Remember the Eighties?

Current work: fic and nonfic
Listening to: Duran Duran
Reading: various research stuff

For various reasons, I’m having a bit of a reminisce. I’ve been talking to friends who are my age and remember going to see Grease at the cinema, and my neighbour opposite who’s about five years younger but remembers Live Aid. Possibly a bit embarrassing, but (mainly because of this musical thing with Madam) I’m having a bit of an Eighties fest at the moment.

So we were talking. Music: at the time, I listened mainly to rock. Radio One, every Friday night at ten sharp, trying to guess the Friday Night Connection on Tommy Vance’s show. I also remember Depeche Mode and OMD on the radio (didn't have any of their records, though), Alison Moyet (I used to look a lot like her on the cover of Alf, in those years) and Howard Jones. (His ‘Hide and Seek’ was my second favourite bit in Live Aid. Brilliant piano. Fave bit of Live Aid? Led Zeppelin, of course. I was desperate to tape it, but we didn’t have a video – DH did, but this was three weeks before he asked me out... and he didn’t record it.) And Wham – we used to do aerobics to ‘Wake me up before you go-go’ in sixth form. Peter Gabriel and Suzanne Vega. Kate Bush.

Some songs in particular: Sunday Bloody Sunday; Don’t You Forget About Me; Vienna; Oliver’s Army (my friend Sarah bought that on my 13th birthday so we could play it at my party); Blue Silver (acoustic version – it was a B side, and the only reason I bought that Duran Duran single. I wasn’t a Duranie... how ironic that I talked my poor best friend into buying me their greatest hits for Christmas, a couple of years back). And does anyone else remember The Headboys with ‘The Shape of Things to Come’? My mate wanted my Motorhead single, so I swapped it for her Headboys single: definitely got the best of the deal.

That got us onto the clothes. Legwarmers. (Shame, shame, shame on me. Mine were purple.) Coloured shoes with tights to match. Flat ankle boots (mine were bright red). Batwing jumpers (oh, dear). Grey Falmers jeans. And the oversized T-shirts ('Choose Life' or Mickey Mouse) – you tied a knot in one corner. And the fingerless lace mittens. (They disappeared after DH and I moved in together. He still claims innocence but I *know* he disposed of them.) Sloane Rangers. (Guilty on that one. I always had long skirts. On the rare occasions when I wear a skirt, even now, it’ll be ankle-length.) Lacoste T-shirts (DH tried to impress me by wearing one on our first date – fell very flat as I didn’t know what the brand was and the logo meant nothing to me). And I had white jacket (but I didn’t push the sleeves up).

Then there were the terrible asymmetric haircuts and big Bonnie Tyler hair. (Guilty of neither.) Poodle perms. (Um. A bit guilty. Mine was softer – more like Alison Moyet’s around the time she released ‘Love Letters’.)

And the make-up. I will confess to electric blue mascara, and electric blue and shocking pink eyeshadow worn together. And the electric blue nail varnish – oh, wait, that wasn’t trendy. That was me being a little eccentric.

And the Athena posters everyone had on their walls: the one with the guy and the baby. Wine glasses with coloured stems (and they looked like martini glasses – black stems were v trendy, but I think that was very late 80s/early 90s). Red coffee mugs. (Hmm. That might be the early 90s, too.)

Aqua Libra, though I preferred Sao Rico. Ranieri ice cream (the Fruits of the Forest one was my favourite, though the Tiramisu one wasn't bad).

DH and I were trying to remember what the car was that everyone wanted. A friend was allowed to drive her parents’ Scirocco and I remember thinking that was the height of cool. I’m pretty sure all the lads had that poster of the Renault Fuego. DH reckons that the Golf was the aspirational car. (He didn’t have one: his was a Cortina. Exactly like Gene Hunt’s in ‘Life on Mars’: same year, same colour, the lot. Though, when I met him, he was the only person I knew who actually had a car. Most of my mates were poor, starving students like me.)

And the films – I remember Another Country and Good Morning Vietnam – oh, and The Killing Fields. I was covering that one for the uni newspaper, and it was the only time I’ve ever been in a cinema which was absolutely full but everyone was utterly silent as the credits rolled. (In my uni years, our local cinema did a cheap night on Mondays, so I went every Monday night with my mates. Never did the discos: I’d always rather do the cinema or the theatre.) Back to the Future. Dirty Dancing. Flashdance. Dead Poets’ Society. (I was always a Robin Williams fan. LOVED Mork and Mindy.) Amadeus (one of my all-time top 5 faves). Indiana Jones. When Harry Met Sally (in my all-time top 2).

TV: I was never really into Dallas or Dynasty. But Moonlighting... Oh, yes. (Had a huge crush on Bruce Willis. Ended up married to his double – well, as he is now. I do have proof – DH holding a magaazine cover with Bruce on it, looking very similar – but I have been warned that posting it here is a divorceable offence, so I will be Very Good Kate and resist temptation.)

Now, I know for a fact that quite a few of the people who lurk on here remember the Eighties. So tell me what you remember most, whether it’s clothes or music or films or food or whatever. (And settle the argument for me: was the Golf the aspirational car, or was it the Audi Quattro – or was it something else?)