Season 292 - 80's Synth Pop

Just to stress, the source material is characterised by heavy use of synthesisers, covers will be characterised by heavy use of ukuleles. You DON'T have to use synths/drum machines in your covers, but you are welcome to so long as your Uke is prominent :D
 
Oh I really wish I was able to multitrack this week.

I've got a 20 song shortlist already, already recorded one and working on another.

This is going to be fun
 
One of my favourite things to do is take a sing with bug production and strip it back to make it work on the uke. So this week is gonna be a blast.

Simply had to kick the week off with this.


 
I did a video of this a few weeks back on my own season but I put it on the bonus list late in the week so it didn't get many views so I just had to do it again. This charted at 21 for Furniture in 86 but I've never met anyone other than my dad whose actually heard it.

Recorded for this week.

 
What a brilliant introduction, John .... and, no, I did NOT like the background music! I am now totally flummoxed as I do not possess either a synthesizer or a drum machine and have no idea how to dub them on; multi-tracking indeed!!! However, I shall do my best to produce something; it sounds like a fun (if noisy) week!

Performing a song on the uke that was originally accompanied on synths is an interesting challenge in its own right. I did ones from the Pet Shop Boys and Ultravox in the 80s week and they seemed to work pretty well. It helps if the song is interesting lyrically as you have good material to work with. Rent I was particularly pleased,with as it was strong both lyrically and melodically.
 
Anyone unfamiliar with these 80s synth bands could always investigate the output of the Silicon Teens. They did synth covers of 50s & 60s songs. I was amazed to find that I had all three of their singles, but for now I am homing in on other bands of that era.
 
Looking through my old collection of 45s, this looks very much like my era. I can't believe how many singles I have by people who stood behind synthesisers and flicked their bad hair around. And concert tickets too. Clearly a well spent youth.

 
Looking through my old collection of 45s, this looks very much like my era. I can't believe how many singles I have by people who stood behind synthesisers and flicked their bad hair around. And concert tickets too. Clearly a well spent youth.



The campus radio station at the University of North Carolina played all the great '80s stuff before it hit the mainstream airwaves. When the bands came to play clubs in Chapel Hill, many of them stopped by the station and wound up recording ID announcements. Andy McCluskey of OMD did one of the most memorable.
 
Depeche Mode were another lot that turn up several times in my collection, in the days before they transformed into a bare-chested RAWWKKK band.

 
Wow, there is some fantastic stuff coming through already. I will have my work cut out keeping up with you lovely people this week, and keeping the playlist up to date, but hey, this is what I signed up for right? ;) Will check in later and have a proper look.
 
I tried to splice in some video of me playing the keyboard, Seagulls style, but it really messed up the syncing so bad I couldn't correct it. Although, now that I think about it, really terrible syncing would have made it look even more 80s. I tried to pull of a dodgy hair style but I don't think my hair is frizzy enough.

 
Can't do an 80s season without Shriekback. The original has no drums, either. Just synthesizers and vocals. I'm sorry about the background noise. I have a house with people in it, and no soundproof room in which to record.

The whisper echo effect is not a digital echo. I recorded a track with just me whispering the vocals and then manually shifted it to begin playing a few tenths of a second after the main track.

 
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