With Thatcherism taking hold after a depressing decade, the late ’70s and early ’80s proved to be an enormously creative time in British music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new romantic movement, like many of those which followed punk, began in London, but soon its influence spread far and wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 59-track set, spread over 3CDs, is one of those retrospectives Cherry Red do so well, harvesting the fringes of a scene rather than just cherry-picking the hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It celebrates the music played at places like the legendary Blitz in London, but also clubs in Manchester and Birmingham, and, quite quickly, everywhere else too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Centred around fashion-obsessed individuals, new romanticism inspired a whole youth movement, as well as celebrating those who paved the way for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compiled by boy-about-town and DJ Chris Sullivan (of Blue Rondo A La Turk), and featuring a pick ‘n mix collection of glam rock, proto-punk, electronica, disco, funk and camp 60s curios, it’s certainly eclectic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way: presumably for licensing reasons there’s no David Bowie or Kraftwerk, despite the fact that one or the other probably influenced most of those who ARE included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The set does kick off with Mott The Hoople’s version of Bowie’s song All The Young Dudes<\/em>, while his Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson is present with Only After Dark<\/em>, clearly influenced by his old boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, and well-chosen cuts from early electro acts like Tubeway Army, The Human League, John Foxx, Thomas Dolby and Visage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sweet’s 1973 single Ballroom Blitz<\/em> might seem an odd inclusion, but apparently went down a storm in The Blitz, and I understand why – it’s possibly still my favourite single of all time, nearly 50 years after it was released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other classic cuts include Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (whose Electricity <\/em>is one of the standout songs here), Japan (whose Life In Tokyo<\/em> is another), and The Cure’s never-bettered The Forest<\/em>. There’s also a fine 12in mix of Spandau Ballet’s To Cut A Long Story Short<\/em> that might make even me dance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donna Summer’s Love To Love You Baby<\/em> is absolute filth – no wonder it was never played on the radio – but a floorfiller in the clubs, while Sister Sledge’s Lost In Music<\/em> might seem another odd inclusion, but is a disco banger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things go a bit odd with the theme tunes for ’60s TV shows Stingray <\/em>and Captain Scarlet<\/em>, and continue in that vein with Landscape’s Einstein A Go-Go<\/em> and The Normal’s Warm Leatherette<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are also early cuts by groups who went on to be huge – Simple Minds, New Order and Nightmares In Wax (who had a No 1 after changing their name to Dead Or Alive).<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s even room for some of that horrible punk rock the new romantics disliked so much – or was it post-punk, who cares? – with Magazine’s magnificent Shot By Both Sides<\/em> and Siouxsie And The Banshees’ Hong Kong Garden<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throw in contributions by the disparate likes of The Associates, Throbbing Gristle, M, Tom Tom Club, Blue Ronda A La Turk, A Certain Ratio and Glaxo Babies and there’s something for most palates here. 8\/10.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BOXSET REVIEW: Music For New Romantics (Cherry Red Records)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,9,573,307],"tags":[196,2405],"class_list":["post-8213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-review","category-alternative","category-electronica","category-post-punk","tag-cherry-red-records","tag-new-romantics"],"yoast_head":"\n