Tag Archives: Saxon

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 well as three of the week’s new albums, a look at the day’s goings-on, a quick jaunt to New Zealand to sneak a look at their chart, and back home for the top five singles in full.

  • Who was enjoying their first of over fifty hit singles this week?
  • Who had a top five hit with a parody of a TV ad?
  • And which hit was described in 2002 as “the strangest chart record of the last 25 years, maybe ever”?

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!

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 November 1980

Off The Chart: 12 November 1980

We’re going all the way back to today in 1980 on this week’s Off The Chart for another two hours of hits you’ve forgotten about – or never heard in the first place – plus the usual look at the … read more

Mixcloud Select: Now That’s What You Might, Hypothetically, Have Called Music II

Now That's What You Might, Hypothetically, Have Called Music II

Our ongoing alternate universe series of Now albums that never existed carries on with this Virtual Double LP or Cassette. Using the same template as the real world Now albums – two records or cassettes, 7 or 8 tracks per … 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

Virtual C90: February 2018

Virtual C90: February 2018

This month’s virtual mixtape brings you new music from Kim Wilde, Simple Minds, Saxon, Alexander O’Neal and lots more, plus the usual mix of ’80s hits, misses and mixes. Enjoy! read more

Off The Chart: 13 May 1980

Off The Chart: 13 May 1980

All the way back to 1980 this week on Off The Chart as Steve and Julian disassemble this week’s UK singles chart. You’ll hear lots of hits you don’t hear very often, three tracks from the week’s featured album, a … read more

Chart Watch and New Releases: 7 October 2016

Deacon Blue - Believers

While the overemphasis on streaming data continues to render the singles chart virtually meaningless, ’80s acts are still finding renewed success on the albums listing. Heading the charge this week are the Pixies whose new album Head Carrier enters at … read more

“You think you only know me when you turn on the light” – Top of the Pops, 16 July 1981

Dexys Midnight Runners

“Hi folks, welcome to this week’s edition of Top of the Pops, it is jam packed with good music!” Peter Powell there, rudely jabbing his finger into your face to emphasise just how jam packed the show is. As well … read more

New Releases: 15 April 2016 and Record Store Day

Record Store Day 2016

New Releases Paul Young releases a new album Good Thing while Phil Collins continues his Take A Look At Me Now series of reissues with newly expanded editions of 1985’s No Jacket Required and his 2002 set Testify. If you’ve … 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