The Candy Shop #13

How could Nayt, or anyone for that matter, resist a snake print jacket?

Music Lessons 

by Nayt Housman

Have you ever eaten something as an adult that you hated as a kid only to find you actually love it and can’t believe you ever lived without it? Like at Christmas last year I discovered I actually like cherries but used to think they tasted like sweet crushed bugs or like I discovered that condensed milk is actually delicious and doesn’t taste anything like the mayonnaise I thought it looked like.

It’s strange how aging opens up worlds previously considered closed, just like the 80's for me. This era fed us some of the most kitch music and it's pop culture celebrated all things bold and quirky. Until I reached the ripe old age of 30 I thought all things 80’s should be avoided and treated if infected because I associated it with all the wrong things in that era. Then bit-by-bit I discovered new parts of the 80’s that sang to me like the sirens of the deep sea (especially New Wave and New Romantics). Slowly I started desiring a perm and geometric fluorescent clothing designs. Why had I been so against this amazing era?

Well kids it’s time to tease up that fringe and put on your thinking caps because its 80's trivia night. Let’s get schooled!

Q: What 1984 song inspired the name of a chain of 1980's themed clubs in the UK? 

A: The Reflex by Duran Duran  

 

 

Duran Duran became quite well known for the sexual nature of their music and videos and regularly worked with fashion designers, giving them the title 'the prettiest boys in rock'.

  
Q: What 1984 single caused controversy when the accompanying advertising featured photos of two members, one in a sailor cap and vest, the other with shaved head and rubber gloves with slogans like 'all the nice boys love sea men' and 'theories of bliss, a history of Liverpool from 1963 to 1983, a guide to Amsterdam bars'?

A: Those dirty boys from Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

 

The boys were not short of confidence either stating that “Frankie Goes to Hollywood are coming ... making Duran Duran lick the shit off their shoes ... Nineteen inches that must be taken always."

Q: Which 1980 song (which itself was a top ten UK hit) was the inspiration for Depeche Mode’s ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’? 

A: To Cut A Long Story Short by Spandau Ballet

 

 

The band began as “The Cut” then changed their name to “The Makers” before finally settling on “Spandau Ballet” when a friend saw the name scribbled on the wall of a nightclub toilet in Berlin. The name refers to the way victims in Spandau Prison would wriggle and jiggle when hanged.

Next time you hear a song you hate, ask yourself why, but never write it off totally because you might just find yourself in love or even obsessed with it and start collecting records and CD’s and trying to convince your friends why Spandau Ballet is better than the Beatles without actually having any stats to back it up.