1.21 Gigawatts!

I bought a car last month mainly so I could go and pick up my kids and bring them through to see me more often. As its an oldish car it has a tape player. As I don't use it that often I keep forgetting to change it with the CD player that I have.

When I drive the car around Glasgow, I listen to Rock Radio (96.3) and all is good.

However...

When I go and pick the kids up (or head down to Ayr) I leave the broadcast area and I have to resort to the tape player.

I have 1 tape.

The 1 tape in question is Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms.

I have listened to this so often now, I am starting to think back to the time I bought it and all the things that happened that year....

1985

I was working in the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) which in real-terms meant I handed giro's out to people everyday. I was a CO at the time having started the previous month during the Miner's strike.

The job sucked. Being swore at everyday in your job is just not what you call 'job satisfaction'. The good part to the job was that I worked in Portobello (wait for it – that's not the good bit) and that the office was described as a Social Club with an office attached.

I learned how to curl (curling is a great sport) took part in a pantomime as Bobby Spewing (we ripped the micky out of Dallas and I was knocked down by a Sinclair C5) and generally had a great time – before 9am and after 4pm. The bit in the middle was work.

I was playing rugby and cricket for Musselburgh in those days although I didn't really play either very well. I was a very fast athlete in those days (don't laugh) but couldn't tackle a fish supper!

The summer that year I remember as being a scorcher! Great for cricket! After 7 hours playing at the Top Park, Lewisvale, it was down to the Hole in the Wa' for several ales and eventually a fish supper (which I was able to tackle) and a stagger home.

I was really looking forward to Live Aid in July and left explicit instructions that my sister should wake me before 12 so that I could watch Status Quo start the whole thing off. She did wake me by saying “That's Status Quo on”

The minx!

Watched a bit of it and then off to play cricket. I remember catching a bit of Queen when we got to the pub and then recording Led Zep when I got home...and watching it through a drunken haze.

We at the MCC (Musselburgh Cricket Club) were huge supporters of the West Indies and that summer you would hear us shouting in mock West Indian accents “You gotta learn to bowl the slower ball man” and other phrases.....(you had to be there)

It was a year when Paul Hardcastle had a huge hit with N-n-n-n-n-n-n-Nineteen and Back to the Future was a box office smash.......

What else happened in 1985?

January

The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.

February

After 6-1/2 years, the television series The Dukes of Hazzard goes off the air.

March

The first episode of popular soap Neighbours airs on Australian TV.

April

New Coke, a marketing disaster is introduced.

May

56 spectators die when a flash fire strikes a football ground during a match in Bradford, England.

June

Route 66 ceases to be an official highway.

July

The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow.

August

Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, crashes into Mount Ogura in Gunma Prefecture Japan killing 520 in the world's worst single-plane air disaster. Four people miraculously survive.

September

Steve Jobs resigns from Apple Computer.

October

The "Achille Lauro" is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.

November

According to ancient aztec mythology, the future saviour of the world would be born on this date. (Anyone know anyone born on this date????)

December

Shakin Stevens has the Christmas No. 1

Now I remember where I got the title of this blog from......