It is August 4th and my journey back to the 1983/84 football season is due to begin with the Charity Shield match between reigning champions Liverpool and FA Cup winners Manchester United on 20th August.
In preparation for my time travels, I will be whetting your appetite for this nine-month theme by sharing samples of popular culture from this era.
Some of the highlights of this year include:
- 8 January – The UK singles chart is tabulated from this week forward by The Gallup Organization. In 1984 electronic terminals will be used in selected stores to gather sales information, and the old “sales diary” method will be gradually phased out over the next few years.
- 20 August – The Rolling Stones sign a new $28 million contract with CBS Records, the largest recording contract in history up to this time.
- 1 September – Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash issue a press statement announcing that Mick Jones has been fired from the group.
- 20 September – The first ARMS Charity Concert is held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
- 28 November – The first Now album is released.
Looking back, it was a pretty decent year in the charts. Whilst much of the music from this time is not to my taste, it cannot be doubted that many of the tunes that found success in 1983 are still played on the radio today.
The year got off to a nightmare start with Renee and Renato warbling about saving their love, but the things soon picked up with Men at Work, Kajagoogoo and Michael Jackson. As the football season kicked off in earnest on August 27th, KC and the Sunshine Band were at number one with Give It Up. Most people were probably hoping that football hooligans would ‘give it up’ as the first seeds of commercialism were subtly being sown into football. Canon became the first sponsors of the Football League as hooligans and capitalists battled it out over the very soul of our national game.
John Lennon started the year at the top of the album charts, but in a worrying trend, music had started to be packaged into Now compilations by the end of the year. We were being told what the best songs of the time were and had no need to work it out for ourselves. All the acceptable tunes would be packaged on such compilations and appreciation for any other music was deemed ‘odd’ or ‘edgy’.
The gentle winds of change were beginning to gather pace, but all I was interested in at the time was would Wrexham be able to reverse their dramatic slide to the League’s basement division?
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From Wikipedia:
KC and the Sunshine Band is an American disco and funk band, founded in 1973 in Hialeah, Florida.[1][2] Their best-known songs include the hits “That’s the Way (I Like It)“, “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty“, “I’m Your Boogie Man“, “Keep It Comin’ Love“, “Get Down Tonight“, “Boogie Shoes“, “Please Don’t Go” and “Give It Up“. The band took its name from lead vocalist Harry Wayne Casey‘s last name (‘KC’) and the ‘Sunshine Band’ from KC’s home state of Florida, the Sunshine State. The group had six top 10 singles, five number one singles and two number two singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
