1981 Top Thirteen

This one was particularly tricky to call.
1. Ultravox - Vienna - 02-1981
2. The Jacksons - Can You Feel It - 04-1981
3. Rainbow - I Surrender - 02-1981
4. Kim Carnes - Bette Davies Eyes - 05-1981
5. The Police - Every Little Thing She Does is Magic - 10-1981
6. Randy Crawford - You Might Need Somebody - 07-1981
7. Elvis Costello - A Good Year For The Roses - 10-1981
8. Godley & Creme - Under Your Thumb - 10-1981
9. The Look - I Am The Beat - 01-1981
10. Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure - 11-1981
11. Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight - 01-1981
12. REO Speedwagon - Keep On Loving You - 05-1981
13. Squeeze - Labelled With Love - 11-1981

And the bubbling unders:
Kiki Dee - Star - 03-1981 
Dire Straits - Romeo And Juliet - 02-1981 
Quincy Jones - Razzamatazz - 07-1981 
Madness - It Must Be Love - 12-1981 
John Lennon - Imagine - 01-1981 
Diana Ross & Lionel Richie - Endless Love - 09-1981 
Bob Marley & The Wailers - No Woman No Cry - 07-1981 
Sugar Minott - Good Thing Going (We've Got A Good Thing Going) - 04-1981 
Julio Iglesias - Begin The Beguine (Volver A Empezar) - 11-1981 
Imagination - Body Talk - 07-1981 
The Pointer Sisters - Slow Hand - 09-1981
Cliff Richard - Wired For Sound - 09-1981
The Human League - Don't You Want Me - 12-1981 (Virgin)

My 1980s

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:

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 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.

1980 Top Thirteen

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

Autumn Bliss

Last week, my son Chris married his fabulous fiancee, Sophia. Here's a flavour of the day:

All week, my hubby and I had scoured various weather forecasts which predicted torrential rain all weekend, and they were almost right - it poured down all day Friday as we travelled down to West Sussex and shared an excellent Italian dinner. But the Saturday dawned with glorious sunshine which lasted right up until the disco finished. Strangely, Sunday morning's cloudburst felt as though the heavens had been keeping their legs crossed to give us a perfect day.

It certainly seems like this is the time of year for nuptials - Bri and I celebrated our 36th anniversary on the preceeding Tuesday, my nephew and neice celebrated their 5th anniversary on the 5th, and the 6th would have been my parents' 66th anniversary. You couldn't write it.

Except I kinda did - to celebrate the 1st book in the hengist saga, 3 Handfastings and a Burial, I wrote a series of blog posts all about wedding traditions through the centuries - you can find them here: https://hengistpeoplehorse.blogspot.com/2019/