It's the start of "Pride Month" worldwide, and there's a flurry of milestones to be celebrated - not least the fact it is fifty years since the infamous Stonewall Riots in New York; it's also 50 years since the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) was founded in the UK, the 45th birthday of Gay Switchboard, and the 30th of the UK's Stonewall campaigning and lobbying organisation.
Also, fittingly, for today's "timeslip moment" we've been transported down to a year that has significant meaning to me - 1984,
the year I came out. A milestone, indeed...
It's also the year of Torvill and Dean's "perfect ten", the IRA's attempted assassination of Maggie Thatcher and her government in the Brighton hotel bombing, the Bhopal disaster, the Bishop of Durham,
Thomas the Tank Engine, the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher and the siege of the Libyan Embassy,
Footloose, the miners' strike and Arthur Scargill,
Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley, Zola Budd, Robert Maxwell's takeover of
The Mirror, the Michael Buerk BBC report on the famine in Ethiopia,
Ghost Busters, the US crack cocaine "epidemic", Hezbollah, Hilda Murrell, the Tamil Tigers,
Terms of Endearment, the Thames Barrier,
Like a Virgin, privatisation of British Telecom,
Starlight Express, the Sino-British Joint Declaration to transfer Hong Kong to China,
Gremlins, Diego Maradona, the assassination of Indira Gandhi,
Do They Know It's Christmas? and
The Bill; the births of Prince Harry, Mark Zuckerberg, Katy Perry, Calvin Harris, Kelly Osbourne, the
Apple Macintosh, Gareth Gates, Scarlett Johansson, Kim Jong-un, Avril Lavigne,
Tetris, Burkina Faso and Cirque du Soleil; and the deaths of Marvin Gaye, Tommy Cooper, Ethel Merman, Diana Dors, Richard Burton, Truman Capote, Count Basie, Johnny Weissmuller, James Mason, Arnold Ridley ("Private Godfrey" in
Dad's Army), Sir John Betjeman, Leonard Rossiter, Jon-Erik Hexum, the halfpenny and
Tit-Bits magazine.
In the news in June '84? British schools faced a shakeup as the O-level and CSE exams were replaced by the GCSE, the Indian government launched a military attack on the Golden Temple of Amritsar, and President Ronald Reagan visited Ireland; in the ascendant (literally) were Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways (with its maiden flight from Gatwick Airport to Newark), and Bruce Springsteen (who released the album
Born in the U.S.A.); but we bade a very sad farewell to "national treasure" Eric Morecambe (whose funeral made the headlines). In our cinemas:
Police Academy;
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom;
Splash. On telly:
Crimewatch, Leslie Crowther's
The Price is Right and Cilla Black's
Surprise Surprise.
...and what was in our charts this week
thirty-five years ago [gulp!]? It was as if the world were calling to me
"come out, come out, wherever you are!" - for in the Top 40 all at the same time were Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Relax,
I Want to Break Free by Queen,
Smalltown Boy by Bronksi Beat, Sister Sledge, Bananarama and the Pointer Sisters, and in our Top Ten were Evelyn Thomas
High Energy, Deniece Williams
Let's Hear It For The Boy and Hazell Dean
Searchin' (Gotta Find Me a Man)!
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham was at #1, and also present and correct were The Smiths, Howard Jones, The Style Council, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox...
...and this one!
The reflex (flex, flex, flex)
You've gone too far this time
But I'm dancing on the valentine
I tell you somebody's fooling around
With my chances on the dangerline
I'll cross that bridge when I find it
Another day to make my stand
High time is no time for deciding
If I should find a helping hand
Why don't you use it?
Try not to bruise it
Buy time don't lose it
Why don't you use it?
Try not to bruise it
Buy time don't lose it
The reflex is an only child he's waiting by the park
The reflex is in charge of finding treasure in the dark
And watching over lucky clover isn't that bizarre
Every little thing the reflex does
Leaves you answered with a question mark
I'm on a ride and I want to get off
But they won't slow down the roundabout
I sold the Renoir and the TV set
Don't want to be around when this gets out
So why don't you use it?
Try not to bruise it
Buy time don't lose it
