Another timeslip moment...
Our trusty De Lorean has deposited us once again thirty years into the past - to that most significant of years 1989: the year the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, with revolutions in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the Baltic States and Romania; and the year of Tiananmen Square, Like a Prayer, Hillsborough, The Satanic Verses, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the IRA bombing at Deal barracks music school, Rain Man, the plane crash onto the M1, Frank Bruno vs Mike Tyson, George Bush Sr, Challenge Anneka, F.W. de Klerk, democratic elections in Brazil, the Marchioness disaster, Shirley Valentine, Solidarity, ceasefires in Afghanistan and Angola and Lebanon and Vietnam, "Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!", the ban on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Manuel Noriega, Voyager 2, 1300 deaths from a tornado in Bangladesh, Colin Powell, and the world's first same-sex civil partnerships (in Denmark); the year Daniel Radcliffe, Taron Egerton, Taylor Swift, Joe Jonas, Avicii, The Simpsons, the Poll Tax, Jess Glynne, Lily James, Brie Larson, Sky TV, Gareth Bale, Elizabeth Olsen, Time Warner, the Nintendo Game Boy and HDTV were all born; and Sir Laurence Olivier, Bette Davis, Irving Berlin, Lucille Ball, Graham Chapman, Bea Lillie, Dame Daphne du Maurier, Anthony Quayle, John Cassavetes, Robert Mapplethorpe, Samuel Beckett, Sir Peter Scott, Henry Hall, Diana Vreeland, Harry Andrews, Emperor Hirohito, Gilda Radner, Lee Van Cleef, Ayatollah Khomeini, Salvador Dalí, Herbert von Karajan, Nicolae Ceaușescu and Ferdinand Marcos all died.
In the news headlines in July '89? Princess Diana shook the hand of a man with AIDS while opening the Landmark Trust Centre in London (changing attitudes to HIV positive people in the eyes of the media and society forever), Panorama accused Conservative Leader of Westminster City Council Dame Shirley Porter of gerrymandering, P. W. Botha met Nelson Mandela in prison, UK unemployment was at its lowest in nearly a decade, General Jaruzelski came to power in Poland, Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest, and French air traffic control was on strike (again); in the ascendant (literally) was the Stealth Bomber (which made its inaugural flight), and Charles Haughey (re-elected Taoiseach in Ireland after a hastily-assembled coalition), but we bade a very sad farewell (at the age of only 28) to the gorgeous Michael Sundin (The Blue Peter presenter who was controversially "sacked for being gay", and whose death was suspected to be AIDS-related). In our cinemas: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Married to the Mob. On telly: ITV started showing Home and Away twice daily, Robin Day chaired his very last Question Time, and Cherie Lunghi starred in The Manageress.
And in our charts this week three decades ago? Soul II Soul were at the top slot for the fourth week with Back To Life, and the lovely ["Liverpool - erm - Mersey - erm - Sophisticated"] Sonia was at #2 with her debut single You'll Never Stop Me Loving You. Also present and correct were The Beautiful South, Pet Shop Boys, Miss Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Bobby Brown, Bette Midler, Prince, and the fabulously camp London Boys. But, hanging around outside the Top Ten, waiting its turn, was one of the earliest and most influential Acid House records of the genre. I wonder whatever happened to Gerald?
Acieeeeed!
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