Timeslip moment once more...
We've surfaced from Waterworld into the midst of 1995 again - the year of Princess Diana's "there were three people in this marriage" Panorama interview, the Bosnian War, Oasis vs Blur, Nick Leeson and the collapse of Barings Bank, GoldenEye, Windows 95, Steve Fossett, Jacques Chirac, the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Gangsta's Paradise, the conviction of Rose West (and the suicide in prison of Fred West) for the murder of ten women and girls, Russian war in Chechnya, Leah Betts, Muriel's Wedding, Louis Farrakhan, the Schengen Agreement, The Madness of King George, Hugh Grant's arrest with a prostitute, Eduard Shevardnadze, Robbie Williams leaving Take That, Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing, Clueless, OJ Simpson found not guilty of murder, "Mr Darcy", the docking of Space Shuttle Atlantis with the Russian Mir space station, and Pocahontas; the year Dua Lipa, Gigi Hadid, the World Trade Organization (WTO), Timothée Chalamet, Hollyoaks, Troye Sivan, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and the Sony PlayStation were born; and Kenny Everett, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Donald Pleasence, Peter Cook, Dean Martin, Elizabeth Montgomery, Paul Eddington, Harold Wilson, Sir Michael Hordern, Ida Lupino, Doug McClure, Gerald Durrell, Larry Grayson, James Herriot, Sir Robert Stephens, Burl Ives and Sir Kingsley Amis all died.
In the headlines in July twenty-five years hence: the Srebrenica massacre of of more than 8,000 Bosnian civilians by Serbian forces horrified the world, PM John Major's gamble with calling an election to face-down his critics paid off as he was re-elected leader of the Conservative Party, the world held its breath over the stand-off between the West and Saddam Hussein over Iraqi disarmament, and the massive Hindu temple in Neasden was formally opened; in the ascendant was Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest in Burma, but we bade a fond farewell to the dilettante poet Sir Stephen Spender. In our cinemas: First Knight; Batman Forever; Congo. On telly: Gaytime TV; Stars in Their Eyes; Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe; and the ill-fated L!VE TV (with its "News Bunny", "Topless Darts and "Lunchbox Volleyball") was launched.
And in our charts a quarter of a century ago (gulp)? Outhere Brothers were at #1 with Boom Boom Boom, and also present and correct were a clutch of - ahem - less-than-inspiring artists including Diana King, Robson & Jerome, Reeves & Mortimer and Shaggy, as well as boyband MN8, Techno combo Clock and the legendary Edwyn Collins...
...and this one!
We are young
We run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright
We wake up, we go out
Smoke a fag, put it out
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright
Are we like you?
I can't be sure
Of the scene as she turns
We are strange in our worlds
But we are young, we get by
Can't go mad, ain't got time
Sleep around if we like
But we're alright
Got some cash
Bought some wheels
Took it out
'Cross the fields
Lost control, hit a wall
But we're alright
Are we like you?
I can't be sure
Of the scene, as she turns
We are strange in our worlds
But we are young
We run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright
Twenty-five years? Where did they go?
