Don't jump before you look

Timeslip moment again...

This time, the good ship Spaceball One has beamed us down to an alien world - the world of thirty years ago in fact - 1988...

...the year of "Eddie The Eagle", Section 28, perestroika, the hijacking of Kuwait Airways Flight 422, drought in the USA, Home and Away, the Piper Alpha disaster, the "Deaths on the Rock", Oliver North, Wimbledon's victory over Liverpool to win the FA Cup, the UK house price boom, Beetlejuice, the beating and murder of two Army corporals by the IRA, an attempted coup in the Maldives, the end of the Iran–Iraq War, the unearthing of a Roman amphitheatre under the Guildhall in the City of London, and the first internet worm; the births of Adele, Rihanna, Jessie J and Comic Relief; and the deaths of Roy Kinnear, Frederick Ashton, the Liberal Party (merged with the SDP to become the Lib Dems), Kenneth Williams, Andy Gibb, Nico and the £1 note (replaced by the coin).

In the headlines in December 1988: the "salmonella in eggs" controversy and the resignation of Health Minister Edwina Currie, the Clapham Junction rail crash, a devastating cyclone in Bangladesh, the very first World AIDS Day, the birth of a new royal baby Princess Beatrice, and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie; in the ascendant were Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan's first ever woman Prime Minister), and the Estonian language (restored as the soon-to-be-independent state's official language), but we waved a sad farewell to the legendary Roy Orbison. In our cinemas: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Willow and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. On telly: An Audience with Victoria Wood, London's Burning, and the 25th anniversary of Top of the Pops.

And in our charts this week three decades ago? It was a fairly icky Top Ten, with Cliff-bloody-Richard at the top slot, and the dreadful Phil Collins and Chris De Burgh also lurking around. Thanks to the success of the Aussie import TV soap Neighbours, Our Princess Kylie and Jason Donovan's eternal "classic" Especially For You had crashed into the #2 slot (but they had to wait till the New Year to get their own chance at the top), and the theme from their wedding episode (by Angry Anderson) completed the triptych. Also in attendance were heartthrobs Bros, plus Robin Beck and her version of a Coke advertising jingle, dear little Rick Astley, Michael Jackson and Pet Shop Boys. But also just arrived - and soon to be a big threat to all of 'em (although it never quite managed to get to #1) - was this one, from our fave queeny musical funsters Erasure!

Erasure - Stop!

We'll be together again
I've been waiting for a long time
We're gonna be, we're gonna be
Together again
I've been connected to the right line
We'll be together and nobody ain't never
Gonna disconnect us or ever separate us
Or say to us you've got to

Stop!
Stand there where you are
Before you go too far
Before you make a fool out of love
Stop!
Don't jump before you look
Get hung upon a hook
Before you make a fool out of love

We'll be together again
I've been waiting for a long time
We're gonna be we're gonna be
Together again
I've been connected to the right line
We'll be together and nobody ain't never
Gonna disconnect us or ever separate us
Or say to us you've got to

Stop!
Stand there where you are
Before you go too far
Before you make a fool out of love
Stop!
Don't jump before you look
Get hung upon a hook
Before you make a fool out of love

We'll be together and nobody ain't never
Gonna disconnect us or ever separate us
Or say to us you've got to

Stop!
Stand there where you are
Before you go too far
Before you make a fool out of love
Stop!
Don't jump before you look
Get hung upon a hook
Before you make a fool out of love

Three decades? Heavens.