1986 - Wherein the influence of girlfriends can be felt. For x-daysofmusic

Another year of this #x-daysofmusic challenge set up by @backinblackdevil.

It was because of my girlfriend that I bought tickets to see...

Huey Lewis And The News - Hip To Be Square

From Fore!
We were close enough to the front of the Hammersmith Odeon that I got to heckle about the use of a drum machine and actually get heard. Also close enough to see Lewis's microphone stand unscrew from its base, which was very funny.
Huey Lewis was a known songwriter and harmonica player from the 70s. He appears on Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous album playing harmonica. Probably the best ...& The News album is Picture This, the fore-runner to Sports which broke the band along with 'The Power of Love' from Back To The Future.
However, the support act became much more of an obsession...

Bruce Hornsby & The Range - The Valley Road

From The Way It Is
While Springsteen & Billy Joel documented life in New Jersey & New York, Bruce Hornsby & his brother John told of life in the deep south. The Hornsby brothers were raised in Williamsburg, Virginia, but tapped into a vein that seems closer to the Mississippi than the Atlantic. The first two ...& The Range albums are fabulous slices of piano-led Americana that are worth a listen, despite the dated production.
I was entranced and went on to see Hornsby on his next two headline tours. His involvement with the Grateful Dead made me listen a little more openly to them and he re-kindled my affection for The Band.

Queen - A Kind of Magic

From A Kind of Magic
I can't remember which night we went - I think its the day that wasn't televised, which would make it the Friday. This was my sole Queen concert, and while they were excellent, the set-list was fairly standard - they always played the hits and seldom pulled out anything unexpected. That said - this is a top song brilliantly played. There are no other bands with anything like this level of eccentricity and breadth of vision across their catalogue. Status Quo, INXS and The Alarm were also on the bill that day, which shows how damn EIGHTIES 1986 was.

John Fogerty - Eye Of The Zombie

From Eye Of The Zombie
I don't know if Fogerty toured in '86, but this was one fo my favourite albums that year. He was in his full I-won't-play-any-Creedence-songs-in-concert-until-I-get-paid phase and came up with an album of swampy genius instead.

Motörhead - Orgasmatron

From Orgasmatron
I bought the album in the record shop in Fleet. I was now working at Fleet Services on the M3, so it was more convenient than Simon's Records.
This album, despite not featuring Phil Taylor or Fast Eddie, is an absolute classic, and the title track never gets old. No idea what this particular video is from.

My last purchase of a new LP (until the last few years) was Saxon's Rock the Nations from the Fleet record shop. Quite woeful it was and featured a track with Elton John. At the same time Twisted Sister released their final album, featuring a track with Billy Joel. Why did these bands do this sort of thing?

Twisted Sister - Come Out and Play

From Come Out and Play. I was at this reunion gig in the Astoria. It was mind-blowing! Beat the hell out of their 1986 Hammersmith gig
The album cover was a pop-up with Dee coming out of a manhole cover. I still have it. Oh yes!

My days of music: 1967 - 1968 - 1969 - 1970 - 1971 - 1972 - 1973 - 1974 - 1975 - 1976 - 1977 - 1978 - 1979 - 1980 - 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984 - 1985