Ashes to Ashes

[steve56]

Toxteth Then Brixton or was it vice versa?

[dynatech]

I saw some quote in the paper about this taking us back to the time of 'new romantics' and all that malarky. Trouble is, in 1981 New Romantics were a club-based cult in very very small pockets of London and a couple of other cities, they weren't very present in the streets of the time. In real terms, 1981 wasn't much different to 1980 or 1979. I remember having a discussion with a couple of 18 year old girls about 9 years ago who were saying how cool it must have been to have been around in the 80's, they really though everyone walked around looking like Duran Duran or Boy George and were really disappointed when I explained the rather ordinary reality. I think the people behind this show also appear to think there was a sudden 'year zero' when Adam & The Ants appeared and everyone started driving german cars or jelly-mould hatchbacks, and probably think that people were rioting over the right to wear make-up..... Even the not-so-glamourous Essex jazz-funkers with their Cortina's and Capri's (another great '80's image' cliche) were in their infancy in 1981. A more realistic year may have been 1983 then they could have also harked on about the cold war and it's nuclear threat etc

[steve56]

Duran Duran were OK but i wasnt keen on Adam And The Ants I did like Chant No 1 by Spandau Ballet.

[Pervert]

The clip for next week's episode showed that it's about the royal wedding that year---probably the reason they set it when they did.

I was in London two days before that happened (would have stayed, but couldn't find a suitable grassy knoll!). Oxford Street had a parade on the Sunday, and among those taking part were a man in battered costume, hat and carrying a whip, trying to promote some film coming out later that year (don't think it was Harry Ford, but you never know).

Most of 1982 and early 1983 was when the New Romantics movement became popular across the country. And to give some more perspective, the vanguard of alternative comedy, The Young Ones, didn't start until 1982.

I guess the writers/creators bottled out of dealing with the politics of the Falklands and cold war. A very unpopular prime minister saw her approval rating shoot through the roof when, thanks to her foreign policy disaster and ridiculous cuts in the defence budget that removed naval cover from the south Atlantic, war was declared and then won against Argentina (and remember just how much backing we got from our "special relationship" partner across the pond; Washington preferred a brutal military dictactorship to anything that democracy might have brought to prominence in South America, so wasn't taking sides).

Reagan, Bush senior and Haig, with Rumsfeld and Cheney in supporting roles, were cranking up the cold war with incendiary rhetoric.

We had the IRA "war" on English soil, prisoners involved in dirty protests and hunger strikes, with a number of them dying. And then the social/industrial/political war of the miners' strike.

[steve56]

The Bobby Sands hunger strike incident was mid 1981

[Pervert]

Cheers, Steve. Knew it was pre-Falklands and in the summer, but wasn't sure if it was 81 or the year before.

Thanks for keeping me right.

[Mike_CFC]

Was'nt Steve Strange lead singer with Visage?

my favourite bands of the 80's was OMD, Visage,Spandau,Duran Duran,The Smiths and the then 'underated' Level 42.I hated the Goth bands such as Jesus and Mary Chain,Sousxie and the Bandshees,The Cure etc.These were my fav bands before i moved to the aceeid house scene(circa 1989)

Who remembers Smash Hits? i used to buy that every week !shocked!

Don't you just love the 80's,that's when Chelsea were really shit.Eh Ace? !laugh!