OUR SUBCULTURE CLUB

THE 80S:

Like Totally. This is so rad.

It's Boy George with Allison Moyet.

Moyet had a band Yazoo ( Yazoo in the UK; Yaz in America) with former Depeche Mode songwriter Vince Clark.

That voice of Moyet's: Ethereal, daunting, haunting and strongly sorrowful.

Upstairs at Eric, we thought, was one of the best albums to ever come out of the early 80s.

We were obsessed with the UK---- every and any thing coming out of there. The bands: i.e. Yazoo, Gary Numan, Eurythmics, Culture Club, Joy Division, Sex Pistols--to name a few; the fashions: safety pins and razors, Crazy Colour-- temporary hair dye in VIOLET, men's fashion magazines; cigarettes: only Dunhills in the red box; and, of course, the LADS!!!! All those beautiful British guys and those accents. Just sit there and talk.

Gee, come to think of it, we haven't changed at all. We still love our UK guys along with Aussies, Swedes and a certain Serbian!! Ahhh hell, we just love men. If he has that schwing, we want everything!!!!!

While in college, at The University of Texas, we literally judged guys on the criteria if they possessed this album or not. As a side note, albums back then were cassettes. If he owned Upstairs at Eric's, he's cool, we would talk to him.

If he didn't, banished forever from our circle with a quick head turn and a nose up in the air.

We had our Walkman permanently programmed to keep playing Too Pieces while everyone else was playing Situation and Don't Go ---including our favorite gay bar in Austin, The Boathouse. We rolled our eyes and complained: why can't they play Too Pieces? Well, it wasn't a dance song, duhhh.

We follow Too Pieces with our other two favorite singles: Only You and Nobody's Diary. We know! We know!! We always go for the slow, heart wrenching, love-is-lost single. Call us: dire drama romantics!!

And now, needless to say, Yaz is an iconic and seminal band from the 1980s---shaping the music that was known as New Wave. Music authorities, critics and professors have all deemed this band important and groundbreaking.

Something we already knew that August of 1982 when we first popped Upstairs at Eric's into our player. Gotta love our gay genes: insightful, ALWAYS way ahead of the curve and able to predict touchstones that will be classics in the future!! And with those genes, why would anyone want to hide in a fucking closet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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