Another Piston Unsiezes: It's Eighties Friday

For those who stopped by the station last week and found it oddly silent, there's a reason - here in the microeconomic petri dish that we know as "web radio", we ran out of the only currency that keeps things humming: free time. Or, more specifically, unbegrudged free time - the free time you've got available that you're not expected to be spending in another way.

So, um, we're here. With a new Eighties Friday playlist.

Let me try to explain what that means, at least in such a way that'll make you want to listen to it...

Consider the Eighties. If you were paying attention to most radio stations, you probably thought the Eighties were the beginning of the gradual slide in quality that swallowed Billy Joel and Phil Collins whole, and forced Air Supply down your throats, too.

Chilling.

Now consider the things those stations weren't playing, except as the occasional one-hit wonder. There were great records from The Clash, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Violent Femmes, New Order, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Smiths, R. E. M....all of which now get trotted out as "classics", but that mainstream radio back then would only touch (perhaps) as a novelty. We play them.

We also play the stuff that was underground then, and stayed that way, except for the bit where new bands today lean on them as influences. Gang Of Four, Hoodoo Gurus, Public Image Ltd, Bauhaus, Chameleons, The Fall, Killing Joke and Ministry are just a few of the bands that released tracks in that era that we still think are worthy of play.

And then, because we really want you to feel like you're in the eighties listening to a really great station (rather than here in the naughties listening to your computer) we play the seminal tracks that showed up in the seventies to get the ball rolling...Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Gary Numan, Ultravox (with John Foxx), Buzzcocks, The Ramones, Iggy Pop...

Every Friday, there's eight (almost nine) hours of a new Eighties Friday playlist, presented to you in CD Quality MP3 Pro.

And we need you to listen, and possibly check out our advertisers below, just to keep our effort healthy enough to keep it going, because in the end, you're what keeps us here. (Thanks!)