Tag Archives: Housemartins

Off The Chart: 30 November 1987

Off The Chart: 30 November 1987

Hoots, och aye, help ma boab and all sorts of other stereotypical Scottish phrases – it’s St Andrew’s Day and this week’s Off The Chart is going as Scottish as it possibly can, by which we mean there’s lots of rude words and swearing. There’s also two hours of vaguely obscure hits from this day in 1987, tracks from three of the big new albums of the week, a look at what was happening in the world, a track from a John Peel session broadcast today, a look at the Australian chart and the top five in full, but don’t let that put you off.

  • Who covered a disco classic hoping to repeat their success with their 1986 cover of a disco classic?
  • Which ’70s icon was enjoying his only top 40 hit of the ’80s this week?
  • And who claimed they only got gigs as support to bands that promoters didn’t like?

Tune in and find out!


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

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: 22 June 1986

Off The Chart: 22 June 1986

If you can tear yourself away from The Football for a couple of hours, we’d like to take you back to this day in 1986 on Off The Chart! We can’t guarantee there won’t be any football related content, in … read more

Off The Chart: 29 September 1987

Off The Chart: 29 September 1987

This week’s Off The Chart is brought to you in association with the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, due to the continued unreliability of the Official Charts website, but we’ll still endeavour to bring you a shedload of unfamiliar … read more

Off The Chart: 7 July 1986

Off The Chart: 7 July 1986

Join us for another journey back in time as Off The Chart retreats to this day in 1986! We’ll have the usual two hours of obscure, forgotten and half-remembered hits, plus a special week for new entries on the album … read more

Off The Chart: 10 December 1986

Off The Chart: 10 December 1986

It’s not quite Christmas, but we’re getting there! Join us for a trip back to 1986 on this week’s Off The Chart as we sift through another stack of forgotten and half-remembered hits, as well as three of the week’s … read more

Now Parlez 8

Now Parlez 8 artwork

Join Steve and Julian from Off The Chart as they dig another Now album out of the box! This time around they’re talking about Now That’s What I Call Music 8 and playing tracks from an original vinyl copy. Hit … read more

Off The Chart: 30 April 1988

Off The Chart: 30 April 1988

Here we go again with another trip to 1988 for this week’s Off The Chart! We’ve got all the usual features, except for one… There’s still the regular round-up of forgotten and half-remembered hits, a look at the day’s events, … read more

Off The Chart: 8 January 1987

Off The Chart: 8 January 1987

No, we haven’t disappeared or been taken off the air (although you could be forgiven for thinking we had, after the last show we did), we’ve just moved to Tuesdays for the new series of Off The Chart! Join us … read more

Off The Chart: 22 December 1986

Off The Chart: 22 December 1986

It’s almost Christmas, but let’s ignore that for now as we go back to 1986 to revisit a Christmas chart with almost no festive records in it at all! Steve and Julian bring you another two hours of half-forgotten hits, … read more

Sound of the Crowd – a Discography of the ’80s: Fourth Edition available now!

Sound of the Crowd - 4th Edition cover

Sound Of The Crowd: a Discography of the ’80s is the ultimate record collector’s guide to the 1980s. In the era of multi-formatting, picture discs, coloured vinyl, multiple remixes, funny shaped records and tiny CDs you could lose down the back … read more

Off The Chart: 11 November 1987

Off The Chart: 11 November 1987

We head back thirty years to this very day in 1987 on this week’s Off The Chart! Steve and Julian take you through some of the week’s less remembered hits, discuss the day’s events, pick three tracks from one of … read more

Off The Chart: 17 September 1987

Off The Chart: 17 September 1987

It’s 1987 on Off The Chart this week, the year music took some time off as the charts were full of remixes, cover versions, samples and just plain old reissues. Nevertheless, Steve and Julian take another wander through the forgotten … read more