Times Of Our Lives: 1987 – Charlie ‘n’ all that

1987; the rebirth of Arsenal Football Club under George Graham came to fruition on 5^th April at Wembley when Barry Davies exclaimed, “It’s Charlie!!” much like many of Howard Marks’ mates at the time.

The final was a salutary lesson, kids. We decided, in the time-honoured Wembley fashion, to take a home-made banner. White bedsheet procured, black paint retrieved and witty banner message decided upon, we set about our work.

I honestly can’t remember what witticism emerged from the white background but I recall that we seemed to think that our hard work – as of yet unfinished – deserved a pint. We’d have a quick one and then return to finish our labours.

Which we did, three sheets to the wind at about 11pm that evening. The following morning, the lovingly stencilled endeavours stood out compared to the wonky slapdash work of our post-libation efforts. Suffice to say, the following morning at 7am, it was duly deposited in the dustbin as we headed for a fry-up in central London.

Other than Arsenal’s glory, I thought the year unremarkable. Certainly I can’t recall any momentous events in my own life worth reporting here. There were, of course, but such things have no need to be aired here.

Instead I recall things such as the ‘Great Storm’ which made a mockery of Michael Fish, even if Ian McGaskill later admitted he was the true culprit having given the Fishmeister his reports that day.

I didn’t know that, for instance, it was the year golliwogs were banned; I thought that happened far sooner than ’87. Margaret Thatcher went to the Soviet Union and rather inconsiderately, they let her leave as well.

Trawling through the deluge of data which is now available for the year, I was for some reason, struck by the descritpion of Holly Glynn as an “Unidentified decedent”. Jane Doe in American cop TV parlance, it turned out. She did apparently unlock one of the mysteries of life:

Anyhoo, enough of the frippery and on with today’s playlist. 1987 wasn’t the best year musically, I have to say. The bright spot was one of the finest debut albums of my lifetime, George Best by The Wedding Present. It was an lp worn out through use many years ago and one of the first cd’s I bought in 1990 which tells you how late I came to that particular game.

If the playlist doesn’t play below, click here to listen in your browser.

Title	Artist
Lips Like Sugar	Echo & the Bunnymen
Kuff Dam	Happy Mondays
Birth, School, Work, Death	The Godfathers
Angry Young Man	Steve Earle and The Dukes
Paper In Fire	John Mellencamp
Dancing With Peter Pan’s Shadow	The Faith Brothers
I Couldn’t Believe It	David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks
Breakout	Swing Out Sister
Don’t Argue	Cabaret Voltaire
My Favourite Dress	The Wedding Present
These Important Years	Hüsker Dü
Boom Boom Mancini	Warren Zevon
Hourglass	Squeeze
Between the Wars	Billy Bragg
Rainmaker	The Rainmakers
Same Song	The Higsons
Exhuming McCarthy	R.E.M.
Bounty Hunter	The Men They Couldn’t Hang
Hey Jack Kerouac	10,000 Maniacs
Harriet Tubman’s Gonna Carry Me Home	The Long Ryders
Pulsar	Julian Cope
I Wanna Be A Flinstone	The Screaming Blue Messiahs
Five Get Over Excited	The Housemartins
Hit the North Part 1	The Fall
Ever Fallen In Love	Fine Young Cannibals
I Say Nothing	Voice Of The Beehive
Birthday	The Sugarcubes
Bo Diddley Is Jesus	The Jesus and Mary Chain
Trust In Me	Siouxsie and the Banshees
Shiny Cage	The Dukes Of Stratosphear
Angel in Her Kiss	Marc Almond & The Willing Sinners
Pale Spectre	The Wake
When It All Comes Down	Miaow
Touched By The Hand Of God	New Order
Another Town	The Railway Children
Weird Feelings	Kalima
Compressor	Biting Tongues
In God’s Country	U2
Fairy Tales	The Style Council
Pain in the Neck	The Larks U.K.

 

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