Inside the Milky Way - A Look at Early Alternative Music

The Beat, also known as The English Beat in the United States and Canada, formed in 1978 in Birmingham, England. The music of this post-punk act fused various styles including ska, soul, reggae, pop, and punk rock to become one of the key and most successful bands of the UK ska revival and the two-tone scene of the early '80s.  
The Beat's songs would often include lyrics that took on socio-political themes, while the music and the danceable sound gave the band crossover appeal to go along with their message.  
The band released multiple critically acclaimed studio albums starting with their debut album of 1980, I Just Can't StopIt, along with a number of hit singles including "Mirror in the Bathroom" and "Save It for Later".  
The Beat broke up in 1983 after the third studio album before some members went on to form two other notable bands, General Public and Fine Young Cannibals. The Beat reformed in the 2000's and continues today with a new make-up behind original member and lead singer Dave Wakeling.   
This episode will tell the story of The Beat from their early days through the music of their three albums of the early 80’s.

During the 1980’s, Front 242 became a pioneer of Electronic Body Music (EBM) and a key artist in the development of the industrial and electronic music genres. Their music blended aggressive, relentless, danceable, electronic beats with driving basslines, commanding vocals, tense militaristic aesthetics, and innovative media sampling. 
The Belgian based Front 242 formed in 1981 in an effort to create music and graphic design using emerging electronic technology. During their early albums and releases the band developed what would come to known as EBM. After signing with the the Wax Trax! Records label Front 242 achieved international success with their 1988 fourth studio album, Front by Front. This album spawned the iconic industrial club anthem "Headhunter", and the album and this song are considered among the greatest industrial music releases. 
This episode will tell the story of the Front 242 from their beginnings as they rise to the front of the EBM and industrial music scenes by the 1990’s.

Altered Images began in 1979 after forming from a group of five teenagers in Glasgow, Scotland. The band was fronted by singer Clare Grogan with her sweet and bubbly youthful vocals as the band would go from their post-punk roots onto new wave and synth pop in the early 80’s.  
The first two singles by Altered Images as well the majority of the songs on the debut album were produced by Siouxsie and the Banshees co-founder Steven Severin, who had taken the band under his wing. This early work with Severin was dark and moody post-punk along with Grogan’s more upbeat vocals and melodies, creating a unique mixture and sound.
Martin Rushent produced the title track of the debut album, Happy Birthday , which brought the band commercial success, but was more pop sounding than the Severin produced work of the album. Rushent would remain producing for Altered Images with album number two, which was another successful LP and included the hit song “I Could Be Happy”.
This Scottish band would find success with six UK top-40 singles and three top-30 albums by 1983, before breaking up following the third album. 
More recently, Altered Images reformed in 2021 and released a fourth studio album. Clare Grogan has been the one constant member from the original formation while also maintaining a successful acting career among her many ventures.
This episode tells the story of this often overlooked band and the career of Clare Grogan, including the story of her connection to the song "True" by Spandau Ballet.

This episode is part of our Further Inside the Milky Way series. These are shows that we will do from time to time where we go deeper into vast collection of the music and artists from the early alternative era. In these episodes we will discuss a few artists in the one show. We will try to pick artists that have something in common or a connection between them.  
In this "Further" episode all of the bands fit into the gothic rock style or genre in some form. 
The first is a band that has had a very long career after their 1982 start, Skeletal Family. One of the original Skeletal Family members was lead singer Anne-Marie Hurst, who left to form the second band we discuss, Ghost Dance. Ghost Dance was formed with Hurst and Gary Marx, who had just left The Sisters of Mercy. For the third band, Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy brought in the singer and musician James Ray to his Merciful Release Label after the departure of Marx, and would lead to the band, James Ray and the Performance.
(Pictured : Anne-Marie Hurst)

After forming in Leeds in 1976, Gang of Four became one of the most influential and original post-punk bands from the late 70’s UK music scene. Gang of Four took the musical freedoms that punk rock had created and used them to change the future of music. 
Known for post-punk, dance-punk, and funk rock sounds, the band played a stripped-down mix fusing hard funk rhythms, danceable beats, and jagged guitar while moving away from traditional rock structures for a more unconventional method. The band's music also emphasized social and political issues with the inclusion of radical lyrics and philosophies influenced by situationism and Marxist theory.
Gang of Four's debut album from 1979, Entertainment! has been considered not only one of the best debut albums of all time, but one of the best and most influential of all time, and the band is considered one of the leaders of the post-punk movement. 
While their early seminal records like Entertainment! and the follow-up Solid Gold focused on tense, stripped-down post-punk, their later 1980s albums leaned further into danceable post-punk. 
This episode will tell the story of the rise of Gang of Four and their influential beginnings, music, and albums over their career with more emphasis on the music and background from Entertainment! and Solid Gold.