Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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World Cup fever's been gripping the globe, of late, but June 1988 saw our beloved continent sit down to watch the Uefa Euro 1988 Football Tournament in West Germany, which would be famously won by the Netherlands.
And, just as now, the temperature was on everyone's mind. This time because NASA scientist James Hansen testified to the United States Senate that human-made global warming had begun!
But, whatever happens in football - and whatever happens with the weather - one thing is always with us.
And that's the art form mankind knows as cinema.
And so it was that the month saw the release of such motion pictures as Big, Poltergeist III, the Presidio, Puss in Boots, Bull Durham, Red Heat, Waxwork, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Coming to America.
I am, inevitably, going to nominate Who Framed Roger Rabbit as my Movie of the Month. Other opinions are, of course, available.
And what of the music scene?
June kicked off with the unlikely pairing of Wet Wet Wet and Billy Bragg at Number One on the UK singles chart, thanks to their covers of With a Little Help from My Friends and She's Leaving Home. But, before long, that pairing was usurped by the Timelords (otherwise known as the KLF) and their track Doctorin' the Tardis, before the awesome new musical force that was Bros seized the pinnacle, with their smash hit I Owe You Nothing.
When it came to the accompanying album chart, the month breezed in with Various Artists' Nite Flite atop the pile before that was smited by the appearing-from-out-of-nowhere power of Tracy Chapman and her eponymous LP of the same name.
When it came to the accompanying album chart, the month breezed in with Various Artists' Nite Flite atop the pile before that was smited by the appearing-from-out-of-nowhere power of Tracy Chapman and her eponymous LP of the same name.
"Well, that's all well and good," I hear you cry, "but what of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic? Just what that was delivering to us?"
It was mostly delivering Bad Company, The Journal of Luke Kirby, Judge Dredd and A.B.C. Warriors, while Prog 580 saw the return of old warhorse Strontium Dog.
But there was a new occurrence.
And that was Prog 578's arrival of Tales of the Doghouse, by lan Grant and Colin MacNeil which was, it seems, a series of short stories set in the world of Strontium Dog. However, instead of focusing on that strip's protagonist Johnny Alpha, this sporadic feature devoted its attentions to other mutant bounty hunters working for the Search/Destroy Agency.
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17 comments:
In the video for 'I Owe You Nothing', the girl who slaps the Bros boy in the face looks like the same girl (albeit with a different hair do) who's in 'Father Figure', by George Michael.
Phillip
My reserved copies of 2000AD used to pile up at the newsagent I worked in part-time until I eventually had to buy them all, take them home and not read them. This went on until the newsagent closed in 1990. It was impossible to voluntarily break the habit, as it had been part of my life since prog 1.
Two bad Ian Gibsons. A rad Simon Bisley. Not a huge fan overall but damn that Deadlock cover stands out.
I actually went to see Poltergeist III [I was a huge fan of the original and had a soft spot for II]. It was one of the worst films I'd ever seen. Not been near it since. But I was interested to later read Todd Haynes say he'd admired something the cinematographer did on that movie and hired them for his film 'Safe'. So there you go. Every cloud...
And Coming To America! I went with a friend, and he'd seen Trading Places and knew all the in-jokes, but I hadn't. Still quite funny though.
Saw Big and Bull Durham on tape later on, and neither of them did as much for me as they do for other people. And Roger Rabbit I found mystifyingly dull. Haven't seen it since - am I missing something?
COMING TO AMERICA. Charlie and 3 friends saw it in Brussels in 88.
It was in VO with French and Flemish subtitles IIRC.
So…
It seemed funny to us yanks to see two sets of subtitles.
Also the scene where the black actor(s) leave their “afro-sheen” on the back of their high-backed chairs when they stood up (gloop from their hair) had the four of us laughing in hysteria when we noticed not one other person in a relatively full theatre was laughin!.
We talked about it after the movie surprised the joke didn’t transcend nationality. Weird.
Of this batch of films, I saw four: "Big", "Coming to America ", "Bull Durham" and "Roger Rabbit ". A full month for cinema at our household. Of those , "Roger Rabbit " gets the win. Being an animation nut, I couldn't resist it. Loved it from start to finish (the onstage feud between Donald and Daffy Duck kills me every time). Was overjoyed to finally score a copy on dvd last summer (all these intervening years and we never acquired it!).
I remember that 1988 Dutch team. Gull it, Van Basten, Koeman, Rijkaard. They played England of the park (effectively the England team that made the World Cup quarter finals two years later). That said, England also lost to Russia and Ireland. England’s nardir (not counting all those times we didn’t qualify 😉).
No memory of any of these progs. The current line-up doesn’t appeal. How long until Zenith returns?
Bros burned brightly if not for very long. Chart-topping, Wembley filling, teen-age laundry generating one minute to bankruptcy the next. I heard a first hand account, at the time, that their contract was one of the worst signed. It’s a sh#t business…
DW
Any of you UK gents attend the World Snail Racing Championships this weekend in Norfolk? Spoiler Warning (in case you taped it for later viewing!): SNAILOR SWIFT pulled out a W!
Steve - surely you should add this to your annual review of UK sports? Though, now that I think about it, you haven’t provided a pulse-pounding, senses-shattering review of any UK athletics since the snookers tournament a few years ago?
Andy Burnham has officially become the Prime-Minister! Let's hope he lasts longer than the previous five.
Charlie, all I know about the current state of UK athletics is that Josh Kerr broke the Mile world record, at the weekend, and that Keely Hodgkinson won the 800 metres at the same event.
As for the snail racing, it seems I was to slow to catch it.
Agree with Steve and Redartz on 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' being the film of the month. Normally I find Robert Zemeckis formulaic blockbusters aren't to my taste at all, but the animation in its great. Zemeckis and Spielberg had enough sense to hire the late Richard Williams to supervise the animation, even though it meant moving the production to London.
The art of animation had been in decline for a few decades, and Williams was surely the only person capable of achieving old skool quality in the 80s.
If anyone's interested there was a great British TV doc about him from a few years before Roger Rabbitt, that's been posted here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Fnco73xI4
-sean
June '88...? Surely we were entering the second Summer of Love, Steve?
Shoom, the Mutoid Waste, Madchester, the Hacienda, Acieeed!, ecstacy, getting on one, etc etc. Although I have to say I went to Stonehenge for the solstice that month, and the riot cops were definitely not very peace and love. At all.
Actually, thinking about it my record of the month would be Public Enemy's 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back' and that wasn't too lovey dovey either.
Also, Womack & Womack's 'Conscience' lp came out.
Agree with young Matthew McK on the 2000AD covers. The Bisley one is the best we've seen for a while - even if it is a bit too metal for me - and you have to wonder why Tharg didn't lighten his ABC Warriors workload a little bit and put him on regular cover duty.
The only thing I really remember from the interior is Summer Magic. I don't recall the Journal of Luke Kirby title being used til the character returned later, and for my money never quite recaptured the feel of his first outing, which was great.
-sean
PS Also in June '88: Frank Bough was sacked by the BBC, after certain revelations about his ah, lifestyle made headlines in the tabloid press.
-sean
Sorry to go on, Steve, but the 2000AD 1988 Sci-Fi Special came out this month too. The main reason to have got it was the colour Brendan McCarthy double page Strontium Dog spread which can be seen here:
https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1472633
The rest of the mag is not that good though. Apart from maybe a couple of old Star-Lord era Ro-Busters reprints, drawn by the great Ian Kennedy.
-sean
Steve, didn't Gary Glitter appear alongside The Timelords on an edition of Top Of The Pops? Safe to say that particular edition will never get repeated on BBC4.
Anyway, Doctorin' The Tardis was fab and, following Star Trekkin' the previous year, it meant both Trek and Who had a UK No.1 hit in the late '80s.
A Nation Of Millions!
Why didn’t I make that connection? I’ve been listening to tracks off it these last few weeks as well.
I’d been enjoying a tape of PE’s first album all year, and had picked up Bring The Noise on 7”, as well. But nothing prepared me for the electrifying first listen to this LP, plucked from the racks of my local Woolworths and played on the Big Stereo at home one Saturday afternoon in 1988.
Still in my top 10 albums of all time.
Colin, I can neither confirm nor deny that Gary Glitter appearance.
Yeah, 'Nation of Millions...' was the great leap forward for Public Enemy, Matthew. It pretty much instantly made their first album seem quite dated, and still sounds great to this day.
It was obviously the month for those new fangled hip-hop records, because EPMD's 'Strictly Business' also came out. And 'In Full Gear' by Stetsasonic (anyone who covers 'Float On' is alright by me ;)
-sean
Colin, Gary joins the JAMS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldapqD38u4A
I think that was the '88 TotP Christmas edition...?
-sean
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