Bang! 101 Songs about Nuclear War from the 1980s

Don’t be afraid - it’s Episode 18.  And with Halloween just done, it’s time to unleash some Goth heroes on you all, as well as our very special guest, Kirsty Harris.

We start with “Black Planet”, Sisters of Mercy’s dark, foreboding warning of a post-nuclear world. Check out the video that features the original Monkeemobile.  Our next song is “A Strange Day” – Robert Smith standing on a beach (unsurprisingly) ruing the last day on earth.

“Cities in Dust” is one of the greats by Siouxsie and the Banshees. The song was inspired by Siouxsie’s trip to Pompeii but it is obviously symbolic of the fragility of our planet in the flash of an explosion.

We move on to the precursors of the mighty Cult – Southern Death Cult and their wonderful polemic “Moya”, which draws powerful comparisons between nuclear annihilation and the ravaging of Native American lands.

We end with a lesser-known gem. Bauhaus’ bassist David Jay released “Can’t This Shadow of Fear” as a solo single. It’s well worth checking out.

Kirsty Harris is a remarkable artist whose main theme is nuclear tests and the resulting mushroom clouds. Her stunning work depicts detonation on an enormous scale, but captures the beauty of the brutality. Dave and Pank visited her exhibition in South London and were lucky to interview her.  She talks about her involvement with nuclear campaigning with her parents and her love of 80s music.

Visit her website and check out the works for yourself: kirstyharris.com

Our playlist now stands at 92 songs! Just 9 left.

Our previous episodes are all here for you to enjoy too.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Don’t forget our socials:

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                        @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                             r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                              [email protected]

Opening and closing music:              (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                          Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:  Shivam Pathak

Opening words:          Richie Wheeler

Brief snippet of Robert Smith from Roskilde Festival 2017

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It’s Episode 17.  With the recent news that MTV is to cease broadcasting in large parts of Europe and South America, we thought we might try and find songs by artists who appeared on MTV on its very first day…. And we were not disappointed, as 5 songs we had planned to discuss anyway all fell into that category.

Buggles opened up MTV’s account, and we remember their catchy wartime hit “Clean, Clean”, complete with arcade game tank video.  Trevor Horn has already featured in our podcasts as a producer so it’s a pleasure to include one of his own compositions.

Fischer-Z, fronted by the legendary John Watts, released the album Red Skies over Paradise from which the amazing, fearful and brooding “Cruise Missiles” was a memorable album track.

Next, comes the anti-world leader hit from Genesis – “Land of Confusion”, which was all the more memorable for its Spitting Image based video featuring the band, US and UK leaders in warmongering mood, and a cast of a hundred well known puppets.

We then discuss the excellent song “Bunkers” by British post-punk band The Vapors. Again, their album “New Clear Days” had (unsurprisingly) a Cold War theme, and this was the one we chose.

We conclude the episode with one of the greatest songs by one of the greatest bands – “Life During Wartime” by Talking Heads.  Despite not being a hit at all, there are few music fans who wouldn’t recognise the album and live versions as being hugely influential.

All 5 artists had at least one song played on MTV’s opening day of pop-videos.

Our playlist now stands at 87 songs! Only 14 to go…. 

Our previous episodes are all here for you to enjoy too.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Don’t forget our socials:

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                       @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                           r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                              [email protected]

Opening and closing music:              (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                          Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:   Shivam Pathak

Opening words:           Richie Wheeler

Ident intro from MTV.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

We love to hear from you via:

Instagram:                      bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                        @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                      Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                             r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                              [email protected]

Opening and closing music:              (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                          Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:   Shivam Pathak

Opening words:          Richie Wheeler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Stay in touch!

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                      @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                           r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                            [email protected]

Opening & closing music:(Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                         Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:   Shivam Pathak

Opening words:           Richie Wheeler

Introduction to the film "Threads" taken from BBC 1984.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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-pRXEDrAWRmw

and on Apple music

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-world-music/pl.u-PDb4oqgILlLYypP

And, of course, our main playlists are always updated.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Stay in touch!

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                       @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                           r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                            [email protected]

Opening and closing music:              (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                         Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:   Shivam Pathak

Opening words:           Richie Wheeler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Stay in touch!

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                      @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                          r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                           [email protected]

Opening & closing music:  (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                        Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:   Shivam Pathak

Opening words:           Richie Wheeler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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=618cbb00a1e64a30

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/heavy-metal-bang/pl.u-6mo4E8WtByBgKXl

Our main playlists:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Socials:

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                        @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                             r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                              [email protected]

Opening and closing music:              (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                          Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:  Shivam Pathak

Opening words:          Richie Wheeler

Credits to “Scarred for Life” and Tim and Joanna Smolko’s fine work “Atomic Tunes”.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world, people are getting ready for Episode 11.  July 13th 1985 saw one of the greatest concerts of all time, as the world of rock and pop united to raise money and awareness for famine in Africa.

The very greatest artists performed their greatest hits, and we discuss 5 of those artists now. Of course, there were controversies about the event, which are put into even sharper focus as we look back 40 years. But, as a spectacle and as a means of raising awareness for generations to follow, it remains unforgettable.

We start (naturally) with Hammer to Fall by Queen. Freddie’s performance was stunning that day and this (we think) is the only Nuclear song performed that day. We then move on to Time Will Crawl by David Bowie. His performance of “Heroes” at Live Aid was simply unbeatable. We then cross the pond to Philadelphia. Tina Turner performed with Mick Jagger in the American leg of the concert and we discuss her post-nuclear anthem “We Don’t Need Another Hero” from “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.   Our next song is “P.O.E.” by Adam Ant. His one song at Live Aid came from the same album. While he now regrets performing at Live Aid, we are glad he did. Finally, U2’s “Seconds” is one of their many Cold War songs. Their performance of “Bad” lives long in the memory.

As ever, our playlist is updated on Spotify and Apple! Give it a listen – 59 songs to enjoy.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

If anything we say interests you then do get in touch via our socials:

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                        @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                             r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                              [email protected]

Opening and closing music:              (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                          Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:  Shivam Pathak

Guitar lick:                     Shivam Pathak

Opening words:          Richie Wheeler

Opening words of Live Aid –  Richard Skinner.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Episode 10!

Almost half way there. In the last episode we explored Cold War tunes of Australian and New Zealand. In this episode we look at the genuine funkatomic bombs that America produced in the world of jazz-funk and hip hop. There were so many examples to choose from, but we have settled on a list of 5 songs from artists with a huge impact on their genres, if not the chart positions of some of our other selections.

First, the prescient and stunning “B-Movie” by Gil Scott-Heron, a spoken word piece of poetry that covers all of the issues that people faced in 80’s America. At 12 minutes in length, it is an awesome piece of work.

An accidental microphone gaffe by President Reagan gave rise to Bonzo Goes to Washington’s (aka Bootsy Collins and Jerry Harrison together with producer Arthur Russell) amazing “5 Minutes”, an early example of sampling and looping that laid the foundation for what was to follow.

The world of jazz-funk owes an enormous debt to Sun Ra, and his angry, but very laid- back, jam entitled “Nuclear War” is our next song. Born in 1914, Sun Ra’s musical legacy is too long to mention here.

The Bus Boys “D-Day” is yet another example of a Cold War song that deals with the most unpleasant of issues, but with funky abandon. And we end with the wonderful “America” by Kurtis Blow, a wonderful hip-hop beat with rap is the background to this amazing history lesson. Watch the video for this too….

Our playlist is updated on Spotify and Apple! Now 4 hours long, you can find all of the tracks that we have discussed in the episodes so far. We’ve even chucked in a couple of bonus tracks…

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Please keep in touch. We love to hear from you on socials and e-mail.

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                        @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                             r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                              [email protected]

Opening and closing music:              (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                          Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:  Shivam Pathak

Opening words:          Richie Wheeler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Episode 9!

Welcome – once again the guests come thick and fast as we explore the nuclear themed music of the 80s from two lands down under – Australia and New Zealand. Our special guests this episode are Vitabeats -  Lissa and Andrew Barnum. They released the magnificent “Spot the Spanner” album in 1985, which included their funkatomic beat “Boom Box”, together with outlandish video. We discuss their musical journey, from LA to the countryside in New South Wales via the studios and record shops of Sydney and London.

We then discuss Aussie favourites Icehouse and their wonderful “Sunrise”, full of poignant imagery.

“Soviet Snow” by Shona Laing” is next. Part-orchestral, part-pop, it deals with the issue of the nuclear winter.

Would it be possible to have an episode about Australian music without at least a mention of Men at Work or Midnight Oil? “It’s a Mistake” is a fondly remembered hit coming in the same year as “Down Under”, and the video has the same slapstick comedy as some of the other songs we’ve discussed in this series.

Finally, “US Forces”: Midnight Oil’s constant activism and music about critical Australian and world issues make them stand apart from many of their peers. And thanks to our friend Michael Smith (Lord of Adders Black podcast) for his excellent contribution to this discussion.

Our playlist is updated on Spotify and Apple! Give it a listen – it’s now 3 hours long. Something for everyone. A bonus track is included this week, “One Nation under the Bomb” by Conflict is added in tribute to their lead singer Colin Jerwood who died recently.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Our socials:

Instagram:                     bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky:                        @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook:                     Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit:                             r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email:                              [email protected]

Opening and closing music:              (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork:                          Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer:  Shivam Pathak

Opening words:          Richie Wheeler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.