You can almost hear time slipping away

Timeslip moment again...

We've been teleported down to the Spring of 1985: the year of Live Aid, Ronald Reagan, riots in Birmingham, Brixton and the Broadwater Farm estate, the Sinclair C5, the hole in the ozone layer, Back to the Future, the SDP–Liberal Alliance, Boris Becker, the final appearance by Roger Moore as James Bond, Miami Vice, Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta, Garry Kasparov, the hijack of the Achille Lauro, the Heysel Stadium disaster, Super Mario Bros., and the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash which killed 520 people; the births of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lewis Hamilton, Leona Lewis, Keira Knightley, the Commodore Amiga, Bruno Mars, Lana Del Rey and Windows 1.0.; and the deaths of Rock Hudson, Louise Brooks, Noele Gordon, Orson Welles, Phil Silvers, Dian Fossey, Wilfrid Brambell, Ricky Nelson, Yul Brynner and Laura Ashley.

In the headlines in March thirty-four years ago: Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR, the Miners' Strike finally ended after a year of strife, Mohamed Al-Fayed bought Harrods, a blood test for AIDS was developed to screen blood donations in the USA, the Algarrobo earthquake devastated parts of Chile, US journalist Terry Anderson became the latest hostage taken by Hezbollah in Beirut (he remained in captivity till 1991), and football hooligans caused extensive damage and 81 injured in a rampage in Luton. In our cinemas: Dance With a Stranger, The Breakfast Club and A Passage to India. On telly: the first-ever Comic Relief telethon, the last-ever episode of Play School, James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed, and the new BBC soap EastEnders.

And in our charts this week in 1985? The faboo reign of Dead of Alive's You Spin Me Round unceremoniously ended with a drop from the top to #6, and in its wake - with the possible exception of Madonna's Material World and, at the other end of the scale, Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson's uber-camp opus - the rest of the Top Ten was (ahem) unchallenging, to say the least. Phil Collins and Philip Bailey were at #1, and Miss Alison Moyet, Paul Young, Jermaine Jackson, Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy, David Cassidy and the Commodores were all proudly proclaiming their right to occupy the playlists in supermarkets, airport bars, and the night-time airwaves of Magic FM FOREVER.

And also - fortuitously, since it is the 60th birthday today of one half of the band's line-up Richard Drummie - there was (and probably ever will be) Go West...

Go West - We Close Our Eyes

Inside everyone hides one desire
Outside no one would know
Danger close to edge of the knife
Safer not to let go
And while we miss chances
You can almost hear time slipping away

We close our eyes, we never lose a game
Imagination never lets us take the blame
We close our eyes to see the final frame
We close our eyes to time slipping away

No show, Wednesday girl waits with the wine
She knows just what to say
While no one listens
You can almost hear time slipping away

We close our eyes, we never lose a game
Imagination never lets us take the blame
We close our eyes to see the final frame
We close our eyes and

We can talk to strangers
We are burning with the spark
And we can walk on water
We are tigers in the dark
We are burning

We close our eyes

Heroes never give into the night
He knows how far he can run
And as he surrenders
You can almost hear time slipping away

We close our eyes, we never lose a game
Imagination never lets us take the blame
We close our eyes to see the final frame
We close our eyes

We close our eyes, we never lose a game
Imagination never lets us take the blame
We close our eyes to see the final frame
We close our eyes

We close our eyes, we walk on water
Lets us take the blame
We are burning
Talk to strangers

I can hear you humming away, dear reader, even now.