Tag Archives: Vapors

Off The Chart: 16 March 1980

Off The Chart: 16 March 1980

Hey, wanna feel old? No, of course you don’t, nobody does. But nevertheless we’re revisiting the UK singles chart from this day in 1980 on this week’s Off The Chart! As always we’ll have a lorryload of obscure and forgotten hits, plus three of the week’s new albums, a look at the day’s goings-on and an international chart we’ve never done before! All this plus the top five in full.

  • Which ’80s legend was enjoying his first ever hit after ten years of trying?
  • Who scored their second hit album a full forty years after their first?
  • And who released a single he didn’t think would be a hit, just to fulfil his record contract?

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.

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 we’re attempting not to get sidetracked by songs about Billy Connolly, underground violence and the ever present threat of nuclear annihilation. Fun and frolics ensue!

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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: 31 March 1980

Off The Chart: 31 March 1980

Your hosts Steve and Julian have gone to great lengths to ensure this week’s Off The Chart goes ahead – about ten miles, in fact, so the links might sound slightly muffled in places but everything else carries on as … read more

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

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

This Virtual CD is actually a virtual double LP! As part of our celebrations of 100 Now That’s What I Call Music albums, we’ve come up with this hypothetical example of what the first Now of the 1980s might have … read more

Off The Chart: 11 August 1981

Off The Chart: 11 August 1981

Things have changed on this week’s Off The Chart, but only ever so slightly. In fact you might not even notice the difference as Steve and Julian whisk you back to 11 August 1981 for two hours of not-very-well remembered … read more

Off The Chart: 22 July 1980

Off The Chart: 22 July 1980

Steve and Julian take us all the way back to this very day in 1980 for some undiscovered hits, the day’s events, an international hit, three tracks from the week’s featured album and the top five singles in full. Which … read more

Off The Chart: 4 March 1980

Off The Chart: 4 March 1980

We’re going back further than ever before this week on Off The Chart as we haul ourselves all the way back to 1980 and find ourselves in the middle of a Mod revival. In an unpredictable show Steve and Julian … 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