What was life like in the north of England in late 1984 / early - mid 1985?

Question

What were the major trends? Bands? TV programs? etc.
Even what shops were open at the time etc.

Answer 1

I lived in York in the mid 80s:

We listened to "Radio Caroline" ALOT; Duran Duran, Human League, Culture Club (Boy George), Michael Jackson, KaCha Goo Goo, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, style music; punked and spiked hair; white socks, and spandex pants on the birds; ITV, BBC1 and BBC2, and East Anglia is all that we had for tv (sat tv was a few years after 1985 for most in the North). It was the PEAK of the Cold War and a lot of people talked about the Soviet Union, NATO, and the Warsaw Pact. We always had Cod and Crab Sticks on Friday.

Answer 2

Ah...1984. I lived in Yorkshire. So many memories...

Popular bands at the time:

Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Wham!
Duran Duran

The vinyl single was king and you had to sell more than 12 records to even get in the Top 40, let alone get to number 1. Madonna was just starting out. CDs were just coming out and a complete novelty - it cost something like £600 for a CD player. Live Aid. Bob Geldof saying the "F" word on live TV.

Popular TV Programmes at the time were music programmes like The Tube and Top of the Pops. Channel 4 (which was only a year or so old at the time) started showing American Football on a Sunday night. Also, a satirical political show using puppet caricatures called Spitting Image.

Shops at the time included a jewellers called Ratners, that used to sell really cheap jewellery, until their chairman, Gerald Ratner, described his own shops' merchandise as cr@p and the chain rapidly went bust.

That's all I can think of for now!

Answer 3

I was 14/15 living in Blackburn in 1984-85, most lads had mullet haircuts, wore two tone adidas training tops, Kicker shoes were popular, as well as sports brands such as Tacchini, ellese and Nike.
At school essential wear were Lyle & Scott and Pringle jumpers, Farrah trousers and Stewart brogues.

Popular Television programmes included Brookside and V, I'm pretty sure that TV used to go to test card during the afternoon on BBC 1 and BBC 2 and all the channels used to go off-air between 12:00 and 01:00 in the morning.

popular bands were Duran Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Tears for Fears, also Madonna was also starting her career.

There were also a lot more corner shops and only a few big supermarkets, with most corner shops, except off licences shutting at 9:00pm.

Answer 4

I'm not sure exactly what you are looking for here, but you might begin at looking at the billboard Top 40 charts to find out which bands were big. You are not talking about that long ago, Margaret Thatcher was PM and Charles and Di were still married and sort of happy together, but the cracks were showing.

Answer 5

It was wonderful, I was earning a lot of money and enjoying life. Many local shops closed in South Yorkshire because of the sriking miners boycotting them when the owners refused to support the strike. Because of that traditions changed forever. It was a time when Mrs Thatcher was PM and if you were willing to work hard the rewards were there. I know I worked hard, and was rewarded.

Answer 6

Life was hard, in many parts of Northern England, at THAT time, - because, the Tory Government, (under the dictats, uttered by the treasonous Prime Monster, MARGARET THATCHER), had DECIMATED English industry, - closing MOST of the workplaces, (coal mines, factories, etc.), thereby degrading the people, by FORCING them OUT OF WORK!

There were almost ONE MILLION, out of work, when the Tories came to power, in 1979, - SIX years LATER, that figure was closer to FOUR MILLION!

ConSERVATIVE? ConMERCHANT, more like!

Answer 7

You need to see the excellent "Billy Eliott" film, to get an idea of a Northern England overshadowed by the miner's strike.

Answer 8

frankie goes to hollywood were topping the charts around this time.culture club were still big,and do you remember "99 red balloons"and THOSE hairy armpits?i think most of the shops that are open now were open then.

Answer 9

Grim.

Answer 10

Its grim oop North.

Always was, always will be.