Kicking off a four-part series on youth in 1985, the Observer headed round the country with its Walkman on, working out who was listening to what, and where they were dancing.
In a review of regional trends, the Smiths – New Order’s ‘new rivals’ for the Manchester gloom crown – were witheringly described as ‘romantic wimpery’. Liverpool’s scene was ‘an unholy scrap’ where music took second place to characters: ‘If you’ve got a mouth, you’re halfway to making the grade.’ Tears for Fears and XTC were helping Wales break free from its ‘heavy metal headbanging and straw chewing’ reputation and, in Scotland, Lloyd Cole and Aztec Camera lyrics showed ‘The American dream… looms larger than a desire to own a croft or farm salmon.’
There was plenty happening in London, but what stands out is the description of a Tony Blackburn DJ set in Kilburn that saw the DJ ‘strip down to skimpy undies and call out innuendo worthy of a junior school playground’.
A tour of the club scene found where you partied spoke volumes, from the ‘Mecca-type disco for the middle-of-the-road dresser with a taste in wallpaper music’ to ‘smaller, dingier venues with a committed weirdo clientèle’. The Garage in Nottingham played 60s, punk and psychedelic to a crowd of ‘vague stylists, half hip, half punk’. Dave the doorman imposed a strict ‘no stiffs’ policy, based on footwear: ‘If they’ve got those silly white shoes on, you don’t let them in.’ Golddiggers in Chippenham had impeccable punters – ‘The look tells of the early evening spent ironing dresses and shirts, the whirr of a hundred hairdryers’ – and a sheen of ‘anything goes’ glamour. That included ‘Miss Lingerie 1984’ with skimpies provided by Anne Summers.
The State in Liverpool was ‘much trendier’ with a taste for the glitzy. ‘Excess is a way of life in Liverpool,’ said DJ Steve Proctor. Regardless of genre, the club scene was one of the few industries unaffected by the recession. As one club kid put it: ‘Dance, drink and sex – what else is there?’
