, ‘Armchair Thriller’ and those Public Information films warning about stranger danger, fireworks and water.

And the occasional episode of ‘Tales Of The Unexpected’.

Based on Roald Dahl’s short-story book of the same name, it was an absolute British TV staple between 1979 and 1988 across 112 episodes of varying quality. These days it’s probably best remembered for Ron Grainer’s brilliant theme music and the dancing credits lady.

But it wasn’t especially known for truly disturbing episodes – until your correspondent came across ‘The Flypaper’ recently. Broadcast on 9 August 1980, it was based on Elizabeth Taylor’s short story of the same name (she died in 1975) and adapted rather well by Robin Chapman, who went on to write episodes of ‘Maigret’ and ‘Dalziel And Pascoe’.

It’s a tight, tense 22 minutes, shot entirely on location in Ely in Cambridgeshire – no dodgy studio stuff here.

A young girl has been found dead on the outskirts of a provincial English town. Shy, sensitive, withdrawn Silva (Lorna Yabsley, who went on to appear in 1981’s ‘Day Of The Triffids’) is particularly afraid, not helped by the fact that her parents (her mother in the short story) have died in a car crash two years ago and she’s now living with her somewhat cold grandmother.

Lorna Yabsley as Silva

Meanwhile a creepy man seems to be watching her, finally cornering her on a bus with intrusive, incessant, over-familiar chatter. You can imagine many children experienced similar in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

We won’t give away the horrible, rather bold last three minutes, which very well epitomise ‘the banality of evil’.

Suffice it to say that it tapped into a hot-button topic in 1980, with the Yorkshire Ripper still at large and lots of parental advice about not talking to strangers (tragically, our heroine does NOT talk to the weird stranger in ‘The Flypaper’…).

Director Graham Evans does an excellent job, ramping up the atmosphere and cutting back the dialogue. There are disturbing echoes of ‘The Offence’ and ‘Don’t Look Now’.

Ron Grainer supplies a nicely sludgy synth soundtrack and there’s the (initially) amusing sight of actor Pat ‘Fawlty Towers’ Keen – she played Sybil and Basil’s pushy friend in ‘The Anniversary’, but is used to much more disarming effect here.

With all the endless current talk of how far we should go to protect our children, ‘The Flypaper’ provides a cold slap in the face. Here it is, sadly with rather dodgy picture quality, if you dare…

Book Review: Stay Alive (The Life And Death Of Stuart Adamson) by Scott Rowley

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Here’s another missive from the darker side of the music industry.

Author Scott Rowley has obtained the full cooperation of Stuart Adamson’s family, friends and bandmates to tell the gripping, sometimes troubling, sometimes sad, sometimes funny story of the Big Country frontman and Skids guitarist who took his own life in 2001 after struggles with alcoholism and depression.

A brave, unsettling opening takes us right into Adamson’s head just a few days before his death. From there it’s an unflinching look at his troubled life, and Rowley finds plenty in Adamson’s background pointing to mitigating circumstances (his father was jailed in 2004 for abusing children).

‘Stay Alive’ also takes an unusual approach with fairly detailed biographical detail about all the members of The Skids and Big Country. They are a huge part of this story – Richard Jobson and Tony Butler in particular deliver strikingly candid observations on Adamson, as do several family members.

This is also very much a Scottish tale, complete with unedited dialects and much fruity language, from Adamson’s childhood in Cowdenbeath (novelist Ian Rankin went to the same school) onwards.

Adamson makes an almost immediate musical impact during the punk era with The Skids. The Strangers’ JJ Burnel takes an interest as does John Peel, calling Adamson ‘Scotland’s answer to Jimi Hendrix’.

Virgin Records sign the band but indulge in various questionable business decisions; the book is extremely good on the machinations of the post-punk record industry (as is this ‘Play At Home’ documentary from 1984).

Adamson’s relationship with vocalist Jobson starts well – Adamson is particularly protective towards the singer when he finds out about his epilepsy – but the friendship becomes increasingly strained as the band gain some success.

Adamson flees The Skids and hooks up with young guitarist Bruce Watson and the hot West London rhythm section of drummer Mark Brzezicki and bassist Tony Butler (who had already played on Pretenders’ ‘Back On The Chain Gang’). It was Tony who was blown away by the musical chemistry after their first jam session, insisting that he and Mark join Big Country.

But even as the band achieve almost immediate success and create a great bond with their many fans (it’s often forgotten how popular Big Country were in the UK, enjoying 12 Top 40 singles during the 1980s), Adamson can’t ditch the serious drinking. More and more difficult behaviour ensues, including a disappearing act around the time of Live Aid which, to this day, Butler deems almost unforgivable.

But Adamson regroups and enjoys 14 years of sobriety after that difficult summer of 1985. A 1988 reunion leads to a bidding war between Virgin and Warners – they go with the latter, head honchos Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker apparently marvelling at the band’s musicianship. But it all goes wrong again, Adamson jumping ship in 1989.

Big Country were one of the most musically-literate and distinctive rock bands of the 1980s, and we get plenty on just how they achieved their sound: Adamson’s first wife Sandra was a dancer, and her practice tape featured a piper named Willie Law. Adamson would often try to play along, probably the original source of the ‘bagpipe guitars’ tag that followed Big Country around.

Meanwhile Brzezicki based his style around military rudiments (his Polish father insisted that he work through a RAF drum book) and jazz/rock legends such as Billy Cobham and Lenny White.

The book is excellent on the literary sources of Adamson’s lyrics – even hardcore Big Country fans will probably be surprised how many there are.

There are plenty of pertinent, poignant details about him too. A regular five-a-side player, his football friends report that his nickname was Inspector Gadget, because he always had his legs wrapped around someone.

But there’s no getting away from the fact that the last third of ‘Stay Alive’ is a gruelling portrayal of alcoholism and attendant family breakdown, as Adamson begins a new life in the US and Big Country limp on with varying degrees of success.

Still, this excellent book covers all the bases – it’s an essential read about the 1980s music scene and also somewhat of a cautionary tale which should be read by every agent, manager and PR person.

Of course it’ll also be rather a heartbreaking book for Big Country fans. Their excellent performance of ‘King Of Emotion’ on the Channel 4 show ‘Wired’ (this writer’s first real exposure to the band) came complete with Adamson’s cheeky grin and nod to someone in the front row around 0:25. Hard to think of any other 1980s pop frontmen who were so inclined.

Author Scott Rowley discusses ‘Stay Alive’ in this podcast.

Gig Review: Thomas Dolby/Martin McAloon @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 21 May 2026

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As gig introductions go, it was one of the best: ‘For those who’ve never seen me live before, I’m Martin McAloon from Deacon Blue.’

Of course Martin is the brother of fellow Prefab Sprouter Paddy McAloon, and for the past five years or so he’s been playing his bro’s fantastic compositions as a solo act.

And this was a potentially exciting double bill with Thomas Dolby, Prefab producer and a fine composer/musician in his own right.

Martin’s opening gambit was the first in a long line of zingers, but he’s also an obviously excellent guitarist, firing off Paddy’s not-at-all simple chords with ease. He managed to find ways of including all the tricky stuff: ‘Faron Young’ came complete with that wacky ascending outro, while the melody of ‘Appetite’ was outlined with some nice Wes-style octaves.

On ‘Goodbye Lucille #1 (Johnny Johnny)’ he even found a way of combining the guitar melody, chords and bassline simultaneously. Meanwhile ‘Looking For Atlantis’ was a very fast shuffle ‘in the style of Elvis, with a bar of 5/4 added for all you jazzers’.

His rather ramshackle presentation is definitely part of his charm (‘I forgot my setlist, but remembered to back it up on my iPhone, but I also forgot my glasses so I can’t read it’) and it was pleasing to hear the Steve McQueen material the way Thomas Dolby may have heard it in Paddy’s bedroom all those years ago.

‘Moving The River’ was indeed moving and the fun closer ‘King Of Rock’n’Roll’ managed to incorporate ‘The Reflex’, ‘Get It On’, ‘Yellow’ and ‘It’s Only Rock’n’Roll’.

But was it good music? For this writer, the jury is still out. It’s unlikely Paddy’s songs (often taken too fast) are going to wither on the vine anytime soon. And there’s no getting away from the rather utilitarian nature of Martin’s voice – the more tender Paddy material particularly suffered.

And sometimes you yearn for a bit more colour from his guitar tones and rhythms – a gentle bossa-nova-style strum seems to be the default for the 4/4 material, with a somewhat unforgiving, bright, dry Les Paul tone. But it’s definitely worth seeing Martin live for the banter and ’80s stories.

Dolby’s set was advertised as a ‘my personal recollections of the 1980s’ with a full live band promised – somewhat of a misnomer, as it turned out. He emerged onto the stage alone, greeting the audience very quietly before settling behind his bank of synths and playing a solo rendition of ‘The Flat Earth’ complete with tinnitus-inducing TR-808, some Martin Luther King Jr. spoken words and too loud vocals – though Dolby’s voice has got richer with age.

He revealed he was born less than a mile from Shepherd’s Bush, making this his home gig, but the ‘80s vibe was blown by his second track, 2011’s underwhelming ‘Evil Twin Brother’, though it segued neatly into Sting’s ‘Bring On The Night’ with which it shares a chord sequence.

photo by Adrian Sartain

Dolby then crowbarred Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ into ‘One Of Our Submarines’, and he paid tribute to David Bowie with a somewhat ponderous take on ‘Heroes’ complete with back projection of his personal photos taken during Live Aid, and ‘virtual’ vocals from Bowie himself.

Dolby then introduced his rhythm section for the evening: Jakko Jakszyk on guitar, Matt Hector on drums and bassist Ana Pshokina, who had pre-recorded her parts and vocals to a click track at home in Ukraine after being refused entry into the UK, and was thus now appearing via the big screen.

Here’s where the evening really went downhill. Dolby revealed that he was working on a symphony which would feature his own songs mixed with elements of other ‘iconic’ 1980s hits, and had decided to preview it here.

So ‘Flying North’ inexplicably morphed into Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’, and ‘I Love You Goodbye’ into Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be The Place’, complete with incorrectly played guitar motif by Jakszyk.

The guitarist was also responsible for a toe-curling rendition of ‘Little Red Corvette’, and then Dolby rehashed his ‘meeting Michael Jackson’ story yet again via seriously weird take on ‘Billie Jean’, complete with some unsettling AI dialogue.

Elsewhere there were snatches of Tears For Fears, Kate Bush, Billy Idol, Smiths and Foreigner hits. Dolby had mentioned trying to distance himself from the usual ‘Rewind 1980s nostalgia’ stuff but sadly this gig failed to achieve that.

What your reviewer really wanted to hear was Dolby’s mostly excellent songs played by a really good band. Where was guitarist Kevin Armstrong when we needed him?

When Dolby eased into U2’s ‘With Or Without You’, sad to report that your correspondent couldn’t take any more. All credit to him for going ahead with the show, but arguably the concept was always a hard sell.

Here’s hoping Thomas reforms The Lost Toy People and puts together an Aliens Ate My Buick @ 40 show for 2028, but it seems unlikely…

Rosie Vela: Zazu @ 40 (And Being A Steely Dan Fan In The 1980s)

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‘Models who make records usually should not but I’ll make an exception for Rosie Vela’, began Max Bell’s four-star review of Zazu in the January 1987 edition of Q magazine.

In general, us Brits liked Zazu (peaking at #20 and going silver), the album released 40 years ago this month which reunited the Steely Dan troika of Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and Gary Katz for the first time in nearly six years.

It was weird being a Steely Dan fan during the 1980s. Your correspondent got in around 1984, obsessed with his dad’s Steely Dan Greatest Hits cassette and Aja vinyl, and by 1986 was a megafan who’d only just twigged that Gaucho had been released a full six years earlier.

We were excited when Becker produced China Crisis, but apart from The Nightfly, Fagen seemed to have gone AWOL (he later admitted that he ‘came apart like a cheap suit’ during the decade).

But imagine our surprise when Zazu was advertised in the first issue of Q magazine, and then Rosie was interviewed in issue four.

I probably bought Zazu on the strength of the ‘Magic Smile’ single around January 1987 (but have just checked and no longer own it on any format…).

Texas-born Roseanne Vela had been a first-call model in the late ‘70s and briefly appeared in Michael Cimino’s ‘Heaven’s Gate’, all the while working on her own demos. Jerry Moss at A&M loved them and enlisted Joe Jackson to produce her debut album (he subsequently pulled out).

You can read more about Vela and the background to Zazu in Anthony Robustelli’s book ‘Steely Dan FAQ’, but for our purposes: is it easy to hear why Fagen, Katz and Becker was so drawn to the project?

Not really. But the positive things first:

With her husky voice and sometimes through-composed songs with odd chord movement, she offered something completely different to other mid-‘80s female singer/songwriters.

‘Magic Smile’ still sounds great (#27 in the UK) and ‘Boxs’ is good too. It’s very surprising that ‘Fool’s Paradise’ wasn’t a single though. It sounds like the nearest thing to a hit with its synth lick reminiscent of ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’.

Fagen plays a nice little intro to ‘Interlude’, and Becker doubles his solo on guitar, a cool touch (Becker also plays the weird little synth additions to ‘Tonto’).

But there’s lots of bad too.

Katz helms a surprisingly cold album which leads a little too heavily on Rick Derringer’s lead guitar, some non-more-‘80s snare drum sounds and way too much DX7 from Fagen. With hindsight, maybe Jackson’s more organic approach would have worked better (Becker’s better still).

‘Sunday’, ‘Taxi’, ‘2nd Emotion’ and ‘Tonto’ are totally unmemorable songs. The closing, almost-gothic title track could have been good though with some more real instruments.

In general Katz renders some superb musicians – Tony Levin, Jimmy Haslip, Jim Keltner – pretty anonymous. In some ways Zazu is the ultimate 1986 album (Robustelli compares it to Gaucho and Aja in ‘Steely Dan FAQ’ – it’s impossible to hear that).

The cover art and photo are poor too – whose idea was it to portray this gorgeous woman in black and white?

Vela did ‘Magic Smile’ on Letterman – a brave performance that didn’t quite work. The album and single completely flopped in the USA.

But of course the main thing about Zazu is that it got Becker and Fagen back together again. Next up for Fagen was the ‘Century’s End’ single and The New York Rock and Soul Revue, both interesting. Kamikiriad was just around the corner.

RIP Forgotten 80s?

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So farewell then Forgotten 80s?

It was the jewel in Absolute 80s’ crown, the radio show for last thing on Sunday nights which showcased underrated gems, lost classics and long-forgotten cult tracks from the decade.

Presented by Matthew Rudd, Forgotten 80s was also much-appreciated ‘appointment radio’ during the hell years of 2020-?.

It was definitely the only show on the dial where you’d hear underrated ‘80s acts like Love and Money, It Bites, Danny Wilson et al (it now seems pretty unlikely that ‘Jocelyn Square’, ‘Underneath Your Pillow’ or ‘Never Gonna Be The Same’ will ever again get an airing).

Amidst rumours of an investigation, Forgotten 80s has been missing from the airwaves since February – apparently without an official statement from Bauer Media – and now reportedly removed from Rayo schedules completely…

Prince: Syracuse, New York, 30 March 1985

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In these crazy times, it’s always good to hear music that ‘washes away the dust of everyday life’, to paraphrase Art Blakey.

Rewatching Prince’s 30 March 1985 Syracuse gig this week did just that. The brilliant 1984-1989 period of albums is one thing but it’s somewhat of a shock to be reminded of how fantastic the live shows were during this time, and musically streets ahead of pretty much everything 2026 can offer.

Even though by all accounts he was already tired of the Purple Rain tour by early 1985 (during the tour he had put the finishing touches to The Family’s self-titled debut, Sheila E’s Romance 1600 and Around The World In A Day), he gave nothing less than his all.

The Syracuse gig was reportedly attended by 49,000 people but wasn’t sold out. A heavily edited 78-minute cut is currently on iPlayer for UK viewers, commemorating 10 years since Prince’s death, with a lot of the weirder sexual stuff edited out.

Joni Mitchell once said Prince was not a pioneer but instead a brilliant assimilator, and here we see James Brown, Little Richard, Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana rolled into one. The show is built for pure entertainment. There are so many notable moments:

– Prince taking off his Telecaster and chucking it 25 yards into the arms of a roadie during ‘Computer Blue’

– Wendy and Prince’s twin rhythm guitars on ‘1999’ (Wendy acquits herself superbly throughout, often playing Prince’s recorded solos note for note with some aplomb. According to Prince’s engineer Susan Rogers, he acted as a guitar mentor to Wendy, his frequent advice to her being: ‘Learn to solo, learn to solo…’)

– Mark Brown’s excellent bass throughout, absurdly trebly and showing serious funk chops

– The use of silence. This band could turn on a dime. In fact, Prince insisted on it!

– The small stage, and how close the band members are to each other. Check out the remarkable shot where the camera zooms out to show the entirety of the stadium, with a tiny stage in the background

– Bobby Z’s control of the Linn Drum machine: some serious pressure there. There’s a particularly quick sleight of hand between ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ and ‘Delirious’. But he plays ‘live’ on ‘Take Me With U’ and ‘Purple Rain’ with the Linn trigger on his snare. You’d hope Lisa Coleman and Dr Fink were wearing ear plugs during this gig though – he NEVER lays off the cymbals

– The ‘Baby I’m A Star’ finale featuring Sheila E, Eric Leeds et al is pretty remarkable, complete with audience members doing the conga around the stage

The Purple Rain tour ended on 7 April 1985. He began work on Parade just ten days later! He sat down at the drums and recorded the first four songs at Sunset Sound on 17 April 1985. Then Around The World In A Day was released on 22 April. This guy was always thinking two albums ahead.

Rolling Stone from 40 years ago this week, the 26 April 1986 edition

But reportedly it was a big shock to Prince’s management and band that he refused to tour Purple Rain outside of the USA. They wanted to milk it for all it was worth, but Prince was moving on.

And his bandmates were less than thrilled to receive a tour bonus of just $10,000 each (meanwhile Prince’s accountants informed Sheila, who had acted as the opening act on the tour, that she owed Warner Bros. $1 million…).

Perhaps the most remarkable thing of all though is that Prince would go on to make better music during the 1980s, and arguably do better live shows too…