"That era" would be 80's indie/alternative rock (i'm useless at labels!) music.

I thought i'd e-mailed you my full answer earlier but it turns out that i just replied to the livejournal comment notification! I'd like to blame noisy builders, a constantly crashing pc and cat on keyboard for my stupidity but don't think i honestly can. I'm just a muppet, and not one of the cool ones either.