Homeboys in the house, yo

Timeslip moment again...

We've been spirited into the first year of the Nineties - the year of the downfall of Margaret Thatcher, Geoffrey Howe, reunification of Germany, General Manuel Noriega, the Hubble Space Telescope, Boris Yeltsin, Iraqi invasion and annexation of Kuwait, British hostages held by Saddam Hussein, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tim Berners-Lee, the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Poll Tax riots, Eduard Shevardnadze, IRA assassination of MP Ian Gow, Tamil Tigers, Three Tenors, Commonwealth Games, Baywatch, the Strangeways Prison riot, Emperor Akihito, BSE, Pretty Woman, Uachtarán Mary Robinson, the human genome project, recession, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, Days of Thunder, freedom for Nelson Mandela, the arrival of the Mitchell brothers "Grant" and "Phil" in Eastenders, and the removal of the definition of homosexuality as a "disease" by the WHO; the year of the births of Princess Eugenie of York, Poundland, Rita Ora, Emma Watson, BBC Radio 5, RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, Eric Saade, Jennifer Lawrence and Namibia; and the year Sarah Vaughan, the Eastern Bloc, Greta Garbo, Leonard Bernstein, Barbara Stanwyck, Pearl Bailey, Gordon Jackson, Ava Gardner, Terry-Thomas, Sammy Davis Jr., Rex Harrison, Leonard Sachs, Johnnie Ray, Ian Charleson, Paulette Goddard, Roald Dahl, Xavier Cugat, Aaron Copland and Malcolm Muggeridge all died.

In the news headlines in October twenty-nine years ago: the UK government made its ill-fated decision to enter the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) [which led to the "Black Wednesday" crash two years later], former PM Edward Heath successfully negotiated with Saddam Hussain for the release of British hostages held in Iraq, the black-red-yellow flag was raised above the Brandenburg Gate for the ceremony of German reunification, Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and South Africa ended segregation of libraries, trains, buses, toilets, swimming pools, and other public facilities. In our cinemas: The Little Mermaid; Ghost; La Femme Nikita. On telly: The Word, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Keeping Up Appearances and Twin Peaks.

And in our charts this week in 1990? Maria McKee's Show Me Heaven continued its run at #1, and Status Quo, Londonbeat, Pet Shop Boys, Technotronic, The Beautiful South, MC Hammer, Deeee-Lite, Bass-o-Matic [nope, me neither] and - ahem! - Bobby Vinton were all present and correct. However, still haunting the Top Ten was this long forgotten and bizarrely-already-dated number from a Dutch combo called Twenty 4 Seven:

Twenty 4 Seven feat. Captain Hollywood - I Can't Stand It

I can't stand it no more, no no no!

Apparently.