Top Songs of 2015

Compiled from the number of views received on YouTube as of 12/19/2015, here are the rankings for the best songs released this year. What was your favorite new release this year?

David Bowie - Blackstar
4,432,531 Published on Nov 19, 2015


Duran Duran - Pressure Off
1,714,715 Published on Oct 21, 2015


New Order- Restless
1,431,156 Published on Aug 18, 2015


Dave Gahan & Soulsavers - All of This and Nothing
1,148,778 Published on Oct 27, 2015


Morrissey - Kiss Me A Lot
703,506 Published on Apr 5, 2015


Siouxsie - Love Crime  ('Hannibal' soundtrack)
140,265 Published on Dec 4, 2015
(Christophe Henaux rmx) Published on Sep 2, 2015

THE CULT: RELEASE ‘HIDDEN CITY’ ALBUM IN FEBRUARY

THE CULT have announced plans to release their tenth studio album in February 2016.
'Hidden City' will be preceded by a single, 'Dark Energy' and is described as the
final part of a trilogy of releases that began with 'Born Into This' in 2007.

TRACKLISTING
Dark Energy / No Love Lost / Dance The Night / In Blood / Birds Of Paradise /
Hinterland / GOAT / Deeply Ordered Chaos / Avalanche Of Light / Lillies /
Heathens / Sound And Fury

'Dark Energy'


'For The Animals'


'Honey From A Knife'

David Bowie: ‘Blackstar'

‘Blackstar’ is the forthcoming single and album from David Bowie.
The single will be released on November 20th.
The album will be released on David’s birthday, January 8th 2016.

‘Blackstar’ is the title track for the series and is a result of collaboration between David Bowie and the director of The Last Panthers, Johan Renck.

Extended listen of David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ released to celebrate the launch of the drama, The Last Panthers.

THE CURE: ANNOUNCE 2016 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

The Cure announce 2016 North American Tour

"THE CURE TOUR 2016" will present Robert Smith (voice/guitar), Simon Gallup (bass),
Jason Cooper (drums), Roger O'Donnell (keys) and Reeves Gabrels (guitar) as they
explore 37 years of Cure songs, mixing hits, rarities, favourites and as yet
unreleased tracks in a brand new stage production that promises to be the
'must see' show of the year!

Support on all dates will be The Twilight Sad.

MAY
20th - Chula Vista, CA
Sleep Train Amphitheater

22nd/23rd/24th - SOLD OUT Los Angeles
The Hollywood Bowl

26th - Mountain View, CA
Shoreline Amphitheatre

Dave Gahan & Soulsavers: Angels & Ghosts

Dave Gahan & Soulsavers reunite for their second album collaboration on Angels & Ghosts, available everywhere October 23.

Angels & Ghosts takes listeners through an aural mix of dark, brooding sounds, elements inspired by gospel and blues, and the stark beauty that has become a signature of Dave and Soulsavers' works.

More at
www.davegahan.com

Watch Dave Gahan & Soulsavers live from The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles and videos for "Take Me Back Home" and "All Of This And Nothing" at
yahoo.com/live/event/dave-gahan-soulsavers

NEW ORDER: ‘RESTLESS’ FIRST SINGLE FROM ‘COMPLETE MUSIC’ ALBUM

NEW ORDER have posted an audio stream of their new single 'Restless', the first complete piece of music the band have shared since announcing the release of a new album 'Music Complete' on September 25th, out now on Mute.
NEW ORDER have announced that they embark on a short run of European dates in November in support of their upcoming new studio album 'Music Complete.'




A new order for New Order   
by brooklynlad1

First, let me say -- I (like most other reviewers here) have been a NO fan for well over two decades now.
Every album they've released -- up to now -- has had a few stellar tracks, several good ones, and a couple that you tend to pass over every time for whatever reason. UNTIL NOW. Music Complete is not only their best album, but there is NOT ONE BAD SONG on it. It's simply a brilliant album from start to finish. Everyone here has their favourites already. I must go with "Superheated", the album's last -- and best -- track. Seriously -- if you don't find yourself moving to this song, there is something wrong with you.

DURAN DURAN: NEW SINGLE ‘PRESSURE OFF’…

DURAN DURAN have unveiled the first single from their forthcoming 'Paper Gods' album.
'Pressure Off' features vocals from Janelle Monáe and guitar by NILE RODGERS.
'Paper Gods' was released on September 18th in North America.

1980s Funeral Tribute For Steve Strange

by Halloran 

March 12, 2015

 

Visage frontman Steve Strange’s last appearance on earth was inside this white coffin. With pall bearers from Culture Club (Boy George picture on the left) and Spandau Ballet, he leaves our view in the same fashion that he entered it. 

(Photo: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

In case you don’t remember that far back, Steve Strange saw early fame with a Sex Pistols gig in the late ’70s, and went on to form the New Romantic movement. 

Some of you might remember his first international appearance in David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes.” OH, THE IRONY!

The Mighty 690: All 80's Radio

If you grew up in San Diego, Orange County or Los Angeles during the same time that I did, I don’t need to tell you about The Mighty 690.
You remember, and can still here the bizarre, Spanish intros they’d play before you’d hear Duran Duran, Don Henley, Gary Numan, Billy Idol, Men At Work, Thomas Dolby and more.
The history of the AM radio station is right here.

All 80's Radio for Southern California AND Planet Earth

Click listen now to listen live.

Chris, the Intern, wanted to build an 80’s station online. For this tribute he wanted everything to be as authentic as possible.
He hopes you enjoy this little piece of retro cyberspace. He won’t be successful without your support. When you’re listening, tell your friends on social media. 

The Specials: Make Their Albums Extra Special

The Specials’ two albums are being reissued on March 30, alongside The Special AKA’s album In The Studio.

The expanded editions are the first time that founder songwriter and keyboardist Jerry Dammers has given his approval to anything surrounding the band since the rest of the line-up reformed without Dammers’ involvement in 2007.
Each remastered album features all of The Specials’ B-sides, EPs and non-album singles as well as assorted BBC live sessions as well as sleevenotes by music journalist Lois Wilson and previously unseen pictures by photographer Chalkie Davies.

1979’s self-titled debut adds the three-song "Too Much Too Young" EP, plus an 11-song gig recorded in Paris in December 1979 originally aired for the BBC In Concert series.

The following year’s "More Specials" album adds non-album singles Rat Race and Ghost Town, the single version of Do Nothing, and the B-sides of those three singles as well as Stereotypes’ flip side – Rude Boys Outa Jail, Maggie’s Farm, Racquel, Friday Night Saturday Morning and the extended version of Why. Rounding off the release are Radio 1 session versions of Stereotypes, Sea Cruise and You’re Wondering Now plus a Rude Boys Outa Jail remix featuring guitarist Neville Staple in his guise as Judge Roughneck.

Dammers, drummer John Bradbury and bassist Horace Panter formed The Special AKA after The Specials split in 1981, recruiting singer Stan Campbell, guitarist John Shipley and former Bodysnatchers vocalist Rhoda Dakar. Their 1984 album "In The Studio" adds the B-sides The Boiler, You Just Can’t Get A Break and Jungle Music, plus a three-song John Peel session and six instrumental versions.

Blancmange: Take the Fifth

Blancmange release their fifth album Semi Detached on March 23.

It’s effectively a solo album by singer Neil Arthur, as it’s the first without keyboardist Stephen Luscombe, who has longterm health problems.

The 10 tracks include a cover of Can’s 1976 song I Want More and the instrumental MKS Lover, with the first single Paddington out on March 9. Guests include Kate Bush’s guitarist David Rhodes, while the self-produced album was mixed by Babyshambles producer Adam Fuest.

The eight-minute opening song The Fall is named after the band, who were an early inspiration to Arthur.
He said: “I sent Mark E Smith our first EP and we exchanged a few letters, his being ones of humorous encouragement.” Speaking of the song Deep In The Mine, Arthur said: “I imagined a cavernous yet claustrophobic space with endless passages running off it.”

Simple Minds: Sparkling Again

Simple Minds release a five-disc reissue of their 1984 album Sparkle In The Rain on March 16.

Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album contains the hits Waterfront and Up On The Catwalk, and is the first to feature drummer Mel Gaynor. Kirsty MacColl guests on the songs Street Hassle and Speed Your Love To Me.

The reissue features B-sides and 12” remixes on disc two, a previously-unreleased homecoming show at Glasgow Barrowland from February 1984 on discs three and four, a three-song Radio 1 session and the album’s videos and TV performances from Top Of The Pops and The Oxford Road Show on disc five.

The set also features a 5.1 surround sound version of the original album, which has been remastered at Abbey Road by guitarist Charlie Burchill.

Burchill and singer Jim Kerr are interviewed as part of the set’s 36-page booklet, which also features memorabilia and rare photos from the era. The reissue is available as a 5CD or 2CD version, as well as digital download, vinyl and Blu-Ray formats.

Manic Street Preachers singer James Dean Bradfield said of the album: “it’s a genius stadium album, still with their pretension and ambition. Waterfront was about the decay of working-class industry. Try and find anyone writing a song like that today.”

Marc Almond: Royal Birthday Plans & The Velvet Trail

Marc Almond has revealed his 60th birthday plans of a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Almond releases his new album The Velvet Trail on March 9, but has already begun plans to see in his 60th birthday on July 9, 2017.
He told us: “I want turning 60 to be a great celebration. I’ve already provisionally booked The Royal Albert Hall to play a concert that night.”

There are also plans for a wealth of reissues to coincide with Almond’s landmark birthday, including a Soft Cell box-set, a career-spanning singles compilation and an anthology of Almond’s own favourite songs. He said: “I’m fighting to get some of the rights back to some of my old singles, and that’s slowly going my way. I want to be able to say ‘This is what I’ve done over the past 40 years.’”
He added: “So much of my work has been missed out over the years. I’d love to do an anthology of my personal favourite tracks, as I’ve worked hard to make a good varied body of work. As for Soft Cell, I’d love to do a box-set. I’ve got loads of live concerts from our early days that no-one has heard, even if some of it’s on not-great-quality cassettes.”

Almond’s new single Scar is the first taste of The Velvet Trail, which was made with Lana Del Rey/Rihanna producer Chris Braide, a lifelong Almond fan.
Almond said: “Scar is a big, polished ballad, the type of song I don’t often get to do. I was flattered and honoured that Chris sent me such great songs to write lyrics for and sing. He deliberately picked bits from throughout my career so that it sounds like a Best Of. With me feeling nostalgic, planning the birthday celebrations, I was ready to embrace that.”

Almond goes on a 12-date tour, ending on May 1 at London Shepherds Bush Empire.

Neal X: New Band, The Montecristos

Sigue Sigue Sputnik singer Neal X has formed a new band, The Montecristos, who release their debut album Born To Rock N Roll on March 26.

The six-piece features Emma Goss (double bass), Gemma B (trumpet), Hugh Wilkinson (drums) and saxophonists Sophie Freeman and Orlando La Rose. X said: “I’m still totally head over leopard-print high heels in love with rock & roll. I wanted to form a band that took the energy and spirit of Little Richard in The Girl Can’t Help It and make it look and sound totally contemporary for the 21st century. It’s glammy, trashy, classy and sexy rock & roll – driven by my fist-sized overactive adrenal gland.”

In recent years, X has been guitarist and co-writer for Marc Almond, who guests on the song Brand New Cadillac. The album also features a version of Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s hit Love Missile F1-11.

http://www.classicpopmag.com/2015/01/x-marks-spot-sigue-sigue-sputnik-marc-almond/

The Pretenders: Time to Pretend

The Pretenders’ first eight albums are being compiled into a self-titled box-set.

Released on February 16, the box-set takes in the band’s albums from 1979’s self-titled debut to 1999’s Viva El Amor, with a wealth of B-sides, live songs and demos across the albums alongside DVDs for each album featuring TV appearances from shows such as Top Of The Pops.
Videos for all the album’s singles are included on the bonus DVDs, taking in hits such as Brass In Pocket, I’ll Stand By You, Back On The Chain Gang, 2000 Miles and Don’t Get Me Wrong.

Each album comprises two CDs and a DVD, apart from Packed and The Isle Of View, which feature just one CD and a DVD, with the relevant B-sides as those albums’ bonus tracks.

Spandau Ballet: Relive the Romance

Just before his band's encore at London's Royal Albert Hall on September 30th, singer Tony Hadley of New Romantic survivors Spandau Ballet told a story about seeing his vocal hero, Frank Sinatra, at this opulent Victorian theater in the late Seventies and actually meeting the Chairman of the Board backstage.
"What do you do, son?" Sinatra asked Hadley. "I'm a singer in a band, and someday I am going to play here," the younger man replied. He did – six years later, when Spandau Ballet's tiptoe-R&B ballad "True" was Number One in Britain and a lot of other countries.

The group – Hadley, guitarist-saxophonist Steve Norman, drummer John Keeble, songwriter-guitarist Gary Kemp, and bassist Martin Kemp, Gary's younger brother.

Spandau Ballet made their live New York debut: in May, 1981 at a club called the Underground. The venue was new but less than romantic – a midtown basement. But the group worked the small stage like a catwalk with a small, potent set list drawn from their first album, Journeys to Glory, and much closer in its crisp tension and funk momentum to the Chic-meets-Sex Pistols ideal of hairspray brethren Duran Duran.

Spandau Ballet were destined for more than the dole, as Hadley reiterated in the shiny 1983 gallop "Gold" ("You're indestructible/Always believing/You are gold")

Their breakup in 1990 – a combined product of exhaustion, mounting tensions over Gary's control of the writing and the Kemps' defection to acting. Even after Hadley, Keeble and Norman sued Gary in the Nineties for royalties and lost, it was Gary who largely initiated the 2009 reunion.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/spandau-ballet-relive-the-romance-in-soul-boys-documentary-20141001#ixzz3PloOwIrI

Returning to Saturdays from 4-6:00 pm!

"Living In The '80s" is now on Saturday from 4 PM to 6 PM PST. Tune in with DJ Danny "On The Radio" for all your favorite '80s music, streaming at www.kzsc.org.
Only on KZSC, The Great 88 - Santa Cruz 88.1 FM!