We move like cagey tigers; we couldn't get closer than this

Timeslip moment again...

We've been jettisoned by The Black Fortress into an other-wordly era - 1983: the year of Cabbage Patch Dolls, Madonna, the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 by a Soviet missile, AIDS, the assassination of Benigno Aquino in the Philippines (that hastened the downfall of President Marcos), civil wars in Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, Breakfast Time, fake Hitler Diaries, the murder of gay actor Peter Arne, Flashdance, Greenham Common, Peter Tatchell, Billie Jean and Thriller, Klaus Barbie, Educating Rita, Reagan's plans for a "Star Wars" defence system, Bob Holness and Blockbusters, the "Challenger" space shuttle, the IRA car-bomb attack on Harrods at Xmas, Return of the Jedi, landslide victory for the Tories that gave Margaret Thatcher her second term, the Maze Prison escape, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Tootsie and the Brinks Mat warehouse robbery; the births of Chris Hemsworth, Aidan Turner, Mo Farah, Blackadder, Mika, Amy Winehouse, Henry Cavill, Emily Blunt, the Internet, mobile phones, Swatch watches, the pound coin, Moschino and Microsoft Word; and the year that Gloria Swanson, David Niven, Ira Gershwin, John Le Mesurier, Norma Shearer, Sir William Walton, Harry James, Dick Emery, Dolores del Río, Billy Fury, Tennessee Williams and Violet Carson all died.

In the news headlines in October thirty-six years ago: the grisly story of the multiple murders of young men committed by Dennis Nilson gripped the nation as his trial began, Cecil Parkinson resigned as Trade and Industry Secretary after it was revealed he was having an affair with his secretary, to the fury of the UK government US troops invaded the British Commonwealth island state of Grenada, Neil Kinnock was elected leader of the Labour Party following the retirement of Michael Foot, a million people joined a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) march in London, and the plan to abolish the Greater London Council was announced; in the ascendant was Richard Noble (who broke the land speed record at 633 mph), but we bade a fond farewell to Sir Ralph Richardson. In our cinemas: Zelig, Class and Staying Alive. On telly: Terrahawks, Family Fortunes with Max Bygraves, and Doris Speed's last appearance as "Annie Walker" in Coronation Street.

And in our Top Ten in October '83? Culture Club and Karma Chameleon still ruled the roost, in their fifth week of six at #1. Contenders Tracey Ullman, Lionel Ritchie, Duran Duran and Howard Jones had all been thwarted in their attempt to topple the behemoth, but Billy Joel Uptown Girl had arrived and was about to do the job. Also present and correct were Rocksteady Crew, Men Without Hats, George Benson and - ahem - Black Lace. However, there was also a choon lurking around outside the Top Twenty that was about to take off, and become one of my eternal favourites in the process...

The Cure - The Lovecats

We move like cagey tigers
We couldn't get closer than this
The way we walk
The way we talk
The way we stalk
The way we kiss

We slip through the streets
While everyone sleeps
Getting bigger and sleeker
And wider and brighter
We bite and scratch and scream all night

Let's go
And throw
All the songs we know

Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed the lovecats
We missed you hissed the lovecats

We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully pretty
Oh you know that I'd do anything for you
We should have each other to tea, huh?
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up in the fire
And sleep for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream

Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed the lovecats

We missed you hissed the lovecats
We missed you hissed the lovecats
We missed you hissed the lovecats
We missed you hissed the lovecats

We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully pretty
Oh you know that I'd do anything for you
We should have each other to dinner?
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up in the fire
Get up for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream

Hand in hand
Is the only way to land
Always the right way round
Not broken in pieces
Like hated little meeces
How could we miss
Someone as dumb as this

Missed you hissed the lovecats

I love you let's go
Oh solid gone
How could we miss someone as dumb as this?

Fantabulosa!

How does it feel?

We're off to leafy Dorking today, for our friend Louise's 50th birthday. It seems appropriate to celebrate with a "timeslip moment" from the 80s - a decade when we were all at our prime...

Thirty-three years ago, in early March 1983: AIDS was in the news (constantly), as the US government was under fire for its lack of health promotion advice; the compact disc (CD) and the Austin Maestro went on sale, and IBM launched PC DOS version 2.0; Bob Hawke was elected Prime Minister of Australia; and Torvill & Dean (soon to stun the Winter Olympics the following year) won the World Ice Dance Championship. On our screens were Local Hero, Baby It's You and Without a Trace; and on telly, Sons and Daughters, Tucker's Luck and the fallout from the Deirdre-Ken-Mike saga on Coronation Street.

This week in 1983's charts Bonnie Tyler was supreme, and in her wake: Eurythmics, Michael Jackson, Forrest, Bananarama, Style Council, Toto, Modern Romance and Orange Juice were all riding high. But waiting in the wings, ready to conquer all, was a first - released only on 12" single, it soon set the bar significantly high for dance-pop-crossover music for the rest of the decade.

It is of course New Order's Blue Monday!

But hold fast chums... What would it have sounded like if it had been made 50 years earlier? Using only instruments available in the 1930s - from the theremin and musical saw to the harmonium and prepared piano - let's hear Orkestra Obsolete play their own take on it:

Orkestra Obsolete play Blue Monday using 1930s instruments

And, of course, here's the original:

New Order - Blue Monday

Blue Monday on Wikipedia.