We danced and sang, and the music played in a de boomtown

Another mini-timeslip moment, dear reader and - as I am focussing on this milestone year throughout 2021 - we're hitching up our Viv Westwood kilts and hurtling back to the misty, distant world of 1981 again...

At this time of year forty years ago, I would have been in the midst of my final A-Level exams, counting down the weeks until I left school and entered the "adult" world. In the news headlines in June: a teenager was arrested after firing blanks at HM The Queen as she rode to the Trooping of the Colour parade, the first cases of AIDS were reported in America, John McEnroe's angry outbursts at Wimbledon caused outrage, the NatWest Tower was formally opened in the City of London, there were riots in Peckham and Coventry, the Israeli Air Force bombed a nuclear reactor in Iran, HMS Ark Royal was launched, the world was gripped at the attempted rescue of a six-year-old boy who had fallen down a well in Italy (he unfortunately died), and the Liberal Party and the SDP formed an alliance. In our cinemas: the premiere of the Bond film For Your Eyes Only; Circle of Two; The Postman Always Rings Twice. On telly: Razzamatazz; Private Schulz; Maybury.

And in our charts this week four decades ago? Smokey Robinson's Being With You was at the top, about to be deposed by Michael Jackson's One Day In Your Life. Also present and correct were a few corkers including Adam and the Ants, Hazel O'Connor, Odyssey and Ultravox, and quite a slew of dross from the likes of Shakin' Stevens, Champaign, Kate Robbins and the godawful Teddy Bear by one-hit-wonder Red Sovine.

However, just debuted outside the Top 20, and destined to sweep away all before it for the rest of the summer was this all-time classic...

The Specials - Ghost Town

This town, is coming like a ghost town
All the clubs have been closed down
This place, is coming like a ghost town
Bands won't play no more
Too much fighting on the dance floor

Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?
We danced and sang, and the music played in a de boomtown

This town, is coming like a ghost town
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place, is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more
The people getting angry

This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town

Where did those forty years go..? Sigh.

[Ghost Town was voted #2 in the Guardian's countdown of "the 100 greatest UK No 1 singles" last year (beaten only by Pet Shop Boys' West End Girls) - read more.]