Timeslip moment again, dear reader...
Tom Baker having handed over the keys, it's Peter Davidson (the Fifth Doctor) whose TARDIS has dropped us this time into a world of New Romantics, CB radio, unemployment, the National Front, trench-coats and Tukka boots, the year I left school and turned
eighteen - it's 1981: the year of the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana, the arrest and trial of Peter Sutcliffe aka the "Yorkshire Ripper", Greenham Common,
Brideshead Revisited, race riots in Brixton and Toxteth (and across the country), Adam and the Ants,
Only Fools and Horses, Madame Mao, Bobby Sands, Buck's Fizz winning the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK,
Gregory's Girl, Arthur Scargill,
The Day of the Triffids, François Mitterrand, Solidarity, the SDP,
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, assassination attempts on the Pope and President Ronald Reagan,
For Your Eyes Only, the Penlee lifeboat disaster, personal computers,
Postman Pat, women priests, Rupert Murdoch,
Cats, Norman Tebbit, Space Shuttle Columbia, the TGV high-speed rail service in France, the first diagnosis of AIDS,
Chariots of Fire, crack cocaine, the assassination of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, the first London Marathon,
Danger Mouse, Andreas Papandreou,
Clash of the Titans, "Tiny" Rowland,
Scanners, and Bob Champion winning the Grand National; the births of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Meghan Markle, Paloma Faith, Tom Hiddleston, Roger Federer, Beyoncé, Natalie Portman, Chris Evans,
Donkey Kong, Paris Hilton, Zara Phillips, Belize, Elijah Wood, Antigua and Barbuda, Michelle Dockery,
Post-It notes, Sheridan Smith, the DeLorean "gull-wing" car, Brandon Flowers, the NatWest Tower, Russell Tovey, Kelly Rowland, Craig David and the Sinclair ZX home computer; and the year Natalie Wood, William Holden, Bob Marley, Hoagy Carmichael, Lotte Lenya, Zarah Leander, Edith Head, Robert Montgomery, Princess Alice, Sam Costa, Vera-Ellen, Bill Shankly, Anita Loos, Bernard Lee ("M"), Yip Harburg, Harry Warren, Jack Warner, Patsy Kelly, Gloria Grahame, "Young Mr Grace" Harold Bennett and the Post Office telegram all died.
In the headlines in August
thirty-nine years ago? "Sebastian Coe vs Steve Ovett" mania was in full flood as they took it in turns to break the world athletics record for running a mile, Maze Prison IRA hunger strikes continued, the IBM PC was launched in the US, South African troops invaded Angola, the second prisoner in three weeks escaped from Broadmoor maximum security hospital, MTV arrived and famously opened broadcasts with The Buggles
Video Killed The Radio Star, the Prime Minister and President of Iran were killed in a bomb attack by the Mujahideen, and Mark Chapman was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of John Lennon; in the ascendant (literally) were the Voyager 2 space probe (which made its closest approach to Saturn), and Moira Stuart (who was appointed the BBC's first black newsreader), but we bade a sad farewell to "national treasure" Jessie Matthews. In our cinemas:
Raiders Of The Lost Ark,
Herbie Goes Bananas and
The Watcher in the Woods. On telly:
Three of a Kind,
Knots Landing, the last ever series of
It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and TSW replaced Westward Television in the South West of England.
Our charts in the UK were a confusing mis-match of the "uber-cool" and the not-so-fondly remembered this week in '81. At the top slot was the "King of Naff" Shakin' Stevens with
Green Door, and also present and correct were such embarrassments as
Hooked On Classics, Aneka's
Japanese Boy and something called
The Caribbean Disco Show by Lobo, as well as ELO, Stevie Wonder and Tight Fit. Elsewhere in the chart, on the other hand, were a clutch of artists we indelibly associate with this era such as Kim Wilde, Spandau Ballet, UB40, Depeche Mode, The Specials, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Kate Bush, Ultravox and Visage, and also jostling for space in the Top Ten were Duran Duran, Soft Cell...
...and this fantabulosa choon! A firm favourite of mine, then, now, and forever:
I used to "pointy-dance" like a mad thing in the clubs to that song. I still would today, but for the creaky knees, the lack of energy and the unbalanced centre of gravity.
Oh, to be eighteen again...
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