Let's party like it's 1979, cos it'll be the eighties soon. COOOOL !!!

No, hang on. It ALREADY IS !!!!!!!!! WAHEY !!!!!!

Look around you people. The eighties is happening all over again, and this here hack happens to be loving every minute of it.

It seems every single significant movement in music at the moment can be traced back to some point in the eighties. Good old mental agit-US-rock of Trail of Dead sorts certainly owe prime-time Sonic Youth a thing or two, a group from the EIGHTIES. The atrocious US-punk movement can be traced back to the rambling 3-chord no-man's land that was inhabited by NOFX at least fifteen years ago, in the EIGHTIES.

Kid A, 2000's most "challenging" record, is blatantly indebted to the legacy of Warp Records that is, subsequently, a product of Kraftwerk's mighty techno in the EIGHTIES.

Could Hip-Hop commerce have happened without Public Enemy ?? NO and what's more, Public Enemy were from the EIGHTIES.

The stranglehold that svengali-cultivated pop has on the chart's is also similar to the New Romantic phase that infested the UK charts with a combination of pink eyeshadow and hairspray. Duran Duran's , soundtrack to the Bond film of the same name, 'View to a Kill' certainly took an a new meaning, back in the EIGHTIES.

At the start of this year all eyes rest of Manchester, only wondering at just how good Elbow can get, and Twisted Nerve being as consistent as brilliant with Alfie and Mum&Dad being the latest in a longline of Mancs slipstreaming Badly Drawn Boy into mainstream sucess (except Mum&Dad, obviously). The last time such a thing happened was Madchester, back in the EIGHTIES. This current movement certainly doffs its proverbial cap to the likes of the Smiths. Ah, the Smiths, another wonderful band from

the EIGHTIES.

Junebug are, yet again, a band who's origins can be traced back to the eighties. This time, though , it's the combined genius of Johnny Marr and Peter Hook. It's quite appropriate that Junebug's album, released this summer on Epic, will coincide with new albums from Morrissey, New Order and a rejuvenated solo Brian Wilson. No three artists can claim to have had more input into the Junebug sound.

The title track will have you dancing and 'Lifeline' will force tears. Obvious lyrics minus irony have never sounded so sincere, affecting or, simply, so right.

The outro is beautiful, Guy Latham singing :"Sometimes I just want to fly but my foot's stuck on the floor / Life's the hardest game to play and I don't wanna play no more / But you're my only lifeline ."

Truly awful. But truly beautiful and brilliant at exactly the same time. Like a Cinerama record. That's a good thing.