My Musical History Part 13

Well, we have reached 1984, the final full year of my teens and my favourite ever year musically. The first part of that first sentence probably explains the second. It was a year when my life changed irrevocably, not for the last time, as I made a decision that shocked everyone close to me. More of that later. As such, it seems like the best finishing point for this long series of reminiscences. Yes, there were other years that I enjoyed musically, and other life changing decisions but the two never dovetailed as perfectly again.

The world around me

In 1984, I was working at Lloyd’s of London in Dock Road, Chatham. However, the dockyard itself was closed after 400 years as a result of the government’s decision to concentrate on building and repairing ships elsewhere. 7000 people lost their jobs, as did most of the 10000 non-dockyard workers whose livelihoods depended on it, and the local economy was devastated. The unemployment rate in the Medway Towns hit 24% and whole families were affected as sons often followed fathers into the trades available there, whilst mothers and daughters were regularly employed to provide administrative support. The area took years, indeed decades, to recover and many people will say that it never did. While my job was fairly safe – well apart from my complete incompetence that is – it became a year where the full reality of deindustrialisation hit home and affected the mood of the entire area. Also that year, in politically febrile times that were the cause of huge divisions across the country, the miners strike took place. Unlike her predecessor Ted Heath, Margaret Thatcher was ready to wait for the miners to capitulate, having taken the opportunity to stockpile huge amounts of coal when the possibility of a strike was first mooted. In a year which started with The Flying Pickets at Number 1 it was probably appropriate that their namesakes featured in the news very regularly. The battles between police and miners and between working miners and striking miners were of course the backdrop to Billy Elliott and the film and play managed to recapture the anger and despair of those times very effectively. The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp also hit the news that year, but unlike the miners, described as ‘the enemy within’, the peace campaigners were treated with more than a little condescension and levity by the public at large who had little time for them or CND. Whichever side you were on politically, however, the Grand Hotel bomb that narrowly missed killing Margaret Thatcher and many of her cabinet was a truly shocking moment that, temporarily at least, united the whole political establishment and the vast majority of voters in rightful condemnation of the IRA, whose bomb this was.

The cricket this year saw West Indies perhaps at their peak. They destroyed England in the Test Matches, recording a 5-0 series victory, the only touring side to record a clean sweep. Probably the most famous match of the series came at Lords when David Gower, the England captain, declared on the final morning with a 342 run lead. The idea was that it might give England a chance to avoid defeat or even sneak a victory. My favourite West Indian batsman, Gordon Greenidge, had other ideas as he hit a majestic double century in a 9 wicket win! It was a jaw dropping piece of batting that knocked the stuffing out of England who proceeded to lose the next three tests by a distance. The main positive to come out of this series was a novelty record recorded by Rory Bremner that had a touch of class that other records in that genre rarely had. It was credited to The Commentators, with Bremner impersonating Richie Benaud, Jim Laker and Brian Johnston amongst others. Called N-N-N-N-Nineteen Not Out, it was a parody of Paul Hardcastle’s 19 from earlier in the year. The original record referenced the average age of the US soldiers sent to fight in Vietnam, the parody referenced the batting average of David Gower! I was not initially a fan of 19 (although I came to appreciate it later), but I loved N-N-N-N-Nineteen Not Out and I sometimes wondered what Hardcastle thought of it. Reading a bit of background I was astonished to find out that it was Hardcastle himself who played all the instruments on The Commentators parody!

Beneath the shadow of the mushroom cloud

For many years we had been living with the cold war and the continual sabre rattling from both sides, but it was 1984 when the possibility of nuclear annihilation made its way into the pop charts with four of the most recognisable records of the year. Why was this? Well, partly because of the mood music coming out of the White House at the time, where Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as the ‘evil empire’ in a speech the previous year and unveiling the Strategic Defence Initiative involving missiles being stationed in space to shoot down Soviet warheads. Unsurprisingly it was referred to by the public and the media alike as the Star Wars Programme! In 1983, the film Wargames starring Matthew Broderick saw a teenage hacker get into the US Defence System and challenge the computer to a simulation that became all too real. Actually, that year there was the closest near miss of the 80s when a Soviet early warning system detected a US missile strike and it was only the determination of Stanislav Petrov to wait for official corroboration that saved the world from nuclear destruction. We didn’t know about this until many years later but it was a presence in all our lives especially around this time.

The first of the singles referencing nuclear destruction was released in February and reached Number 1 in early March for 3 weeks. The original was in German and was called Neunundneunzig Luftballons. Both versions were sung by Nena, and in the UK it was, of course, better known by its English title ’99 Red Balloons’. It references Captain Kirk and it talks about a war machine that ‘opens up one eager eye’ and can’t wait to subject the entire world to nuclear devastation. Yes, it seems a little exaggerated now, but at the time it seemed all too likely. Reaching Number 3 in June, Ultravox gave us the majestic Dancing With Tears in our Eyes with it’s amazing video. It told the story of a man who is rushing home to spend his last few minutes on Earth with the woman he loves, and, for my money at least, was the nuclear song with the biggest impact, because it shrank the story down to a human level so well. Later that month the summer smash from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Two Tribes, reached the top of the charts and was Number 1 for 9 weeks. A more exciting record than Relax, , musically and lyrically, it was a song that did not need confected outrage to hit home. The brilliant video had the sight of Reagan and Andropov fighting each other in a ring and sinking to lower and lower tactics. As satire it was fairly broad brush, but it worked very well for younger record buyers like me. The final piece in the puzzle was the sampling of the Protect and Survive public broadcasts by Patrick Allen. As Raymond Briggs indicated in his masterful book and film, When The Wind Blows, the government advice would do neither! One of the records kept off the top by the FGTH juggernaut was Nik Kershaw’s contribution to the Nuclear Annihilation playlist, I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me which reached Number 2 at the end of June. Once again, it envisaged the inescapability of nuclear conflict, but this time as a political goal.

Forty winks in the lobby, make mine a G&T
Then to our favorite hobby, searching for an enemy
Here in our paper houses, stretching for miles and miles
Old men in stripy trousers rule the world with plastic smiles

Mother nature isn’t in it, three hundred million years
Goodbye in just a minute, gone forever, no more tears
Pinball man, power glutton, vacuum inside his head
Forefinger on the button, is he blue or is he red

Break your silence if you would
Before the sun goes down for good

Yes, it was definitely sixth form politics of the type that I had very recently left behind, but lyrically this was the one that I enjoyed listening to and dissecting the most!

A complete change of direction

As I alluded to at the beginning of this article, 1984 saw me take a decision that completely changed my life in a variety of ways. Back in the early 80s we had something called flexi-time. For those of you too young to remember this it was basically treating workers like discerning adults – not a good idea if you were a bored 19 year old, but there you go! – by allowing you to choose your working pattern outside a core set of hours. Our core hours at Lloyds were 9.30 – 11.30 and 2.30 – 4.30, meaning that you could theoretically work just 4 hours on any one day and have a 3 hour lunchbreak! I took this policy to the very limit one day in May as potential sacking loomed into view. I was, as I have said before, completely unsuited at the time to the focus, discipline and attention to detail required for insurance. Therefore, at 11.30 one morning I headed on the short walk to the Careers Information Office and went in to see the Royal Air Force recruiting team. Within 15 minutes I had agreed to take the aptitude test there and then, which I passed very comfortably (the highest marks for the language section they’d ever recorded apparently) and two hours after arrival I had signed on the dotted line agreeing to join the RAF! The aptitude test, ironically said that I was best suited to working in the Administrative section where I needed to demonstrate focus, discipline and attention to detail!! Oh well, office work was something I could get used to if it got me away from Lloyds! In those days, the recruitment process was far quicker and I got the letter in June telling me that I should report to the Careers Information Office to take the oath of allegiance on November 6, 1984.

Well, by then I was working my 4 week notice at Lloyds and I needed to take things seriously if I was going to be able to deal with the levels of physical fitness required. To pass training, one of the tests was a one and a half mile run which needed to be completed in 11 minutes. The Monday after finishing at Lloyds I got out of bed, got my tracksuit on and ran my first two miles since school … which took me 20 minutes!! Clearly I was nowhere near the required level, so every morning for two months I got out of bed and ran, first increasing my speed, then increasing my distance. By the end of October I completed a 6 mile run in just over 30 minutes as my final hurrah!

My main focus other than the running was to get the most I could out of the cricket season. As the scorer for Frindsbury Cricket Club I had been restricted to weekends only by my job during the last month of the1983 season and the first part of the 1984 season. Now, I could be the scorer whenever I was needed, so I pretty much made the cricket club my second home. I got a couple of pounds for scoring, tea provided and most of my drinks bought for me all season. For a cricket nut like me this was paradise, and in return for the pay, food and drink I increased the complexity of my scoring to incorporate ball by ball and different colours for each bowler! It was the summer I had really wanted to have after my A Levels and I made the most of it, albeit a year later.

Now, the reaction to my decision ranged from disbelief to incredulity pretty much across the board. Most of my friends and family thought I was mad! From the vantage point of nearly 40 years later I now completely understand it, but at the time it was my only real option after resigning from Lloyds. I turned a deaf ear to all objections and ploughed on regardless with the full inexperience of youth behind me!

During 1984, my best friend’s parents were working out in the Middle East, leaving him in charge of the house when he was home, from his own posting in the RAF. He seldom stayed on base when he was not on shift for 4 days so most months we had at least two parties at his house! The party to send me off to the RAF was a particularly riotous one with enough alcohol to float a dinghy and very little food to soak it up. Even though I was guest of honour I still insisted on taking charge of the music, and what an embarrassment of riches I had to choose from. This was mainly because I spent a lot of my money on singles throughout the year. Saving my money never came into it and as a result I ended up each month spending up to or occasionally above my monthly salary! It was the year of film music like Together in Electric Dreams, Ghostbusters, No More Lonely Nights, Footloose and Never Ending Story, the year that George Michael released Careless Whisper as a solo artist and my favourite song of the year, Freedom, as half of Wham! Queen’s The Works album gave them three huge hit singles, and Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down staked its claim as the best late night album of the decade. All of these songs, and many more, got an airing that night as we all got steadily more drunk and steadily louder! Lucky for us the next door neighbours were deaf, but it astonishes me that we didn’t get several knocks on the door. Three days later I swore the Oath of Allegiance and the day after that a spectacularly unfriendly welcome from Corporal Hunter who met us at Newark Northgate Station did make me wonder if I had indeed made a huge mistake!

Christmas 1984

I was supposed to be taking part in my passing out parade on December 19, but I was backflighted for being rubbish at drill. That meant I had to start all over again with the intake 3 weeks behind me. I was devastated to such an extent that all my confidence and enthusiasm went out of the window, and I was backflighted a further 3 weeks just before Christmas and told I’d be starting all over again in the first week of January. My abiding memory of December 19 was seeing my former colleagues in 9 Flight dressed up to the nines in their Number 1 uniform and marching past me to the tune of the RAF Swinderby band playing Winter Wonderland as I swept out a hangar for some misdemeanour or other. It was years before I could listen to that song again without flashbacks! It all made for a very bleak Christmas as I returned home to lick my wounds. On the plus side, I did get to watch the best Christmas Chart battle ever, even if the Number 1 was a foregone conclusion. If you’re interested in reading about it here is my h2g2 article about the Christmas singles of the 80s

Final thoughts

This has been a fascinating look back from my point of view, and I hope some of you have found it interesting too. This final article has perhaps more about me and less about the music than I intended, but I hope you forgive me for that. I may return to my musical history in the months ahead, but for now this is (or was) AC (Aircraftsman – the lowest of the low) Pearce signing off!