Bang! 101 Songs about Nuclear War from the 1980s

Season 13 of Episode 2 is devoted to Cold War espionage, and we welcome a very special guest. Ian Sanders is the creator, host, and inspiration behind the magnificent “Cold War Conversations” podcast. Ian chats to us about his work, some important characters from the world of espionage and, importantly, his favourite 80s nuclear tunes.

You can find the Cold War Conversations podcast on all the usual platforms. There is so much to delve into.

Andy Oppenheimer, who we were lucky to interview earlier in the year, tells us about his new album “Embrace the Dark” and we have a little excerpt of “No Warning”, one of the amazing new tracks – and it’s just right for our nuclear family.

There are, as ever, 5 tracks to discuss. And spying remains the theme.

“Michael Caine” by Madness is the first. Hugely popular, and all about the safety of informants at the time of the Troubles. We then have the wonderful “Attention Stockholm” by Virna Lindt. This is almost a piece of 60s film noir on vinyl. “Philby” by Rory Gallagher shows the guitar virtuoso at his finest, even with some electric sitar. “Spies in the Wires” by Cabaret Voltaire deals with 80s Cold War paranoia. It’s one of our favourites. We finish with Roni Griffith’s fabulous up-tempo Euro disco tune, “Spys”.

The updated playlists can be found here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aHCNYfoQ2gtko5z6pwS9O?si=81bce0c59ff2470d

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-more-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-vxy6L76uzVzd8Zl

Don’t forget our socials:

Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: bangnuclearpodcast@gmail.com
Opening and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering
Artwork: Rachel Malbon
Assistant Producer: Shivam Pathak
Opening words: Richie Wheeler

“No Warning” appears courtesy of Andy Oppenheimer

With sincere thanks to Ian Sanders of Cold War Conversations.
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Welcome to Season 2 Episode 12. We have discussed so many different genres of music over all our episodes, and now we enter the world of folk and country music from both sides of the Atlantic, and we have so much to discuss, that this time there are 11 songs on the list.

Country superstar John Denver opens proceedings with the wonderful “Let Us Begin (What are We Making Weapons For?)”. Patriotic and anti-nuclear, it questions the need to spend so much money on arms, while the poor are suffering.

Dean Reed (known as Red Elvis) was an American who spent many years in South America and East Germany, and sold loads of records in Russia. His song “Wake Up, America” is a call to his motherland to do better.

Worcestershire singer-songwriter Clifford T. Ward’s magnificent “20 minutes” is next. A gentle piece of folk rock, with a hauntingly bleak instrumental section.

Our next song “Four Minute Warning” is by Peggy Seeger and her husband Ewan MacColl. A song without any instrumentation which gives a real-time account of how a nuclear blast in central London would radiate through the city and Home Counties. The list of cities and the sound of children’s voices against Peggy’s plaintive vocal makes this one of our most poignant songs.

Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper combined to provide some memorable Bluegrass tunes and “Gonna put my Face on a Nuclear Bomb” is a up-tempo, jaunty example.
We then discuss the wonderfully optimistic “The Day After” by The Men They Couldn’t Hang. The singer doesn’t care about nuclear war, because he’s in love….
Whitstable’s Oysterband are next, with a wonderfully satirical and melodic song “Ashes to Ashes”, full of interesting characters.

There then follow two songs called “Protect and Survive”; the first by Scottish favourites Runrig, the second by perennial heroes, Jethro Tull – both very different, but the sentiments are the same.

Christy Moore is one of Ireland’s great folk singers, and his song “Farewell to Pripyat” tells the true story of the evacuation of a town close to Chernobyl, as it was evacuated two days after the blast of 1986.

Donovan is one of the best known of Britain’s folk singers, and his jaunty ditty “Neutron” (from which we take our title) is all about the survival of buildings against the destruction of people in a nuclear blast.

Our regular playlist now has 70 songs – find something new to enjoy.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aHCNYfoQ2gtko5z6pwS9O?si=81bce0c59ff2470d
https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-more-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-vxy6L76uzVzd8Zl

Don’t forget our socials:

Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: bangnuclearpodcast@gmail.com
Opening and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering
Artwork: Rachel Malbon
Assistant Producer: Shivam Pathak
Opening words: Richie Wheeler
Voices of children from Peggy Seeger’s “The Plutonium Factor”.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 11. After the extremely focussed and niche topics of the last 2 episodes, we go mainstream again with some of the biggest British artists of that era and beyond….

We start the episode with some feedback from American listener, Walt, who feeds back to us his love of the US punk scene. We then review the wonderful Kraftwerk concert that we both attended a couple of weeks ago. All of this, after a pointless discussion on the meaning of “wheel house”.

Our first song of this episode is the wonderful “Star” by Erasure. As with all things by Messrs Bell and Clarke, this is an upbeat, extremely catchy tune, but with a dark and less than rosy outlook (hence this episode’s title).

We then move on to “Burning Bridges” by Japan – it was a late and haunting addition to their “Gentlemen Take Polaroids” album and a B-side to “Cantonese Boy”
Another B-side follows: “The Sound of the Atom Splitting” by the Pet Shop Boys is not generally regarded as a fans’ favourite – we love the experimental rhythm and ironic conversational tone of the song.

China Crisis’ “Papua” is next – a song that drew the attention of Walter Becker of Steely Dan. It’s not surprising to see why, with its lush production and entrancing lyrics.

One of the Style Council’s biggest hits “My Ever Changing Moods” did not immediately strike us as an 80s nuclear war song, but it certainly is. Amidst its light funk music, is a dark story of impending doom, which is highlighted in the music video.

A less well known track concludes this fortnight’s selection: “The Lonely Spy” by Lori and the Chameleons is one of only two singles the band released. We love it. The band went on to other, better-known projects, but Lori didn’t, which is a shame. If you didn’t know this before, then find it on our updated playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aHCNYfoQ2gtko5z6pwS9O?si=81bce0c59ff2470d

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-more-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-vxy6L76uzVzd8Zl

Keep in touch!

Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: bangnuclearpodcast@gmail.com
Opening and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering
Artwork: Rachel Malbon
Assistant Producer: Shivam Pathak
Opening words: Richie Wheeler
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Episode 9 of Season 2. The UK punk scene was far from over in the early 80s. But the songs had moved on from general nihilism and frustration to a heavier tone, with more urban political and anti-war sentiments.

We start by going through our own Top 20 of UK 80s punk nuclear songs. Thanks to our long-time listener and future guest Dave (aka Steel City Vegan) for his wonderful input. We have put all 20 into a separate playlist (linked below) for you.

We then focus on 5 of the best. We start with Trowbridge’s punk heroes Subhumans, with their caustic “Human Error” – we switch off the bad news to make us feel better while there’s an arms race going on.

We then move on to “Last Rockers” by Bristol heroes Vice Squad, fronted by the fantastic Beki Bondage – one of the great female vocalists of the era.

At 1.22, “One Nation Under the Bomb” by Conflict. The late Colin Jerwood crams furious verses into a few short seconds. It’s fantastic.

Our 4th song is “No Doves Fly Here” by The Mob (from Yeovil). What an epic, slow burner of a track, full of ominous threat.

We finish our discussion with the extraordinary “Nagasaki Nightmare” by Crass – a Penny Rimbaud masterpiece in numerous parts, with Japanese tones, a koto and high speed drums and guitars.

The playlists are updated on Apple and Spotify and we have a special playlist of the punk top 20:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/376cRLM0lUCDMt6ZVeP3gC?si=nmRnF4u7SUSeNGIBbCurkA&pi=XPKRxf0NQfCIJ
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aHCNYfoQ2gtko5z6pwS9O?si=81bce0c59ff2470d
https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-more-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-vxy6L76uzVzd8Zl

Keep in touch via socials and emails:

Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: bangnuclearpodcast@gmail.com
Opening and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering
Artwork: Rachel Malbon
Assistant Producer: Shivam Pathak
Opening words: Richie Wheeler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.