If you remember the summer of '86 and you always had the radio on, then you'll remember that Owen Paul's My Favourite Waste Of Time was never off it. Personally, I didn't care for the song or the singer (weed in an outsize vest), but you couldn't escape it.
Which leaves me wondering: why do we never hear it now? It was a huge hit, number two IIRC, and was played to death. Now it's completely dropped off the radar. You could say the same for Rain Or Shine by Five Star (which I do have a soft spot for) or Let's Go All The Way by Sly Fox, another big hit that clogged up the airwaves that year.
What about Life In A Northern Town by The Dream Academy from the previous year? Or from the 70s Hey Fattie Bum-Bum by Carl Malcolm (perhaps un-PC now), Resurrection Shuffle by Ashton Gardner & Dyke, A Little Love and Understanding by Gilbert Becaud? All big - Top 10 - hits, now consigned to the pop graveyard. It's not because they're one hit wonders either. For example, you often hear Martha & the Muffins' Echo Beach. Even songs from the big groups have vanished into thin air. When was the last time you heard Belfast Child by Simple Minds coming out of your radio? Or Margherita Time by Quo? Or Big Ship by Cliff?
The reverse of this of course is that you're never more than 30 minutes away from Pride (In The Name Of Love) by U2 (though you never, ever hear The Fly) or Raspberry Beret by Prince (why do they never play Paisley Park?) or (God help us) Easy Lover by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey. You never hear Separate Lives!
So who decides what's trash and what's treasure? Is it us? Are we not requesting it enough on Chris Evans' All-Request Friday, the show that plays the bleedin' obvious week after week (Stuart Maconie always begs for something a little more leftfield when he sits in)? Or are we living in a world dictated by radio programmers who decide Girlie Girlie by Sophia George or Rain by The Cult are not for our ears?
I need my own radio station. Thank God for the ipod.
