Twenty or so found a hostel just around the corner, in a dimly lit street that tended to see most of its action in the twilight hours. The kind of hostel that you could smell downwind, a few hundred yards before you arrived at its unlit and distinctly worrying doorway. Not the sort of place that could accurately be described as being in any way pleasant. The kind of place, in fact, you’d recommend instantly to someone you don’t care much for. Somewhere to dump bags and nothing more. The ball, then, was firmly in the court of the recently signed three-piece power pop machine that was Top. This fine trio featured the much-missed Alan Wills, later founder of Deltasonic, on drums, PaulCavanagh, now with Mike Badger’s Shady Trio, on vocals and guitar, together with Wills‘ fellow Deltasonichoncho Joe Fearonon bass. Tophad been lauded and courted by just about every label in the country before finally signing to Island. But it’s more than that. It’s a quality thing too. It’s about fidelity. Listen carefully, here comes the science...!

Above: The Little Book of Casuals: Football Fashion From The 1980s now available from 80s Casual Classics SHOP NOW The Casuals, as they came to be known, evoked the sharp, competitive dress-sense of the 1960s mods. Some debate surrounds their origins, but there is general consensus that their roots lay in the British north-west during the late 1970s and early 1980s, where two parallel scenes paved the way for the Casuals’ development − the ‘Perry Boys’ in Manchester and Salford, and the ‘Scallies’ in Liverpool.It’s been overwhelming,” Hewitson says. “One or two well known bands have got in touch wanting to support the project and help out. We obviously need to sell a good percentage of each release so that we can generate monies to re-invest, so it would be fantastic to have some few high profile names do a song now and again...” These days I'm a Spring Court man. Simple french pumps with peppermint soles to prevent smelly feet. Also, as I am from South East London, I still have white Reeboks!!!!!!!!! The 80s was also the era of the tennis superstar. Tennis legends such as John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg wore polo shirts and shorts from their sponsors, Italian brands Sergio Tacchini and Fila. These and other Italian sportswear brandswere firmly associated with 80s Casuals fashion. The prominent and recognisable logos were worn as badges of pride. We’re in a vinyl state of mind this week. After Paul Du Noyer’s selection of his seven favourite album sleeves (and yours) we’re rather excited to discover a limited imprint series, launched by 80s Casuals chap, Dave Hewitson.!

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What Is 80s Casuals Culture?

in the mid a ft ernoon sun getting some fresh air. Th e fi rst couple of glasses had gone straight to his head. We did hope he wasn’t too hot as his string vest could soon be Usually we do not allow this due to resources, but if we have the time to we'll accommodate customers as best we can. The sleeve in itself is a piece of art,” he says, adding to Du Noyer’s rallying cry. “If you’re going to listen to a piece of vinyl then you’re taking time out from your daily activities to actually remove the record from the sleeve, place it on the turntable and really listen, rather than throwing an iPod or Spotify on and skimming through thousands of songs which generally have no meaning to the listener.” Above: The Barbour International Essential Logo T-Shirt now available at 80s Casual Classics. SHOP NOW Bill Osgerby is an author and professor with a focus on modern American and British media and cultural history — with particular regard to the areas of gender, sexuality, youth culture, consumption, print media, popular television, film and music. Amongst other he has published, Youth in Britain Since 1945 and Biker: Style and Subculture on Hell’s Highway

We arrive at our hotel, the classy Hotel Silken next to the famous gherkin shaped building. In fact, the gherkin is that famous I can’t remember its name, but it looks great from the terrace as we take in the surrounding cityscape and decide whether to take a dip in the rooft op pool. Th e hotel is perfect for us old fogeys, stylish and comfortable. Not one of them cheap and cheerful, ‘it’ll do, it’s only a bed for the night!’ type places for us. Th e younger element thinks it’s cool too, apparently the Arctic Monkeys recorded a video up here. You obviously wanted to do an 80's film with all the designer sportswear but was it always going to be a gangster film? Above: The Barbour International Small Logo T-Shirt now available at 80s Casuals Classics. SHOP NOW The music is from different years throughout the 80's, so it's hard to define a year, but was there was a reason for this?The closest Outlet Mall to Manhatten is Woodbury Common and it was here that besides a Hilfiger store there was also a Lacoste store. Lacoste would become massive in Liverpool over the next 10 years and would eventually open its largest independent UK store adjoining Wade Smith in the city centre. Wade Smith would sell that much Lacoste over the years that the president and owner of the brand Monsieur Lemaire came for the opening of its new store and stated “Liverpool’s a bit like the Lacoste capital of the world and shows no sign of waning.” It could be said that he should have thanked the entrepreneurs who made these trips to New York for starting a trend. An Interview done with local Merseyside blog ‘Sevenstreets’ when our ‘Vinyl Only’ Record Label launched in 2012. Good question. The main reason the film became a gangster film was because I wanted to set it outside England for the look. I didn't want to make a grey inner city 80's film (as we all remember it) - I wanted to make it look really flash and over the top so I decided to set it on the Costa del Sol, and as we all know there was a big community of gangsters living it up down there in the 80's - so that's why it was a gangster film. I wanted to show the rise and fall of Thatcherism and where better to do it than somewhere that was full of flash people with bundles of cash. Vinyl is an analogue recording, whereas CDs are digital. Analogue captures the original sound, capturing the waveforms accurately, and capturing a truer sound to that played by the bands,” Hewitson explains.! Vinyl sales have gone up by 39% in the last two years, up to its highest level since 2005,” Hewitson says. “To me, that confirms that music is an artform that should have tangible presence.”! !