1980: Geezers (Patreon)

The second half of the poll splits between the “rock” brackets - bands sticking (broadly) to the virtues that had served music well in the 70s - and the “other” ones, where new scenes and genres were being formed. This group is in the rock half - ‘geezer’ here is its UK meaning, of… well, IS there a US equivalent of the word? All the ways of describing it I can think of - wide boy, lad, even ‘cheeky chappie’ - are just as British. Maybe another word for this bracket would be… Britpop.

Whatever, this is a group of young, confident men tearing through 1980’s charts. What they have in common, most of them, is that they’re survivors. They’ve come out of the rough and tumble of different 70s scenes - pub rock, mod, punk, ska, new wave - and emerged as successes. Some of them are reaching their commercial peak, some are on the cusp of decline. Right now their sounds - brisk, danceable, wordy but plain-spoken (no sci-fi narratives here) - are very much in vogue.

The other thing these bands have in common is a kind of social realism. They aren’t for the most part political - The Jam’s sloganeering on “Going Underground” is an exception here - but these songs are often sharply observed. Madness’ fond portrayal of primary school chaos on “Baggy Trousers” is here next to the teenage seaside fumbles of Squeeze’s “Pulling Mussels From The Shell”. The complaining narrators of The Specials’ “Too Much Too Young” and Chas And Dave’s “Rabbit” have a good deal more in common than it might have seemed at the time.

As befits a bracket where so many groups came out of scenes that were themselves revivals, there’s a lot of looking backwards here too. Elvis Costello covers an old soul song; Dexy’s pay tribute to a soul singer; The Jam steal from The Beatles; Arthur Kay namedrops them. These aren’t groups looking to break new ground - for all the braggadocio, they’re more concerned with working on their craft; improving, in some cases, single by single, something that must have been a thrill to observe.

POTENTIAL WINNER: A lot of this material may struggle a bit when it comes to picking up votes outside British voters - the biggest track here is probably The Jam’s “Going Underground”, but even that might fall foul of a rough draw. It’ll be interesting to see what people get behind.

DARK HOUSE: Squeeze have definitely had a following in previous polls, and “Another Nail In My Heart” is one of their best-loved tracks, well placed to make a run - though how deep it will go is anyone’s guess. (Personally, I like “Mussels” better.)

FAVOURITE TRACK: Everything about “Baggy Trousers” is an absolute joy - not a lyric out of place (“Same old backsides again”!) and just immense fun, something a lot of this stuff misses a little.

DISCOVERY: Only one new-to-me track here, Arthur Kay’s “Play My Record”, but fortunately it’s a belter - a sharply funny ska novelty about a veteran musician trying to struggle through.

DON’T MISS: As is becoming traditional, there’s a TV theme in the poll (two, but one of them’s up later) - in this case it’s the theme from Minder, ITV’s smash hit about a minor London villain and his bodyguard. “I Could Be So Good For You” is also a rather charming rough-hewn pub rock love song.