Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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This week, in 1981, Britain was bracing itself for the prospect of a totally new force becoming the nation's government.
And that was the Liberal-SDP Alliance which topped a MORI poll, with 40% of the vote, putting it ahead of Labour on 31% and the Conservatives on 27%.
Surely, nothing could now stop its rise to power.
Well, as it turned out, reality could, as there wasn't going to be an election for another couple of years and, when that arrived, the Liberal-SDP Alliance didn't win it. It just goes to show there's little use in being in the lead halfway through a race.
Not in the lead in any kind of way was the Soviet submarine S-363 which ran aground outside Sweden's Karlskrona military base, leading to an international incident. I'm assuming this is the incident Billy Bragg referenced in his song Sexuality when he sang, "A nuclear submarine sinks of the coast of Sweden. Headlines give me headaches when I read them."
He also claimed he had an uncle who once played for Redstar Belgrade but I have it on good authority that was just a lie.
Definitely not running aground were Queen who, that week, released their Greatest Hits LP which went on to become the UK's biggest-selling album of all time.
Speaking of such things, it was the week in which the Human League's Dare rose to claim the Number One spot on the British LP chart.
There was, however, no change on the singles chart, with Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin's cover of It's My Party hanging on to the top spot.
Inoffensive though it was, I wasn't a huge fan of that single, but tracks which did gain my approval on that week's chart were:
O Superman - Laurie Anderson
Labelled with Love - Squeeze
Open Your Heart - the Human League
Joan of Arc - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
Passionate Friend - The Teardrop Explodes
and
Love Action - the Human League.
For a look at that chart, you can click right here.
The Teardrop Explodes, famously, took their name from a caption in an old issue of Daredevil.
And that reminiscence can lead me to just one place.
And now he's going to have to go in there and deal with them.
We also get part two of Marvel UK's look at Spider-Man in the movies - which means it's just a look at the episodes of the TV show.
For those for whom even all that's not enough, we get the chance to become a Marvel artist and, no doubt, end up producing great comics like Super Spider-Man TV Comic.
But, most thrilling of all, we get the debut of Jet Lagg, Britain's newest super-hero!
I'd like to boast that I know all about Jet Lagg but I know absolutely nothing about him and had never heard of him until now.
The British Comics Fandom site tells me he's infamous slowcoach Larry Lagg who gains super-speed after a blood transfusion from Roger Bannister then fights such villains as Fu Klux Kevin.
I certainly wouldn't want to risk saying that name with a few drinks in me.
And then he's captured by the giant Ameridroid!
It really isn't his lucky day.
Hoping for more luck is Iron Man who's off to Costa Diablo for reasons I'm not totally clear about.
I can shed no light upon the activities of the Dazzler but I do know it's bad news for Thor who doesn't even get to appear in this issue.
It's the last-ever issue of the mag that loves to boast of how moody it is.
No doubt, that news'll make it even moodier than ever.
I can't say for certain but I suspect Daredevil's battling The Tribune, as that wannabe judge hijacks the trial of a group of Commie pinkoes.
Meanwhile, the Panther finishes off the Kiber Conspiracy to bring his run to an end.
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31 comments:
You don't suppose Thomas Dolby was singing about that submarine in "One of our Submarines" do you? Man that's a great tune!
And, one cannot overestimate the success of Dare for the Human League and how it saved A&M Records from bankruptcy. It was a smash album.
In fact my girl friend and I were singing "Don't You Want Me" on Tuesday night as we went for a bit of a walk about in the evening. She seemed to think it had the "stalker" thing in the lyrics like "Every Breath You Take" but really it doesn't at all.
You know... I loved trying to draw and replicate comic covers as a kid.
None of them particularly inspire me.
BUT I think it would be challenging for a young kid to draw that Spidey cover with the real human on it. I wish I'd of seen that 50 years ago!
"Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government" - David Steel, 1981.
(true, they did finally get into government 29 years later in 2010).
Is Queen's Greatest Hits really the UK's best-selling album? ABBA GOLD recently became the first album to spend 1,000 weeks on the UK albums chart so perhaps it has overtaken Queen?
Ah the SDP - the most boring of the various late 70s/early 80s Gangs of Four. The Chinese and Leeds communist ones were much more impressive (I particularly liked the latter's first album).
But I don't know if thats completely right about Woy Jenkins and his lot not being successful Steve, as surely one of their main aims was to keep the extremists with crazy ideas about spending public money on health and welfare rather than wasting it on weapons of mass destruction out of power.
Without the SDP there was a possibility the whole country could have become like South Yorkshire!
When the only thing you think of adding about the weekly comics is that Jet Lagg was obviously by the same team that did the Earth 33 1/3 strip you know they're on the way out.
Presumably the next Marvel UK post will be a first of the month epic, but after that... will the feature be down to just two titles?
-sean
*When the only thing you CAN think of adding...
Apologies for the typo there. Duh.
Also, O Superman is by far the best of the records you listed, Steve.
-sean
Dave's Cover of the Week: no contest, its that lovely Marvel Super Adventure cover.
I'd never heard of Jet Lagg either, but really want to read some of his stories now!
Colin, I've just had a check and Wikipedia says ABBA Gold is the UK's 2nd biggest seller with 5.7 million units sold and Queen's Greatest is the top one with 6.6 million units shifted.
Charlie, there's definitely stalkery control-freakery going on with the line, "But don't forget it's me who put you where you are now and I can put you back down too."
I believe it will indeed be down to just two titles, Sean. It's terrible news for Marvel UK but great news for me.
Dave, I agree, Marvel Super Adventure has my cover of the week as well.
'Don't You Want Me' has another line that could sound threatening to a female listener:
"You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry..."
{By a spooky coincidence I heard 'Don't You Want Me' in my local Tesco just a couple of weeks ago).
I'm baffled that Queen's Greatest Hits is the UK's No.1 album as I don't particularly like any of their songs.
I think the SDP-Liberal Alliance got 50% in one particular poll so their 40% showing in a poll from this week 40 years ago isn't very impressive. Anyway, in 2021 we don't need the Liberals or Labour because BoJo and Dishi Rishi have turned the Tories into a socialist party but what would Maggie say??
Sheffield, forever trapped between the past and the future.
ABC - were it not for free bus fares in Sheffield ABC would not have become a band and we would not have had so many great hits like "Poison Arrow" and "When Smokey Sings."
Human League - Gave us "Dare!" (Sorry UK gents, I am using the US title.)
Heaven 17 - "Penthouse and Pavement"
When Covid goes away, I am making a pilgrimage to Sheffield.
Any of you UK gents have room for a Chicago vagabond?
That Cap cover appeared on this blog only a week or two ago in 40 years ago this week. Has Marvel U.K. actually caught up with t(e US on Cap strips now? I find that hard to believe given that it wasn't until the launch of The Titans that his strip started getting reprinted. I can 9nl6 guess that loads of Cap material has just been bypassed.
Have you only just noticed a lot of the same covers have been appearing in both the US and UK 40 Years Ago features for a while now, dangermash?
Seems likely there must have been a Marvel UK editorial decision to reprint (mostly) current stuff in the weeklies, probably when Paul Neary took over from your mate SezDez.
Colin, while it has been amusing to see the party of well known pro-EEC campaigner Margaret Thatcher carry out the old early 80s left-wing Labour policy of taking the UK out of Europe - and watch Boris Johnson do more for Irish Republicanism in a couple of years than Jeremy Corbyn over decades - all the same I think British workers would be well advised not to hold their breath waiting for the arrival of the new high wage economy the tory government has been talking up recently.
-sean
Charlie, I hear the US workers have been rising up, during "Striketober".
Seems like your country might be turning into South Yorkshire on a large scale, and saving you the effort of having to go elsewhere.
Good luck against the kulaks.
-sean
Seen it happening for a while, Sean, but it's always been Hulk and Spider Man and we know the U.K. strips have caught up with the US on these, what with them each heading their own magazine since the very early days of Marvel U.K. my point was more Captain America specific - I'm just surprised to see it happening for Cap, someone that Marvel U.K. seemed reluctant to reprint for so long.
I guess its been less noticeable with Cap because he frequently doesn't appear on the cover of his own comic dm. Which I guess shows how much confidence Marvel UK had in his ability to shift copies...
-sean
Dangermash,
I suspect they jumped to the John Byrne Cap run, at some point, to cash in on Byrne's popularity (given Marvel UK was then in the middle of his X-men run in Rampage).
Charlie,
You may like to give Martin Ware's 'Electronically Yours' podcast a listen (he of Human League and Heaven 17), if you haven't already. He interview all of the main players and, obviously, has a lot of inside knowledge. The Gary Numan episode has a genuinely terrifying anecdote at the end.
DW
Steve-
"Costa Diablo"?
Those writers just weren't trying very hard anymore, were they.
Charlie, I'm a fan of ABC too! I'll still watch a video or two of theirs on YouTube.
I like the whole "posh" or glamorous style of some of the music out of U.K. at that time.
I dunno why. It had nothing to do with my reality.
Maybe that's why.
M.P.
MP - I too was a huge fan of that British posh look in the early - mid 80s.
Course me and the more cultured (LOL!) in my frat would read GQ as well.
But ABC, Spandau Ballet, Level 42, Blow Monkeys, et al. all had that sophisti-pop look which I thought was super cool. And sure as shit when I got me first suits a bunch were double breasted.
OK - Charlie is really perplexed. 40 years ago and a few months the Rolling Stones had released Tattoo You.
Apparently it was number 1 + / - on the charts in America at that time but not even charts per Steve's link above.
Am I on the crack pipe or what is not making sense???
Dudes - what is going on between the UK and France and fishing? Is this about Cod pieces?
Sounds like war is inevitable?
Sean - I am truly not aware of strike-tober. I know there are a bunch of df cops and firefighters refusing to get vaxed and going to get layed off / fired in the next week or three.
Charlie, the link I posted was for the singles chart. Tattoo You was at 24 on the UK album chart, having peaked at Number Two. https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/19811025/7502/
The fishing thing is, I think most people suspect, the British government trying to stir up fights with other countries to try and divert the public's attention away from its own failings.
MP, Costa Diablo certainly sounds like a great place to go for a holiday.
It's the Coast of Demons, Steve!
Getting kidnapped on vacation by the local cartel would be the least of your worries!
M.P.
Steve- man, so many great tunes on your UK chart then! Like Charlie I loved that Human League lp. Also loved the companion "League Unlimited Orchestra " dance lp. Hard to say which I played more frequently...
Regarding the Stones and "Tatoo You": when that lp was new, the Stones were touring to promote it. A young lady in my art school was trying to win tickets on the radio and asked if I'd go with her if she won. Sadly she didn't, but we subsequently up dating for awhile. Ah, those college days...
UK readers don't forget to put your clocks back tonight.
Colin - I am truly and deeply hurt you did not include US readers to you "clock change" text above.
Surely you know by now that Charlie is semi-glued to the TV on Saturday and Sunday morning watching English soccer?
Also, when Charlie drives to / from work he listens to the UK's venerable "Talk Sport."
The UK time change wreaks havoc with my lifestyle!
Please, going forward, try to be more inclusive and mention us USA readers (or at least Charlie) when you guys change the time.
And I'll do likewise!
Readers of SDC throughout the world, and even the universe, and including the lost planet of the Eternals, now embodied in The Stranger, and the lost planet of Gargantuan, now embodied in the Overlord, and of course the planet of one known as Ego...
Hear ye, hear ye.. the first Sunday in November the city of Chicago will change its clock by moving in one hour forward!
Charlie does not know what the rest of the USA does b/c, especially since Trump World V1, the country is a hot mess and hunks of it may move their clocks in the opposite direction out of spite.
Charlie, I'm aware that British clocks moving forward/backward by one hour causes problems for you listening to Talk Sport but I said "UK readers" because I don't know when America changes its' clocks. Hopefully your listening/watching habits can now return to normal :)
Are you sure the clocks are going forward an hour, Charlie? Doesn't that seem a little counter-intuitive?
Even the French are turning their clocks back an hour Steve.
-sean
PS To be fair to Boris Johnson (eh?) the French government also have an interest in stirring things up to divert the public from its failings, Steve. Especially as Macron has an election coming up.
Although of course a couple of years on from Johnson's oven ready deal it is amusing to see him complain about someone else creating a distraction, and (supposedly) not sticking to an agreement.
And apparently today he's complaining to Brussels about Macron, which is pretty funny. What ever happened to taking back control? Brexit really is the gift that keeps on giving.
-sean
--Charlie (and everyone)
I'm not feeling compelled to go see The Eternals in the theater, but when it shows up on cable, (I am something of a cheapskate) I'll watch the darned thing!
Why not?
It's my understanding that Arishem shows up, and I will be curious to see what that looks like. Quite impressive I hope. Ego was somewhat underwhelming. He acted like an aging ex-fratboy.
I've read that the director on this is pretty good.
Isn't it weird, you guys, that obscure characters from comics that only comic book nerds like us knew about are now a part of the shared culture? (whatever that means)
I was surprised when they made the first Conan movie with Arnold. (I call him Arnold because I don't know how to spell Schwarzenegger) I certainly never thought they'd make one about the Eternals! Or that Thanos would be someday be famous.
Pretty soon now, Adam Warlock is gonna be famous too, I guess.
Not sure how I feel about that. The stories and characters always seems like they get watered down in translation, though I suppose that's inevitable. But it feels like something that is a little personal and belongs to me is getting co-opted.
But heck, might as well have fun with it. It will give us something to debate about, anyway!
Happy Halloween, Steve, and all my Fellow Frantic Followers of SDC!
I have spoken!
M.P.
Happy Halloween to you too, MP, and to all who visit this site.
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