80's New Wave groups tribute page

Believe it or not Blondie formed in 1974 in New York City when Debbie Harry (born july 1945) got together with Chris Stein (January 1950), also Fred Smith and Bill O'conner after leaving the revivalist stilleto's. Julie and Jackie ( Tish and Snookie) joined vocals and that was the early line up. Smith and O'conner left and opened the door for James Destri, Gary Valentine and Clement Burke.

They signed to Crysalis records and bought out "Plastic Letters" giving them their first noteable hits with "Denis" and "presence dear". In 79, "Heart of Glass" and "Sunday Girl" really pushed Blondie into the limelight but bad times were to come. There was a gap between 1983 to 85 where Chris Stien became very ill with Pemphigus. They had further albums but made a recent comeback in 1999 with "Maria" which was a classic sounding Blondie track which was kewl considering Debbie Harry was 54 yrs old. Still some more great music to come from BLONDIE im sure

Formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. They took their name from a french magazine and made their debut at Scamps in Southend. They were Vince Clarke, Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore. After a short time they enlisted Dave Gahan who became their lead singer. Vince Clarke left shortly after "Speak and Spell" to form "Yazoo" with Alison Moyet. Depeche Mode was one of the biggest Synth-pop groups of the 80's

Howard Jones

John Howard Jones born in Southampton 1955 had dreamed of making it as a mucician for over 15 yrs. He joined his first band in 76. John was offered a session by "John Peel" which led to a tour with OMD and China Crisis. His first big seller was in September 83 with "new song" quickly followed by "what is love", "hide and seek", and "like to get to know you well". Still recorded sporadically in the 90's with his brother Martin and Trevor Morais

Ultravox

Originally formed in 1974 with John Fox, Steve Shears, Warren Cann, Chris Cross and Billie Currie. Signed by Island records in 76, made very little impression in the charts. Shears was replaced by Robin Simon in 78 but were dropped by Island after a very poor responce to "Systems of Romance". Simon and Fox left following their own careers. Currie revived ultravox with Midge Ure and bought back Cross and Cann. After signing up to Crysalis records they had some sucess with "sleepwalk", and "passing stranger". The release of "Vienna" in January 81 saw them become huge and gave them a no2 hit for 2 months followed by a string of chart sucesses.

Founded in Chesterfield in 1977 by Tom Bailey, Peter Dodd and John Roog, they got their name from a "Tin Tin " comic book of Herge. They moved to london and joined with Chris Bell. After a few sporadic gigs they enlisted Joe Leeway , Alannah Currie and Matthew Seligman forming a 7 piece band. "Love on your side" was their first major hit closely followed by "hold me now ", "doctor doctor", "You take me up". Joe Leeway left in 1986. Their songwriting talents gave "Blondie" a 89 hit with "I want that man". The band finally dispanded in 94 when Bailey and Currie formed "Babble"

Spandau Ballet were founded in 1979 and comprised brothers, Martin and Gary Kemp, Tony Hadley, John Keeble and Steve Norman. In their first years they did gigs at trendy London clubs adopting a "New Romantic" style. They bought out their own label and called it "Reformation". Their Debut single "To cut a long story short" was a uk no5 hit. They changed their style to a more straightforeward pop and had a massive UK 1 hit with "True" followed by "Gold" which peaked at no2. Following a sucessful pop career The Kemp brothers took up acting and appeared in "the Krays" while Hadley embarked on a mainly solo career. Martin Kemp now enjoys sucess as an actor in "Eastenders"

From The Ashes Of JOY DIVISION after the sad death of Ian Curtis came NEW ORDER with Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris. Sumner took up vocals and they embarked on a low key tour of the USA. After recruiting Gillian Gilbert (Morrises girlfriend) they hit the top 40 in spring 81 with "Ceremony"

1983 Saw the release of their album "Power corruption and lies" came the single "Blue Monday" which went on to become the Biggest 12" single best seller of all time. The group disbanded shortly after their last album "Republic" which was released in 1993