The Great 80s Project: 1982

In terms of pop, 1982 was a strong year: Madness took a further step towards songwriting sophistication with their album ‘The Rise & Fall’, Prince made a huge breakthrough with his ‘1999’ double platter of much filthiness and Phil Collins showed us that the previous year’s ‘Face Value’ wasn’t just a one-off solo success when his “tricky second album” spawned a #1 hit single and a few of his best solo tunes.

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The Great 80s Project: 1980

Back in May 2017, Real Gone launched “The Great 70s Project”, a ten week exploration of a classic decade’s worth of music.  By side-stepping a couple of the obvious hits and digging deeper into back-catalogue albums, we were able to present a very broad look at the albums of the era and it became one of the site’s most popular features.

A long time in the planning, we’re pleased to present The Great 80s Project, a similar exploration of the decade that brought us a multitude of synth-pop, shiny tunes, bright colours, Live Aid and a handful of stadium giants.

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Listen: Without Whom – Tunes For David Horton

During Real Gone’s first decade, our website managed to pick up a lot of supporters.  From keen music fans, to labels and bands who loved what we did, every year seemed to gain momentum.  Among it all, between the famous bands, the DIY artists and labels, there had been an unsung hero.

David Horton, a keen music fan from the US, supported our site from somewhere close to the very beginning.  At a time when we wrote articles about albums we felt were overlooked and threw in the odd review for a new release, at a time when we only had support from a handful of regulars, David was there.

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Black Sabbath @ 50: The debut album covered!

Rock fans and critics have long debated over what constituted “the birth of heavy metal”. Some will claim its roots stem from Dave Davies’s brilliant power chords on those early Kinks singles. Others suggest that the musical genre began to take shape at the end of 1966 when Jimi Hendrix pushed the boundaries and experimented with the sounds an electric guitar could make. Perhaps metal’s origins lie with Deep Purple, as they took 60s beat group and psychedelic sounds into a much more intense direction…? The speed and power could even derive from ‘Communication Breakdown’ from Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut LP. Although Zeppelin have always been keen to distance themselves from the leather trousered, heavier sounds which came later, there’s an obvious root there.

On February 13th 1970, an album was released that would change the world. Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album was without question one of the heaviest things the world had heard at the start of a new era for rock music.

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Listen: Real Gone’s New Release Round-Up, January-March 2018

We’ve always aimed to bring an eclectic coverage of music at Real Gone.  We’ve always insisted on mixing genres and covering bigger bands we love alongside some really underground DIY releases.

Since the site launched in November 2009, there’s been a lot of music to get excited about, but the first quarter of 2018 could be one of the most enjoyable yet.

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