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Wish you were still here: what happened to the one-hit wonders of 80s package holiday pop?

Europop acts from Opus to Baltimora to Nena got huge after Brits brought their songs home from their summer breaks. But despite returning to obscurity, the artists say they’re not (sun)burnt by fame

Then Thomson Holidays introduced the first computerised booking system and pricing was deregulated – enter the golden age of Brits-on-tour package trips to Benidorm, Torremolinos and the other resorts scattered along the Costa del Sol. Photograph: United Archives/Getty ImagesNena were a young West Berlin band, loosely associated with the neue Deutsche welle(new German wave) of the early 80s, who wanted their third single to be an anti-war rock song called 99 Luftballons. Britain (and Canada, Australia and South Africa) had to wait until the following year for 99 Red Balloons, an English-language version whose lyrics the band didn’t really warm to, but which became a monster hit in turn.

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