Tag Archives: Gillan

Off The Chart: 10 August 1980

Off The Chart: 10 August 1980

We’re safely back in the studio this week for a look at the UK singles chart from this day way back in 1980. As always we’ll be bringing you a wealth of obscure, forgotten and half-remembered hits, plus three of the week’s new albums, a round-up of the day’s goings-on, a look at the Italian chart and the top five singles in all their glory.

  • Which single features the sound of a guitar being chainsawed in half in lieu of a guitar solo?
  • Who released the UK’s first ever cassette single?
  • And which band’s fans started buying one of their old singles as a protest against their new one?

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.

Get the Extended Mix!

If you enjoy Off The Chart but find it’s just not long enough, why not join us on Patreon or Mixcloud Select? For a small monthly subscription you get access to the exclusive Extended Mix of the show every week with bonus 12″ mixes, additional chatter and the week’s top ten singles in full!

Our subscribers also get access to exclusive shows including Further Off The Chart in which we play some of the records that come up in conversation on the regular shows. You can even download shows to listen offline in the Mixcloud app! Please consider backing us – we really appreciate it and your subscription allows us to keep producing a new episode every single week.

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: 26 January 1982

Off The Chart: 26 January 1982

We’re on a journey back to this day in 1982 on this week’s Off The Chart for a look at a rather strange and unsettling top 75. Along the way we’ll uncover some hits you don’t often hear, three new … read more

Off The Chart: 8 September 1982

Off The Chart: 8 September 1982

Come back to this day in 1982 on this week’s Off The Chart as we revisit the UK singles chart, picking out some of the hits you’ve forgotten or never knew existed. We’ll also keep you abreast of the day’s … read more

Mixcloud Select: Muthas Day – 21 NWOBHM Nuggets

Muthas Day: 21 NWOBHM Nuggets

We’ve had Mothers’ Day, now it’s Muthas Day! Yes, after last month’s Sophistipop collection, March 2018’s Virtual CD flings you violently to the other end of the musical spectrum with 21 exponents of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. … read more

Off The Chart: 17 June 1981

Off The Chart: 17 June 1981

We’re taking on the chart from this week in 1981 with two hours of hits, history and hilarity! Steve and Julian play some of the forgotten hits from the week’s singles chart, three tracks from a featured album, a hit … read more

“You’ve got to get up to get down” – Top of the Pops, 25 June 1981

Depeche Mode

Rush rush, busy busy, rush rush, busy busy! A combination of a condensed thirty minute show due to Wimbledon fortnight, the continuing lack of a proper opening sequence and a poorly chosen first song with a short intro means that … read more

“Look at it from my angle” – Top of the Pops, 23 April 1981

Level 42

There’s an almighty gap in the BBC Four reruns here as we skip three whole episodes, starting with this Dave Lee Travis-fronted edition. No doubt the Daily Mail would be disgusted to realise that people ever watched it on its … read more

“Earth keeps on rolling, witnesses falling” – Top of the Pops, 9 April 1981

“Welcome to Top of the Pops! Some 19 million people every week tune in to see some of the top acts of 1981 on this show!” That’s what Mike Read tells us, and as one of the co-authors of the … read more

“Entertainment for the lost and lonely” – Top of the Pops, 26 March 1981

Hazel O'Connor

So it seems Richard Skinner wasn’t in Scotland all week with the other Radio 1 DJs, as the Radio Times seems to suggest. Although his evening show was billed as including sessions from Scottish bands, he must have been in … read more

“Wriggle like a snake, waddle like a duck” – Top of the Pops, 12 February 1981

Coast To Coast

“You’re right, it’s Top of the Pops!” confirms knowledgeable Richard Skinner before anyone’s even had a chance to ask the question. This week it appears that Skinner is being remodeled, in an attempt to cast off his stuffy image and … read more