Tag Archives: Polecats

Off The Chart: 29 June 1981 (with a red triangle in the top left corner)

Off The Chart: 29 June 1981

Listeners are advised that this week’s Off The Chart includes strong language and scenes of a sexual nature. Yes, even more so than usual. It also includes a brace of obscure hits from this day in 1981, as well as a look at the day’s events, three of the week’s new hit albums, a track from a John Peel session broadcast on this day, a romp through the West German chart (which could go either way depending on how the football goes earlier in the evening) and the top five in full.

  • Who quit one band struggling outside the top 50 this week to join another in much the same position?
  • Whose first hit was described as sounding like “Dave Edmunds singing a song by Chris Sievey”?
  • And whose only top 40 hit had both the title and artist’s name censored by Tony Blackburn?

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: 12 March 1981

Off The Chart: 12 March 1981

Join us for a jaunt back to 1981 on another edition of Off The Chart! As always we’ll have a brace of forgotten and half-remembered hits, a look at the day’s events, three tracks from one of the week’s hit … read more

Off The Chart: 27 January 1983

Off The Chart: 27 January 1983

There are some strange goings-on on this week’s Off The Chart as Steve and Julian look at a very odd chart from this week in 1983. As always there’s a hatful of forgotten and half-remembered hits, three tracks from the … read more

Off The Chart: 8 April 1981

Off The Chart: 8 April 1981

All the way back to 1981 on this week’s Off The Chart as Steve and Julian play some of the less famous records in the week’s singles chart, three tracks from the album of the week and the top five … read more

“You said it all, though not many had ears” – Top of the Pops, 28 May 1981

Hazel O'Connor

Hey everyone, let’s play “good news / bad news”! The good news is, after missing a huge chunk of musical history due to presenters’ off-screen activities and someone’s inability to record a live programme for the archive, BBC Four viewers … 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