An emerging Palmer covers a song from the fully emerged Gary Numan ,who also plays on this ,a great time capsule instance of what was once considered cool.The droning single not synth line occasionally errupts into a somewhat clumsy chorus which dates the track beyond belief ,but if you can recommend a track on the premise of interesting then this would qualify.

A punk band that made the progress limited to just a few like the Jam and Killing Joke.This is guitar shaped power pop with a healthy slice of mod swagger and a fantastic chorus .A kind of Bowie esque tribute to wasted cool and what should have been a sure fire top tenner .This came from a buried gem of an album produced by Mott the Hooples Ian Hunter and listening now with hindsight that makes perfect sense ,the group and producer managing to crytalise glams optimism and punks negativity.

Downtempo, hypnotic, vocal

An obscure b-side of an obscure one hit wonder from 1983! but thats where you find the treasure ,by digging.A band from the tail end of the mod revival of 79 ,a sixties pastiche played on synthesisers but an overwhelming Motown influence played and written in good faith with a lush melody that would have suited the lonely spy from any movie from 1967 onwards .An eighties version of sixties soul heard 25 years later when pop almost lives on its reference points makes this sound like the first of its kind .The other side, Heartache Avenue ,is also a little nugget and worth a listen too.These boys were also City Boy of 5 7 0 5 fame from 1978.

After two years of insatiable and irresistable clowning around Madness slowed down.Grey Day is an ode to urban drudgery and the terrors of city living distilled into three minutes of downbeat melancholy but with all the Madness trademarks ,melody,humour and acute social observation .Such was their appeal at this time that the public simply moved with them into their new maturity and made this a top 5 hit in 1981