Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
If there's something weird in your neighbourhood, who're you going to call?
No one. There's nothing wrong with being weird.
However, in June 1984, there was a whole new option available to the strangeness averse.
That's because it was the month in which Ghostbusters hit our cinema screens.
And it wasn't alone. That June also saw the release of Once Upon a Time in America, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, Cannonball Run II and Conan the Destroyer.
I would say Gremlins is the pick of that lot but I do concur that other opinions may exist.
But, while that was going on, what was transpiring in the real world?
Tetris was.
Tetris was.
Or it was if you were Russian, because it was the month in which the game was officially released in the USSR, for use on the awesome Soviet super-computer Electronika 60.
Rather more nightmarishly, the Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil was founded.
Up above us, Virgin Atlantic made its inaugural flight.
And, off to one side of us, France beat Spain 2–0 to win Euro '84.
On our record players, the UK Number One belonged to just two singles. They were Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes.
Rather more nightmarishly, the Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil was founded.
Up above us, Virgin Atlantic made its inaugural flight.
And, off to one side of us, France beat Spain 2–0 to win Euro '84.
On our record players, the UK Number One belonged to just two singles. They were Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes.
However, Bob Marley & the Wailers had the peak of the British album chart to themselves, thanks to their compilation Legend which sat proudly at Number One for the entire month.
And is there news of the galaxy's greatest comic?
Too right there is. It was still printing Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future-Shocks, Rogue Trooper and Tharg's Time Twisters.
However, there was a hint of new things to come, thanks to Prog 274 featuring a one-page ad for an upcoming strip entitled The Ballad of Halo Jones.
However, there was a hint of new things to come, thanks to Prog 274 featuring a one-page ad for an upcoming strip entitled The Ballad of Halo Jones.
Excitingly, Prog 371 was offering us a Sláine action figure. Whether he was included with the comic or you had to send off for him, I cannot say.
That must mean it's 38 years since that summer when Frankie t-shirts were a thing. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed summer 1984. I was 13 and had just got into pop music through… Two Tribes. Loved that 12”. Didn’t wear a Frankie T-shirt though.
ReplyDeleteIt was the summer of Moore’s Swamp Thing too!
Sigh. Terrible 2000AD covers here. Really dull and workmanlike.
I mean. Surely Once Upon A Time In America towers over all of those films? I was just listening to the soundtrack this morning.
I really like Star Trek III. No, it is not as good as Star Trek II. I know this. But I’m still very fond of it.
Once again, the U.K. didn’t get Ghostbusters or Gremlins until Christmas. Kinda worked out OK for Gremlins though.
Hi Gents, after a long day of sightseeing thought id see what’s up.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Frankie Goes to Hollywood… The song Relax… i have to assume the censors understood what was being talked about in the song? Howd it ever get airtime? I dont know how it was allowed in the USA but then we dont have any good censorship stories like youe folks.
And, being in France at the moment, i doubt they have the word LOL.
Frankie says Arm the Unemployed!
ReplyDeleteSounds like dangermash might be the sort of person who didn't give a %&@# what Frankie said. Fair enough.
I thought 'Two Tribes' was a pretty good record though, much better than 'Relax'. But the lyrics were a bit rubbish though, considering the subject matter - could they not come up with anything better than "a point is all you can score?" What did that even mean?
Still, the 'sampled' actors on the record made up for that -
"Just think about it, war breaks out and no-one turns up!"
"If any member of the family should die from contamination put the body outside, but don't forget to tag them first for identification purposes later."
Nuclear paranoia was so '80s. Strange it hasn't made a come back in the 21st century, as a third world war seems far more likely now than it did then.
Perhaps Liz Truss will win 'The Next British Prime Minister' tv show and get it started.
We're also a good few months into the miners' strike at this point.
And of course June '84 saw the last proper Peoples Free Festival at Stonehenge. That at least was fun (no wonder the authorities stamped it out the next year).
-sean
Yeah, I agree with Matthew on 'Once Upon a Time In America', Steve.
ReplyDeleteAnd about 2000AD being a bit workmanlike this month, with two or even three Future Shocks/Time Twisters/whatever in each prog iirc.
I suspect thats because Tharg was increasingly having to deal with the reality of his droids heading off to the land of the free (and better pay), and restructure behind the scenes.
Besides Swamp Thing - #25, the first part of the story with Etrigan the Demon came outs this month - Dave Gibbons was regular Green Lantern artist, and Brian Bolland was (gradually!) completing Camelot 3000, and we can't be that far off from Kevin O'Neill going to DC and then Marvel/Epic.
Of course Moore has a new series starting next month, but those artists were obviously not coming back. Nemesis returns soon, but (mostly) with the newbie Bryan Talbot droid...
-sean
Btw Steve, the blurb at the top of the cover of prog 371 is a bit of an exaggeration - "Slaine Action Figure This Issue!" should at least have "Cut-Out" at the start of it.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe replace "Action Figure" with er, "Picture".
Ok, I'll stop now.
-sean
Ah, that Summer of 84. I was working my first job out of college, which meant I had more money for comics, music and movies! And though I didn't have access to your futuristic offerings comicwise, there were Flaming Carrot, Journey, Mars, Teen Titans and Byrne's Fantastic Four.
ReplyDeleteFilms- I took my then- fiancee to Ghostbusters. The film worked out well, the relationship not so much.
Incidentally, I too wondered how "Relax" got airplay over here. And though I didn't have a Frankie shirt, I did have "Two Tribes" on an import. Perfect accompaniment to the ongoing 1984 US presidential campaign...
Charlie and Red, maybe 'Relax' got airplay in the US because nobody bothered to actually listen to the lyrics. Nobody bothered to listen to the lyrics in the UK either until a BBC DJ called Mike Read realised what the lyrics were saying and pulled the record off air mid play. The BBC then banned 'Relax' from the airwaves but it reached #1 anyway.
ReplyDeleteI finished my O'levels in June 1984 and worked the summer at Sainsbury's and so young DW was relatively flush. Having said that I didn't se any of these movies in the cinema. Once Upon a time in America is great but presumably this theatrical cut would be the heavily edited, and chronologically straight, version. I think I first saw this on Sky Movies where they did, at least, broadcast Leone's 229 minute cut. I must have seen Star Trek (average), Gremlins (good), Ghostbusters (ok) and Karate Kid (good) on VHS.
ReplyDeleteAfter Mike Read's own goal with Relax, wasn't the Two Tribes video also banned by the BBC? I remember it was broadcast on The Tube (channel 4) quite late (not the regular Friday at 6pm slot).
I just skimmed through this month's 2000AD and they are a bit average. There are a couple of nice colour posters (Halo and DR & Quinch) and a quite nice early Mike Collins/Mark Farmer job.
DW
I think that late screening of the Two Tribes video as a Channel 4 / Tube premiere, like a movie premiere. They had previous form for that sort of thing with Thriller back in 1982.
DeleteNot sure the video was banned by the BBC but I don’t recall ever seeing it on Top Of The Pops…?
Also, the Ghostbusters computer game was the first time my Commodore 64 actually sang to me, rather than just play music. What a time to be alive.
ReplyDeleteDW
I've been reading about 'Two Tribes' on Wikipedia but there's nothing about the video being banned by the BBC. It does say that some scenes were edited by MTV though.
ReplyDeleteDW, I first saw 'Once Upon A Time In America' in the cinema, and it was the full film. Admittedly that was a few years after the original release - fairly sure it would have been in '88 - but I don't recall any big deal made out of it being a special cut (it wasn't very widely distributed in the UK back in '82 though).
ReplyDeleteThe drastically shortened edit was the American version I think.
-sean
*back in '84
ReplyDeleteNot '82. Duh. Your freewheeling approach to time caught me out there, Steve.
-sean
"Two tribes", the song wasn't banned from the BBC but the video was. The band played it live on Top of the Pops at first A few weeks later the BBC reversed that decision and allowed an edited version to be shown. The video was shown in full on Chanel 4 when it came out.
ReplyDeleteYes Sean, the Frankie says t-shirts just went over my head. I was halfway through uni at the time and distancing myself from chart music while blasting out Rush and Led Zep. Only 20 years old and I was already an old man. Although, being a regular sweat sprayer at the Friday night discos, I did cave in at some point and bought 12 inch versions of Relax and Two Tribes.
ReplyDeleteI remember thinking that "Relax" was a catchy song, although like Dangermash I was into classic rock at the time.
ReplyDeleteI also remember a buddy of mine being somewhat appalled by the fact that Frankie Goes to Hollywood apparently (judging from the video) had a guy who didn't play an instrument, all he did was dance around. Maybe did some background vocals, I dunno.
We both thought that was weird. Did they pay him for that?
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones also had a guy who didn't sing or play anything, he just danced around.
There is something...well, "off" about that. Disturbing, almost.
The same thing with Wham. What the heck did that other guy even do?
Play the cowbell?
M.P.
Sean
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember Sky movies billing it as the original or directors cut. It started with elderly Noodles before moving back to the childhood scenes. I doubt I've seen the US (original) theatrical cut but understood it started with the childhood scenes, but edited them down for time.I bought the two disc dvd when it was released in Australia, in 2003, which appears to be the 229 minute cut (it's long gone but Amazon suggests it's the 'directors' cut).
Mathew, Paul
Yes, it was just the video that was apparently banned. Given that the BBC didn't generally play many videos (just the odd TOTP clip) it it was probably simply that they didn't have an appropriate vehicle for it, rather than objected to it. Was Cheggars Plays Pop still going in 1984? That would have been a strange combination.
My favourite non contributing band member remains Bez from the Happy Mondays.
DW
My least favourite non-contributing band member remains Sid Vicicious from the Sex Pistols (although he's as emblematic as the others).
ReplyDeletedangermash - me too. Er, except for the bit about the Rush and Led Zep records. And I only ever had the 'Two Tribes' 12".
The Frankie t-shirts annoyed a lot of people I reckon, and probably contributed in a big way to the general sense there was too much hype around the group. Which is what finished them off really - even by the standard of the music biz Frankie imploded quickly.
I'm not sure it was that uncommon to be 'distanced from chart music' back then. In fact, if you think about it, given the cross section of styles, its fairly unlikely that anyone would have been into more than a few of the hit records in any given week.
Looking at the singles chart from Steve's last post for instance, I doubt there was that much crossover between the people into, say, the theme from 'Fame', 'Da Da Da', Bucks Fizz and 'Free Bird' (southern rock was big in '82 ;)
-sean
Frankie's 'Welcome To The Pleasuredome' was released in March 1985 and reached #2. They were still huge at this time and the big question was "Will Frankie reach #1 with their first four singles and beat the record they share with Gerry & The Pacemakers?"
ReplyDeleteHolly Johnson's 'Americanos' from 1989 is terrific - better than any Frankie song IMO.
ReplyDeleteIt's 9:00 here in the states, and just heard on the news that the weather in the UK is unusually brutal. Please be aware that heat exhaustion is extremely unpleasant, and can be deadly. Stay in cool places, limit time in the sun, and stay hydrated.
ReplyDelete-Killdumpter
ReplyDeleteDon't worry Killdump(s)ter - only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun.
ReplyDeleteMatthew, it was you that mentioned 'Rip It Up' wasn't it?
Iirc, that book basically takes the release of their much-anticipated album as the burst of the Frankie bubble.
Although it suggests their end really began when they went to America, as the audience there still expected a band to actually be able to play, and cut it live (how backward, eh?) so it was a bit of a disaster for them.
Ultimately, it gets put down to the hype, together with ZTT's dubious business practices - as record label, publisher AND producers they completely manipulated and screwed the band.
That was the interesting aspect to me - even when they were doing well Frankie were generally dismissed as a hype, and Trevor Horn got all the credit for the singles. But as it turned out, he couldn't actually do it without them.
Personally, I thought the album wasn't that bad - I taped the best parts (doing my bit to kill music :) - but Propaganda were better imo.
-sean
Yeah, Sean. I'm unsure if one of the symptoms of heat exhaustion is twitching about like Joe Cocker, though. Lol.
Delete-Killdumpster
It was creatively the end with that album - but the hype machine kept them rolling until (as Colin points out) Pleasuredome was released as a single. I was moderately excited to be getting more mixes of that track, but there was a palpable sense that their time had come and gone. The NME called the single ‘miserable barrel scraping’.
DeleteI was a big ZTT fan for 1984-1985 so it kills me that their biggest three bands got properly contractually stitched up and as a result never made decent records again.
It's not "unusually brutal" where I am, Killdumpster - in fact it was raining a couple of hours ago.
ReplyDeleteI've not heard Welcome to the Pleasure Dome since it came out. My memory of it is of it having four great singles on it and a load of filler and that it felt more like a padded-out EP than a proper album.
ReplyDeleteYes, KD, it's currently 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in parts of the UK. Going out in it is certainly an experience.
You’re bang on there: I was a desperate fan, couldn’t afford the LP when it came out and got it for Xmas 1984. It was a bitter disappointment. The title track was amazing, the singles I already had and knew back to front, leaving two full sides of dross.
DeleteColin-
ReplyDeleteIt might feel a little better when it rains, if it's still warm afterwards it becomes what we call "swamp-a$$" Not sure if that term is currently in British lexicon.
Like Monty Python stated in the "Bruce" sketch, "It's hot enough to boil a monkey's bum".
Steve-
While not as nasty as you folks are getting now, we here in Pennsylvania have had about 3 weeks of high humidity upper 80's- lower 90's weather. Real feel 100 degrees F.
Currently I have a fry-cook job at a local tavern, which I've worked on/off partime for years. I like the bosses & barmaids, but I usually quit by late spring.
That kitchen usually gets to 115 to 125 degrees F, and I'm in there 9-10 hours. It's pretty nasty. I wear frozen bar-rags on my head, looking like the "gumbies" on Monty Python's Flying Circus.
At the end of the night, after a few beers, I may also talk a bit like'em, too. Lol.
-Killdumpster
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it was that uncommon to be 'distanced from chart music' back then.
ReplyDelete