The Eighties - the last great decade for the pop single. It was the last era in which the Top 40 was an event, something which actually seemed to matter to the young as a whole - rather than just to seven year olds and naval gazing music industry execs. The Encyclopaedia of Classic Eighties Pop is your guide through the heady world of cheesy singles and the heydays of Top of the Pops. This book is for you if you liked the sound of a club where the drinks were free, or if you thought that working as a waitress in a cocktail bar sounded a glamorous way of escaping your humdrum existence. It's a book for you if you knew there wouldn't be snow in Africa this Christmas, or if you sometimes stood alone at parties. Or if you went way too fast and were going to crash, or if you had the sun in your eyes and the wind in your hair and you just didn't give a damn. Or, indeed, if you would sell your soul for a tacky song like the ones you heard on the radio. It's a book for you if you were ever convinced that the opening line of 'La Isla Bonita' was 'Young girl with eyes like potatoes.' If you ever wanted hair like Robert Smith. If you smile wryly at the memory of the All About Eve single 'Martha's Harbour' playing on Top of the Pops while Julianne Regan sat there like a lemon, not miming. And if you recall a certain impudent question to Five Star on Saturday morning TV. And finally, it's a book for you if you ever feel, like Mr Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera - who'll forgive me for not quoting directly, as I don't wish to cost my publishers several hundred pounds - that, although you can neither buy time nor sell your soul, the closest thing to heaven might be rock and roll.