Quite an acronym... and one which was important for the promotion of a series of bands.
The new wave of British heavy metal (often abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that began in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Editor Alan Lewis coined the term for an article by Geoff Barton in a May 1979 issue of the British music newspaper Sounds to describe the emergence of heavy metal bands in the mid-to-late 1970s, as punk rock declined amid the dominance of new wave music.
From Wikipedia.
One band I liked at the time was Saracen, from Matlock in Derbyshire.
They were formed in 1980, but I started hearing them in 1982-3 during my time at Huddersfield Polytechnic when, as I've said before I developed a taste for many of the bands I still listen to a lot today.
The album I listened to was 'Heroes, Saints and Fools'.
They released a number of other albums, both of which had some very good moments... including others I have mentioned including one based on the Knights Templar.
What are your memories of bands from this NWOBHM era?
This is a wonderful piece of music, composed by William Jackson, one of the members of Ossian.
The music conveys the atmosphere of different elements of the Scottish landscape, and ends with a suite of pieces named after islands including Iona, Islay and Jura.
They were another band I was introduced to while at Huddersfield Polytechnic.
It can be found on many of the usual music streaming services.
William (Billy) Jackson was a key member of Ossian.
Ossian were a superb band, and one of the finest of their era.
They released five excellent albums with a mix of traditional tunes, and I have listened to them for over 40 years.They were another of the bands that I wish I had seen play live.
Two of the members later recorded an album called 'The Misty Mountains' which has some rather beautiful pieces too...
Some live performances for you to savour as well:
and 'The Working Man' from 1990.
Finally, here's the late Tony Cuffe and George Jackson performing 'Jamie Raeburn'.
A search for Ossian will also bring up a very different band with the same name...
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'.
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Mike Oldfield also released a track called 'Pictures in the Dark'. This was not from a particular album.
Led Zeppelin released their last proper studio album: 'In through the Out Door'
Supertramp's 'Breakfast in America' was released, and was in the charts several times that year.
Pink Floyd's'The Wall' was one of the main albums released this year. This included several tracks which are now famous. The first featured some students from a school in London.
The students were from a school in London
They sang
We don't need no education We don't need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teacher, leave them kids alone
There's an interesting connection between David Gilmour and my present school: King's Ely. For his most recent album (at the time of posting) he wanted some choristers to add to the 'vibe' of the first track to be released.
He came to the Lady Chapel in Ely Cathedral, where he recorded the choristers singing, and they had to keep this secret for months.
Here's the result...
Here are some colleagues and students along with David Gilmour.
The school's media team shared this update.
Pink Floyd star, David Gilmour, has released 'Luck and Strange', which is his first original album in nine years. The album features eight new tracks, along with a beautiful reworking of The Montgolfier Brothers’ ‘Between Two Points’, and has artwork and photography by the renowned artist, Anton Corbijn.
Keen to have Cathedral acoustics on the album, David recorded four of the songs at Ely Cathedral.
Thanks to our Director of Music, Mr Neil Porter-Thaw's contacts, King's students, Ivana Peat, Kit Attwater, Olivia Williams, Isobel Holland, Elizabeth Raynes, Alastair Wright, Freddie Wright, and Teacher of Music, Mrs Kirsty Wright, were invited to record with David. Old Elean and former Cathedral Chorister, William Gardner, did the choral arrangements.
Speaking about the once-in-a-lifetime experience, Mrs Wright said: "Our evening of recording with David was an amazing experience. Some of the younger singers had never been part of a recording session that required the use of individual headsets, so we immediately felt like rock stars! They meant that we could hear David and the team singing and playing in one ear all of the time, and we sang "with" him, which was such a thrill! As with all recording sessions, there were a lot of takes, and every so often David would give us the thumbs up or ask for a specific note or lyric to be highlighted, and when he did the next take it was always a really good one! Polly Samson, David's wife, was there taking photos and videos, which can already be seen in the music video for 'A Piper's Call'. We sang in both the Lady Chapel and under the Octagon. Even though it was a lot of concentrating and a late night, it was a musical experience that we will never forget, and I know that we are all very grateful to Mr P-T for organising and conducting us, to Will Gardner for his fabulous choral arrangements, and particularly to David for trusting us with his very precious songs."
The classic track from the album is of course 'Comfortably Numb' - a point towards which all Pink Floyd / David Gilmour concerts build....
A film of 'The Wall' was made by Alan Parker. I went to see it at the cinema in Huddersfield when it was released with Bob Geldof playing a lead role. I saw a lot of films around that time and had a Halliwell's guide where I highlighted all the films I saw.
When I was a student at the Polytechnic I was a member of the film club. I remember the first time I saw Carrie at one of their events: a great film which produced a great response in those watching.
As a post script, this version of 'Another Brick in the Wall' was something I used in my teaching for a while...
By Eric Prydz.
What other key albums were released in 1979 which deserve a mention here? Let me know...
An alphabet of bands and artists as a series for the last 26 days. These were selected by the Spotify algorithm. This is the final feature... and comes with a parental advisory.
Frank Zappa rounds off the A-Z.... I often use Zappa quotes for my geography presentations - either to start them off, or to finish them off...
Here's one...
Zappa was a real musical maverick. He recorded well over a hundred albums, and was constantly recording, rehearsing and sharing his philosophy to a wide range of audiences.
As his Wikipedia entry says:
"His work, which predominantly features electric guitar work, is characterised by nonconformity, improvisation, sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture".... plus lots of smut...
I have quite a few favourite albums - he recorded so many - but they are often NSFW, with scatalogical, misogynistic or sexual interludes... which were a big part of his live concerts as well... He went through various phases, with improvisation, jazz and then rock, with a phase working with George Duke, and violinists including Jean Luc Ponty and Eddie Jobson (him again).
Check out instrumentals such as 'RDNZL' for example from his jazz phase.
He was a countercultural icon, a pioneer in progressive rock and jazz rock, one of the greatest guitarists ever to grace the Earth, an often-controversial lyrical provocateur, and arguably the finest composer of his generation. He was also almost supernaturally prolific.
He often broke the barriers of polite society (and strained the barriers of good taste) in his earlier material, but starting with Sheik Yerbouti, Frank Zappa was writing lyrics deliberately meant to offend just about everyone.
So you have been warned...
I listened to these a great deal over 40 years ago as a student in Huddersfield with the Bent Street gang...
There were some key albums which came out in the late 1970s and which we then listened to just a few years after they came out. These were also recorded with virtuoso musicians who Zappa drilled for hour after hour to get their playing just right, so that it sounded spontaneous.
Joe's Garage, Acts I, II and III
Tinseltown Rebellion
You are what you is
There are so many classic riffs and lyrics here, but caution is needed...
To finish, here's his version of Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' from an album of his which I have called 'The Best Band you never heard in your Life'. It's one of the few tracks I could safely include... the brass version of the famous guitar solo is a highlight...
And, given that Zappa recorded a lot of albums, with orchestras, here's an orchestra managing to play that composition...
One reason I mention Zappa in my geography presentations, as I have done at numerous events is a connection with my own thinking on teaching and curriculum development.
Zappa's total output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed "Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums. He also called it a "conceptual continuity", meaning that any project or album was part of a larger project. Everything was connected, and musical themes and lyrics reappeared in different form on later albums.
I try to plan curriculum so that themes reoccur and connections pop up - sometimes momentarily and other times for longer, and sometimes they may not even be a big part of the lessons, but I know they're there...
A full discography would include literally hundreds of albums...
Here's a sample that AI threw up....
And if you could let me know your own A-Z of suggestions that would be great - just open your streaming service of choice, and see what crops up...
An alphabet of bands and artists as a series through February. These were selected by the Spotify algorithm.
A bit of a wildcard this one... obviously not many F bands in my playlists...
Fishbone are a band I first heard when I was a student at Huddersfield Polytechnic in the mid-1980s, thanks to a fellow student Andy Bateman who was quite influential in my musical taste as he introduced me to several of the musicians I still listen to today. Last year was the 40th anniversary of my graduation from Huddersfield Polytechnic.
The band have undergone a lot of line-up changes, and there has been various fallings out and incidents in the band's history.
Their lyrics can be rather NSFW.
Their music is a mixture of styles.
According to Wikipedia: Formed in 1979, the band plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul.
I have 3 CDs of theirs and they are CDs which I tend to hover over the skip track button, but the good tracks are really good. I remember seeing them on The Tube.
Here's Sunless Saturday (live in Bordeaux).
Caution: some sweary-Mary lyrics... but you'll see the energy of the band and how they engage with the audience...
Some other standout tracks are:
- Everyday Sunshine
- Black Flowers
- End the Reign
- No Fear - from an album with a very geographical front cover...
