To ask you to tell me about the '80s?

[Trulyatraditionalman]

I was born in Dec '89. I absolutely love '80s music, and the way it is depicted in films and TV makes it seem like it was the most amazing decade.

I'd like to experience the '80s through your memories

Clubbing, lots of!!..
Crimping and backcombing bleached (+blue, pink, purple) hair, Winkle picker buckle boots, leather corsets, fishnet tights, wiggle skirts, Siouxsie eyes, Sobranie black Russian ciggies ... and lots of music, drinking and dancing!!
Happy times
Then later in the '80s, leaving the pub to find yourself at the head of a convoy trying to find the field (rave).. bonfires, generators powering huge sound systems and dancing until the sun came up...
Best of times..

Following as I feel the same as you op. I was born in the early 90’s so not even in the 80’s but the whole 80’a decade fascinates me! The music is amazing.

My happiest memories of the 1980s seem to revolve around Christmas. 80s Christmases were ace.

Awful, tacky tinsel & those silk covered baubles, homemade Blue Peter decorations and the stretchy foil decorations.
White Christmas trees, Shakin Stevens, prawn cocktails, Black Forest Gateaux.
BMX bikes, Barbie (or Sindy in my house), mum getting tipsy on Babycham & being allowed a sip of her Snowball.
Wearing moon-boots in the deep snow we had one year.

Brilliant.

I do also remember lots of graffiti, smoking and no central heating or duvets. I also remember unemployment lines and people collecting for the miners strikes so not all fun.

But on the whole, great if you were a kid!

Riots
Strikes
Unemployment
fear of nuclear war
Thatcher
High interest rates
Poor people being told to get on their bikes and look for work

But:

Greenham Common
Lots of marching
Billy Bragg
Bronski Beat
Lots of activism and fighting back

it was awful and amazing

I was 20 in 1980. Obviously it was fun just because I was in my 20’s. But looking back, what sticks in my mind (and not in a good way) are the Thatcher years: The Falklands War, mass unemployment, the Toxteth riots, the miners’ strike.

On a lighter note, the growth of wine bars as an alternative to grim old-fashioned pubs was brilliant.

No duvets????!!! 😱

I moved to England in the 80’s from Canada aged 19. I remember it seeming dirty, depressing, worrying about the miners, racism, bloody Thatcher, etc. Lots of great music, giant hoop earrings, but in some respects grim (though I adored living there).

Leg warmers, shoulder pads, ra-ra skirts, Dallas, Dynasty. Threat of nuclear war and AIDS. But the music was wonderful. In my opinion the best music decade there ever was. Two royal weddings. The miners strike.

It depends on your experience really I was born in 1973 so a teen for much of the 80,s my parents both worked for the Gasboard so were fairly affluent really ,we had a a nice big four bed semi detached house with a big Garden and went abroad most years more than I can afford for my kids!,I think schooling is a lot better now I went to a good school but teachers didn't really encourage you unless you were willing to work hard and were academic IME ,I think kids were a lot more independent from a younger age in my high school we could leave school at lunch time and wander round the local town ,no mobile phones so parents could not check on your every move

Oh, and the riots and the IRA. Where I worked we had bomb threats a fair deal (probably just nutters, but a weird atmosphere).

@lunaheather I'm not Taylor Swift... Way less interesting and less beautiful I'm afraid!

Left high school in 1980 - married in 1989
Fab decade
Rara skirts, power dressing, white stilettos, Bananarama, wham, disco, raves and parties

@Trulyatraditionalman

No duvets????!!! 😱

I had a duvet in the early eighties or continental quilt as we called them.

I was a teenager in the 80s. My memories were of the music, and going out clubbing every night. No such thing as ID so I started clubbing around the age of 15/16 and it was the norm to have your 16th birthday party at a nightclub. Tickets were given out free, although very often women got in for free anyway.

The opening bars of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Relax' and I am right back there.

Saturday mornings spent in record shops buying the latest 12" single for £1.79 and wondering what was on the B side.

the emergency 2p for the phone box! (and spending it on 1/2p sweets)

@Trulyatraditionalman There were duvets, but in the early 80s they were known as 'continental quilts' and regarded as a bit exotic. I don't think we had them until the late 80s. Before that it was sheets, blankets and a bedspread, often of quilted nylon or candlewick.

But if you'd wanted, you could have got a 'continental quilt' from Argos at any time from about the mid-70s, so don't let that put you off.

I was 4 in 1989 so I vaguely remember starting primary school - I had a massive fringe and hand knitted cardis. I remember my mum having the obligatory 80s perm, my Care Bears wallpaper....and everyone had swirly patterned carpets!

1 read Adrian Mole
2 buy Smash Hits back copies

And you’re done.

But yes I remember the exoticism of the first duvet! From Scandinavia they said....

@Trulyatraditionalman there were duvets and central heating then! Maybe not everyone had them. But they existed. I know we had both. I remember going from sheets and blankets to duvets- awesome!

Oh I forgot leg warmers! Dynasty and Dallas were sooo good! Top if the Pops! Yes to great Christmasses.

Ooh I'm all nostalgic now!

Yes, I remember duvets just becoming big in the 80s. But they were new and kind of special. Most people in by town bought them at Ikea.

But what we did see a lot of were electric blankets which seem less common now. They might not have been as common in the UK though.

This was the look I tried to go for. Elnett hairspray was the magic ingredient.

@ChestnutStuffing

Yes, I remember duvets just becoming big in the 80s. But they were new and kind of special. Most people in by town bought them at Ikea.

But what we did see a lot of were electric blankets which seem less common now. They might not have been as common in the UK though.

It was a big day swapping my sheets and blankets/candlewick bedspread for a continental quilt. Although Mum made me have a top sheet still.

@LApprentiSorcier

OP, I really recommend the Adrian Mole diaries (the first two) by Sue Townsend, if you haven't read them, for a flavour of what it was like to grow up in the early 80s.

It's so funny you said that @LApprentiSorcier, I literally just bought the complete set of Adrian Mole books on Amazon about half an hour ago. I'm SO excited for their arrival! I read the first two about eight times each when I was a teenager.

I was 25 in 1980 and had a baby. There was a real fear of nuclear war in the middle of the decade and I was genuinely worried for my daughter's future.

Also the Falklands war, miner's strike and pit closures, riots, racism, football violence and poverty contrasting with the brash yuppies in the city.

A really, really fab eighties film to watch is Working Girl. Massive hair! Frosted highlights!