'Strength' Compilation, Autumn 1987

 'Strength' Compilation 1987

Usually my comps were named by pulling out a random Tarot card from my Aquarian deck.

I notice here from 30 years later, not having opened my Tarot deck for at least 15 years, that I seem to be pulling out a lot or major arcana.*

This was a random process and less consequential cards do pop up later.

Heavy influence from co-workers at Forbidden Planet in this tale, Sinnead was a complete goddess in that company. Her debut, The Lion and the Cobra, is still a classic. Slayer.. again, direct from FP Oxford Street. though they would have crucified me for including U2, one decent tune pulled from an embarrassing album. 

Interesting to see Clannad in there which was a major fave for me in the summer before I moved to college. 

The Primitives is all St Albans friends, way too cool for me at the time.

I was a stout defender of Tin Machine from the start and have been copping flak for it for 30 years.

That Who song, Eminence Front, was very hard to defend from the fashionable but has since been used as a a tv theme as it's a brilliant goove. It's from a pretty bad album though (1982's It's Hard) and you can see a lot of strategy for these tapes was rescuing good tunes from albums you couldn't face listening to in full.

(This explains the U2)

I could not explain The Police - Deathwish until I heard it. From distant memory it's a great album as well.

Side A

1 U2 - God Part II

2 The Who - Eminence Front 

3 The Damned - Anything

4 The Police - Deathwish

5 Aerosmith - I'm Down

8 Sinead O'connor - Just Call Me Joe

9 Billy Idol - Rock On

10 The Stranglers - No More Heroes

Side B

1 Tin Machine - Under the Gods

2 Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina

3 Clannad - I See Red

4 The Stranglers - Ghost Train
5  Hawkwind - Quark, Strangeness and Charm

6The Primitives - Stop Killing Me
7 BoomTown Rats - Rat Trap
8 Slayer - South of Heaven

9 Motorhead - Orgasmatron

10 Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles

 *Reversed does indicate it was upside down when drawn but I think I started disregarding reversed meanings quiet early on as this medieval method of motivation is negative enough as it is

UPDATE

That original tracklist scrubbed out at the top is
Bau Haus - In The Flat Field
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
Grace Jones - Walking In The Rain

which probably I realised was too dark for general consumption
- this wouldn't bother me in later years