1981 saw the final Festive 50 made up of listeners all-time favourite tracks. Peel may well have made the decision to go for a split chart the following year whilst compiling the 1981 Festive 50, as it had not moved on very much from the 1980 chart. There was a first entry for a notable later chart regular Nick Cave (here with The Birthday Party) and perhaps some rather unexpected pop tunes from Altered Images, Heaven 17 and Pigbag. Other than that, this chart was rather business as usual and crying out for a change of format.
The "FM" column in the list below shows the format the tracks can be collected in. Our preference is always to display the 7" if that version is available, with a 12" single as a second choice. "LP" will appear if the track is LP only. Click any band name to see our full stock list by that artist, or the "In Stock" button to view that specific item.