Imagine it’s the boring 80’s again: there’s no internet and the only computer close-up you’ve ever had is Hal, from watching Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Odyssey. Marillion hasn’t yet reached the airwaves but the BeeGees have 3 hit songs among the top 10. On the tele, a balding Phil Collins is dressed up in a cardboard suit three times his size and crooning “You Can’t Hurry Love”.

You look out the living-room window and you see a slender, short-haired girl wearing a head band nimbly jogging along; she reminds you of Olivia Newton-John (“Hopelessly Devoted to Yoooooooooo”). In the background, you hear your younger brothers in the next room fighting over your Rubik’s cube. You turn on the radio but all you hear is U2, The Police and Duran Duran being played to death. Suddenly, you feel the unmistakable signs of a prog withdrawal fit coming on and you want to scream : BUMMER!!!

OK. To those of you progheads who are old enough to have bought music during the 80’s, I ask this question: What did your little prog hearts feed on during that decade?

Had you entirely given up on prog? Perhaps even on music as a hobby?

Were you listening to vintage prog over and over again, or did you perhaps try to get interested in 80’s music?

Personally, I filled dozens of casssette tapes with old prog favourites, recording them in a different order to vary the menu. When I visited record stores, I gleaned without much conviction over the rock section for a forgotten gem, or the jazz or new age sections for a Jean-Luc Ponty, Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream or Tomita. In desperation, I clung to anything remotely prog they still dared to play on the radio: Pink Floyd, Saga, Simple Minds...

I honestly thought I’d never again see the word “prog” except in old newspaper clippings. That is until one glorious day, I heard a slightly Gabrielite voice uttering these strange lyrics coming from beyond the grave: Light swtich, yellow fever, crawling up your bathroom wall…

While the 80's were a bad decade for prog,I spent the ages of 14 through 24 in that decade and had a ball.They were anything but boring.I listened to a ton of thrash metal,and sort of got away from prog for a little while.

80's boring? 

Only if you weren't really listening. It was really an exciting time, music wise. I guess it's how you look at it. Do you want to remember the goofy crap or the gems? You can make the same observation of the 70's. The 70's was disco, Captain and Tennile, Carpenters and The Bay City Rollers, wasn't it? Seems to me some of the biggest sellers were "Convoy" and "Disco Duck". My point is, the music was there, you just had to know what to look for. Most fashion movements look silly years after, remember the Brady Bunch shirts (nobody will admit it, but everyone wore them back then) and the Afro hair of the 70's? 

There was almost a bit of an explosion of diverse music at the time. There was a lot of 70's pop plugging up the airwave and New Wave, as well as other musical styles came in like a fresh breeze. Dire Straits hit full stride. There was a lot of Ska influenced music around. I'm kind of shocked that you lumped U2 and The Police in with Duran Duran. The Police had some pretty complex stuff, or "used a lot of expensive chords" as Andy Summers put it. U2 may not have been remotely prog but they could put political statements in with such dazzling music better than most.

Ok, for prog: There was Asia, obviously. The movie Pink Floyd's The Wall came out. Supertramp released "Paris". There was a large movement of what I call art rock, your definition may vary: Laurie Anderson (United States opus comes to mind). Philip Glass. The Talking Heads may sound like silly pop stuff but give a listen and there is some interesting things he did (not to mention the humour)

Keep in mind in the 80's it was possible to pick up prog on vinyl for relatively cheap. Chances were, your older sibling, or the older sibling of your friends was a goldmine of music, usually just lying around. My sister had "Rush 2112" and Supertramp's "Crisis? What Crisis?". Keep in mind that sometimes someone would have an old record lying around that they no longer listened to, the lp cover was damaged or the vinyl was worn, so they'd give it to you if asked. Prog was easy to find and usually the music wasn't new but new to you.

There was also albums that were prog by my standards, maybe not by yours. Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark had "Dazzle Ships". The The had "Infected". Seems to me Klaatu and Saga was still making albums into the 80's. Many of us learned about Amnesty International and Apartheid through Peter Gabriel's "Biko". Then again, there was "Games Without Frontiers" and everything else on that album. Phil Collins did go pop but he did release "In The Air Tonight" as sort of a farewell to his days of prog. There were also snippets in other songs like Gowan's "Criminal Mind" (which he pretty much borrowed Peter Gabriel's band to record). There were obscure stuff like Danielle Dax, who weaved in Arabic and Asian sounds with rock. Let's not forget This Mortal Coil, which was a side project for members of groups like The Cocteau Twins (another favourite of mine). Not sure if it's prog but there was Roxy Music.

Unfortunately, most remember the 80's as the time in prog that The Moody Blues released "The Present", Yes released "90215" and Styx released "Mr Roboto", so your mileage (and memories) will vary.

There, did I ramble enough?

Although it embarasses me, I did go through a bit of a New Romantic phase at the time. I can't believe that I actually bought some Spandau Ballet albums!

Nevertheless, I discovered U2 so that kept me going. There was also XTC and Peter Gabriel.

Hibou wrote: Personally, I filled dozens of casssette tapes with old prog favourites, recording them in a different order to vary the menu. When I visited record stores, I gleaned without much conviction over the rock section for a forgotten gem, or the jazz or new age sections for a Jean-Luc Ponty, Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream or Tomita. In desperation, I clung to anything remotely prog they still dared to play on the radio: Pink Floyd, Saga, Simple Minds...   I honestly thought I’d never again see the word “prog” except in old newspaper clippings. That is until one glorious day, I heard a slightly Gabrielite voice uttering these strange lyrics coming from beyond the grave: Light swtich, yellow fever, crawling up your bathroom wall… What’s your story? I'd really like to hear it.

 I got through the 80's listening to The Fixx, Tangerine Dream, The Clash, Thompson Twins, Thomas Dolby, and other New Wave acts.

 It was a terribly rough time, yes.....and I never thought I would see the re-surgence of the music I loved throughout the 70's, but things DO come full circle!

TheProgtologist wrote: While the 80's were a bad decade for prog,I spent the ages of 14 through 24 in that decade and had a ball.They were anything but boring.I listened to a ton of thrash metal,and sort of got away from prog for a little while.

Amen to that!

Actually, I quite liked Duran Duran's music (but hated the image), and some of the "New Romantics" and Electronic bands were quite inventive; John Foxx, Gary Numan, Joy Division, Japan et al were interesting and fresh - and David Sylvian (ex Japan) has done a lot of great work. A high point (for me) was Laurie Anderson's "Mister Heartbreak" album - absolutely fantastic.

I was more into metal at the time, as the NWOBHM started in a fairly progressive vein anyway - and then thrash came along.  I even played a little thrash myself...

Of course, there was Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night and *cough* Pallas - and the Enid and King Crimson were doing great things in the prog world.

So a pretty good mix of music, as long as you stayed away from the Discos.

No problems

Certif1ed wrote: TheProgtologist wrote: While the 80's were a bad decade for prog,I spent the ages of 14 through 24 in that decade and had a ball.They were anything but boring.I listened to a ton of thrash metal,and sort of got away from prog for a little while. Amen to that!   Actually, I quite liked Duran Duran's music (but hated the image), and some of the "New Romantics" and Electronic bands were quite inventive; John Foxx, Gary Numan, Joy Division, Japan et al were interesting and fresh - and David Sylvian (ex Japan) has done a lot of great work. A high point (for me) was Laurie Anderson's "Mister Heartbreak" album - absolutely fantastic. I was more into metal at the time, as the NWOBHM started in a fairly progressive vein anyway - and then thrash came along.  I even played a little thrash myself... Of course, there was Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night and *cough* Pallas - and the Enid and King Crimson were doing great things in the prog world. So a pretty good mix of music, as long as you stayed away from the Discos. No problems

Ohhh Cert...I remember how exciting it was to be a teenager and hearing all those bands from the NWOBHM for the first time.

I remember picking up Iron Maiden's first album simply because I thought the cover looked cool and being FLOORED by what I heard.

And I thought that,other than Joe Elliot's horrendous vocals,Def Leppard's On Through the Night album was pretty awesome.I played that album to death.

I also really liked Saxon,Budgie,Tygers of Pan Tang,Raven,Samson,Diamond Head,Blitzkrieg,Angel Witch to name but a very few.

Don't get me started on NWOBHM

Remember "Frozen Rainbow" on Saxon's debut - yeah! Saxon doing prog! (almost...!)

Some of Def Leppard's early stuff had proggy leanings (in the same way as early Priest), and you've practically listed all my fave bands from that time - except Motorhead.

Time for a thread on NWOBHM, methinks...

I enjoyed the 80's.

I was 11 in 1980, by which time I did have The Wall  That was probably my first real prog encounter.

I briefly went through a synth pop age between the ages of 11 and 13 or so, buying albums by The Human League, OMD, Japan and The asscociates.

Then came 1982 and 'The Number of the Beast' I descended into heavy metal oblivion, embracing glam metal, black metal the lot. Then some fool lent me a copy of Exit Stage Left in 1984 and that was that. Marillion, Pallas, Genesis and It Bites quickly followed..

From then on, pop was just sh!t, and heavy metal was not interesting enough for me. I was officially a prog snob.. That said I can still occassionally dig out those old new romantic albums and enjoy them. In fact I'd forgotten how good Tears For Fears could sound..

I listened to a lot of the ZTT/Trevor Horn produced stuff in the 80s, such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Propaganda. Propoganda's 12 inch singles Dual/Jewel and Dr Mabuse have a huge prog influence IMO, not that it was aknowledged of course!

Aha, Soft Cell and Tears for Fears were other favourites and I also developed a strange liking for jazz/pop acts like Matt Bianco and Swing Out Sister.

Prog-wise I thought Tangerine Dream did some good stuff in the 80s such as White Eagle, though that doesn't seem to be rated by a lot of people around here.

Other than that I survived on a diet of hard rock (Gillan, Rainbow) and AOR like Toto, Foreigner and, oh all right then I'll admit it, Asia!

I listened to new albums by old bands. I remember really being into:

Rush - Grace Under Pressure, Signals, Power Windows

Yes - 90125

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Also, I liked Jean Luc Ponty, but I had no idea that there were other jazz/rock fusion artists out there. In the 80's there was no Amazon.com or iTunes.

The other thing that got me through it all was the fact that AOR radio really wasn't that bad. I can remember staying up late to "tape" concerts or entire albums.

darren wrote: There was almost a bit of an explosion of diverse music at the time. There was a lot of 70's pop plugging up the airwave and New Wave, as well as other musical styles came in like a fresh breeze. Dire Straits hit full stride. There was a lot of Ska influenced music around. I'm kind of shocked that you lumped U2 and The Police in with Duran Duran. The Police had some pretty complex stuff, or "used a lot of expensive chords" as Andy Summers put it. U2 may not have been remotely prog but they could put political statements in with such dazzling music better than most.

Those three bands you mention are 70's band that had more success inthe 80's.

The 80's were poor in prog (outside neo -prog)

Am i the only one here who thinks "The Smiths" are the best 80's band? I yust love em... Morrissey have one of the best voices ever. And Marr's guitarr work is fantastic.  

Zargus wrote: Am i the only one here who thinks "The Smiths" are the best 80's band? I yust love em... Morrissey have one of the best voices ever. And Marr's guitarr work is fantastic.

The Smiths were great. I have all their albums, and a couple of Morrissey solo albums too. I cant imagine that many people around here liking them, but you never know.

I think 'The Queen is Dead' and 'Strangeways here we come' were their best albums, and their live album 'Rank' was superb!

Hibou wrote: Imagine it’s the boring 80’s again: there’s no internet and the only computer close-up you’ve ever had is Hal, from watching Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Odyssey. Marillion hasn’t yet reached the airwaves but the BeeGees have 3 hit songs among the top 10. On the tele, a balding Phil Collins is dressed up in a cardboard suit three times his size and crooning “You Can’t Hurry Love”.   You look out the living-room window and you see a slender, short-haired girl wearing a head band nimbly jogging along; she reminds you of Olivia Newton-John (“Hopelessly Devoted to Yoooooooooo”). In the background, you hear your younger brothers in the next room fighting over your Rubik’s cube. You turn on the radio but all you hear is U2, The Police and Duran Duran being played to death. Suddenly, you feel the unmistakable signs of a prog withdrawal fit coming on and you want to scream : BUMMER!!! OK. To those of you progheads who are old enough to have bought music during the 80’s, I ask this question: What did your little prog hearts feed on during that decade? Had you entirely given up on prog? Perhaps even on music as a hobby? Were you listening to vintage prog over and over again, or did you perhaps try to get interested in 80’s music? Personally, I filled dozens of casssette tapes with old prog favourites, recording them in a different order to vary the menu. When I visited record stores, I gleaned without much conviction over the rock section for a forgotten gem, or the jazz or new age sections for a Jean-Luc Ponty, Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream or Tomita. In desperation, I clung to anything remotely prog they still dared to play on the radio: Pink Floyd, Saga, Simple Minds...   I honestly thought I’d never again see the word “prog” except in old newspaper clippings. That is until one glorious day, I heard a slightly Gabrielite voice uttering these strange lyrics coming from beyond the grave: Light swtich, yellow fever, crawling up your bathroom wall… What’s your story? I'd really like to hear it.

salut Lise, ça boume?

Excellent topic!

Although I was awre of Marillion (loved the debut but it is too derivative) and IQ , I was really hard up for good music in the early 80's, and since I was 17 in 80 and had started buying album from 75 onwards, there was tons of music to be discovered.

So I did like you filled tons of Maxell XLII-S tapes (they are stocked in old wine cases under my bed), but also roamed all of Toronto and Montreal's second hand vinyls and discovered mounds of music from the 70's and 60's  going as far as Canonball Adderley, Big Bill Broonzy, Django Reinhardt  and Jimmy Smith (Jazz and Blues), Chuck Berry and Dylan. I used to buy many used albums for a given price in some record shop and listen (and make compilations of the ones I decided not to keep) to them. Those I decided to part with, I headed out to London (Ontario) and Kitchener where second-hand stores used to buy back the unwanted records for the price I paid for them. So the actual costs were down mostly to finance the car trips (we often did this in a trio).

I think I bought around 4 to 5 thousand vinyls but never had more than 800 at a given time in my collection.

But You are right I never really thought I'd hear the word prog (or Art Rock as it was called in Canada at the time) again , until the Swedish trilogy (Anglgard , Anekdoten and Landberk) in 94.µ

But as I got back to the Old World across the pond , I discovered tons of bands that we had never heard of in America. I also fouind out of ECM jazzz-rock fusion when I came back here

The 80's appear as boring to older progheads because most of us were not aware that groups like Von Zamla , Univers Zero, Art Zoyd even existed. there was no way to discover them because the crappy pop music scene of those years focused all of the attention on the same groups (MTV born in 81 not helping out since looks became more important than music) and the black-out on then groud-breaking artistes was total (outside the US-UK realm that is).

So i have a better image of the 80's musically-speaking now than back then, only by retrospect because I know groups now , I had no idea even existed then.

The 80's were excrutiatingly bad especially after the glorious period of 65 to 75.

In the '80's I bought my first lp's and cd's. I began to discover the wonderful world of prog, starting with Kayak's Merlin in 1981. Not much later I discovered Genesis, Asia and Camel, and a few years later later I discovered lots of '70's prog and Marillion, and from 1987 on lots of great neo-prog, and at the end of the decade I discovered jazz rock: Bruford and Allan Holdsworth.

So, it was Discovery Channel for me in the '80's  . Just a natural musical growth. No boring '80's for me.

Sean Trane wrote: darren wrote: There was almost a bit of an explosion of diverse music at the time. There was a lot of 70's pop plugging up the airwave and New Wave, as well as other musical styles came in like a fresh breeze. Dire Straits hit full stride. There was a lot of Ska influenced music around. I'm kind of shocked that you lumped U2 and The Police in with Duran Duran. The Police had some pretty complex stuff, or "used a lot of expensive chords" as Andy Summers put it. U2 may not have been remotely prog but they could put political statements in with such dazzling music better than most. Those three bands you mention are 70's band that had more success inthe 80's. The 80's were poor in prog (outside neo -prog)

U2 is a 70's band? How so?

Anyway, yes, these bands did start in the 70's but they still released great groundbreaking albums in the 80's.

I would hardly classify the 80's as boring but then, I didn't spend a lot of time listening to mainstream radio. I guess when people say 80's, some think of mainstream pop. There was a whole world that existed outside of the mainstream. Word of mouth was still large, just not as instant as the internet age.

Maybe I was just luckier than most. Growing up in Canada I could listen to CBC radio late at night and there were several radio shows devoted to obscure and experimental music. I also watched MuchMusic on tv. They had a show "Citylimits" (later renamed "The Wedge"), also a great source of great music. Originally the show "The New Music" was devoted to more obscure, less mainstream than later years. Of course I lived not far from Winnipeg and there were several "hole in the wall" music stores that had a lot of great stuff.

I guess very little was labelled as "Progressive rock". It was more "Art rock" or "experimental".

Oops. I'm rambling again.

Wow, thanks guys! What I’ve learned from all this is that the 80’s seem to have been boring only to those of us old enough to have lived through the golden age of prog. I happened to grow up during that golden age, so I found the 80’s quite a let-down in comparison. Perhaps it’s all relative, proving once again that the music we grow up with will always be the best. As Sigod put it: “if this music all you know, it's all you need baby”.

Still, I admit you’ve brought me back some fond memories: Dire Straits, Talk Talk, Gowan, Simple Minds, Supertramp, Peter Gabriel’s Biko, etc.

Darren: you’re right about many of us thinking of the 80’s in terms of mainstream pop. The problem is, mainstream radio did play Yes, Genesis and ELP at some point in time; and we did not have to scour piles of bargain bins to find lesser known prog bands (yes, I, too, have stayed up nights listening to the CBC hoping to hear something a little different).

What it comes down to, I think, is that my generation was spoiled rotten when it comes to prog: it was handed down to us on a silver platter (and anything less interesting was discarded as 'boring'). You, on the other hand, have had to work hard to get at the goodies; and you know the price of a good album (not only in terms of $$$). And for this reason, I tip my hat off to you, as I do every time I hear people in their teens, 20's or even 30's admit they're into prog.

Keep those 'ramblings' coming .

I gave up on Rock in the 80's.

I spent the decade listening to Jazz (ECM) and to New Grass (The New Grass Revival).

I can't remember the 80's guess i was about 4. But I Like Dire stra...

Sean Trane wrote: [QUOTE=Hibou] salut Lise, ça boume?

Yes, Sean, ça boom très bien. In fact, I think we baby boomers are becoming the champion whiners of the world (what else is new ).

You say: So i have a better image of the 80's musically-speaking now than back then, only by retrospect because I know groups now , I had no idea even existed then.

That I can relate to very well. There are so many bands I’ve just discovered lately, thanks to the internet and in particular to this very site - bands I never knew even existed back then. That’s what I thought when I read Sigod’s list. I know practically all of the bands he mentions but most would have drawn a big blank in my mind had I seen their names back then.

Thank God for the internet and for ProgArchives !

Blacksword wrote: The Smiths were great. I have all their albums, and a couple of Morrissey solo albums too. I cant imagine that many people around here liking them, but you never know.

Wrong there mate. Love the Smiths. Joy Division, Japan, Echo and the Bunneymen, Kraftwerk, Simple Minds, the Passage, the Normal, OMD, Ultravox, New Order, Roxy Music and especially early Human League got me through the 80's.

I can remember the word BORING in the Eighties but that was from Phil Colins in an interview in the Melody Maker when he talked about Pink Floyd: that kind of music was "boring" he said after beiing attacked for making the sound from Genesis so polished and commercial!

For me The Eighties were far from boring: I'm from 1960 and was ready for the neo-progressive movement that emerged in those years: Marillion, Pendragon, Twelfth Night, IQ, I've seen them from the beginning and followed especially Marillion fanatically, as so many young progheads who were mesmerized by the gentle giant Fish, a great performer who knew how to entertain his audience!

During The Eighties I visited outstanding concerts from Steve Hackett (80-85), Peter Gabriel (83-88), Rush (81-86), King Crimson (Discipline tour), Jethro Tull, Manfred Mann's Earth Band (Angel Station tour), Camel (Nude tour), Santana (Moonflower tour), Rainbow, Pink Floyd (The Wall), Barclay James Harvest (Turn Of The Tide tour), in fact it was a very interesting period because all the big names and interesting progrock bands came to Holland and I can only remember sold out venues and progheads (known as pragmatic and rational) who reacted very enthousiastic and emotional, GREAT TIME THOSE EIGHTIES  !

Ok, I was born in 71, and in the 80's I discovered PINK FLOYD - The Wall, my first contact with Prog Rock. In those days I was hearing very many Rock styles (pop, hard, metal, aor...) but all my favorite bands was from... the 70's ! (Zep, Purple, Whitesnake, Sabbath, Cream)

Then I discovered other great Prog masters... YES, KING CRIMSON, ELP, TRIUMVIRAT  and the greatest of them all... GENESIS.

But, back to the 80's, in that time I already known GENESIS, the pop band, and I really liked of them... but when I disclosed the prog band... I LOVED IT !!!

Well, maybe because I heard varied musical styles in those days, actually I listen some of that old bands, without shame: Duran Duran, The Police, Gene Loves Gezebel, The Cure, The Mission, Dire Straits, U2, Van Halen, The Cult, Journey, Foreigner, Triumph...

I spent the first half of the 80's in college and started the decade off with Moody Blues 'Long Distance Voyager', Bowie's 'Scary Monsters', ELO 'Time', Asia, Manfred Mann's 'Somewhere in Africa', Klaatu's 'Endangered Species', Yes 'Drama', and the implosion of Kansas.

True, the 80's were not kind to most of the "golden years" proggers (with some exceptions - Robert Fripp did lots of pretty interesting collaborations in the 80's; Brian Eno recorded quite a bit - some good, some not; and Gabriel got himself a pass on the decade for 'Biko' alone.  But there was still a lot of really interesting music, much of it experimental, if not strictly progressive.  I did a quick sort in my Media Player files and found a long list of bands that made their names in the 80's:

Agent Orange
Laurie Anderson
Aztec Camera
Bad Brains
Black Flag
Boomtown Rats
Kate Bush (pretty everything she did worth noting was in the 80's)
Burning Spear
Cramps
The Cure
Dead Kennedys
Death of Samantha
Echo and the Bunnymen
Faith No More
fIREHOSE
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Golden Palominos
Guadalcanal Diary
Gun Club
Ofra Haza
Hoodoo Gurus
Jesus and Mary Chain
Joy Division (already mentioned here several times)
Killing Joke
King Sunny Ade
Legendary Pink Dots
Napalm Death
New Model Army
Orange Juice
OMD
Replacements
Residents
Roxy Music
Todd Rundgren
Scritti Politti
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Soul Asylum
Stooges
Suicidal Tendencies
Richard Thompson
Violent Femmes
Voivod
Tom Waits
X
XTC

Almost none of these bands are listed in progarchives, but if nothing else they helped some of us survive the decade with some measure of sanity.

Good call on NWOBHM and thrash... 

NWOBHM is basically metal with prog influences (the guys from Iron Maiden are openly vocal about bands like Jethro Tull and Van Der Graaf inspiring them), and thrash bands (the good ones) would "compose" songs in the same way that prog bands did, with lengthy instrumental sections, etc. etc.

ClemofNazareth wrote:  I did a quick sort in my Media Player files and found a long list of bands that made their names in the 80's: XTC Almost none of these bands are listed in progarchives, but if nothing else they helped some of us survive the decade with some measure of sanity.

How could I miss XTC. One of the most memorable gigs I went to was XTC's first album tour at a basement club in Liverpool (Eric's), complete with steam piano!!

darren wrote: Sean Trane wrote: darren wrote: There was almost a bit of an explosion of diverse music at the time. There was a lot of 70's pop plugging up the airwave and New Wave, as well as other musical styles came in like a fresh breeze. Dire Straits hit full stride. There was a lot of Ska influenced music around. I'm kind of shocked that you lumped U2 and The Police in with Duran Duran. The Police had some pretty complex stuff, or "used a lot of expensive chords" as Andy Summers put it. U2 may not have been remotely prog but they could put political statements in with such dazzling music better than most. Those three bands you mention are 70's band that had more success inthe 80's. The 80's were poor in prog (outside neo -prog) U2 is a 70's band? How so? Anyway, yes, these bands did start in the 70's but they still released great groundbreaking albums in the 80's. I would hardly classify the 80's as boring but then, I didn't spend a lot of time listening to mainstream radio. I guess when people say 80's, some think of mainstream pop. There was a whole world that existed outside of the mainstream. Word of mouth was still large, just not as instant as the internet age. Maybe I was just luckier than most. Growing up in Canada I could listen to CBC radio late at night and there were several radio shows devoted to obscure and experimental music. I also watched MuchMusic on tv. They had a show "Citylimits" (later renamed "The Wedge"), also a great source of great music. Originally the show "The New Music" was devoted to more obscure, less mainstream than later years. Of course I lived not far from Winnipeg and there were several "hole in the wall" music stores that had a lot of great stuff. I guess very little was labelled as "Progressive rock". It was more "Art rock" or "experimental". Oops. I'm rambling again.

Actually if you can believe it I also listened to CBC radios but never heard much interesting ujntil late night.

And I used to hang arounf a bar called The Wedge = actually we suggested the name change from the Wedgewood cafe. It was halfway over a dry area limit in Swansea Toronto (Bloor Street West just before the Humber River valley and the Old Mill Auberge)

U2 groundbreaking? When? Artistically and aesthetically sane surely, but groundbreaking? I love what they did from Unforgettable Fire until Achtung Baby (included) but I hear nothing groundbreaking!

Hibou wrote: Sean Trane wrote: [QUOTE=Hibou] salut Lise, ça boume? Yes, Sean, ça boom très bien. In fact, I think we baby boomers are becoming the champion whiners of the world (what else is new ). Yes actually you baby boomers are also racking in all the social benefits , emptying the Solidarity funds and leaving the next generation (mine) to work untl 85 years old since the Pension funds will be dried up from your generation living until 120 on average! You say: So i have a better image of the 80's musically-speaking now than back then, only by retrospect because I know groups now , I had no idea even existed then. That I can relate to very well. There are so many bands I’ve just discovered lately, thanks to the internet and in particular to this very site - bands I never knew even existed back then. That’s what I thought when I read Sigod’s list. I know practically all of the bands he mentions but most would have drawn a big blank in my mind had I seen their names back then. Thank God for the internet and for ProgArchives !

Yup I must say that the Web is partly responsible for my spending fortunes on records

Blacksword wrote: Zargus wrote: Am i the only one here who thinks "The Smiths" are the best 80's band? I yust love em... Morrissey have one of the best voices ever. And Marr's guitarr work is fantastic.   The Smiths were great. I have all their albums, and a couple of Morrissey solo albums too. I cant imagine that many people around here liking them, but you never know. I think 'The Queen is Dead' and 'Strangeways here we come' were their best albums, and their live album 'Rank' was superb!

The Smiths were fantastic!!

"Strangeways Here We Come" is my favourite of their albums 

It practically goes without saying that Morrisey's lyrics are up there with Fish and Gabriel's.