Top 100 Heavy Tracks
Top “Heavy” Tracks – Celebrating Sounds magazine and the Friday Rock Show
Discovering and listening to new music these days is just a few clicks away. Back in the late 70’s in the UK it was considerably more difficult. If you were into niche genres like Metal and Prog it was even worse. Many of us had to rely on older brothers or older boys from school, a perilous process fraught with potential piss taking.
But there were two saviours from all of this, life lines on the Sea of Chaos. Sounds magazine and the Friday Rock show. Lord knows how many a young minds they both saved from terminal boredom or indeed how many fantastic bands they broke between them, who would have been ignored otherwise.
Sounds was a UK weekly pop/rock music newspaper, published from 1970 to 1991, initially devoted to progressive rock. It then branched out into covering hard rock and heavy metal. These 3 genres remained its staples and for the listeners and readers it was normal to be into all three. This is very evident from the Top 100 tracks (below), with many Prog epics placing very highly.
Sounds went on to champion the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) and also the creation of the magazine Kerrang!, which was originally issued as a supplement before being spun off as a separate publication.
Kerrang! was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off “Heavy Metal Special” from the now-defunct Sounds newspaper. Angus Young of AC/DC appeared on the cover. Due to the popularity of the issue, the magazine became a monthly publication, before transitioning into a weekly in 1987. It championed the new wave of British heavy metal and the rise of hard rock acts. I still have the 1st 10 issues in a free binder you ordered from them. My Top 10 albums was also published in issue 2.
The Friday Rock Show was a radio show in the United Kingdom that was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 from 10pm to midnight on Friday nights, from 1978 until 1993. For most of its existence, it was hosted by Tommy Vance.
It was most closely associated with hard rock and heavy metal. In the early 1980s it was the only nationally available outlet for this genre of music, and Vance’s enthusiasm for showcasing new bands and his rapport with fans made the show essential listening for rockers.
Like Sounds, the show played a significant role in the rise of the new wave of British heavy metal, which came to dominate the show by the early 1980s.
Both were a weekly experience and went hand in hand with each other. But it was the annual readers/listeners polls or all-time best countdowns that were the real magic. MoR Revisited was raised on this stuff and we’re going to take a look back at which tracks formed the backbone of these lists from the early 80’s.
The rolling Top 12 from the Friday Rock Show were:
- “Stairway to Heaven” – Led Zeppelin – Live version
- “Child in Time” – Deep Purple – Live version
- “Freebird” – Lynyrd Skynyrd – Live version
- “Layla” – Derek and the Dominoes
- “Xanadu” – Rush – from Farewell to Kings
- “Smoke on the Water” – Deep Purple – Live version
- “Stargazer” – Rainbow – from Rainbow Rising
- “Supper’s Ready” – Genesis – from Foxtrot
- “Starship Trooper” – Yes – Live version
- “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” – Pink Floyd – from Wish You Were Here
- “Awaken” – Yes – from Going For the One
- “2112” – Rush – Live version
Interesting to see how Deep Purple, Rush and Yes all had two tracks each. Great to see live versions being preferred too.
Top 12 Friday Rock Show classics playlist can be found here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0FRXG2kFvtQle76Kl9spg4?si=52ccc7f974e943e1
The top 40 Sounds tracks were less Prog oriented and more Rock/Metal. Interesting to see several Montrose and Styx tracks in there. Rush again do very well. Great to see guitar heroes Pat travers and frank Marino in there too.
Top 40 Sounds playlist can be found here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7xSL5viOjX9dj0y38OoeDd?si=fdbbea1bce99462f
List but not least we have the Kerrang! Hot 100. The one featured here is from 1985. Its interesting to see how the more Prog oriented acts like Rush have fallen away and how NWOBHM bands are now dominating, Maiden especially. Marillion are the dominant Prog band here. Scorpions do really well, too. There’s also the presence of Thrash too.
Kerrang! Hot 100 playlist can be found here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fwO3m1dzYVie0MHj9rmqd?si=ece4dee437e44792
One things for sure, if you combine all 3 of these playlists you get a compilation od the best music ever made.
0 Comments