Archives – 1985  

1985 B-Sides SEMI FINALS!
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Democracy hasn’t had a great run of it in recent years but it can still deliver a result like this – a pair of B-Sides semi finals which give voters a window seat at the birth of Detroit Techno, Chicago House and Dancehall.

These will be the last set of Peoples Pop Polls before we move to the new site – there’s still the Final to come but I’ll run that on Twitter as I don’t want polls to be ongoing when the actual move starts.

There will be an exciting new destination (and URL) for People’s Pop and Freaky Trigger will go back to hosting everything I/we do that isn’t polls or Number 1 song reviews (yes, those will be back again).

Thanks for taking part – I’ve already learned plenty about how the new poll plug-in works and I’m looking forward to seeing you on the new, specially designed for polls, site next week for the opening matches of our charity pop poll.

OK, let’s do some polling…

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1985 Semi-Final 1: Mr Fingers v Wayne Smith

MR FINGERS - "Mystery Of Love" (YouTube)

WAYNE SMITH - "Under Me Sleng Teng" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

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1985 Semi-Final 2: Tenor Saw v Model 500

TENOR SAW - "Ring The Alarm" (YouTube)

MODEL 500 - "Night Drive (Time, Space, Transmat)" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

THE WORLD CUP OF 1985! B-Sides Round 2 Matches 5-8
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Four more matches of lesser-known or lower-voted tracks from 1985.

This time we’ve got a YouTube playlist set up, starting with Youssou N’Dour

And matches involving Youssou, Indochine, John Cale, The Woodentops, Wayne Smith, Zazou Bikaye, The Dead Milkmen and The Chameleons.

First up it’s a spicy Senegal v France clash – Youssou N’Dour v Indochine.

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1985 B-Sides R2 Match 5: Youssou N'Dour v Indochine

YOUSSOU N'DOUR - "Ndobine" (YouTube)

INDOCHINE - "3e Sexe" (YouTube)

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Then John Cale’s stentorian balladry faces the indie-skiffle of The Woodentops

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1985 B-Sides R2 Match 6: John Cale v The Woodentops

JOHN CALE - "Dying On The Vine" (YouTube)

THE WOODENTOPS - "Move Me" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

Match 7 sees Wayne Smith’s iconic riddim up against French-Congolese pop from Zazou Bikaye

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1985 B-Sides R2 Match 7: Wayne Smith v Zazou Bikaye

WAYNE SMITH - "Under Me Sleng Teng" (YouTube)

ZAZOU BIKAYE - "Nostalgie" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

And finally, the not wholly serious Dead Milkmen battle the really very serious indeed Chameleons.

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1985 B-Sides R2 Match 8: The Dead Milkmen v The Chameleons

THE DEAD MILKMEN - "Bitchin' Camaro" (YouTube)

THE CHAMELEONS - "Nostalgia" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

There’s also a Spotify playlist which has lots of missing tracks (those B-Sides are obscure!) but has everything in match order.

THE WORLD CUP OF 1985! B-Sides Round 2 Matches 1-4
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Our first actual on-site polls (I hope they work!)

These are our B-Side matches – lesser-known tracks put under the spotlight. Four head-to-heads with 12 more to come, assuming these function as planned.

First off, Detroit proto-techno from MODEL 500 vs Monsoon’s SHEILA CHANDRA

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1985 B-Sides Round 2 Match 1: Model 500 v Sheila Chandra

Model 500 - Time Space Transmat Sheila Chandra - Strange Minaret

MODEL 500 - "Time, Space, Transmat" (YouTube)

SHEILA CHANDRA - "Strange Minaret" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

Then it’s an industrial v hair metal clash – COIL v RATT

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1985 B-Sides Round 2 Match 2: Coil v RATT

COIL - "Tainted Love" (YouTube)

RATT- "Lay It Down" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

Dancehall don TENOR SAW is up against alternative pop songwriter MARTI JONES

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1985 B-Sides Round 2 Match 3: Tenor Saw v Marti Jones

TENOR SAW - "Ring The Alarm" (YouTube)

MARTI JONES - "Lonely Is As Lonely Does" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

And finally a brutal indie-on-indie match between WORLD DOMINATION ENTERPRISES and THE LOFT

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1985 B-Sides Round 2 Match 4: World Domination Enterprises v The Loft

WORLD DOMINATION ENTERPRISES - "Asbestos Lead Asbestos" (YouTube)

THE LOFT - "Up The Hill And Down The Slope" (YouTube)

The poll has expired!

I’ll be advertising this secret den of polling violence on Twitter too, comment there or here – ultimately I want comments to mostly move here though, but it’ll be much easier once we do Twitter integration on the new site.

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