Some 1980s Vibes: When Corona Was Fizzy Drinks, Frankie Wanted To Arm The Unemployed And West End Girls Prowled...

'West End Girl' - a 1987 poster by Athena. The spiky-haired foxtress has obviously been surprised on the fire escape. Wonder what she's been up to? Eurythmics's Annie Lennox, in the guise of her horrid middle class housewife in the 1987 'Beethoven (I love to listen to)' video, would no doubt, have been fascinated!

So, the 1980s.

BOOM! BANG! KER-BLAM! Love Thatcher/Reagan? Hate Thatcher/Reagan? Wanna be a yuppie? Wanna join Red Wedge and tear down the whole capitalist system? Wanna eat Nouvelle Cuisine? Wanna eat bubble and squeak portions from Bejam? Love the brand new House Music sensation? Prefer the brand new indie sensation that was The Smiths? Love to power dress? Love to wear deelyboppers and jelly shoes?

The 1980s seemed full to bursting with contrasting thingies. And now it all looks like a different planet. How things have changed! Take Covid-19. Back in the 1980s if you mentioned 'Corona' in England and Wales, a range of fizzy drinks immediately sprang to the forefront of most minds - not lockdowns and social distancing.

This Corona bottle dates from 1982, as indicated by the date on the promotional blurb on the back of the label. The label features the little bubbly thingie from the early 1980s 'Every bubble's passed its fizzical' TV ad, which was then current.

Environmentally friendly? 'Course we were - 10p deposit charged on the bottle. My favourite Corona drinks were orangeade and cherryade. Every Christmas we used to order a crate of assorted Corona drinks from the milkman.

Daily Mirror, 27 February, 1985:

Frankie goes to Downing Street
Leading pop stars have signed a "celebrity petition" to be handed in at 10 Downing Street tomorrow. It opposes Government plans to axe supplementary benefit for school leavers if they do not take part in the Youth Training Scheme. Holly Johnson and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Paul Weller, Madness, Smiley Culture, the Flying Pickets and Alison Moyet are among the entertainers whose names will be handed in. The Downing Street visit is part of a national rally and lobby of Parliament organised by the Youth Trade Union Rights Campaign.

The Youth Opportunities scheme had been introduced by the Callaghan Labour Government in 1978, in response to rapidly rising youth unemployment. A YOP provided work experience only, although in 1982 a training element was added. In 1983, it was replaced by the Youth Training Scheme (YTS), which, as the scheme's name suggests, was centred around training for skills.

So, what was the beef with school leavers having to go on a YTS scheme to qualify for Government money? Did they not want training? Well, looking back, the reasons I heard bandied about were that the Government was simply using the scheme to make the unemployment figures look smaller, and that minimum age school leavers had a right to expect a proper job.

This interested me as, as far back as the mid-1970s, the fact that graduates with degrees were finding it impossible to find work was being widely reported.

But in the 1980s, any initiative on the part of the Thatcher Governments was seen by many of us as a plot to do us down. Her first government's concentration on inflation rather than unemployment early in the decade had cast her out forever as far as I was concerned.

And, although I had a job and was completely unaffected, I still ranted my disapproval.

Maggie Thatcher would probably have dearly loved to give Frankie a spanky in the mid-1980s.

Computers 1982

From Clive Sinclair with love... this year saw the arrival of the ZX Spectrum - remembered as the "dear old Speccy" today, but the thrill of the new in '82.

From ZX Computing - an article about the launch of the ZX Spectrum.

Complete with rubber keys...

Personal Computer Magazine - apparently the biggest selling micro magazine in the UK way back then.

Tempted by an Apple? Microcomputers at Laskys in 1982.

Your Computer, February 1982 - with info on the ZX 81 Rubik's Cube master...

The Cube twisting key tapping way to success...

Fancy a "real" computer from Texas Instruments?

Or "broader horizons" with the BBC Microcomputer System?

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This is a 1982 double page spread for Atari video games, from the News of the World Sunday magazine, dated Nov 7th. Note the little girl's windmill deelyboppers! For more about deelyboppers, see here.

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We didn't have any computers or gadgets like these in our house at Christmas 1982 - the computer bug had not bitten my family. But this was our final Christmas untouched by computer technology. How about you?

1982: Invasion Of The Deelybobbers/Deelyboppers/Beeny Boppers/Bonce Boppers/Space Boppers...

June 1982 - Deelyboppers, or Bonce Boppers, or Deelybobbers, or Space Boppers, or... [insert own name for this exciting early 1980s headgear] ran rampant in New York and were about to arrive here...

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From the Rock column by Robin Eggar, Daily Mirror, 29/6/1982:

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The young lady with the strange growths on her head is not an alien. She's just sporting the trendiest fashion accessory in New York - The Bonce Bopper.

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New Yorkers have suddenly started to sprout spring-mounted bobbles, hearts, stars and windmills.

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If you want to be one of the first bobble-headers in Britain, I've just had 25 sets flown in.

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To win one, tell me who first recorded the Rolling Stones' current hit "Going To A Go Go" in 1966. The first 25 answers drawn from the bag on Monday, July 5, will receive a bonce bopper.

*

Sadly, Going To A Go Go really wasn't much of a hit - stalling at No. 26, but deelybobbers/deelyboppers/bonce boppers etc, etc, were a wow!

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The Sun, 23 July, 1982 - the "Bonce Bouncers" are here!

We've had head-hunters and head-bangers. Now it's the turn of the bonce boppers.

In fact, it's the latest craze to bounce into Britain from America. And it's going to everyone's head.

So, hang up your hoola-hoop, scrap your skateboard and get a head start by wearing a bopper on your bonce.

It's a headband supporting two spiral wire antenna topped with hearts, bobbing balls or windmills.

When we took to the streets with luscious Linda Lusardi wearing a pair of boppers, headstrong young men came rushing up to look at her...

Page three lovely Linda gets bopping...

In August 1982, an article entitled Parting The Forest Of Headbanger Antennae appeared in my local rag (or newspaper!):
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It is the latest craze and it has really gone to people's heads...

What is it? Well, here we encounter a slight problem. What are those things protruding from the heads of everyone under 13 years (not to mention a few people over 13 years)?
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The answer is not easy. There seem to be as many names for these glittering balls, hearts, stars, feathers and windmills, as there are designs.
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"What do you call those headbands with things on?" I asked a girl in one Cambridge fashion shop.
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"I don't know," she mused... "Headbands with things on, I suppose."
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Round the corner, the street trader who was undercutting the shop by 39p, displayed no such hesitation.
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"Beeny (or should it be beany?) Boppers," he said.
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Along the street another itinerant salesman had a sign saying "Bouncers," or was it "Boncers"?
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In Green Street, Cambridge, a shop named Games and Puzzles calls them Headbanger Antennae. They are also known as Space Boppers and Bonce Boppers.
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"The kids seem to make up their own names," said Games and Puzzles proprietor Mr Lester Saunders.
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Whatever they are called, they are the biggest thing since the Rubik Cube. Since the start of the school holidays they have proliferated in Cambridge to almost epidemic proportions.
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Let's quickly recap on what we learned in the main 1982 blurb:

The oddball headgear was registered in the USA, its homeland, as "Deely-bobbers" (according to 20th Century Words by John Ayto) in 1982, with claim of usage of the name since 1981.

The name (deely-bobbers, I believe) had previously been applied to a children's toy - a type of inter-connecting building block.

Did you remember all that? If so, pop on your deely-bobbers or deelyboppers (or whatever you like to call them), and reward yourself with a quick boogie to your Kids From Fame LP - you deserve it!

Did we like looking like space aliens? But of course! I remember wearing a lovely pair of deelyboppers (as I referred to them) just before Christmas 1982 at my firm's Christmas "do".

What a night! My mother discovered me at one o' clock the next morning, tinsel round neck, deelyboppers bobbing, standing underneath a lamp post and serenading the family home: "Save your love my darling, save your love..."

She's never let me forget it.

The little cherub above, pictured in the "Daily Mirror" in August 1982, won a baby of the year show. Was she wearing the headgear at the time?

An unusual way of wearing deelyboppers - the "Sun", September 1982.

See a 1982 Atari magazine advertisement featuring deelyboppers - here.

1982 - Aerobics, Leg Warmers, Deelyboppers, Ra Ra Skirts, Pretty Colours, Zippy Shorts And Skimpy Undies...

A whistle-stop tour of 1982 fashions and cosmetics... beginning with three ads from Cosmopolitan, May 1982...

Boots No 7 - May, 1982 - "Announcing the arrival of the hottest Spring we've ever seen".

Trendy specs from Silhouette - they look lovely with shoulder pads.

Here's Jane Fonda, flashing her leg warmers about on her famous Workout video, which began the home video fitness trend. Aerobics Rules?

Little underwear - from the Daily Mirror, March 1982. Even today, I wouldn't be seen dead in a pair of boxers - although they are supposed to be much healthier for we members of the ... er... unfairer sex.


From The Sun, 4/5/1982:

It's no sweat to keep in trim these days.

Especially with the sort of exercise clothes that reveal loads of style.

Girls are taking to the tennis courts, running tracks and dance classes to keep their curves in shape.

There's no need to sweat it out in sticky vests, baggy shorts and nylon sox. There's enough fashionable gear around for sporting action to turn any girl into a surefire winner.

Zippy shorts and matching tops will give you a good run for your money.

And the latest mini ra-ra skirts will put your legs ahead of other girls.

If you want to take to the tracks in a serious way, choose a body-revealing leotard and fashionable tracksuit bottoms.

You don't have to be a record breaker to look like a champ, but you'll gladden the heart of every fella who likes to play the game.

Remember zippy shorts? Remember those horrible black lycra leggings, ending around the knee, under your ra-ra skirt? And what about these?

The Sun, 23 July, 1982 - the "Bonce Bouncers" are here!

We've had head-hunters and head-bangers. Now it's the turn of the bonce boppers.

In fact, it's the latest craze to bounce into Britain from America. And it's going to everyone's head.

So, hang up your hoola-hoop, scrap your skateboard and get a head start by wearing a bopper on your bonce.

It's a headband supporting two spiral wire antenna topped with hearts, bobbing balls or windmills.

When we took to the streets with luscious Linda Lusardi wearing a pair of boppers, headstrong young men came rushing up to look at her...

Page Three girl Linda Lusardi enjoys the boppers. Read our full deelyboppers feature here.

1982 - Falklands, Gotta Lotta Bottle, ZX Spectrum, ET, Dynasty On The Beeb, Pixie Boots, Fame, Deelyboppers, Pac-Man, legwarmers and lycra leggings

If 1987 was a posh cocktail at a trendy wine bar, 1982 was a pint and a packet of cheese and onion at The Laughing Donkey. Probably wearing deelybobbers - aka deelyboppers aka bonce boppers. The name ("deely-bobbers" - according to 20th Century Words by John Ayto) was registered in the USA in 1982, with claim of usage since 1981. Previously it had been applied to a children's toy - a type of interconnecting building block.

1980s deelybobbers were glitter-covered polystyrene baubles, on springs, attached to a headband. They were daft but fun and highly popular after their arrival here in the second half of 1982, and throughout 1983.

In this country, I seem to recall them being referred to as "deelyboppers" not "bobbers" back then. And many other names!

I personally favoured "deelyboppers" but, whatever they were called, I thought they were brilliant. More here.

The Falklands War raged and Mrs Thatcher briefly lost son Mark in the desert.

Erika Roe streaked at Twickenham.

The Queen awoke to find an intruder in her bedroom at Buckingham Palace. Michael Fagan sat chatting to her. When he asked her for a fag, she managed to summon help.

Princess Anne told press photographers to "NAFF ORF!" - more here.

The Fame TV series, based on the 1980 film, began on the BBC, and legwarmers, Fame tank tops and sweat shirts were hot.

Grandmaster Flash gave us the brilliant The Message and the Hip Hop scene was on the way.

Jeffrey Daniel of Shalamar introduced us to body popping on Top of the Pops. More here.

England, too, produced quality pop. How about Orville's Song, for starters? Or Toto Coelo's I Eat Cannibals? No? Suit yourself.

Pac-Man, invented back in 1980, was the big WOW at our amusement arcades in 1982.

"Nice Cold Ice Cold Milk!" - the fabulous "Gotta Lotta Bottle" milk ads began. More here.

Trevor Beattie came up with one of the most fondly remembered TV ads of the 1980s - Bixie, Dunk, Brian, Crunch and Brains - the Weetabix - "OK?!" More here.
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Black lycra leggings, ending around the knee, were coming into fashion. Lovely when worn under a rah rah skirt. Pixie boots were a must-have. Boys loved sta prest drainpipes and white socks and the donkey jacket was rampant. The donkey jacket was adopted by girls too, and a trend began for having their names printed on the plastic panel at the back.

As large numbers of girls took up that formerly male fashion, the donkey jacket, boys were less enthusiastic about pixie boots and legwarmers!

My mate Pete was one of the few blokes I knew who wore legwarmers. "Ah," he says, when I remind him of that fact, "But they were always white ones. They had to be white."

What has that got to do with it?!

Pete also wore pixie boots.

"They were cowboy boots!" he now insists. Yeah, right, mate...

The fitness fad was on with the release of the F-Plan Diet and the Jane Fonda Workout video. Sadly, the price of video machines, even to rent, was still prohibitive to many.

The term "Sloane Ranger" had been coined in the mid-1970s, and the publication of The Sloane Ranger's Handbook - The First Guide To What Really Matters In Life by Ann Barr and Peter York in 1982 aroused great interest in the "Ok, yah," brigade.

ET was the darling of the flicks and boosted sales of BMX bikes no end. We were all going around saying "ET phone home" for months, too.

CB radio continued to thrill, inspiring a storyline in Coronation Street that could have been entitled "When Eddie ("Slim Jim") met Marion ("Stardust Lil")" and a storyline in Terry and June that could have been entitled "When Terry got Trapped in the Back of a Lorry in His Car".

The wonderfully anarchic and surreal The Young Ones gave TV comedy a boot up the bottom.

Dynasty was first shown on the BBC on the 1st of May, but Alexis did not appear until the final episode of the first series, a veiled figure in a courtroom scene. In the second series, she was revealed to be our very own Joan Collins (American soap producers seemed to think that a posh English accent gave class to their shows).

Alexis would soon become an 80s legend, but let's not forget the others - Fallon, Pamela Sue Martin, previously the wholesome Nancy Drew; Blake, played by John Forsythe (we couldn't wait to see what Charlie from Charlie's Angels looked like!) and the lovely Krystle - played by the equally lovely Linda Evans. There were many others. Such glitz. Such gloss. Such shoulder pads. Great fun.

Channel Four began, bringing us Countdown, Treasure Hunt, revolutionary soap Brookside and more alternative comedy with The Comic Strip Presents. Ronald Allen (David Hunter of Crossroads) would never be viewed in quite the same way after his stint as Uncle Quentin!

Channel Four also gave us The Tube.

The first Rubik's Cube World Championships were held in Hungary.

Hair gel was becoming an absolute must-have. I was never without a jar, and teased my hair into the weirdest shapes possible.

Boy George flounced onto the pop scene, raising more than a few eye brows.

Duran Duran shoved up the sleeves of their big-shouldered, brightly coloured jackets whilst messing about on the water for the Rio video. The reason? It was a hot day!

The brightly-coloured-jacket-with-pushed-up-sleeve-look became one of the defining looks of the 1980s.

American actor Don Johnson was impressed and ordered similar jackets, but made out of linen, for his character in Miami Vice, which began in America 1984 and popped over here in early '85.

Hi-tec '82 - the ZX Spectrum was launched, complete with rubber keys and "Pong".