SAMMY HAGAR
(US, one Top 40 hit, two Top 40 albums)

Later to become Van Halen's frontman having already led Montrose, Hagar's solo career was more reliant on albums rather than singles, with just the one entry into the Top 40 in '80, which was "I've Done Everything For You". It made No.36, and was not what he was to become renowned for.

Biggest Hit: "I've Done Everything For You", No.36, 1980
Defining Moment: None as a solo man.

HAIRCUT 100
(UK, four Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)

WELL SCRUBBED pop-funk pretty boys led by arguably the prettiest of all the decade's newcomers, Nick Heyward, whose chirrupy vocals and breezy lyrics were beautifully complemented by a treacly background combo all clothed in fruity coloured jumpers. Heyward, slightly bucked in the dental region, was amply rewarded in '81, when the single-chord "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)" ("why feel the floor, sweets for my way") galloped to No.4, quickly followed by "Love Plus One" ("ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya, ay-ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya, here we go") which stepped up a further place. Two more Top 10 hits quickly followed, but Heyward hated much of his success and split the band in '83 after being told he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, immediately launching a stuttering solo career documented elsewhere here. Sartorially challenged, to say the least (even in the early 80s, lemon jumpers and orange sou'westers were regarded as a disastrous wardrobe policy) but jaunty, boppy, inoffensive and crammed with more artificial sweetener than a Pepsi factory. Looking back, their music still oozes class and credibility.

Biggest Hit: "Love Plus One", No.3, 1982
Defining Moment: "Boyyyyy meets girrrrrrrl...."

CURTIS HAIRSTON
(US, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

Little recollection of this Yank soul boy, who had one reasonable hit in '85 with "I Want Your Lovin' (Just A Little Bit)", but here our memories fundamentally fail us. Anyone?

Biggest Hit: "I Want Your Lovin' (Just A Little Bit)", No.13, 1985
Defining Moment: None at all.

AUDREY HALL
(Jamaica, two Top 40 hits, no Top 40 albums)

Reggae priestess who lifted spirits briefly twice in '86 with the pleasant "One Dance Won't Do" and "Smile" though our instant recollection of these songs is dim. We'd like to know more. There's an e-mail address somewhere.

Biggest Hit: "Smile", No.14, 1986
Defining Moment: None as yet.

HALL AND OATES
(US, four Top 40 hits, five Top 40 albums)

Though they released their splendid and oft-aired "She's Gone" way back in '76, it flopped like a trouper, and their first Top 40 entry wasn't to be for another six years, which earns them qualification here. Legend has it (though legend can rarely be trusted) that blond, mulleted singer Daryl Hall and curly-topped, moustachioed multi-instrumentalist John Oates met in a skyscraper elevator way back in the early 70s, while escaping from a brawl somewhere in the building. An outrageous way to meet your future partner in fortune, but it happened, and many a discerning listener can be grateful for whoever spilled whoever's pint. They spent their careers working through a number of genres without ever really mastering any - soul, disco, rock-pop, and although success at home was much more instant, it wasn't until '80 that they penetrated the charts in Britain. The song was "Kiss On My List" ("because your kiss, your kiss is on my list") which made a criminally low No.33, yet paved just enough flags to give them a route to the Top 10 with the next release, the funky "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" just over a year later. Looking through the rest of their 80s catalogue, it's phenomenal to think that there was only one more Top 10 hit in them, despite their status as we live and breathe as MOR radio stations' favourites. "Private Eyes" ("they're watching you") just scraped to a laughably underachieving No.32, before their magnum opus "Maneater" ("oh, here she comes, watch out boy she'll chew you up") gave them their peak position at No.6 in late '82. Yet there were equally palatable tunes still to come but for some reason (maybe mullets and moustaches were just too scary as a duo) only the stalker-story "Family Man" ("leave me alone, I'm a family man and my bark is much worse than my bite") hit the Top 20, clutching on to a No.15 spot in '83. Flops aplenty followed until early '85 when the literacy aiding "Method Of Modern Love" ("M-E-T-H-O-D-O-F-L-O-V-E") gave them their last Top 40 placing, though Hall did later sing a solitary line on USA For Africa's anti-famine guilt trip No.1 "We Are The World". Hall, who famously slagged off a number of bands for performing in South Africa during the Artists Against Apartheid publicity fest, managed a palpable '86 solo entry with "Dreamtime"  ("you're living in dreamtime baby") but by now this pair of consummate writers were stuck. Suggestion is that they tried to please too many genres at once and got caught in the crossfire as people attempted to decide exactly what they stood for, but couldn't. Hindsight dictates that they stood for sharp, thoughtful pop in its widest sense, and were the record-buying public able to spool back to the drought of '76 and start again, they would give Hall and Oates a much fairer deal. Mid-70s belter "Rich Girl" failed to make the entire Top 75, for chrissakes. How?

Biggest Hit: "Maneater", No.6, 1982
Defining Moment: "oh, here she comes..."

LYNNE HAMILTON
(Australia, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

She sang the theme tune to Prisoner Cell Block H, that masterful advert for the Australian drama school system which still has the most amazing cult following. The theme was dirgey and semi-poignant and therefore ill-fitting to the programme, as no-one felt a modicom of sympathy or pity for the huge-arsed female lags partaking in the series. The show itself was made popular not necessarily for its characterisation or storylines or dramatic effect, but more by a bored British public watching it purely to see who had graduated to a role in Neighbours. Though 'vinegar tits' did become quite a popular insult.

Biggest Hit: "On The Inside (Theme To Prisoner Cell Block H)", No.3, 1989
Defining Moment: "Don't mess me around, Smith" etc etc

JAN HAMMER
(Czechoslovakia, two Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)

Mid-European keyboard wizard who had 'man of the moment' status in '85 when his bolshie theme to sartori-copdram Miami Vice ("ba-baaaa-ba-baaaa-ba-ba!") became THE television soundtrack to own, reaching No.5 thanks largely to lots of pathetically frustrated women hoping for a hidden Don Johnson inflatable doll in the sleeve. The follow-up, amazingly, went higher a whole two years later, the gorgeous, life-enhancing "Crockett's Theme" which would still be thought of as an equi- instrumental to "Albatross" or "Song For Guy" were it not for the NatWest's decision to stick it on an advert featuring a spotty teenager talking about what a great time he is having as a YTS bank teller, filling the machine with expensive paper and shagging the blonde in the foreign currency department. After all, it's not all work, work, work.

Biggest Hit: "Crockett's Theme", No.2, 1987
Defining Moment: "Come Saturday night, I'll be on the other side of the wall!" Tosser.

HAPPY MONDAYS
(UK, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

Obviously this bunch of cretinous shoegazers are nailed to the ceiling as probably the first great band of the 90s, pioneering the outstanding Madchester scene, but their first hit was in '89. A big combo, but basically consisting of floppy-fringed and foul-mouthed singer Shaun Ryder and maraca-playing dipstick dancer Mark "Bez" Berry, plus a few hangers-on, took the "Madchester Rave On" EP to No.19, the major track of which was "Hallelujah". This was just the beginning, as thus followed "Step On", "Kinky Afro", "Loose Fit", an acrimonious parting of mammoth proportions, the consumption of enough drugs to make you wonder how the hell they are still alive and sane, Black Grape, singing the word 'fuck' 17 times at 6pm on live TV and a shameless reformation at the end of the 90s purely to pay off the taxman. They meant only something to the 80s, yet set about starting the definition of 90s music which made Britain proud (if slightly wary) of its stars again.

Biggest Hit: "Madchester Rave On EP", No.19, 1989
Defining Moment: 1990-93