While The Police are embarking on their final U.S. tour, I thought it would be interesting to talk with someone who was with them behind the scenes in their early years. Enter: Lynn Goldsmith, photographer and author of the 2007 book The Police 1978-1983.
Goldsmith had been with Sting, Andy Summer and Stewart Copeland through their rise. IRS records took a chance on the band, as they did so many other potential greats in the late 70s and early 80s and unleashed a trio of musicians who would make rock history. In the book, Goldsmith features several candid shots of the three, concert/behind-the-scenes photos and some interesting stories. Part of the proceeds for book sales will benefit the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation.
Our interview with Lynn will lead off the second hour of the program. Revenge of the 80s Radio airs live on Q99.1FM and this website Friday nights 7-9pm Eastern US time and Wednesdays at noon Melbourne Time on Radio 80s 87.6FM in Korumburra, Australia. A podcast of the show will also be available.
One of my favorite early 90s alternative songs was “My Sister” by the Juliana Hatfield Three. Hatfield, of course, is best known to alt-80s fans as the female lead of Blake Babies, who played together 1986-1993 and a few stints in later years. The song was featured as an MYV “Buzz Cut” at the time while receiving a huge amount of airplay on College radio stations. Spin magazine has her featured in their latest “In My Room” section. The singer briefly talks about her father’s geneology research revealing her family to be related to the famous West Virginia Hatfields (the ones who feuded with the McCoys in the late 19th century.)
The podcast for our July 25th show featuring our interview with Terri Nunn is up and now available at the bottom of this post. Terri is best known as the former lead singer of Berlin. She is also an accomplished solo artist, a writer, talk radio personality and a devoted mom. Some fans might remember Terri was an actress in her younger years, appearing on shows like “Lou Grant” and “T. J. Hooker.” She was offered the role of Lucy Ewing in “Dallas,” but turned it down to get into the music business.
Terri talks about the decision she made to sing after being offered the breakthrough TB role eventually played by Charlene Tilton, which wound up being the right one for her, but also fortunate for fans of new wave music in the early to mid-80s. Terri tells Revenge of the 80s she wanted a band with a different sound rather than the countless mainstream bands out there in the late 70s and early 80. She finally met John Crawford, Berlin’s creator. Although part of the L.A. music scene in that time, Berlin’s sounded more like something out of the London alt-synth bands taking over the charts across the Atlantic. Their first album, “Pleasure Victim,” brought them both controversy and a fan base that would start to propel the band to becoming new wave icons.
During the interview, we also talk about:
How it tool some time for fans of LA’s new music scene to catch on to Berlin
Berlin’s rise, their music and the videos.
Why, shortly after their first @1 U.S. hit, Berlin broke up
Terri’s work as a solo artist
Other projects Terri is involved in now, including a new solo CD scheduled to be ready by 2009
Terri also recently released a new acoustic version of “Sec (I’m A…)” to be played in an upcoming documentary called “Naked Ambition” about the porn industry. She also contributed a chapter to the upcoming book Cherry Bomb and has enjoyed recent stints as a talk radio personality so much that she’s looking at the idea of having her own show. Terri is also involved with the several benefits put together by the supergroup Camp Freddy, which inspired her to put together a female version of the project called “Girls Might Out.” We will keep you up to date on all the future Terri Nunn news on Revenge of the 80s Radio and this blog. Speaking of Camp Freddy, I had previously posted an excellent performance of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”
by Terri. Here it is again:
Our interview with Terri Nunn kicks off the second hour of the show. We also played some Berlin classics, a track from her 2006 CD 4Play and music from other great artists of the era including XTC, INXS, Ultravox and The Boomtown Rats.
Tonight’s Revenge of the 80s Radio show will feature our interview with Terri Nunn, best known as the former lead singer of Berlin. She is also an ex-actress, writer, talk radio personality and mom. We talk about Terri’s career, Berlin and several projects she is working on now.
In addition to performing as a singer, Terri has been delving into talk radio over the past few years, including stints with Free FM in Los Angeles. She contributed a chapter to an upcoming book on relationships, is working on a new solo album due out in 2009 and has finished up an acoustic version of the Berlin classic “Sex (I’m A…).”
Terri also performs in benefits with the super group Camp Freddy, which inspired her to form Girls’ Night Out — sort of a female version of the Camp Freddy band.
During this week’s show, we will also play music from artists of the era including the Boomtown Rats, Ultravox, INXS and Book of Love
Revenge of the 80s Radio airs live every Friday night 7-9pm on Q99.1FM in the Hudson Valley, NY and on www.revengeofthe80sradio.com; Wednesdays 12noon Melbourne, Australia time on 87.6FM “Radio 80s” in Korumburra, AUS and our podcast will be available on Saturday.
The podcast issues following a recent WordPress upgrade have been rectified. Last week’s show was only available as an MP3 download because of compatability problems with PodPress.
After a code fix, shows tonight and in the future can be both downloaded and heard on the website via out on-site PodPress program without the need to download
As a reminder, the 2008 Regeneration Tour, featuring ABC, A Flock of Seagulls, Naked Eyes, Belinda Carlisle, The Human League and Dead Or Alive hits North America Friday, August 1 — a week from today.
Friday night’s Revenge of the 80s Radio show will feature an interview with Terri Nunn, best known as the former lead singer of Berlin. It was in the late 1970s when Nunn, as a young actress, was offered a role in TV’s Dallas (the one Charlene Tilton would eventually play). It was not known then that her decision would change new wave music history.
Terri wanted to get into music, but something different from what was going on in the mainstream industry genres. John Crawford’s band. Berlin, was the perfect fit. The band was ahead of its time, even in the innovative L.A. music scene as their brand of synth-wave had not quite started to catch on in the beginning. Berlin gained both acclaim and controversy with their first album, Pleasure Victim, thanks mainly to the popularity of the single “Sex (I’m a…).” Berlin’s popularity stretched out to the East Coast and other new wave hotbeds until they broke up shortly after producing their first #1 song “Take My Breath Away.” Since then, Terri has worked on several projects including a 1992 solo album, sang with several other musicians as well as recorded and toured with a reformed Berlin in the early part of this decade. Her most recent recording was an acoustic verson of “Sex (I’m A…)” for an upcoming documentary on the pornography industry called Naked Ambition.
Today, Terri Nunn sings with the supergroup Camp Freddy during their benefits concerts, inspiring her to put together a female version called “Girls’ Night Out.” She is a contributing author for the upcoming book Cherry Bomb, has been a talk radio personality and is working on a new solo album set to be done in 2009.
Below is Terri Nunn performing “Highway to Hell” with Camp Freddy”
During the interview, we will play some Berlin classics and a track from the 2005 Berlin CD, 4Play.
The interview will lead off the second hour of this week’s show, which will be broadcast live 7-9pm Eastern U.S. time on Q99.1Fm in the Hudson Valley, NY and www.revengeofthe80sradio.com. Radio 80s 87.6FM in Korumburra, Australia will air the show at 12noon Melbourne Time on July 29th, and the podcast will be available on the Revenge of the 80s Radio website on Saturday morning, 7/26. The interview with Terri Nunn will lead off the second hour of the show.
I was quite happy after first reading about the plan to remake the classic 80s movie “Valley Girl,” a project that is being led by film makers Matt Smith and Sean Bailey. It did not hit me at the time that they were looking to make it a musical.
A musical featuring the great new wave tunes of the time might sound intriguing, but most of those types of movies (like plays) feature the actors attempting to sing the tunes instead of the original artists. I am not the kind of person who likes to put a damp nose on an 80s movie revival story, but the thought of some minimally-talented young “actor” of today attempting to whine through “I Melt With You” or “Love My Way” does not sound too appealing to this 80s guy. Would anyone really want to hear Ashlee Simpson try to lip synch to herself attempting “Johnny Are You Queer?” Why the suits at MGM think this is such a brilliant idea would stymie me only if I expected a sliver of intelligence coming from any of their ilk in the music industry.
Do not misunderstand me: I would be very much looking forward to a remake of the movie with some cameos by those who were originally in the movie, but with the real songs from the original artists. Do the suits think that these musicians are so irrelevant today that a cute young film star of today can reproduce the magic of that soundtrack? The music is the reason that the movie was so great in the first place; otherwise it would have been a run-of-the-mill “chick flick” in 1983 with the same old “boy from poor background falls in love with rich girl” story. While it is true that Nicholas Cage was brilliant in that role, the soundtrack is arguably remembered more as classic than the movie.
I might be wrong, but I do not tend to overestimate the Hollywood suits too much. Maybe they will change their minds and let the actors act while the real soundtrack remains intact. Or, am I starting to sound like one of those old guys a step away from lamenting about things that were better “when I was your age…” from the rocking chair?
***NOTE – WordPress is not allowing me to put up the podcast as playable on the blog without download at this time. It is now only downloadable at this point. We are still attempting to fix these techinical difficulties.
On Friday night’s Revenge of the 80s radio show, we featured our interview with Phil Oakey of the Human League. The band is coming to North America in August as part of the Regeneration Tour. The podcasts for each hour are at the end of this post; our discussion leads off the second half of the program.
When Oakey was recruited to join the first incarnation of the Human League by old friends Martyn Ware and his partner Ian Craig Marsh, he never sang nor was able to play any instruments. It was likely his presence that had the two bring Oakey into the fold. The band, however, did not last long. Ware and Marsh departed to form Heaven 17. Oakey built a new Human League lineup — the one that became famous with major chart success in the U.K. and the U.S. Today, Oakey, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall remain together as the core of the band and still tour to packed concert venues.
During the interview, we talked about:
The Human League, pre and post Ware/Martin
The irony of Oakey, Ware and Marsh each finding success after the latter two left
How the core of the band remained together and strong even through some extremely lean times
The Regeneration Tour and new Human League projects.
The Regeneration tour runs August 1-31 in North America and includes the Human League, ABC, Belinda Carlisle, A Flock of Seagulle, Naked Eyes and Dead or Alive. Concert dates and ticket information can be found on the Regeneration Tour website.
During the show, we also played music from bands including the Time Bandits, Voice of the Beehive, Strawberry Switchblade and Kim Wilde
Tonight on Revenge of the 80s, we talk with Phil Oakey of The Human League, who are gearing up for the Regeneration Tour, which begins on August 1st.
Phil had been with the band since his old buddy Martyn Ware asked him to join his band with Ian Craig Marsh, formerly known as “The Future” in the late 70s. After Marsh and Ware departed to form Heaven 17, Oakey put together a new Human League in 1980. The lineup included singers Joanne Catherll and Susan Ann Sulley, who remain with Oakey in the band today.
Also featured on tonight’s show will be music from artists including Kim Wilde, The Time Bandits, Echo and the Bunnymen and Voice of the Beehive.
Revenge of the 80s Radio airs live every Friday night 7-9pm on Q99.1FM in the Hudson Valley, NY and on www.revengeofthe80sradio.com; Wednesdays 12noon Melbourne, Australia time on 87.6FM “Radio 80s” in Korumburra, AUS and our podcast will be available on Saturday.
A musical featuring the great new wave tunes of the time might sound intriguing, but most of those types of movies (like plays) feature the actors attempting to sing the tunes instead of the original artists. I am not the kind of person who likes to put a damp nose on an 80s movie revival story, but the thought of some minimally-talented young “actor” of today attempting to whine through “I Melt With You” or “Love My Way” does not sound too appealing to this 80s guy. Would anyone really want to hear Ashlee Simpson try to lip synch to herself attempting “Johnny Are You Queer?” Why the suits at MGM think this is such a brilliant idea would stymie me only if I expected a sliver of intelligence coming from any of their ilk in the music industry. 
