Mecha Streisand is our god. She rules.

Love this song, I don’t buy the “not much to grab onto” idea either. It’s a sinewy tight production number that uses Streisand’s voice as a conduit. It’s like a beefy version ‘Evergreen’. There’s not much to hold onto because the song is a snake – a long tight muscle. It’s like the anti ‘I Will Survive’ – that song contained thumping beats and orchestra stabs and self-righteous yelled bombast; this contains vague platitudes about life and the importance of holding onto something worth having that flow over you without demanding you agree.

Not sure I agree that ‘Heartbreaker’ is better either; the age of the tacky synth was upon them when they produced that one, and the Dionne vocal can’t hide the squashed bontempi backing. It’s also a pop song more than a ballad; uptempo and hooky. ‘Woman In Love’ is a straight up ballad.

Am I crazy?

My archetypal Royal Holloway SU gig memory was My Life Story playing their then current minor hit single ‘You Don’t Sparkle’ in November 1996. Guy Fawkes Night sparklers are handed to the crowd to add to the mood of the song. Horrified health & safety security rush the floor, wrench them out of our hands and stamp them out on the ground.

Re #33: I think that I’d actually have more respect for 21st century Oasis if they just dropped all pretence of credibility and original thought and released an ‘Anniversary Waltz’-style medley.

“Woman In Love” would benefit greatly too from losing half a minute at the end. And I start to feel out of breath myself when Bill Withers lets fly at the tail of “Lovely Day.”

Re 21: Quo “on the turn”? Can i put a tentative hand in the air for a bunch of early 80s hits including Rock And Roll and Marguerita Time that saw Quo “mature”? I’m not going to stick up for the rote Jobcentre ad-speak of In The Army Now, but at least they were trying. More than you can say for Oasis.

oh well, they’re better than maiden, ac/dc or sepultura so yay for jon needham and his secret ears

Not sure the latter is that unlikely. All the metallers at my school loved the Quo, which baffled me at the time as I couldn’t see much of a link between ageing, winking boogie and the piss-drenched histrionics of Saxon and friends. They were indeed embraced by the NWOBHM massive, with some force, and I suspect this explains that chart placing.

Persisted, too: cf “In Bed With Chris Needham”, 1992, specifically the interview with Needham’s seven-year-old brother (“Britain’s youngest thrash metal fan”).

Greg: Do you like Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Sepultura, groups like that? What’s your favourite out of them?

Jon: (thinks) Quo.

or that it’s actually ABOUT the NWOBHM — which is admittedly my favourite theory —
What you’re proposin’ the other night
As I was leavin’, I looks left and right
And not believin’
And not believin’ that I’d finally be leavin’

“you” is the new wave, what it’s “proposin” is the arrival of this new young heavy sound; and francis can’t believe it’s time for him to leave the stage etc

1980 in a nutshell was knocking on the door behind Woman In Love:
2. Quo – What You’re Proposing (NWOBHM-inspired biggest hit since Down Down)
3. Bad Manners – Special Brew (novelty hit = death knell for ska)
4. Matchbox – When You Ask About Love (decent rockabilly-ish cover anticipating Stray Cats/Polecats revivalism, and onwards to Psychobilly)

Has youth culture ever been more splintered?

College gigs were not usually major acts of the past or future, since we were a self-contained college of some 1500 students some distance out from London, but we did get Classix Nouveaux on the way up, and acts such as The Blues Band and The Members (being able to tell the time from Nicky Tesco’s watch – now that’s what you call getting close to the band!) Plenty of Two-Tone styled bands in that first year, a good workout guaranteed.

* unlike all the others mentioned Manhattan Transfer did however became briefly respectable – on the soul scene anyway in the mid-80s with ‘The Spice of Life’.

My mum loved Streisand’s version of “Evergreen” and I’d have to go along with that. Taylor – could it have been “No More Tears” Gambo was thinking about for that long-held note? Either way, it’s well short of the record, as Izzy (#12) found out for us.

“Woman in Love” is a perfectly good song, well constructed, and one with which you could spend a contented few minutes, though not one I’d go out of my way for. It didn’t make much impression on me at the time – during the Police run at the top I’d started my first year at Royal Holloway College, the place Billy knows well albeit under a subsequent name. My first time at a co-educational establishment since primary school, and when I met a girl in fresher’s week who looked like Corinne Tate Flotsky from “Soap”, I knew I’d enjoy myself. A cramped room in the breezeblock jungle of Cameron hall of residence, central London a shortish train ride away, and regular Students’ Union gigs and discos (were they still called “Stomps” in your day, Billy?) within a few minutes’ walk. Great times. The only drawback was the neighbours, and finding out that the people with the loudest sound systems usually had the worst musical taste. Great times though, and a new phase in life. Wasn’t listening to Barbra much at the time.

Number 2 Watch – “What You’re Proposing” by Status Quo. Just before the moment they went “on the turn” like a bottle of milk left outside the fridge too long.