And finally...

Sadly this is the final post of this blog. No shortage of 1985 stories of course but I have decided to move on as they say, after just over 3 years and a very irregular schedule - kids!!

It's also 25 years since I left school (1985 of course) and it seems that now is a good time to leave 1985 in the past. But before the end of this blog, I'd like to briefly mention a number of the events etc that I didn't get round to. In no particular order...

We are the world by USA for Africa

Here's a nice demo version by Michael Jackson. I really miss Michael being around but I think he is more appreciated now. Never thought I would see my 7 and 5 year old singing Billie Jean and busting some MJ moves!



Red Telephone Boxes retired by BT

Disgrace!




Wrestlemania 1

Mr T and Hulk Hogan. I pity the fool...



Commodore Amiga released

This is a really strange ad! I was more of a Spectrum guy, but Amiga's were really popular. Fat Boy Slim still uses his for music programming!



Mikhail Gorbachev becomes President of The USSR.

This is a REALLY big event in World History.



Route 66 decommissioned

Get your kicks...




Bradford fire kills 56

This is tragic. Remember watching the horror of this unfold on TV. There was the Heysel disaster too this year...



RMS Titanic wreck found

I recall James Cameron did a special film about this.



Once upon a time (album) by Simple Minds

A fantastic album. We forget how massive they were back then.



And finally...

This is it, the last post. Ending with my favorite song of 1985. This guy was as cool as it could get for me, he was so popular he got about a 20 minute set at Live Aid, like Queen. This is a great song from a fantastic album. I give you Mr Paul Young with Tomb of Memories.



Bye folks

Wayne

The Fayed Brothers buy Harrods

It was interesting to read this week that Mohamed Fayed (we'll come onto the "Al" issue) sold the Harrods department store for a reported £1.5bn. For it was in 1985 that the Fayed Brothers (Mohamed, Ali and Salah) bought the remaining shares in the House of Fraser Group, that included the prestigious Harrods department store in London for £615m. The sale this week brings to an end of sorts an amazing story.



The deal to buy Harrods goes back to 1984 when Fayed bought 29.9% of the shares in House of Frazer from wealthy entrepreneur "Tiny" Rowland. It has been reported that the money to buy the shares was part of $1bn of funds that Fayed had managed to squirrel away from the Sultan of Brunei whilst he was his financial advisor. Even more amazing is the allegation by Rowland that he had been duped into selling the shares after Fayed offered to buy them to allow Rowland to deal with a government inquiry into his company Lonhro. It apparently took Rowland only 9 hours to realise, on selling the shares, he was never going to get them back and his own plan to buy Harrods was in tatterss.



Mohamed Fayed was born in Egypt in 1929. He became a British citizen in 1974, adding "Al" to his name. Time does not allow a full explanation of the many, many stories surrounding Mohamed since 1985, but any life that includes,
1. Losing a son in the same car crash as princess Diana
2. Being sued by the British Government over his business dealings
3. Buying a football club
4. Having the British Tax man welch on a side deal they had to collect a nominal fixed tax amount from him.
must make for an amazing future movie.

Make this happen!!

The World Championship Snooker final 1985 - the best ever final

This coming week sees the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest sporting moments, certainly in British history. The culmination of the World Snooker Championships (this is a World Series where the whole World can enter!) took place, as it does today at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield over 27/28 April 1985 and saw Dennis Taylor take on the red hot favourite Steve Davis.

It was an amazing final - the first to 18 frames would be the winner. Steve Davis was the number one player at the time, and has won more professional titles than any other player - he was a real iceman and he started amazingly. Dennis Taylor was a really popular player, an Irishman known for wearing upside down glasses, and was still recovering from the death of his mother a year before.

Dennis was 8-0 down after the first session, the worst possible start. But he came back at Davis to 7-9 and 15-17 and then level at 17-17. The whole 2 days final came down to just one frame of snooker. To emphasise how popular Snooker on TV had become, the final on the Uk's second public station, BBC2, had 18.5 million people watching the last frame, at after midnight on a Sunday. Out of a total population of 60 million, this is amazing and has still never been equalled for this channel.



It was a really tense final frame, which I recall to this day. The score was 62-44 to Davis with only the brown, blue, pink and black still on the table. Steve Davis needed only the brown to make it mathematically impossible for Dennis Taylor to beat his score. Dennis Taylor needed all the colours. He potted an amazing long brown under pressure. A difficult blue and pink also went in, bringing the score to 62-59. For the first time ever (and since?), the title would be decided on the black ball.



The players played cat and mouse with the black for a few shots, and each missed pots to win the match a few times. Then Steve Davis had a relatively easy black to win, a cut shot. Amazingly he missed it, leaving Dennis Taylor open to win the match and the Championship. this video starts off at the blue ball. It's not hard to see why Snooker became really popular after this. What an amazing video to watch - it's tense even now.

Enjoy!

St Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion) by John Parr

OK, firstly, I have no excuse for the long delay between posts. But this is a doosie and I promise to carry on telling the stories of the greatest year ever...well, of the 1980's anyway.



Along with the classic Starship song, this is another true 1985 and 80's classic. It was released in June of 1985 and hit the top of the billboard 100 in September 1985. The song reached number 6 in the UK.

John Parr was born in Worksop, England in 1954. Before recording this song, John had been hired by Meatloaf to write some songs for his Bad attitude album. John was approached by Canadian mega record producer David Foster to co write a song for a fundraising tour that fellow Canadian Rick Hansen was undertaking - the Man in Motion Tour.

The tour would see Rick, paralyzed from the waist down, circle the world in his wheelchair over a 26 month period starting in March 1985.

What a truly inspirational guy.

I can see a new horizon
Underneath the blazin' sky
I'll be where the eagle's
Flyin' higher and higher
Gonna be your man in motion
All I need is a pair of wheels
Take me where my future's lyin'
St. Elmo's Fire

St. Elmo's fire (also St. Elmo's light) is an electrical weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge originating from a grounded object in an atmospheric electric field (such as those generated by thunderstorms or thunderstorms created by a volcanic explosion). There, you know now!

The song is obviously better known for its use in the 1985 movie St Elmo's Fire, a coming-of-age film directed by Joel Schumacher. It starred Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, and Ally Sheedy - most of the stars of The Breakfast Club, also from 1985 (I guess Molly Ringwald was out when they called!). The movie has nothing to do with rick Hansen and is somewhat of a disappointment considering the talent available.



The song was a great success however and was nominated for a 1986 Grammy, before having to be withdrawn because it was not written especially for the movie.



Here's a fantastic acoustic version of the song. No video, but great quality.



and finally...a great Swedish cover version!



Long live 1985!!

We Built This City was released in November 1985 off the album "Knee Deep In The Hoopla". It was the debut single by Starship, though Starship were hardly new to the charts, being the latest incarnation of the band Jefferson Starship and before that, Jefferson Airplane. In 1985 Grace Slick was the only original member remaining and a legal case in 1984 by Paul Kantner, the last remaining member of Jefferson Airplane, resulted in an agreement that neither the name Jefferson nor Airplane could be used in future and therefore the name "Starship" was born.

The song was written by long time Elton John songwriter, Bernie Taupin (who is actually 59 today - Happy Birthday Bernie!), Martin Page, Dennis Lambert and Peter Wolf. It was the first hit Bernie Taupin had written without Elton John. The song is reputedly about early 1970's Los Angeles, but I have also seen reports that the song is about a future corporation trying to banish Rock and Roll.



The song features an unusual DJ interlude in the song. The DJ/Announcer in this is Les Garland, who was an executive at MTV. The main vocals were provided by Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick.

In the video, night falls on the city and the ghost of Mickey Thomas appears, replaced by Grace Slick's. Peter Sears and David Freiberg appear on a hill playing bass, and Thomas appears again with Slick's head next to him.



The song reached number 1 on the billboard charts and number 12 in the UK. It has been repeatedly voted as the worst song ever. I have to say I don't agree with this - to me it is a fantastic feel-good song that I never get tired of and is so mid-80's it is untrue, from the poodle perm hair of the band members, the outfits, the sound - so 1985!! I think a lot of the resentment comes from the fact that Starship emerged from what could arguably be a much more creative band. Yet here are the facts - no previous incarnation had ever had a number one record and Starship opened up with 2 - this song and "Sara". They also hit the top again 1987 with "Nothing's gonna stop us now" (from the film Mannequin).

I think the other issue is that once a song has a reputation, people just keep voting for it (how many times has Bohemian Rhapsody been voted as the best ever song?) - it truly is not that bad a record and certainly people in 1985 loved it, given the US number 1.

I say it deserves a place as one of the BEST songs of the 80's, and all time and I bet old Bernie has a chuckle when he gets the annual royalty statement!!

Kids Incorporated. OK, this is BAD!!

It was 23 years ago today...Live Aid July 13th 1985

So much has been said previously by many people about Live Aid. Some 23 years later, what can certainly be said is that the concert and indeed the thought process behind it, remains utterly memorable and influential. The sheer will and bloody mindedness that Bob Geldof had to make this happen, to talk bands into appearing, including Queen if it can be believed, was amazing and he is an example to us all.

The sad thing is that, while millions were saved from death by the funds raised, the World in 2008 continues to gorge itself on food and waste the rest and people are still starving now. That's pretty sad...?

However we should still celebrate what was great about this event, surely the best live music event in the history of the World. For this reason alone, 1985 is and will remain the best year in our history. In my opinion!

To commemorate this live event, I thought I would include some of my favourite performances. I make no apologies for featuring Queen again this year. Just watched their show again, in glorious 5.1 DTS and it is, quite simply, the best live performance by any artist.



Queen - Hammer to fall



George Michael with Elton John - Don't let the sun go down on me



Elvis Costello - All you need is love



Dire Straits - Sultans of swing. King Mark!!



Various - Do they know it's Christmas?



The Cars - Drive

If there is a sadder video that has ever been made, I'd like to see it. Haunts me to this day. If this does not bring you to tears, nothing will. This is what this was all about.



Freddie Mercury and Brian May - Is this the World we created?

Private Dancer (single) by Tina Turner

Private Dancer was a successful single in 1985 from a mega selling album of the same name released a year earlier. The album re-started the career of Tina Turner and she rode the wave for about 20 years after this. There are a few interesting facts about this song.

Firstly, it was written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits and was originally scheduled to be on their 1982 "Love over Gold" album, with the track being recorded without vocals. Mark then decided to leave the track off the album as he considered it would not sound right with male vocals!

Dire Straits recorded the Tina Turner version with her in 1984, bar Mark Knopfler, replaced by Jeff Beck. Knopfler has described the solo on this single as being one of the worst ever!



Tina had to change the line "American Express will do nicely, thank you" to "A few pounds sterling" for the BBC's Top of the Pops, due to a long-standing ban on the use of product names.

The album version is considerably longer than the single version, at over 7 minutes. This fits in much better with most of the songs on "Love over gold"so i imagine this is nearer Knopflers version.

The song reached number 7 on the billboard 100 but only made it to 26 in the UK.

Here's a great live version from NBC 20 years after the original, when Tina was 65. She has still got whatever it is that makes her such a special artist and I see she is planning to embark on another tour again later this year at age 68. Go Tina!!



Here's a version by Tina's number one fan, Donovan. Can you tell he has watched Tina a lot?!!



Totally unconnected to this song, but I had to include this concert footage of Tina inviting Donovan up on stage to dance along to "Proud Mary". It's a long one but a fantastic performance. Donovan is amazingly good and, apart from dear old Freddie Mercury, Tina must go down as being in the top few live performers - would love to have seen her!!

Windows 1.0

1985 also saw the release of the very first Microsoft operating system, Windows 1.0. Actually, the first number use was 1.01, about 18 months after it was first announced. I'm now a committed Mac user, so do not write about Microsoft with any deep affection, but it's hard not to appreciate the massive impact that Bill Gates and Microsoft have had on the world of computing and indeed many of our lives. It is however only fair to state that Apple had been using a DOS based system for 8 years before Microsoft.

The system requirements for Windows 1.0 constituted CGA/Hercules/EGA (or compatible), MS-DOS 2.0, 256 KB RAM, and 2 double-sided disk drives or a hard drive.

Windows 1.0 runs a program known as MS-DOS Executive. Other supplied programs are Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal, and Write.

Windows 1.0 does not allow overlapping windows. Instead all windows are tiled. Only dialog boxes can appear over other windows.



Check this ad from 1985 out featuring Steve Ballmer. Man this guy is committed to the cause, even now!



So there we are, Windows is undoubtedly the most widely sold Operating System in the world and another important thing that happened in the best year ever, 1985. Are you starting to believe me now?!

Tears For Fears - Songs From The Big Chair

The album "Songs From The Big Chair" was the second album released by Tears for Fears, a duo of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. The album was released on 27 February 1985 and is the bands most successful album to date. The album reached number 1 in the USA and number 2 in the UK.

The album's title was inspired by the book and television series Sybil, about a woman with multiple personality disorder who sought refuge in her analyst's "big chair". Orzabal and Smith said that they felt each of the album's songs had a distinctive personality of its own.

The album produced 5 singles and these were all successful, although "I Believe" was only released in the UK. Given the success the band had in the USA compared to the UK, this seems a strange decision. Also the re-recording for the single was recorded on the USA tour! The song that really catapulted the band in the USA was "Everybody wants to rule the world", which was one of the most successful songs of 1985 by any artist.


"Mothers Talk" released in 1984 in the UK, 1986 in the USA
No 14 in the UK, No 27 on the Billboard Hot 100



"Shout" released in 1984 in the UK, 1985 in the USA
No 4 in the UK, No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100



"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" released in 1985
No 2 in the UK, No 1 on the Billbaord Hot 100



"Head Over Heels" released in 1985
No 12 in the UK, No 3 on the Billbaord Hot 100



"I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording)" released only in the UK in 1985
No 23 in the UK



Any album that produces 5 hit singles from just 8 tracks is worthy of a mention and I still think this album stands the test of time. I recommend you check it out if yiu don't own already!

A View to a Kill

The 14th Bond movie and Roger Moore's last was released on June 13th 1985 in the UK. Aside from Roger Moore in the title role, the movie also featured great roles for the ever-reliable Christopher Walken as the main villain Max Zorin, Grace Jones as Zorin's lover and henchwoman May Day and Patrick Macnee as Sir Geoffrey Tibbett.

The plot revolved around a plan by Zorin to destroy Silicon valley so that he can corner the World market in computer chips. Pretty typical megalomaniac behaviour! The great and sadly both late Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewellyn also featured as Miss Moneypenny and Q respecively. This was also Lois Maxwell's last bond, having featured since the first movie (Doctor No).

One of the great stunts from the movie involved a parachute jump off the Eiffel Tower followed by a great car chase through Paris.



The great theme song was written by John Barry and Duran Duran. The story is that a drunken John Taylor, a lifelong Bond fan, approached Cubby Broccoli at a party and asked him when he was going to get someone decent to do the theme!



The film was a great success, though a critical failure (critics!) and has made a lot of money over the years, most recently by the release of the DVD. I think it is a decent Bond movie, with Christopher Walken stealing the film once again, a great role for Grace Jones and I think one of the best theme songs ever.

Finally, here is some footage from the premiere in San Francisco in May 1985, the first premiere outside the UK.

The Power Station album by The Power Station

Power Station was a supergroup formed in 1985 by Andy and John Taylor of Duran Duran and Tony Thompson of Chic. It was a side project for the Taylor's after the release of the Duran Duran album "Seven and the Ragged Tiger". The band Arcadia would be another project for the other half of Duran Duran!

The project quickly added Robert Palmer, first as guest vocalist on the single "Communication" and then, realising that Palmer was a great fit for the band, a whole album was recoded with Robert, released in 1985. Other vocalists approached before Palmer were Mick Jagger, Billy Idol, Richard Butler (of the Psychedelic Furs) and Mick Ronson.

The group hit the ground running with the single "Some like it hot", which was also featured in the movie "National Lampoons European Vacation".

Some like it hot




The album featured these covers

Harvest for the World (originally by the Isley Brothers)




Get it On (Bang a Gong) (originally by T Rex)



The band split later in 1985 when Robert Palmer left to record his very successful "Riptide" album (also featuring most of The Power Station"), but before they split they did achieve a certain level of cool with their appearance on Miami Vice! they also appeared in the Philadelphia leg of Live Aid in July 1985.



The album is very much of the mid 80's, but i'd consider it worth another spin now!

I've been taking a break...but am back now with Rocky IV

Sylvester Stallone returned to the Rocky Balboa story again in 1985, with the most successful movie in the franchise so far. The movie is truly of an age, featuring a contest between Ivan Drago (played by Dolph Lundgren), a Russian amateur boxer, and both Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa (separately!). The East Vs West plot features the usual stereotypes that were typical of mid 80's movies, with the added bonus that the darned Ruskies are drug cheats as well!

Apollo Creed, played once again superbly by Carl Weathers, dies in the movie at the hands of Drago in a supposed "exhibition bout" to showcase the unbeaten Drago. Apollo, ever the showman, intimidates Drago just a little by dressing up as Uncle Sam and having James Brown sing "Living In America"!



What a performance from James!

This sets up the contest, in Russia, on Christmas Day between now-retired Balboa and Drago, with Rocky wanting to avenge the death of his friend Apollo.

OK, it's formulaic, but the movie, like all the others, features a great training sequence, showing the differences between Balboa's and Drago's training routines, plus an awesome bout to finish. I'm giving away no secrets to say that Rocky comes out on top and has the russian crowd on his side, much to the dismay of the Politburo onlooking! Honestly, i'm amazed that the US State department did not fund the movie!!

Training Sequence



A lot can be said about Sly Stallone, but the training sequence shows how well he put himself together for these movies.

Fight Sequence



One of the top 5 grossing movies from the 1985. Go Rocky!!

The Equalizer (TV Series)

This fantastic series first aired in 1985 and ran to 1989 with 88 episodes. It starred British actor Edward Woodward as a former agent of an unnamed organisation who, free of charge, acts as a kind of vigilante/protector to those who have nowhere else to turn. It was set in New York.

I have fond memories of watching this series late in the evening in the 80's and later on repeat. It had some critisism because of the level of violence (towards scumbags, so that's OK!) and because of the vigilante nature of his activities. He was though, a good guy, fighting for natural justice when the law could not offer it.

The distinctive theme music was written and performed by Stuart Copeland from The Police.



Here is a great compilation of classic Edward Woodward moments! What a star!

We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) by Tina Turner

Tina Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock, starred in the 1985 movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the 3rd installement in the Mad Max series. Tina played the character of Aunt Entity. This song from the movie was a big seller in 1985 and earned Tina a Golden Globe and Grammy nomination, as well as a nomination for best video. It was written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, who also contributed lyrics to some of her other big hits in the Private Dancer era. Tina was red hot in 1985 and the album Private Dancer, released in 1984, was the best selling album of the year in the UK.



The version released differs from the one used in the movie and, to date, the movie version has not been released.

An interesting story is that fact that, in 2005, the Musicians Union realised that none of the choir from The Kings House School in Richmond had been paid royalties, even though they performed on the track. One of the members of the choir was Lawrence Dallaglio, England Rugby Union captain!

The video was highly regarded at the time and saw Tina reprise her role as Aunt Entity, performing on top of a circular platform while clips from the movie are shown. To be honest, to me, it is not that impressive now!



After a period of semi-retirement, Tina apparently has a new album in the making, working with uber-writer and producer Guy Chambers, who was responsible for most of Robbie Williams big hits.

Tina truly is one of the all time greats. Long may she continue.

The Power of Love by Huey Lewis & The News

"The Power of Love" was very popular single in 1985, having been featured prominantly in the hugely popular movie Back to the Future from the same year. Of course Huey Lewis had a cameo role in that movie as the judge in the school band competitition, where he tells Marty (through a megaphone) that his band is too loud!



The single hit number-one in the UK and the USA. In the UK, the track was included on the album "Fore" from 1986. I must have one of the very early pressings as my copy of the album does not have the song listed on the back cover and instead has another track blocked out in black pen! That must have been a very late decision to include the track on the album, when some covers had already been printed!

Huey Lewis & The News were formed in 1979 and comprised Huey Lewis (Vocals, harmonica), Sean Hopper (keyboards, vocals), Bill Gibson (drums, percussion, vocals), Johnny Colla (saxophone, guitar, vocals), Mario Cipollina (bass guitar), Chris Hayes (guitar, vocals) and The Tower of Power horn section. Other members joined after this but this was the core 80's line-up.

It is believed that that the band were the top selling band of the 80's, by singles, mostly due to huge sales of singles from the 1983 album "Sports" plus "The Power Of Love" and "Stuck With You" from "Fore".

I think the song still stands up 22 years later and must be one of the best 80's songs ever, and one of the most successful.

The 6 minute video, featuring Christopher Lloyd and the Delorean!



A great fan-made video of the song with very well edited clips from the movie.

Michael Jackson buys the Beatles Song Catalogue

1985 also saw an extraordinary turn of events, resulting in Michael Jackson wrestling the publishing rights to most of the Beatles back catalogue from the waiting hands of Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono.

The story starts in 1963 when John Lennon and Paul McCartney assigned the publishing rights to their compositions to Northern Songs. The company became a PLC in 1965 with Lennon and McCartney holding 30% of the company with Northern Songs founder Dick James and the Chairman Charles Silver holding a controlling 37.5%. I think this was due to the very high tax rate back then - which could exceed the income in some circumstances and was around 90% in most cases!



In 1969 Lennon and McCartney attempted to gain control of the company, however James and Silver sold Northern Songs to British TV company Associated Television (ATV).

In 1985 ATV Music was sold to Michael Jackson for a reported $47 million. This beat a joint bid by Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono, emphasising that McCartneys enourmous fortunes have been gained since 1985. ATV Music owned the publishing rights to over 200 songs composed by Lennon and McCartney and generated a small fortune each year in royalties. McCartney and Yoko Ono continue to receive songwriting royalties, currently for 50 years in the UK, 95 years in the USA.

In an ironic twist of fate, Michael was introduced to the investment potential of publishing rights by Paul McCartney when they worked on the Thriller album track, "The Girl is mine"! After Jackson acquired the catalogue, though, such collaborations were well and truly over!



Michael Jackson later joined with Sony Music to jointly own the rights, paying Jackson $95 million, reputedly also allowing Michael to secure a large loan from Sony on the back of the catalogue. In a further twist, Michael Jackson has just settled a legal claim relating to the arrangement of a £270m loan needed to exercise a call option on Sony's 50% share. This now appears to mean that Michael now owns 100% of the publishing rights. ATV music has also recently bought the company that controls the publishing rights for Eminem and Shakira!

Despite owning the rights, Michael has only recorded one Beatles song, "Come together", from Moonwalker and also included in the "HIStory" album.



Finally, an hilarious junior version of the famous duet on Young Talent Time, from the 80's. Nice outfits!

The Head On The Door by The Cure

This album was released on August 13th 1985 and was the 6th studio album for the band. It was a real breakthrough album for the band in reaching a wider audience, though it only reached number 59 in the USA charts, number 7 in the UK. This seems amazing to me as The Cure have continued to have popularity to the present day and their songs are very popular in soundtracks of 80's movies, most recently "Starter for 10". As of 2004, they had sold 27 million albums.

The band was formed in 1976 in Crawley, Sussex (UK) and has acted as the vehicle for the creative output for Robert Smith, lead songer and writer. The 1984 album "The Top" saw Smith playing almost all the instruments, but for the Head On The Door album, a full band was present.



The band were best known at this time for some wonderfully innovative music videos by Tim Pope for the two singles off the album.

In Between Days

This great video featured the camera being swung around the set!



The song is a popular choice for cover versions, most notably Luca Bloom.

Close to me

This is one of the best music videos ever, and perfectly matches the claustrophobic feel of the song.



An alternative music video for "Close to me".



Finally, check out Robert Smith on British breakfast TV in 1985. Looks OK for so early in the morning, though the interview is pretty patronising! I love the part where Robert explains, shock horror, that his stage persona is just that, and in everyday life he is quite happy!

The Sinking Of The Rainbow Warrior

On July 10th 1985 the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland Harvour, New Zealand under the codename Operation Satanic. It remains one of the most audacious examples of terrorism undertaken by a Government (in that the true story emerged, not the cover story!). The vessel was destroyed by the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), a part of the French Foreign Intelligence Service just before it was due to sail to Moruroa in the Pacific, which the French were using to undertake nuclear tests.

One person died, a photographer called Fernando Pereira. Initially the French denied involvement, calling the bombing a terrorist act (sound familiar?!), but were later forced to admit involvement when two of their agents were arrested in New Zealand. It was revealed 20 years later that French President François Mitterrand was personally involved. At the time, French Defence Minister Charles Hernu resigned.

The agents arrested were sent to serve a sentence of 10 years, initially in New Zealand and then on a Pacific Island. Unbelievably both were free a few years later, one because he went to France for medical treatment and the French promptly released him and the second agent because she fell pregnant and returned to France (he husband having been allowed to visit her in jail!) She was later promoted.



This caused an absolute stink in 1985, and would have been much more serious had New Zealand not been the unfortunate location. It also occured 3 days before Live Aid and I wonder whether this took some of the heat out of the matter. The French had to pay huge reparations to New Zealand, supposedly an ally.

Greenpeace had their day though, as all French tests in the region were halted (until 1995) and a huge flotilla of ships from New Zealand sailed to Moruroa in protest at the sinking. It also strenthened the Nuclear-free status in New Zealand, which is a very popular issue there even now. The Uk and US governments failed to condemn the attack and this has continued to result in relations between New Zealand and these countries as being not altogether friendly.

Phil Collins conquers America

Genesis front man Phil Collins released the extremely popular album "No Jacket required" in January 1985. The album was a big departure from the extremely personal and darker first two solo albums "Face Value" and "Hello, I Must Be Going", though these albums were also great! No Jacket Required was much more pop orientated and spawned 4 singles.

Phil had already scored a number one US hit with "Against All Odds" in 1984 and reached number 2 that year with "Easy Lover", with Phil Bailey (of Earth Wind and Fire). However 1985 was THE year for Phil with 3 USA number 1's, out of the 7 he has earned to date.

One More Night


The first single from the album reached number 1 in the USA and number 4 in the UK. It was knocked off the top in the USA by "We Are The World". The song is quite romantic but behind Phil's lyrics, there is a personal story behind this, probably relating to a relationship breakdown, which Phil is very good at and which has provided the inspiration for many of his songs.



Nina Gordon, ex Veruca Salt, does a great live version.

Sussudio


Sussudio was released in January 1985 and also reached number 1 in the USA, number 12 in the UK. It is the first track off the album and is a classic upbeat pop number with a great hook and a great drum track, as you would imagine. Phil says that "Sussudio" is an imaginary girls name, representing any girl and the song is about falling in love whilst you are young. It has been voted in some quarters as a very poor song, but I disagree! The video shows some of the comedy talent that Phil would display later in 1988 with "Buster".



Separate Lives (with Marilyn Martin)


From the movie "White Nights", this romantic track reached number 1 in the USA (number 4 in the UK) in November 1985. It was a duet with Marilyn Martin, a USA singer who has worked with a number of artists, including Madonna (backing vocals to "Cherish"), David Foster and John Parr. The movie starred Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov and featured some nice dancing from both guys. The movie also featured "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie. I actually think this is by far the weakest song by Phil in 1985, but, as a result of the movie, it caught on.



So there we have it, 1985 was a GREAT year for Phil Collins in the USA and he has followed that success with lots more hits, 3 more number ones and extremely successful soundtrack work with Disney on "Tarzan".

Another great British export!

Bye Bye The Dukes!

This is not really good news for 1985, but early 1985 saw The Dukes of Hazzard close after its 7th season. It had more than run its course though, so let's remember what was so good about it!

I remember many a Saturday afternoon watching the heady combination of cars, girls, great comedy acting and country music. Who were the shows real stars? I guess at the the time, the obvious (now) charms of cousin Daisy Duke, played by Catherine Bach were lost on me. Amazing I know (see below). A note here, Jessica Simpson does not even get within a country mile... :-)



My favourites at the time were the two cousins, Bo and Luke and those great car chases! Tom Wopat and John Schneider played these parts, John going on to star in Midnight Cowboy. Early shows regularly featured their buddy, the car mechanic Cooter, who owned another classic car, the red Gran Torino with "Starsky and Hutch" stripes! Of course Bo and Luke's car was the red Dodge Charger called "The General Lee" and, just in case you didn't realise they were from the South, it had a Confererate flag on the roof. I distinctly remember too the amount of cars in my small town in the UK that used that very distinctive horn too, though not many were yelling "Yeeeeehaaaa" out of the window at the time!





The great character didn't end there of course. The glue holding the whole show together was Uncle Jesse, played by Denver Pyle, who starred in every single episode.



Let's not forget the great character of Roscoe P (Purvis) Coltrane, the bumbling sherriff of Hazzard County, played with great comic effect by James Best. His dog was called Flash, a basset hound.



And who could forget Boss Hogg (Boss Jefferson Davis ("JD") Hogg), played by Sorrell Booke?! What a comic performance, one of the best ever surely? Has a man ever sunk so low so regularly, but, you know what, he wasn't all bad and that's why he was well loved!



A constant theme of course was the country music, specifically the bluegrass themes that generally accompanied the car chases. Of course, many a show is held together by a theme song that just says it all about the spirit and message of the show, and this is no different, with a great song sung by Waylon Jennings featuring clips from the show (mostly from episode 1 by the way, that did NOT have this theme).



So, the overall assessment? Ok there were some really silly storylines (anyone remember the one where the Alien landed?) but there were such great performances and fun stuff, it was a great show, at least for about 5 years!

There is an annual "Dukesfest" in Nashville (only in America....!)



And can you still get this racing set, with the jump? Coooool!

Sting - The Dream Of The Blue Turtles

This great album was released on 1 June 1985 around a year after The Police broke up. In fact, they just stopped working with each other and in fact are due to start touring again soon!

Sting (who's nickname originated when he was with The Phoenix Jazzmen and took to wearing a black and yellow hooped jersey, like a bee!) was desparate to prove himself as a singer and songwriter in his own regard and to explore his roots in jazz, so the album has a very jazzy feel about it. The fact that most of the the band were big time jazz musicians with Wynford Marsalis' band also helped! To me, the album conveys the feeling that all concerned had a lot of fun doing this album, recorded in Eddy Grants studio in Barbados.

Stand out tracks were "If You Love Somebody, Let Them Free", "Russians" and "Children's Crusade". The album definately had a political edge to it too, particularly on "Russians", remember this was right at the time the cold war was ending.

We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the russians love their children too

This track also features a classical piece by Prokoviev, Lieutenant Kije.

I have this album on vinyl, CD and again on CD, being the half speed master by Mobile Fidelity, which sounds awesome!



If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free



Russians

National Lampoon's European Vacation

This funny movie was released in the USA in July 1985 and was the second in the series of films featuring the Griswald family (note the different spelling of Griswald for this movie). The original National Lampoon's vacation was released in 1983 and was a real hit and both Chevy Chase and Beverley D'Angelo returned to the sequel as Clark and Ellen Griswald. The two kids from the first movie were not involved in the second (because the girl playing Audrey wanted to do Weird Science and the producers therefore wanted two new faces) and Dana Hill and Jason Lively came in as Audrey and Russell ("Rusty") Griswald.

The movie was written by John Hughes and is therefore a gem of comedy timing and screwball antics.

The plot is the usual mayhem. The Griswalds take part in a game show ("Pig in a poke") and manage to win a European trip. The whole trip is one disaster after another. For example, before the trip, Clark and Ellen have a little "fun" with their video camera. The camera gets stolen and, later in the trip they are horrified to see a huge billboard advertising a new porn film starring Ellen!

They visit the UK and are completely unable to comprehend the fact we drive on the other side of the road or how to use a roundabout (Americans...); oh and they also manage to destroy Stonehenge!

In Germany (though the scenes were actually filmed in Italy!) there is a really funny scene where they are looking for a distant relatives house. They cannot speak German and the Germans cannot speak english, so confusion ensues, resulting in them stopping in a strangers house because the host feels it rude to say they have no idea who they are!

The Griswalds also visit Paris where Rusty and Clark cause a dog to leap off the Eifel Tower and Rusty ends up in a topless review.

Finally the Griswalds visit Italy where they get accidentally involved in a bank robbery!.

Cameo performances are included from Moon Unit Zappa, Eric Idle (Monty Python) and Robbie Coltrane.

A fun movie, though arguably not as good as the first movie and, in my view, nowhere rear as good as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation from 1989, that I start looking to play as soon as December starts!

Here is a trailer for the movie,



This features the song "Holiday Road" from Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac.

Also featured in the soundtrack is the great song "Back in America" by Network.

Queen - Live Aid (13th July 1985)

There are many outstanding moments from this event but Queen's performance and especially Freddie Mercury's were absolutely outstanding. A few years ago this performance, only 21 minutes, was voted the greatest rock gig ever in an industry poll of artists, journalists and music industry executives. Even now you can see why. Most people consider it Queen's best live performance too.

The way that Freddie Mercury plays the crowd and has them eating out of his hand is amazing and it must have been absolutely electrifying to watch live. I have never seen anyone who could single handedly fill a huge stage with just his prescence and showmanship. Freddie will be missed for a long time. Let's not forget Brian May's guitar work either - superb, even if he does have silly hair!

It is one of my eternal regrets that I missed most of Live Aid as I was on holiday and favoured the sun more than sitting down for several hours.

Here is the performance in 3 parts

Part 1 - Bohemian Rhapsody / Radio GaGa



Part 2 - Hammer To Fall / Crazy Little Thing Called Love



Part 3 - We will Rock you / We are the Champions



Freddy and Brian May also played later on that day with "Is this the world that we created". Very poingnant.



Here is some footage of Queen's rehearsal for the show and an interview with the band. They were honest enough to admit that, whilst they thought it was a good cause, it was an event that they simply could not miss.

Aha - Take on me

Th Norwegian Band A-ha released this song in 1985 and it is one of the most successful singles ever, selling over 8 million copies and reaching number 1 in 36 countries. The origins of the track stretch back to 1981 as "The Juicyfruit Song", recorded by Bridges, Pål Waaktaar and Magne Furuholmen's former band. Take on me is from A-ha's album of the same year "Hunting High And Low". The success and longevity of Take On Me is in no small part due to the revolutionary music video that was made, featuring a combination of live action and animation effects.



The computer effects were created by London based Framestore CFC. I distinctly recall being completely blown away by the video in 1985 and it remains impressive today in my opinion. It features lead singer Pål Waaktaar and actress Bunty Bailey and has Pål reaching out from a comic book and pulling Bunny into the animation world where the real world and the animation world merge into one.



The song has been covered a ton of times, in lots of different styles and is a favourite of Coverville's Brian Ibbott, who has featured a number of versions on his show.

There is also a funny parody of the video on the Family Guy episode "Breaking out is hard to do".