Various Artists - Gary Crowley's Lost 80s

Forget the usual neon-soaked, radio-throttled nightmares that try to tell you the 1980s were just Phil Collins and giant shoulder pads. If you want the real, sweat-and-hairspray truth about what was actually shaking the UK underground, you need to unbox Gary Crowley's Lost 80s. Released in 2019 by Demon Music Group / Edsel Records, this massive 4CD media book (or stripped-back triple-vinyl) is an absolute goldmine. Legendary London DJ and broadcaster Gary Crowley basically went digging through his own personal crate of dusty 7" and 12" singles to pull together 63 rare, diverse, and completely unhinged tracks from 1980–1987 that time—and major label streaming algorithms—criminally forgot. 

What makes this compilation so vital is its total disregard for genre boundaries. Crowley mapped the decade exactly how it felt to live through it as a music-obsessed London kid: a chaotic, fast-moving kaleidoscope where a jangly indie-pop guitar track could sit right next to a heavy New York club remix or an underground jazz-funk jam. Sure, you'll spot massive mainstream heavyweights like Wham!, Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, and Bananarama on the sleeve. But Crowley pulls off a brilliant bait-and-switch—you aren’t getting "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" or "True". Instead, he delivers their raw, weird, early debut singles and forgotten B-sides from before they hit mega-stardom, showing the exact moments these future giants were still just hungry club kids.

To read the tracklist of Gary Crowley's Lost 80s is to witness a beautiful, genre-blind collision of youth subcultures. Disc One—expertly subtitled "Jingly Jangly"—is worth the admission price alone for anyone obsessed with the birth of indie-pop. It kicks off with Vic Godard & The Subway Sect’s post-punk soul masterpiece "Stop That Girl" and cascades into a holy grail run of melodic jangly guitar pop. Hearing The Pale Fountains, Aztec Camera, and Prefab Sprout back-to-back captures that short-lived, hyper-romantic era when independent bands were trying to write the perfect three-minute acoustic pop symphony using nothing but jangling guitars and unfiltered adolescent yearning. 

Move deeper into the collection and the compilation shifts from the bedroom to the sweaty, smoke-filled dancefloors of Soho and the West Midlands. The section dubbed "F!k Art, Let's Dance"* is a brilliant reminder of how punk’s aggressive energy collided head-on with funk, ska, and early electronic music. Bush Tetras’ jagged, paranoid anthem "Too Many Creeps" sounds just as sharp and menacing today as it did in 1980, while the left-wing political fury of The Redskins on "Keep On Keeping On" injects the compilation with a heavy dose of soul-infused adrenaline. Even the electronic selections are masterfully skewed; hearing Depeche Mode’s darker, melancholy "Shake The Disease" alongside Theatre Of Hate's tribal post-punk proves just how vast the decade's underground landscape really was. 

Where Crowley truly flexes his crate-digging muscles, though, is on the third and fourth discs, which lean heavily into the club culture and extended 12" remixes that defined mid-80s nightlife. Tucking Tom Tom Club’s iconic "Genius Of Love" right next to the bizarre, minimalist synth-oddity "Jive Baby On A Saturday Night" by The Jellies is pure DJ genius. Crowley successfully reminds us that the 1980s club scene wasn't segregated by genre—DJs were spinning hip-hop pioneers like Grandmaster Flash alongside the mutant disco of Pigbag, the jazz-funk of Funkapolitan, and the gospel-infused dance-grooves of The Staple Singers. 

Ultimately, Gary Crowley’s Lost 80s succeeds because it refuses to be lazy. It treats forgotten, commercial "flops" by artists like Animal Magnet or Intaferon with the exact same historical reverence as a rare Wham! cut. Accompanied by a gorgeous booklet packed with Crowley's personal track-by-track memories and anecdotes from scene insiders like Clare Grogan and Gary Kemp, it feels less like a corporate compilation and more like a lovingly crafted tape a mate made for you after a long night out. It is an essential, eye-opening spin that completely rewrites the mainstream narrative of 1980s British pop culture.

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The compilation spans across four thematic discs covering 63 eclectic tracks:

• CD 1: Jingly Jangly – Features 16 jangle-pop and indie tracks including contributions from Vic Godard, The Pale Fountains, Haircut 100, Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout, and The Dream Academy.
• CD 2: F!k Art, Let's Dance* – Collects 20 post-punk, new wave, and danceable underground cuts from artists like Bush Tetras, Bow Wow Wow, The Redskins, Spandau Ballet, and Depeche Mode.
• CD 3: Dance This Mess Around – Explores 15 club-oriented grooves and early hip-hop/dance intersections with tracks by Wham!, Grandmaster Flash, Tom Tom Club, Culture Club, and The Staple Singers.
• CD 4: Extended 12" Cuts – Delivers 12 extended mixes and alternative club versions from acts such as Bananarama, Pete Shelley, Chic, Gang of Four, and Fun Boy Three.