As you know, I am quite young and was indeed born in the wrong generation. I would do anything just to go back to that time period for a week and get to experience it just like my folks did. However it's virtually impossible, so I'm gonna have to like or lump the fact it was never meant to be. In a previous post I said that I had my first encounter with 80s singer George Michael in 2009, when I was still, quite young. We were in the process of getting broadband for the very first time so my YouTube was basically the television and VH1 classic, since MTV is now laughably a hub for reality shows. I can remember watching the video for Last Christmas and thinking how brilliant it was, from the video right down to the vocals, and indeed, the person singing them.
The first 80s group that I started listening to properly was Spandau Ballet. My dad had a couple of 80s compilation albums lying about the house and let me borrow them. It wasn't long before I was going on to YouTube to see what other hits that they had. That Christmas I knew I was asking for the True album on CD. I feel that my passion was ignited solely about 5 years ago when my mum brought her old LP collection down from my grandmother's loft for me to look at. It was a complete treasure trove, albums from Level 42, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox, Cutting Crew, you name it! Pity that I didn't ask for a record player sooner! Certainly, it wasn't long before my fairly sparse CD collection began to grow. Whenever I came into some money, or whenever we went on an outing to a place that had a music shop I would certainly come out with, on average, 3 at a time. I was running out of space, fast, that's for sure. I created a Twitter account almost 5 years ago now to share my love for Queen and music, and honestly, met some really really nice people, some that I'm still in contact with today! Yeah there's been a fair share of trolls and drama, but I know how to handle them, by simply pressing 'block'. The following Summer I introduced myself to the world of blogging and attempted to write one based on my passions for Spandau Ballet. It went on for a while and I felt that it was easy connected to a similar fan page that I was running on Facebook and Twitter, but it was a total flop out and I gave it up. I tried other blogs that also failed, and ones that admittedly, I either forgot about or simply lost interest in. However, I pledged from the get go that I would never give up on this one. I got a lot of backing from people and motivation from a very good friend of mine.
Eventually I branched off from just the music and started to develop a liking of EVERYTHING 80s, from concerts such as Live Aid, the fashion and style of the New Romantics, blue mascara, hairstyles including the famous mullet and especially the television of the 80s. My parents always used to watch the classic British sitcom Only Fools and Horses starring Sir David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst, it was so hilarious and even is today. It wasn't too long ago that I decided to invest in the complete collection boxset. The Jolly Boys' Outing will also be my favourite episode to this day. It was also the first one that I watched all the way through without skipping channels. Below is one of the best clips. Del Boy (Jason) falls through the bar and Trigger's (Roger Lloyd-Pack) reaction is hilarious!
So that's my story so far. And of course, I'm discovering new things every day so as Limahl would say, it's a never-ending story! If you're a young gun, do you have a similar story?
See you in the next post, but till then, I bid you farewell!
Sigourney
