But even the combined might of a Beatle and ABBA couldn't stop a far more powerful force from rising, late in the day, to claim the Christmas Number One slot for 1980.
And that force was There's No One Quite Like Grandma by St Winifred's School Choir, truly one of the most appallingly horrific records ever released. To this very day, some of us still live in fear of a St Winifred's revival.
Still, at least there was refuge from them on the album chart, where just one LP ruled the UK roost for the entire month, and that was Super Trouper by ABBA.
But, if St Winifred's were rampant, there were other things afoot at the time that could instill fear into the hardest of hearts - and one of them was that it was the month in which a UFO was spotted near RAF Woodbridge, launching what became known as the Rendlesham Forest Incident, ofttimes dubbed, "Britain's Roswell," and possibly the highest-profile UFO event this land has ever seen.
There was only one thing for it. With all these nightmares unfolding in the real world, we were going to have to seek refuge in the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, and I have no doubt at all that that's precisely what I did do.
Even so, I must confess that nothing that happens in this month's issues rings any bells in my memory.
But that doesn't matter, because it's Christmas and that means we have an annual to look forward to.
Admittedly, nothing in that book rings any bells for me either but that's mostly because I've never read it, and I do have to say it doesn't possess the most compelling cover I've ever seen on a 2000 AD annual.
That aside, its interior contains 128 pages, including a Strontium Dog tale titled Night of the Blood-Freaks, a feature on Special Effects in Sci-Fi Movies, 10 Ways to Destroy the World, The Mumps From Beyond the Moon, Ro-Jaws' Robo-Facts, The Man From 2000, Tharg's Guide to How 2000 AD is Produced and a zillion and one other features, games, puzzles, pin-ups and stories. It does seem to be a book dominated by Judge Dredd and the ABC Warriors and looks to be far better value for money than the somewhat half-hearted annuals Marvel were putting out at the time.
I do see Prog 191 is giving away Black Hole space suits which will no doubt come in handy the next time I encounter a black hole, whilst Progs 189 and 190 offer us the chance to own our own flying saucer, which, bearing in mind what was going on at Rendlesham at the time, seems a remarkable coincidence.
Clearly, with his Outer Space connections, Tharg knew more than he was letting on...
STOP PRESS! As Sean has pointed out in the comments section below, this year saw publication of the first Judge Dredd Annual. Accordingly, I've now added its cover to this post.
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16 comments:
We had two annuals to look forward to Steve, as the first Judge Dredd annual also came out that year. And what an annual it was!
A great Brian Bolland cover, three full colour stories by the definitive Dredd team of Mike McMahon and John Wagner, solo outings for Walter the Wobot and Max Normal, and the one off Shok by Kevin O'Neill and Steve McManus, which provided the basis for 1990 sf flick Hardware (acknowledged after legal action).
Plus, I believe prog 189 featured the first appearance of Abelard Snazz, courtesy of Steve Dillon and Alan Moore.
Those early model art and script droids Tharg had back in 1980 weren't half bad...
-sean
PS Hard to believe that 2000AD annual cover was by Dave Gibbons...
-sean
Never read any of this for which I am profoundly sorry.
Mercifully, with smart phones, no one sees flying saucers, big foot, etc. any more. There was nothing more frustrating than talking to some of my relatives and their National Enquirer mentality lol (e.g., Hitler is still alive; the illuminati run the earth, etc!)
Sean, thanks for the Judge Dredd news. I've now added its cover to the post.
Charlie, due to the lack of modern sightings, people keep speculating that the Loch Ness Monster is dead. I now genuinely worry about the fate of Nessie.
I'd be worried to Steve! You have my condolences if the worst comes to pass!
I visited Loch Ness once, as a soldier on leave in Europe. '89, I think. Beautiful place, and my buddy and I took the boat ride they offered to tourists.
Very cool old castle there, but no monster.
That damn Sting lied to me. No monster rising from the slime, menacing locals.
What, was he getting paid under the the table by the Scottish Tourist Bureau?
If I was selling tickets to a Bigfoot-haunted area over here, I'd at least have the decency to hire one of the local derelicts to run around at night in the woods in a furry suit. Or a guy to walk around in the snow with big rubber feet. Something, anyway.
Whatever happened to integrity.
M.P.
Steve - Our government is closed to MLK day (RIP) and I thought I would catch up with Talk Sport. Nothing on Conkers or Darts. What's the deal?
MP, it's a scandal beyond human imagining.
Charlie, it's not the conkers season.
As for the lack of darts, who can know what Machiavellian machinations lie behind TalkSport's decision making?
Charlie, Talk Sport has to answer to the Illuminati.
-sean
Hey - Given it is a slow news day at SDC... If I may ask, "Have you Gents seen 'They Shall Not Grow Old' about WW 1?
I took the afternoon showing in, today. Well worth it. I have to assume nearly all you UK gents had family in WW1 given the scope of the war?
They are only showing it for one day, this January. They had showed it one day in December and it was completely sold out every where.
I must confess I haven't seen it, Charlie. I'm woefully ignorant about World War I, compared to World War II.
Thanks for mentioning that Peter Jackson documentary, Charlie. I read about it, but forgot about it. Is it 4 hours long, like most of Jackson's stuff? Lol!
Being a World War enthusiast, it reminded me of another film I hadn't seen, "Dunkirk". Anyone familiar with that?
Abba songs make me smile, Steve. In high school, at dances & "sock-hops", disco was the predominant music played. Abba, in my opinion, was the most tolerable.
My buddies would be standing on the sidelines,watching me dance with the girls. "How can you dance to that?!" they'd bark. "BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE THE GIRLS ARE!!" Idiots.
KD - "They Shall Not Grow Old" is basically a documentary that Jackson made with the stipulation that he use The British Govt's (or some UK Institution's) film from WW 1 and only that. They colorized it with exacting precision, the speed of the film is 100$% "normal", and they used voices of veterans from interviews they'd made in the 1960s - 80s.
It's only 2 hours long and well worth it. The last 30 minutes are Jackson discussing the laborious steps they took to get it correct. Jackson only focuses on the infantry.
Finally, there are only a few minutes of combat. As Jackson said, there simply isn't much as no one was going to stand between the trenches and film this stuff by hand.
Here's something crazy...
Walmart is selling these $5 100-page DC giants (google it). And all the fan boys are buying them and flipping them on ebay for $20 like within 3 hours of posting. OF course, this is per the Facebook Blog Comic Book Speculating and Investing CBSI.
It's kind of a fun place to check out and see why my longboxes are mostly paper weights at this point, LOL.
I almost drove down to the Walmart last night LOL and suddenly got a grip. I mean, what in the hell are you going to pay $20 to slab this thing to sell to who? Smells like the Death of Superman all over again...
Charlie, They Shall Not Grow Old was on tv here late last year (I think the BBC was involved in commisioning it).
It was ok, but... not that informative to anyone who knew much about the war. It seemed to be all about the western front, whereas I'd have been interested to see stuff from other campaigns, like in the middle east.
As it was supposed to be British history, something about Iraq would have been welcome (but I suppose they like to play that aspect of WW1 down a bit these days).
-sean
Hey Sean, interestingly, the last 30 minutes was an explanation by Jackson. He made a point of only focusing on the infantry man on the western front, since that experience would have been the most widely known by the veterans. He also wanted to get "deep" and not "wide" hence he only focuses on the western front. (Lawrence of Arabia does not make a cameo, lol.)
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