Tim and Jerry are surprised that people are still listening to their podcast. They have had over 200 downloads so far. They talk about their experiences in September 1980, including starting sixth form and taking new subjects. They also mention famous people they went to school with. Jer had an allotment and they spent time playing table tennis and doing choir practice. They also mention TV shows they watched and events they attended, such as watching the Superstars being recorded. Tim also had a job interview but didn't get the job.
Hello and welcome to Tim and Jerry, show number 4. We've made it to show number 4, Mr. Jeremy Hunt. I cannot believe that. I cannot believe that. I really can't. I cannot believe that people are still listening to Two Old Farts, talking about their memories and what was happening in the world, et cetera, et cetera. So, yeah, no, they are still listening. We've had just over, we broke the 200 mark, actually. I think we had 210 or so downloads overall over the first three shows.
That's good. Yeah. Very good. So, impressed with that. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting at the beginning of that, but I've looked at audio.com, where we host this particular podcast, and it seems to reflect quite well against those. If you look further down, if you, once you've found this podcast, if you look further down, it recommends other podcasts, and they're not hitting our sort of numbers. So, I'm going to call this a viral sensation.
There's 200 more than I thought we were getting. Well, there you go. There you go. And it doesn't appear to be just our kind of friends and family, or indeed us, so, yeah. I'm Jonathan. Right. So, Tim and Jerry's show number four. This one, we're looking at September 1980. If you remember from the first one, the idea had been that we would take months and years in a kind of linear fashion, starting in, what was our first one? April? March 79.
March 79. And so, we would have gone to April 79, and we'd have been up to kind of June, July time now, but we decided on that first one that the chart hadn't moved much, and the news actually wasn't that great that month. So, we've hopped about all over the shop, and we find ourselves this week in September 1980. So, let's kick off with what were we doing in September 1980? Okay. What were we doing? Well, 1980, the summer of 1980 was the summer that I, and I guess you as well, took my O-Levels, which are now called GCSEs, I think.
They are. But back in the day, they were called O-Levels. Tim and I didn't go to the same secondary school. Tim went to a very posh... I went to... I'm considerably cleverer than you. You are. Yeah. I'm considerably posher as well. Yeah. And I went to just an ordinary, you know, sort of common guy, I'm secondary and modern. So, what I did, we both took our O-Levels in primary. But, I think it needs to be pointed out, you went with a lot more famous people.
Indeed. Indeed. Let's name some of those famous people that you went to school with. Well, there's me. Yeah. Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of Exchequer. Yes, Jeremy Hunt. Yeah. There was that guy in the pop group. What's his name? Which particular... Well, admit. Are you going to go with the Tiz for Fizz one? Oh, that's the one. Yeah. That's the one. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, Roland went there, didn't he? Mr. Roosevelt, yeah. Kurt didn't, did he? No, Kurt was a BT Tech.
So, yeah. Roland Roosevelt, John Baker. John went to Calgary. These guys were a bit older than me. Three years older, I think, probably, something like that. Yeah. So, yeah. We had some famous people, or famous now people that were at school at the same time as me. But, yeah. So, let's move on to September 1980. So, September 1980, the new term for me began on the 2nd of September, Tuesday. Quite why we started on a Tuesday, I don't know.
But we did. Teacher training day, generally. Could be. With my school governor head on for weeks of teacher training day, I wonder. Yeah. Yeah. So, we were now in the sixth form. And, to be honest, I didn't really know quite what to expect in the sixth form. I had some new subjects to study, and these included law. Why I studied law, I've got no idea. General studies, which is a bit of a cop-out, I think, probably.
Computer studies, with Mr. Skaggs. These have all been useful, haven't they? Absolutely. Mr. Skaggs, I know. Yes. Mr. Skaggs, you know, still in Bath. As well as, kind of, physics, and maths, and RE, and that sort of thing. So, the new subjects were interesting. One thing I did note from the diary is, we seemed to have an awful lot of free periods during the day. I guess we were going to be trusted to get on with our own work.
I think some people spent more time down the pub than they did, perhaps. I really got really good at table football. Really? What, future? And quite good at, you know, the old, what do you call it, the spinny? Handle football. Handle football, yeah. Okay. And cards. I got quite good at them. Right. Okay. I don't think they do that at football schools. No. Yeah, they do. And the PE option that we had, which I know that I took up, was to go down to the sports centre in Bath, and to play table tennis, and badminton, and things like that.
And that was on a Wednesday afternoon, I remember that. So, that was good fun. Previously, we'd have to do rugby, or football, or athletics, or whatever at the school. But because we were older, we were given that option, which was nice. The weekends and evenings was the usual thing that we did together. Again, a lot of time was taken up doing homework and stuff, and youth group, the Go Club, and all the paper rounds that I did.
I used to do two sometimes in the morning. So, in September 18th, Go Club was still... Go Club was still going, yeah. Still another year-ish to go there. And we were still doing the three nights a week. And I'll talk about something that we went to a little bit later on, as a group. I know for a fact, looking through my diary, just a very quick mention, because I know you're going to cover TV later, but the TV programmes that I've watched, that I've got nailed down at the top of the pots every week, Gentle Touch, Blue Peter, Morphine Wise, Not the Nine O'Clock News.
What a programme that was. Classics, classics, yeah. Brilliant. So, a programme called We the Accused? Yeah, no, I saw that. Don't, can't, I looked at it in my television. Yeah, I don't remember it, but I obviously watched it. Star Trek and Benny Hill, just a few of the ones that I used to watch. Back in the autumn of 1980, I used to have an allotment. Now, that's going to sound, well, surprising maybe. Your parents had an allotment, or you had an allotment.
No, they, my parents had an allotment. And my friend Simon and I were given the chance to take on an allotment next to the one that mum and dad had, and we did that. So, we were spending a lot of time at that point working on the allotment and trying to get things done there. And anybody who does any gardening will know that that does take up a lot of time. What was your speciality? Oh, I think runner beans.
Oh, yeah? Runner beans. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Still are, but the trouble is I can't get them to grow now. It's not from seeds. But, yeah, runner beans and strawberries. Strawberries, yeah. So, yeah, a lot of time doing the allotment. A lot of free time was spent, as in previous months, going down to your place and playing table tennis in the basement and choir practice and that sort of thing. But just to move on, lastly, to some of the things that we did, we and I did in September 1980.
On the 13th of September, there were one, two, three, four, five of us, sorry, six of me, went to see the Mercado at St. Philip's Church. All right. Was Daddy Q in that? I'm sure he would have been. That would be the drama group that you're still so wonderfully connected with now. He would have been. That's the one with lots of childish-type names on it, like Nanky Poo. I think it is, yeah. Stinky Poo and things like that, isn't it? Yeah.
So that was two. That was you. That was me, Andy, Julia, Wendy, and Dave. We all went to see that. All right. On Saturday the 13th of September. Blinking flip. He's got another, what are we, eight minutes in? Yeah. And he gets another mention. But other people got mentioned. That's another planned date. That's another planned date, yeah. Yeah. I don't remember anything about it at all. The school themselves, I probably didn't appreciate it much at the time.
I think I would more now, but I didn't probably appreciate that at the time. On the following Monday, the 15th, I went for an interview for a Saturday job. Did you? Uh-huh. At FADS. Do you remember FADS? FADS was like a decorating sort of place, wasn't it? I'm thinking like wallpaper and paint and that sort of stuff. Yeah. It was opposite the bus station, the old bus station. Oh, right. Yes. Now I can picture it now.
Yeah. Yeah. And do you think I got the job? I don't recall you ever working in FADS. So I'm saying no. No, I didn't. No. Yeah. I was a bit gutted, to be honest. It was the first interview I'd been for. I was going to call it an interview. I didn't get it. But there we go. I think you were destined to work in a record shop. Oh, I think I was. Yeah. On a radio station.
Something like that. Yeah. So, 24th of September, on a Wednesday, I went down to the Sports Centre and this would be, instead of games, I think, we watched the Superstars being recorded. Oh, right. Yeah. Do you remember the Superstars? I wanted to say Ron Pickering. Was it Ron Pickering? Yeah. David Vine and you had people like Kevin Keegan, Malcolm McDonald and Davey Thompson and Brian Jackson. Yeah. Yeah. All the top sportsmen of the day. But not the ones that we can't talk about anymore.
No, no, no. I think that was an acceptable show, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. So many shows from our youth have had to be etch-a-sketched out of our minds. Yeah, yeah. But that one, I think, is acceptable. Yeah. So, yeah. And I used to love watching that programme. So, that was quite exciting to go and watch it being filmed live in Bath. Well, The Wreck used to be quite big for that kind of thing. Yeah.
I think there was a... I swear there was an It's Knockout down there once. Yeah, I think there was. Yeah. Yeah. I think this was in the Sports Centre, so it would have been, I guess it would have been... Yeah. I don't know. I'm not playing indoor sports, I guess. Yeah. So, yeah. And then on the... This is not that interesting, but I'm going to put it in anyway. 25th of September, we had a lecture at Oldfield Girls' School on the Common Market.
I don't know what that was about. Probably the Common Market. Yeah. Yeah. Which is effectively what we left on. Yeah. Absolutely. That was a waste of time back in 1982. Absolutely, it was. Yeah. Or 1980. Yeah, you're right. So, we took the bus till last Saturday, 27th of September. Our youth group, The Go Club, went... I think it was Bath Tactical College, because it says tech in my diary, to see Graham Kendrick in concert. And Graham Kendrick is a Christian singer-songwriter.
He's probably best known for Shine You The Shine. Yeah. So, we went down to see him in concert at the Bath Tactical College. No recollection of it whatsoever, but look at your face in all of you. Nope. Absolutely. So, that's what we were up to. Same old, same old, and some different stuff as well. Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. So, there we go. There we go. That's what we were doing. But what was happening in the world in September 1980? Well, it's a mixed bag of stuff.
Let's just pause for one moment so we can have the official news noise. Thank you, news noise. Right, what have we got? Ford launched the Escort Mk3. What were your early cars? Did you ever have an Escort? The Escort Mk3, the one that I had, was my favourite car. That's your proper souped-up Escort, isn't it? Well, it wasn't souped-up. That was the XR3. Oh, was it? I never had one of those, sadly. But yeah, my second car was a Ford Escort.
Still my favourite car. Yeah? Yeah. Red. Another red. VK H271W. There we go. Absolutely, yeah. Just seeing if it was a one-off, yeah. So, yeah, Ford had launched the Escort Mk3. What have we got? Chicago mobster Joseph Scalise committed the Marlborough diamond robbery in London. I looked on various different websites, and this seems to have been the big news in this. It's probably been created into a film or something like that. I don't know. It's bypassed me a little bit.
But the Marlborough diamond robbery in London was clearly a very big deal. A lot of these things are big news films, aren't they? Yeah, absolutely. So this Chicago mobster, that's a great word, isn't it? So Joseph Scalise, he committed this robbery, and he was arrested the following day in Chicago. But one of the main things that was stolen has never been recovered, which was a 45-carat stone known hitherto as the Marlborough diamond. It's still out there somewhere.
You'd better give it back. Better give it back. I've got away with it these however many years we're talking now. So, yeah, 44 years. Isn't it shocking? 44 years. This is 44 years ago. That's quite unbelievable. Concert still works closed with a loss of 4,500 jobs, making it a town with the highest unemployment figure. It suddenly became the highest unemployment in a town. So concert still works. Up north, Hercules the bear had gone missing on a Scottish island, filming a Kleenex ad.
This is one of these bizarre ones. So, yeah, they'd taken this bear to a Scottish, I think it was quite a remote Scottish island, filming this Kleenex ad, and he'd escaped. But in September, I don't know how long he'd been on the run, but in September, he was found. I wouldn't imagine if it's not too big an island, a bear is going to be relatively easy to track down. Possibly on the loose for barely a few days.
Hooray! Hang on, let's get the laughter track. There we go. We have the laughter track there, yeah. So, I don't think, I think you're going to be struggling to find a joke for this next one. There was a first CND rally at Greenham Common, with the likes of Swampy and kind of all this sort of stuff. Yeah, not Clark Kent. 34-year-old Singapore... We go through some pretty grim news now. 34-year-old Singapore-born doctor, not director, doctor, Upadhyay Bandara, was attacked and injured, and it was believed to be one of the early work of what would hitherto be known as the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.
So, in Switzerland, the Gotthard Road Tunnel opened, and it is still now the longest highway tunnel at 16.3 kilometres, which is 10.1 miles, beneath the Gotthard Pass. So, it's a tunnel that is 10.1 miles. Although, I guess the Eurotunnel is probably, that's got to be longer than 10 miles, isn't it? I don't know. Yeah, yes, I would think so. Isn't it 27 miles from Dover? Yeah, it's not as short, but I guess that's undersea. This is under a mountain range.
Absolutely. There was a military coup in Turkey. I'm famous in Turkey. Who ever said I'm famous in Turkey? No, go on. I, when, me and Bex went to Turkey, and on more than one occasion, people came up to me and asked if I was a gentleman called Ismail Turuk, which is sort of spelt like I sound, but T-U-R-U-T with various umlauts over the U's. But this Ismail Turuk, I can't deny, I do look a bit like him, but he's a singer over there.
And there is a restaurant, you know how you go into some restaurants and there's like a photo behind the bar of, you know, this celebrity visited here and kind of like with an arm around the, so yeah, this guy in a restaurant is dining out on the fact that Ismail Turuk visited his restaurant and had dinner. I didn't sign it, but there is a kind of like, you know, a nice cheerful photograph of me and me and the owner, you know, where he's sort of saying, yeah, Ismail Turuk.
But anyway, there was a military coup in Turkey, not caused by me. Nor like a vicar in Wales, you know, we're not going to say who sent that photo to us. Somebody in Wales. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'm just one of those people that just looks like other people. Somebody once said I look like Alan Titchmarsh as well. It's never anybody, it's never kind of, um, somebody, no, exactly, never somebody overly flattering, but yeah, but yeah, Alan Titchmarsh.
Solidarity, you'd remember this. Solidarity is established as a nationwide independent trade union in Poland following weeks of striking in Poland under the leadership of Lefuenza, that's right. That was big news in the UK, wasn't it? It was all over the news, I remember it well. Absolutely. Bob Marley, Bob Marley, he had his last ever concert in Pittsburgh because he collapsed jogging in Central Park. I don't know, he was, I don't think it had hitherto been established how late on he was suffering with cancer at that point.
It was the start, wasn't it, initially? Yes, yeah, but I don't think he died in September, but he's... He died in May 81, I believe. Oh, so he went on for quite a bit, but yeah, this was, I guess, the early part of his diagnosis. So yeah, dear old Bob, and he appears in our chart a bit later on. So we will revisit the subject of Bob when we get to the music. MV Derbyshire sinks off the south coast of Japan with the loss of all 44 crew, the largest ever UK-registered ship ever lost.
We're flitting, but most of this is rather miserable news, I apologise, I'm flitting through to see if I can go. This one gets no better. The Iran-Iraq war started as well. I've got various facts on that, but let's not dwell on that. Let's simply say it started and it finished some eight years later with the 1988 ceasefire, but it went on for eight years at the loss of way too many lives. Jerry Lewis raised $31 million on a US telethon.
The likes of telethons were very much in their infancy, but that was one of the first ever ones. He raised $31 million. Mr McEnroe beat Borg in the US Open. Were you covering that in the sport? No. Well, there you go. So McEnroe beat Borg in the US Open. Obviously, for those tennis addicts, the rivalry between Borg and McEnroe was huge around that time and flitted between the two of them as to who won. But I think it was probably by 1980 it was beginning to be the end of Borg and the beginning of McEnroe really being the more dominant.
This is relatively cheerful news, although not in the title. The musical Les Miserables premiered at the Palais de Sport Paris. So obviously before it became translated into English and became the hit it did, it kind of premiered in Paris. We've got the death of John Bonham from Led Zep. He died on the 25th of September 1980. You're a Led Zep fan, aren't you? Yeah. What have we got? Last one. Chevy Chase. What do we know Chevy Chase from? I know him from Fletch, National Lampoon's European Vacation.
He was in another video, so you can call me out. He was. So he was... Yeah. See, who needs music when we've got... Other versions are available. Other versions are available, yeah. So Chevy Chase called Cary Grant a homo on The Tomorrow Show. Don't know what The Tomorrow Show, but it's obviously an American show. So he called Cary Grant a homo, which is very much of its time. Nobody would call that homo. Which started a $10 million defamation lawsuit that was ultimately settled out of court.
But yeah, clearly don't go around calling people homos. That's the moral of that tale. So yeah, that was the news from September 1980. And now we're going to do the music. We're going to do the music. We better have our music intro. Okay, right. What have we got music-wise? So obviously we're covering 40 through to 21 at this juncture. And so we're in September 80. So we're very much into our... This is our musical stride. Yeah.
And again, as we have done over the last couple of weeks, we're dealing with a very varied chart. Some absolute caucus, some quite strange songs, quite off-center, which was very much like the 70s and 80s. You'd get an absolute caulking, bohemian, rhapsody, big, big song. And then you'd get a kind of weird, off-the-wall, one-hit wonder, kind of almost novelty song. But here we are in 1980, September 1980. And at number 40, we've got the specials. This must have been early specials, I guess.
No, this was the second album. Oh, right. Okay. Which was... They only initially made two albums, and this was called Morse Battles. But having said that, see, they released quite a few singles that weren't on albums. Oh, right. Certainly on the re-release that I've got, but I'm not sure if it was originally on the album. They were one of those groups who just, just because they could, they would release an album that didn't have the singles on it.
Oh, right. Strangely. Because this was the double A side? I'm looking at it. It was an area-type international jet set. Not the biggest hit for them. I mean, they did the same with Rat Race back in, earlier in 1980. They didn't put it on the album. It was Rat Race and Rude Boys Out of Jail, I think. It was a bit of a strange thing to do, but, you know, that's what some bands did. So, yeah, double A side.
Stereotype and international jet set. Yeah. Odd, odd, odd mixture. And at 39, we mentioned Diana Ross last week, because I think the song that was in the chart in 1982 wasn't Muscles, it was... Work That Body. Work That Body, yeah. So she was obviously going through her, like I think we said last week, through her fitness DVD kind of like period. Yeah. But this one was the classic of that era. So obviously she's back in the, back in the kind of like the 60s and 70s.
She'd had the big kind of supreme Motown kind of like period. Yeah. This was her revival. Still in the Motown, I think, but this was Upside Down, which is kind of like a classic, still gets played a lot now. Yeah, yeah. From the album Diana, produced by some guy called Nile Rodgers. Oh, right. Again, it gets as many, gets as many soundbites as Pickle Braxton. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, welcome return to Nile Rodgers there. At 38, Sin Lizzy.
They've had a lot of mentions as well. Again, I don't remember Sin Lizzy being in the chart quite as much, unless we've just picked charts that they happen to have. No, they were around quite a lot. I know one of my favorites, I love Sin Lizzy. This was kind of tinged with a bit of, I don't know if you'd call it sadness, but it was Killer on the Loose. I remember I bought it as a double single pack and Killer on the Loose was kind of, I think it was banned by the BBC because they thought it was a reference to Yorkshire Ripper at the time.
So I think it suffered from that a little bit, but a great, great song and some great guitar parts in there. It was the heavier side of Sin Lizzy from the Chinatown album released in 1980. Killer on the Loose, love that song, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then one that, I used to like a few Judas Priest songs, but again, this is United. Do I know this song? Probably not. It was, yeah, I think you all probably know Breaking the Laws.
That was the breaking of the law, yeah. It was a minor hit. I mean, it wasn't as big as those two songs, but yeah, Rob Halford and the boys with a kind of a stadium anthem, if you like. He had a bike shop, didn't he? He did, yeah. Yeah, still has. Still has, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why are you laughing? No, I'm going to put, I let you have a laugh to things, so I'm going to put laughter in there.
Yeah, there you go. Thank you, laughter track. Right, you may return to your musings on Judas Priest. No, no more musings really. I'm not sure whether it was from the British J album or not. The first two singles we talked about were, but yeah, it was a less successful venture than the singles charts, but this was sort of Judas Priest's commercial peak, if you like. These were the years of them having a few hits, and it was only a few.
So, yeah. And then 36, we've got XTC's sort of relatively local band. Yeah. It's from Swindon. With generals and, well, it's actually a double A side, with generals and majors, which I think proved to be get more airplay than the other side, which was don't lose your temper. Yeah. But generals and majors I haven't got on here whether it was on its way up or down in the chart, but I think it probably went higher than this.
I think it went top 20. Yeah, don't lose your temper. It was not really played that much. And there's another one higher up in the charts that seems a bit strange why it's listed, because nobody remembers the other A side. But yeah, no, love XTC. Again, this is a bit like Judas Priest. This was a time when they had their sort of half a dozen or so hit singles late 70s into the early 80s. Yeah, so we had Making Plans for Nigel.
I think that was probably their... Life Begins at the Hop. Yeah. Loving a Farm Boy's Wages, Ball and Chain. I had Life Begins at the Hop on a clear vinyl. Yeah, that was before Making Plans for Nigel, I think. It was earlier 70s. Yeah, yeah. But it was a beautiful, I think just being clear vinyl, it was quite a beautiful kind of piece of vinyl. Yeah, Senses Working Overtime as well. Senses Working Overtime. That was a cracking song.
That was a cracking tune. And brother at the time lived in Swindon. And I don't know why that made it more exciting for me. But inevitably I would go to Swindon quite a bit because he was there. So I was always imagining that I would see... I've got a feeling there was kind of a weird connection. I've got a feeling one of the... Who was your main XTC guy? Andrew Partridge. Andrew Partridge, yeah. I think Andy Partridge had gone to the school that Brogue was teaching at.
Something tenuous like that. But again, I may be completely wrong. And Nick's no longer here. A real shame, they stopped touring. I think Andy Partridge got stage fright or something like that. Yeah, there was something like that. Yeah, they are, as far as I'm aware, no more. I think stuff is still being released now and again that they find in the vaults. But yeah, they were a great band. And then a band that obviously disappeared without trace here.
Abba. Abba, if anybody can remember them. The Winner Takes It All had a couple of minor hits, didn't they? Yeah. Clearly weren't going. I'm listening to a really good... Because I can't be doing with reading. I listen to audiobooks. But I'm listening to an audiobook of The Story of Abba called My My, The Story of Abba. And it's kind of exploding for me a lot of the myths about it. And The Winner Takes It All was written...
What do you know about The Winner Takes It All as a song? Is there any kind of mythology that you know about The Winner Takes It All? No. No. I was always led to believe that The Winner Takes It All was very much... It was written by Bjorn and was very much about the acrimonious divorce between him and Agnetha. That's what I'd always... If you kind of Google, and when you look at the video, she looks desperately sad and it's all kind of like just...
It looks like it's quite emotionally kind of gut-wrenching. But it was written about... I think that all plays into the narrative, but actually it was written about three years previously when they were actually really happy and blah, blah, blah. It's hitherto... They've put that story onto it, but actually it's not actually based in truth at all. Okay. But yeah, ABBA, The Winner Takes It All, which I think, I'm not sure again, whether it's on its way back down the chart or way up the chart.
It looks like it's on its way down because I think it was number one in August. One thing I do remember, and that was the lyric being changed, that I was sick and tired of everything when I called you last night from Casca, rather than Glasgow. I remember that. Oh, right. Other sleep-mockers are available. Is that right? Could I give that good bit of truth? 34, The Gap Band, Oops Upside Your Head. Now, if you've ever, throughout the 80s, if you've ever been to a party, a disco, a wedding, a child's party or whatever, you will have inevitably had to sit on the floor at some point in a boat-like stance with your legs wrapped around the person in front of you, not in any kind of like we were, kind of Mrs.
kind of like way, but then spent the whole song kind of going, Oops Upside Your Head, and do that whole rocking backwards and forwards. It was a strange phenomenon, wasn't it? It was a strange phenomenon, very much of its time. I don't know whether it still happens now, but Oops Upside Your Head, again, probably on its way back down the chart, coming out now. It probably would have been, yes. I think it was August of this song, I think.
I did like the follow-up, Burn Rubber On Me. I thought that was a corky, corking song. I always, I don't know whether I just hate Gap Band, Oops Upside Your Head because of the whole dance and how much I hated having to do that dance. Should be. But Burn Rubber On Me, cracking song. But again, Odyssey's had a lot of mentions over the last couple of weeks. We are at 33 with Odyssey. If you're looking for a way out, personally, I know you said last week Native New York was your favourite Odyssey song.
This is, I just think it's a beautiful song. Yeah, it's a great ballad, isn't it? It is. It's just beautiful. Starts really quietly and it's just quite heart-rending. Now, at 32 and 31, we've got an interesting phenomenon. And as my friend Carol pointed out this week, whenever you sit here with the word phenomenon, you want to go, do-do-ba-do-do-ba-do-ba-do. But phenomenon. 32, you've got Bob Marley and the Wailers with Three Little Birds. And at 31, we've got Splodge Nessabounce with Two Little Boys.
So you've got, at 32 and 31, you've got Three Little Birds and Two Little Boys. So Three Little Birds, Bob Marley. We talked about Bob Marley earlier on. So this was, like we said, kind of like the, he'd collapsed in Central Park. So this was, sadly, a kind of resurgence. I don't know whether, was this the first time Three Little Birds had been released? I think so, yeah. It's a lovely, it's quite commercial, I guess. Yeah, yeah.
It seems to have taken on another life in more recent years. I've seen it in films and people cite it as one of their favourite ever songs because of its positivity in the lyrics. Yeah. It was, I mean, it was going up the charts because Could You Be Loved, which was the, his last single was July 1980, something like that. So yeah, this was the new single for the time and it was on its way up.
But yeah, great song. I think you're right. It's a lovely, positive song, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And like we say, Splodge Nessabounce, a very strange kind of title. Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. That was their big, that was always a kind of like, again, reeked of the fact that that was only ever going to be a kind of one-hit wonder. Yeah. Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, which spawned a TV show of the same name.
But which was, as it sounds for those people that aren't familiar with the song, it was just the bloke standing at a bar trying to get the bar girls' attention ordering two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. But this was the follow-up, Two Little Boys, which was a double A-side, Two Little Boys and Horse. Don't remember the other song. No. But Two Little Boys was obviously a cover of an earlier song by Rolf Harris.
I don't think we need to say anything more than that. Number 30, Black Slate, Amigo. Another reggae one. Amigo. That's it? Amigo. I thought they were here then. Carol. My friend Carol in Cheltenham. Just because she can't remember. She's old. She can't remember what's happening. Cheltenham seems to be posh as well. She's posh as well. It's only poshos that listen to this. But Black Slate, Amigo, like we say, a kind of one-hit wonder and sort of in a reggae style.
The world was going through a bit of a reggae resurgence here. I think kind of on the back of, because reggae had its roots from Ska, had its roots in reggae, I think in some respects. Things like UB40 and whatever. Ian Jury and the Blockheads, I Want to Be Straight at 29. Yeah, that was one of his more forgettable songs, I think. Yeah. The Blockheads are performing in, I don't know if it was Bradford Avon. There's loads of posters around for it.
Obviously Ian Jury is sadly long gone, but the Blockheads are still performing. So yeah, I Want to Be Straight. And I've got it written down as just Beat, but I guess it's The Beat. The Beat. But with a double A side at 28 for Best Friend and Stand Down Margaret. Yeah. Not the Margaret being Margaret Thatcher. Margaret being Margaret Thatcher, yeah. The Beat were quite political, weren't they, in their thinking. Yeah, I mean two great tracks, I think both from the debut album, I just can't stop it.
No, brilliant. Brilliant album and brilliant single as well. Love The Beat. Didn't see them a few times. Yeah, and as you said last week, so The Beat were performing when we went to, so we talked last week about, in 1982 we'd seen the WOMAD Festival and we'd seen The Beat there. And you and I saw The Beat at Bath University. We did. That was very early days, again before The Beat became... I think it would have been perhaps, yeah, perhaps 81.
I think it was Brian Mirror in the Bathroom, he kind of liked times, wasn't it, I'm thinking. 27, Gary Newman, I Die, You Die. Don't ruin it, I was never a particular Newman fan. No, no, our friend Carl was, wasn't he? Yeah. He wears a ridiculous wig these days. Yes. If you ever sort of like see him, you sort of think, I know you're wearing a wig, you know you're wearing a wig, why are you wearing a wig? Didn't he got married to a fan? Did he? Yeah.
One of his fans he got married to. Oh, right. Really non-interesting. Yeah, huh. Yeah, I Die, You Die, yeah, wasn't one of his, in my opinion, one of his best songs. No. The big Gary Newman kind of movement from 79 into 80 was starting to sort of trickle in a little bit. He was still having hits, you know, probably through to the mid-80s, but... He'd lost his two-way army by this point. Well, that's right. He'd gone solo and...
I think we were, you know, we get to the stage after that, well, we, they re-released our friend's letter in Kaiser every few years and get a minor hit with it, you know, Kaiser, E-Reg, or whatever it was called. Well, he always looks a bit miserable, to be honest. He kind of like, you sort of think, you've got a very white face, you just sort of think, lighten up a bit, Gaz, yeah. Yeah. Because I think, actually, when I've seen him interview, he's a relatively, a bit like a mushroom, he's quite a fun guy.
Yeah. Yeah. You missed that one, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah, that joke. That was quite a good joke. Thanks, thanks. But, yeah, no, just a misery, you sort of think, just lighten up. The Clash at 26, we've talked again about The Clash quite a bit, 26 with Bank Robber. Yeah, I think we talked about Bank Robber as well, but, yeah, great song. I think I was a little amused into that this morning. It was released between the two albums, London's Calling and Savanista, which was released after this, I think in early 82, sorry, early 81.
So it was one of these, a bit of a special, it was one of these singles that didn't have an album with it, but, yeah, a very, very good song and very commercial, which is why it got into the top ten, I think it did get into the top ten, so. Yeah. Yeah. And I've just noted we've got 20 minutes to go, so I need to crank up the speed here. Right, let's skip through these next ones.
25, Change and Searching. Probably a one-hit wonder, but I've always liked this song, it's just a cracking... Isn't it a salute to Ross on that? Yeah, it's like, Searching, searching, for so long. That one, cracking song. We have got the biggest selling artist of the 1980s next, which to many people, this will come as a surprise, that this person was the, because most people would probably guess someone like Jacko as being the biggest selling artist. Single artist, definitely.
Yeah, but it was Shaking Stevens. Yeah. With Marie Marie, in this particular occasion. Mainly held up by Merry Christmas Everyone, I think it was the song that has continued to sell throughout the 80s. This was the year that he broke the charts, earlier in 1980, he had a hit with a song called Hot Dog, and then this was the follow-up, I think this got higher than Hot Dog, and then into 81 we get, of course, you know, You Drive Me Crazy, You Sell Heights and stuff.
Yeah. Green Door. Yeah. But yes, this was very much the start and the domination of Shaky, who is still, he's still around, isn't he? Still around. Yeah, and you gave us his real name last week or the week before. No, I'm not going to tell you. No, okay. Keep that. And if you're intrigued now, you might as well Google it or listen to one of the previous ones. At 23, we've got the Nick Straker band, A Walk In The Park, One Hit Wonder.
Good song? Yeah. Yeah, kind of a One Hit Wonder. I bought the album at the time. I remember that people used to say that he sounded a bit like ELO-ish. ELO-ish, Jeff Lynne and stuff. Yeah, good song. Good feel, good song. Lear On The Night Train was the follow-up, I think, which did nothing. But, yeah, perhaps more of a hit in Germany, I think. He was a pop rocker in Germany. My favourite song of 1980, without question, Split Ends and I Got You.
Yeah, well run to them. Absolutely. Well, they kind of reincarnated into various different kind of bands, didn't they? I think Crowded House was one of them. But, because of Tim Finn, was it? But there was something else. There was another band as well, wasn't there? Which has gone completely out of my mind. I think they were, but it's gone out of my mind as well. You might kind of Google it while you're doing sport. I think they did essentially morph into Crowded House and they're still going there.
Yeah, yeah. But it's just a cracking radio tune. It's a great song. I seem to remember I had it, I still have it, on a laser disc, a vinyl, which is kind of got a laser... I can picture me covered, but I don't think I had anything special. Yeah, I think so. And the final one in this section, 2021, probably my favourite Village People song, because this was a proper kind of like, whereas they'd been quite a novelty band kind of up till this point, they'd done, obviously, the classic YMCA and In The Navy, which are just great, great pop tunes, fun pop tunes.
But this was, they'd released a film, not clearly Oscar winning kind of like territory, but a film, and this was the lead song, Can't Stop The Music, which I just think it's a great, it's just a great song. Indeed, I agree with you. Yeah. Along With In The Navy, those are my two favourite Village People singles. Yeah. Campers Christmas. Absolutely, yeah. But just a great tune, great tune. So that was the chart from 40 to 21.
Let's have sport, and then we'll do TV, cinema, and the final chart. But let's have five minutes of sport. Okay, I'll whiz through the sport for you. So first of all, we're going to cricket. September 4th was the month when all the awards and cups and stuff were handed out. Just going to quickly tell you who won those. The Canyon Champions were Middlesex, the Gillette Cup were also Middlesex, the Sunday League was won by Warwickshire, and the Benson & Hedges Cup was won by Northamptonshire.
In 1980, we had the West Indies touring over here, and they were in their pomp at the time, or pretty much in their pomp. But, surprisingly, the One Day Internationals ended in a draw, one game each, and the Test matches, England only lost 1-0 to the West Indies because four of the matches were drawn. I know a lot of people think, how can you play a game for five days and then turn out to be a draw, but you can, and I love it.
Absolutely, you've got no cricket to understand that. Yeah, I love the Test cricket. Play for the draw. Yeah, that's what it's about. Again, no performance is strong. Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Graham Gooch, Brian Rose, Geoff, Boy Scott, John Emery. For the West Indies, we had, these are very familiar names, Clyde Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Serbian Richards, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, and Joel Gardner, to name but a few. The leading batsman for the season was Alan Lamb, of Northamptonshire, who topped the average years with an average of 66.55 in first-class cricket, which is some average.
So, where are we in the, obviously, when we talk about Bothams, Ashes, and things like that? Is that after that? That was the following year. Following year, okay. So, a few months later, May 81, started that. The leading bowler for the 1980 series was, the season was Joel Gardner from the West Indies, and he averaged 13.93 and 49 wickets. So, that's 39, sorry, that's 13.93 runs for every wicket that he got. Can I just check, obviously, this is shameless laughter, but, am I right, was Willie playing for, kind of like, for England back then? He would have been around that time, yeah.
Because there was a commentator who did famously, sort of say, the batsman's holding the, no, so the bowler's holding the batsman's, Willie, which was just childish, but I thought I'd reference it. Absolutely childish. Yeah. I mentioned Robin Jackman, who took 120 wickets at an average of 15.4. In August, and into September 1980, there was a one-off test between England and Australia at Lord's. It was the centenary test, known as the centenary test. And it ended in a draw, even though it was over five days.
Australia 385 for five, and England 205. Second innings, Australia 189 for four, and England 244 for three. Very quickly, going to run through the two teams there, just to bring back some memories of some of the old cricketers. Australia, Greg Chappell, Rodney Marsh, Graham Wood, Bruce Laird, Kim Hughes, Alan Balder, Lenny Pascoe, Dennis De Lee, Ray Bright, Ashley Muller, and Graeme Yark. And for England, Ian Botham, David Bairstow, Geoff Woodcock, Graham Gooch, Bill Affey, David Gower, Mike Gatting, Peter Willey, John Embry, Chris Old, and Mike Hendrick.
Embry was a, he was a spinner, wasn't he? He was, yeah. So that's your cricket. 1980, September 1980, was the America's Cup. In Rhode Island. And, it's, yeah, it was won by the U.S. The U.S. earned a boat called Freedom, which was skippered by Dennis Conner, and that defeated the Australian challenger, which the boat was just called Australia. Imaginative, isn't it? And that was skippered by somebody called James Hardy, and America won by four races to one.
Moving on to Formula One, and this is just from my friend Steve, who I work with. He loves Formula One. Only two Grands Prix's in September 1980. The Italian Grand Prix at Imola, on the 14th of September, and the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, on the 28th of September. So, just to let you know, the final title for the Formula One drivers for that year, it was all quite close, a lot closer than it is these days.
The winner was Alan Jones, from Australia, driver from Williams, and then we had Nelson Pique, driver for Brabham Ford, Carlos Reutemann, Argentinian, who was driving for Williams Ford, Jacques Lafitte, Frenchman, who was driving for Ligier Ford, and Didier Pironi, also a Frenchman, also driving for Ligier Ford. A few Fords there, I think. Other Brits racing that year, we included Jeff Lees, Nigel Mansell, Stephen South, John Watson, Tiff Nidale, and Rupert Keegan. Tiff Nidale, he ended up on top gear all the way through.
Yeah, yeah. Okay, so we're going to finish with football, and the 80-81 season, it was the 101st season of competitive football in England, and just to give you a quick idea of who was playing in the top division, which was the first division, there was football before the Premier League. We've got Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Brighton, Coventry, Crystal Palace, Everton, Ipswich, Tottenham, West Brom, and Wolves. So it was an interesting season, but the teams that really sort of pushed their way to the front were Aston Villa, Aston Villa had a really, really good season, and Ipswich.
Ipswich also had a really good season, and some of the news from September 1980, at the end of August, beginning of September, we had the first month ending with Ipswich, Atlanta, and the first division after four matches. Stoke, Man City, and Leeds occupied the bottom three places. How times change. 1st September 1980, Carlisle sacked Martin Harvey, and reappointed Bob Stoker, who was the old Sunderland manager. 7th September, Chesterfield manager Arthur Cox is appointed as Newcastle's new manager, and Barnsley manager Alan Clarke, Snipper Clarke, as Jimmy Adams' successor.
Lastly, he's succeeded at Barnsley by former teammate Norman Hunter. 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