Everything 80's

(19-10-2018 21:37 )babelover48 Wrote:  

(16-10-2018 19:44 )rpj316 Wrote:  ^^ ha,ha I remember all those.We got an Amstrad CPC 464 with a green screen monitor and 20 games all on tape,a few of them didn't load.My mum bought myself and my brother that in 1987 and I've still got it and it still works.

have you ever plugged it in lately? We had the spectrums in our house (all three blew up and are sadly no longer with us) and the games were loaded by tape often we hsd to turn the tape over when we reached a certain point. I think there is a good emulator for all the old speccy I trialled a while back and played the minder game quite few times. Might delve back into getting one some point to bring back fun memories. Anyone ever complete any of the Leisure Suit Larry series (the originial games)?
Any how, Here's the link for all the spectrum lovers of the forum : - (I'm sure there must be something similar for the CP64 lovers too!!)
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/

Thanks for the info matey,much appreciated.The last time I had the Amstrad up and running was last year and it worked fine

(19-10-2018 21:20 )GreenMachine Wrote:  The categories that used to exist in cinemas before they changed them in I think it was the late 80's or 90's were:

U-Suitable for all mums dads kids grannies etc-mostly twee Disney stuff and cartoons.
PG=Suitable for older kids more with parental guidance(PG)
A-Adult but you could get into it with an older person. Mild violence or swearing.
AA-Accompanied(adult but you needed an adult to get you in) violence mostly, swearing etc.
X-Xrated-well that was obvious and you had to be 18 and over usually contained sex, swearing and violence.

Changed to: (using years of age for the last 2)
U
PG
PG12, PG13(brought in to replace PG12) could contain mild swearwords, possible sex references.
15 violence and swearing, mild sex references etc
18 swearing and sex mostly, violence and scenes of drug misuse etc. All depended on which film you saw.

Remember the adverts for ice cream, hot dogs and drinks for the interval OR the usherette coming down the aisle with a tray of ice cream tubs with a wooden spoon you weren't sure which way up it went(until they introduced the plastic shovel-type) "feeling hungry? why not visit the kiosk for a hot dog or one of our range of soft drinks" and one we had "Now it's time for ICE CREAM! Try a KING CONE, available in the foyer now!"

If you went to a local cinema you envariably got an advert for something that was close "come to Smith's emporium for all your shopping needs...just four minutes from this cinema." Also in those days you got your money's worth with a shorter film or cartoon short, a travelogue, interval, then the main feature.

I think Mary Whitehouse had a lot to do with video certificates initially in the early 80s as well.

I think it was more the BBFC-British Board of Film Classification but no doubt about it she was a right royal pain in the arse to them too.

^I doubt that she was ever invites to any royal Garden tea parties


The old cow was a pain in the arse to any body who met or had to deal wither and was probably the second most hated woman in the UK after Thatcher Mr's May's 'bloody woman' had nothing on her
Bet she'd love to give the EU a right going over with Brexit she'd probably scare Barner to death!!

(19-10-2018 23:52 )GreenMachine Wrote:  I think it was more the BBFC-British Board of Film Classification but no doubt about it she was a right royal pain in the arse to them too.

Yes it was the "video nasties" issue Mary Whitehouse was involved in.I think it was in 1984 when she had loads of films banned.

The worst ones were 'I Spit On Your Grave 'and 'Driller Killer'. I remember that being discussed by some industry bods but considering what they do now, it probably shocks still but a lot worse is made in horror these days like SAW and Insidious. A friend of mine was once offered a copy of the notorious Animal Farm-which was basically a rather sad young girl Bodil Joensen who lived on a farm and had sex with some of the animals-there was a Channel Four documentary on her some years ago. What you thought you were getting wasn't what actually happened but it gained its own notoriety and was advertised in some men's magazines in the advertisements.

Worst fashion disasters- leg warmers, snoods and women's fashions with huge shoulder pads built in. Biggest con the keep fit videos which sold in their millions but no-one actually looked like the celebrity on the cover.

The 1980's is also remembered for the number of strikes and protests that went on, the worst being the miner's strike when the police were sent in by Thatcher to break up strikers and a mass brawl occured with miners and police getting injured and leader of the miners, Arthur Scargill was arrested-now that was a sight. Trouble is with cheap coal coming in from elsewhere eventually the writing was on the walll for coal mining and many sites closed down. The other protests came from the car industry, once the pride of the country, but systematically destroyed by greedy, idiotic managers who just couldn't see what was happening and the influx of foreign imports were virtually killing off the industry. British Leyland was a classic example of a company that was virtually run into the ground and mismanaged.

We also had the IRA hanging over our heads in this country. Bombings were constant and I myself nearly lost my mother when the bomb near Harrod's went off. She had been due to meet a friend of hers and go for lunch nearby. I get a cold shiver go down my spin whenever this is mentioned in these look-back programmes. At least they used to give warnings before bombs went off(unlike today's cowardly bombers) but many, many people were killed in senseless violence. Thatcher of course was a target at a hotel in Brighton where one of her minions, Norman Tebbit(aka the Chingford Skinhead) and his wife were injured in the blast that ripped through it. Thatcher escaped unhurt.

Whilst on the subject of industrial relations during the 1960s to the 1980s, we must not forget that a number of high profile union leaders, had been or still were members of the Communist Party of Great Britain; these being Jack Jones, Hugh Scanlon, Clive Jenkins, and of course Arthur Scargill.
Derek (Red Robbo) Robinson a union convener at BL Longbridge, was also a Communist Party member, and stood as a CP candidate in General Elections between 1966-'74..
The Communist Party's intentions were to bring down a democratically elected government, and to replace it with a Soviet style government under the overlordship of Moscow.
What better way than to ruin our industries, make us vulnerable to attack from the then Soviet Union.

This is why Mrs Thatcher got elected, because the average British worker could see the truth.

Just an addition to the point about Norman Tebbit.
He was seriously injured in the Brighton bombing and his wife was paralyzed.

For those who did not live through the industrial unrest of the 1960-80s, and want to know what it was like.
I suggest you can read a good number of history books on the subject, talk to old fogies like me, (I came from a working class background and am proud on it), or better still if you really want a first hand virtual reality idea, just vote for Jeremy Corbyn at the next election and you can have the 1960s replayed.

Thank you for those who have taken the time to read my reply.

One of the biggest events of the 1980's took place on a roasting hot day in July 1985-LIVE AID, the global jukebox as it was nicknamed, when some of the biggest names in pop music on both sides of the Atlantic came together to play for Africa and the terrible famine that was hitting Eithiopia (having been highlghted by a harrowing report by Michael Buerk for the BBC News a year before, which had spawned BAND AID, the brainchild of Bob Geldoff, lead singer of The Boomtown Rats gathering a group of the biggest British groups & musicians and bringing them together to sing a song to raise money for Africa(Do They Know It's Christmas?) that was written by his friend Midge Ure the one time lead singer of band Ultravox))

Anyway it was a roasting hot day as thousands of people streamed into Wembley Stadium to see and hear their favourite music played. Great bands and singers such as Phil Collins(who was then flown across the Atlantic by Concorde to perform later) Spandau Ballet, Status Quo, Sting, The Boomtown Rats and two of the biggest in the world U2 and Queen-who actually stole the show with their performances. Over in the US, at the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia a load of big US stars got together(some British bands were out there too like Simple Minds) to raise awareness. Mick Jagger and Tina Turner did a duet where Jagger managed to rip Tina's skirt off, and Madonna appeared as well. Personally I found the US stuff awful, but the British stuff was brilliant apart from a few sound problems-Paul McCartney's microphone failed as he started singing Let It Be and had to start again. Right at the end all the singers assembled on stage to sing "Do They Know It's Christmas" (or rather do they know that Summer is coming)

If you remember watching this, tell us your story or what you were doing at the time.