Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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| Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
As we all know, the greatest film ever made was Fiend Without a Face, that stirring tale of what happens when an air force base in Canada is attacked by evil brains summoned up from the depths of one man's id.
How we gasped as they laid siege to a house.
How we shuddered as they came down the chimney.
Those, of course, are brains no man would ever wish to encounter. But here's a brain-related activity any man would give his right cerebral cortex to take part in.
And that's the feature in which the first person to comment gets to decide just what is to be discussed.
It could be almost any topic under the sun. Therefore, feel free to get the ball rolling and we shall see just what drama unfolds before us.
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17 comments:
THE YEAR 1981 – WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES/RECOLLECTIONS ?
I'll kick off with some recollections - based on my 1981 diary, so self-indulgent I'm afraid...
Junior school ended, by early September 1981, and high school's horrors started!
But, before then...
A first, colour TV (Sony Trinitron) graced our lounge, on July 24th, 1981 – the Royal wedding, on July 29th, probably prompting that purchase!
March 16th 1981– Our family got a Datsun Cherry – still probably our best car.
Playing marbles (nigs) at junior school - also 'pegs' & 'rounders'.
1981 weather? - Channel 5's broadcast 1979 & 1982 shows about UK snow, so I assumed 1981 was a snowless year. However, according to my 1981 diary, on December 10th I built a snowman, and on December 13th it snowed – a lot!
1981 Comics
From September1979/well into1980, UK comics peaked for me. You had Jim Shooter's Avengers in Marvel Superheroes Monthly, plus Byrne's X-Men in American comics.
Sadly, Marvel's glory days seemed over, with 1981 dawning...
However, Iron Fist kept my Marvel interest going. Blockbuster featured Iron Fist's excellent early adventures, every month. Also, Power Man & Iron Fist became a favourite American acquisition, which – in my mere 4 or 5 issues - never failed. Every random Power Man & Iron Fist was good!
Who else saved 1981? Captain America, of course! John Byrne's excellent Captain America debuted in Captain America Weekly, backed up by Michelinie's Iron Man!
Also outstanding in 1981 was 'Savage Action' (my brother bought these), with Sienkiewicz & McLeod's Moon Knight, culminating in the top-rate Bushman storyline ( Moon Knight # 1).
Anything else significant, comics-wise? Well, starting 1981 chronologically, on January 10th I got Team-up Winter Special, cover dated 1980? ( it must have been Spidey & Red Sonja, with Black Panther & Storm as the “undercard” !) My brother got Valour's Winter special (Thor participates in the Trojan War), concurrently. Paper covers blighted both – strange, as UK Winter (& Summer) specials had glossy covers (usually!) The 'What If Phoenix had not died?' Winter Special (my Marvel Swan song) – although dated 1981? - must have been a 1982 acquisition.
Also, on June 3rd 1981, I got a Marvel Multimags (Iron Man # 137, Spidey & Howard the Duck, & I forget the 3rd title!)
In June 1981, I got the Captain Britain Summer Special (CB vs Spidey), with its outstanding Perez glossy cover. That's despite having read that story twice before!
August 1981 - 2nd hand Ms.Marvels & Rampage Monthlies (swaps?), from Leeds market!
Odd Adam Warlock Star Wars Weeklies, possible acquisitions, too. Plus, good ROMs bought.
1981 Television
“A Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy” was by far the biggest 1981 UK show, starting in June (on Thursdays), according to my diary. But let's be chronological...
In January 1981, “The Gaffer” started ( February, according to my diary ) – a show Rewind TV's recently been repeating - for the first time in 45 years!
For February 1981, “The Deceivers” is marked in my diary – a Jeremy Beadle ( later famous as a UK tv prankster! ) show.
Monkey's still being broadcast, in March & April 1981!
March 1981 – 'Sorry!' - excellent Ronnie Corbett sitcom!
May 1981 – 'Only When I Laugh' – ITV hospital sitcom. Also, comic duo Cannon & Ball.
Still with sci-fi, August 1981 saw “Sapphire & Steel” being broadcast! ITV comedy – 'A Sharp Intake of Breath'. BBC – 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum'.
In September/October 1981, new sci-fi comedy “Kinvig” is broadcast on Fridays. In September, my diary also mentions Kelly Monteith!
November – Kessler (Secret Army spin-off ) & 'Life on Earth' (must be repeats! )
US tv shows – Hart-to-Hart, Starsky & Hutch, Diff'rent Strokes, Incredible Hulk, Vegas, Kung Fu, Magnum, etc.
1981 MOVIES
May – Superman 2, July – Clash of the Titans, October – For your Eyes Only/ Raiders of the Lost Ark/Bakshi Lord of the Rings
1981 BOOKS/READING
Silmarillion (I read The LOTR the previous year), James Herriot books (2nd hand ), Lucky Les (a choose-your-own adventure), Tarzan books, Dr.Who & the Revenge of the Cybermen, Duncton Wood ( Watership Down, with Moles!), The Plague Dogs. That's apart from school fiction (mostly myths & legends – plus, I read a lot of Willard Price books at Juniors. ) Oh – I also read Raiders of the Lost Ark's novelisation
1981 Snacks – SKIPS, Farmer Browns, Piglets, Walkers Snaps (Spicy Tomato flavour), plus Griddles.
DO YOU HAVE ANY RECOLLECTIONS OF 1981?
Phillip
If anyone else's got a joint/or better topic, please go right ahead - I just had this one on the back burner!
Phillip
Phillip, you didn't mention Bucks Fizz winning the Eurovision Song Contest!
Nor did you mention the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle which was finally launched on Sunday, April 12th after a two-day delay.
My TV highlights of 1981 included Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Salem's Lot and Private Schultz.
Colin - Hmm...Bucks Fizz - strangely, I don't remember that registering, at the time. But, of course, I do remember 'Land of Make Believe', and other famous BF songs. You are right to highlight Cosmos - I don't know why I haven't got it - when I certainly watched Cosmos, at the time!
Phillip
Most memorable comic of 1981 was probably the double-sized Iron Man #150 in which Iron Man and Dr Doom are thrown back in time to King Arthur's Camelot. In 1982 there was a follow-up WHAT IF story called What If Iron Man Had Been Trapped In King Arthur's Time? which ends with Arthur getting killed and Iron Man being proclaimed "King Anthony Of Britain".
Colin - I never got that Iron Man story. Maybe it's referencing 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' - although that's a Mark Twain tale I haven't read, either. Maybe Team USA might know!
Phillip
Thinking on, Iron Man should have had his fill of time travelling, after the famously alliterative 'Frenzy in a Far Flung Future!' (I.M. #5)
Phillip
Happy St.Patrick's day to Sean!
Phillip
Phillip, thanks for the topic.
Memories of 1981?
Joe Dolce keeping Vienna off the top spot for what seemed like an eternity.
Buying The White Album and Abbey Road.
The Passions, Toyah, Kim Wilde, Landscape, the Human League, Laurie Anderson, and a whole bunch of other people, all sounding very modern.
Movie-wise, it was the Year Of The Werewolf — THE HOWLING, WOLFEN, and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. I re-watched HOWLING last year and thought it held up really well. I liked WOLFEN at the time but was never very keen on the Landis movie.
Also:
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, EXCALIBUR, BODY HEAT and others.
Musically, nothing is jumping out at me. I’ll have to research it. Same with comics.
b.t.
1981. Here goes...
The John Lennon interview in Playboy which was released in January.
The Rolling Stone interview with John Lennon which is sitting next to me on my 45 year old turntable (A naked Lennon kissing a clothed Ono.)
Lennon's "Double Fantasy."
"We Don't Need this Fascist Groove Thing" by Heaven 17 courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine I bought it on the reporting.
New Wave / Synth had not really kicked in yet, in Chicago / USA.
And that's about it for contemporary culture stuff.
CH
Phillip, the cliffhanger final episode of Blake's 7 was broadcast in late 1981.
Shakin' Stevens made his chart debut with the #1 hit This Ole House and Adam & The Ants reached #1 with both Stand & Deliver and Prince Charming.
bt, two massive US #1 hits from 1981 that come to mind are Physical by Olivia Newton-John and Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes. Apparently Bette Davis sent Kim Carnes a big bunch of flowers with a note saying "Thank you for making me part of the modern world".
OK - as far as CH's Life was concerned...
Made it through my sophomore year in Engineering School at Purdue while pledging a fraternity. That diversion meant a night in County Lockup with my pledge brothers resulting in 25 hours of community service. That sentence meant working at an animal pound where they gassed the strays. We had to schlep them to a truck. Also cleaning up a gulch next door that had served as a dump for Lafayette, Indiana's rednecks.
The BIG hit song in the frat was SUGAR HILL GANG'S "RAPPERS DELIGHT." We boys and girls would line dance to that thing 2-3 times a night on w/end though it was from 1979.
"I said a hip-hop, the hippie, the hippie
To the hip, hip-hop and you don't stop the rockin'
To the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie
To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat"
It was also the second and final time I ran in the nude olympics at Cary Quadrangle. It was always hosted on the presumably coldest night of the year. (Alas my kids found some photos of this event in their late teens.)
Lastly, in the summer I worked with Union Electricians doing odds/ends working construction on the last Blast Furnace ever built in the USA at Inland Steel, in East Chicago, Indiana. Blast Furnace #7. It still sticks out like an Egyptian Pyramid along the lake front.
CH
In November 1981 ABBA released The Visitors, their final album until Voyage in 2021.
Charlie, you just reminded me that Blondie's Rapture was a hit in 1981 - it reached #1 in the USA but only #5 in the UK following three consecutive UK #1 hits for Blondie in 1980 (Atomic, Call Me and The Tide Is High). I remember my friend Jason saying that Rapture was the only Blondie song he didn't like and I agreed with him at the time but I've come to appreciate Rapture in the years since.
MTV debuted in August but I don’t think I paid much attention to it until about midway through ‘82. I’m looking at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 for 1981 and I’m not seeing a whole lot of songs that I listened to. I liked “Jesse’s Girl” by Rick Springfield, “Treat Me Right” by Pat Benatar, and “Games People Play” by the Alan Parsons Project enough to buy the albums they came from.
A (very quick) scrub through 1981 at Mike’s Amazing World, and it looks like Frank Miller’s DAREDEVIL was probably my favorite monthly comic. I was very much looking forward to John Byrne taking over FANTASTIC FOUR but found it disappointing right from the jump. I read it off-and-on over the next year or two but it never grabbed me. Steranko’s adaptation of OUTLAND (serialized in HEAVY METAL) was pretty nifty, way more exciting than the mediocre movie.
That’s all I got!
b.t.
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