Sounds with Simon Tesler 5th Nov 2025

Hello, this is Simon Tesler with another selection of great Sounds from the music archive. Coming up, tracks from Buzzcocks, Billie Eilish, Al Green, Pet Shop Boys and much more. But first three classics from the New Romantic era of the late 70s and early 1980s, kicking off with Japan.

So we started with the title track from Japan's third album Quiet Life, released in 1979. That was followed by Ronny and a cover of Sly & The Family Stone's 'If You Want Me To Stay', and finally 'Fade To Grey', the best-known track from New Romantic super-group Visage.

So Quiet Life was the album in which Japan finally cemented the musical direction they had been looking for since they formed five years earlier. The turning point was a trip to Los Angeles at the prompting of their record label to record 'Life In Tokyo', a one-off single with Giorgio Moroder, whose work with Donna Summer had suddenly made him the world's hottest producer. The single wasn't a commercial success, but the experience inspired a shift away from Japan's more rock-based roots towards the more danceable synthesizer-led style that was then spreading across the industry.

Japan were never truly part of the New Romantic movement that was suddenly exploding in London but they were certainly cut from the same cloth. The prime movers in this New Romantic scene were members of Ultravox, especially keyboard player Billy Currie and drummer Warren Cann, along with Ultravox's new singer Midge Ure, and Rusty Egan, formerly drummer in Ure's previous band Rich Kids. They were all regulars in the scene that centred around the nightclub Billy's and subsequently the Blitz Club, which Egan co-hosted with Steve Strange, who was rapidly becoming the figurehead of the New Romantic scene.

Another regular at the Blitz club was the striking and androgynous French model and singer Ronny. Ure and Egan got her into the studio to record a cover of 'If You Want Me to Stay', with backing from other members of the band they had assembled to produce music to play at the Blitz club. As well as Ure and Egan that included Billy Currie from Ultravox and three members of Magazine, guitarist John McGeoch, bassplayer Barry Adamson and keyboard player Dave Formula. Vocals were by Blitz club frontman Steve Strange. It's a very small world, the London music industry and everyone inevitably knows everyone else. But enough about them.

All this was a world away from Scotland, which is where we're going next for three bands who emerged in the early 1980s in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We're going to start with Glasgow's Orange Juice, probably the best-known of the three; after that, two sadly short-lived bands from Edinburgh, Hey Elastica and WIN. More about them in a minute. This is Orange Juice and 'Rip It Up'.

After Orange Juice, that was 'Party Games' from Hey Elastica - not to be confused with London's all-girl Britpop brand Elastica - and then the wonderful WIN with 'Shampoo Tears'. I'd argue that both bands deserve to have a longer musical career. Unfortunately the record-buying public were too busy looking elsewhere. One online commentator has described Hey Elastica as Scotland's equivalent to The B-52s, and that's not too far off the mark, not least because of their slightly wacky stage presence and female vocalist Giles' bright red hair. They released a couple of great singles and just one fine album In On The Off Beat. WIN, led by Davy Henderson, were even better. Perfect post-punk pop with a big sound and killer catchy choruses. It's worth tracking down their other singles 'Unamerican Broadcasting', 'You've Got The Power' and 'Super Popoid Groove'.

OK, moving on, let's cross the Atlantic for three legends of soul. Dennis Edwards was the frontman of Motown icons The Temptations for more than 20 years, but also launched a brief solo career in the mid-1980s. This is 'Don't Look Any Further', a fabulous duet with Siedah Garrett. After that, we'll have tracks from Anita Baker and the one and only Al Green. But first 'Don't Look Any Further'.

After 'Don't Look Any Further', that was Anita Baker's breakthrough hit, the lovely 'Sweet Love' from the album Rapture in 1986, and then the inimitable Al Green with his slowed-down and bluesed-up version of a track previously recorded by the Temptations, 'I Can't Get Next To You', from his 1971 album Al Green Gets Next To You. It's not just London that's a small world, because the Temptations' original version of the song was of course sung by Dennis Edwards. What goes around comes around.

To end the show this week, four very different songs about - of all things - Boredom. There are loads to choose from by the way. Who would have thought boredom could be such an inspirational topic for songwriters, and not just the punk rockers. In a few minutes, Iggy Pop's 'I'm Bored' from 1979's New Values album. Next we'll fast-forward almost four decades to a 16-year-old Billie Eilish for her track 'Bored'. And then finally, Pet Shop Boys close the show with 'Being Boring' from their album Behaviour.

Incidentally, that reference in the first verse to "someone's wife, a famous writer in the 1920s", is Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F Scott Fitzgerald, who in her story Eulogy On The Flapper, said of her main character "she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring". First though, the lo-fi classic that launched Buzzcocks on an unsuspecting world. It's from their debut EP Spiral Scratch, with Howard Devoto handling vocals just before he jumped ship to start Magazine. This is 'Boredom'.