Timeslip moment again.
For the last time this year, we've hitched a ride with the Time Bandits all the way back to 1981 - the year of New Romantics, Bucks Fizz, Charles and Diana, the Space Shuttle, Brideshead Revisited, Ronald Reagan, John Lennon, Vienna, the "Yorkshire Ripper" trial, Danger Mouse, John McEnroe, Brixton riots, Ghost Town, The Humber Bridge, Kim Wilde, Bette Davis Eyes, London Marathon, Greenham Common, Toyah, Bob Champion, Gregory's Girl, Indiana Jones, Shakin' Stevens, Moira Stuart, Game For a Laugh, Ian Botham, Kenny Everett, Stars on 45, Chariots of Fire, the Sinclair ZX81, the Birdie Song, the NatWest Tower, Chi Mai, Bob Marley, IRA hunger strikes, Smokey Robinson, Aneka, Rupert Murdoch, Dynasty, the SDP, Hazel O'Connor, Coe vs Ovett, Anwar Sadat, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Adam and the Ants, Ken and Deirdre, me leaving school, and much, much more besides...
In the news headlines in December '81: the coldest temperatures and heaviest snow-falls since the 1870s across the whole country, the first cases of AIDS diagnosed in the UK, endless speculation about the death of Natalie Wood, the Penlee lifeboat disaster, the El Mozote massacre in El Salvador that left 800 dead, martial law imposed in Poland in resistance to the rise of Solidarity, and the election of Arthur Scargill as President of the National Union of Mineworkers. In our cinemas: Gallipoli; Lady Chatterley's Lover; The Fox and the Hound. On telly: A Fine Romance; The Borgias; Kessler.
And in our charts this week forty years ago? That old Latin smoothie Julio Iglesias was celebrating his first and only week at the pinnacle; also present and correct were Miss Diana Ross, Queen and David Bowie, Earth Wind and Fire, the naffest-of-the-naff Modern Romance, and (aargh!) Cliff Richard. But then, there were these classics:
A favourite wank fantasy shirt...
...and an icon:
However... just crashed into the Top Ten was this one, destined to sweep all before it and grab the coveted Xmas #1 slot!
Ah, happy memories. I was eighteen.
Given the title of today's blog, I was sure I was in for some Leo Sayer fabu news or insight. But I must be Living In A Fanatasy. What a great time capsule. Would probably not lodge in my throat with the help of a nice gin fizz. Agreed? Oh, good. Meet me behind the cricket shed! Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteYou may try and tempt me with a gin fizz and a flash of your stumps, but you'll never be hearing Leo-fucking-Sayer at Dolores Delargo Towers! Jx
DeleteWhaaaa? Cliff-see-me-flick-my-fringe. Sweet bleeding Jesus!
ReplyDeleteI was only going to mention that's the year we sold up and headed to Terror (sic) Australis for a "year or two"...
Happy 40th anniversary of that "temporary" move, Dinah! Jx
DeleteOh my goodness! I remember December 1981 really well! I was in the school pantomime - I was the cat in Dick Whittington, and I remember traipsing through the snow to get to the evening performance. This is when I began wearing black fingerless gloves - I still wear them [not the very same pair, obvs]!
ReplyDeleteI loved Brideshead Revisited, and the following year I made my parents take me to Castle Howard - it was a bit run down and not as seen on TV.
Sx
"Six miles from London, and still no sign of Dick!" My favourite Panto quote...
DeleteI think everyone had fingerless gloves that winter! I know I did - it was the only way one could smoke and keep my hands warm at the same time.
My sister went to Castle Howard. Apparently it still smelt of smoke, decades after the fire of 1940 that gutted much of the building. I loved Brideshead Revisited, too - although I never went as far as carrying a teddy-bear, I wanted that "1920s look" so badly, I bought a long coat and wore braces and granddad shirts and all the rest of it (which also fitted in quite neatly with the New Romantics, 'cos everyone dressed like that at the clubs as well). Jx
It's all coming back in one huge, crashing wave.
ReplyDeleteI does for me, constantly. Sigh. Jx
DeleteOh - and everyone at school wanted a chunky Aran jumper, thanks to Haircut 100!
ReplyDeleteSx
I had one. It was Polyester, and itched like crazy. Jx
DeleteGood times, Great music.
ReplyDeleteFORTY YEARS, though?! Jx
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