Best band of the 80's

Phasecorrect in my college days I sat on stage with Loop!
I was part of the local road crew-they were so loud it was unbelieveable and they blew the main electrics!
As usual in these threads I see two bands clearly belonging more to the 70's than 80's-Talking Heads and particulary AC/DC.
Of course there is crossover but that means you could throw in The Rolling Stones!
For me probably The Waterboys-circa 1983-88,after that it all went wrong.
REM as well they were superb in the 80's.

I have a strange relationship with U2 I liked them a lot at the time but now I find a lot of it pretty tired sounding.
I forgot The Smiths who are massively important and more original than U2.
I would argue REM's 80's music has (in my mind anyway)aged better than U2 and overall they've been more consistant than U2 although both bands releases in recent years have been below par-U2's have been particularly lame imho.
Some of the other suggestions are er um ah well bordering from the pitiful to the obscure.
It's all about opinions but dear oh dear Audiophile lameness abounds...

Tvad-I agree that U2 did their best work in the 80's though Achtung Baby is sometimes regarded as their best.
I did like them a lot at the time,their success was clearly based on very straight forward rock dynamics and I realised at the time of the Red Rocks gig they were going to be massive.
REM had much less of the classic rock dynamic but I don't know why despite prefering U2 at the time (I always liked both) I would now rather listen to a REM record than a U2 one.
The point I guess for me,as time has went on and I've heard a lot more music and I'm much more aware of their influences I'm not so sure U2 were that important or indeed creative in comparison to either REM or The Smiths.
What they did do at the time was put energy back into rock music when it was kind of lost in the post-punk fall out and more visual era of the 80's.
They were a classic rock band hence their massive success in the States.
Weirdly having seen both live in the 80's REM destroyed U2 but I would guess on their day U2 took their live performance to a different level maybe I was unlucky the time I saw them(U2).
The Police were a good to great pop rock band but if you are interested in the history of popular music or in terms of influence they are ultimately not of great importance.
Great musicians with a guy who developed into a great songwriter and near the top in 80's terms but even as a guy who bought all their records I couldn't argue they were the best.
I loved Prince at the time and Sign O' The Times would still be in my top 25 albums.
But hey we're on an Audio forum not one for music fans...
:-)