nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

The 70's and 80's in Ireland

Kermit.de.frog

What was it like in the 1980's in Ireland?

I have seen pictures, video and my god it looked like a depressing place. :eek:

Grey, delapidated, hopeless.

What was it like? How did you get by without internets, wheelie bins, toilets...?

Would you go back if you could??

*Might as well throw in the 70's too for people of that vintage.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Grandeeod

Sardonicat wrote: »

That's right it was Sunday. Weren't you posh with your HiFi! I had to sit there in my pyjamas with a Walkman.

Posh as fook in our little council house circa 1985.:D That lovely hi-fi cabinet was defo second hand though. Loved it apart from my Dads Johnny Mathis Albums.:eek:

Sardonicat

Grandeeod wrote: »

Sardonicat wrote: »

That's right it was Sunday. Weren't you posh with your HiFi! I had to sit there in my pyjamas with a Walkman.

Posh as fook in our little council house circa 1985.:D That lovely hi-fi cabinet was defo second hand though. Loved it apart from my Dads Johnny Mathis Albums.:eek:

My parents wouldn't have anything beyond the telly in the front room and the radio in the kitchen. If you wanted to listen to "modern rubbish" you had to do it in your bedroom. It was a weekly battle to watch TOTP. And always with a "you call this music?" running commentary.

[Deleted User]

Sardonicat wrote: »

My parents wouldn't have anything beyond the telly in the front room and the radio in the kitchen. If you wanted to listen to "modern rubbish" you had to do it in your bedroom. It was a weekly battle to watch TOTP. And always with a "you call this music?" running commentary.

But isn't it funny how, when you turn on Spin FM or similar today, it really is modern rubbish.

Sardonicat

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Sardonicat wrote: »

My parents wouldn't have anything beyond the telly in the front room and the radio in the kitchen. If you wanted to listen to "modern rubbish" you had to do it in your bedroom. It was a weekly battle to watch TOTP. And always with a "you call this music?" running commentary.

But isn't it funny how, when you turn on Spin FM or similar today, it really is modern rubbish.

It Is rubbish that's played on that station.

Poor Uncle Tom

We knew the neighbours with the first colour telly,
they told us the Hulk was green......

8 tracks and casettes.

[Deleted User]

Sardonicat wrote: »

It Is rubbish that's played on that station.

We have become our parents

Heroditas

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

We have become our parents

I knew that had happened when I listened to the radio one day and went "I have no idea who the last 4 or 5 musicians are..."

branie2

Sardonicat wrote: »

My parents wouldn't have anything beyond the telly in the front room and the radio in the kitchen. If you wanted to listen to "modern rubbish" you had to do it in your bedroom. It was a weekly battle to watch TOTP. And always with a "you call this music?" running commentary.

Did you not have a television in your bedroom?

igCorcaigh

branie2 wrote: »

Did you not have a television in your bedroom?

LOL!

igCorcaigh

Grandeeod wrote: »

Posh as fook in our little council house circa 1985.:D That lovely hi-fi cabinet was defo second hand though. Loved it apart from my Dads Johnny Mathis Albums.:eek:

Hi Fi cabinets, yes.
We had one with a big glass door on it.

Did they make them so big to justify the price?

igCorcaigh

Sardonicat

branie2 wrote: »

Sardonicat wrote: »

My parents wouldn't have anything beyond the telly in the front room and the radio in the kitchen. If you wanted to listen to "modern rubbish" you had to do it in your bedroom. It was a weekly battle to watch TOTP. And always with a "you call this music?" running commentary.

Did you not have a television in your bedroom?

Eh, no. We had one telly. Being the youngest I sat on the floor in the front room and was the remote control. I'm old enough to remember the old black and whites (grayscale, as my niece and nephews say!) that needed to "warm up" after it was switched on. First the sound would come on and gradually a picture would emerge. There was no remote or even buttons to press but clunky dials that had to be turned to the channel required; hence the phrase "turn the telly over "!

The notion of having your own set was laughable. TBH, I tend to agree.

Sardonicat

igCorcaigh wrote: »

That's still gathering dust in our attic!

Paddy Cow

Sardonicat wrote: »

That's right it was Sunday. Weren't you posh with your HiFi! I had to sit there in my pyjamas with a Walkman.

I got a walkman for my 11th birthday. It was the height of technology at the time and I was the first in my class to get one

Paddy Cow

Sardonicat wrote: »

Eh, no. We had one telly. Being the youngest I sat on the floor in the front room and was the remote control. I'm old enough to remember the old black and whites (grayscale, as my niece and nephews say!) that needed to "warm up" after it was switched on. First the sound would come on and gradually a picture would emerge. There was no remote or even buttons to press but clunky dials that had to be turned to the channel required; hence the phrase "turn the telly over "!

The notion of having your own set was laughable. TBH, I tend to agree.

I never knew that!

Sardonicat

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Sardonicat wrote: »

It Is rubbish that's played on that station.

We have become our parents

Ah now, there is still a lot of excellent music out there from current acts. But NOT on that station.

And no, I haven't become my parents. My parents missed out by about 5 years being a part of the subsequent generations who used music as a cultural yardstick, identifier and means of expression. They were never part of that. Yet I had an uncle (RIP) who continued to listen to new acts, watch shows like Later with Jools and go to music festivals like Glastonbury into his 70s. I have far more in common with him than with the under 30s

The under 30s now don't relate to music the same way my generation did. In some ways for the better but also at some loss too. They don't have to because they can consume it far more easily then we could so it's cultural significance has changed.

There's plenty of good news music around, but you won't hear it on Spin.

emo72

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Top row
Paul young. Howard Jones. Genesis. Culture club. Limahl.

I'll let someone else have fun with the second row, but I know most of them. 2 dodgy ones not sure on.

Sardonicat

^^^
2nd row
Kagagoogoo, Rod Stewart, Tracy Ullman, Duran Duran
Not sure what the Kagagoogoo track was, don't think it was "Too Shy", but could be wrong
Rod Stewart - "Baby Jane"
Tracy Ullman - "They Don't Know"
Duran Duran - "Is There Something I Should Know?"

Do I get a biscuit?

Badly Drunk Boy

Heroditas wrote: »

I knew that had happened when I listened to the radio one day and went "I have no idea who the last 4 or 5 musicians are..."

They probably aren't musicians.

Nostalgia can make you think everything was great years ago, but I remember watching Top Of The Pops and the like in the 80s in the hope of hearing even one decent song. I wouldn't be mad into mainstream music but there was an awful lot of rubbish back then. Looking at repeats of TOTP on BBC4 confirms this (for me). There was a better mix of music in the charts back then, though, but the internet has messed things up in that regard.

Sardonicat wrote: »

Eh, no. We had one telly. Being the youngest I sat on the floor in the front room and was the remote control. I'm old enough to remember the old black and whites (grayscale, as my niece and nephews say!) that needed to "warm up" after it was switched on. First the sound would come on and gradually a picture would emerge. There was no remote or even buttons to press but clunky dials that had to be turned to the channel required; hence the phrase "turn the telly over "!

The notion of having your own set was laughable. TBH, I tend to agree.

Our first 'second' telly was a 14" portable black and white telly, probably in the mid 80s . (We already had a 20" colour 'main' telly by then). It had a dial to change, and no buttons. The volume dial/knob was also the power button.

Badly Drunk Boy

Sardonicat wrote: »

That's still gathering dust in our attic!

The third row is UB40, Madness, Heaven 17 (I think), and Phil Collins.

I have it upstairs but didn't check for the purpose of this post.

Sardonicat

^^^
If memory serves,
UB40 - "Red Red Wine"
Phil Collins- "You Can't Hurry Love"
I think Heave 17 was "Temptation" but I'm not 100%
The Madness track was a slow one that I didn't like so never played it much, which is why I don't remember it. Maybe someone else knows?
Culture Club from the top row - " Victims"

Yes I played that LP to death!

emo72

Bottom left I would have said altered images but I know they were probably gone by then

The pic is in 2 sections and I was only looking at the first. I was putting the second one in as some Scouse band because of the dodgy moustache. That looks like shoulder pads on the small blonde hence Claire Grogan. But it's Sunday morning and I'm easy lads.

Trigger Happy

Those Now compilations were the death knell for K-tel.

Sardonicat

In the 70s some company(?) used to do compilations of covers of chart hits. We got one one Christmas not realising they were covers. It was woeful stuff. On The Sweet's "Blockbuster" the singer sounded like someone was giving him a Chinese burn at the part where he sang "Ah Aaaaaaaa!"

Sardonicat

emo72 wrote: »

I was putting the second one in as some Scouse band because of the dodgy moustache.

And just cos it's Sunday morning I'm sure the good folk of Liverpool and Birmingham will forgive you.

branie2

Remember the music show Megamix presented by Kevin Sharkey and Flo McSweeny? If I remember rightly, it was on on Friday evenings.

[Deleted User]

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Those Now compilations were the death knell for K-tel.

And Ronco.

[Deleted User]

Sardonicat wrote: »

Not sure what the Kagagoogoo track was, don't think it was "Too Shy", but could be wrong

They had two on it. Too Shy and Big Apple [post-Limahl going solo]

[Deleted User]

Sardonicat wrote: »

^^^
If memory serves,
UB40 - "Red Red Wine"

Also had two. Please Don't Make Me Cry.

[Deleted User]

When I first starting listening to and buying music in the 1980s, I often dreamed of writing for Smash Hits (1978 - 2006). It never happened.
Classic Pop magazine has been described as "Smash Hits for adults." In its December 2017 issue, I wrote a six page feature on pop compilations. You can now read it on their website:
Now & Then: Now That's What I Call Music
Top 15 Pop Compilations 1980-1999