Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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How much do you love new countries?
Is it as much as I do?
If so, you were no doubt as thrilled as I, in October 1987, to hear Colonel Gaddafi announce that Algeria and Libya had agreed to a proposed union of the two states, with the brand new nation being called Algibya.
40 years later, we're still waiting for that to actually happen.
What we didn't have to wait for was Fiji becoming a republic. That's because it happened that very month.
When it came to the UK, it was a period in which the Great Storm of 1987 hit southern Britain - as well as northern France - and was one of the strongest storms to ever hit the region.
And there was more bad news. This time, financially, because it was a month that saw the arrival of Black Monday in which stock market levels plunged, notoriously, all around the world.
But the bad news didn't stop there.
At least not if you were a legendary British jockey called Lester Piggott because, if you were, you were jailed for three years, after being convicted of tax evasion.
And what of the cinema? Could we find refuge from all that calamity in there?
We might do, should we possess a hankering to watch such brand new fare as Near Dark, The Princess Bride, Someone to Watch Over Me, The Glass Menagerie, The Killing Time, Prince of Darkness, Suspect and The Sicilian.
The only ones of those that I've seen are Near Dark, The Princess Bride and Prince of Darkness. Of those, I shall vote for The Princess Bride as my Film of the Month.
And what of the UK singles charts?
October began with M|A|R|R|S' Pump Up The Volume at Number One but that soon had to make way for the irresistibly crunching beat of the Bee Gees' You Win Again.
When it came to the accompanying album chart, the month crept in with Michael Jackson's Bad in pole position before that was deposed by Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love which then had to make way for Sting's Nothing Like the Sun which then had to flee before the might of Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night.
And the galaxy's greatest comic?
It was still bringing us a steady flow of such strips as Zenith, Universal Soldier, Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd and Tharg's Future-Shocks.
But there was also innovation to be found in the form of a three-page tale called Bradley which appeared in Prog 545, brought to us by Alan McKenzie and Simon Harrison. While Prog 542 saw the debut of Freaks, as delivered by Peter Milligan and John Higgins. As far as I can make out, Freaks is a series in which a young man called Carl Woolf is abducted by hostile aliens who demand he gives them Earth's military secrets, even though he doesn't know any of them.
Needless to say, this can only lead to trouble.
I saw Near Dark and Prince of Darkness at the movies, at the time. I really enjoyed Near Dark, and thought this Kathryn Bigelow will go far. Wiki suggests this was before she partnered James Cameron, which seems odd as it features a lot of the actors he is associated with (Paxton, Henriksen, Goldstein etc). Of the Western/Vampire/Romance genre, this is probably my favourite.
ReplyDeleteI would have bought all of these 2000AD progs., as I had all of the Zenith issues. Don’t really recall Freaks. I was generally cold on Pete Milligan, but did like Higgins art, and so this could have gone either way. I wasn’t too keen on the direction Nemesis took, either. I think Dredd was ok, at the time, and so we still get 2 ok stories per issue.
DW
Apparently the Bee Gees were told to drop the background stomping sounds on YOU WIN AGAIN by their record company but they refused and rightly so as those stomping sounds MAKE the song!
ReplyDeleteYou Win Again made No.1 in the UK on Sunday, October 11th 1987 and it was the first time the Top 40 was released on a Sunday rather than a Tuesday as had been the case up until then (nowadays the chart is released on Fridays).
I still had 2000AD on standing order at the newsagent where I worked, but I remember I wasn't paying much attention to them: they'd stack up until the owner nagged me to pay for them and take them home. I was 16 and just started 6th Form, so 2000AD wasn't really at the forefront of my mind.
ReplyDeleteI liked Zenith. I completely tuned out of Oz - I wasn't keen on the Chopper character. I looked it up, and I guess I would have taken a look at the Brendan McCarthy episodes. I don't remember Freaks at all. I think that cover plays to Higgins' strengths [painted colour art], whereas the interior art does not. So many of the supporting stories just didn't make a dent back then, though.
Looking at these covers kind of highlights the problem I had with the newer artists back then. Cliff Robinson inked like Bolland but his draughtsmanship and anatomy was pretty ropey and it looked bad. And that Liam Sharp cover looks like someone who's mastered Garry Leach's inking, but again, not yet gotten to grips with the basics.
Rest in peace, John Hickleton, but I never liked his work. At all. Nemesis was properly down the dumper by this point.
I went to see 'Prince Of Darkness' in summer 1988. I have a well-worn story about how I was at a wedding reception in town with my family and I was so bored, I decided to just pop out and see a film then return for the evening bit. Why not? I'm 17 - I don't need to stand on ceremony like a child. It was very liberating.
Such a frustrating movie. Brilliant setup, but it just implodes once things get going.
I never really got into 'Near Dark'. I first saw it in 1990 on VHS and thought it was a bit inert. Repeat viewings haven't really shaken that off.
Colin - I used to think the Bee Gees based their clattering rhythm track for 'You Win Again' on New Order's 'True Faith'. But on reflection I expect it was probably more a Jam & Lewis / Arif Mardin kind of sound. They were always quite plugged into US funk and dance music styles.
Also Colin - I wonder if there were discussions at the BBC about changing the day for Top Of The Pops, given they had far less time to prep for the show?
October 1987 may have been a terrible month! But one has NOVEMBER 1987 to look forward to and the release of NOW THAT’s WHAT I CALL MUSIC #10.
ReplyDeleteSteve had promised not to do a deep dive on NOW 10. But Charlie has been dusting off his copy and CD player and has put PUMP UP THE VOLUME on auto-repeat!
Matthew, surely there was MORE time to prepare for Top Of The Pops? The new Top 40 used to be announced on Tuesday lunchtimes with TOTP being broadcast only two days later but from Oct '87 the new Top 40 was announced on a Sunday which left FOUR days until TOTP on the Thursday evening.
ReplyDeleteYes, that makes sense. I am stupid.
DeleteCharlie, I've just googled NOW 10 to see which songs were on it. Did you know the first song 'Barcelona' was re-released in the UK in 1992 due to the Barcelona Olympics and reached #2. I see that NOW 10 also includes T'Pau's 'China In Your Hand' which is actually about Frankenstein but that only becomes clear by listening to the longer album version with extra lyrics. I'd forgotten about 'Hey Matthew' by Karel Fialka - little Matthew must be in his mid-forties by now!
ReplyDeleteProwler has seen Princess Bride, Near Dark, and Someone To Watch Over Me... but not in theaters... or theatres. Late 80s was definitely the time of renting VHS cassettes, inviting everyone over and having a "Movie Night". The late 80s were also the time of Dollar Movies. Prowler was working through college...
ReplyDeleteProwler's pushing PUBLISH.... NOW!!!
Mr. and Mrs. Charlie are driving back from Milwaukee, having seen Thomas Dolby perform last night. You Brit new wave guys sure know how to put on a show! (Anyone else hete see Thomas Dolby recently?)
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, to break up the ride Ms. Charlie asked if Steve does Comics had any interesting discussions going on. Charlie read her the list of films that came out and she said she very very much enjoyed seeing “the princess bride.”
There you have it!
CH
Charlie.. who's drivng?
DeleteProwler's pushing PUBLISH.... NOW!
The union of Algeria and Libya is a new one on me, Steve. The Algerians generally got on with Gadaffi, although they were a bit cautious dealing with him so my suspicion is that he probably announced that without too much consultation beforehand!
ReplyDeleteMaybe he got a bit carried away with preliminary talks about the Maghreb Union that got started up in early '89.
Btw, on the subject of Algeria and supranational unions, did you know they were the first country to leave the EU (back when it was still the EEC)?
Because when it was set up in 1957, Algeria was part of France. Which was something of a bone of contention at the time - at least as far as the Algerians were concerned (!) - so the French were very insistent they were included as part of their territory in the Treaty of Rome.
Apparently even after independence, Algexit still wasn't completely sorted out til the 70s.
-sean
Prowler can only speak for Prowler but breaking up is hard to do... first Prowler has to find a box to put all of the stuff Algeria left at Prowler's place, then work out a time for Algeria to come get the box, then Prowler has to practice in the mirror what to say when Algeria shows up to get the box... it's A LOT OF WORK!!!
DeleteProwler's pushing PUBLISH... NOW!!!
As far as France was concerned, Algeria was part of France. It wasn’t an overseas colony or territory; it was France. “A Savage War of Peace” is a solid read on the breakup. Up to 1/9 of Algerians died in the process with the native Jews of Algeria being brutalized by both French and Algerians..
ReplyDeleteAnd, rolling back the rolo-deck of interesting historic trivia, who can forget the union between Syria and Egypt that took place after the 1967 Arab Israeli war? I think that lasted less than one or two years.
Apparently there were talks about a French union with the Brits in 1940. Hard to see how that could ever have worked! I read that British politicians decided against it because it would have meant a currency union. Plus ça change...
ReplyDeleteMatthew, I agree on 'Prince of Darkness'. A lot of John Carpenter films are like that, an interesting set up that doesn't end up going anywhere. The basic concept was intriguing though, a bit Nigel Kneale... I think Carpenter wrote it under his Martin Quatermass pseudonym?
Kinda surprised you didn't have anything to say on the subject of 'Pump Up the Volume', it being on 4AD. It was kinda strange at the time, seeing the label have a #1 hit single!
As I understand it, M/A/R/R/S were a combination of a couple of the guys from Colourbox, and AR Kane (apologies if neither of those are particularly known to any of the Americans round these parts).
But they didn't really gel, so nothing else came of the project. Seems they ended up recording tracks more or less separately anyway, which is why the B side is quite different and sounds more like, well, AR Kane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNtaNeqtETg
-sean
MARRS really was such a weird thing. A friend and I had been really getting into 4AD for a year or so beforehand: the 2nd This Mortal Coil album was a gateway to the rest of the label.
DeleteSo we knew Colourbox and we’d heard of AR Kane and imagined something quite different.
The first 12” was a bit boring and disappointing but then they added all the samples from other records for the 2nd 12” and the 7” edit a few weeks later and it really took off. Very odd to hear something you’d thought would be a minor indie novelty being played EVERYWHERE.
By all accounts the massive success of that record was poison for everyone involved. Lots of backbiting, infighting and lawsuits over credit and profit share. Colourbox never did anything again. And the influx of cash is thought to have negatively impacted the label - a lot of ‘well, they had a hit? Why can’t I have a hit - spend some of that money on me now it’s coming in’ type thinking.
Sean -Charlie knows that France higher ups certainly considered floating the idea of a union with GB higher ups after the Suez Crisis in 1956. It was all hush-hush.
ReplyDeletePresumably de Gaulle would have dismantled any British French union, had it proceeded. Assuming history otherwise played out the same (admittedly a big assumption) .
ReplyDeleteDW
A union between GB and France would have been worth it just to see how Farage would have reacted.
ReplyDeleteTo de Gaulle, France's 246 varieties of cheese made it ungovernable. What have we got? Cheddar, Stilton, Wensleydale, Red Leicester? A few others.
ReplyDeletePhillip
Charlie used to tell France “You have over 1500 different types of cheese and the USA over 1500 different types of Christianity.”
ReplyDelete“ we have three types of cheese: yellow, white, and orange. You French have three religions, Catholics protestants and Jews.”
Maybe my divorce after 30 years was inevitable…?
MARTHEW - I do remember eventually hearing that first release of “pump up the volume. “It was rather dull compared to what was on “now that’s what I call music number 10! “
ReplyDeleteCharlie - Introducing her to American squirty cheese in a tube alone, may have been enough!
ReplyDeletePhillip
And despite it all, Swiss Dairy's Aged Gruyere Cheese wins the International Cheese Championship... a distant second, American squirty cheese in a tube!!! I know! Right? (Marthew!?!)
ReplyDeleteOkay, okay, Prowler's pushing PUBLISH.... NOW!!!
Here we are in the US going 🦇 💩 crazy over The amount of plastics we are now ingesting on a daily basis yet we sell something called cheese and a flexible plastic bottle that you microwave so it sort squirts out. I mean, we might as well just go in for daily IVs of plastic particles.
ReplyDelete