Off The Chart: 23 November 1981

Off The Chart: 23 November 1981

Not to make you feel old or anything, but we’re going back a full forty years on this week’s Off The Chart to revisit the UK singles chart from this day in 1981. Sorry about that. But we’ll attempt to make up for it with two hours of less obvious hits, tracks from three of the week’s new albums, a look at what was going on that day, an Italian hit from the Spanish chart, and concluding with the UK’s top five in full whether you want them or not.

  • Who released their first album without having decided on a lead singer?
  • Who became an overnight sensation in the UK after a decade of success in Europe?
  • And which iconic bassline came about because the bassist forgot what he’d been playing?

Tune in and find out!


Listen to Off The Chart on Noisebox Radio at 9pm every Tuesday! You can stream Noisebox Radio via their website, their apps for iOS or Android, or through TuneIn and MyTuner, or ask your smart speaker to “play Noisebox Radio” – and don’t forget to tweet along using the hashtag #OffTheChart. If you’re not around, you can hear the show again on Noisebox Radio at 10am on Friday, or catch up on Mixcloud after that.

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Spotify playlists

If you’ve missed a previous edition they’re all on our Mixcloud page, or for a taster of the music we play, listen to our Spotify playlist Way Off The Chart including one track from each show!

Related:  Virtual C90 - October 2016

We also have a Spotify playlist for our #ICEOTWF feature, including all (well, most) of the international hits we’ve played since the feature began in March 2017. There are all sorts of oddities in here, all of which were hits somewhere in the world but not in the UK!

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