Again, Nanowrimo is eating up every spare second of my days, so here’s a cheeky recap of the 80s which I first put up here last October.
Here’s the first one in a new decade when disco and funk are replaced with rock and punk:
1. Styx – Babe – 01-1980
2. Randy Crawford – One Day I’ll Fly Away – 09-1980
3. Martha & The Muffins – Echo Beach – 04-1980
4. Police – Don’t Stand So Close To Me – 09-1980
5. Billy Joel – It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me – 09-1980
6. David Bowie – Ashes To Ashes – 08-1980
7. Billy Preston & Syreeta – With You I’m Born Again – 01-1980
8. The Pretenders – Talk Of The Town – 04-1980
9. Queen – Another One Bites The Dust – 09-1980
10. Rainbow – All Night Long – 03-1980
11. Cliff Richard – Carrie – 02-1980
12. Dennis Waterman – I Could Be So Good For You – 11-1980
13. Marti Webb – Take That Look Off Your Face – 03-1980
And a few which deserve an honorary mention:
Sheena Easton – 9 to 5 (Morning Train) – 08-1980
Michael Jackson – She’s Out Of My Life – 05-1980
Judas Priest – Breaking The Law – 06-1980
Liquid Gold – Dance Yourself Dizzy – 03-1980
Don McLean – Crying – 06-1980
New Muzik – Living By Numbers – 02-1980
Olivia Newton-John/The Electric Light Orchestra – Xanadu – 07-1980
The Nolans – I’m In The Mood For Dancing – 01-1980
Odyssey – Use It Up And Wear It Out – 07-1980
Saxon – 747 (Strangers In The Night) – 07-1980
Barbra Streisand – Woman In Love – 10-1980
Jona Lewie – Stop The Cavalry – 12-1980
John & Yoko & The Plastic Ono Band – Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – 12-1980
My 80s
I’ve always maintained the 80s was one of the busiest decades of my life, chock-a-bloc full of major events every two years. These are some highlights:
1980 – Finally left the family home to live in a tiny bedsit in Cov. Independence: Yay! Lack of creature comforts: Boo!
One of my strongest memories of my first foray into adulthood was how much all the “sundries” cost. Washing up liquid, loo roll and bin liners – who knew these things didn’t grow on trees? But the biggest shock was having to buy a broom and dustpan and brush.
1982 – Graduated from what is now Coventry University with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering – the first local female to do so. Although it was a hardware degree, my first job writing telecoms software showed me how much more I preferred this, and I spent a total of 23 years working for GEC Telecoms, which eventually became Marconi.
1984 – Having returned to my childhood town, Warwick, the terraced house I bought last year for £21K, went up for sale. It sold quickly for 22K, but the real kicker was six months later, the identical house next door sold for 65k. Bummer!
1986 – A magical year when my man and I travelled to Crete in May where he proposed. Four months later, we got married and honeymooned in Corfu. Something about a Greek island …
1988 – I’ll never forget 23/7/88, sending my hubby in to work the Saturday morning overtime at 8am, then spending most of the morning howling like a dog as the contractions grew stronger. By 11am, I’d had enough and called him back. We got to the hospital with minutes to spare as I was 10cm dilated, and our firstborn, Chris, popped out half an hour later at 12:30 on his due date. Utterly charmed, and he definitely lived up to the adage “Saturday’s child works hard for a living.”
1989 – In theory, the “every 2 years” thing should have meant 1990, but Joanna didn’t quite go the distance, popping out a month early on November 30th. As I remember, she took her time, waiting to make her grand appearance while Mike Baldwin did the dirty on Deidre Barlow. Being born on a Thursday (and being a Sagi) gave a bit of a clue to her wanderlust. She spent several years in France (where she met and married a marvellous Ukrainian, Artem) and has moved four times since returning to the UK.
These are some of my iconic memories of the 80s – what are yours? I’d love to hear what this era of big shoulderpads, even bigger hair and legwarmers meant to you.
JRo Author 