31/1/81: Wolves v. West Bromwich Albion (Black Country Derby)

On Saturday 31 January 1981 Wolverhampton Wanderers, or Wolves, played at home against West Bromwich Albion. The match was one of the long line of 'Black Country' derbies which have been contested in the English League Football since 1886.

pic: Wolves Football Programmes

This was the return match of the 1980-81 season with Wolves winning 2-0. The two teams had previously met at The Hawthorns on 23 August 1980 when the match ended in a 0-0 draw.

The last match between the two teams took place on 12 February 2012 when West Brom thrashed Wolves 1-5 at Molineux. Wolves currently play in the English Football League Championship while West Brom are in the Premier League.

Source: soccerbase.com, wikipedia

29/1/81: President Reagan's first press conference

28/1/81: actor Elijah Wood born

On Wednesday 28 January 1981 Elijah Jordan Wood was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA.

A child movie actor since 1989, Wood became best known for his role as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003).

Source IMDb

27/1/81: released US hostages arrive in Washington DC

Tuesday January 27 1981: the caravan of buses carrying the former hostages and their relatives makes its way through the crowd on hand to greet them on Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue,

The 52 Americans were held hostage in Iran for 444 days after their capture at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Source and picture: usnews.com

26/1/81: New Order record first John Peel session

On Monday 21 January 1981 Manchester band New Order recorded their first live session for the John Peel Show at the BBC studios in London.

New Order perform live in 1981. pic: thelocal.de

This was their first recorded work under the name of New Order. The band was formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, the remaining members of post-punk group Joy Division, following the suicide of vocalist Ian Curtis. Morris' then girlfriend Gillian Gilbert also joined shortly afterwards. This session features four tracks - Truth, Senses, I.C.B., Dreams Never End - which would all appear on their debut album Movement released several months later. Neither the session nor the album however featured their debut single Ceremony, released in March.

New Order would go on to become one of the most successful independent acts of the 1980s, with a groundbreaking mix of indie rock, pop and electronic dance music as demonstrated on hits such as Blue Monday, Bizarre Love Triangle and True Faith. After various solo projects they have continued to record together although bassist Peter Hook has since left the band. Their latest album Music Complete was released in 2015.

The January 1981 session was eventually broadcast by John Peel on 16 February. It was not made publicly available as an official recorded release until 1987.

Source: Discogs, neworderonline.

25/1/81: Jiang Qing sentenced to death

On 25 January 1981, Jiang Qing (b. 1914), the fourth wife and widow of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, was sentenced to death for her “counter-revolutionary crimes” during the Cultural Revolution.

Originally an actress in Communist theater and film, she married Mao in 1939. In 1966, Mao made her the first deputy head of the Cultural Revolution and gave her far-reaching powers over China's intellectual and cultural life.

But after her husband’s death in 1976, Jiang (aka "Madame Mao") and three other radicals who had come to power in the revolution were singled out as the “Gang of Four.” She was arrested and in 1977 expelled from the Communist Party. Three years later, in 1980, the Gang of Four were put on trial and two of its members were sentenced to death.

pic: BBC / AFP

On January 25, 1983, exactly two years after she was condemned, the Chinese government commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. In 1991, she died in prison of an apparent suicide.


Text and info adapted from history.com

24/1/81 :Everton 2 Liverpool 1 - FA Cup 4th Round

23/1/81: Samuel Barber dies

On Friday 23 September, American composer Samuel Barber (b. 1910) died in his New York apartment. He had twice won the Pulitzer Prize and his Adagio for Strings has become one of the most popular works in the orchestral canon.

The New York Times described him as "a calm, reticent man whose white hair and handsome head lent him in his later years the look of a Roman senator".

Source: New York Times archive

22/1/81. Steve Strange (Visage) on cover of Smash Hits (UK)

On 21 January 1981 a new issue of Smash Hits appeared in newsagents around the UK with a startling picture of Visage front-man Steve Strange on the cover.

pic:Like Punk Never Happened

Steve Strange (b. Stephen John Harrington , 1959) had been at the spearhead of the new fashion and music movement which had grown out of the London club scene in the late 70s. After performing in various post-punk bands, he eventually formed the studio based outfit Visage in 1979 along with Midge Ure and rusty Egan formerly of the Rich kids, and Barry Adamson, John McGeoch and Dave Formula of Magazine. They released their first eponymous album at the end of 1980 and eventually reached the singles charts at the beginning of 1981 with the single Fade to Grey which would become an 'eighties' standard and anthem of the 'New Romantic' movement.  

The iconic video for Fade to Grey, directed by Godley and Creme, was also shown on Top of the Pops for the first time on the evening of 21 September. (watch it here)

Strange would continue to record and publish music under the name of Visage with various degrees of success throughout the early 80s. In his autobiography Blitzed! published in 2002, Strange openly talks about his sexuality and heroin addiction. He made critically acclaimed musical comeback in 2013 with the Visage album Hearts and Knives, although died in February 2015 from a heart attack.

Sources: Popscene, Musicbrainz, wikipedia

21/1/81: first DeLorean DMC-12

On 21 January 1981, the first DMC-12 model car created by the DeLorean company rolled off the production line in Dumurry in Northern Ireland.

Its sharp, furturistic design made it ideal for the Back to the Future films (1985, 1989, 1990), where it was made into a souped-up 'time machine' for film characters Marty McFly and 'Doc'.

The DMC-12 was in fact the only model ever produced by the DeLorean company and as such also became known as "the Delorean".

20/1/81: Ronald Reagan becomes 40th President of the United States

On January 20 1981 Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was sworn in as 40th President of the United States of America. It was the first of two terms, meaning that his presidency lasted until the same date in 1989. Aged 69, Reagan was the oldest person to be made President and also the oldest person to hold the office in his final year, aged 77.

pic: inaugural.senate.gov

During his presidency the US would see a return to conservative foreign and domestic politics with a new emphasis on the Cold War and hostilities towards the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries in general. Reagan was also an advocate of free markets and laissez-faire economics, believing that the American economy had been hindered by excessive regulations and social programs. His politics found particular empathy with UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who had been elected in 1979.

pic. realclearpolitics

source: wikipedia

19/1/81: Lady Diana Spencer

On the morning of Monday 19th January Lady Diana Spencer is photographed returning to the kindergarten school where she worked in Pimlico, London. She had allegedly just returned from a weekend at the royal residence in Sandringham. Speculation over her relationship with Prince Charles, and a possible engagement, had been growing since the autumn of 1980.

source and pics.: princessdianabookboutique.wordpress.com

18/1/81: The Sunday Times and ST Magazine

On Sunday 18 January 1981, The Sunday Times published an open letter from John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono entitled "In Gratitude", in which she thanked fans for their condolences, and urged the creation of "world peace on earth for each other and our children". The letter was also published in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

pic: amazon

The Sunday Times Magazine supplement ran a feature on Polish trade union leader Lech Wałęsa. The charismatic leader would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and become President of Poland from 1990 to 1995

Sources: The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001 (Google Books), crazyaboutmagazines.com, Wikipedia.

17/1/81: Parkinson (BBCTV) with Freddie Starr and Muhammad Ali

British comedian Freddie Star (b. 1943) and boxer Muhammad Ali (b. 1942) were guests on Michael Parkinson's Saturday night chat show, which ran on BBC1 from 1971 to 2004.

source: BBC genome, youtube

16/1/81: Jimmy Carter leaves The White House

The U.S. President Jimmy Carter waves goodbye as he departs the White House, Washington, D.C. (USA), for Camp David, Maryland aboard the "Marine One" helicopter, on 16 January 1981.

Photograph by Warren K. Leffler, photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

15/1/81: Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight (Top of the Pops, UK)

On Thursday 15 January 1981 singer and songwriter Phil Collins made his solo Top of the Pops debut with his first solo single In The Air Tonight. Although it was still only at no. 36 in the charts, the single would subsequently make a massive leap to no. 4 the week after, and become one of the year's biggest hits around the globe.

With its unique atmospheric minimalist sound, culminating in a crashing drum attack towards the finale, the song has since become a classic in both pop and rock music and a standard of Collins' canon.

In The Air Tonight was the lead single from the album Face Value, released later in the month. Much of the album's writing, as well as some songs recorded with Genesis in 1980, were the result of Collins' divorce in 1979. The scathing lyric has often been criticised although Collins has defended his words as being expressed merely out of pure "anger" after the divorce.

The singer would continue with a successful solo career for much of the decade. Face Value and other solo albums are to be re-issued in re-mastered formats as from 2016.




NOTE: This video upload and chart countdown are from the show aired two weeks later on 29 January when Collins had reached no. 3. The performance was however first shown on the 15th January show and then repeated.

14/1/81: New definitive issue stamps (UK)

On Wednesday 14 January 1981 a new set of definitive value postage stamps was issued by the UK Post Office. The new issue effectively signaled the increase in the price of sending mail.

The price of a 1st class letter increased from 12p to 14p, while the price of a second class letter went up from 10p to 11½p.

Sources: collectgbstamps.co.uk, theguardian.com

13/01/1981: BBC2 Programmes trailer (TV)

(that's Tuesday 13 January, not 12 as shown in the youtube upload title, but thanks anyway to Put The Telly On)

..and if you're not into any of that, BBC 1 was showing American comedy Taxi, a nostalgic re-run of Softly Softly, and there's more comedy with a new episode of (now forgotten) boxing sitcom Seconds Out, starring Robert Lindsay (below).

Sources: Put the telly On, BBC genome, British Comedy Guide

12/1/81: Sheena Easton and John Peel

On the evening of Monday 12th January, 1981 Radio One DJ John Peel started his show by playing Sheena Easton's new single Take My Time, and asking the question, "is it too early to nominate an album of the year for 1981?", clearly referring to Easton's eponymous album which had just been released.

 

Peel's surprising admiration for the Scottish chanteuse was midway between genuine and tongue-in-cheek sarcastic, although in 1980 he had openly expressed his appreciation of Easton's 9 to 5 single, a stark contrast to his usual music tastes and choices. Peel is better known for championing punk and new-wave bands such as The Undertones, Altered Images, The Fall and Joy Division.

John Peel in 1982. Pic: Peel Wiki

Take My Time as a single only reached no. 44 in the UK charts although the album got to no. 17 in mid-February, its only week in the Top 20 album chart. Easton was more successful later in the year lending her vocal talents to the theme song to 1981 James Bond movie For Your Eyes only.

Sources: John Peel Wiki, Official Charts.

11/1/81: 'Solo' (TV sitcom)

On Sunday 11 January 1981 BBC 1 started airing the new sitcom Solo, written by Carla Lane and starring Felicity Kendall as Gemma Palmer, a newly single girl intent on making her own, independent way in the world, with varying degrees of success and failure.

pic. comedy.co.uk

Kendall (b. 1946) had previously starred with Richard Briers in the highly successful BBC sitcom The Good Life which had run from 1975 to 1978. She has made several television appearances during her career with roles as varied as Viola in the BBC production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (shown January 1980) and more recently as "gardening detective" Rosemary Boxer in ITV's Rosemary & Thyme which ran over three seasons from 2003-2007.

Solo writer Carla Lane was still enjoying success at the time with Butterflies, another BBC sitcom centering on the hapless middle-class wife and mother Ria Parkinson, played by Wendy Craig.

The half-hour episode of Solo was usually followed by Sunday night regular That's Life!

sources: BBC genome, wikipedia

10/1/81: Titbits magazine (UK) / Joan Collins

pic: joancollinscollection.com via pinterest

In this week's issue archetype MILF Joan Collins (b. 1933) explains "how to be a hit with younger men", while one reader retells their dramatic horror plane crash story. 

Although already an established actor in 1981, Collins became most famous for her role as the scheming Alexis in the US soap Dynasty which started airing in the US on January 12, 1981. Collins' character, however, did not appear until the first episode of Season 2, appropriately entitled Enter Alexis, first broadcast in November '81 in the US. The programme started running in the UK in May 1982, and the second season with Collins appearing, from 1st January 1983.

The Titbits magazine/periodical was published in Great Britain from 1881 - 1984. In reporting its closure, the Financial Times described Titbits as 'the 103-year-old progenitor of Britain's popular press'.

Sources: Wikipedia, BBC Genome (Joan Collins); Magforum.com (Titbits)

On TV:

• BBC One, 7.10 pm Nanny  A new series in ten parts starring Wendy Craig as Nanny Barbara Gray. Spring 1932. After a broken marriage Nurse Gray has completed her college training and is ready to embark on her first job. (source: BBC Genome, see also pop-culture-scrapbook entry)

9/1/81: RAM magazine / David Bowie

Cover of Australian magazine RAM featuring David Bowie and a look back on his work in 1980.

8/1/81: The Trans-en-Provence UFO sighting

In the early evening of January 8th, 1981 French farmer Renato Nicolai reported to have seen an unidentified flying object hurtle through the early evening sky, subsequently to land some 500 metres away, only to take off again leaving behind a sizeable scorched patch on the ground. The event took place near Trans-en-Provence in the south of France.

Although the UFO sighting and its alleged physical traces have been the subject of serious investigation by authorities and UFO organisations, the event has also been met with more sceptical interpretations.

Sources: UFO Casebook, Wikipedia
see also: ufoevidence.org

08/01/81 Thames TV

video courtesy of The TV Museum

7/1/81: FA Cup third round replays

7th January 1981 - results of the FA Cup third round replays:

• Bristol City 2   Derby County 0
• Tottenham Hotspur 3  QPR 1
• Brighton & Hove Albion 0   Manchester United 2
• Sunderland 1   Birmingham City 2

pic: flickr.com

Sources: Wikipedia, BBC Genome

5/1/81: Triangle (TV series)

On 5th January 1981 BBC One began screening the soap opera ‘Triangle’ set on a ferry boat and starring sexy actress Kate O’Mara (d. 2014). The show ran for three series before being cancelled, but is still generally remembered as “some of the most mockable British television ever produced”.
In 1981 Triangle was shown twice weekly during the early eveneing spot on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDB, BBC Genome.

4/1/81: 'The History Man' (TV drama series)

On Sunday 4 January BBC Two began screening the four-part screenplay of Malcolm Bradbury's novel The History Man. The TV adaption was written by Christopher Hampton and starred Anthony Sher as Watermouth University sociology lecturer Howard Kirk and Geraldine James as his wife Barbara.

pic: theguardian.com

Thus the Radio Times synopsis: "fashionable Watermouth University's well-known progressive couple, are throwing one of their celebrated parties. Another fresh term -new faces to radicalise, old issues and adversaries to be confronted. History needs some action and Howard has just the scheme for an autumn of disruption."

The series featured outdoor locations filmed at Lancaster University, a 1960s-built campus university, similar to the East Anglia University where author Bradbury had spent most of his academic career and where he established the creative writing department in 1970.

Malcolm Bradbury

Further reading: screenonline.org.uk,

Sources:  BBC genome, Wikipedia

1981

Welcome to 1981.

 

source: Put the Telly On