We feel the steam as it rises around us

My favourite poster when I was a teenager - I wonder why?

Another mini-timeslip moment is upon us, dear reader - and yes! It's back to the wild'n'wacky world of 1981 again...

In the news headlines at the end of April/early May forty years ago: The trial of the Yorkshire Ripper for 13 murders and seven attempted murders of women began (with the inevitable blanket coverage in the papers for weeks), there was rioting in Ealing and Finsbury Park in London and also at Southend-on-Sea, unemployment in the UK hit 2.5 million for the first time in fifty years, it was Valéry Giscard d'Estaing vs François Mitterrand in the French presidential elections, and Billie-Jean King was "outed" when her former partner sued for "palimoney". In our cinemas: Superman II; Gregory's Girl; Raging Bull. On telly: The Chinese Detective; Clapperboard; That's Life!

And in our charts this week in April '81? Eurovision-winners Bucks Fizz celebrated their third [and final] week at the top, managing to prevent Ennio Morricone's Chi Mai (Theme From The BBC TV Series "The Life And Times Of David Lloyd George") and the annoying Stars on 45 from ever gaining pole position. Also present and correct were Sugar Minott, Madness, The Jacksons, Shakin' Stevens, Stevie Wonder, Landscape and former Rainbow vocalist Graham Bonnet. 

Hovering around the outskirts [its highest position was to be #10], however, was this slice of New Romantic pomposity at its most extreme!

Spandau Ballet - Musclebound

 

We're building fires that will burn until morning
The smell of books and hot stone surround us
Tough is the leather thats strapped to my skin
Strong are the bonds that we make

We feel the steam as it rises around us
Up from the soil that is cracking its back
Tough us the leather thats strapped to my skin
Strong are the bonds that sing

Work til you're musclebound all night long
Work til you're musclebound all night long
Gotta work til you're musclebound all night long
Gotta work til you're musclebound all night long

We're building fires that will burn until morning
The smell of books and hot stone surround us
Tough is the leather thats strapped to my skin
Strong are the bonds that we make

To hear a pulsing from chanter to mountain
Down through the vein and into the grain
Strong is the shoulder that moves to the time
Here is the land it can break

Work til you're musclebound all night long
Work til you're musclebound all night long
Gotta work til you're musclebound all night long
Gotta work til you're musclebound all night long

Subtle. I like it...

You know you're getting old when...

...you find out that the toothsome Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet is 60 years old!





This, of course, is how we prefer to remember Gary and the boys:

Spandau Ballet - Paint Me Down

I've got my filbert out as we speak!

Many happy returns, Gary James Kemp (born 16th October 1959)

I'm washing my clothes, but the stain still grows

This is how we used to dress. And, occasionally, still do.

Timeslip moment again... So, with not just my birthday, but also my dear sister's fiftieth looming, our trusty TARDIS has deposited us back thirty-five years (gulp!) to the middle of that glorious youthful summer when I had just left school, and everything was new - and mainly all about dressing up...

In the news this week in 1981: more than 700 million people watched the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral; Princess Anne's two-month-old daughter was christened Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips; the UK was reeling in the wake of a succession of riots across the country, notably the mayhem in Toxteth in Liverpool, Moss Side in Manchester and Brixton in London; IRA "hunger-strike" deaths were being used as a propaganda weapon in the continued stand-off between the government and terrorists in Northern Ireland; there was controversy over the apartheid-embargo-breaking South African rugby tour in New Zealand; in the ascendant were Microsoft (which purchased DOS for $50,000 - and the rest is history!), the Humber Bridge (recently opened by HM the Queen) and British Telecom (born out of an official split from the Royal Mail), but the unfortunate President of the Gambia Dawda Jawara was deposed in a coup while a guest at the Royal Wedding.

In our cinemas were For Your Eyes Only, Excalibur and Raiders of the Lost Ark. On telly: Ken Barlow married Deirdre Langton on Coronation Street (just two days before the Royal Wedding), kids' music show Razzmatazz launched the career of a young Lisa Stansfield, and You're Only Young Twice (starring "house faves" here at Dolores Delargo Towers Peggy Mount, Pat Coombs and Lally Bowers) was in its last series.

In our charts, heading the pack were The Specials with (a song that neatly summed up that riot-hit summer) Ghost Town, and following in their wake a rather eclectic mish-mash including Stars on 45, Bad Manners, Imagination, Motorhead, Abba, Stevie Wonder and Kate Bush. But, heading inexorably up the charts was one of those songs that really captured my mood - all flounce, pose and preening, here's Spandau Ballet and their barn-stormer, Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)!

Spandau Ballet - Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)

I checked the time, it was almost time
A curious smell, an intangible crime
I'm washing my clothes, but the stain still grows
Cover your eyes, the stain still shows

I feel the gaze against my skin
I feel the gaze against my skin
I know this feeling is a lie
I know this feeling is a lie

There's a guilt within my mind
There's a guilt within my mind
I know this feeling is a lie
I know this feeling is a lie

I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on

I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on

Oh I should question not ignore
Oh I should question not ignore
Songs are always buried deep
Songs are always buried deep

There's a lion in my arms
There is a motion in my arm
Oh I should question not ignore
I should believe and not ignore

I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on
I don't need this pressure on

Ah, happy memories of Hils and I "pointy dancing" to that one...

Oh look at the strange boy, he finds it hard existing

Terrifyingly, Tony Hadley is 53 years old today.

Even more terrifyingly, Spandau Ballet's first hit To Cut A Long Story Short - from the era "BT" ("Before True", the song that ruined their cred), when they were one of the pioneer bands of the emerging New Romantic cult that gave the teenage moi such joy - was released thirty-three years ago...

Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short

Soldier is turning
See him through white light
Running from strangers
See you in the valley

War upon war
Heat upon heat
To cut a long story short
I lost my mind

Sitting on a park bench
Years away from fighting
To cut a long story short
I lost my mind

Standing in the dark
Oh I was waiting for man to come
I am beautiful and clean
And so very very young

To be standing in the street
To be taken by someone

Questions questions
Give me no answers
That's all they ever give me
Questions questions

Oh look at the strange boy
He finds it hard existing
To cut a long story short
I lost my mind

Facts:

• This song was apparently Vince Clarke's inspiration to write Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough
• Producer Richard James Burgess went on to produce a raft of hits for the likes of Adam Ant, King, New Edition, Melba Moore, Kim Wilde, Shock, Living in a Box, Five Star and Colonel Abrams - his work with whom is credited as an influence on early House music.
• The band's name was allegedly created by journalist and writer Robert Elms who saw it scrawled as graffiti on the wall of a nightclub loo during a visit to Berlin.
• Ascerbic critic Jon Savage described Spandau Ballet's Vivienne Westwood-inspired tartan outfits as "Culloden chic".

Of course, as a teenager, it was this poster (from Smash Hits) that adorned my wall...



Spandau Ballet website

Tough is the leather that's strapped to my skin

How time flies.

With a weekend that has been eaten up by a funeral and by Mothers' Day, it is suddenly Monday once more, and our shoulders heave with a collective sigh...

Still, on this Tacky Music Monday, at least we can console ourselves in fact that our lives can never be quite so bad as the gob-smacking combination of Arlene Phillips' choreography, Hot Gossip's faux sexual gyrations, and one of Spandau Ballet's most pretentious musical concoctions. This is sure to cheer you up - enjoy!

Hot Gossip - Musclebound

Indeed.