The soundtrack to growing up in a 2-bedroom tenement house in the outskirts of Glasgow during the early 80s, when New Romantics seemed to have been invented with the exact purpose of OPENING up life’S POSSIBILITIES. Visage, Duran Duran, Bronski Beat, Ultravox, Heaven 17. And school discos.
Words & curation by Angela Jopling, artwork by Mick Clarke, design by Eva Forné (with kind permission from Rubik’s)
Growing up with older brothers in a 2-bedroom tenement house in the outskirts of Glasgow during the early 80s meant that I was always in close range of the latest vinyl being played on the automatic changer turntable. I was often a silent witness to one of them dancing or preening themselves in front of the mirror. From roughly age nine, I was musically educated courtesy The Police, Donna Summer and Queen. Looking back now one can’t be anything but grateful for that. This was a time when you actually sat and listened to whole albums, and smiled and nodded at each other, wordless, at all the good bits. I soon learned from my brothers what those good bits were, and I think this turned me into quite a discerning listener. It also ignited my love of indie pop and an early realisation of music’s ability to transport you from your current reality (or at least make that reality a wee bit more bearable). Not so much the soundtrack to a life, more like a sort of portal to a life of greater possibilities.
For my 10th birthday, my Uncle Wullie gave me a Woolworths Record Token and with it I bought my very first single: Visage’s Fade to Grey. I am not sure what I loved so much about it back then – the opening electro beat, the sophisticated French speaking bit in the middle, or Steve Strange’s make-up in the video - but that was me hooked on synth and boys with make-up. And if we were calling them New Romantics, then that was even more reason to buy-in.
Not long after this, my obsession with Duran Duran began. John Taylor in particular. Me and a few million other young women around the world. Watching them (or John, in The Reflex video in particular) on Top of the Pops was the highlight of my week and if not JT then Soft Cell or Spandau Ballet, or Depeche Mode would always be worth watching if only to hear my Dad’s outrage about boys wearing make-up. New Romantic became the soundtrack to my early teens. No school disco was deemed ‘brilliant’ at the end of the night unless it had a bit of ABC, The Human League or Yazoo as well as the absolutely essential Simple Minds, Bronski Beat, Eurythmics or Lloyd Cole, all fantastic new romantic-esque Scottish bands.
Of course, with the school discos came fancying boys and wondering if they fancied you – especially when they sidled up beside you and started dancing without saying a word. Though I never really understood this ritual and wonder if this is now the equivalent of my own teenage girls being asked out on social media - but never really spending any time with those Romeos in person?
This playlist evokes some strong memories of first love, either unrequited or of the full-on embarrassment variety, both necessary rites of passage for all teenage girls (and boys) in the 80s. Is it still? Surely it is. There was this one boy in the year above me, who had so many meaningful songs related to him (but sadly only in my dreams) and they’re all on this playlist, perhaps most notably Temptation by New Order: ‘Oh you’ve got green eyes, oh you’ve got blue eyes, oh’ you’ve got grey eyes’…I never actually got to figure out close up what colour his eyes really were.
Then of course there was the cad who ‘two-timed’ me i.e. dated me whilst also dating someone else. In my innocence I had no idea until coming face to face with him (and her) in the local nightclub despite him telling me he wasn’t feeling well that day. What an idiot - to not even realise I would be there too – even his Mum thought I was too good for him and she was right! It is he who still springs to mind whenever I hear When Tomorrow Comes by The Eurythmics.
Talk of the unrequited, there were the inevitable celebrity crushes of course, my biggest of which was ‘Brat Packer’ Andrew McCarthy – particularly in Pretty in Pink. It was the startled look, the bright blue eyes and that wavy hair. It takes me right back to my 80s, and so OMD’s ‘If You Leave’ the last song in the film in which Andie finally gets her man, is a fitting finale.
This playlist is dedicated to young love, old love and new romantic love and in particular to all those 80’s teenage new romantic girls with their lace gloves, bow tied frizzy perms and kitten heels. We were a sight for sore eyes but there really was – and is - nothing like it! I hope, like me, you both crush and cringe your way through this playlist and above all else, dance. Even think about dancing right on up to a stranger. So much better than messaging them.
Angela Jopling is a psychotherapist and New Romantic fan. She does not work with couples.