Come with me back to 1984...

[LadyOfTheCanyon]

I don't know whether it's simply nostalgia or whether as you get older you are able to see the past more clearly, but I was 14 in 1984 and I was simply in love with Eden by Everything but the girl ( massively underrated album!) The Unforgettable Fire by U2, The Smiths first LP had just come out, Brilliant Trees by David Sylvian- Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Coke and the commotions, Hatful of Hollow (remember waiting outside OurPrice in Hammersmith for that one!)

I was wearing DMs and dyeing my Levi's black because I couldn't find any in the shops, cutting sleeves off my brother's shirts and buying studded belts from Kensington Market. Taping The Tube on Friday nights before going out to meet my friends.
Free festivals in London Parks in the summers, saw so many great bands between 84-86. The Pogues, The Men they couldn't hang, The Boothill Foottappers, The Style Council, The Frank Chickens, The Communards...

Was just thinking about those years and wondering what other people's memories were of those years... no judgement here !

I was three. My Dsis was born that year but I have no memory of it or meeting her for the first time. She's always just been there. I do remember my older Dsis who would have been around six teaching me letters and how to write my name. She often gave me lessons growing up. She is a teacher now actually, so I guess she was born to teach.

@dudsville A fellow New Romantic, yay! I was New Romantic through and through, loved Spandau Ballet and all the pretty boy bands. I'm proud of it!
Love listening to Absolute 80s these days, and my kids think lots of the songs are pretty cool

I was 13. Remember the Unforgettable Fire album and listening to it over and over on my Walkman while out walking the dog, my lovely red setter.
Brilliant album (brilliant dog too).

I was 20 and at uni.
I studied hard.
I was “born again” for most my early 20s.. what a waste 🤣
I love 80’s music .. especially U2 and The Smiths.
I wore pants with old petticoats from 2nd hand shops, wore spaghetti straps and too much gel in buffy hair.!
I thought I could conquer the world .

@FanGurlll , hi! At some point i stopped listening to that era, but my OH was watching an old top of the pops and it sent me down memory lane. I now have a while section in my spotify, i think a lot of the synth stuff holds up well!

@GuiltyPleasurefunnily enough I thought about central park too but can't remember much about it. I think I'm a year or two older than you (56) ? Affectionately remember Boodlum too with it's trendy 'kickers' shoes, afghan coats and patchouli joss sticks !

Someone mentioned pixie boots. I got a red leather pair for Xmas that year and wore them to death. 1984 was a hot summer in my memory. I spent long days with my mum in Cannizzaro Park or on Wimbledon Common with my dad. There was a MASSIVE funfair. I loved it.

I used to go round to my friends and take my Sindy Horsebox and RangeRover. I had a horse for it as well and we used to make Sindy fall in love with his He-Man.

I had not dissimilar pixie boots which I wore with a tartan pinafore dress!

The Boothill Foot tappers were brilliant, you've just described my era!
I had a rockabilly whiff with a chiffon scarf, baseball jacket and boots, little shirt jersey crop tops and long jersey pencil skirts. Lovely comfy and cool looking outfits. Fancied lads with blonde flat tops...

Greg Louganis hit his head on the diving board ,i was ten how the hell do i remember it ,not even a huge sports fan🤣

Yes! I had red suede ones, I loved them.

Wendy May DJ plays a lot, seen her a few times (singer with the Boothill Foot Tappers)

Should have googled it ws the 1988 olympics but he did win gold in 1984 🤣

Oh boy, those were the days! I was 16 and life was beautiful.

I remember wearing pop socks with my white high heels and ra-ra skirt
Everyone wore intense, heady perfumes like Youth Dew and Opium (still hate the smell of those!)
Ford Escorts everywhere
The absolutely fantastic music. Wham, Madonna, Police, Duran Duran, Simply Red, et al. I had the world’s biggest crush on Paul Young. Band Aid.
Discovering Barry M
Top of the Pops
Starlight Express
Inès, Iman, Jerry
High waisted baggy trousers
Acid wash and pinstripe jeans
Wide belts and massive earrings
Stiff hair
Swatch watches
Neon accents
Men in those vests that looked like fishing net
Punks charging to have their photo taken

It was a fantastic time even with the strikes and recession

Oh yes, Starlight Express! Best musical ever. I wish they’d resurrect it. I still often sing the theme tune whilst doing the washing up.

Bought a flat with my then girlfriend for £13,500 (100% mortgage). Then we got married in October, by the end of the year we were expecting our first child.

Flat sharing London - wild booze parties, spag bol 'dinner parties' - working shifts in Accident + Emergency...lifts home with the Police after night duty.

Clothes from Top Shop, Oxford Circus, browsed on Sundays at Kensington Market for retro - original - 1940s tea dresses and 60's /70's stuff....

listened to Lloyd Cole, Eurythmics ( saw them somewhere Charing X/Strand? ) Bowie too...and Al Stewart at Hammersmith. Sister Sledge too but that was earlier..

Bought my first car - bright yellow Renault 5 for 400 from a dodgy dealer in Hendon, loved driving to Brighton for weekends....happy days. No mobile phone and a lot of queuing at phone boxes....

Wendy May used to do at the Town and Country Club, Kentish Town.

Also, it was apparently 1983 but the Style Council’s Long Hot Summer which seemed tone in the charts for ages. And was fantastic🙂

The Cramps on The Tube, Kings Rd used to have a clothes market, too. Carnaby St for the shoe shop where you could get cool shoes ( can’t remember the name?)

The free London concerts were at Jubilee Gardens on the Southbank courtesy of the GLC and Ken L.? Billy Bragg was everywhere ( think he invited himself). The Redskins.

REM played their first gigs in London to a tiny audience and Echo and the Bunnymen released The Cutter (1983).

We caught a great window in time - the pop and the indie scene.

I loved The Redskins! Neither Washington Nor Moscow is still a fantastic album. Also Thee Milkshakes and the whole Psychobilly scene.

Was the shoe shop Shellys? Got my first DMs from the one in their Hammersmith King Street store!

That’s it Shelley’s! It had slippped my mind. It was the best. I think red or dead shoes were there?

it was the era of Sounds magazine, NME, Melody Maker and Record Mirror. You had to look at the back pages to see the indie charts.

Annie Nightingale and Janice Long on Radio 1 at night before John Perl. The Shop Assistants, I’ve got a Fuzzbox and I’m gonna use it ( loved them!) Psychocandy (JAMC), Oxford St and Carnaby St on a Sunday when only a few shops were open that sold music memorabilia.

Camden market for bootleg tapes.

I had a penpal who lived in Kent and we used to request songs for each other on the Janice Long show! Happy days.

Talk of the glc free festivals brought The Pogues back to mind.
SO good!!

Pogues at Finsbury Park every year. Was in the summer, paid tkts I think but were the early ‘day’ festivals.

Seeing Echo and the Bunnymen at HMV Oxford St when they played on the roof and stopped traffic ( only other band to do it were the Beatles). Meeting them in the store to get a signed album. Pete de Freitas, RIP

Might be getting some years mixed up but was 1980 ish!

Big Audio Dynamite 🙂

I hope things got better for your family. I moved from a (soon to be ex) mining town to the South East during the time of the miners' strike. Many of my class mates in the mining town had a similar experience- I remember school opening early to give some of the pupils breakfast and my Mum frequently 'overcooking' and taking dinners to a couple of our neighbours. Sadly where I was in the SE (a definite Tory stronghold) the prevailing opinion was that the miners were trouble causers. My mum steadfastly supported them but it's only as an adult that I realise the small practical things she did to help (I just took it on face value that she had food left over etc) and her anger when parents at my new school were so dismissive of the suffering of our old friends and neighbours.