So just get in and we'll go for a ride

The gorgeous Nick Kamen "on the cover of a magazine"

Timeslip moment again...

We've been deposited with a bump by the Klingon Bird of Prey Bounty in the distinctly alien world of 1986 - the year of Chernobyl, the controversial Diego Maradona "Hand of God" goal that won the World Cup for Argentina over England, the "tombstone" AIDS awareness campaign in the UK, Neighbours, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the Westland affair, Abu Nidal, Prince Andrew and Fergie's wedding, Suzy Lamplugh, "If you see Sid, tell him", the ousting of President Ferdinand Marcos (and Imelda and her shoes) in the Philippines, Casualty, the kidnap of British journalist John McCarthy in Beirut, Gary Lineker, the Wapping strike over digitisation of newspapers, Olof Palme, Halley's Comet, the Iran-Contra Affair, Desmond Tutu, "Den and Angie", the US bombing of Libya, the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, Jeremy Bamber, the Cameroon lake eruption that killed 2000 people and hundreds of animals, and the so-called "Big Bang" deregulation of the London Stock Exchange; the births of Rafael Nadal, Jamie Bell, Lady Gaga, Richard Madden, Jenna Coleman, Ellie Goulding, the M25 Motorway, the Mir space station, the Fox Broadcasting Company and Phantom of the Opera; and the deaths of James Cagney, Pat Phoenix, Phil Lynott, Christopher Isherwood, Robert Helpmann, Benny Goodman, Alan Jay Lerner, Cary Grant, Elsa Lanchester, Harold MacMillan and the Greater London Council and the six Metropolitan County Councils.

In the news in late April/early May thirty-three years ago: the funeral of the Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson took place, panic was being whipped up about fallout from the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, mass prison riots erupted across the UK, Europe's largest indoor shopping centre the MetroCentre opened in Gateshead, and a peace treaty was signed between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Netherlands to end the Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War (one of the longest wars in human history); in the ascendant were Liverpool FC and their player-manager Kenny Dalglish (who led his team to victory in the FA Cup); but we waved a sad farewell to comedy actress and national treasure Hylda Baker. In our cinemas: The Tall Guy, Working Girl, and Mississippi Burning. On telly: Bread, Spitting Image, and the culmination of the Grange Hill "Zammo McGuire" drug addiction/"Just Say No!" storyline (which led to the cast being invited to the White House to meet Nancy Reagan).

And what of the charts this week in '86? Quite a few classics were in the Top Ten, including A Different Corner by George Michael at #1, Queen's A Kind of Magic, Rock Me Amadeus by Falco, What Have You Done For Me Lately? by Janet Jackson, and Queen Madge Live To Tell. Also present and correct were the aforementioned Grange Hill cast, Cliff Richard, Big Country, Samantha Fox and Five Star - but lurking just beyond, a certain wibbler called Whitney was about to conquer all.

However, also lurking around was this sadly much overlooked - and very atmospheric, even if it is intended to be a piss-take of all those American "freeway" ballads - choon that I loved at the time and still love today...

It's Immaterial - Driving Away From Home

Hey
Now just get in
And close the door
And put your foot down

You know, I like this suburb we're going through
And I've been around here many times before
When I was young we were gonna move out this way
For the clean air, healthy, you know
Away from the factories and the smoke
I like that shop, too
You can get anything there

So just get in
And we'll go for a ride

'Cos we'll go driving away from home
Thirty miles or more
And we'll go moving away from home
Without a care

I'll tell you what
Why don't we cross the city limit
And head on down the M62
It's only thirty nine miles
And forty five minutes to Manchester
And that's my birth-place, you know

Driving away from home
Thirty miles or more
And we'll go moving away from home
Without a care in the world

Driving away from home
Thirty miles or more
Yes, we'll go moving away from home
Without a care

Some of my friends live up North, too
If you like a longer trip
All you've got to do is put your foot hard down to the floor
And we can call on people I know in Newcastle
Or maybe even Glasgow

There's a lot of nice places to see out there
So just don't worry

Moving away from home
Without a care in the world

Driving away from home
Thirty miles or more
Yes, we'll go moving away from home
Without a care in the world

Move-em on, move-em out, move-em up
King of the road, knight of the road
It's all the same to me
I mean, after all
It's just a road

Driving away from home
Drivin'...
Driving away from home

Indeed.