23rd November 1985, with Luke Una

By late 1985, Luke Una had started to immerse himself in dance music and club culture – initially in his native Sheffield, just ahead of a move to Manchester – and so many of the tunes in this chart served to lay the foundations for his pioneering and influential DJ career.

At the end of a year largely dominated by glossy, polished, but still fairly orthodox soul/funk productions (some of which appear here), new shoots were emerging that would grow into street soul, garage and house, while hip hop was on the brink of a commercial rebirth, and Washington DC go go influences were seeping into other areas. Social commentary “message songs” were popular with some, while others were seeking out a more elemental, stripped-down sound, via fully instrumental tracks and dub remixes.

To accompany this episode, you can listen to this entire Top 20 in full, or alternatively as a shorter medley of snippets.

Further listening: 

* other tracks mentioned in this episode (YouTube)

* random monthly megamixes, 1975-1989

Further reading:

* James Hamilton's Dance Pages 1983-1989 (800 page hardback book)

* James Hamilton's Disco Pages 1975-1982 (550 page hardback book)

Record Mirror Disco Charts mugs and T-shirts are available from our merchandise store.

Mike also hosts the podcast Which Decade Is Tops For Pops?

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