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8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 8 ~ Crowded House ~ Love This Life

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And so we come to Crowded House ~ Love This Life for day 8 of my “8 Days Of 80’s” … it’s been a lot of fun, so thanks again Rory for the nomination. As I’ve mentioned before these are just 8 random songs that could have been totally different. I picked them for each for individual reasons and today’s is no exception.

To be honest, I didn’t really “get” Crowded House until 1991. We stocked all the albums and Michael again played them to many of ur regular customers, I didn’t really have any strong feelings about them either way. Around the time Woodface launched in 1991 our EMI rep, Steve, gave us a special double promo cd “Live at the Town & Country Club” and that really resonated with me. I had seen Neil Finn in Split Enz back in 1976, I’d even promoted “Six Months In A Leaky Boat” during my time with A&M, but it wasn’t until their that third album they I really connected – and then they became a bit of an obsession!

I’ve now seen Neil Finn in his various incarnations (Split Enz, Crowded House, The Finn Brothers, and solo) more than any other artist. The last show we saw was 22nd September 2015 when Neil was touring with his son Liam. I’d go again tomorrow if I could.

So, it’s back to the second album, “Temple Of Low Men” from 1988, for this beautiful song that I feel is an apt finale to my “8 Days Of 80’s”

Crowded House ~ Love This Life

Here’s the orginal album version featuring Neil, Nick and Paul (RIP)

And here’s Neil performing it live a few years ago…

For more about Crowded House TRY HERE for Wiki
Or TRY HERE for Friends Of The Enz

Thanks for reading my 8 Days Of 80’s and please “Love This Life”

P x

8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 6 ~ Bruce Hornsby & The Range ~ The Way It Is

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Today is day six in my 8 Days Of 80’s FaceBook challenge and I’ve picked Bruce Hornsby & The Range with “The Way It Is”. I was nominated to take part in the 8 Days Of 80’s by one of my American friends, Rory, I’m supposed to nominate two more people each day but I’d prefer to see if anyone contacts me to be nominated – so if you are interested please let me know. These are just 8 random tracks – I could have picked 800 others!

As well as posting the 8 songs on FaceBook I’ve been telling my eighties story and putting some context to my choices.

In 1986 I opened The Disc & Tape Centre in Lymington in partnership with my friend Michael. I have so many wonderful memories of this time in my life – Ce and I had just got married and we moved from our first house on Calmore to a new-build which as been our home ever since.

Yet again there are so many stories I could tell about the business but you’ll have to buy me a cuppa if you want to know more than I’m sharing here – with just two more days of my challenge to go!

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This is a picture Michael took of me with my mum and dad at about the time of the opening of the shop in the front doorway. I’m wearing a promo sweat-shirt for Adele Bertei – remember her? In fairness I couldn’t name any of her tracks. CLICK HERE to see her on video. I think I lived in promotional clothing for most of the 80’s and a fair bit of the 90’s!

Bruce Hornsby & The Range ~ The Way It Is

The single was also title track from their debut the album which also featured the songs “Mandolin Rain” and “Every Little Kiss”. I still have a promo CD that our RCA rep, Shay, gave us of a Hornsby concert from “The Way It Is Tour 1986-87”

To find out more about “The Way It Is” CLICK HERE

8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 5 ~ Ray Parker Jr ~ Ghostbusters

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8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 5 ~ Ray Parker Jr ~ Ghostbusters

Yesterday I talked about the Chrysalis side of Tandem so today it’s Arista. Artists on the lable during my time included The Thompson Twins, The Lotus Eaters, Nick Hayward, Whitney Houston, Jermaine Jackson, Meatloaf (who once rode his motorcycle through a false wall into a sales conference) and Ray Parker Jr.

During my time working for the three record companies each one was linked to a film. While I was at A&M they had, what turned out to be a cult-favourite, the British comedy Party Party CLICK HERE. Chrysalis had Huey Lewis and the News had The Power Of Love CLICK HERE on the first Back To The Future soundtrack and Arista had Ray Parker Jr and Ghostbusters. This meant lots of trips to preview showings in Soho, promotional items and tickets to take people to see the films – it was a tough life!

Because the new version has just been released it seemed right to select Ghostbusters to represent my time at Arista.

Ray Parker Jr ~ Ghostbusters

The Ghostbusters single made number two over here (for three weeks) but was a number one in the USA and plenty of other places – I guess we were a rubbish promotions team! My car was full of singles, soundtrack albums, t-shirts and stickers!


Now, here’s the really freaky thing, when Ghostbusters was released, Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr. for plagiarism, claiming the melody came from “I Want a New Drug”. The two parties settled out of court. It was all a bit weird working for both companies at the time.

That’s Day 5 of my 8 Days Of 80’s, tomorrow I’ll be looking at what happened when I left working for record companies to set up my own shop in partnership with my friend Michael.

8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 2 ~ Champaign ~ How ‘Bout Us

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8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 2 ~ Champaign ~ How ‘Bout Us

It’s day two of my attempt to pick eight tracks from the eighties and share them on FaceBook. If you’d like to take part message me and I’ll nominate you.

Champaign ~ How ‘Bout Us
This was released early in 1981 and was a top 10 hit here. The group named themselves after their hometown of Champaign, Illinois, and featured Pauli Carman and Rena Jones on vocals. “How ‘Bout Us” was written by keyboard player Dana Walden.

The significance to me was that it was one of the big ballads of that year, the year I went to DJ full time in Jersey and met Ce, my wife. This was the song we picked for our first dance when we married in 1983.

CLICK HERE to find out more about my time in Jersey.