Everything 80's

In the early 1980s I bought my first VHS video recorder.
The reason being that having changed shifts at the post office I was now working lates & nights, and therefore wasn't able to watch all those great shows that were in abundance in them days.

If I told you it was around £500, and that for a bog standard one you would probably call me a liar, but that's how much they were in them days.
Made by JVC in Japan.

Damned good machine, well built and quite a weighty beast.
Lasted for over 10 years at least.

The only problem it had was that the bands between the two tape rollers had started to slip, and I replaced 'em with elastic bands.
When I looked inside, I realized why it was so heavy, everything was proper metal.
Still worked great after that minor repair.

^
We had a huge top loading Sony Betamax as our first video player,it must've weighed at least 50lbs and was around three feet wide.I think it cost around £600.Funnily enough Betamax players and tapes where actually superior in picture and sound quality to vhs but not as popular due to more porn being produced and selling more on vhs,Sony lost out and the rest is history.

Was it this model? I was given a second-hand one by a relative. Worked well, still have it.

^that's the one.

We had a Philips VCR top loader with tapes given to my Dad by the BBC(he worked for them) and later he gave it to me.

One of the worst things about the 1980's is that it brought out the greed in people especially the hated Yuppies(Young Upwardly Mobile) who flaunted their wealth in other people's faces and drove large sportscars, spent money like water, quaffing endless bottles of champagne in trendy wine bars and wasting money on frivolous things-indeed THINGS were more important to them than health, family etc. It turned people into monsters who were driven to make more money and taunted those that didn't have anything. However we all had the last laugh when the stock market crashed and Tarquin and Jocasta had to ditch the Porsches and forgo the balls to pay their huge debts. After that we began to realise that being nicer and caring more for our families and health was a better deal. Come the nineties, we became a much more caring nation.

One of the main things to happen to films was the availability of one to watch in the comfort of your own home and only for a few pounds to rent from places like Blockbuster Video shops. All you had to do was sign up for a card then when you went to the shop you could choose any video film you wanted (up to 3 I think it was) and then take them home, watch when you wanted within a week or so and then post them through the door to return them. It was a great idea but sooner or later newer technology would begin to threaten that - cinemas were closing at a rapid rate of knots but some like the big chains ODEON and GAUMONT continued for a while. If you wanted a more adult rated film you had to provide some ID.

Mentioned elsewhere the craze of Top Trumps

The rules of the game and an example of one of the best cars to have-won practically everytime.


Marvel Superheroes too

Football I've heard was better in the 80's. Hmm well I'd disagree but it was definitely different once the SKY satellite channel came along and completely changed football as we knew it. No live games or anything live on the BBC(they could however show highlights as they do now) and ITV got in on the act with an updated version of their classic football show, 'The Big Match'. Gone were the ordinary shirts we knew as kids(plain colours & badge etc) and in came the sponsored shirts and in some cases horrendous bright colours(and that was just the goalkeeper's jerseys) There were more games to watch on SKY(if you could at the time afford the subscription) and the way it was analysed changed with the pundits being more to the fore and fiddling about with computer graphics. I should say at this point we had an analogue satellite system and not SKY. The footballers became millionaires thanks to the sponsorship and gaining recognition on television becoming big stars. I often wonder how many of the 70's super players were jealous of the endorsements being handed out to the likes of David Beckham.

England however was completely different. We had some good players from some of the best teams in the country BUT we just couldn't get it together(and recorded some awful songs along the way) and win the bigger games. Our fans were violent and incredibly stupid giving us a bad reputation across Europe(in fact many other country's fans copied us and got even more violent) and it took years to regain our reputation. Liverpool was undoubtedly the team of the 80's but were blighted by two terrible disasters Heysel 1985 and the worst of the lot, Hillsborough in 1989 ( the 30th anniversary of which is next year) Great players like Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness made watching the games exciting and they won many trophies both FA Cups and League titles.

What is your memory of football in the 1980's? Who was YOUR team?

(24-11-2018 19:35 )GreenMachine Wrote:  Football I've heard was better in the 80's. Hmm well I'd disagree but it was definitely different once the SKY satellite channel came along and completely changed football as we knew it. No live games or anything live on the BBC(they could however show highlights as they do now) and ITV got in on the act with an updated version of their classic football show, 'The Big Match'. Gone were the ordinary shirts we knew as kids(plain colours & badge etc) and in came the sponsored shirts and in some cases horrendous bright colours(and that was just the goalkeeper's jerseys) There were more games to watch on SKY(if you could at the time afford the subscription) and the way it was analysed changed with the pundits being more to the fore and fiddling about with computer graphics. I should say at this point we had an analogue satellite system and not SKY. The footballers became millionaires thanks to the sponsorship and gaining recognition on television becoming big stars. I often wonder how many of the 70's super players were jealous of the endorsements being handed out to the likes of David Beckham.

England however was completely different. We had some good players from some of the best teams in the country BUT we just couldn't get it together(and recorded some awful songs along the way) and win the bigger games. Our fans were violent and incredibly stupid giving us a bad reputation across Europe(in fact many other country's fans copied us and got even more violent) and it took years to regain our reputation. Liverpool was undoubtedly the team of the 80's but were blighted by two terrible disasters Heysel 1985 and the worst of the lot, Hillsborough in 1989 ( the 30th anniversary of which is next year) Great players like Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness made watching the games exciting and they won many trophies both FA Cups and League titles.

What is your memory of football in the 1980's? Who was YOUR team?

The only memory I have football related from the 1980’s is from Hillsborough 15th April 1989.

Went with three mates from Liverpool in a transit van, getting caught up in roadworks, got to the ground about 2.25. Crowds outside the Leppings lane end were fucking mental, none of the organisation that was in place the year before.

Had a bad feeling before even going in that something wasn’t right. Went in, two of our lot went down the tunnel as they wanted to get a spec behind the goal, while me and my other mate went to the side to pen 5 so we were out near the corner flag. Looking across and could already see how fucking packed the central pens looked, saying and thinking ‘thank fuck we didn’t go in there’

Gets hazy at this point

Match got called off, back to the van, radio on straight away while waiting for the two lads who’d gone through to the middle pens, seemed like forever till they got back, while the radio announced that people had died...when they appeared, hands were shaken, slaps on the back.

...a long quiet drive back to Liverpool, bits of conservation,..”can’t believe it”...”they’ll have to replay it”..”was getting crushed”...”stop the van” and someone would be sick.

Got home...don’t know what made me switch match of the day on, but that was when the floods came