” These Dreams ” (1986)
A-ha’s second album, Scoundrel Days , was released in the midst of the 1986 world tour and represented a move towards alternative rock , as synthpop began to fall out of style. Although the album received favourable reviews and had three singles become international hits, sales (6.4 million copies) did…
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Later that summer, New Order headlined a line-up that included the Smiths , the Fall , and A Certain Ratio during the Festival of the Tenth Summer at Manchester’s G-Mex .
In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 ( Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two new non-album hit singles ” Shake the Disease ” and ” It’s Called a Heart “, with the US version also including their B-sides (“Fly on the…
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As a follow-up to the Christmas 1984 Band Aid single, Duran Duran performed in front of 90,000 people (and an estimated 1.5 billion TV viewers) at the Live Aid charity concert at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, on 13 July 1985 while their Bond song held the…
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In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain , in Budapest and Warsaw .
” Never ” (No. 4, 1985)
Even with Duran Duran on hold, band members were soon anxious to record new music, leading to a supposedly temporary split into two side projects. John Taylor and Andy Taylor wanted to break away from the Duran Duran sound and pursue hard rock material; they collaborated with lead vocalist Robert…
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A-ha became the first Norwegian band to have a number-one hit in the U.S. The popularity of “Take on Me” earned the band a spot on the American television series Soul Train in 1985, making them one of the few white artists to appear on the black music-oriented show. (Earlier…
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” What About Love ” (number 10, 1985)