Tag Archives: Ennio Morricone

Off The Chart: 12 April 1981

Off The Chart: 12 April 1981

It’s an unusually violent edition of Off The Chart this week as we get dragged all the way back to this day 1981! We’ll be bombarded with obscure, forgotten and neglected hits from that week’s chart, pummelled with three of the week’s new albums, walloped with a look at the day’s events, smacked around the head with the Japanese chart, and left to endure the top five in full.

  • Who had a hit single based on a genuine near death experience?
  • Whose only hit was used as the theme to a British drama series and a French dog food ad?
  • And who was the first European act to win the Tokyo Music Festival?

Tune in and find out!



Listen to Off The Chart on Noisebox Radio at 9pm every Tuesday! 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 11am 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!

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!

Off The Chart: 20 April 1981

Off The Chart: 20 April 1981

It’s another weird time travel experience on Off The Chart this week, as we go back exactly forty years and find that it’s Easter Monday. Join us for two hours of forgotten and obscure hits from that week’s chart, as … read more

Off The Chart: 5 May 1981

Off The Chart: 5 May 1981

You thought the news was grim these days? Join us for this week’s Off The Chart and you’ll be elated to discover things were just as grim on this day in 1981, if not more so. But at least the … read more

“Stay in time with the rhythm and rhyme” – Top of the Pops, 30 April 1981

Tenpole Tudor

For all Michael Hurll’s efforts in dragging Top of the Pops kicking and screaming into the ’80s and turning it into a dazzling celebration of pop music instead of a dreary light entertainment show, he keeps coming up against one … read more

“The more we know, the less we show” – Top of the Pops, 16 April 1981

Department S

“Hi.” Hi yourself, Peter Powell, in your monogrammed shirt, white blazer with the sleeves rolled up and, let’s not beat about the bush here, beige slacks. Powell seems to have taken on the mantle of “senior presenter” of TOTP recently, … read more