The Very Best of Dexys Midnight Runners (Cassette)

Dexys Midnight Runners emerged in 1979 as a British band from the Birmingham area, timing their arrival perfectly to coincide with a mod revival, and the rise of Two-Tone. True, Dexys were not a ska band, or for that matter specifically a ‘mod’ band, but their sound and style appealed to both camps. Add to that the fact they they had some remarkable songwriting skills, and you had a recipe for major public attention.

Sonic Youth – Sister Audio Cassette (UK (1987)

You get a perfect sense of what sort of album this is going to be from the fact that the labels are stuck on the wrong sides of the tape. Side 2’s label is on Side 1, and vice versa. I’ve often wondered whether this was deliberate, given Sonic Youth’s approach, but even if not, it’s entirely in keeping with with the chaotic and contradictory attitude of the music.

Belinda Carlisle – Heaven on Earth Audio Cassette (1987)

For some reason, the solo career of ex-Go-Gos singer Belinda Carlisle always made me think of Feargal Sharkey – the ex-Undertones singer whose solo work had taken off slightly earlier in the decade. They were both characters from the late ’70s alternative (punk-orientated) rock scene, with a similar rapid vibrato in their voices, who turned to the mainstream in the middle of the 1980s and stormed the UK charts in major fashion.