My friend JP scored a couple of VIP passes to the Koka Booth Amphitheatre presentation of the Regeneration Tour last Wednesday. This is the same venue where I saw Duran Duran's Red Carpet Massacre tour back in May. It was really cool to use the VIP passes - we had access everywhere, including reserved seating down front and up at the covered area with tables and wait service. If you're really into music, it's a nice treat.

Access to the covered area was convenient, as it had been thunder-storming badly all day, to the point where they made announcements off and on about potentially sending people to their cars to wait out the storm and come back. We got to avoid the occasional rain from up there. Also, the crowd was sparse because of the weather, which in my opinion was perfectly okay, since I don't like crowds much.

The performers were in the following order: Naked Eyes, A Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Belinda Carlisle, and Human League.

We missed the Naked Eyes portion of the show, but heard it from the parking lot (where we were tailgating.) I was glad to hear them play "(What) In the Name of Love", which I posted on my 80's blog prior to the show. Actually, almost all of the songs on that post were played during the show - which isn't any big surprise, as each artist really only had time to do their greatest hits. In any case, Naked Eyes sounded good. I heard "Promises, Promises" and "Always Something There to Remind Me" in the set, too.

Then there came A Flock of Seagulls. They totally kicked butt. We had already entered the venue, and this is where I started dancing in earnest. They did not play the song "Nightmares" which I had posted in the link above, but otherwise they did all the good ones, among them "Space Age Love Song", "Wishing", and of course, "I Ran". The original drummer, Ali Score, apparently now lives in Oxford, NC, and he played drums for "I Ran". He got a nice hometown welcome from the crowd.

ABC played a good set, but for some reason I wasn't as into it - surprising, considered I owned three of their records when I was a kid. They played well, and even did one new song, which was decent, amongst the hits like "Poison Arrow", "Be Near Me", "The Look of Love", etc. Martin Fry still looks good, and was wearing a bright orange suit, which only he can pull off.

After them, Belinda Carlisle came on. We had voted her Most Likely To Suck beforehand, and she lived up to expectations. To her credit, her voice is still in good shape. She played a lot of Go-Gos hits which were worth hearing, and I have to say "We Got the Beat" brought back a lot of teenage girl nostalgia for me, but her original works are totally forgettable.

Finally, there was Human League, who changed the set to be a minimalistic white set. They put on a fantastic show. I danced so hard that my face was as red as a lobster. The played all the favorites, starting out with "Mirror Man" (which makes my choice to post it on dailyeighties more astute, if I do say so myself), and included "Human", "Love Action", "Don't You Want Me, Baby?", "Tell Me When", and "Fascination", of course. I was really impressed with how tight their performance was, and what a good show they put on. I'm very glad I got to see them.

On the way home, the heavens opened up, and we were lucky to get home safely. Going 30 mph down I-40 in the middle of a deluge, while exhausted from dancing, is not my idea of a good time. But the rest of the night was. Thanks so much to JP for taking me, and Maura for worrying about him in the rain from home. :)

So, I figure this eighties thing is going to be obsessive enough for me that I need to spin off a separate blog for it. I'm hoping to convince my friend hsarik to co-host it with me, but it may be too obsessive even for her. ;)

In any case, here it is.

The other record that we played all the time in high school. And more proof that, in the eighties mentality at least, what men like is women in very loud-patterned clothing.



Clip from noCoffee

This was one of those records that my friends and I put on the record player at every party - it's so danceable and fun. The video is fun, too, with all the hairdos and wild clothes, but it never lingers long enough on anything for you to get a good grasp of what precisely it is that you're seeing, which can be a bit disorienting.



Kate Pierson: If I try harder, I bet I can create a hairdo which will be big enough to be labeled a new planet!
Cindy Wilson: If I try harder, I bet I can play the bongos with my bosoms!
Fred Schneider: If I try harder, I bet I can look even creepier in a mustache! Well, maybe not.

YouTube clip by pinkow188

Correction: The reason why the above video is hard to follow is because, predictably, those clips were taken from previous videos, namely Legal Tender, Is That You Mo Dean and Song For a Future Generation.

Poll #914373 Eighties Video Poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 2

What's your favorite video from the 1980's?

On the opposite end of the color spectrum, there's The Sisters of Mercy with lead singer Andrew Eldritch.

greetings. i am andrew eldritch, gothic rock god. the fact that my nostrils are slightly askew only makes me more potently mesmerizing. my band mates had too many shots of tequila in tijuana last night. when they wake up their skin will be peeling. but not i. i have my extra-large uv-blocking hat, which also happens to look cool on me. i must go now. i am very busy driving this uber-cool monkeemobile.

-- a. e., g. r. g.



Oh, Andrew. Please lose the hat and get some color in your face.

Thanks to YouTuber Alterprincess for the high quality video.

Dale Bozzio - what a bizarre, brazen babe. She of the plasticized breasts and the strategically placed light-box. One couldn't ask for a better introduction to the Daily Eighties.



Boy, that drummer has a lot of rouge on.

Thanks to YouTuber xthirtyonex.

So I'm up insanely early in the morning writing this post because I have an addiction. I am addicted to watching eighties videos on YouTube.

Last night I had an hour-long chat with my friend hsarik, who is as much of an eighties freak as I am. We threw YouTube links at each other until we both were exhausted from laughing and had seriously regressed. And I've just spent a sleepless night thinking of new videos that I had to watch and share with the world RIGHT NOW.

This is a problem.

I think one of the reasons this is so appealing to me is the many hours that I spent glued to MTV as a youth, just hoping that the next video would be the one I wanted to see. Now I can click a button and see ANY VIDEO I WANT for FREE in practically NO TIME. This instant gratification appeals to me in some primal way that touches the very depths of my formerly-teenage soul.

So out of all this insanity and hedonistic fulfillment has come a new commitment to sharing the knowledge and love of those cheesy years in a more controlled basis. This might seem like Bargaining, but I think it's moving towards Acceptance. I present to you my new tag - daily eighties.

There are certain rules I will follow with these posts:

1) The videos must be from the 1980's, preferably before 1987. Exception: some bands like Roxy Music were technically releasing music in the late 1970's that was essentially 80's music, so I may blur the line a little in that direction.
2) No duplicates. Exception: any links I made yesterday, in case at some point I want to go into more commentary on them.
3) No boring stuff. This means no links to things like Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill or Laurie Anderson's O Superman. Oops.
4) Nothing too standard. Yes, we all know that a-ha's Take On Me was the best video of the 1980's, but frankly it's been so overplayed that it bores me to death.
5) Credit the YouTuber who posted the video.
6) No more than one post per day. Okay, maybe two. Well, at most three. But THAT'S ALL.

Thanks to nixygirl , bchfj, and SirBlammo for the above YouTubings.

Goodbye To You by Scandal - what's with the wacky color effects?
Do You Wanna Hold Me? by Bow Wow Wow - my personal favorite of theirs
Pressure by Billy Joel - really fabulous video
Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes - also great, if creepy
I Know What Boys Like by The Waitresses - apparently, boys like black and white checkers and monotones
Don't Put Another Dime in the Jukebox by The Flirts - these girls actually look like they're from Long Island
Why Me? by Planet P - this video has always slightly freaked me out in some existential, I'm all alone in outer space way
Jeopardy by The Greg Kihn Band - funny, cheesy goodness
You Got Lucky by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Petty is so cool
One Step Beyond by Madness - awesome skankin' video
Automatic by Prince and the Revolution - a seriously purple video from his royal paisleyness, and then it heads towards the Darling Nikki side of things



Okay, I'm stopping now. Really.

So, anyone who knows me knows I love the 80's. Having grown up in that era makes a significant difference in whether you love the 80's or hate them. In any case, here is my favorite piece of 80's memorabilia that I still own today: my Jordache cropped jeans jacket with all of my 80's buttons.



Okay, so they're mostly Duran Duran buttons. I was a serious Duranie.



The button which is unfortunatley partly obscured by the flash is my oldest button, circa 1983 from Commander Salamander, an awesome store in Georgetown in Washington, D.C.



Yes. that's a picture of me with my hair standing on end. It was taken at The Magic House in St. Louis, MO, when I was about 14. I had my hand on some thing-a-ma-jig that makes your hair stand on end, so that was not my usual hairstyle (or my usual expression, I look positively manic for some reason.) Yes, I am wearing a Duran Duran t-shirt. Also, Zoot has her paw on Peter Murphy's ass - she has good taste.

So today, since I'm at home sick, I have discovered the most wonderfullest thing ever. YouTube has a ton of old 80's videos that I haven't seen in an age, and most are of fairly decent quality. Here's a list of some of my finds, many of which are absolutely hysterical:

Night Boat by Duran Duran - I just had to laugh my ass off at this one
Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo, with ever-zany Danny Elfman
Stand and Deliver by Adam Ant - hot highwayman, indeed
Wouldn't It Be Good (the original, non-Pretty-in-Pink version) by Nik Kershaw - holy confusing plotlines, Batman!
Europa and the Pirate Twins by Thomas Dolby - What were you thinking, Thomas?
Promises, Promises by Naked Eyes - a group that's not as hot as I remember them
Spellbound by Siouxsie and the Banshees (unfortunatley of poor quality) - way to go, Siouxsie! You're awesome.
It's My Life by Talk Talk - I wish they had "Talk Talk" from the album "Talk Talk", but this will do. Ooh, they do have it.
Saved by Zero by The Fixx - excellent video, actually, and it still works today
The Lovecats by The Cure, when Robert Smith was still hot
Blue Jean (the longish version) by David Bowie - I love his make-up in this, though the cutesy bits don't work at all
Love is a Stranger by Eurythmics - Annie, you go! The ground-breaking woman-as-man video
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me by Culture Club - A necessary counterpart to the Eurythmics video, Boy George broke into new territory with this one
Fascination by Human League - Good lord, take OFF those earrings
Wishing by A Flock of Seagulls - The hair! My eyes! The hair!

And, of course, the one that started it all:

Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles

Someone stop me before I add more links.

OKAY OKAY!! I had to do it. May I present to you the master of all music videos ever:

Michael Jackson's Thriller