BOW WOW WOW
(UK, three Top 40 hits, two Top 40 albums)

Er, blind spot hit here. Don't claim to be expert on everything, do we? "I Want Candy" we remember, and also seem to recall some bland factoid about half of them once being in Adam and the Ants, or something. We know there's plenty to say, so say it for us!

Biggest Hit: "Go Wild In The Country", No.7, 1982
Defining Moment: That's for you to tell us.

BOY GEORGE
(UK, four Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)

Charming, erstwhile Culture Club host continued to flaunt his "like it or lump it" attitude to the bigots of society with an MOR solo career in the mid-decade after the band's acrimonious and tragic parting. George, recently cleaned up from a dilapidating heroin addiction and a plethora of other personal calamities, returned with his weight back in check, his voice as strong and rich as ever, and a surefire instant bombastic climb to the top of the charts with a sultry version of Ken Boothe's "Everything I Own" ("just to have you back again") which paid mega- homage to the original on the way. The remaining tunes held little commercial attention, but it was a blessed relief to see one of the decade's most recognisable, original, amiable and witty figures back on form, still in make-up and more soberly dressed, as emphasised in the 90s with his Buddha-inspired project Jesus Loves You and a high, admirable life as a big-hatted DJ and newspaper columnist. The homophobes still sharpen their knives, but he has a sharper tongue to kill off their prejudices, and he is, once more, loved by all in the more liberal branches of society, capped off in style with the reformation of a fatter and maturer Club in '99. A memorable man, without whom we would all be much the worse.

Biggest Hit: "Everything I Own", No.1, 1987
Defining Moment: The painful dignity as he won his harrowing battle against heroin.

BOY MEETS GIRL
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

Sort of Atlantic Starr with less sickbag factor, and unjustly, less success. Bloke and bird teamed up to gaze comically into each others eyes and deliver the cheesy and cheery "Waiting For A Star To Fall" ("that's where you belong, in my arms baby yeah") complete with high-pitched sax opening. No more after that, but a nice and almost totally inoffensive pop tune in that they sounded like they were having fun while singing sentimental rot, which few of these loved-up saccharin Yank soul acts could manage.

Biggest Hit: "Waiting For A Star To Fall", No.9, 1988
Defining Moment: "Trying to catch your heart is like trying to catch a star..."

BOYSTOWN GANG
(UK, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

One hit wonders again, and once more a troupe of which our thoughts have done a runner. Over to you.

Biggest Hit: "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", No.4, 1982
Defining Moment: Not yet.

BILLY BRAGG
(UK, three Top 40 albums, five Top 40 albums)

Bulbously-nosed Socialist busker whom Tony Benn relied upon to make the crowds flock in at every pro-CND rally he could organise. Bragg's foggy voice could melt glass but he soldiered through the decade as the foremost pop protest singer of the time, probably because there weren't any more who were so blatantly anti-Thatch to the point of sacrificing royalty cheques in favour of the ishoos. "Between The Wars", part of an EP which he performed live on TOTP, told of how he was a miner-cum- docker-cum- railwayman who was happy with his lot until those evil right wingers came along etc. Much of his stuff, singles or otherwise, said the same thing and with the Conservatives having a permanent stranglehold on the 80s, fewer and fewer people took notice of Bragg until he started singing about other topics, though his commercial success was somewhat catastrophic until he rehashed "She's Leaving Home" for Childline in '88 and, flip-sided with Wet Wet Wet's rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends", went to No.1, though interestingly, Bragg's contribution on this supposedly equal-measure double A-side was rarely, if ever aired on Radio 1's countdown or TOTP. In the 90s he changed a little, still politically motivated but less inclined to inflict it on us so wantonly ("Sexuality" was a fine example, and a great song) and to his credit, more than prone to a little self-deprecation, such as performing the Goodies' novelty hit "Do The Funky Gibbon" on Harry Hill's show. Down-to-earth, passionate and funny, he now has a street named after him in his appropriately-titled hometown of Barking.

Biggest Hit: "She's Leaving Home", No.1, 1988
Defining Moment: "I kept voting, not for the iron fist but for the working man..."

LAURA BRANIGAN
(US, two Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)

Stunning, dark-haired siren of a singer with two one-off hits, the squeaky and semi-irritating "Gloria" in '82, and the absolutely top drawer "Self Control" in '84 ("you got me living only for the night") which was rightly revered as one of the finest tunes of a very impressive year and still holds great "remember this one?" factor on Gold stations up and down the land. Nothing since, but she will stay in the psyche forever.

Biggest Hit: "Self Control", No.5, 1984
Defining Moment: "I live among the creatures of the night, I haven't got the will to try and fight..."

BRAT
(UK, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

Impressionist Roger Kitter put on a curly headband wig and a tennis kit to take a satirical swipe at the antics and histrionics of John McEnroe with "Chalk Dust (The Umpire Strikes Back)" which took the predictable route of McEnroe and the bloke in the high chair arguing childishly over whether the ball was in or not. It ended, alarmingly, with the official reaching for a machine gun and fatally peppering McEnroe with bullets. Hardly the stuff of Reservoir Dogs, but probably still inspired a few complaints. Kitter did TOTP playing the game over a badminton net with sponge balls. Doubtful that the All-England club would have allowed film crew access to make the video, and McEnroe's own reaction is unknown. B-side was a willowy Vision On style instrumental called "Moody Mole". Quite funny, until you heard it for the third time.

Biggest Hit: "Chalk Dust (The Umpire Strikes Back)"
Defining Moment: "I was talking to myself....eugh..."

DHAR BRAXTON
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

No idea here, but we assume unsafely that she was a member of the gospelly Braxton family with over-religious parents who eventually allowed baby sibling Toni to earn a few million. The one hit for Dhar was an almost-flop, anyway. Got any more on her?

Biggest Hit: "Jump Back (Set Me Free)", No.32, 1986
Defining Moment: Nope.

BREAK MACHINE
(US, three Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)

New York gymnasts-meet-streetwizards who told us all how to breakdance and bodypop in the year when millions of eleven year olds were practising their headspins on old bits of left-over kitchen lino in the shed. "Street Dance", with that great "ba-pa-da-pa-da-pa-da-ba-dowwww" riff, was the first and biggest hit, but interest waned when a few too many kids started paying regular visits to the neck specialist.

Biggest Hit: "Street Dance", No.3, 1984
Defining Moment: Showing us just how bloody easy the backspin really was.