Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Just five months after becoming party leader, Neil Kinnock saw the party top a MORI poll, with 41% of the vote. Just six months earlier, the Conservatives had had a 16-point lead!
Surely, nothing now could prevent Nifty Neil from becoming our next Prime Minister!
Elsewhere, it was the month in which the UK miners' strike began, pitting the National Union of Mineworkers against Margaret Thatcher.
On the UK singles chart, March saw just two tracks hit the top spot. The first was Nena's 99 Red Balloons, while the second was Hello by Lionel Richie which managed to achieve its triumph despite almost universal ridiculing of its video.
On the British album chart, the Number One slot was initially held by the Thompson Twins' Into the Gap but that was soon supplanted by Howard Jones' Human's Lib which then had to make way for Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down.
Marvel's most angst-ridden heroes are back, thanks to a tale taken from the pages of Cloak and Dagger #2. I don't remember what happens in it but I guarantee it won't feel good.
The UK's greatest sci-fi mag takes a look back at old British TV shows, including The Avengers and The Prisoner.
Elsewhere, it was the month in which the UK miners' strike began, pitting the National Union of Mineworkers against Margaret Thatcher.
On the UK singles chart, March saw just two tracks hit the top spot. The first was Nena's 99 Red Balloons, while the second was Hello by Lionel Richie which managed to achieve its triumph despite almost universal ridiculing of its video.
On the British album chart, the Number One slot was initially held by the Thompson Twins' Into the Gap but that was soon supplanted by Howard Jones' Human's Lib which then had to make way for Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down.
And there won't likely be much cheer in the pages of Captain Britain, either.
In it, Saturnyne finally gets Linda to put on her Captain UK costume and agree to fight against Mad Jim Jaspers.
However, that's probably not a great idea, as Captain Britain's trying to do precisely that and is being rewarded by having his mind turned inside out.
Next, we're given Episode One of a new Night-Raven tale with the groundbreaking title of All the World's a Stage.
And we finish off with a thing called Disenchantment which I recall being a Sword and Sorcery yarn from a budding newcomer. I can't bring to mind the exact plot details but I do know it's five pages long and written and drawn by a man named Simon Jacob.
But we can't ignore the most thrilling news of the month. Which is that, attached to the front cover of this issue is a free badge!
It's missing from the comic featured here but my mighty mind does remember it being a John Romita Spider-Man image.
Our favourite mag about our favourite adventurer in time and space looks forward to serials we can only come to know as Resurrection of the Daleks and Planet of Fire.
We're also granted an interview with original companion Carole Ann Ford.
And there's a look back at the Tom Baker blockbuster Destiny of the Daleks which nobody but me likes.
As if that wasn't enough for us, we also encounter Part Two of a comic strip that bears the thrilling title of The Moderator.
All I can say about this one is it doesn't bear the greatest cover I've ever seen on an issue of Savage Sword of Conan.
However, it does, at least, tell me this offering features not only the world's barbarian of choice but, also, Red Sonja and Solomon Kane.
The UK's greatest sci-fi mag takes a look back at old British TV shows, including The Avengers and The Prisoner.
Thanks to that, we also receive an interview with Patrick Macnee and a profile of Diana Rigg.
And, because you can never get enough Time Lording in this life, there's also a look forward to the new season of Dr Who.
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24 comments:
A pedant writes:
Steve, not saying Conan doesn't appear inside that issue of SSOC - on the face if it, the mag's title would make it seem quite likely he does - but the barbarian of choice on the cover with Solly Kane and the Sonj is actually Kull (its reprinted from Kull & the Barbarians #3).
You're welcome.
-sean
Oddly, I have very little to say about these. Phew, eh?
I had (and still have) that MWOM but I can only remember the Captain Britain chapter.
I had the Starburst; I just gave it to charity last year. Poor Starburst - when there’s nothing going on you have to fall back on retro TV. Though to be fair, I first got into The Prisoner when it was on Channel 4 in 1983, so I might have been quite into that bit.
I actually like that AWFUL AXE OF KULL cover. I think the other two Whelan KULL covers are better but this one’s okay too. I also like that it looks less garish and over-saturated here than it did on its first US printing.
“Solly Kane” :) — I’ll never look at the dour Puritan the same way. Top marks, Sean.
b.t.
Overheard at Solly Kane’s Delicatessen:
“I’ll have a N’Longa’s Special on a hard roll, with pickles and some’a that Juju Au Jus on the side…”
b.t.
No bagel, b.t.? Oy vey.
Steve, that was a fairly brief mention of the start of the miners' strike in your post. Especially considering where it occurred - let's hear it for South Yorkshire, ground zero of the class struggle in 1984! You Yorkies shaped modern Britain... or rather the rest of the English workers did, by not giving the miners much support.
Looking back, its all quite depressing how privatisation of utilities, transport etc, and the hollowing out of the economy followed on from the defeat of the miners.
Apparently former mining communities in the north are the worst off parts of the country to this day; I read somewhere recently that Grimethorpe is the most impoverished settlement in the UK.
-sean
That's probably why a lot of those "Red Wall" communities voted for Brexit, Sean. The Nottinghamshire coal miners who refused to strike got their comeuppance when the Tories closed their mines too - they'd even formed a new trade union appropriately called DUM (Democratic Union of Mineworkers). Only when it was too late did they realise that Arthur Scargill had been right all along. And yes, what followed the defeat of the miners was indeed depressing but it only happened because of our rotten voting system which so often gives the Tories a majority of seats despite most people never voting Tory and yet Labour won't change it.
Happy Old New Year's Day! From the middle ages until 1751 England counted March 25th as New Year's Day not January 1st. Other European countries (and Scotland) started adopting January 1st as the first day of the year and eventually England, Wales, Ireland and the British colonies did the same, beginning on January 1st 1752.
On this day in 1986 Cliff Richard & The Young Ones reached #1 with LIVING DOLL!
For some reason I remember it well.
Happy New Year to you too, Colin.
Sean, thanks for the Kull correction. When will I ever learn not to mix up my barbarian monarchs?
Here in the States, Cliff Richard had just one radio hit (“Devil Woman”, peaked at #6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 1976). I was vaguely aware that he was much more successful in the UK, but didn’t realize HOW big a star he was, and never heard any of his other songs, ever. His name popped up again on the US Pop Culture radar when MTV aired repeats of THE YOUNG ONES in the mid-80s: Rik Mayall’s character ‘Rick’ was an avid fan of Richard and name-checked him fairly often on the show. I always thought this was meant as a kind of back-handed dig at Richard — since Rick was such an un-cool little spotty-faced poseur, his musical hero must also be un-cool, right? Especially in the context of a show that featured edgy acts like Motörhead and The Damned. Until just recently, I had no idea that the series’ theme song had originally been a big hit for Cliff Richard and The Shadows— all these years, I thought it had been expressly written for the TV show!
I did like “Devil Woman”….
b.t.
(Clueless in California)
You US gents got off lightly, b.t.
Steve, no worries. In fairness, one barbarian is pretty much the same as another.
-sean
On the subject of 1980s comedy - seeing as b.t. mentioned the Young Ones - and the miners, here's 'Strike' by the Comic Strip Presents, in case anyone hasn't seen it -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=beyNSIUEIxk
With Alexei Sayle. And Al Pacino as Arthur Scargill! (;
-sean
Bt, I've just checked on Wikipedia and it seems that, despite his low profile over there, Cliff has managed to penetrate the US Top 40 on 9 occasions.
They are:
"Living Doll" - #30
"It's All in the Game" - #25
"Devil Woman" - #6
"We Don't Talk Anymore" - #7
"Carrie" - #34
"Dreamin'" - #10
"Suddenly" - #20
"A Little in Love" - #17
"Daddy's Home" - #23
In Britain, he's managed 14 Number Ones and 67 Top Ten singles.
Steve, you’re absolutely right. I just skimmed the Wikipedia article and must have missed the pertinent stats. Just now listened to ‘We Don’t Talk Any More’ and is my face red! OF COURSE I’ve heard it before, many times, in fact — it was a huge hit. But I don’t think I knew that it was Cliff Richard who sang it, though. I only knew he sang ‘Devil Woman’ because I used to listen to Casey Kasem’s AMERICAN TOP 40 countdown / radio show and remember him talking about Richard’s incredible track record on the UK charts and how he’d had only minor success on the US charts prior to “Devil Woman”.
Also, I do remember hearing ‘Suddenly’, his duet with Olivia Newton John from the XANADU soundtrack album — but again, it didn’t register with me that it was Richard. Whenever I heard it on the radio, I would just think, ‘Oh, it’s ONJ and some guy’.
b.t.
I think 'Living Doll' would be controversial if released nowadays as it treats women as objects.
I'd lock her up in a trunk
So no big hunk
Could steal her away from me...
Locking ladies up in trunks is not recommended!!
Around this time in 1984 Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' reached #2 in the UK. What a fantastic song - so much better than Lionel Richie's dreary 'Hello' anyway.
Colin, I didn't know the English New Year used to be March 25 (then again why would I) but it makes sense.
I hope everybody there has enjoyed the Vernal Equinox, the ancient, cosmic promise of life renewed, which in the Dakotas usually means snow, rain, wind and generally s#!tty weather is dumped upon our heads.
Even if a couple weeks ago it was 70F and people were wearing shorts.
Even people who should not wear shorts.
A last F.U. from winter, as it were.
M.P.
If you wanted better weather you should have made a decent offering to the goddess on the equinox, M.P.
My understanding is that the change in New Year came about with reform of the Julian calendar by Pope Gregory XIII. Thats why the Brits switched over later than a lot of other parts of Europe, because they were prods.
Colin, I can't say I'm that keen on Cyndi Lauper, but you have reminded me that Miles Davis' brilliant version of 'Time After Time' was recorded in early '84 -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3fzPUG9R_Y
So, anyway... was that Lionel Ritchie video the one with the blind woman?
-sean
Yeah, she made a clay representation of his head.
Like Alicia Masters with the Thing.
But hey, let's be honest, most videos were pretty bad.
M.P.
Yeah, most videos were - and are - terrible. I never understood the appeal of MTV back then.
-sean
Sean, Scotland was protestant too but they adopted January 1st as New Year's Day in 1600 and Scotland also adopted the Gregorian calendar at the same time unlike England which held out until 1752 (that was the year of the notorious "11 missing days" when September 2nd was followed by September 14th so England, Wales and Ireland could catch up with the rest of Europe (and Scotland). Russia continued to use the old Julian calendar until the Soviet Union came along so the October Revolution actually occurred in November under the Gregorian calendar but the Russian Orthodox Church still dates Christmas by the Julian calendar (January 6th in the Gregorian).
MP, beginning the new year in March seemed to be the norm all across Europe which is why, for example, October got its' name - it was the 8th month not the 10th as it is now. October in English, Octobre in French, Oktober in German etc. And the Zodiac still begins in March - the first sign of the Zodiac is Aries which begins on March 21st.
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN was "girl power" long before the manufactured Spice Girls came along!
Yes, the Scots were prods too Colin, but they had plenty of links to France - the Auld Alliance went back to the 13th century - and are, shall we say, pragmatic in economic matters.
Plus, I guess if the English didn't adopt the Gregorian calender, that would just have encouraged the Scots to do the opposite. Good for them.
-sean
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