The Pigging 1980s...

Well, we know it's often referred to as 'The Greed Decade' by the Great and The Priggishly Hypocritical nowadays, but there's no doubt that the 1980s did have a bit of a fixation with pigs. Take a look at the festive porker above. He's on the lid of an embossed tin of lovely fudge I had for a Christmas prezzie in 1988. Kinnerton confectionary made a whole range of 'Who's A Little Piggy then?!' things in 1987 and 1988 (and probably beyond) and below you can see a couple of 1987 egg cups.

Needless to say I guzzled the fudge in a single serving - actually while watching Madge and Harold bickering in Neighbours. I was so intensely involved that before I knew it the tin was empty.

And lovely that fudge was too!

The tin has survived much longer and I now store safety pins, odd buttons and ear plugs in it.

But, on the subject of the '80s and pigs, you don't have to look much further to find more. In that prime porker of a decade, there was something of a drive by UK banks to get kiddies and teenies saving with them, and Nat West came up with the wizard wheeze of a whole family of piggies as collectable ceramic money boxes. Remember Woody? Remember Annabelle? Remember Sir Nathaniel? Of course you do! And all stand mute testament to the 1980s affection for a bit of a swine.

Here's Woody! 'Oink, oink, darlin'!'

And here's old Sir Nathaniel, larding it up on a badge.

It was at Christmas 1988 that, as well as the aforementioned fudge, I ended up with these as prezzies  too. From the same 'friend' who had purveyed the fudge. These very '80s porklets are enjoying themselves thoroughly - with a personal stereo (preferred listening probably 'Pig In Japan'), gym weights ('fit for business, fit for life') and a luxury holiday (complete with binoculars to guzzle in the sights).

'Why all the pig-related gifts?' I asked my 'friend'. 'Not some snide allusion to my weight, is it?' (I'd been hogging the Stella Artois a bit and I had a very slight poddy, which I was trying to offset by cunning use of shoulder pads).

'Of course not, sweetheart!' said my 'friend', all innocent and wide eyed.

That was OK, then. I believed her because she was never snide. Well, only when she was awake. And, to return the thought, the following year I sent her...

... these. Cute, aren't they?

It's 1985... how about some piggin' aerobics?

And we also had the mid-1980s 'Pig Tales' piggies by George Good - pictured above are 'Hogwash' and 'No Pain, No Gain' from 1986. Adorable!

And also from 1986 clap your little trotters for this Marks and Spencer cruet set!

Enough of anthropomorphic pigs! What about pig pigs? Well, if you liked the plain old natural farmyard variety, the 1980s catered for you too. Take a snout at the 1988 lovely below. 

So real!

Oh my gawd - my room looked like a pig sty!

And then there was an ordinary pig doing extraordinary things. Yes, the NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC pig! Proudly starring on my bedroom wall in the mid-1980s, the pig also appeared on several NOW album covers, but probably the height of its career came in late 1984 when it starred in the nude centrefold below. Well, I ask you!

Pig fans across the land grunted in delight back in the Style Decade, but one young pal of mine recently called it 'disturbing'. The 21st Century, eh? What a bore!

Pig fans didn't exactly have a lean time of it in the 1990s either - remember the Piggin' ornaments?

But, when it comes to the oinky ones, the 1980s truly had the competition beat!

Pet Shop Boys 1986 - "Opportunities - Let's Make Lots Of Money" - Original UK Chart Version?

They met in August 1981. And Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe made a Docklands development-sized impact on the mid-to-late 1980s popular music scene - rich in electronics and deliciously droll irony...

Had an enquiry from Phil:

Hi! I enjoy your 1980s site a lot and have a little question for you. In 1986 I loved the Pet Shop Boys hit "Opportunities Lets Make Lots Of Money". I have searched it out on YouTube and heard some great versions of the song, but I'm sure they are not the same as the version in the UK charts in '86. I seem to remember it being faster and even more electronic. Am I right? And if so, where can I find the chart version?

You are right, Phil! There were several mixes of this song. I have the UK chart entry mix on a 1986 compilation cassette - Now That's What I Call Music 7 - and it has a harder, faster, dancier sound. Do look out for copies of Now 7 on on-line auction sites. Of course, there is no CD version. Perhaps the NOW people might consider rectifying that situation with a release of all the pre-CD NOWs on that format for the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of this legendary compilation series?

1983-2013 - thirty years!! Doesn't seem possible...

Now That's What I Call Music 7 - 1986. The Pig had gone (last appearance Now 5) and for this outing we had a very different design. But then we were S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G. Neil and Chris filled us in in 1987:

 No questions in the house, no give and take
There's a big bang in the city
We're all on the make

We're S-H-O-PP-I-N-G, we're shopping
We're S-H-O-PP-I-N-G, we're shopping

Our gain is your loss, that's the price you pay
I heard it in the House of Commons: everything's for sale

Feel the Quality!

80s Facts - Cassettes And CDs...

 A mid-1980s TDK audio cassette. Keep a pencil handy.

Those were the days! In the early 1980s, audio cassettes, launched in the 1960s, finally outsold vinyl records and were clearly the preferred technology. This was, in part, due to the rising popularity of the Sony Walkman, launched in England as the Sony Stowaway in 1980. Apparently, pop group Bow Wow Wow were the stars of the first commercially released cassette single in the world ever, which was also released in 1980. Appropriately, the subject matter of the song was cassettes - C30, C60, C90 Go!

Doesn't seem that exciting now? It didn't at the time either, so don't worry.

Of course, cassettes were great fun - recording the Top 40 off Radio 1 on your dad's hi-fi or your radio cassette, hearing the music warble, go muffled and then cut out as the machine ate your tape, re-spooling tapes with the aid of a pen or pencil - we now look back at it all with gooey-eyed nostalgia. 

The 1980s were undoubtedly the heyday of the audio cassette, but the shoulder padded era also launched the compact disc - 1983 saw its debut in England. 

Now That's What I Call Music 4 in 1984 was the first Now to appear on CD and contained a selection of songs featured on the vinyl and cassette versions.

Like most new technology, the discs and equipment to play them on were initially expensive and so the rise of the CD was slow. But by the late 1980s they were outselling vinyl, although audio cassettes, now helped enormously by the cassette singles suddenly flooding the record shops in the last couple of years of the decade (they were launched as a serious alternative to vinyl singles in America in 1987), were still the top seller until the early 1990s.

Curiously, many retro-loving youths of today, brought up with sophisticated iPods, CDs, etc, have a soft spot for the dear old cassette.

Nice, innit? Just keep that pencil handy...

The "Now That's What I Call Music" Pig

Ah, the Now That's What I Call Music pig! Here's the original version, lapping up melodies from his farmyard pal. This was how the Pig debuted on the first Now album sleeve in 1983.

Didn't really grip me. It seemed quirky to use a 1920s Danish Bacon advertising picture on the back of an album cover, but it was definitely a "hmmm..." moment rather than a "gasp-in-ecstasy-at-visual-delight" moment.

So, how had this quirky idea come about?

The story began in 1983 at the offices of Virgin Records, London, England. The people responsible for the basis of the NOW idea were the then Head of Licensing and Business Affairs Stephen Navin and General Manager Jon Webster. The idea was simple. A collection of unedited contemporary hits. In partnership with EMI, the idea took wing. Pigs might fly? Not in this case. Solid, long-running success was - and still is - the result.




And how did the pig come in? Well, this was down to Virgin Records supremo Richard Branson, who bought the old Danish Bacon factories poster, reproduced at the top of this blog post, from a bric-a-brac shop in Portobello Road. Framed, it made a perfect present for Richard's cousin, Virgin Records executive Simon Draper. Richard recalled years later:  “He was notoriously grumpy before breakfast and loved his eggs in the morning, so I bought him the poster, framed it and had it hung behind his desk !” 

Incidentally, Richard's main reason for visiting the bric-a-brac shop was the fact that he liked the woman who owned it. He later married her.

Back to the main story. The framed piggy poster soon caught EMI Managing Director Peter Jamieson's eye. He later said: “Seeing the poster with the same title on it that had become so familiar to me was serendipity, ‘fate’ even, and I knew then that this had to be the title of our series. It was a powerful and meaningful statement in its own right, and when abbreviated to ‘Now’, gave the ultimate contemporary message”.

And so, our porker pal was on the road to '80s stardom.


At first, the pig seemed set for just one NOW album cover - the very first. He took a break for Now 2.
 
For Now 3, the pig swept out of its '20s farmyard and into the 1980s by donning dark glasses.

Still a bit "hmmm..." really, I thought...

But for Now 4, in 1984, the album sleeve porker artwork became rather better, far more realistic, almost photographic, and the now thoroughly mid-1980s pig added personal stereo headphones to its trendy glasses and assumed a rather uglier facial expression.

Suddenly, t'was bliss.

I got heavily "into" The Pig.

Clever TV advertising helped.
 
 There were several telly ads for Now 4, and in the shortest Mr Posh-Geezer came across my piggy friend, listening to his personal stereo and minding his own business.

"This SWINE is looking very pleased with himself," said Mr Posh-Geezer, highly annoyed.

"That's 'cos I'm listenin' to 32 chart hoggin' hits and you're not!" said the pig, in a broad Yorkshire accent (Brian Glover provided the voice).

Mr Posh-Geezer said no more.

Pig it! Piggy gets his kit off for this stunning 1984 double page magazine ad.
 
Nows 1, 2 and 3 also had video compilations, but Now 4 was the first to also appear on new fangled campact discs.

On a million trillion T-shirts in the mid-1980s, Frankie said "Relax".

The Pig said "Oink".

I managed to persuade my local record shop to let me have the cardboard window display for Now 4, featuring the adored porker, and stuck it to my bedroom wall.

Whilst the most popular pin-ups of the mid-1980s included the likes of Madonna, Samantha (or "S'manfa") Fox and Linda Lusardi, I had the Now Pig.

Like all good things, my Now Pig fixation came to an end.

Shame.

The cover of Now 5 in 1985 featured the Pig, but the artwork lacked the realism of Now 4, and the Pig had, in my very humble opinion, quite lost it - sporting a colourful 1980s shirt (very nice!) and a lollipop behind its ear - looking every inch a cartoon.

Shame.

I had high hopes for the future - surely Now 5 was just a glitch? But when Now 6 arrived, the Pig was absent.

Shame.
 
The Now 4 pig remains one of my top favourite items of 1980s pop culture.

Sad.

My bedroom in 1985 - complete with the Now Pig cardboard display and my Pye Tube Cube (read all about it here). My bedroom was often described by my friends as "The Pit" back in the day - and indeed I thought it was a bit of a dump myself. But hoovering was beyond me and, looking back now, from the vantage point of a tired, forty-something mortgage slave, my old bedroom and those irresponsible long ago days seem like Paradise Lost!

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11 MARCH 2010. UPDATED 22 July 2012.

Now That's What I Call Music Arrives...

Illustration from the first Now That's What I Call Music cassette, which contained such goodies as Will Powers Kissing With Confidence and Tracey Ullman's They Don't Know.
  From the Now cassette sleeve. Do you remember Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack singing Tonight I Celebrate My Love? I liked, and still like, that song, but me and my mate Neal used to sing along to it: "Tonight, I sellotape my glove to you. It seems the natural thing to do..." 

Why?

'Cos we woz wallies.

Read more about the Now That's What I Call Music pig and how it evolved here.