Some 1980s Highs... Shoulder Pads In The Broom Cupboard...

Yuppies, new technology, shell suits, power dressing, riots, hamster scoffing... it was all happening in the 1980s...

Great response to our recent post regarding your "1980s bests". Got a few "worsts" as well, but up here at '80s Actual Towers, in our turquoise and pink Great Hall, we're well chuffed, mateyboots!

So, we start with Cliff on those monstrous Power Dressing shoulder pads, complete with Velcro so you didn't "over-pad" - as if that was possible back then...

I hated shoulder pads and used to take them out of any jackets I bought that had them in. The 1950s teddy boy look that became so popular again in the 1970s was more my thing. I thought Joan Collins looked ridiculous and I never chose a girlfriend with a 1980s “power dressing” fetish. You have to admit that the shoulder pads became too big and looked hideous in the 80’s. And the idea of blokes wearing them to hide their beer guts was pathetic. The best thing was the Credit Boom. Enough said.

We quite liked 'em, Cliff - we favoured Miami Vice chic, with a few twists, but each to their own... and as for the Credit Boom... well, after spending the '70s and early '80s living so frugally it hurt, it was like Wonderland...

Gorgeous 1980s colour scheme, but are those shoulders lovely or loathsome?

And here's Karen on Miss Ethel Davis and her lodgers, and Edd the Duck...

I used to like “Number 73” on Saturdays and I thought Ethel, Dawn, Harry and Kim really lived in that house! And I loved Children’s BBC with the puppets and the presenters. It was very lively and I really believed Edd the Duck went to Cubs on Tuesdays. I preferred Edd to Gordon The Gopher actually.

Edd was quite simply a mallard god. And he DID go to Cubs on Tuesdays.

Edd with Andy Crane and Wilson the butler. Children's BBC, which began in 1985, was a must-watch for all kids aged five to fifty.

Phillip Schofield brought shoulder pads out of the board room and into the Broom Cupboard.

Sandi Toksvig? Rubbish! That's Ethel!

And here's the Naughty One:

I remember things like Pot Noodles becoming a big thing. There was a cheesy flavour that smelled revolting but tasted like heaven with a satchet of tomato sauce. And Howard Jones. What Is Love? Does Anybody Love Anybody Anyway? And bulldog clips in my hair – bright yellow ones. And break dancing outside Boots on a Saturday morning with a big red ghetto blaster. I body-popped and my boyfriend thrashed about and he and his mates tried to stand on their heads. People sometimes threw money into our pot but mostly seemed kind of bemused and this woman told my boyfriend, “stop it, you’ll hurt yourself!”

Lurved a Pot Noodle and I remember the flavour you mention. Bliss if you could stand the stink. Howard Jones was excellent, but I never got into breakdancing. Mainly because I couldn't do it.

Gis a Noodle.

And Maria remembers that a saucy title didn't always add up to a saucy film...

When I turned 18 in 1989 I went to see a movie called SEX, LIES AND VIDEO TAPE with my best friend. We both thought it would be very rude with lots of bums and panting and groaning, but it wasn’t really. We thought of asking for our money back, but didn’t dare!

Steven Soderbergh... great, great film. I went to see it too, hoping for a bit of vacuous titillation, but it was so much better than that. Although I was grossly disappointed and swore a lot at the time.

Sonia thought Boy George was so cuddly - and then along came Ecstasy...

I had a Boy George Doll in the mid-80s and I loved him very much. I was surprised to read later that he was one of the people behind ‘Everything Starts With An E’ in 1989. Totally different image!

The 1984 Boy George doll! The Boy went from Karma Chameleon to Planet Ecstasy all in one decade!

And finally for this round-up, Claire says:

My low of the 80’s pop culture was Cabbage Patch Dolls because I found them really creepy and thought they were trying to take over the world. My high was Live Aid. Truly inspiring. I was glued to the TV.

Yes, Live Aid was a WOW! and the Cabbage Patch Kids were hugely popular, but not to everybody's taste. I was afraid I might catch mumps off one.

Sunday People, December 1983: Eek!!! Invasion of the Cabbage Patch People...

Please keep the comments coming. We're having a WICKED time here. Till the next time, xxxx

Back To The Future Part 2

Which way to 1985 - and which 1985 will it be?!

From the Sun, 23/11/1989... 

He has soft, shoulder-length auburn hair. His 5ft 4 in frame is draped in a blue blouse and hot pants.

He is Michael J. Fox, who swaps sex for frocks in his latest movie, "Back To The Future 2". 

The 28-year-old heart-throb returns to British [cinema] screens tomorrow as Marty McFly, the small-town boy from California, who's transported to the year 2015 and then all the way back to the Fifties. 

The topsy-turvy time-warp not only calls on Michael to play his own father. It also demands that he turns into a Foxy Lady, depicting his daughter Marlene as a future shocker.

The part called for Michael to wiggle as he walked. Which is probably why he reddens as he talks about the gender-bender role.

"God, it took me an hour to stop myself blushing in that outfit," he says. "But the general consensus was that I was cute and had great legs."

The technology used on the movie to put all his characters together on one screen meant he was playing them all on the same days.

"At least that way they all stayed fresh in my mind," he says. "It was one thing playing a depressed older man and an insane teenage boy but I had to change gear for Marlene.

"I felt completely ridiculous but I could approach it like a character role, not like a guy just dressed up as a girl."

And this is about the right time to explain the mind-boggling plot. First the young hero travels into the future to save his kids from being thrown into jail. He sees his older self there as well as his girlfriend who has become his wife. 

Then he and his scientific sidekick Doc [Christopher Lloyd] return to 1985 to find their town is now a vision of vigilante hell. 

His father has been killed. His school enemy Biff has married his mother. And Fox and friend realise they have taken a wrong time turn and arrived in a different 1985.

So, quite naturally, he travels back in time to 1955 where he finds the bloke he was in the first "Back To The Future", 1985's top-grossing film...

Meanwhile Fox's own future is assured. There's the heavyweight "Casualties of War" also to be screened in Britain...

He has his own production company and there's his son, six-month-old Sam, the major reason why the baby-faced star has grown up.

"All in all I'm pretty happy, " he says. "Heck I'm even changing nappies." 

Which is probably more pleasant than changing sex.

Desperately Seeking Susan, Griffin Of The Midland Bank And The One And Only Frank Sidebottom...

Madonna was definitely one of the biggest "movers and shakers" of mid-to-late 1980s pop music. I went to see her in "Desperately Seeking Susan". I can't remember much of what the film was about, but I still love the featured track (and hit single) "Into The Groove" - complete with "urgent '80s break beats". I read that last bit in a record review. I can never think of clever, informed things like that to write. Shame.

Richard Briers was the voice of Griffin - and what a lot you got if you signed up with the Midland - "the Listening Bank".
Frank Sidebottom was... well... rather strange. He appeared on things like No 73 and, if my memory serves me well, once attempted to mend the lawn mower for his mother. 

He failed, and tried to flush the incriminating bits and pieces of mower workings down the loo.
He also made Frank's Firm Favorites.

Sadly, Chris Sievey, the man behind Mr Sidebottom, died in 2010. Read our tribute to Chris and Frank here.

1983: Return Of The Jedi With Some Brand New Merchandising...

Star Wars toys really rose into the stratosphere in 1980, with the release of the second film, The Empire Strikes Back. Kids were by then aware that the saga was no one-off flash-in-the-pan, and with news of a third film in the offing, everybody wanted to get their hands on a Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader - or even an R2 D2 or C3PO.

In 1983 came Return Of The Jedi, comically retitled Not The Bloody Jedi Again! by the BBC's Three Of A Kind team. And with the film, of course, came more merchandising. Feast your eyes on this selection from the autumn/winter 1983 John Myers Home Shopping Catalogue. The AT-AT vehicle was £33.50 - not cheap in those days! And probably not now, either, with the Credit Crunch in effect.

Some consider the 1980s a time of merchandising overkill, when kids were first exploited as consumers. But I say piffle and bunk. Anybody who remembers the absolute flood of Magic Roundabout merchandising in the 1960s and 1970s will support my view. As a tiny wee boy, I was desperate for a Corgi Magic Roundabout Garden, but my hard-pressed parents could not afford it. How I hankered!

If you were a Star Wars fan, I hope you were luckier than I, and that The Force was with you when it came to getting your grubby little mits on the merchandising!

ET - The Extra Terrestrial

Picture the scene - late 1982 and early 1983...

Many of us were going around intoning "ET phone home" and trying to make a BMX airborne.

And all because of a film...

Sunday Mirror, October 10, 1982:

Out of this world. That's the only way to describe the oddest visitor ever to roam the streets of London.

Not really a pretty sight at first stare, with huge saucer eyes in a squashed-up face lined with a thousand wrinkles. But he was a monster hit wherever he went.

The visitor is E.T. - that stands for Extra Terrestrial - and he's the lovable little alien who stars in the latest blockbusting space movie.

The film is not to be seen in this country until December, yet incredibly, everyone seemed to recognise the creature that has touched the hearts of millions of American movie-goers.

They've ET mad in the States, where box-office takings have hit a staggering £160 million and millions more have been made from merchandising. The hysteria is sure to follow in Britain.

Last week the Sunday Mirror introduced ET to London. Not the real ET, of course. We asked comedian Freddie Starr to don an alien look-alike mask to give startled onlookers a preview of what is coming.

Just the chap for the job, Freddie. ET has audiences weeping over his plight. Freddie has fans crying with laughter.

The superstar comic has also seen the film, created by movie mogul Steven Spielberg, and reckons it's wonderful. He predicts: "It will be a huge success when it opens in Britain. The little creature has such a sad face, it will touch everybody's heart," he said.

The Extra Terrific ET is an alien left behind on Earth by visitors from another planet. He meets an eleven-year-old boy who befriends him in his misery.

The Freddie Starr version of ET met earthling kids at Sullivan's Primary School in Chelsea. Needless to say, they were spaced out.

"It's ET. It's ET!" they shouted. Advance publicity in children's comics has told them the movie is on its way.

"He's lovely," said eight-year-old Claire Adams. "I'd love to see the film."

After blast-off from Chelsea our ET bumped into Tommy Steele near Piccadily Circus.

ET Freddie shook Tommy's hand before taking off his mask. Tommy came down to earth with a quip: "Put it back on. It's a big improvement."

Then it was on to BBC Broadcasting House to meet Radio One's very own hairy monster, DJ Dave Lee Travis.

Once he had been bearded in his den, Dave said: "I've a feeling ET is going to be a phenomenal success in this country. I'm very much looking forward to when the film opens.

In Regent Street, ET came eye to eye with cab driver Benjamin Silkin.

"I've had some funny-looking passangers in my time." he said. "But this little fella takes some beating."

Something to tell his cabbie mates - A Close Encounter of the Friendly Kind.

The BMX flew through the night...

                                  

Above and below: from the Brian Mills mail order catalogue, spring and summer 1983. Note the ET Speak and Spell

                                                  

Love the "ET Phone Home" T-shirts!

The 1982 novel:

He may be wise and as old as the stars but right now he needs a friend. The secrets of the universe can't help him. He's stranded on earth: alone, homesick and afraid.

It is a hostile planet. The police are after him and there's no one who can help... until he meets the children. To them he's a magical being from another world: to him they are unforgettable friends.

The English provincial newspaper article below, from December 1982, reveals how a journalist took three youngsters to the cinema to give judgement on the new sensation...

ET brings out heavy cold symptoms in the audience

After 11-year-old Illyr had seen "ET", he said he had a cold. It must have been a particularly virulent one as so many of us in the audience showed the symptoms at the same time.

The lump in the throat came as the little lost alien, ET, began repeating "home" plaintively while pointing to the sky and by the time he lay dying we were all feeling almost as sick with runny eyes and difficulty in breathing.

The last hour was so heart-rending it made the shooting of Bambi's mother seem as tragic as a sketch from a "Monty Python" film. And we loved it.

There is no denying that at the start the director, Mr Steven Spielberg, had his work cut out to impress my three young companions.

Illyr Pride, Gwendolen Vickers, 11, and Alexandra Alderton, 10, have all seen such favourites as "Mary Poppins" and "Star Wars". They know a thing or two about what keeps their eyes on the screen and not on the clock.

We all agreed that we had been a little put off before we started by the ferocious publicity build up for "ET" the Extra Terrestrial.

Their classmates knew all about the film and wanted to go; some even had ET key rings.

We managed to finish at least three bars of fruit and nut chocolate watching the preliminaries to the main film, including a Pearl and Dean advertisement for ET board games.

Holding our excitement and orange drinks, the title credits begin to roll and we are prepared to share the experience with a widecross-section of adults as well as children in the audience, who only half filled the 900-seat Vic 1 at this 2 pm performance.

The cinema management were not surprised at this low turnout. They expect the queues at the weekend and during the school holidays. The packed houses it is expected to draw everywhere will literally keep open cinemas which have been suffering poor box office receipts.

The Victoria Cinema assistant manager, Mr Trevor Wicks, said: "It will save many. Not us, because fortunately we are already in profit but a lot of cinemas have been hit by the Hollywood strike; there were just no new films coming through. Managers were forced to show re-runs and even films which had been on television."

Struggling managers can quite confidently book their holidays. Any customer resistance created by the infernal racket of "hype" is swept away after the first 25 minutes. By then, my three young critics were totally in love and, perhaps what is more important, in sympathy with the waddling alien who has the appealing vulnerability of a premature baby. Over the top? Go and see it.

Illyr and Gwendolen spent much of the time after the first three quarters of an hour on the edge of their seats. There was as much laughter to be heard as the anguished crushing of drink cartons.

"I thought it had three things: emotion, it was funny and it had very good photography," said Illyr.

"The saddest bit was when he [ET] was dying. I cried," said Alexandra.

"I thought the two bits of flying on their bikes were good," said Gwendolen. "The first time they were flying against the moon he was dying and the second time symbolised life when they were seen against the sun."

Such perceptive remarks show that Mr Spielberg achieved exactly what he set out to. The only criticism of the film, which runs for nearly two hours, was some mumbling in one scene.

All agreed that the most moving moments came when the shared feelings of the human hero, Elliot, and ET are broken during his illness.

Such unaminous verdicts show that ET may be afraid, totally alone and three million light years from home but the film's makers are not.

Edgar, Ghostbusters and Gremlins...

Electric Dreams... remember Edgar?
-------------------------------------
Just what we needed!

From Smash Hits, December 1984: Film treats include Gizmo and those oh-so-cute Gremlins, Ghostbusters and Give My Regards To Broad Street.

A Ghostbusters record. Who you gonna call?

Fatal Attraction...

In 1987 the bunny was well and truly on the boil...