I wish I still had my radio show!

Believe it or not, it is a genuine expression of a former love lost. Not that Strip It Down every Thursday night on Swansea's Xtreme Radio was some form of great citadel of radio broadcasting (it wasn't far off, but it was no Today programme, for example), but it was my baby. And I loved putting it together every week. No shit, a show on student radio that was actually prepared. But there is one reason above all else why I miss it right now.

It's got nothing to do with the fact that street-teaming for XFM South Wales has reminded me of former radio glories. Hell no, for a start, I get paid to pound the streets of Cardiff handing out XFM merchandise and swapping anecdotes with the beautiful, drunk gig-goers of the capital. It's all to do with the music that I played. For all the slating that the 1980s get, some of the music produced was the right side of the line marked 'phenomenal'.

Yes, some of the music was truly awful, but then the same can be said of any period of music - there were some shite punk bands, and there are some shite indie bands now - nearly all guilty of shameless, unoriginal copycat behaviour. But the post-punk and new wave eras of the early-to-mid-1980s deserve a lot of love that it rarely gets. Some of the songs I unearthed to play on my show have survived the end-of-uni cull and graduated into my iTunes, and some have even gone on to the iPod. That's how good they are - you have to be pretty special to get onto my iPod I tell you. I'm just that picky with what I listen to when out and about. Even bands I've discarded I still have respect for.

Count or discount Elvis Costello if you will, but certainly Gang of Four, Generation X and Public Image Ltd score highly; Stiff Little Fingers, The Ruts (yeah, Staring at the Rude Boys) and Talking Heads too - all alongside the always-influential stylings of The Clash and The Ramones. And who can forget Joy Division's humble beginnings? And then towards the end of the 1980s came the Madchester bands, and still the 1980s are slammed. It's not all new romantic rubbish you know.

Certainly some bands today could do with a bit of education in the art of changing things, ripping it up and stripping it down. Just because were good, made some money and had a good time, doesn't mean you will too. Do something different, take a chance ferchrissakes! Having said that, I am reeling from the apparent demise of Milburn. They were better than the Monkeys don't you know... seriously. And no, I've not totally given up the idea of getting back on the airwaves sometime soon either.