Timeslip moment again...
This time around, we've been unceremoniously dumped back
thirty-six years - to the dawning of my favourite decade, the Eighties...
The news in November 1980 had an eerily familiar feel, as a Democratic US Presidential candidate (this time Jimmy Carter) accused his opponent of being "a dangerous right-wing radical", yet was trounced by his Republican opponent (Ronald Reagan), and the world shuddered. Also in the news: NASA space probe Voyager I sent back high definition shots from its orbit of Saturn; the bloody civil war in El Salvador shocked the world; the IRA hunger strike in the Maze Prison was underway; two (one not fatal) attacks on women were attributed to the Yorkshire Ripper; in the ascendant were Solidarity in Poland, Michael Foot (elected Leader of the Labour Party) and Reza Pahlavi (who became Shah-in-waiting of Iran, despite that country's abolition of the title); but MG cars ceased production in the UK after 56 years. In our cinemas:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
The Blues Brothers and
Breaker Morant. On telly:
Juliet Bravo (the first series, with Anna Carteret); the launch of the long-running TV review programme
Did You See...? (with Ludovic Kennedy); and
Shoestring (starring Trevor Eve), in its final series.
In our Charts this week in 1980: Megababs was at #1 with
Woman in Love, but Blondie's
The Tide is High had just made its début and was about to topple her. Also present and correct were Status Quo, Bad Manners, Matchbox, Odyssey, David Bowie, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Ottowan - and this one!
Here [once again, but I make no excuses for playing it on Mr Goddard's birthday!] is Adam and the Ants with
Dog Eat Dog:
Ah, memories.
Many happy returns,
Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard, 3rd November 1954)!
