Risky Business, 80s band setup blog

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

As someone who plays in an unashamedly 80s influenced originals bands, I'd be interested to know what's in the typical 80s covers band's set list.

This is our most recent set.

 

Set 1

 

A Little Respect

Real Gone Kid

Together in Electric Dreams

Everybody Wants to Rule The World

I Think We’re Alone Now

Karma Chameleon

The Look of Love Pt1

Love Plus One

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Sledgehammer

Somewhere in My Heart

Material Girl

Don’t You Want Me

 

Set 2

 

The Power of Love (Huey Lewis)

The Heat is On

Never Gonna Give You Up

Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now

Footloose

Kids in America

Rio

Freedom

Mickey

Take on Me

Video Killed the Radio Star

True

Walking on Sunshine

Wake me Up Before You Go-Go

 

Encore

 

The Final Countdown

[BigRedX]

Thanks for posting those two set lists. As I suspected they are quite heavily skewed towards the first half of the decade.

 

@hiram.k.hackenbacker I hope you do "I Think We're Alone Now" in the High NRG style of Tiffany's version otherwise it's technically a 60s cover and "Video Killed The Radio Star" was originally released in 1979 [/pedant] ;-)

[Hellzero]

Great set lists @police squad and @hiram.k.hackenbacker.

 

At least you avoided the most horrific band of the 80's, even if they started in the late 70's : The Cure (that said their two first albums were quite good, their 80's shīt is simply awful, but it's what entitled them to ... money).

[Hellzero]

That said, maybe one song I don't know in the list is from that band...

[police squad]

29 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Thanks for posting those two set lists. As I suspected they are quite heavily skewed towards the first half of the decade.

 

@hiram.k.hackenbacker I hope you do "I Think We're Alone Now" in the High NRG style of Tiffany's version otherwise it's technically a 60s cover and "Video Killed The Radio Star" was originally released in 1979 [/pedant] ;-)

to be honest I'd never thought about

Rick Astely best selling song of 1987.

We are looking to add some new stuff to the duo set but not sure what yet

Paul Young (early 80s again)

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

22 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Thanks for posting those two set lists. As I suspected they are quite heavily skewed towards the first half of the decade.

 

@hiram.k.hackenbacker I hope you do "I Think We're Alone Now" in the High NRG style of Tiffany's version otherwise it's technically a 60s cover and "Video Killed The Radio Star" was originally released in 1979 [/pedant] ;-)

Absolutely Tiffany style.

I won’t bother typing the accolades of which you are almost certainly aware of for VKTRS.

Suffice to say that the track screams 80’s from every pore and always goes down a storm.

I should add that Total 80’s are 100% live - no backing, which is more than I can say for some 80’s tributes I’ve seen.

[police squad]

28 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Absolutely Tiffany style.

I won’t bother typing the accolades of which you are almost certainly aware of for VKTRS.

Suffice to say that the track screams 80’s from every pore and always goes down a storm.

I should add that Total 80’s are 100% live - no backing, which is more than I can say for some 80’s tributes I’ve seen.

our drums are on the backing tracks, since the drummer left but before then it was mostly live,a few cheats to augment the sound BVs etc

[Lozz196]

I’d be more than happy to see @police squad & @hiram.k.hackenbacker doing their respective sets, great tunes.

[uk_lefty]

This is our initial list:

 

Bruce Springsteen: Dancing in the Dark

Bonnie Tyler: Holding out for a Hero

Whitney Houston: I wanna dance with somebody

The Police: Message in a Bottle

U2: With or without you

Flock of Seagulls: I ran so far away

Billy Idol: Rebel yell

Hall and Oates: Man Eater

Glen Frey: the Heat is On

Huey Lewis: the Power of Love

 

Some songs might get swapped out for others... E.g. Dancing in the Dark may get swapped for Born to Run to get more sax involved.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

I’d be more than happy to see @police squad & @hiram.k.hackenbacker doing their respective sets, great tunes.

Since you asked so nicely 😂

 

 

[BigRedX]

17 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

This is our initial list:

 

Bruce Springsteen: Dancing in the Dark

Bonnie Tyler: Holding out for a Hero

Whitney Houston: I wanna dance with somebody

The Police: Message in a Bottle

U2: With or without you

Flock of Seagulls: I ran so far away

Billy Idol: Rebel yell

Hall and Oates: Man Eater

Glen Frey: the Heat is On

Huey Lewis: the Power of Love

 

Some songs might get swapped out for others... E.g. Dancing in the Dark may get swapped for Born to Run to get more sax involved.

 

Message In A Bottle is from 1979 and Born to Run from 1975!

[uk_lefty]

5 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Message In A Bottle is from 1979 and Born to Run from 1975!

Dammit!!!! Oh well, lucky we've only been doing one of those songs. 

Message in a Bottle is the song I like to use to test drummers and guitarists, see how they approach it. 

 

Thanks for that, better getting the info now than during a gig!! 

[police squad]

24 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Message In A Bottle is from 1979 and Born to Run from 1975!

My duo do

Gangsters by the Specials '79

I don't like Mondays '79

The one and only Chesney Hawkes '91 IIRC

 

a little artistic licence lol

[uk_lefty]

1 hour ago, police squad said:

one and only Chesney Hawkes

Written by 80s legend Nik Kershaw, kind of qualifies it 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

27 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

Written by 80s legend Nik Kershaw, kind of qualifies it 

In my other band which is not not exclusively 80's, we do Nik's 'Wouldn't It Be Good'.

I don't know what it is about that song, but I just love playing it and it always gets people singing along.

[police squad]

43 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

Written by 80s legend Nik Kershaw, kind of qualifies it 

I always introduce it as a song written by Nik Kershaw

we also do Wouldn't it be good

both great songs

 

[Hellzero]

We saw Nik Kershaw live in December 2024 for the 40th anniversary tour of his two first albums and it really was an excellent concert.

[ezbass]

My old ‘80 band used to do Wouldn’t It Be Good & The Riddle.
 

With regard to to period accuracy, we also did Walking on the Moon on the presumption that it would have still been played on the likes of Radio1, etc in 1980.

Edited 7 hours ago by ezbass

[Paul S]

I see Nik Kershaw whenever he is nearby, not too often these days, sadly.  He is an immense talent.  Saw him do a solo acoustic gig at Union Chapel which was a huge amount of fun.  He started to introduce 'The One and Only' and thanked Chesney for earning him so much money, adding 'Mind you, Chesney is a bit of a w@nker' only to be joined on stage by him a second later.  Very funny.  Then they played it, fantastic.

 

As an aside, Nik Kershaw did a tour with Go West a few years ago.  Go West would play some tunes, then Nik, then both together - all with the Go West band (who are fab).  They all seemed to be having an absolute blast of a time.  There was a bit where they played one of the others' songs but in their own style.  Nik played 'Missing Persons' and his arrangement was just stunning.  It remains one of the best gigs I have ever seen.

[police squad]

18 minutes ago, Paul S said:

I see Nik Kershaw whenever he is nearby, not too often these days, sadly.  He is an immense talent.  Saw him do a solo acoustic gig at Union Chapel which was a huge amount of fun.  He started to introduce 'The One and Only' and thanked Chesney for earning him so much money, adding 'Mind you, Chesney is a bit of a w@nker' only to be joined on stage by him a second later.  Very funny.  Then they played it, fantastic.

 

As an aside, Nik Kershaw did a tour with Go West a few years ago.  Go West would play some tunes, then Nik, then both together - all with the Go West band (who are fab).  They all seemed to be having an absolute blast of a time.  There was a bit where they played one of the others' songs but in their own style.  Nik played 'Missing Persons' and his arrangement was just stunning.  It remains one of the best gigs I have ever seen.

I had tickets to that Nik and Go West thing but ended up not going as I was feeling a bit lazy and stayed at home (dreadful behaviour I know)

[MacDaddy]

@Paul Geary much love being given to your boss! 

 

For those who don't know, Paul is Nik's bass player 😎

[lozkerr]

On 18/09/2025 at 12:00, BigRedX said:

As someone who plays in an unashamedly 80s influenced originals bands, I'd be interested to know what's in the typical 80s covers band's set list.

 

We're primarily an 80s band, but we don't enforce a cut-off date of 31st December 1989 or ignore anything released before 1st January 1980. The earliest song in our repertoire is Suffragette City (1972) and the most recent is Take Me Out (2004). But they're mainly 80s - here's our full list:

 

Another Girl Another Planet
Baby I Love You (Ramones cover)
Back On The Chain Gang
Bohemian Like You
Call Me
Cars and Girls
Chance
China Girl
Crash (the Primitives song)
Dakota
Dignity
Disco 2000
Don’t You Forget About Me
Don’t You Want Me
Echo Beach
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
German Film Star
Going Underground
Hanging On The Telephone
Happy Birthday (the Altered Images song)
Heart of Glass
I Don’t Want A Lover
I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (Joan Jett rather than the Arrows)
In Between Days
Just Like Heaven
Killing Moon
Little Bird
Long Train Running
Losing My Religion
Love Like Blood
Love Shack
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Mandinka
New Year's Day
Perfect Skin
Pretty In Pink
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Psycho Killer
Purple Rain
Reward
Rip It Up
Running Up That Hill
She Sells Sanctuary
Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Slippery People
Somewhere In My Heart
Suedehead
Suffragette City
Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This
Tainted Love
Take Me Out
Teenage Kicks
The Honeythief
The One I Love
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
There She Goes
This Charming Man
Town Called Malice
White Wedding
Whole Of The Moon

Edited 2 hours ago by lozkerr
and/or error

[Lozz196]

Great set list @lozkerr

[Norris]

9 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

Message In A Bottle is from 1979 and Born to Run from 1975!

1979 was actually the best year in the 80s for music! So many great songs that year