If so, June 1981 was a Godsend because you suddenly had the comfort of knowing you weren't alone in the universe.
That's right. It was the month in which movie history was made and Raiders of the Lost Ark hit the big screen.
Never before had archaeology seemed so exciting. And never again would it seem so exciting - not even when watching Channel Four's Time Team dig up yet another rusty Bronze Age pin in a muddy ditch in Shropshire, while Tony Robinson tries to pretend it's a great find.
Come to think of it, the big ball of rock was in the second Indiana Jones film, wasn't it? So you were going to have to wait a couple more years yet before finally encountering a kindred spirit.
Still, if a daring archaeologist could offer you no relief, you could at least take comfort in the adventures of dandy highwaymen because the UK singles chart, that month, kicked off with Adam and the Ants' Stand and Deliver at Number One.
However, that was quickly deposed by Smokey Robinson's Being With You which was, in turn, dislodged by Michael Jackson's One Day in Your Life.
Over on the album chart, Starsound started the month at Number One with Stars on 45 but were soon removed by Motorhead's No Sleep 'til Hammersmith which was then usurped by Various Artists' Disco Daze and Disco Nites. It is hard to think of a bigger contrast than the one between Starsound and Motorhead.
When it came to sport, it was the month in which Shergar won the Epsom Derby and the first ever game of paintball was played, in New Hampshire.
"Well, that's all very well," I hear you cry, "But what of 2000 AD and its sci-fi happenings that I so love to hear about?"
I'm glad you asked.
Well, I'm not really because, as always, I have less of a clue than Jessica Fletcher has when suddenly finding herself in a town where no murders have been committed.
However, this is what I can share.
Clearly determined to give us maximum value for our 15 pence, the Galaxy's Greatest Comic was still feeding us Strontium Dog, Tharg's Future Shocks, The Mean Arena, Judge Dredd, Meltdown Man and Return to Armageddon. It's strange how Marvel UK giving us six strips in each weekly book felt like sacrilege, while 2000 AD doing the same was never a problem. I suppose it's just a question of context.
But it's an exciting day for me because, thanks to Prog 217, we've finally reached a Tharg's Future Shock I actually remember.
I'm pretty sure The Last Rumble of the Platinum Horde is the tale in which an army of Mongols from space set out to destroy everything in their path but fail to take into account that the Universe is round, and end up destroying their own planet, not realising they're back where they started from.
I like to think there's a lesson in there for all of us.
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18 comments:
Ah yes, Time Team.
I always thought they'd have been more successful if "geo phys" turned up for work on time rather than turning up at 10am on the last day, doing their surveys and then telling everyone that they'd been digging in the wrong place for two days.
I know the point of the show was to do as much as possible in 3 days. But I never thought it would be a cheat to have sent the Geo phys guys there the week before. So many shows had absolutely nothing on day one because they were in the wrong field
No doubt it was all part of some Time Team cunning plan.
Good to see you finally remembered something from the progs Steve, even if you didn't mention Malcolm Shaw and Jesus Redondo's excellent Return to Armageddon finally came to an end this month. Replaced by return of Mean Arena I think...
Btw, I got a cheapo copy of that Disco Daze lp at a car boot sale not long ago, and for one of those old Ronco-type compilations its not too bad. With Donna Summer, Andrea True and Funkadelic no wonder it knocked Motorhead off the top spot. And thats without the other half! (Apparently you got a copy of Disco Nites free with it originally).
-sean
UK Gents (cause I sincerely don't know how many folks in the USA had exposure to Dredd) - what is your order of preference for reading Dred... which team? I think I've said before that my library has a ton of him, but I only want to read the best of the best.
I intend to read Dredd next once I wrap up "Our Man in Havana" by Graham Greene, inspired by another extraordinary UK writer John Le Carre whose autobiography (The Pigeon Tunnel) talk about about that book.
Ah,Steve, Raiders of the Lost Ark! Man, what a movie. That should be Movie, with a capital 'M'. One of my top fave films ever. I'll never forget that first viewing, the opening five minutes or so left me and my friends gaping in amazement.
Sean- glad to find someone else who still looks out for those old compilation records. K-Tel, Ronco, or whatever; they were a great way to fill out your music collection fairly cheaply in those days before Pandora and YouTube. It's impressive to see that it topped the UK chart! As far as I know, no such compilation ever topped the US Billboard chart.
As for Judge Dredd, to this day I've never read a story. But Brian Bolland rocks; that sure looks like some of his cover work. Am I mistaken?
Sorry to disappoint you Redartz, but I don't generally look out for old Ronco and K-Tel comps - I just happened to find that particular one very cheap and it obviously had some alright tunes on it.
Charlie, wherever you start with Dredd, make sure its written by John Wagner (either alone or with Alan Grant).
I'd suggest the Judge Child storyline - Dredd had been around long enough for Wagner to have developed the concept but it was still relatively new and fresh, and includes some great work by the definitive artists Brian Bolland and Mike McMahon.
-sean
PS Yeah, Redartz is right - first two covers here are Bolland (love the one with the waiter). The other two are by McMahon and Carlos Ezquerra.
-sean
It's a very very long time since I read any Dredd but I would say that Brian Bolland was always my favourite Dredd artist and that John Wagner is the writer I always associate with the character.
Dangermash, Aggy and Sean, I always had the feeling there must have been an Egyptian version of Time Team where they were finding pyramids, tombs, sphinxes and mummies every week, while, in Britain, they were finding a broach, a shoe and a sock.
Confession time: I'd never heard of the Ark of the Covenant so I thought Raiders Of The Lost Ark meant Noah's Ark. Did anyone else think the same? OK, just me then. I'll get me coat.
On the subject of Time Team - didn't Sir Tony recently flounce out of the Labour Party. Never trust anyone who claims to be left-wing yet accepts a knighthood...
I'm sure you weren't the only one confused about the Ark of the Covenant, Colin. I think I only knew about it because the likes of Erich von Däniken were always going on about it being a high-tech, alien, electric death-machine.
Colin - I didn't know what it was, period, though an active Catholic. (Well, they say Catholics should read the Bible a little more, LOL.)
Eventually, because Emperor Haile Salassie of Ethopia traced his lineage back to King David, I became acquainted with the subject and also the working theory that the Arc was taken to Ethiopia. I guess there is / was a 3,000 year old jewish community in Ethiopia.
Charlie, its Ethiopian Christians that claim to have the ark of the covenant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_Mary_of_Zion
While Haile Selassie did claim descent from Solomon and Sheba, the Falasha - the Ethiopian Jews - are from a different tribe and mostly seem to trace themselves back to Egypt.
In case anyone's interested - I know how much Colin likes the royals (; - heres an old newsreel of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie the Conquering Lion of Judah meeting the Queen of England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlQ5_ejdBks
-sean
Sean - interesting news reel! I am wondering if one is descended from Solomon then also David? David was Solomon's father, no?
Hmmm... do I want to read up on Ethiopian Jews tonight??? I am guessing they must be from one of the 12 tribes?
I have to wonder how that Ullendorf guy got a sneak peek at the Arc?
Hey - is the queen in the news reel the same queen as now??? (That quite old lady they call the queen.)
Same queen Charlie, entertaining heads of state from Haile Selassie to Donald Trump. The Conquering Lion of Judah got around - maybe I should have linked to the film of him visiting the US in '63 hanging out with JFK (I think he left early November so he has an alibi).
Solomon was David's son, no? (Funnily enough, some Brit cranks believe the queen is descended from David too https://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Israelism )
Theres all sorts of people who claim to be from the ten lost tribes but only the Falasha have been officially recognized as having a right of return to Israel (I think they're still debating the Indian Jews, and maybe the Pashtuns.
-sean
Sean - Fascinating stuff! If you are expert in this, and want to save Charlie the google work, are the Samaritans a "lost tribe?" My understanding is that they were Jews left behind in Israel, and not taken to Babylon during the "Babylonian captivity?"
You know, the Queen visited Chicago like around 1962? I only know that because the hotel that originally hosted the Chicago Comicon (which was always #2 to San Diego) had a penthouse built for her visit in the early 60s and they were quite proud of it. Reason being it was pre-built and a helicopter lifted the penthouse to the roof.
Lastly, that is an awesome moniker, no? "The Conquering Lion of Judah!" I mean, how do you get a name like that when your country is like 750 miles away from Judah?
"Conquering Lion of Judah" does sound good booming out on old reggae records Charlie.
Royalty and dictators are generally quite keen on ridiculous titles - Idi Amin never let distance get in the way of calling himself the Last King of Scotland.
Don't know about expert, but I do live in an area with a large orthodox Jewish community - and a few rastafarians (there don't seem to be any where near as many around as there used to be) - so its not hard to pick up a lot of that stuff.
I think the split with the Samaritans dates from the exile - they had a variant torah so the law was a bit different. But theres hardly any left these days (especially not on the West Bank).
-sean
30 years ago I worked for a man from the Bahamas who had spent a lot of his youth in Jamaica and dabbled a bit with Rasta.
He advised, then, that the steam had run out of Marley and the Rastas b/c:
1) Selassie had died and that did not work with the belief (for those Rastas who held that) of his immortality while he was alive.
2) When Marley and crew visited his grave site it was not tended for one who was supposedly a God. Point being that if the black Africans, among whom he lived, did not worship him as a divinity it was incongruent that black Jamaicans should.
And that was that he said... The only common denominator left, he felt, was the Herb of Wisdom.
Well, the height of Rasta was after Selassie's death, and religions are able to account for stuff like that. It doesn't seem incongruent to many Christians that Jewish people don't accept Jesus' divinity...
Still, thats a fair point about the common denominator. And possibly the number of true believers was never that large, and it just became more obvious as ganja went mainstream.
-sean
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