Back to the 80s

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 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:

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.