All Night Long (All Night) is one of the very best, most uplifting pieces of music known to man. Play it at high volume and feel its redemptive power.

Nik Kershaw's finest moment is Radio Musicola.

...and agree on most points, but the Thompson Twins were shite.

I love the early 80s pop, I was 12/13 and hitting that first wave of music obsession. I bought all the singles, and later all the albums, and ABC's Lexicon Of Love remains probably my all time favourite album.

almost got as much of a critical kicking as Howard Jones, but Declaration is a great album!

I always reckoned the first half of this song is where Trevor Horn got the basis for "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome'. What do you reckon?

were indeed a decent pop band, 'Head over Heels' is a cracking tune. Can't say that Thompson Twins, Kershaw or Jones really floated my boat, there was the odd single that I thought ok, but generally i found them dull.

Duran Duran were ok, and the track 'chauffeur', which i believe was from the Rio lp,was for me one of the defining musical moments of the new romantic period, a terrific piece of work.

Believe follow up to ABCs 'Lexicon..', 'Beauty Stab' was soundly criticised on its release, but to these ears it is the match to its more acclaimed predecessor

"Pelican West" by Haircut 100. They were are far better band than they were given credit for. Great songs, great videos and Nick Heyward's surreal lyrics which are one of lifes great pleasures.
"Why oh why, lemon fire brigade why"
Now I've got the jazz funk break that followed that line stuck in my head. Find it, listen too it and improve your Saturday.

Despite this being rather good:

Tune!

Tears For Fears - Love them.
Duran Duran - love them. But not capital l Love like TFF.

Nik Kershaw - rate very highly. As pointed out above Radio Musicola is his best.

Howard Jones - worst thing you can say about an artist, completely indifferent.

Thompson Twins - hate with a passion. I transferred a mate's twins collection from vinyl to cd and mp3. So I heard hours of this crap. And then a month or so later had a 3 hour car journey with said mate and it was soundtracked by... 'The Twins'

Here's my all time fave 80s band - Men At Work. 2 Brilliant albums that only had a couple of duff tracks between them. Tracks that sounded like they were crowbarred in to satisfy an ego in the band and really didn't sit well at all. And a 'burnt out from touring' 3rd album that had only one good song on it.

Depeche Mode.

Never popular with the critics. Never cool. (Relatively) Unloved in the UK.
But... globe striding synth gods! (From Basildon!!) Remarkable. And still going.
Talkin' 'bout my generation!

Let's play...

at least when I was 14 at school, only girls liked these acts. I can't see anything worth reconsideration in any of them.

Tears For Fears
Duran Duran
Nik Kershaw
Howard Jones
Thompson Twins

The other day at work a guy in his twenties was "singing" along to Spandau Ballet

No, no, no, no, no. Only for girls.

Not sure how they fared critically at the time (I was, relatively speaking, a nipper and simply thought they could do no wrong).

But I can get hardly anyone I know now to say a good thing about them! Went to the reunion gig on my own (well, there were other people there, obviously - but no-one accompanied me), and same again for the one coming up.

Whatever anyone thinks of the arguably over-rated 'Vienna' - what about 'Hymn', 'The Thin Wall', 'Visions in Blue', 'Mine for Life', 'A Friend I Call Desire'...? Oh ok, maybe just me, then.

The Unstoppable Sex Machine (I like 'em, not many others do seemingly)

The Fratellis (as above)

Status Quo (not as bad as they're made out to be - honest!)

Oasis

I can't let this thread pass without mentioning the Dels. With critics curently falling over themselves to praise Mumford and Sons I can't listen to them without hearing strong influences from Justin and co.

you lot had Tears For Fears/ H Jones/ Depeche Mode/ Haircut 100/ Nick Kershaw/ Thompson Twins etc. In the 60s we had to make do with the likes of The Beatles, Stones, The Who, The Searchers, Elvis, The Move, Led Z, The Animals, Spooky Tooth,Beach Boys, The Byrds, Turtles, Procul Harem, Walker Bros, The Troggs, Moody Blues, Bonzos, Buffalo Springfield, Hendrix, Cream, Manfred Mann, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane....you lucky lucky lucky sods...NOT!

I am a grandad, twice over with a third on the way, BUT it still does not lessen the paucity of decent bands that emerged in the 80s... and my list shamefully ignored the Tamla and soul stuff stuff that was emerging: Martha Reeves, The Four Tops, Junior Walker, The Temptations, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Ruffins, Otis and many more....and, in my defence, I do dance...crank up the old jukebox, stick on "Big Hits, High Tide And Green Grass" and watch me strut my funky stuff, daddio!

Doubt it.... did like Del Amitri (Del was my favourite....what sideburns!), and the first Deacon Blue album (Raintown) was a good'un.
Howard Jones carried a tune, but that was it for me. Oh, honourable mention to the Thompson Twins for realising a couple of well crafted pop tunes. DuranDuran? Pile of pish.

Curiosity Killed the Cat - Down to Earth

Great song, overriding the enormous drag factor of annoying
behatment and general ponciness of lead singer.

Modern Romance - Everybody Salsa

Can't smile wide enough when this gets played.

Bananarama - Rough Justice

Nice, summery, jangly feel and penned by the 'nanas themselves.

Wham! - Everything She Wants

There is tension, frustration and misery in this record. What can be better?

What can be better? Letmesee.... White Room, Dock Of The Bay, Wild Thing, The Wind Cries Mary, Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Waterloo Sunset, Eleanor Rigby, Substitute, 19th Nervous Breakdown, I Can Hear The Grass Grow.....infity times a great big number.

His first album is blindingly good - 'But is it art?' and 'Be There' are fabulous pop tunes and there isn't a bad song on the record.

http://open.spotify.com/album/5v9N7TJgBwCuDmZ0kUPmj3

And this is a cracking pop song...

Scriti Politti 'Cupid & Psyche' mentioned. Having sat (and frequently suffered) through many albums alluded to above, this was one of the best. It probably wasn't critically panned though. Nor were the Dels, at least in my sources of information (Q leading to Mojo). Currie was loved.

Looking at some of the names here, maybe we're into a new category, just above one-hit-wonders, something like the 2-to-5-hit-wonders.

... were slagged off for being pale Cure wannabes I seem to remember ... but their 'hit' was still very good:-

From the Eighties - China Crisis. Their first two albums were both magnificent.

From the Nineties - everyone thinks they have only one song they know, but The Charlatans.... Those guys might live up to their name at times, but boy they have written some brilliant songs.

Unregarded Aussie rockers but is there a more effortlessly catchy 80's tune & chorus than "Live It Up"?
The immortal chat-up line "A close encounter with a hard-hearted man...has made you wish you'd never been born" is one I'd recommend to any young beau visiting the discotheque.
They also have a song whose title alone is worthy of a Grammy, Brit, Nobel Peace Prize and Blue Peter Badge, "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?"

Big Country, Culture Club, Frankie Goes To Hollywood...even The Style Council! There was more to the 80s than Smiths/Cure/New Order axis. This was great pop taking the 60s idea of proper groups playing their own stuff and having fun with it. Even critically totally despised acts like The Cult or The Alarm can sound sweet when they're throwing great teenage memories back to you.
There's no place for Hue And Cry though. I can't bear them, almost as bad as modern rubbish like Snow Patrol. i say 'almost' because I'll give you the fact that PK is at least individual.
I hate the DEacon Blue too!

I think the one thing about the eighties (specifically the early eighties) which distinguishes it from now was the sheer level of individualism. The Human League, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, The Associates, OMD, XTC, Madness.. the list goes on…. All of these acts were allowed to plough their own furrow. Sadly from the late eighties onwards (probably something to do with focus groups) every band that came along seemed to be replicated to saturation point. So the early eighties individualism was replaced with bland acts like Wet Wet Wet, Living in a Box and Bros. And while there was some great music in the 90s and noughties… the top 10 never sounded as good as it did between 1980 and 1982.. I really do feel privileged that this was the era in which I discovered pop music