Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Rejoice!
The lucky souls who were alive in January 1983 certainly were.
Or at least they were if they had any sense. For it was the month in which the migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP was officially completed. A move which, as I'm sure you know, is often considered the birth of the true internet.
And, as everyone, no doubt, grasped at the time, it meant that, at last, mankind's long-cherished dream that Steve Does Comics could be created could come true.
Even more relieved were the crash test dummies of this nation, as January 1983 was the precise moment seatbelt use for drivers and front-seat passengers became mandatory in the UK. Contrary to predictions at the time, the death toll since, from people steering their cars into rivers and drowning because they couldn't get their seatbelts off, didn't subsequently skyrocket.
But what did skyrocket were sales of Renee and Renato's Save Your Love, the track which began the month at Number One on the British singles chart.
Soon, though, those musical titans were deposed by Phil Collins and You Can't Hurry Love who, in turn, had to make way for the power of Men at Work's Down Under. That final track ending the month in top spot.
Over on the UK album chart, The John Lennon Collection held sway, initially, before being dethroned by Raiders of the Pop Charts which then made way for Business as Usual by Men at Work.
I've no idea what Raiders of the Pop Charts was and have no intention of trying to find out.
But I've a horrible feeling it was probably a compilation LP featuring the likes of Tight Fit's The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
If that was the case, then, clearly, we needed, more than ever, to seek escape in the pages of the galaxy's greatest comic.
As always, we were being treated to Robo-Hunter, Tharg's Time Twisters, Judge Dredd, Harry Twenty on the High Rock and Rogue Trooper.
We also had Alan Moore's Abelard Snazz, and celebrated the book's 300th prog with a free badge for every reader and, it seems, the chance to lay hands on a copy of Prog 1.
As though that weren't enough, we could know, at last, what day it was, thanks to Tharg's multi-part 1983 calendar.
And the very next issue saw the mag thrillingly jump on the disco bandwagon.
In 1983.
Posts
59 comments:
I've just Wikipediad Raiders of the Pop Charts and it seems it was a double album issued by Ronco. This is the track listing:
Side A
Madness : "Our House"
Modern Romance : "Best Years Of Our Lives"
Haircut 100 : "Love Plus One"
Clannad : "Theme From Harry's Game"
Raw Silk : "Do It To The Music"
The Chaps : "Rawhide"
Incantation : "Cacharpaya"
Fat Larry's Band : "Zoom"
Side B
Culture Club : "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
The Pretenders : "Back on the Chain Gang"
Japan : "Nightporter"
Heaven 17 : "Let Me Go"
Tight Fit : "Fantasy Island"
Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin : "Johnny Rocco"
Toni Basil : "Mickey"
Side C
Kid Creole and the Coconuts : "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy"
Yazoo : "Only You"
Lene Lovich : "It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)"
The Beat : "I Confess"
Toto Coelo : "I Eat Cannibals"
Precious Little : "The On And On Song"
Whodini : "Magic Wand"
The Pale Fountains : "Thank You"
Side D
Shakin' Stevens : "Give Me Your Heart Tonight"
Simple Minds : "Someone Somewhere in Summertime"
Robert Palmer : "Some Guys Have All the Luck"
UB40 : "So Here I Am"
Gregory Isaacs : "Night Nurse"
Morrissey–Mullen : "Bladerunner"
The Kids from "Fame" : "Starmaker"
Tight Fit were indeed on it but with Fantasy Island, not The Lion Sleeps Tonight. I have to say, it's a pretty random selection of tracks. I'm not sure how most of the songs tie-in with a Raiders of the Lost Ark theme.
A pedant writes:
Shouldn't that be Wikipediaed, Steve?
Also, I would suggest that far from being behind the times, that cover for prog 301 actually anticipates a very 21st century ironic take on disco.
None of which should be taken as a criticism of your sterling work on this blog, which has made the internet worth while.
-sean
Steve- you beat me to the punch with your comment! I was going to research that Ronco lp but you served up the information (only logical, you can always be counted upon to deliver accurately entertaining tidbits).
I've always had a great fondness for compilation albums and cds. A fair chunk of my collection consists of them. That "Raiders" set would have fascinated this listener. Incidentally, were you UK folks get treated to tv ads for such discs? The K-Tel and Ronco albums were a staple of 70's and 80's US viewing. Usually provided by an announcer with an extreme level of enthusiasm...
Oh yes, Red, we got plenty of ads for K-Tel and Ronco. And not just for their records. We also got bombarded with their adverts for totally useless gadgets. I remember the ads for the Ronco Buttoneer. I don't actually remember what the Ronco Buttoneer was but I remember the ads for it.
Sean, I don't have a clue what it should be. I blame the 1970s British education system.
As for the disco thing, you're right. I should never have doubted Tharg's ability to be ahead of the times.
PS, looking at that album track listing, I've never heard of Precious Little, Whodini, Raw Silk or The Chaps. I'd love to know how those ones got selected for inclusion.
SDC - Thanks for that summary of the hits!
You know... Ole Charlie here had a pretty good collection of "Now That's What I Call Music" out of the UK that he somehow acquired living in Germany. Not sure if I bought it in the German stores or at the military base or the times I was in the UK but those collections were grand!
Red - as to what the Brits listened to, lol, if we link up again, I'll show you my "Now Music" CDs. Chock full of stuff on the UK charts that we never heard in the USA.
On one of them is Nina Simone singing "My Baby Just Cares for Me" from around 1987. Beautiful!
All - the video to this is really special. Truly unique and classy. Check it out. But as to why this song hit the charts in the UK... no idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYSbUOoq4Vg
100 comments last blog! Steve - you hit the century mark! Congrats!
Thanks, Charlie.
I suspect the Nina Simone song was a hit due to appearing in an advert. A lot of old songs hit the UK charts around that time, thanks to appearing in commercials.
Chicago's Mayor Daley(s)
THe dad was Mayor from around 1955 - 1976
The son was Mayor from around 1989 - 2011.
Another son was a secretary for Clinton.
Powerful Irish family. (Because in america we need to identify ethnicity.)
Quick thoughts b/c this is only tangential to Steve's core mission!
1) The Irish tended to dominate big city government (Politics, teaching, police, fire) b/c they were the only immigrants (by the millions?) reading English and speaking something that approximated it.
2) Mayor "Old Man" Daley... supposedly was responsible for getting Kennedy elected. The Kennedy- Nixon election was extremely close. He found the requisite votes, or had them found. His son, "Da Mayer" was affectionately known as "Dum Dum Daley."
Our greatest columnist was Mike Royko. Below are some "real chicago" observations from his book. IT's not just hyperbole or platitudes, either. We don't talk much like dat no more, doe.
“The neighborhood-towns were part of larger ethnic states. To the north of the Loop was Germany. To the northwest was Poland. To the west were Italy and Israel. To the southwest were Bohemia and Lithuania. And to the south was ireland...
You could always tell, even with your eyes closed, which state you were in by the odors of the food stores and the open kitchen windows, the sound of the foreign or familiar language, and by whether a stranger hit you in the head with a rock.”
― Mike Royko, Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago
“Go that way, past the viaduct, and the wops will jump you, or chase you into Jew town...Polacks would stomp on you...Micks will shower you with Irish confetti from the brickyards.”
― Mike Royko, Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/31199.Mike_Royko
Thanks, Charlie - that's right on the money. Throws some light on '13 Days'!
Redartz & Steve - with compilation album adverts, I still remember songs from particular tv adverts, but forget to which albums the adverts related. For example, in the late 70s/early 80s one advert featured 'Classical Gas', over & over again - this was easy to find. Other compilation album tv adverts I remember, are much harder.
Don't want to distract from 2000AD, etc.
Phillip
Not to go too off topic either, but...
Speaking something that approximated English, Charlie?
-sean
Sean - well... that did not come out as it should have, lol. I've heard some "hard core" irish folks in Chicago and I can't understand them. I could not tell you if they were speaking in a heavy accent of an actual dialect.
Reminds me of when I was in Cambridge at a store (doing an airshow at RAF Alconbury). Some guy started speaking to me and I did not understand and told him that. He chuckled and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were a yank."
SO... I don't know what the hell spoken english is supposed to be, but I figure whatever it is Irish, Brits, Aussie's Canucks, etc. should be able to understand each other if we speak it, lol.
Heh!
I was in a bar in Soho, maybe '89, once when I was on leave, and this young guy in jeans, boots, and with a shaved head came in, sat down and started talking loudly at me about the football game on the television up on the wall. He apparently thought I was a local.
He was going on and on, quite excited, and I couldn't understand most of it. Maybe one word in three. I mean, it was English, but... I had no clue what this fella was talking about. I dreaded the moment when he would ask me a question. I finally broke down and came clean, told him I was sorry, I was an American on vacation, and he just stared dully at me. I was nervous.
Then I said, "Lemme buy you a round! Drinks are on me! Barkeep!" and his face lit up and we were the best of pals.
A brilliant tactical move, if I do say so myself.
I don't remember much after that...
M.P.
Charlie, its a well known fact - somewhat ironically given the history - that the Irish are the best users of the English language. Just consider James Joyce, WB Yeates, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney and Garth Ennis...
-sean
And Kenneth Branagh, Sean?
A lot of what little I know about Shakespeare comes from that guy.
M.P.
...Did you see his film version of Othello?
Brilliant. And dark.
Iago is one of the most puzzling, and compelling, villains in literature, because his motives are obscure.
M.P.
Sean - I thought W.B.Yeats was a west London boy, who loved going to Ireland for his holidays? Then he decided to holiday with you, full time!
Colin - Do you want to be first to quote some gibberish from Finnegan's Wake(which I haven't read), as an example of perfect English, in response to Sean?
M.P. - To me, Olivier's Henry V is better than Kenneth's. Plus, Wallander's original version is much better than Ken's (to me). I've never seen Ken's Othello, though - maybe that's better. I agree about Iago - thwarted ambition, innate depravity - who can say? There was a sketch (either Fast Show or Harry & Paul), comparing Gibson & Branagh's Hamlets, but let's not get diverted!
Phillip
WB Yeats was born in Dublin, Phillip.
But Yeats and Joyce are what you're picking up on there, and not Garth Ennis?
I thought including Garth would be the tip off I had my tongue in cheek a bit...
M.P., yeah, that Branagh film was pretty good.
There was a version of Othello staged in the US some years with Patrick Stewart in the title role and the rest of the cast all black, which sounds like it would have been worth seeing.
Of course, Lenny Henry's performance as Othello must have been the most sophisticated, as it was on in Leeds (;
-sean
*some years ago
-sean
Sean - I thought you might be being ironic, as Irish people roll their eyes whenever Joyce is mentioned, saying: "Not him, again!"
I've checked wikipedia (rather than my recollections of 'In Our Time') & it seems Yeats moved to London, aged 2, and didn't return to Ireland until he was 15 - except for the famous holidays. Then again, Joe Biden says he's Irish, and he wasn't born there, at all!
Phillip
Allow the Charlie to wade into Shakespeare and Branagh.
The epitome, the ultimate, the grandest display of acting known to mankind is Branagh's "St Crispin's Day Speech!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-yZNMWFqvM
And Chaplains speech the balance to Branagh's... Also the epitome of hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7GY1Xg6X20
Phil, I'm afraid I've never read Finnegan's Wake or any of the novelists Sean mentioned but I do know that June 16th is called Bloomsday when James Joyce's Ulysses is celebrated.
Steve, congratulations on reaching 102 comments on your previous post! Your telegram from the Queen is surely on its' way.
Ronco makes me think of Christmas in the '70s and especially the Ronco Buttoneer as you mentioned, Steve. I think it was meant to sort of staple the button to the sleeve but did it actually work? The absence of any Buttoneers in the shops nowadays suggests not!
Charlie, when I was in school we all loathed Shakespeare. My opinions haven't changed much. You can keep your St. Crispin's Day speech!
Colin - Bloomsday's a big deal in Dublin, as Sean will tell you. But Leopold Bloom's house is just some kind of hospital type thing now. Tag in Sean.
Phillip
just part of some kind of
Colin - Not liking that speech, your shoes may fall apart! (Crispin & Crispian - patron saints of shoe makers!)
Phillip
The Irish are an emigrant diasporic people Phillip; if the American president says he's Irish thats fine by me. Not least because it means someone who's family was forced out during the (so-called) famine now gets to call the shots on any trade deal with the UK - in your face English Brexiters!
Ok, I'll stop now before it all gets out of hand.
-sean
The Buttoneer did indeed attach buttons to anything that needed a button.
Charlie advised me that "Colin should button his lip" for not liking the St. Crispin's speech and is running into the basement now to find a Buttoneer and assist Colin. Literally.
Be careful Collin. Be bery, bery careful!
Below is a youtube of the buttoneer. SOme folks allude to the ones they bought decades ago and that they worked well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENAV6NVM5zI
Sean - When my brother worked in Ireland, he said that Irish people didn't like it when Americans pronounced Cahill (Car-hill) as Cayhill. Plus, I've got Irish ancestors myself. There's even a road in Ireland with my surname on it, somewhere. However, I don't know if that makes me deep Irish - or - my ancestors could have been like Peter Bowles in the Irish R.M. (Not so good.) I'd have to find out! Personally, I think Biden seems a good guy. But when expectations are high at the beginning, it makes it all the more difficult later on.
Phillip
Thanks, Colin. After 102 comments, the blog can achieve nothing, from this point on, but decline. :)
I must confess, I watched the Buttoneer advert, last night. Truly, it was a device of miracle and wonder.
Obama is Irish too!
Biden and Obama and Nixon and Kennedy and... wow... Irish are prolific.
Were there any Irish superheroes in the UK comics?
I'm thinking about my Dandy, Beano, Wullie annuals and I guess Oor Wullie and The Broons were the only two that got a nod to ethnicity (Scottish for my american friends).
Charlie, when Boris Johnson was going on about Obama making things difficult for Britain because he was Kenyan I did think - hey, it could just as easily be because he was Irish.
Are you sure about Nixon? I recall reading somewhere he came from an English Quaker background.
Still, at least you're not blaming us for that Reagan eejit.
Irish super-heroes in British comics? You're having a laugh, right?
The only comic character I can think of off hand is Slaine. Coming to a Steve Does Comics 2000AD post later this year! Presumably.
-sean
Sean
As long as we are talking Irish, I'm just curios if there are any good comics about "the troubles" like you've recommended about WW1, 2, etc.
Truly my knowledge of all that is very limited. Mostly Peaky Blinders and U2 songs.
Not sure how much you learn about the 70s and 80s from Peaky Blinders Charlie.
The only mainstream comic series on the subject I can think of is from the 2000AD spin-off mag Crisis (which gets us a bit back on topic, sort of) Troubled Souls by Garth Ennis and John McCrea. Fair play to them for doing it, but it was their first published work and not that good imo.
Otherwise, theres underground comics from the time, but I doubt thats the kind of thing you're after (and it probably isn't easy to track down these days anyway).
https://irishcomics.fandom/wiki/Brian_Moore_(1946-2011)
-sean
*Correction -
https://irishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Brian_Moore_(1946-2011)
-sean
BACK ON SUBJECT ALMOST!!!
I just swang by the local library and picked up Judge Dreed Apocalypse War which is like PROG 244 - 256. It's not so far behaind the PROGs featured above!
But I am already bewildered. THe opening page is an editorial discussion that over time writers had increased Mega City down to Florida, north into Canada, and half way to the Rockies. It kind of suggests that Mega City is in America, say like Cincinnati? (So-called b/c so many revolutionary war vets living there belonged to the Society of Cincinnatus.)
But what the Hey???
I always assumed Mega City and Dredd were in Britain, like Sheffield of some other town caught between the past and the future? I mean. it was starting to all come together for me... a place where men are big and strong and steal and eat dogs eventually end up in some hellish thing called Mega City that has free mass transit and a cool music scene.
NOw I find out it's set in some plug of a place like Kentucky or Ohio?
HI Sean,
I thought "the troubles" just referred to the whole problem starting around WW1 or so until the "peace treaty" a decade or so ago? (You have to forgive my very loose dates and terms.)
I was thinking since there are a fair number of graphic novels about Israel, Palatine, Jerusalem, etc. or like Joe K did Sarajevo there would be some graphic novels regarding Ireland.
A story waiting to be told as a graphic novel? Would the UK government censor it?
Not to change the topic again, but Phil, I think you offered a great explanation for Iago's motives, which I never understood. "Thwarted ambition and innate depravity."
I lean on the side of innate depravity. Some people are just destructive for the sake of destruction. Maybe the guy had psychopathic tendencies. Plenty of them walkin' around.
Ian Mckellen said that he thought racism had something to do with it.
Sean, as far as Biden being Irish and now being able to call the shots on the global stage, success is sometimes the best revenge.
Or something like that.
M.P.
Mega-City One covers the east coast, run by the judges after the last US president Bad Bob Booth made World War 3 great again, Charlie.
I distinctly recall advising you here that the Apocalypse War was not a good place to start...
"The troubles" - a euphemism I don't much care for - specifically covers the period of British military occupation in the north from the end of the 60s to the '97 peace agreement. You can find out more on Wikipedia (sorry, but this really isn't the place).
But I'll just add that I have been taking advantage of lockdown to work on a comic which will actually cover some of the history - starting from the theft of Stonehenge! - so I'll put you down for a copy (and Transatlantic shipping charges) when I print it up, hopefully later this year.
-sean
Sean - I recall you (and Steve) advised against starting on Apocalypse War. But the library system is constipated from transferring stuff around due to Covid. And after some months of closure, we've only been allowed back in this past week, so I grabbed the only Dredd on the shelf.
It's nice to see that the internal art on these Dredds is not like the cover art.
Yes indeed, put me down for one of your books Sean!
B.t.w. I keep hearing an advert on Talk Sport that you UK chaps are supposed to go to a post-Brexit www export.uk site so that you can get assistance exporting your goods more better! They sound really friendly. It could help with the upcoming book?
‘Peaky Blinders’ may not be the place to learn about ‘The Troubles’ (pretty good show, though) — but the Occupation does figure in the Irish sitcom ‘Derry Girls’ which the missus and I stumbled upon on Netflix and enjoyed quite a bit (though I must admit we need to have the captions on while watching, or we’d be pretty lost).
b.t.
Charlie, Boris Johnson promised us a "great trade deal" with the European Union so the website you mentioned shouldn't have been needed. But Boris got us a crap trade deal instead!
Thanks Charlie, but its a changing situation so I'll look into it nearer the time. Especially as I am actually still a European citizen, so will have a few options - the Irish are now the only people with the right of free movement in both the UK and the EU, so we have an unfair advantage over the British. Well done Boris (you couldn't make this stuff up).
-sean
Maybe we need to start picking our leaders on the basis of how they comb their hair.
M.P.
My favourite ever Hulk story featured 'tones' by Brian Moore; he was excellent. I always wondered what happened to him - presumably it's the same guy. I've got relatives with that surname - but I suppose it's fairly common.
M.P. - Yeah, as regards natural depravity, I think 'Billy Budd', the short story by Herman Melville covers some of the same ground, too. It gave me an inner chuckle seeing Boris forced to disavow his supposed best mate, Trump, and have to grovel before Joe Biden - hee, hee!
Colin - As the Scottish fishing industry's been damaged, the Scots will later vote for independence, followed by other nations. Boris is now worried history will remember him as the P.M. who broke up the UK, so he'll be setting up someone else to deflect the blame onto. There was talk of Boris appointing some 'Czar' to keep the UK together (i.e - a patsy/fall guy for Boris). Politicians have used the same tricks since the dawn of time!
M.P. - That's why Mussolini was never a success!
Phillip
Charlie - 1.) The first human aircraft to fly on another world is a helicopter
2.) Do helicopter pilots really call fixed wing pilots "plank drivers"?
3.) The Russians made a Chinook rip-off, called a "Horse" ! Don't the Ruskies know it has "Charlie" in front?
See link: https://hushkit.net/
Phillip
On the subject of Joe Biden - he is only the second Roman Catholic to become US President (after JFK of course) but his Catholicism seemed to be a total non-issue during the campaign unlike 1960 when JFK being a Catholic was quite controversial apparently. Charlie, you're a Catholic, aren't you? Do you care about Biden being a catholic?
And Biden and JFK have something else in common - they both won the election without taking Ohio, "The Bellwether State". Ohio has picked the winner in every presidential election since 1964 but not in 2020 - Ohio ain't the Bellwether State no more! Was Ohio's fall from grace a big deal in the US?
Steve, the fifth 2000AD cover has a banner at the top saying Fort Neuro Gets...DISCO FEVER. I don't know who Fort Neuro is but "Disco Fever" was the name of another compilation album, this time from 1977. The only two songs I could remember from it are "Angelo" by Brotherhood Of Man and "Telephone Man" of which I couldn't recall the singer. So I googled Disco Fever and got the entire track listing - those two aforementioned songs are indeed on the album and "Telephone Man" is by Meri Wilson (as opposed to Mari Wilson who sang "Just What I Always Wanted" in 1982).
Colin - JFK also won by the narrowest margin in history (at that time). However, since the hanging chads election, I don't think he holds that record any more!
The Brotherhood of Man had a winning formula - give the punters 20 well chosen songs, at an affordable price. How many of you listened to Brotherhood of Man's Twenty Number One Hits? Be honest - it was a great album!
Phillip
Phil, Brotherhood Of Man had 20 Number one hits??? I can only recall three - Save Your Kisses For Me, Angelo and Figaro (I know you meant 20 hits) :D
Colin - I should have put the album title in inverted commas! Hee, hee!
Phillip
Whoa! WHoa!! WHOa!!! WHOA!!!!
CHARLIE MEANS WHOA!
Who’d ‘ve known that the folks at Judge Dredd were so clairvoyant, so prescient?
Charlie noticed on the Dredd covers shown above and the Apocalypse War TBP he is currently reading, that the mag quotes the price for the UK, Australia, New Zealand (not the USA???) Mercury, Venus, the Asteroid Belt, Pluto, etc!
These cool cats obviously knew Brexit was coming and they’d be able to sell beyond the constraints of the Euro-crats!!! But hos did they know this 40 years ago?
I AM SURPRISED though that they figured the UK would restrict sales to our solar system?
SEAN – I think you should target Alpha Centauri! It’s in our Galaxy after all, a mere 4 light years away just on the other side of our Solar System! THINK BIG SEAN!
Don't worry Charlie - euros, US dollars, galactic groats, it makes no difference. If you can spend it, I'll accept it.
Especially at post-referendum exchange rates with the pound.
-sean
Sean - so you are doing an "irish" comic? YOu start with Stone Henge being stolen and then...? Do you like borrow from that book "How the Irish saved civilization?"
You'll have to wait and see Charlie.
-sean
BBC Radio 4 recently made a series called "How The Irish Built Britain".
The Ronco Veg-A-Matic is still available. It makes wonderful Juliane fries, and slices onions without shedding a tear...
Steve, do you know that today is exactly 50 years since the first episode of Mr. Benn on BBC One?
I must admit I didn't know that, Colin. I do feel I should put a bowler hat on, to mark the occasion.
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