Tag Archives: Star Sound

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 music was better! As always we’re bringing you a brace of forgotten and half-remembered hits, three of the week’s big new albums and a look at what was happening in the world at large, plus a quick jaunt to South Africa to look at their top ten, and concluding with the UK’s top five in full.

  • Whose last top 50 hit pre-empted a 1989 number one?
  • Who released a single in a sleeve that you could play as another single?
  • And what was the longest titled single ever to reach number one in the US?

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 – 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.

There’s a podcast too!

For those of you who enjoy the nonsense we talk but don’t have time to listen to the music, we’ve put the talky bits together with some exclusive extras to make a podcast! This week’s podcast looks at the day’s hits and events while straying into the murky world of “buy one, get one free” albums, more Kim Carnes facts than you’ve ever had in one place before, and the wild, wild world of Julian’s school science lessons. It’ll make sense if you listen.

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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: 8 October 1981

Off The Chart: 8 October 1981

We’d like to say it’s back to normal on this week’s Off The Chart but if you’re a regular listener you’ll know nothing is ever normal around here. All we can say as that there’ll be a host of hits … read more

“All I’ve learned has overturned” – Top of the Pops, 23 July 1981

Tight Fit

“They always say it’s ‘Welcome to Top of the Pops‘ and tonight it’s just the same as ever!” Newsbeat’s Richard Skinner there, opening the UK’s top music show with a confusingly constructed sentence that rather downplays the sense of breathless … read more

“In this great future you can’t forget your past” – Top of the Pops, 9 July 1981

The Specials

Time for a celebration, as Michael Hurll has got his abacus out and decided that we’ve reached the 900th edition of Top of the Pops. Blow up the balloons! Break out the streamers! Bring on the dancing girls! And then … read more

“The devil take your stereo and your record collection” – Top of the Pops, 7 May 1981

Ossie Ardiles

By this stage of the BBC Four reruns the audience has formed itself into two distinct groups. One one hand there’s the casual viewer who isn’t really following the timeline but will greet every deviation from the norm – anything … 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