Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
June 1986 saw drama hit the World Cup when, in Argentina's game against England, Diego Maradona aggravated his foes with a blatant handball that would go on to be nicknamed, "The Hand of God."
However, not long after that, he then dribbled his way past almost the entire English team to score again. This time, there was no controversy and, given its brilliance, the goal was nicknamed, "The Goal of the Century."
Whatever people chose to call those goals, they proved decisive, with Argentina going on to win 2–1, thus booking their place in the semi-final.
Not only did they win that semi-final; shortly after, they went on to defeat West Germany 3–2 to lift the trophy for the second time in eight years.
Depressed Anglo-Saxons may have sought to flee their sorrows by paying a visit to the cinema. If so, there was plenty in there to distract them, with Invaders from Mars, My Little Pony, SpaceCamp, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Mona Lisa, Legal Eagles, Karate Kid Part II, Labyrinth and Ruthless People all being released that month.
Which was my favourite of that lot?
Possibly Ruthless People but I must confess that, despite their fame, I don't remember much about the actual contents of any of those films. It all seems such a long time ago...
Far more memorable to me was the UK singles chart, and June began with Doctor and the Medics' Spirit in the Sky ruling the roost before that was pushed aside by Wham!'s latest smash The Edge of Heaven.
On the accompanying LP chart, the month kicked off with Peter Gabriel at Number One, thanks to his album So. However, that was soon displaced by Queen's A Kind of Magic which then had to make way for Genesis' Invisible Touch.
And, with that all dealt with, I'm now free to concentrate upon the thereabouts of the galaxy's greatest comic.
I could thrill the eager visitor by telling him or her just what transpires in each of the issues below but I don't have a clue what transpires in the issues below. Therefore, I won't. I'm nothing if not a rationalist.
Anyway, here are some nice covers to look at.
Those McCarthy and O’Neil covers are both aggressively ugly and also quite wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThe INVADERS FROM MARS remake got a big PR push in the SF Film mags in the months leading up to its release, with a huge focus on Stan Winston’s Martian Monster FX, so I was somewhat eager to see it and did so on opening weekend. It was crap.
I seem to remember enjoying RUTHLESS PEOPLE, but like Steve, I barely remember it now. Danny DeVito and Bette Middler are unhappily married and try to murder each other instead of just getting a divorce, is that the one?
I’ve never been a fan of John Hughes movies, but for some reason I ended up watching FERRIS BUELLER a few years ago. Still not a fan!
I assume Doctor and the Medics’ ‘Spirit In The Sky’ was a cover of Norman Greenbaum’s fuzz-guitar smash hit?
b.t.
Ffs… Obviously Ferris Beuller is the best of the lot!!!
ReplyDeleteEven my french and german buddies swore by that film when I was in Germany in the late 80s.
And it is set in Chicago!
And the big hit tune was THE BEATLES’ “TWIST AND SHOUT”
It was perhaps the movie of decade!
Lots of great music choices in 1986 this month.
ReplyDeletePer the US charts, Charlie leans towards:
SIMPLY RED - HOLDING BACK THE YEARS and MONEY TOO TIGHT TO MENTION.
BLOW MONKEYS - Digging your scene
DOUBLE - Captain of her heart
Good grief!!!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone has time to kill (apparently Charlie did) the UK and US Top 100 are almost two different universes!
From the UK chart Charlie could add LEVEL 42, and TEARS FOR FEARS!
Charlie -
ReplyDeleteWere Tears For Fears still kicking around the UK charts in 1986? I thought their big year was 1985. Shout came out in 84, then the album in early 85 I think?
BT -
I never saw the remake of Invaders FromMars. I just rewatched the original for the first time in ages and I think it's pretty overrated. There's 'dream logic' and then there's 'cobblers'. The last 20 minutes was a real effort to get through.
I kind of hate the whole 'thing' of the Blow Monkeys, but paradoxically [or hypocritically] Digging Your Scene is one of my favourite singles ever.
From those films, the only one I went to see at the cinema was Labyrinth, which even at 15 I thought was crap. In my defence I only went because a whole group of people were going, and I fancied one of them. Fat lot of good it did me. Haven't seen it since.
I saw Ferris Bueller on VHS a couple of years after and wasn't keen. The only other one I've seen is Mona Lisa, which lays it on a bit thick but is still by far the best of the bunch.
Two really decent covers! 2000AD, you are spoiling us.
Obviously you have to make up for that with what looks like Ian Gibson's very worst art a couple of weeks later.
BTW, if anyone wants to get the low-down on why the covers of this period were so crappy, 2000AD are actually publishing an entire book on the subject. No, really...
https://2000ad.com/news/pre-order-cover-story-the-2000-ad-design-art-of-robin-smith-today/
Steve -
ReplyDeleteMy last comment got deleted...?
Matthew, it's now reappeared.
ReplyDeleteb.t. - Ruthless People has Danny Devito feigning heartbreak on his hated wife, Bette Midler, being kidnapped (by anything but 'ruthless' Helen Slater? and her bf), then laughing himself sick, once the cameras have gone. Devito's other nemesis is Middler's dog, Muffy, whom he hates, but pretends to care deeply about! I didn't watch it at the time, but it's not without its moments. I liked FB's day off very much; but last time I watched it, the shine had dimmed somewhat. Me being middle-aged, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of radio (and video) play time, Robert Palmer's ATL & Peter Gabriel's S/hammer would've come top in the UK, I'd imagine. ATL, in particular, seemed to be on all the time.
Phillip
should've come top
ReplyDeletePhillip
"I'll keep holding on..."
ReplyDeleteSimply Red, Charlie? They were quite good for what they were. Wasn't that the one with the video of Mick Hucknall wandering around t'North in his flat cap, with a stick? I suppose that was asking for people to have a dig, but I never understood why Brits used to have a go at him so much. I mean, its not as if there weren't plenty of more annoying pop stars around back then.
On the subject of annoying pop stars, 'The Queen is Dead' album by the Smiths came out in June '86. As did Madonna's 'True Blue', and Sonic Youth's 'Evol'. Those three seem definitively mid-80s to me.
Fortunately other new options were available, such as Anglo/Ghanaian/Jamaican outfit African Head Charge's 'On the Beaten Track', which struck a nice balance between their earlier analogue dub era, and the 90's digital stuff that came later -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF3dpUw8ACA
And best of all 'Spiral Insana' by everyone's favourite north London surrealists Nurse With Wound -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTXnju3lEIA
-sean
On the comics... Nice to see some good covers here for a change. Especially prog #473 - great use of colour, as you'd expect from Brendan McCarthy in what for me is his best era. Love his work on the Dredd story inside, and the previous prog. Although I didn't make the connection from the cover to prog #472 last month (those Ewins' Andersons all blend into each other).
ReplyDeleteThe O'Neill cover - and his interior Dredd (that continued in the next issue) - is obviously great too. The Future Shock in prog #474 is a Moore oldie, 'Last Rumble of the Platinum Horde'. Not a classic, but ok.
Ace #@&*ing Garp is back.
-sean
Matthew, agree thats not one of Ian Gibson's better covers. But I wonder... is it actually by Gibson? Its clearly his style, but it looks to my eye suspiciously like its been assembled from different blown up images, possibly from the interior story artwork.
ReplyDeleteMaybe put together by, say, an art editor droid...?
-sean
My oh my… LEVEL 42 is from ISLE OF WIGHT!!! Who’d a thunk it??? Not Charlie!!!
ReplyDeleteIs that part of the UK or something like Andorra or San Moreno?
They had a nice run of music, they did. I think I still have the vinyl!
I think Gibson's cover is an original illustration, just not his best work. That said, this month's covers are pretty good, for the reasons already mentioned. The Moore reprint seems an odd inclusion given that 2000AD generally didn't reprint earlier work, having the monthly 'Best of' title to cover that. I get the appeal of an old, and probably not widely seen, Alan Moore story but it's not exactly Chrono-Cops is it? A quick look at scans of these, also confirmed an early Grant Morrison/Barry Kitson Future Shock 'Some People Never Listen' which, again, is probably not their best work. Overall, at least two interesting things in each issue, and so they pass the test.
ReplyDeleteMatthew, I reckon Charlie's referring to the charity single Everybody wants to run the world, which topped the charts in 1986. I think TFF were guilted into it, due to missing Live Aide. Otherwise, you're correct as the Songs from the big chair era was across 1984 and 1985.
I seem recall people's issue with Simply Red resulted from Mick Hucknall's ego. Having no interest in them I have no idea if this is a fair cop or not. Having a huge interest in the Smiths, I'm able to overlook Morrissey's personality and thoroughly enjoyed The Queen is Dead. Its brilliant, but still not as good as either Meat is Murder or Strangeways Here we (I guess I'm still going against accepted wisdom ;-)
I only saw Mona Lisa and Karate Kid II, from the movie list. I used to really like John Hughes and wonder why I still haven't seen Ferris Buller. Given how badly a lot of his movies have aged, probably best not to, now.
Given the 2000AD cover dates were usually accurate, I would have recently finished my A Levels when these were released. Free at last! Until September, anyway.
DW
I discovered recently that Danny DeVito endorsed the Labour Party in the 2019 UK election!
ReplyDeleteFor me 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' reeks of smug, entitled '80s Reaganite America, yuck.
The only Simply Red album I ever bought was 'Blue' in 1998 which was quite good.
Charlie, the Isle Of Wight is a small island just off the south coast of England. In our recent general election it was politically divided with the western half electing a Labour MP and the eastern half electing a Conservative MP.
June '86 was the month that Madonna's 'Papa Don't Preach' was released - it entered the UK singles chart at #13 on June 24th and became Madonna's second British #1 two weeks later.
Charlie - Another Charles is associated with the Isle of Wight, Carisbrooke castle being his reluctant residence, until his escape attempt! I thought Mark King's from Birmingham - I must be confusing him with someone else. My mind associates Mick Hucknall with Whitby, what with Holding Back the Years's video (although his accent's clearly from t'other side of the Pennines!)
ReplyDeletePhillip
Charlie has never understood the animous towards Simply Red given their popular hits. Usually one says something like “not my style of music” or “can’t stand his voice.”
ReplyDeleteAnd of course being a yank, we didn’t pick up on the flat hat thingy at all. Prior to listening to Hawksbee and Jacobs on Talksport and their occasional goings on about Yorkshire, flat hats, and dog thieving,
Charlie simply assumed the hat was a retro thing invoking the 1920s!
COLIN - that critique of FERRIS BUELLER was interesting lol.
ReplyDeleteI always saw Buelller as the teen-aged version of ROGER THE DODGER or LORD SNOOTY AND HIS FRIENDS, or even a bit of DENNIS THE MENACE.
Ferris’s home, school, lifestyle is basic middle america… Northbrook IL. (I work not so far from Northbrook.)
Sure Ferris’s pal was rich, but don’t we all enjoy hanging out with a buddy? That they also may have a lot of geech is icing on the cake!
Sure Ferris is a bit swarmy, manipulative…? But no one lines up at the theater (or reads the BEANO) to see the life of Mother Teresa, so…
The classroom scene where the teacher is calling attendance “Bueller… Bueller… Bueller…” still lives on in the older halls of corporate america!
And indeed this was the likely inspiration for BIG BANG THEORY when Sheldon knocks on the doors e.g., “Penny…. Penny… Penny…”. Lol.
Charlie, I remember reading a film magazine which listed the "Top 10 Movies Of The 1980s" (in their opinion) and Ferris Bueller was at #1 so perhaps it was indeed the movie of the decade as you stated - The Empire Strikes Back was at #2 as I recall.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't just flat caps in the video, Charlie. There were also sepia toned cobbled streets, cricket, ponies on the moor, and steam trains (clearly they were going for authenticity and documentary realism) -
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG07WSu7Q9
Oh, and of course northern ladies! (But what is that video trying to get across with the kid, and his school teacher...?)
But anyway - yeah, I couldn't see what was particularly objectionable about Simply Red either. Or indeed Mick Hucknall. I don't expect he lost much sleep over it though, in between copping off with supermodels and checking out his royalty statements.
-sean
On reflection, it is perhaps a bit surprising there isn't a whippet in the video.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone stole it...?
-sean
Sean - The obligatory brass band's also missing. What with the Whitby setting, Sir Ian Mckellen's Dracula (c.f. the Pet Shop Boys' 'Heart' video) could have helped, stealing young Hucknall's crush, as he did Marvel UK editor Tennant's!
ReplyDeletePhillip
You're right, Phillip - the video was missing a brass band. Perhaps they didn't want the fella with the kazoo to be upstaged.
ReplyDelete-sean
Charlie:
ReplyDeleteFERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF ‘the movie of the decade’? The same decade that gave us…
BLUE VELVET
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
AIRPLANE!
RAISING ARIZONA
THE UNTOUCHABLES
THE TERMINATOR
DIE HARD
BACK TO THE FUTURE
THE KING OF COMEDY
THE RIGHT STUFF
RAN
THE LITTLE MERMAID
WITNESS
A FISH CALLED WANDA
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
RAGING BULL
BROADCAST NEWS
BODY HEAT
THE STUNT MAN
MAD MAX 2 / THE ROAD WARRIOR
….that decade?
We’ll have to agree to disagree :)
b.t.
Yep! That decade!
ReplyDeleteI think 'Withnail And I' was also in that list I mentioned.
ReplyDeleteb.t.-
ReplyDeleteYou forgot Repo Man!
...But, I'll grant you, when you're discussing an entire decade of cinema, some some sins of omission can be forgiven.
M.P.
What about Rumblefish?
ReplyDeletePhillip
Fair enough not including Repo Man really.
ReplyDeleteBut what about Santa Sangre?
-sean
Phil-
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was a good movie, wasn't it!
I get it mixed up with the Outsiders. And I read those S.E. Hinton books when I was a kid.
I was very aware of class conflict back then.
Stay golden, Phil!
M.P.
Sean-
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of that movie but I'm gonna look it up.
Based completely upon your recommendation.
What am I in for here, anyway? How weird is this gonna get?
Probably at least somewhat weird, I'm guessing.
M.P.
M.P. - Glad you liked it, too. I've still got S.E.Hinton's books, on my bookshelf! "Nothing gold can stay", except on nostalgia blogs!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Nobody's mentioned Blade Runner - I find it a bit boring but it's regarded as an '80s classic.
ReplyDeleteAnd Radio 4's Screenshot last Friday was entirely devoted to Do The Right Thing from 1989.
M.P., Santa Sangre is a charming everyday tale of circus folk, by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
ReplyDelete-sean