1986: Chernobyl

The Chernobyl disaster - and a rise in radiation levels across Europe. Poor old ignorant me was caught out in a downpour just after it happened and, with the knowledge that there was a radiactive cloud somewhere overhead, and also having heard that rain was a good carrier of radiation, I wondered if my snorkel parka, which I always hung behind my bedroom door, would be glowing when I turned out the light and got into bed.

That may sound humorous - but I kid you not!

Breaking news - from The Times, 29 April, 1986:

Huge Nuclear Leak At Soviet Plant

Alert 1,000 Miles Away In Sweden After Moscow Admits Casualties.

A massive radioactive leak at a Soviet nuclear power station has caused casualties in what may be the world's worst nuclear accident. The leak was so large that it prompted a full-scale alert nearly 1,000 miles away in Sweden, including the evacuation of 600 workers from a Swedish power station on the Baltic coast.

Finland reported radiation levels six times higher than normal. Denmark five times higher than normal, and Norway 50% up as a result of the accident. "We have registered radiation just about everywhere we have looked," said Mr Ragnor Boge, of the Swedish Radiation Institute.

Soviet atomic energy authorities at first told the Swedish Embassy in Moscow they were unaware of any nuclear accident on Soviet territory that could cause a leak to reach Sweden.

But later Tass reported that an accident had taken place at a nuclear power station at Chernobyl, north of Kiev, and there were some casualties.

It said measures were being taken "to eliminate the consequences of the accident" at the plant, where a reactor had been damaged. Aid was being given to those affected by the leak, it added.

Swedish scientists at first believed a leak had occurred at their own nuclear plant at Forsmark, on the Baltic coast about 60 miles north of Stockholm, and evacuated the 600 workers there. After the evacuation radiation levels were checked at other areas of the country, including the capital.

These all confirmed a higher degree of radioactivity than normal, and further tests at Forsmark led the Swedish authorities to conclude that the discharge had come from the Soviet Union.

Some Swedish nuclear experts said they believed the Soviet accident was caused by the overheating of nuclear fuel. A "considerable explosion" would be the result of such overheating and could have led to a "meltdown" of the nuclear core at the reactor, they said.

The Swedish energy minister, Mrs Birgitta Dahl, said all Russian nuclear reactors should be placed under international control.

"We must demand that [the] Soviet Union improve their security and inform the rest of the world of such accidents in good time," she said.

The first stage of the Chernobyl nuclear plant was put into service in September 1977, followed by two more stages in 1980.

A government committee of inquiry has been set up by the Soviet Union into the accident, Tass said.

The Swedish Defence Ministry said an abnormally high level of radioactivity had been recorded on Monday afternoon by several monitoring stations in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

The ministry said that at a rate of "a few millirems an hour" the level was not thought high enough to warrant the evacuation of the local population at Forsmark. It would not be a danger to human beings, although regional specialists said the level was twice as high in Finland as in Sweden and Norway.

A millirem is a unit of ionizing radiation that gives the same biological effect as one thousandth of a standard unit of X-rays.

MOSCOW: Tass said the accident was the first of its kind in the USSR (Christopher Walker writes).

Since Mr Mikhail Gorbachov [sic] came to power in March 1985 there have been repeated calls in the Soviet Union for more open reporting of disasters within the Soviet Union.

The Tass statement was seen as a quick propaganda move ordered by the Kremlin to counter any international criticism of safety measures taken inside the Soviet Union, which has traditionally surrounded details of its nuclear programme with secrecy.

Abandoned villages: There was a serious nuclear accident in the Soviet Union during the winter of 1957-58, according to a report published in February 1980 by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (UPI reports).

The report said the contamination covered between 40 to 400 square miles. It said there was "some loss of life" and at least 30 villages were abandoned, their names subsequently deleted from Soviet maps.

1988 and 1989: Eco-Friendliness - And Pop Scene News And Gossip...

Environmental concerns had grown stronger and stronger during the 1980s, even Mrs Thatcher was turning Green late in the decade - as this extract from a 1988 speech she gave to the Royal Society illustrates:

In the past when we have identified forms of pollution, we have shown our capacity to act effectively. The great London Smogs are now only a nightmare of the past. We have cut airborne lead by 50 per cent. We are spending £4 billion on cleansing the Mersey Basin alone; and the Thames now has the cleanest metropolitan estuary in the world. Even though this kind of action may cost a lot, I believe it to be money well and necessarily spent because the health of the economy and the health of our environment are totally dependent upon each other.

The Government espouses the concept of sustainable economic development.

Stable prosperity can be achieved throughout the world provided the environment is nutured and safeguarded.

Protecting this balance of nature is therefore one of the great challenges of the late Twentieth Century and one in which I am sure your advice will be repeatedly sought.

In 1989, the UK Green Party won 15% of the vote in elections for the European Parliament, but no seats because of the first-past-the-post voting system.

The Party was formerly known as "The Ecology Party" and switched to the Green name in the 1980s.

In the late 1980s, many of us were getting into buying eco-friendly products (I bought a sink cleaning fluid which left a nasty chalky deposit in its wake and I was never sure that my eco friendly bog cleaner got my bog hygenically clean, but I persevered).

In 1989, as reported by the Bizarre page in the Sun on August 29th, Sting (formerly of The Police) and Elton John had got together to stage a very expensive concert - for the planet:

Elton John and Sting are charging the highest amount ever to see them in concert... £1,000 a head.

The two superstars are to play a £500,000 charity concert to raise cash for the Rain Forest Foundation. It is being staged in the grounds of tycoon Ted Field's £4million mansion in Los Angeles. More than 500 guests will be invited to the event on November 6.

A spokesman for Sting said last night: "Ted Field is a good friend of Sting's and they share a deep concern about the destruction of the forests.

"Ted offered to stage the concert in his grounds if the guests would pay a grand to get in. Sting and Elton will also help out with extra fund-raising events, including a raffle."

Elton, 42, will play piano and Sting, 37, will be on the bass guitar - but there will be no backing band. Last night Elton - who is taking time out from his world tour for the concert - said:

"Sting has done an awful lot for the foundation and I'm happy to help him raise more. It will just be me and him on stage and will be a lot of fun.

"The environment is something I really care about."

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Bizarre page, Pat Sharp, he of the beautiful bouffant mullet, was revealing some facts of his life:

Hobbies: After work I plan more work.

Car: A £26,000 second-hand Porsche 944 Turbo and a rare old Datsun 240Z sports coupe.

TV: There's no time to watch it.

Films: I keep 350 films in the same room as my 6,000 records. My favourite is Caddy Shack.

Star Sign: Scorpio.

Most Embarrassing Moment: When I got chased by gays outside Radio Luxembourg.

Clothes: I love Poco Loco, the Norwegian designer who make great jogging pants and T-shirts.

Pet Hates: I have never smoked, drunk or taken drugs - I don't even drink tea.

Ambition: I would love to make serious TV programmes.

Dave Stewart, one half of the excellent '80s pop duo The Eurythmics, was having some fun...

Zany Dave Leaves Scribblers In Chaos

By Piers Morgan

Dave Stewart caused chaos at a Press Conference by giving bizarre answers to questions.

The oddball Eurythmics star - back in the charts at No 30 with Revival - confused dozens of foreign journalists after the band's gig in the South of France.

But Dave, 36, had the British contingent - including me - in hysterics.

Here's what he said:

Q. Dave, is it right that you are broke?

A. Absolutely. The only reason I stay in Cannes is so I can go to all my rich friends' houses and nick all their furniture.

Q. Dave, as an environmentalist, what did you think of Chrissie Hynde's outburst saying she'd like to bomb McDonald's?

A. She should have said she she wanted to firebomb Spud-U-like. They've got a much sillier name.

Q. Dave, we hear you are going to do a cover version of an old hit soon?

A. Yes, I want to do Three Blind Mice and Custer's Last Stand.

Q. Dave, what you think of your wife Siobhan having bigger hits than you with Shakespear's Sister?

A. It's great. Her contract says she has to give me 50 per cent of every penny she makes MORE than I do this year.

That told 'em, Dave!

Actually, I was startled by Siobhan Fahey's transformation from Bananarama girlie to purring Shakespear's Sister with Marcella Detroit. Startled, but pretty darned pleased.

To round off our look at this 1989 Bizarre page, hands up all those who remember the Scots band Simple Minds?

Me too. Loved them.

Somewhere in summertime...

Won't you come see about me, I'll be alone dancing you know it baby...

Little darlin' close your eyes, there'll be no compromising...

Alive and kicking - stay until your love is...

I must confess to singing "butter on it, put butter on it, put butter oh, butter oh" to the "bah da da da, bah da da da da, bah da da oh" segment of Alive and Kicking. A lot of people did. Sorry, Jim Kerr and co.

However, despite this, I genuinely loved the band - and their atmosphere-laden music now has the power to draw me back to my youthful years, in fancy if not in fact.

In the late 1980s, another Scots band had emerged into the UK pop charts - Deacon Blue. I liked them too. But the Minds remained the favourites.

The beautifully gossipy 1989 Bizarre page (could it be trusted?!!) revealed:

Jim Kerr was a proud son last night after his mum had a bust-up in the Glasgow baker's shop where she works.

Ina Kerr saw red when a woman customer came in and slated her 30-year-old son's band Simple Minds and said she much preferred Deacon Blue. Ina chased her down the road, screaming and shouting.

What it is to have parents who love us!

More from the 1980s pop scene soon...

1988 - Environmentally Friendly, Red Nose Day, Clause 28, Lesbians Invade BBC News, Acid House, Roger Rabbit, Eggwina, Political Correctness,

In the June 1988 European elections, the Greens won an unprecedented number of votes. The Green Consumer Guide was published, soon becoming a bestseller, and we were worried. There was global warming, rising sea levels, a hole in the ozone layer... something must be done. It was around 1988/1989 that I noticed the new environmentally friendly products in the shops. They were all completely bio-degradable, no harm to anything. I, in common with many others, bought LOADS. Great - the only trouble was, they didn't clean things. My sink cleaner left a chalky deposit all over it and had the bog cleaner really got the bog hygienically clean? I had my doubts.

Still, something had to be done. When our mothers had gassed us with excessive amounts of hairspray in the 60s and 70s, we'd thought nothing of it, but now we did. "It's all your fault, Mum!"

Thank heavens for mousse and hair gel!
 
Acid House enthralled the kids and worried the grown-ups.

Militant lesbians, protesting at the introduction of Clause 28, burst into the BBC News studio on 23rd May 1988. Having evaded BBC security, they arrived as Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell began the bulletin. Nicholas battled with them off-screen, famously sitting on one of them, whilst Sue struggled on with the news. Read all about it here.
 
Political Correctness seemed a bonkers thing in 1988. The trend for being sensitive about whatever you said seems to have started with that poor excuse for misandry, the feminist movement. Around 1987, we began to hear of Political Correctness. A few examples: prostitutes were suddenly sex workers, which was perhaps fair enough, but pets were now animal companions; mentally and physically handicapped/disabled people were to be referred to as physically or mentally challenged and woe betide you if you were sizeist or fattist. 
 
It didn't do to offend anybody at all after the horrible Bernard Manning years of the 1970s and early 1980s, so a bald person should now be called follicularly challenged. Actually, this was usually said tongue in cheek, but I did come across several social workers at work in the late 1980s who used it perfectly seriously.

Some devotees of Politically Correct language I've met since then are honestly intent on not offending anybody. Others are prigs, pure and simple. 
 
Nowadays the PC scene is far more confusing, corrupt, and much further removed from logic. It started off as a commendable concept, in theory, but like so many things put to use by people has become warped and distorted.

It's almost like a form of mental illness, with 'in' words being 'out' at the drop of a hat. Trying to negotiate it is a nightmare.

Somebody apt to put her foot in it in the late 1980s was Junior Health Minister Edwina Currie, who briefly became known as EGGwina Currie over the salmonella in eggs scandal. Read more here. 


On the telly, the genius of Cosgrove Hall brought us a new hero - vegetarian vampire duck Duckula - more here.
 
In the ads, we were fascinated by Texas Tom, of the Texas DIY superstores chain, somebody who quite definitely was not what he seemed! Meet him here.