Tag Archives: Whispers

Off The Chart: 8 March 1980

Off The Chart: 8 March 1980

On the anniversary of the first episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it’s appropriate that we’re going back 42 years on this week’s Off The Chart to look at the chart from today in 1980. We’ll have the usual selection of obscure, forgotten and neglected hits, plus tracks from three of the week’s new albums, a round-up of the day’s events and a look at the Canadian chart, but don’t panic, we’ll be back in time for the top five in full.

  • Which British act recorded a live album in Moscow two years before they had a hit at home?
  • Whose new album was just a repackaging of their previous album?
  • And which act in the chart became the subject of a musical by another act in the chart?

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: 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 … 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: 17 February 1980

Off The Chart: 17 February 1980

We’re going so far back on this week’s Off The Chart we’re practically in the ’70s! Join Steve and Julian for two hours of hits, half-hits, headlines and hysteria from way back in February 1980. There’s three tracks from the … read more

Off The Chart: 17 June 1981

Off The Chart: 17 June 1981

We’re taking on the chart from this week in 1981 with two hours of hits, history and hilarity! Steve and Julian play some of the forgotten hits from the week’s singles chart, three tracks from a featured album, a hit … 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

“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

“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