Bang! 101 Songs about Nuclear War from the 1980s

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 4.

It’s been one year and 10,000 downloads since we started. So what better time to move our focus to the Wonderful World and Beautiful People of Reggae. We discuss the Rastafarian themes of Armagideon and how reggae musicians brought nuclear war under the same umbrella of other social injustices.

We start with one of the greatest of them all – “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley and the Wailers resonates with people around the world. “Have no fear for atomic energy” he sings – it will not be nuclear conflict that brings about the end of days. Peter Tosh’s “No Nuclear War” comes from the Grammy-winning album of the same name. We discuss the lyrics and his awful demise.

Our third song is “Nuclear Soldier” from London perennial favourites, Aswad. Massive hits followed their journey through the Saxon sound-systems. We then move on to another British favourite – Smiley Culture, whose “Nuclear Weapon” came from his appropriately named “Tongue in Cheek” album. His fast paced, humorous style of rap over reggae beats belied the seriousness of his messages.
We end with one of our favourite songs: “The Lunatics have Taken Over the Asylum” by Fun Boy Three. It’s our second song from Terry Hall and we make no apology for it. This is bleak but beautiful.

As ever – the playlists are updated so you can hear all the songs from the season in one place:

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 with us always…
Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: [email protected]
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.

It’s Episode 3 of Season 2 and our absolute pleasure to welcome Andy Oppenheimer as our special guest. Together with his late, great friend and colleague Martin Lloyd, the synth-wave duo Oppenheimer Analysis released the wonderful album “New Mexico” in 1982 which includes the songs “Cold War”, “The Devil’s Dancers” and the title track. That’s only a part of the story, though, as he then embarked on a hugely successful career as a consultant and writer on all things explosive. He is our ideal guest. And the music carries on. Andy talks to us about all aspects of his career, songwriting, live performances and his latest album.

The minimal synth-wave theme continues as we discuss 6 more tracks. If you didn’t know them before, then explore our playlists. They are great tunes.

Check out “Fireside Favourite” by Fad Gadget – Frank Tovey was a remarkable performer. “Protect and Survive” by German outfit Final Program; “Dancing on the Berlin Wall” by Rational Youth; “Atomic War” by New Scientists; “Nagasaki’s Children” by They Must Be Russians and “Power Plant” by Art Fact.

Keep an eye on our playlists – they are regularly updated to accompany our episodes.

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 – and let us know of even more 80s Cold War tunes, contact us via:

Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: [email protected]
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

“Cold War”, “The Devil’s Dancers” and “New Mexico” appear with the kind permission of Andy Oppenheimer.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to season 2 Episode 2 and it is our pleasure to join forces with Michael and Jack, the voices behind the wonderful, long-running Billy Joel podcast “Glass Houses”. They tell us everything they know (and they know a lot) about the classic post-WWII history lesson “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. While Billy Joel may have not rated the song as one of his own favourites, we certainly love it. If you’re not already familiar with “Glass Houses”, it’s a podcast well worth subscribing to.

As ever, we have plenty of other songs to discuss. Canadian rock-band The Box released the upbeat and catchy “Ordinary People” with a fun accompanying video. Whatever the differences between the leaders of America and Russia, the people are just the same. A similar theme emerges in our next song, “American-Soviets” by German synth minimalists CCCP – which has a chess-game between Reagan and Gorbachev as the metaphoric backdrop. One of our heroes of funk and soul, Curtis Mayfield, is next, with his plaintive call for peace in “What You Gawn Do?” We end the episode with 10,000 Maniacs – Natalie Merchant’s beautiful folk-tinged vocal tells the nuclear story in the excellent “Grey Victory” (it’s one of our listener recommendations, and we’re very glad to include it).

Keep an eye on our playlists – they are regularly updated to accompany our episodes.

Have you got an 80s nuclear war song that we haven’t thought of yet? If so, contact us via:

Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: [email protected]
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.

Happy New Year to all our listeners. Welcome back to Bang! 101 More Songs About Nuclear War from the 1980s. Thanks to your brilliant suggestions, we have had plenty more to talk about. Enough for another season, in fact.

Season 2 starts with REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know it”. But we also went on a field trip to investigate a certain rumour that had been spread about the possibility of REM reforming….

We then pay tribute to Jeff Aaron Brown of the Pasadenas who died before Christmas and discuss their plea for peace “Justice for the World”.

Our next song is the gorgeously hummable “Russians and Americans” by Al Stewart, the prolific Scots-born folk singer with a nuclear birthright.

We then have our first song in the French language – duo’s Elli et Jacno’s brilliant “L’ âge atomique”. Another duo, this time from Boston, Jane and Jeff Hudson released the wonderfully dark post-punk “Los Alamos”.

We have a brand new playlist to accompany season 2. It can be found on Spotify at:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aHCNYfoQ2gtko5z6pwS9O?si=e52c370433cc4dc0

and on Apple at

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

Our podcast is made all the more special by your interactions with us. Stay in touch as follows:
Instagram: bangnuclearpodcast
Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: [email protected]
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.

It’s Episode 21 – and we say a warm goodbye to 2025 and our first season of podcasts.

It has been an absolute delight to engage with listeners from around the world and we though that – at this festive time of year – they should have the last say on our 101 songs. Thank you to the listeners, artists, fellow podcasters and family who have contributed to this episode.

Don’t forget – our full playlist is available at:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea
https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

And all 21 episodes are available for you to enjoy. Thank you for being part of our nuclear family.
See you in January for Season 2 – Bang! 101 (more) Songs about Nuclear War from the 1980s-ish.
Compliments of the season to you all.

Instagram: bangnuclearpodcast
Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social
Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast
Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast
Email: [email protected]
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.