I'm washing my clothes, but the stain still grows

This is how we used to dress. And, occasionally, still do.

Timeslip moment again... So, with not just my birthday, but also my dear sister's fiftieth looming, our trusty TARDIS has deposited us back thirty-five years (gulp!) to the middle of that glorious youthful summer when I had just left school, and everything was new - and mainly all about dressing up...

In the news this week in 1981: more than 700 million people watched the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral; Princess Anne's two-month-old daughter was christened Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips; the UK was reeling in the wake of a succession of riots across the country, notably the mayhem in Toxteth in Liverpool, Moss Side in Manchester and Brixton in London; IRA "hunger-strike" deaths were being used as a propaganda weapon in the continued stand-off between the government and terrorists in Northern Ireland; there was controversy over the apartheid-embargo-breaking South African rugby tour in New Zealand; in the ascendant were Microsoft (which purchased DOS for $50,000 - and the rest is history!), the Humber Bridge (recently opened by HM the Queen) and British Telecom (born out of an official split from the Royal Mail), but the unfortunate President of the Gambia Dawda Jawara was deposed in a coup while a guest at the Royal Wedding.

In our cinemas were For Your Eyes Only, Excalibur and Raiders of the Lost Ark. On telly: Ken Barlow married Deirdre Langton on Coronation Street (just two days before the Royal Wedding), kids' music show Razzmatazz launched the career of a young Lisa Stansfield, and You're Only Young Twice (starring "house faves" here at Dolores Delargo Towers Peggy Mount, Pat Coombs and Lally Bowers) was in its last series.

In our charts, heading the pack were The Specials with (a song that neatly summed up that riot-hit summer) Ghost Town, and following in their wake a rather eclectic mish-mash including Stars on 45, Bad Manners, Imagination, Motorhead, Abba, Stevie Wonder and Kate Bush. But, heading inexorably up the charts was one of those songs that really captured my mood - all flounce, pose and preening, here's Spandau Ballet and their barn-stormer, Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)!

Spandau Ballet - Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)

I checked the time, it was almost time
A curious smell, an intangible crime
I'm washing my clothes, but the stain still grows
Cover your eyes, the stain still shows

I feel the gaze against my skin
I feel the gaze against my skin
I know this feeling is a lie
I know this feeling is a lie

There's a guilt within my mind
There's a guilt within my mind
I know this feeling is a lie
I know this feeling is a lie

I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on

I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on

Oh I should question not ignore
Oh I should question not ignore
Songs are always buried deep
Songs are always buried deep

There's a lion in my arms
There is a motion in my arm
Oh I should question not ignore
I should believe and not ignore

I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on

Ah, happy memories of Hils and I "pointy dancing" to that one...