I said I can't let you go

Timeslip moment again, sweeties...

Our time machine disguised as a phone booth (no, not that one, this time) has transported us to the world of thirty years ago - 1989, the year when (it seemed) everything was on the change: revolutions swept the Eastern Bloc, signalling the end of the Soviet era and the impending fall of the Berlin Wall; apartheid in South Africa began to be dismantled; and the internet began its inexorable creep into everyone's lives; but China continued repressing free speech, culminating in the Tiananmen Square massacre. It was the year Daniel Radcliffe, GPS technology, Brie Larson and Taylor Swift were born; and Bette Davis, Salvador Dalí, Bea Lillie, Robert Mapplethorpe, Lucille Ball, Laurence Olivier, Irving Berlin and Lee Van Cleef all died.

In the headlines in March 1989: Iran broke off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom over Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses; the Purley station rail crash in London left five people dead and 94 injured; the blueprint for the World Wide Web was published by Tim Berners-Lee; the Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels of oil in Alaska after running aground; Time Warner was born out of the merger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications; two senior RUC officers negotiating cross-border security co-operation in south Armagh were ambushed and shot dead by the IRA; and there were mass pro-democracy demonstrations in Hungary. In our cinemas: Rain Man, Dangerous Liaisons and Scandal. On telly: Home and Away, EMU-TV, and the fallout from the (supposed) murder of "Dirty Den" was still preoccupying the storylines in EastEnders; meanwhile the new Sky TV satellite channels were still in their embryonic stages.

And in our charts this week three decades ago? A number of recent releases were uncharacteristically leaping up the ratings, which caused quite a shake-up - last week's "top dogs" Simple Minds fell to #6, "everyone's favourite baby-sitter" Michael Jackson went down three places to #5, and Bobby Brown was knocked out of the Top Ten altogether. Present and correct, however were Michael Ball, Bananarama (their Comic Relief collaboration with French & Saunders), Sam Brown, S-Express, Texas, Gloria Estefan and Living in a Box. But the conquering hero was...

...the very lovely Jason Donovan!

Jason Donovan - Too Many Broken Hearts

Last night you talked about leaving
I said I can't let you go
It's not just emotional feeling
I need your body and soul

You give me one good reason to leave me
I'll give you ten good reasons to stay
You're the only one I believe in
I'll be hurt, I'll be hurt if you walked away

Too many broken hearts in the world
There's too many dreams can be broken in two
Too many broken hearts in the world
So I won't give up the fight for you

The world is full of lonely people
Who never held on to love
Last night I tried to reach you
But somehow it wasn't enough

So I said, can't you wait any longer
I'll give you all that a lover should give
It ain't my pride but my love that is stronger
I'll be hurt, I'll be hurt if you walked away

Too many broken hearts in the world
There's too many dreams can be broken in two
Too many broken hearts in the world
So I won't give up the fight for you

Fab...

...but how long ago?!!

Where does the time go?