80s pop dumper oddities

I'm off to sunny Mallorca for a few days, which will be very weird after being in rain-deluged Northumberland today. From wellies to flip flops in the space of 24 hours.

For the minute, though, I shall leave you with these oddities from the 80s: singles I found in the pop dumper. No one bought them, hence the flog-off in the bargain bin, but I loved them and hugged them and called them my own.

Ash in Drag - Mystery Girls (zShare) 1984
Just. Weird. Sounding like a throwback from a decade earlier and being TOO drag for the record-buying public made me love them even more. For Robert Farrar, the lead singer, it was all performance art, as he explains here. And this is the only recorded performance on BBC'sOld Grey Whistle Test.

Serious Japanese - Melon (zShare) 1985
It was the dayglo Keith Haring make-up on the sleeve that made me buy this single. I didn't have a clue what it was about, but it seemed like The Face magazine on vinyl to me: a hotchpotch of fashion, art and music. And nonsense. Judging from this video here, their stage shows were light years (literally) ahead of their time.

Every Inch a King - The Linkmen (zShare) 1984
This was the Linkmen's second single on Kitchenware records (the first being a 12 inch EP with the same title, confusingly). I'd had my copied nicked and was most upset. Weirdly, two weeks later I found this in Volume Record shop's 50p singles box. All the divvies used to slam dance to this. I just nodded my head. Vigorously.

The Real Thing - Jellybean ft Steven Dante (zShare) 1987
Jellybean is 50! Unlike Madonna, his image for most people was frozen twenty years ago - although he doesn't look much different these days. His singles tickled the top twenty in the UK, but I seem to be the only one who remembers this one.

And this is where I'm trolling off to. Ta ta for now!