By Sandro Monetti
For some people, the greatest piece of music ever written is Beethoven’s Fifth Sympthony. Others would name The Beatles classic Let It Be. But for me, the finest entry in the history of recorded sound is…Too Shy by Kajagoogooo.
If you can see any degree of sense in that argument then the wonderful new book Mad World, about the songs that defined the 1980s, is for you.
It’s the essential guide to that amazing era and features exclusive interviews with 35 of the biggest music names of the decade giving the inside story on their biggest hits.
This includes Kajagoogoo’s Limahl and Nick Beggs still trading insults at each other all these years after the band’s bitter split and Thomas Dolby revealing that Dr Magnus Pyke hated being better known for his appearance in the She Blinded Me With Science video than for his body of academic work.
Authors Lori Majewski and Jonathan Bernstein have also cleverly included what each of the featured performers are doing now and the most interesting revelation here is that Alannah Currie of The Thompson Twins spends her days upholstering furniture using the carcasses of animals who were run over.
With a fascinating foreword by Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran and an equally interesting afterword by Moby, this thoroughly entertaining and informative book will give readers a new perspective on, and perhaps added appreciation for, the age of new wave.
*Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s by Lori Majewski and Jonathan Berntsein is available now from Abrams Image and priced $19.95 Available on Amazon.
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