• Track Listing

Two CD set. Ace is delighted to continue with Jon Savage's highly respected year-by-year series documenting the music scene on a world stage, which began with a volume based on his successful 1966 book for Faber. A genre-spanning two-disc array of pivotal singles, extended mixes, context-providers, scene-stealers and lost gems from disco, b-boy, new wave, rap, indie and synth: these are the decks that defined the dawn of the 80s, captured the mood and crystallised Jon's personal experiences of these years. Artists include the Associates, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, the Human League, Grace Jones, New Order, Yello, the Peech Boys and Zapp. Living in Manchester, working for Granada TV in tandem with Tony Wilson and spinning discs at Joy Division and New Order gigs, this was a time where clubs were key for Jon. It's no surprise that this is the first volume where 12-inch singles make their mark in the series. The 80s began with Thatcher in power, the rise of the New Right in America and the death of Ian Curtis, but by 1982 the world was travelling out of post-punk darkness into the light of a bright new decade. It was beginning of the art of things to come.