The Opposition were a long running

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

band from London, England that featured Ralph Hall, Marcus Bell and Mark Long, and mixed new wave sounds with

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

rhythms. Founded in 1979, The Opposition released their first single on the independent record label

Double Vision Records A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

. This was called "Very Little Glory" which the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' (''New Musical Express'') reviewed and said that it was "a song recorded before its time". With the press picking up on the band, they switched from indie to major and secured a contract with the

Ariola Records Ariola (also known as Ariola Records, Ariola-Eurodisc and BMG Ariola) is a German record label. In the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of the Bertelsmann Music Group, which in turn has become a part of the international media conglomerat ...

label in Europe. A single called "This Year" came out on Ariola, followed by the self-produced Breaking the Silence album released in Sep. 1981, and a French tour. The band then signed to

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

offshoot

Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der ...

and released the Intimacy album in 1982. Two more albums, Promises in 1984 and Empire Days in 1985 followed in the next two years. On these releases, the band worked with producer Kenny Jones. The band took a hiatus in 1987, when Bell and Long began working on more commercial-sounding material under the name So. Their album, ''Horseshoe in the Glove'', yielded a minor US hit in the song "Are You Sure", which, despite receiving a moderate amount of airplay on rock radio and being named an MTV "Video of the Week", barely missed reaching ''Billboard'''s

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

, peaking at number 41. The song also reached number 62 in the UK Singles chart at the beginning of 1988. The Opposition then regrouped and released the album Blue Alice Blue in 1990, again recorded with Kenny Jones. Marcus Bell died from cancer in December 2014. Mark Long died from cancer aged 67 in 2022.

Discography

* ''Breaking the Silence'' (1981), Double Vision Records * ''Intimacy'' (1982), Double Vision Records * ''Promises'' (1984),

* ''Empire Days'' (1985), Charisma Records * ''Blue Alice Blue'' (1990), Declic Records * 81/'82'' (1991), Midnight Music * ''War Begins at Home'' (1994), Universal * ''Blinder'' (2004), Mrs Jones Records * ''New York, Paris, Peckham'' (2004), Right Back Records –

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

* ''EP2'' (2010), Mrs Jones Records * ''Love and Betrayal'' (2011), Mrs Jones Records * ''Somewhere in Between'' (2016), Aztec Musique * ''Live Eighties'' (2018), Aztec Musique –

* ''Hope'' (2021), Aztec Musiquehttps://opposition.band/produit/hope-cd-version/

References

External links

*
Mrs Jones Records

Right Back Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Opposition, The English post-punk music groups Musical groups from London English rock music groups Musical groups established in 1979 English new wave musical groups Cold wave groups