Folk, funk and punk
A summary of the 1980sIsland music in the 1980s was awash with great musicians and some very good bands. The profile does not attempt to give a comprehensive rundown (best locate a copy of Isle of Wight Rock for that) but it should give a flavour of the times.
In exchange for practice facilities Level 42 played a couple of gigs at Ryde Airport nightspot The Babalu in 1980. It was from here that the band were signed to Polydor and taken up to Chipping Norton studios in Oxfordshire to record their first album.
Given a prevailing wind Island band The Choir might made a bigger impact on the music industry than they did. It would not be for want of trying. Named after a book by Joseph Nambaugh called 'The Choirboys' the band hit their peak in the 'new romantic' period of Duran Duran. Originally SG and Andy Skelton late of the Pumphouse Gang were cutting demos with drummer Paul Athey, late of Freshwater's Big Swifty. The Choir's first gig at the Court Jester in Sandown in February 1981 featured the band expanded by Paul Hunter keyboards and Bill Kent on bass.
The Choir cut their own single Lost Legions/Wait A Minute plus an album on their own Pageant label. The album was bought up by A&M who signed the band and re-released the album.
"A&M used their influence to put us on the Eurythmics tour. The Choir didn't have a manager. By now, we had been existing for four years. The new material didn't have the spark. We had gigged ourselves into the deck. One minute playing in front of two thousand in a packed Lyceum, the next minute we're playing down the local pub. We had no long term strategy. The buzz had gone out of it." - SG, The Choir.
One band that kicked the eighties in with a blast were the Jetts. An explosive cocktail of the young John Wroath, Paul Athey, Mike Wheeler and Mike Jolliffe. They had a positively right wing boot boy following. Their sets in claustrophobic bars inciting near on riots.
Mike Jolliffe the chameleon of Isle of Wight Rock. From the Tolkein folk rock of Shide and Acorn to the steamhammer punk of the Jetts. Throughout the eighties the songwriter would be the driving force behind an array of projects. His English Riviera Project a platform for the unemployed in Cowes. A partnership with Shamrocks Gary Cowtan which resulted in a Radio 1 record of the week. 'The Man Who Would Be King' by the Royals may have done it but for Dakota Records financial difficulties. Mike's Road To Madtown, a play cum musical heavily influenced by Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood but stamped by Jolliffe's unique vision of Cowes. The Road to Madtown went all the way to the Edinburgh Fringe with Island musicians and actors.
There was music coming right at you throughout the eighties in a variety of styles:
Beggars Farm's pyschedelic hard rock whose Depth of A Dream album became a national collector's item. The wild, wacky Waltons with an invite to play the South African Airlines sponsored Song Festival at Puckpool had Tony Walton dumping twelve tins of spaghetti down his tights to climax a song about bikers called Black Leather. Imagine the Three Degrees following that . . . A single Brown Rice, a macrobiotic wee take on Red Bus their only release save for a pile of classic tapes.
Blue Moon caught the mood of the punters who had supported the Cherokees during their heady run. Playing straight down the line rock'n'roll they had some the biggest audiences for an Island band filling up the Ryde Arena and Brickfields at Ryde. Essentially Blue Moon was Sharpe and Betchley of the Cherokees with Doug Watson and Keith Roberts instead of Cherokees Ken Young and Crann Davies. Plus Les Paysan/Cherokee from the fifties Martyn Ford. The band ran from 1985 till 1992.
The success of his songwriting father, Bill Reid, who wrote songs recorded by Crosby, Sinatra and Nat King Cole seemed to haunt Bill Reid jnr. With the encouragement of local musician John Wroath, Bill Reid jnr began recording and playing Island gigs but had to contend with comparisons with his father.
1980s Menu