Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Spandau Ballet & Tears for Fears Concert Reviews

If you haven't had a chance to see Spandau Ballet's Reformation tour for yourself then you can check out my review on my squidoo lens.

Living in Australia these days has it's advantages and one of them was the fact that Spandau Ballet had some very special guest performers - Tears for Fears. I have never ever seen TFF perform before and so guess what? That's right I wrote a review of their performance as well as a bit about the band on my Tears for Fears lens, complete with some photos taken last night.

Spandau Ballet Reformation Tour

Well Spandau Ballet with very special guests – Tears for Fears hit Brisbane last night with a big stick of nostalgia – I loved it! First up we had a support band called Boom Crash Opera who were fantastic, I don’t know much about them, but the singers voice was really good. Then it was time for Tears for Fears….

Tears for Fears opened with ‘Mad World’ and from the opening chords the crowd just erupted to their feet and I was instantly transported back to the 80s – our trip down memory lane had begun in earnest and it only got better! The other big hits that got the crowd going was'Everybody Wants to Rule the World,' ‘Head over Heels,’ ‘Woman in Chains’ and the final song that they performed – ‘Shout.’ It was a great warm up for what was to come. I had never seen Tears for Fears in concert before, but they seem to have a really good sense of humor.




Finally the time for Spandau Ballet had arrived and all I can say was WOW! They were just as good, if not better, than when I last saw them on their last tour. Tony’s voice seems to be getting stronger and the whole band still looked like they were having fun. The stage show included pictures and video from their past as well which really helped to add to the nostalgia. They did change a couple of the songs, one successfully the other not so – in my opinion anyway.

Overall the show was sensational and I’ll post a link here when I write my full review and photos – Spandau Still Rules!!!!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Red Dawn

I was in a group interview a couple of months ago (I didn’t get the job, but I did make it pass this part of the 3 day process) and we had to name as many Patrick Swayze movies as we could. When I mentioned Red Dawn one of the interviewers was very impressed, it seems we both share a love of this classic 80s cold war movie.

I saw this movie with my little brother and thoroughly enjoyed it. Obviously it’s a movie so you some of it was very contrived, but the premise behind it seemed very real to many people who were living during that political climate. I think it spoke to us as young people on a number of levels and one of these had to be the way we knew our local area.

During the 80s I feel as though kids had a lot more freedom with where they could go without their parents panicking. My brother and I decided that we would try and get home from the movies without anyone seeing us, obviously after we left the main street that housed the cinema. We also had a time restraint because we were supposed to go straight home. It really was amazing how far we managed to get before anyone saw us (we lived on a main road so we could only get to that road before we were caught), we knew so many back alleys and pieces of private property that you could easily cut through. I think we were convinced that we could ward off an army because they wouldn’t know the area as well as us......bear in mind there were no Google maps in those days and the town maps available never showed these alleyways that we knew.

Anyway I’m digressing here, but I really enjoyed the movie Red Dawn and if you did too then check out the link to watch the trailer and add your thoughts to my review.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Two Tribes – Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Naming themselves after a headline about Frank Sinatra Frankie Goes To Hollywood or FGTH for short shocked everyone with their first single Relax. Their follow up single Two Tribes was about the cold war and the video featured both the Russian and US Presidents going toe to toe. These days the song still stirs people up and is often used at different sporting events.

In our household the 3 members of our family all support different teams so we have some interesting times watching the games and I find this song stuck in my head.....sometimes because it’s playing in the pre-game show, but other times because footy teams (whether Rugby League, Union, Soccer, American Football etc) do seem to be a tribe. Anyway enjoy my lens on the song – Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Friday, April 16, 2010

80s Oscars

I loved going to the movies during the 80s although I must admit I didn’t pay much attention to the Oscars at that stage – I was too busy going out and having fun :) Years later I decided to see what movies won the Oscars and I ended up writing Oscars of the 80s, I was surprised by some of the now classics that weren’t included in the nominations and then I thought about recent years and the surprise disappeared!

These are the movies that historians will think reflect what were all enjoyed during the 80s and don’t get me wrong there are some great movies there, but when you’re reminiscing with friends are they the movies you talk about? My hubby’s favorite is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I often tell the story of when I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street at the movies with my best friend.

When you talk 80s movies you think of Top Gun, Back to the Future, Rambo and The Breakfast Club, but these will probably be ignored by historians unless we make sure to blog/write about what are our favorite movies of the 80s.

What’s yours? Do you want to save Ferris or fight with the Wolverines or pretend your dead host is still alive while you party all weekend?

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Soft Cell

Where would the 80s be without Soft Cell, although this duo are thought of as a one hit wonder everywhere outside of the UK they still are intrinsically tied up with 80s music. Tainted Love is instantly recognizable around the world and as soon as you hear that boom boom in the song you’re dragged straight back to the 80s and if you’re me you’re on a dance floor in one of a couple of nightclubs showing off your stuff!! My hubby professes not to like Soft Cell (silly man!), but even his toes tap when the song comes on.

There are lots of songs that take me back, but I think Tainted Love does that for a lot of people – what do you think is the most memorable 80s song?

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

1986

I love the 80s, I think that’s evident, but what year is the best? I’m still undecided about this, but there certainly were a lot of things happening in 1986. I can still remember hearing the news about Chernobyl and I just felt really cold it was frightening. There was even discussions about it affecting parts of the UK where I was living, luckily I was in the South West and so in all likelihood would be fine.

Check out The Year was 1986 and let me know what was happening in your life during 1986 and what events you think I need to add.....I really should add more on Chernobyl and Mount St Helens, but there are so many other things to write about it’s hard to know what to dwell on :)

What year would you be interested in me writing about next???