Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier and Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, the latter to the appalled shock of my Dad given the back cover..

Probably b’day/Xmas gifts though; I could only afford singles at that point (first two there were probably Ants/Soft Cell too).

Soft Cell. Frustration’s “I I I I - I wanna dieeee” into Tainted Love’s “der NUH NUH” on Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret

The 3rd Wave 8M is a powerhouse in a small form factor - far more than just a PPG Wave on steroids (though it’s that too). Very flexible - wavetable, FM, sampling - and quite different to the rest of your rig. I’ve not tried its 24-voice big brother but I’m very impressed with this smaller one.

Huge on radio in Dallas, which (somewhat surprisingly given other cultural things about DFW in the late 80s/early 90s), had a high profile alternative/college rock station. KDGE played the hell out of Cuts You Up. Its playlist arguably owed some debt to Dave Kendall and 120 Minutes.

Banshees -Melt!
Soft Cell - Heat
Kirsty MacColl - He’s on the Beach

Funneled through the music press, there were also the rabbit holes opened by bands - I have Soft Cell to thank for opening doors as varied as Suicide, Coil, Jacques Brel, Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave, Scott Walker - a heady brew for the 10-year-old whose gateway drug was merely the 7 inch of Tainted Love

Bought my CD version about 20 years ago, wildly improbably, at the Tower Records shop at Disney World. God knows who was doing their buying at the time..

They did Route 66 on the b-side of Behind the Wheel, and they’ve just covered Universal Soldier for Help. They rolled out a cover of Bowie’s Heroes on the last tour too. I think there’s one more…

Ceremony still top five NO for me, and both versions are terrific - the pre-Gillian version halting and uncertain, still embryonic, and the second, just months later, seeing New Order audibly start to emerge. I love them both, as well as the extant JD takes.

A great show, and Maria’s new album is terrific

I’d be first in line. I’ve got a decent vinyl bootleg of the audio, but it’s a great video (particularly in the longer UK release vs the massively truncated US tape). Dave very much in the middle of the transition from awkward clapping teen to bum wiggling proto arena god..

Captured for posterity a little earlier on that same tour on The World We Live In And Live In Hamburg video youtu.be/ImztaPc0tBw?...