Come and feel my energy

Phew! Another busy week is dragging its heels - but the end in sight... Despite the fact it is Friday the Thirteenth (ooo-er!), it's still time for us to start letting our hair down, to get in the mood for a party...

...and have a bit of a "timeslip moment", to boot!

The USS Enterprise-D has deposited us three decades into the past, in the nexus of 1994 - the year of the Channel Tunnel, the IRA ceasefire, the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, Nelson Mandela and the final end of apartheid, the final end of the Cold War, Edwina Currie's support of the lowering of the age of consent for homosexual relationships to 16 which was rejected and followed by the passing of an amendment which made it 18, Fred and Rose West and the "House of Horrors" murders, the ordination of women priests, Silvio Berlusconi, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sunday trading, Ace of Base, the so-called "Sharongate" saga in EastEnders, President Clinton, the sinking of the MS Estonia in the Baltic Sea with 852 deaths, Prince Charles' confession on TV of adultery with Camilla (and Diana wearing that iconic "little black dress" on the same day), Schindler's List, peace in Angola, the arrival of Tony Blair as opposition leader, Russian invasion of Chechnya, Mrs. Doubtfire, the "cash for questions" affair, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the Britpop "war" between Oasis and Blur, Newt Gingrich, Pulp Fiction, the arrest of OJ Simpson for murder, the Sony Playstation, genocide in Rwanda, Wet Wet Wet's Love Is All Around being at #1 for 15 weeks, Serial Mom, civil war in Yemen, "Life is like a box of chocolates", and the Michael Jackson-Lisa Marie Presley freakshow wedding...

...the year Tom Daley, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, the National Lottery, Friends, Yahoo, AOL and Amazon were born; and the year Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Burt Lancaster, Fanny Cradock, Cesar Romero, Telly Savalas, Labour leader John Smith, Henry Mancini, John Curry, Kurt Cobain, Cab Calloway, Dan Hartman, Stephen Milligan MP, Derek Jarman, Dennis Potter, Harry Nilsson, Ayrton Senna and Doris Speed all died.

It was also a peak year in "The Decade of Dance". So let's load the "Club Classics" cassette into the Walkman, and with not one, not two, but three classics from that very year - Thank Disco(?) It's Friday!!

First up, some noise [and I went mad for this when I first heard it!]:

The Prodigy - No Good (Start The Dance)

...some trance:

Baby D - Let Me Be Your Fantasy

...and, from this very week thirty years ago [EEK!], this!

Corona - Rhythm of the Night

Have a great weekend, dear reader!!

This is the rhythm of my life, oh yeah

Timeslip moment again...

We've been booted out by Jean-Claude Van Damme into the strange, transitional world of 1994 - the year of the IRA ceasefire, Rwandan genocide, the Channel Tunnel, Fred and Rose West, the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, ordination of women priests, Pulp Fiction, the final end of the Cold War and the culmination of the Charles vs Diana one, Silvio Berlusconi, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sunday trading, Ace of Base, the age of homosexual consent reduced to 18 in the UK, the so-called "Sharongate" saga in EastEnders, President Clinton, President Nelson Mandela, Schindler's List, peace in Angola, O.J. Simpson, the arrival of Tony Blair, Russian invasion of Chechnya, Mrs. Doubtfire, the "cash for questions" affair, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; the births of Tom Daley, Amazon, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, Halsey and the National Lottery; and the year that Telly Savalas, Burt Lancaster, John Curry, Dan Hartman, Henry Mancini, Stephen Milligan MP, Cesar Romero, Peter Cushing, Derek Jarman, Dennis Potter, Harry Nilsson, Jackie Kennedy, Doris Speed, Fanny Cradock and Labour leader John Smith all died.

In the news headlines in September '94? The sinking of car ferry MS Estonia with the deaths of 852 people on board, the rape and murder of Danish tour guide Louise Jensen by British squaddies in Cyprus, the Iraq disarmament crisis, the end of the broadcasting ban on spokesmen for the IRA (Sinn Féin) and other paramilitary groups, and the seaside town of Whitby hosted its inaugural Goth Weekend. In the ascendant were Jean-Bertrand Aristide (restored to power in Haiti after US military intervention), and Lidl (which opened its first stores in Britain), but we waved a fond farewell to telly stalwart and all-round entertainer Roy Castle. In our cinemas were The Mask, Colour of Night and The Hudsucker Proxy. On telly: Top of the Pops 2, The X-Files, University Challenge with Jeremy Paxman.

And in our charts this week twenty-five years ago? Saturday Night by Whigfield had finally knocked Wet Wet Wet's Love Is All Around off the top of the chart after fifteen weeks; also present and correct were Bon Jovi, Princess Kylie, Boyz II Men, REM, Luther Vandross & Mariah Carey [aaaargh!], M-Beat feat General Levy [nope; me neither] and one of my favourite songs ever, Seven Seconds by Youssou N'dour and Neneh Cherry...

...and this one!

Corona - Rhythm of the Night

I'm jigging around at my desk as we speak.

A quarter of a century later.