I must have been doing that quite a lot, this week in 1979, because that was when the latter record claimed the Number One spot on the British singles chart. I must confess I was never a huge fan of the Police but it was a bearable track which caused me no actual mental or physical harm.
Rather more excitingly for me, the top slot on the album chart that week was taken by the musical titans that were Boney M, thanks to their LP Oceans of Fantasy.
In fairness, the singles from it were not amongst their finest but that clearly didn't do the album's sales any harm.
I am intrigued, however, to discover it contained a cover of the Beatles' Two of Us. This I have to take a listen to on YouTube, especially bearing in mind there were four of them.
While the nation was grooving to all that Teutonic dance goodness, BBC Two, in this night of that week, was giving us far more sedate fare, as it broadcast the 71st Waterloo Crown Green Bowling Handicap, apparently, the most prestigious competition in the game.
Despite its name, the contest took place in Blackpool, not in London's Waterloo Station which was, famously, the site of Napoleon's ultimate defeat. Perhaps the most noticeable thing about the contest is it was introduced by future Oscar winner Colin Welland.
If crown green bowls wasn't enough excitement for us, over on BBC One, slightly earlier, we were treated to the Star Trek episode in which William Shatner's charged with causing the death of a missing officer, through cowardice.
But who needed TV? If we lived in the south, we were probably all too busy consumerising, thanks to the opening of the Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, then the largest indoor shopping complex in Britain. Milton Keynes was, notoriously, where they later filmed Superman IV because of its incredible resemblance to New York.
At the time, Milton Keynes had a rule that said nothing could be built that was taller than the town's tallest tree.
Are they sure it bore an incredible resemblance to New York?
I don't have a clue what's occurring in this week's Star Wars tale but I do know this is the first time I've ever seen Outer Space be described as, "Savage." It's definitely put me off going there.
Elsewhere in that savage wilderness, I've no doubt the Guardians of the Galaxy are still on the planet whose religious leaders want to sacrifice Nikki.
I have a vague memory this leads to her canoodling with Vance Astro. To which, all I can say is, "Urgh."
Of Star-Lord and the Watcher's whereabouts, I know not.
The Hulk and Cap are still bringing justice to the Corporation.
The Eternals send Olympia's forgotten hero to thwart the Deviant missile attack on the Celestials' mother ship.
Merlin's still trying to bring Captain Britain back from the dead.
Ant-Man and the Wasp are busy sorting out the Porcupine - but not before the prickly villain tries to drown our hero in a bathtub!
Nick Fury's probably up to something or other.
I do believe this is the one in which Spidey's officially cleared of the various crimes he's long been suspected of but the Chameleon tries to mess everything up for him again, until Flash Thompson proves to be the voice of reason.
The rest of this comic's contents are a mystery to me.
I am intrigued, though, as to why Spider-Man has to stop a charging rhino, in order to clear his name. Just what kind of criminal justice system do they have in America?
Posts
32 comments:
That Chameleon story - wasn't it already reprinted in Dez's first issue, not too long ago?
It was indeed, Dangermash. Dez must have felt it was such a masterpiece that we all needed to read it again.
I'm also fairly certain that the story in which the Goldbug takes the Hulk to a hidden city in the Andes was dropped halfway through, to be replaced by the one in which the Hulk and Cap take on the Corporation.
Though I think I may have still been picking up Star Wars at this point, I am beginning to think I must have abandoned the weeklies now. I'm not sure why though, obviously the quality had gone downhill but not sure young me would have been aware of it.
Do you also sing Don't Fear The Reaper over the top of Message In A Bottle Steve?
Wouldn't you more likely be doing that a lot than the other way round when the latter was Number One?
-sean
You have a very good point, Sean. I must say, though, it's quite difficult to sing Don't Fear the Reaper over Message in a Bottle. It's a bit too ethereal to keep up with Sting.
Tim, as far as I can recall, I was still reading all the weeklies.
http://stevedoescomics.blogpsot.com/
How very bizarre. Remember, everyone, that site is NOT endorsed by this site, nor does it represent the views of anyone connected with it.
On a lighter note - it's the 85th anniversary of TinTin!
The right honorable consular from the right honorable consulate of Belgium did a very nice presentation on Tintin at our local community college last night.
He avoided all the stereotypes employed by Herge.
And did you know that that the Kingdom of Belgium has had a consulate in Chicago since 1850? That just sounds really weird... I mean, how many Belgiums were around Chicago in 1850?
Steve, did you know that TISWAS, the legendary Saturday morning kids' TV show, stands for Today Is Saturday, Watch And Suffer? I discovered this amazing fact while listening to the serialization of Lenny Henry's autobiography on Radio 4.
Colin, I knew what the first five letters stood for. The last letter, I was never sure about.
Charlie, it's a shock to me to discover Belgium even existed in 1850. I'd always had it in my head that it was created in the early 20th Century.
A pedant writes -
Actually, its the 90th anniversary of Tintin this year.
-sean
Sean -90 years old world, 85 new world (where I live currently).
We live so fast here... we can't stand still you know. Hence time passes relatively slower for us.
Steve - I don't know a lot about Belge either but it's hard to imagine in 2020 that they were an economic powerhouse of sorts 100 years ago.
Out of curiosity is Tintin well known in the UK? He is essentially unknown here, though, thankfully, Spielberg did that movie a few years ago.
Belgium was an early centre of the industrial revolution - I think the idea that its quaint is probably a lasting hangover from first world propaganda about "plucky little Belgium", which was pretty misleading considering what they got up to in Africa.
Maybe the Belgian consul found it convenient to forget the first five years or so of Tintin Charlies, what with stories like Tintin In The Congo.
Er... anyway, yeah - Tintin is well known here. Not just the books; the cartoons were on kids tv in the mid-70s. Same goes for Asterix.
-sean
Sean - La petite boule de neige was best off limits, lol...
(Not sure anyone else will pick up on that, lol.)
Yep, Tintin is very well known here; hence The Thompson Twins being named after two characters in the Tintin books.
I read an interesting theory somewhere that Tintin is actually Sprite from the Eternals.
THEY LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME.
Also, Sprite, being an Eternal, is immortal and nearly invincible, which explains why Tintin hasn't been horribly killed yet.
It doesn't explain the dog, though.
M.P.
Seriously? The Thompson Twins are Dupont and Dupond? How do you go from D&D to T&T?
Steve - I think you need to do a Tintin review? Your gift of prose, a rich subject... the sky's the limit!
Don't think theres ever been a post about a continental European comic on this site. I'm surprised the EU tyrants in Brussels have allowed plucky Steve to get away with that for so long.
Perhaps its something to consider before the end of next month Steve?
-sean
Tintin meets Kurtz in the Congo...and confronts his own inner darkness.
The horror...
Next week: Little Orphan Annie and the USO entertains the Marines at Khe Sanh.
She had a thousand-yard stare after that...no pupils...
M.P.
Sean - I was thinking the same thing (sort of)!
I was wondering, after the Tintin presentation last nite, about other Euro comics /cartoons that have made it here in the USA?
Then I was thinking you guys should let us know what's what over there! I mean, we know generally about Captain Britain in the USA but after that...?
And I know about the DC Thomson but o/wise... nothing.
Hey - did you hear that DC Thomson is going to become "more relevant" and rename Desperate Dan to Delicate Dan? I heard it on H & J this morning on Talksport. (Seriously!)
MP - Annie and her missing eyes! I always wondered if she had fallen into a coma or something then her dog ate them to survive, and then she woke up.
French comics might not be big in the US Charlies, but the artists still basically invented the look of big budget Hollywood fantasy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=viaDGF5TI6c
M.P., I was always a bit dubious about that "Daddy" Warbucks.
-sean
He might have actually been Lex Luthor, with some weird contact lenses.
Lex had access to dimension-travelling technology. He was in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Maybe he got into the Annie universe.
I heard something interesting on Public Radio today. This guy wrote a book about quantum mechanics, and was talking about Schrodinger's cat.
Originally the cat wasn't supposed to be alive or dead, just awake or asleep.
But that isn't the point. The point is that if that cat's state is somehow tied to a device run by sub-atomic particles, then theoretically, that cat's state is indeterminate until you open the box and look at it.
There might be two cats! There might be two of you, observing either an active or a dormant cat. An infinite number of possibilities. One where Charlie is president (an improvement I think), there is no moon, or dinosaurs still walk the Earth.
I'll take this moment to quote the Demon Etrigan, as written by Alan Moore:
Thou quantum imps and
cherubs by whose dance
is substance formed to
shape the fields we know
your perfect waltz that
conjures form from chance
must pause to free us
from these wastes below
By root of minus
nine and circle squared
set right and true
against dimensions three
let our ill-angled
passage be prepared
between the folds
of rare geometry.
M.P.
Hercule Poirot was Belgian.
Well... one might conclude that the Belge have extraordinary gifts relating to solving mysteries with Tintin and Poirot leading the pack!
But after my wife and I (Charlie was on vaca) watched the Belge Netflix series "The Break" about a police detective, we have concluded that if not all of Belgium, then all those living in the Ardennes have lost those extraordinary powers.
It's worth a look, if you have Netflix... one would not have thought the rural areas of the Ardennes were so... well, I don't know what the word is... Charlies suggests "degenerate?"
Never was a fan of Tin Tin. I believe my first experience with him was the Sunday funnies I read at my grandparents' house. They had different characters than the newspaper in my town.
That also introduced me to the Phantom.
As far as European comics characters that made it in the US, I remember the Barbarella film made quite a stir back-in-the-day.
I still find that movie amusing, and Jane Fonda was very alluring in that role.
Steve, I just want you to know, you have ruined BOC's "Reaper" for me forever.
Being a HUGE Cult fan, and never caring much for the Police, I will never hear that song the same again. Lol.
KD - you are sure about Tintin in US papers? I ask b/c the sole body of work of Tintin is just the 24 "books." I guess a newspaper could have been running repros from them?
The Police - Charlie and I always dug them in our college days.
No one can deny their immense success on both sides of the ocean... whether or not they're your thing.
This past year, not sure why, we started streaming some of their songs whilst driving in the car and loving every minute of it. Developed a new found appreciation for them, and with the high quality of the sound, the percussion is phenom.
Perhaps my only musical regret is not having seen them, and perhaps U2, perform.
Talking about B.O.C., I shook hands with Eric Bloom once.
I'm sure he treasures that memory to this very day.
And yeah, he had the sunglasses on. At night.
Maybe he's got Li'l Orphan Annie eyes and keeps them hidden.
M.P.
Charlie, it's quite possible my grandmother had a Tin Tin book, and l mistakenly remember it as seeing him in the Sunday funnies. She had a few books around her house to keep us amused.
Staying with my grandparents was mildly traumatic. My grandfather would force me to get a buzz-cut the morning after I got there.
How was I going to join the Beatles or the Monkees? Lol!
Post a Comment