Bang! 101 Songs about Nuclear War from the 1980s

• People Say It Could Never Happen Here.

  Welcome to Episode 16 – in which we discuss 5 songs by artists who were hugely successful in the 70s but kept their legacies alive with their 80s output. The Cold War provided sufficient ammunition for many - who might have been driven to obscurity by punk and post-punk – to make innovative new music and find even more fans. The artists couldn’t be bigger.Pink Floyd’s “Two Suns in the Sunset” is our first song. From “The Final Cut” album, it sees Roger Waters in both quietly contemplative and searingly powerful form.There now follow three “frontiers”:Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers” is one of the greatest and best known 80s songs – enigmatic but catchy (and also the source of a few misheard lyrics).It’s time for some Queen – or rather solo – as we look at Roger Taylor’s “Strange Frontier”. Taken from the 1984 album of the same name, it is one of his best solo tracks.“New Frontier” is from Donald Fagan’s “The Night Fly” album. Steely Dan produced some of the finest albums of the 70s and the quality did not fall when Fagan released this wonderfully upbeat and retrospective track.Our final song is “Sick of You” by Lou Reed. It is a stream of invective against just about everything and everyone in 1980s New York. Our playlist is now a whopping 82 songs – enjoy them all. Our previous episodes are all here for you to enjoy too.https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347eahttps://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXlWe love to hear from you via:Instagram: bangnuclearpodcastBlue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.socialFacebook: Bang Nuclear PodcastReddit: r/bangnuclearpodcastEmail: [email protected] and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John LoveringArtwork: Rachel MalbonAssistant Producer: Shivam PathakOpening words: Richie Wheeler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• "They've done it. They've done it."

  It’s Episode 15, and we are delighted to welcome writer and journalist Chas Newkey-Burden. Chas has written eye-opening articles about life under a nuclear threat for The Spectator magazine and Metro newspaper. But his real obsession is the 1984 British film “Threads”, about the lives of the people of Sheffield in the run-up to, during and after a nuclear attack. It is truly horrifying and contributed a huge amount to the cultural landscape of Britain in the 80s. Chas discusses the film with us, his recent trip to sites in Sheffield that appeared in the film, and his future “Threads” related plans. It’s quite a listen.As ever, there is music to discuss – and in the spirit of “Threads” we look at songs that deal with life after a nuclear attack. We start with 80s indie favourites Modern English and their wistful “I Melt With You”; we move on to the brilliant duet between Eurythmics and Elvis Costello called “Adrian”. Next is Billy Idol who finds himself in surprisingly restrained mood with “The Dead Next Door”. The under-celebrated – but brilliant – Microdisney are our next band with their wonderful “Town to Town” (thanks to one of our listeners for this suggestion). Chas himself chooses our last song – “Protect and Survive” by the Dubliners – it’s satirical and uplifting.Our playlist is now bursting at the seams with 77 songs….https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347eahttps://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXlStay in touch!Instagram: bangnuclearpodcastBlue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.socialFacebook: Bang Nuclear PodcastReddit: r/bangnuclearpodcastEmail: [email protected] & closing music:(Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John LoveringArtwork: Rachel MalbonAssistant Producer: Shivam PathakOpening words: Richie WheelerIntroduction to the film "Threads" taken from BBC 1984. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Have You Ever Seen this Kind of World?

  Welcome to Episode 14. This time Dave and Pank travel around the world to hear what other countries were singing about nuclear war.We start in Nigeria, with the inspirational and innovative William Onyeabor (and an acknowledgment of the great Fela Kuti). William’s song “This Kind of World” captures, ialwith joyful synth abandon, the fears he had about the way the planet was going.We then move to South Africa, and progressive punk band Dog Detachment’s fiery and fearful “Third World War”. We then discuss one of South America’s most outspoken and important bands – Los Prisioneros, whose wistful “Pa Pa Pa” pleads for a better world.The Japanese heavy metal scene in the 80s was huge, and nothing blasted louder than Loudness with their commentary on the American Star Wars policy, “SDI”. We then look at the influential Russian band Kino and much lamented singer Victor Tsoi, who proclaimed “I Declare my Home” to be a nuclear-free zone.We end by asking our listeners to help identify a mystery 80s band with their unknown track. Listen to find out…We have put together an extra playlist to cover a whole section of nuclear war songs from around the globe. Give it a listen at:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/43QBqIr32rnu28lRXfrl1P?si=atRU76eLS0-pRXEDrAWRmwand on Apple musichttps://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-world-music/pl.u-PDb4oqgILlLYypPAnd, of course, our main playlists are always updated.https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347eahttps://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXlStay in touch!Instagram: bangnuclearpodcastBlue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.socialFacebook: Bang Nuclear PodcastReddit: r/bangnuclearpodcastEmail: [email protected] and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John LoveringArtwork: Rachel MalbonAssistant Producer: Shivam PathakOpening words: Richie Wheeler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Scarred For Life

  It’s Episode 13…. And it’s lucky for us, as we welcome the two creators of “Scarred for Life”, Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence.“Scarred for Life” have published 3 magnificent volumes that cover the dark side of 70s and 80s pop culture. Almost everything, from horror films, books, music, shows and video games are covered in detail. The books have then led to live shows and, in recent years, the hugely successful podcasts, in which celebrities have discussed their childhood scars and fears.The 5 songs we discuss in this Episode all feature in Scarred for Life volume 3 as well as in our original list. We start with Nik Kershaw’s irresistible “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”. We are all fans. A more circumspect discussion follows about Sting’s “Russians” and its intentions. Ste then is given free rein to eulogise about Fishbone’s (one of his favourite bands) “Party at Ground Zero”. We then return to the Top 40 and discuss Elton John’s “Nikita”, that video and, believe it not, the “answer” song to it. We round off with a favourite of the 80s, Kim Wilde, whose “Suburbs of Moscow” was the better choice to our “Stone”. The boys go on to tell us about how it all started, and what’s next. Thanks to them both for joining us.Once again, our playlists are updated:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347eahttps://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXlStay in touch!Instagram: bangnuclearpodcastBlue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.socialFacebook: Bang Nuclear PodcastReddit: r/bangnuclearpodcastEmail: [email protected] & closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John LoveringArtwork: Rachel MalbonAssistant Producer: Shivam PathakOpening words: Richie Wheeler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• The Hands that Threaten Doom

  Let there be rock! It's our heavy metal episode. Fuelled by listener demands, we've been exploring 80s nuclear war metal songs. In addition to our usual 5, we run down 20 of the best metal nuclear songs, from Maiden to Megadeth, Saxon to Sepultura. And we pay a special tribute to the beloved Ozzy Osbourne.We are lucky to have brilliant contributions from metal fans and podcaster. Metal Bill gives us this thoughts on Metallica’s epic “Fight Fire with Fire”. His regular podcast “Music from a Lifetime” covers a variety of rock albums in great depth. Paul Moody, long time Queen podcaster and now hosting “Weirdies”, horror movie podcast, gives us his thoughts on the metal genre and nuclear war generally, before delving into Judas Priest’s fabulous “Some Heads are Gonna Roll”. Long-time listeners join us too. Andrew Holloway shares his memories of “Nuclear Attack” by Gary Moore and Greg Lake of ELP; Maiden superfan Walt Romney tells us his recollections of “2 Minutes to Midnight” and David Wilson gives us great insight into Megadeth’s “Set the World Afire”.In addition to our usual playlists, we have compiled a special heavy metal playlist with all 20 of the songs in this podcast:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2rt1dxPQ33Zjx4lC5gtKWk?si=618cbb00a1e64a30https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/heavy-metal-bang/pl.u-6mo4E8WtByBgKXlOur main playlists:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347eahttps://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXlSocials:Instagram: bangnuclearpodcastBlue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.socialFacebook: Bang Nuclear PodcastReddit: r/bangnuclearpodcastEmail: [email protected] and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John LoveringArtwork: Rachel MalbonAssistant Producer: Shivam PathakOpening words: Richie WheelerCredits to “Scarred for Life” and Tim and Joanna Smolko’s fine work “Atomic Tunes”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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