Monday, 13 July 2026

Jul 13: 1985

Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' was perhaps THE album of this year. This was on cassette tape at the time, which was potentially an issue as you needed to rewind and wind the tape to get to a particular track when playing it in the car, although it was such a good album that there was no need really. This got a lot of plays in my friend Caroline's car which I spent a lot of time in that summer. This was the year I graduated from Huddersfield Polytechnic with a 2:1 in geography - close to a first but noone got a first in that particular year. I went to Huddersfield City Hall to collect my degree certificate.

The album included some classic Kate Bush tracks. The song 'Cloudbusting' was particularly interesting as it had a video with Donald Sutherland in it.

It was based on the experiments of Wilhelm Reich.

The track which most people remember from that album though is one that was popularised by the TV series 'Stranger Things'.

Another female musician released an album this year which was produced by ZTT.

'Slave to the Rhythm' starts with Grace explaining her family heritage. The final track on the album draws the themes together.

It was produced by Trevor Horn - who has worked with many bands and musicians including Frankie goes to Hollywood and Mike Oldfield, and was involved with the ZTT record label I have blogged about separately.

Rush released 'Power Windows'. This was an album I came back to year after year and is probably in my top ten most played. I have written a separate blog post about the album. This used to accompany me up and down the A17 when I first started teaching in Norfolk, but came back home to Yorkshire for most weekends.

A final album from this year was Propaganda's 'A Secret Wish. This was another ZTT album and the production was excellent. I've blogged about this album separately as well, and also the label. 

Here's the track 'P-Machinery'.


Mike Oldfield also released a track called 'Pictures in the Dark'. This was not from a particular album.

Singers on this single includes his girlfriend at the time, Anita Hegerland, Barry Palmer and well-known Welsh choirboy Aled Jones.

I had the 12" version of this song on vinyl. It's really good with a strong vocal and a cracking guitar solo....



The B side 'Legend' also has some great melodies on it... this was a really creative time for Oldfield...


In September of that year, Jethro Tull did a concert to mark the 300th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.



What were your favourite pieces of music from 1985?

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