Child of the 80s!
I am feeling so much nostalgia at the moment. For everything! When I think of my fave decade it has to be the 80s! I was at Junior school in the 80s and this is supposed to be one of the best parts of your life. I loved my Junior school so much. As I think back to the eighties, my mind is brimming over with fab memories and for once, I really don't know where to start!
I suppose it would be easier to break it down into categories and I just have to start with music. I remember my first single record. Who doesn't? It was 'Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners. I had a party at home (pre play area) and I remember my cousin buying me the record. Mum added it to the play list on our record player and we all danced our socks off to it. We kept playing it over and over again until we got tired. I also remember the huge amount of energy I had in the eighties. Where did that go to?
80s Music was just brilliant! Playing LPs and record singles was just fab! All the cousins would congregate at my uncle's and stack record upon record to be played. Most of these were 60s and 70s, but some 80s too.
As I was growing up, I listened to 60a and 70s music as well as the 80s stuff. I used to love getting the new copy of Smash Hits! I used to sit and cut out song lyrics of my faves: Madonna, Debbie Gibson, Belinda Carlisle, Gloria Estefan, Cyndi Lauper and T'pau. I had posters galore of Aha! Duran Duran, Wham and Bon Jovi. Music was a huge part of my life and I could easily spend hours listening to albums, one after the other.
The excitement of buying a full album, after buying a few of the band's singles is still with me now. I loved walking round Casa Disco and Egs and Sons, choosing your vinyl and excitedly going to the counter.
You would hold onto your prized possession, basking in the feel of the shiny album sleeve. You'd get it home and just take the album out to look at it. That first listen the whole way through was amazing. Looking at the full lyrics was too. Aaah. That's what they were singing! I've made so many mistakes with lyrics over the years!
We also loved the tape cassettes and recording the charts off the radio. We'd make mix tapes of different artists on one cassette, hoping the cassette wouldn't get cgewed up! I remember my brother getting a ghetto blaster! Awesome!
One of the best inventions was the Walkman. I loved playing mine, walking over with it! How cool were we? This Sony advert takes me back with the roller boots too!
If we weren't listening to music, we were watching it on the new, fab MTV and the Chart Show. Loved that show! Or dancing to it at Rebecca's, then Visions. We'd go on a Saturday morning and walk round and round to the awesome 80s soundtrack with Bananrama, Rick Astley, Culture Club and the Eurythmics. Annie Lennox really does have a voice of an angel.
Then it became Wednesday night's as Brosmania was just kicking in.
'When will I, will I be famous?'
I remember walking around Visions in my boots with Grolsch bottle tops through my laces, tight blue jeans, white t-shirt and red paisley scarf on.
'I can't answer. I can't answer that!'
I actually had this poster of Bros on my bedroom wall!
The music of the 80s was just brilliant! I loved INXS so much and Kick is one of my all time faves. I listen to Never Tear Us Apart and By My Side on You Tube regularly and when they sing with the Australian Philarmonic orchestra, it's amazing.
I was very lucky to see my first live performance in 1986. I was blown away by Madonna in her Who's that Girl? Tour at Roundhay Park. Even though she was just s tiny dot on the stage and this couple in front of me just kept snogging the whole way through!
I preferred Madonna the best in the 80s but have loved all her transformations over the decades.
My brother was always off watching rock metal bands and I was always nosying at the front covers of his albums. Fab art work on rock albums! Looking on Pinterest, the Tears for Fears albums jumped out at me and I love he Sowing the seeds of love song.
The 80s was definitely about the backing music, not just the vocals. Look at Phil Collins drumming and Brian May on guitar! The sax solo on the Baker Street and the electronic synthesizers. Electric Dreams is such a great song.
'We'll always be together. Together in Electric Dreams!'
This moves me nicely to the movies of the 80s. So many great films with fab musical soundtracks. These are just a few: Mannequin, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Buealer"s Day Off and Electric Dreams. I defy anybody who won't sing along to Starship when they're in a pub!
Nothing's gonna stop us now!
There were so many great actors and actresses. Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald being two of them. I just love the Breakfast Club and St Elmo's Fire. Demi Moore was and still is, stunning!
The Brat Pack were oozing with cool. I love this picture of the actors, looking very young in The Outsiders. Just look at the talent in that picture!
I love Tom Cruise and every so often me and my friends will hold a Tom Cruise night. Top Gun and Cocktail are musts and any others are a bonus. Top Gun soundtrack is brilliant and energetic. We used to dance to one for our aerobic routine! Days of Thunder soundtrack is amazing too. Show me Heaven. My friend and I had a Tom Cruise film eve a bit ago and kept saying we wanted Elizabeth Shue's hair! I am due at the hairdressers!
There were so many good actors here but my faves were Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. If anyone questions Brad Pitt, I just tell them to watch Thelma and Louise and that says it all!
There were some amazing musical films such as: Grease, 1979 but we listened to it in the 80s, Dirty Dancing, Flashdance, Footloose and . Quality viewing!
Sci-fi and fantasy films were fab too. I loved Labyrinth and the Never Ending Story. Weird Science and Back to the Future with Michael J Fox too.
My best friend growing up, now my sister in law was my film buddy and we'd watch so many films but one of our all time faves was The Lost Boys. We watched this over and over with both Coreys: Corey Fieldman and Corey Haim. The music to this film is one of the best musical soundtracks ever. We'd sing to the haunting song, Cry Little Sister.
My brother and I shared two films we really liked. One was The Princess Bride and the other, Highlander with its brilliant Queen soundtrack. Christmas holidays meant film watching and we'd have Superman, Star Wars- The Empire Strikes Back and E.T. James Bond films always came out at Christmas too.
When I think of 80s TV I think of three things:
Dallas, Dynasty and The Colbys. Joan Collins was brilliant in her iconic shoulder pads. She and Crystal Carrington were always at loggerheads over Blake Carrington. I'll never forget the question on a lot of people's lips:
Who shot JR?
Soaps like Brookside or Brookie. Loved this soap with Barry, Terry and Jimmy and always caught the Saturday omnibus. I loved Damon and Debbie and enjoyed the spin off programme they starred in after Brookside.
Cagney and Lacey and other detective dramas. I always wanted to be Cagney or Lacey. They had guts. I loved the name Marybeth and the way she said her husband, Harvey's name in her American accent. Loved the saxophone music too!
80s sitcoms and comedy duos were a massive thing. I remember sitting with my grandparents watching Dad's Army, Allo Allo and Fawlty Towers and just proper belly laughing. I loved how the letters of the hotel were always mixed up on the sign:
'Lawfty Towers'
We'd watch The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise. We never tired of the 'four candles' sketch! Christmas specials with the newsreader, Angela Rippon come to mind too! These comedy pairings were pure talent. There were too many sitcoms to name thdm all and I remember watching loads at home. We loved Some mother's do have them with Michael Crawford.
'Ooh Betty!'
We loved all the Carry on films and slap stick comedy. My dad watched Norman Wisdom films and I loved his cheeky grin and trousers at half mast.
'Mr Grimsdale!'
We'd sit and laugh till our sides ached at Laurel and Hardy films.
'That's another fine mess you've got me into!'
The 80s was a cartoon watching decade also. We loved tuning into Bugs Bunny, The Road Runner and Tom and Jerry.
'That's all folks!'
Scooby Doo was brilliant and we loved watching the ending when the villain ripped off his fake face to reveal him/herself!
This decade, as a child was also about weekend TV, being at school all week. I loved Saturday mornings watching Saturday Superstore and Live and Kicking. Sunday mornings, bright and early would be my fave We're wide awake! Timmy Mallett and Michaela Stracken were a fab duo and so full of energy. I used to play along with Mallet's Mallet but never got very far!
There were so many good programmes on after school. I loved Why don't you?, Grange Hill, Crackerjack, Press Gang and Blockbusters, to name but a few. Grange Hill was just talked about by practically everybody. Mr Branson. Now he was a formidable teacher!
The 80s was a definitive decade in technology updates and modernisation. We went from owning a black and white portable in the kitchen to a coloured portable TV. The Big coloured TV in the living room would always display this picture at the end and someone had to get up to turn it off.
Computers were really developing. I remember my brother having Vic 20 and a Commodore 64 whilst I typed away twelve words a minute on my hefty typewriter. Computer games were fab like Pac man and I used to love watching my brother on Arcade games before going on the 2p slots. I loved the film Wreck it Ralph as it took me back to the good old Arcade games of the 80s.
I've loved reading from a young age and used to eat books up in the 80s. My friends and I went through most of the fiction in the school library and loved the Sweet Valley High, Sweet Dreams and Couples series of books. We followed Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield through High school as though they were our best friends.
I loved reading comics like Bunty and Judy and we'd get the Annuals at Christmas. My brother had the Beano and the Dandy and I loved Dennis the Menace and Gnasher and the Bash Street Kids.
Later, I loved Just Seventeen and Smash Hits and read them from cover to cover a few times!
Do you know those rose tinted sunglasses? They are at their utmost use in the 80s! Music, film, fashion. You name it, I loved it! My fave ships were Miss Selfridge, Tammy Girl, Chelsea Girl and C&A.
I loved the ra ra dresses, the Madonna lace and beads look, the Debbie Gibson striped tops and hat. The list is endless. I definitely did the denim. Who didn't? I don't remember back combing my hair much but so kept growing it, then cutting it, depending on the star I was following at the time. One minute, it would be a Debbie Gibson bob, the next cut short like the lead singer of Roxette!
I loved the accessories in the 80s, especially the randomness of it all. I loved to throw loads of beads and bangles on in all different colours and wear non matching earings. The jelly bags and shoes were fab too. A lot of the pop fashion was bright and multicoloured with stripes, spots and zig zags. I lpve to follow I Love the 80s on Facebook and they have gave a post about the fab Head bags of the time. I had two different medium bags. One was navuly and red and the other pastel.colours. I loved the extension on the side and you'd use that as another bag. Amazing!
During this time The Body Shop was expanding and my friends and I loved visiting here. We loved the perfumes: white musk, Newberry, vanilla, strawberry and so on. This picture takes me back to all the Green bottles lined up in the shop in the Ridings. We loved the ethos of not testing on animals. I remember the packaging in these pictures!
I still love the Body Shop now and know a lovely lady who has parties, selling these lovely products. Aaah. Tupperware parties! My mum would get dressed up and looking lovely, she'd tell me she was off to a Tupperware party. I actually went to one in the early 90s and I loved it! I've never seen so much Tupperware in one space! Mum used to go to her Keep Fit classes too in the 80s in the Church hall with her leg warmers on, like someone out of Fame!
There are certain things we associate the 80s with. Here are my top ten:
Rubics cube
Backcombed hair
Synthesizers
Puffed sleeves
Denim
Wham bar
D-I-S-C-O
10p mix ups
Roller boots
Walkman
Funnily enough, I never managed to do a Rubics cube! Retro sweets are definitely back in. Retro is back in! My friend had bowls of retro sweets at the wedding night do. There were Refteshers, Love hearts, Wham bars, Black Jacks and Fruit Salads.
It was the time of the penny chews and 5 and 10p mix ups. I absolutely loved the milk bottles and butterscotch tablets. I wasn't very fond of the pink shrimp and white mice though. My friends and I would walk to the local shop and pick out some chews with the money back from the Ben Shaw bottles. I loved the Tizer and Dandelion and Burdoch, even though they made me burp.
The drink I remember the most is the cellophane wrapped Lucozade promptly bought from the corner shop as soon as you said you were poorly! This, and mum's homecooked chips and soup always made me feel better.
I have so many more fab memories of this fab decade and time of growing up but must put them in another blog! I have decided on an 80s themed party for my 50th and have chosen the cake already! How amazing is this cake? I'm off now to watch Lost Boys, or the start of it before I fall asleep!
My mind has got carried away, yet again, and have researched some other stuff for my Back the 80s party!
My friend had a 80s fancy dress for her 40th and it was ace. I went as Madonna and danced the whole night! Her mum and dad stole the show as Johnny and Baby from Dirty Dancing. It'll be a karaoke party too so there's time for some practising!
I'll get practising on making the 80s cocktails bar too. Club Tropicana!
I suppose it would be easier to break it down into categories and I just have to start with music. I remember my first single record. Who doesn't? It was 'Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners. I had a party at home (pre play area) and I remember my cousin buying me the record. Mum added it to the play list on our record player and we all danced our socks off to it. We kept playing it over and over again until we got tired. I also remember the huge amount of energy I had in the eighties. Where did that go to?
80s Music was just brilliant! Playing LPs and record singles was just fab! All the cousins would congregate at my uncle's and stack record upon record to be played. Most of these were 60s and 70s, but some 80s too.
As I was growing up, I listened to 60a and 70s music as well as the 80s stuff. I used to love getting the new copy of Smash Hits! I used to sit and cut out song lyrics of my faves: Madonna, Debbie Gibson, Belinda Carlisle, Gloria Estefan, Cyndi Lauper and T'pau. I had posters galore of Aha! Duran Duran, Wham and Bon Jovi. Music was a huge part of my life and I could easily spend hours listening to albums, one after the other.
The excitement of buying a full album, after buying a few of the band's singles is still with me now. I loved walking round Casa Disco and Egs and Sons, choosing your vinyl and excitedly going to the counter.
You would hold onto your prized possession, basking in the feel of the shiny album sleeve. You'd get it home and just take the album out to look at it. That first listen the whole way through was amazing. Looking at the full lyrics was too. Aaah. That's what they were singing! I've made so many mistakes with lyrics over the years!
We also loved the tape cassettes and recording the charts off the radio. We'd make mix tapes of different artists on one cassette, hoping the cassette wouldn't get cgewed up! I remember my brother getting a ghetto blaster! Awesome!
One of the best inventions was the Walkman. I loved playing mine, walking over with it! How cool were we? This Sony advert takes me back with the roller boots too!
If we weren't listening to music, we were watching it on the new, fab MTV and the Chart Show. Loved that show! Or dancing to it at Rebecca's, then Visions. We'd go on a Saturday morning and walk round and round to the awesome 80s soundtrack with Bananrama, Rick Astley, Culture Club and the Eurythmics. Annie Lennox really does have a voice of an angel.
Then it became Wednesday night's as Brosmania was just kicking in.
'When will I, will I be famous?'
I remember walking around Visions in my boots with Grolsch bottle tops through my laces, tight blue jeans, white t-shirt and red paisley scarf on.
'I can't answer. I can't answer that!'
I actually had this poster of Bros on my bedroom wall!
The music of the 80s was just brilliant! I loved INXS so much and Kick is one of my all time faves. I listen to Never Tear Us Apart and By My Side on You Tube regularly and when they sing with the Australian Philarmonic orchestra, it's amazing.
I was very lucky to see my first live performance in 1986. I was blown away by Madonna in her Who's that Girl? Tour at Roundhay Park. Even though she was just s tiny dot on the stage and this couple in front of me just kept snogging the whole way through!
I preferred Madonna the best in the 80s but have loved all her transformations over the decades.
My brother was always off watching rock metal bands and I was always nosying at the front covers of his albums. Fab art work on rock albums! Looking on Pinterest, the Tears for Fears albums jumped out at me and I love he Sowing the seeds of love song.
The 80s was definitely about the backing music, not just the vocals. Look at Phil Collins drumming and Brian May on guitar! The sax solo on the Baker Street and the electronic synthesizers. Electric Dreams is such a great song.
'We'll always be together. Together in Electric Dreams!'
This moves me nicely to the movies of the 80s. So many great films with fab musical soundtracks. These are just a few: Mannequin, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Buealer"s Day Off and Electric Dreams. I defy anybody who won't sing along to Starship when they're in a pub!
Nothing's gonna stop us now!
There were so many great actors and actresses. Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald being two of them. I just love the Breakfast Club and St Elmo's Fire. Demi Moore was and still is, stunning!
The Brat Pack were oozing with cool. I love this picture of the actors, looking very young in The Outsiders. Just look at the talent in that picture!
I love Tom Cruise and every so often me and my friends will hold a Tom Cruise night. Top Gun and Cocktail are musts and any others are a bonus. Top Gun soundtrack is brilliant and energetic. We used to dance to one for our aerobic routine! Days of Thunder soundtrack is amazing too. Show me Heaven. My friend and I had a Tom Cruise film eve a bit ago and kept saying we wanted Elizabeth Shue's hair! I am due at the hairdressers!
There were so many good actors here but my faves were Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. If anyone questions Brad Pitt, I just tell them to watch Thelma and Louise and that says it all!
There were some amazing musical films such as: Grease, 1979 but we listened to it in the 80s, Dirty Dancing, Flashdance, Footloose and . Quality viewing!
Sci-fi and fantasy films were fab too. I loved Labyrinth and the Never Ending Story. Weird Science and Back to the Future with Michael J Fox too.
My best friend growing up, now my sister in law was my film buddy and we'd watch so many films but one of our all time faves was The Lost Boys. We watched this over and over with both Coreys: Corey Fieldman and Corey Haim. The music to this film is one of the best musical soundtracks ever. We'd sing to the haunting song, Cry Little Sister.
My brother and I shared two films we really liked. One was The Princess Bride and the other, Highlander with its brilliant Queen soundtrack. Christmas holidays meant film watching and we'd have Superman, Star Wars- The Empire Strikes Back and E.T. James Bond films always came out at Christmas too.
When I think of 80s TV I think of three things:
Dallas, Dynasty and The Colbys. Joan Collins was brilliant in her iconic shoulder pads. She and Crystal Carrington were always at loggerheads over Blake Carrington. I'll never forget the question on a lot of people's lips:
Who shot JR?
Soaps like Brookside or Brookie. Loved this soap with Barry, Terry and Jimmy and always caught the Saturday omnibus. I loved Damon and Debbie and enjoyed the spin off programme they starred in after Brookside.
Cagney and Lacey and other detective dramas. I always wanted to be Cagney or Lacey. They had guts. I loved the name Marybeth and the way she said her husband, Harvey's name in her American accent. Loved the saxophone music too!
80s sitcoms and comedy duos were a massive thing. I remember sitting with my grandparents watching Dad's Army, Allo Allo and Fawlty Towers and just proper belly laughing. I loved how the letters of the hotel were always mixed up on the sign:
'Lawfty Towers'
We'd watch The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise. We never tired of the 'four candles' sketch! Christmas specials with the newsreader, Angela Rippon come to mind too! These comedy pairings were pure talent. There were too many sitcoms to name thdm all and I remember watching loads at home. We loved Some mother's do have them with Michael Crawford.
'Ooh Betty!'
We loved all the Carry on films and slap stick comedy. My dad watched Norman Wisdom films and I loved his cheeky grin and trousers at half mast.
'Mr Grimsdale!'
We'd sit and laugh till our sides ached at Laurel and Hardy films.
'That's another fine mess you've got me into!'
The 80s was a cartoon watching decade also. We loved tuning into Bugs Bunny, The Road Runner and Tom and Jerry.
'That's all folks!'
Scooby Doo was brilliant and we loved watching the ending when the villain ripped off his fake face to reveal him/herself!
This decade, as a child was also about weekend TV, being at school all week. I loved Saturday mornings watching Saturday Superstore and Live and Kicking. Sunday mornings, bright and early would be my fave We're wide awake! Timmy Mallett and Michaela Stracken were a fab duo and so full of energy. I used to play along with Mallet's Mallet but never got very far!
There were so many good programmes on after school. I loved Why don't you?, Grange Hill, Crackerjack, Press Gang and Blockbusters, to name but a few. Grange Hill was just talked about by practically everybody. Mr Branson. Now he was a formidable teacher!
The 80s was a definitive decade in technology updates and modernisation. We went from owning a black and white portable in the kitchen to a coloured portable TV. The Big coloured TV in the living room would always display this picture at the end and someone had to get up to turn it off.
Computers were really developing. I remember my brother having Vic 20 and a Commodore 64 whilst I typed away twelve words a minute on my hefty typewriter. Computer games were fab like Pac man and I used to love watching my brother on Arcade games before going on the 2p slots. I loved the film Wreck it Ralph as it took me back to the good old Arcade games of the 80s.
I've loved reading from a young age and used to eat books up in the 80s. My friends and I went through most of the fiction in the school library and loved the Sweet Valley High, Sweet Dreams and Couples series of books. We followed Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield through High school as though they were our best friends.
I loved reading comics like Bunty and Judy and we'd get the Annuals at Christmas. My brother had the Beano and the Dandy and I loved Dennis the Menace and Gnasher and the Bash Street Kids.
Later, I loved Just Seventeen and Smash Hits and read them from cover to cover a few times!
Do you know those rose tinted sunglasses? They are at their utmost use in the 80s! Music, film, fashion. You name it, I loved it! My fave ships were Miss Selfridge, Tammy Girl, Chelsea Girl and C&A.
I loved the ra ra dresses, the Madonna lace and beads look, the Debbie Gibson striped tops and hat. The list is endless. I definitely did the denim. Who didn't? I don't remember back combing my hair much but so kept growing it, then cutting it, depending on the star I was following at the time. One minute, it would be a Debbie Gibson bob, the next cut short like the lead singer of Roxette!
I loved the accessories in the 80s, especially the randomness of it all. I loved to throw loads of beads and bangles on in all different colours and wear non matching earings. The jelly bags and shoes were fab too. A lot of the pop fashion was bright and multicoloured with stripes, spots and zig zags. I lpve to follow I Love the 80s on Facebook and they have gave a post about the fab Head bags of the time. I had two different medium bags. One was navuly and red and the other pastel.colours. I loved the extension on the side and you'd use that as another bag. Amazing!
During this time The Body Shop was expanding and my friends and I loved visiting here. We loved the perfumes: white musk, Newberry, vanilla, strawberry and so on. This picture takes me back to all the Green bottles lined up in the shop in the Ridings. We loved the ethos of not testing on animals. I remember the packaging in these pictures!
I still love the Body Shop now and know a lovely lady who has parties, selling these lovely products. Aaah. Tupperware parties! My mum would get dressed up and looking lovely, she'd tell me she was off to a Tupperware party. I actually went to one in the early 90s and I loved it! I've never seen so much Tupperware in one space! Mum used to go to her Keep Fit classes too in the 80s in the Church hall with her leg warmers on, like someone out of Fame!
There are certain things we associate the 80s with. Here are my top ten:
Rubics cube
Backcombed hair
Synthesizers
Puffed sleeves
Denim
Wham bar
D-I-S-C-O
10p mix ups
Roller boots
Walkman
Funnily enough, I never managed to do a Rubics cube! Retro sweets are definitely back in. Retro is back in! My friend had bowls of retro sweets at the wedding night do. There were Refteshers, Love hearts, Wham bars, Black Jacks and Fruit Salads.
It was the time of the penny chews and 5 and 10p mix ups. I absolutely loved the milk bottles and butterscotch tablets. I wasn't very fond of the pink shrimp and white mice though. My friends and I would walk to the local shop and pick out some chews with the money back from the Ben Shaw bottles. I loved the Tizer and Dandelion and Burdoch, even though they made me burp.
The drink I remember the most is the cellophane wrapped Lucozade promptly bought from the corner shop as soon as you said you were poorly! This, and mum's homecooked chips and soup always made me feel better.
I have so many more fab memories of this fab decade and time of growing up but must put them in another blog! I have decided on an 80s themed party for my 50th and have chosen the cake already! How amazing is this cake? I'm off now to watch Lost Boys, or the start of it before I fall asleep!
My mind has got carried away, yet again, and have researched some other stuff for my Back the 80s party!
My friend had a 80s fancy dress for her 40th and it was ace. I went as Madonna and danced the whole night! Her mum and dad stole the show as Johnny and Baby from Dirty Dancing. It'll be a karaoke party too so there's time for some practising!
I'll get practising on making the 80s cocktails bar too. Club Tropicana!
Lovely read! Enjoyed the 80's. Must admit my favourite era was the 60's. Bit before your time though.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yep! The 60s was a great decade. From what I've been told!
ReplyDeleteWhat memories! These were special times, just about every single thing you’ve listed here I had, watched or listened to! A great trip down memory lane. I hope our kids will have such fond memories of things from their childhood....it’s just SO So different now!
ReplyDeleteLoved reading it! Thank you ❤️
Glad you enjoyed it! The music was definitely one of the best bits!
ReplyDelete