Bunch Of Fives: CHAT’s Top 5 80s Duos

Sunderland synth pop duo CHAT have unveiled their video for new single The Problem. Describing the track as stemming from a conversation with a friend who has ‘the problem’ of being in a monogamous relationship whilst pining for someone else, the song’s protagonist considers whether they could have an affair after the other person unveils their feelings… Expect pounding drum machine and slick synth stabs alongside a moral rollercoaster. The duo perform at DJ set at Otto, Sunderland on Thursday 2nd November, where you’re likely to hear some of these favourite 80s pairings…

Pet Shop Boys

We proper love PSB! Obviously, Neil Tennant is a local boy, Beccy takes inspiration from Tennant’s spoken word style lyrical delivery and Jord often uses an E-mu Emulator ii (Chris Lowe’s synth) plugin (an Emulator emulator?) on our tunes. 

Tears for Fears

Kurt and Roland’s songs have a darker theme than a lot of the cheese of the 1980’s, proving that you can write bangers with serious lyrics.

Yazoo

Alison Moyet, aka ‘Alf’, has some mega pipes and Vince Clarke is a synth wizard. FYI Yazoo didn’t use chords, their songs used monophonic parts!

Eurythmics

Another local boy Dave Stewart along with the absolutely iconic Annie Lennox are the ultimate male/female synth pop duo. Beccy takes massive fashion inspiration from Annie’s genderfluid style and maintains that bad women wear gloves.

Wham!

The most commercially successful duo in this bunch, George and Andy were just a couple of marras writing and recording tunes in the house, much the same as us. Jord loves that people see Wham! as a cheesy pop duo, but they were SO much more than that with George’s writing and arranging skills.