Friday's 40th Five (13/81)

 

30 March - 05 April

Friday's 40th Five (12/81)

Remembering the music of 1981, week by week, in 2021. New releases, new entries, new number 1s, plus indie favourites and album cuts, all from this week 40 years ago.

Week 12: 23 - 29 March 

1. Ultravox - Slow Motion. Re-release of Foxx-era single, riding on the wave of Vienna. Into the Top 40 at no.35.

2. Bucks Fizz - Making Your Mind Up. UK's Eurovision entry for this year is into the charts this week an on TOTP.

3. Orange Juice - Poor Old Soul. In the indie charts and on the Peel show. Their debut session from last year also gets a repeat this week.

4. Leve Lovich - New Toy. Still looking for a successful follow-up to '79's Lucky Number and Say When, this new one is at 54 this week (and on TOTP), although sadly gets no further.

5. Status Quo - Never Too Late. Title track from the Quo's new album, straight into the charts this week at no.2.

This week's: Record Mirror, Top 40.

Friday's 40th Five (11/81)

Remembering the music of 1981, week by week, in 2021. New releases, new entries, new number 1s, plus indie favourites and album cuts, all from this week 40 years ago.

Week 11: 16 - 22 March 

1. Landscape - Einstein a Go-Go. This one seems to have escaped the radar so far but is already at no.21 in the charts after the video was shown on TOTP last week.

2. Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang. Debut single by ex-Human leaguers + 1 and is on heavy rotation on Peel's late show. 

3. Linx - Intuition. New entry at no.35 this week for Brit funksters.

4. The Polecats - John, I'm Only Dancing. A daring cover version by trendy rockabillies, just into the charts at the first of tow hits.

5. Hazel O'Connor - D-Days. Brand new single release from last year's Sons & Lovers album and destined for Top 10.

This week's: Smash Hits, Record Mirror, Top 40

Friday's 40th Five (10/81)

Remembering the music of 1981, week by week, in 2021. New releases, new entries, new number 1s, plus indie favourites and album cuts, all from this week 40 years ago.

Week 10: 9 -15 March 

1. New Order - Ceremony

2. Visage - Mind of  a Toy

3. Phil Collins - I Missed Again

4. Spandau Ballet - Reformation (album: Journeys to Glory)

5. XTC - Respectable Street 

Friday's 40th Five (09/81)

 

Week 02-08 March 1981

1. Kim Wilde - Kids in America Highest new entry at no.18 this week.

2. Jacksons - Can You Feel It? ..and another at no.34

3. Shakin' Stevens - This Ole House Another new entry at no.29.

4. The Selecter - Celebrate the Bullet Title track from new album at no.49 in the chart this week (and in Record Mirror)

5. Scritti Politti - The Sweetest Girl. From the NME/Rough Trade C81 cassette, track selected by John Peel for his show this week.

31/1/81: 53rd Academy Awards

On Tuesday 31 March 1981 the 53rd Academy Awards "Oscars" ceremony took place in Los Angeles. The event had been postponed from the previous night due to the assassination attempt on President Reagan.

The awards for Best Picture went to Ordinary People, for which Robert Redford also picked up award for Best Director. Timothy Hutton was awarded Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film, which also won the Best Adapted Screenplay award.

Robert Redford with Best Director Award. pic. IMDB 

Robert de Niro won Best Actor award for his role in Raging Bull, which also won the Best Editing award. Best Original Score went to Fame, as did Best Song. A Special Achievement Award went to The Empire Strikes Back.

30/3/81: Ronald Reagan assasination attempt

On Monday 30 March 1981 an assassination attempt was made on the US President Ronald Reagan.

John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to shoot  Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C., at around 2.27 PM local time, just after the president had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO. Hinckley was armed with a .22 revolver with exploding bullets and was only ten feet away from Reagan when he began shooting. Hinckley’s first shot hit press secretary James Brady and other shots wounded a police officer Thomas Delahanty and a Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy. The sixth and final shot hit Reagan’s limo and then ricocheted into the President’s chest.

pic. reaganlibrary.archives.gov  - taken seconds after the assassination attempt on President Reagan. James Brady and police officer Thomas Delahanty lie wounded on the ground

Shortly afterwards, Reagan was subjected to an emergency thoracotomy lasting 105 minutes. He came close to death losing over half of his blood volume in the emergency room and during surgery to remove the bullet. He left the hospital thirteen days later. 

pic. crimemagazine.com

James Brady became permanently disabled from his gunshot wound and became an ardent supporter of gun control as a result of this event. He died on August 4, 2014, 33 years after the shooting. His death was ruled a homicide, caused by the gunshot.

At his trial in 1982, in Washington, D.C., charged with 13 offenses, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21,  and has since remained under constant institutional psychiatric care.

source: history.com, wikipedia

29/3/81: first London marathon

On Sunday 29 March 1981, the very first London Marathon took place. It had been organised and directed by Christopher Brasher, a former sports editor for The Observer newspaper.

After taking part in the 1979 New York Marathon, Brasher convinced himself that London could do what New York had done. Within a year, he had achieved the far more difficult task of convincing the police and the relevant London boroughs. He had hoped for 4,000 runners on the big day in March 1981; in the event, more than 7,000 started from Greenwich Park - and most made it to the finish outside Buckingham Palace.

A 25lb cannon was fired to start the race in Greenwich Park at 9am. Some two hours, 11 minutes and 48 seconds later the marathon finished in a tie with American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen crossed the finish line at Constitution Hill.

source: guardian archives, virginmoneylondonmarathon.com
pics: bt.com

27/3/81: 'Warning strike' in Poland

On Friday 27 March 1981 the four-hour 'warning strike' took place in Poland, one of the largest in the history of the Polish labour movement and certainly the largest in the history of the former Soviet bloc.

pic: V&A

26/3/81: Social Democratic Party (SDP) founded in UK

On Thursday 26 March 1981 the Social Democrats launched their new political party in the UK pledging to "reconcile the nation" and "heal divisions between classes".

The party was founded by the so-called 'Gang of Four', the four Labour Party defectors Roy Jenkins, David Owen, William Rodgers and Shirley Williams.

pic: Keystone/Getty Images

The SDP went on to form the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the Liberal Party in June 1981, under the joint leadership of Roy Jenkins and Liberal leader David Steel.


source: BBC On This Day

25/3/1981: International Year of the Disabled People - special stamp issue (UK)

On 25 March 1981 the Royal Mail issued four special stamps to commemorate the International Year of the Disabled People

The four stamps depicted Blind Man with Guide Dog (14p), Hands spelling 'Deaf' in Sign Language (18p), Disabled Man in Wheelchair (22p), Disabled Artist painting with Foot, (25p )


Source: collectgbstamps

24/3/81: Ronnie Biggs rescued after kidnap

On Tuesday 24 March 1981 Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was rescued by Barbados police following his kidnapping. The 52-year-old, on the run from UK police, was found on a yacht which had broken down seven miles from the coast of Barbados.

Biggs was taken from a bar in Rio de Janeiro on 18 March where he was due to meet some new friends. The men turned up and bundled Biggs into a waiting car. From there it is believed they took him by plane to the coast where they boarded a yacht bound for Barbados. The kidnap was thought to be an attempt to get Mr Biggs extradited to serve the rest of his sentence in the UK.

Biggs had been on the run since 1965 when he escaped form Wandsworth Prison in the UK, where he was serving a thirty year sentence after The Great Train Robbery of 1963.

source and pic.: art-sheep.com

23/3/81: Mike Hailwood dies in a road accident

On Monday 23 March 1981, British motor-cycle racer Mike Hailwood died following a road traffic accident in Warwickshire, England.

Born Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood in 1940, he was also known as "Mike The Bike" because of his natural riding ability on bikes with a range of engine capacities. Later in his career he went on to compete in Formula One and other classes of car racing, becoming one of the few men to compete at Grand Prix level in both motorcycle and car racing.

Getty Images

The fatal accident had occurred two days earlier when Hailwood was driving with his two young children Micehlle and David. Michelle died instantly, and of the three only David survived. At his funeral Hailwood's pall bearers included James Hunt, John Surtees and Giacomo Agostini.

source: independent.co.uk

22/3/81: Soyuz 39 lanched into space

On Sunday 22 March 1981 the Soyuz 39 manned space flight was launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, formerly of the Soviet Union.

The mission was notable for the fact that, it carried the first Mongolian cosmonaut, Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa (b. 1947, pictured above right), as well as the Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dzhanibekov (left), making it part of the Soviet Interkosmos space program.

Soyuz 39 docked safely with the Salyut 6 space station a day later, where the two cosmonauts joined the resident crew to carry out scientific experiments, including studies of Mongolia from space.

source and pics: spacefacts.de

21/3/81: Doctor Who: Tom Baker's final episode

On Saturday 21 March 1981 actor Tom Baker made his final appearance as Doctor Who in the long running BBC TV series of the same name.

Baker (b. 1934) began his most famous acting role in June 1974, making him the 'Fourth Doctor', taking over from Jon Pertwee in the final episode of Planet of the Spiders. He completed his role in the fourth and final episode of Logopolis in 1981, which  introduced Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor at the very end of the story via the traditional 're-generation' method.

Episodes featuring Davison as the Fifth Doctor began broadcasting in January 1982.

source: tardis.wikia.com

20/3/81: The Final Conflict (Omen III) movie released

On Friday 20 March 1981 The Final Conflict, the third movie in the Omen series, was released.

19/3/81: New issue of 'Look-In' magazine

Thursday 19 March 1981 saw the new issue of Look-In magazine for week ending Saturday 21 March 1981, featuring pop group Abba on the front cover.

The magazine feature on Abba was entitled 'Abba's seven Super years' and looked back over their career which dated back to their Eurovision Song Contest win in 1974. The group had also just had a number one album and single in the UK (Super Trouper and the title track), although they would release just one more studio album at the end of 1981 before splitting up.

Look-In was a weekly magazine, targeted towards young people, based on ITV programmes in the UK. It featured a mix of pop music, quizzes, competions and TV programmes, which were also represented by comic strips. It ran from 1971 to 1994.

source and pic: mag-a-zone.blogspot.com

18/3/81: Mt. Etna volcano erupting

One of Etna's most dramatic and destructive eruptions occurred between 17 and 23 March 1981 on the north-northwestern flank of the volcano in Sicily. The town of Randazzo narrowly escaped destruction.

Randazzo, Sicily on 18 March 1981

On Wednesday 18 March, the lava flow passed between Randazzo and Montelaguardia and entered into the bed of the Alcantara river. On its course, it interrupted several major roads, the Circumetnea railway and the Italian State railway (FS) as well as power lines, causing a temporary blackout in Randazzo. The flow eventually stopped on 20 March.

The remains of a stately country house nr. Randazzo, some time after the eruption 

sources and pics.: INGV, volcanodiscovery.com

17/3/81: 'Jealous Guy' by Roxy Music at no. 1 (UK)

On Tuesday 17 March 1981 a cover version of the John Lennon song 'Jealous Guy' by British band Roxy Music was at no. 1 in the UK for the second of two weeks.

The band had added the song to their live set during their tour following the death of Lennon in December 1980. It was intended to be a one off tribute performance at a show in Dortmund on 19th December. It has featured in every Roxy Music or Bryan Ferry solo tour since, including Live Aid in 1985.

Despite a long and successful career this single would be Roxy Music's only number 1 in the UK. The full length version of the song is 6:10 long. A live version can be heard on the Roxy Music album Heart Still Beating (1990)

Source. Viva Roxy Music

16/3/81: Time magazine (Alexander Haig cover)

On 16 March 1981, Time magazine featured the US Secretary of State Alexander Haig on its front cover.

Haig (b. 1927) was a veteran of both the Korean and the Vietnam wars and had served as NATO Supreme Commander from 1974–79. His term in office under Ronald Reagan was relatively short and his comments and actions often met with controversy both at home and abroad. He resigned from his post in June 1982. His memoirs, Inner Circles: How America Changed The World, were published in 1992. Haig died in 2010.