Nothing evokes more memories of child hood to me than seeing a pair of roller skates. Skating became popular in the seventies. But in the 80’s every kid had a pair of roller skates, Going to the roller disco on a saturday became the thing to do, and me and my friends used to spend most evenings in her cul-de-sac doing roller routines!  To recreate our look (Minus the scabby knees) click here

Roller skates came in 2 kinds, 4 wheeler, or the dreaded strap on ones!!
After doing some research into skating it turns out that they were introduced over a decade before the 80’s Roller-skating was introduced in 1863, and it was quickly made fashionable by the elite of New York City. The 1870’s rinks with hard maple had built floors in nearly every town and city. By paying an admission fee of twenty-five or fifty cents, men, women, and children could participate in races, fancy skating, or dancing on skates. Special skating dresses, which allowed more freedom of movement, became popular by the 1870’s.

I personally feel quite upset by this t-shirt I was born in 1978 so therefore was not “Made in the 80’s” However I do remember all of the 80’s vividly!  So god damn it!!! I am entitled to wear this T-shirt! This style of T shirt was made popular by Wham who proudly declared that they were going to “Choose Life” And Frankie really advocated Relaxation!   If  you want to tell everyone you were born in the best decade ever click here

This top screams 1980’s to me. The multicolour foil star pattern is quite pretty! In fact I cannot take my eyes off it! I would suggest wearing this with some very skinny black Jeans, Hot pink stilletoes and Black Sparkly Leg warmers, and get on that dance floor and spin until you spew!!  Purchase this here!

If there is a look that is bang on trend at the moment it is the stretchy dress!
Nothing screams 1980’s more than a dress so tight that you can see what the wearer had for dinner! Wear with towering heels and add colourful accessories to be on-trend this season. Sienna Miller was seen wearing a very similar dress this season and as you know she can make no fashion mistakes (apart from her big knickers look!)  Chick here to get your mitts on it!

In the eighties it was esential to have at least one strapless dress with a ra-ra skirt. The rule was…the brighter the dress..the better. I spotted this beautiful green number on ASOS  It comes in white or green and would look stunning with some stilletoes.
If you really want to go mad, throw on some chunky beads!!!
You may want to draw the line at leg warmers though!

If there was one staple poster on any girl’s wall in the 1980’s, it was the Man with Baby poster. This iconic photograph melted the hearts of millions and was the last thing that teenage girls across the globe looked at before going to sleep at night. Click here to go to Art.co.uk

The sepia-toned image called `L`Enfant` or `Man and Baby` became the biggest selling poster ever when launched in 1986.It was an unprecedented hit for the former poster company Athena, made the photographer Spencer Rowell £1million and helped model Adam Perry sleep with more than 3,000 women. (which is pretty impressive) The poster, produced for Athena, sold more than 5million copies, not including millions of bootlegs. It is even credited with launching the “New Man” Showing men that they could show off their six-packs (not beer) but still be in touch with their feminine side. Model Perry, was 23 at the time of the shoot and he was paid £100. He was voted the World`s most promiscuous man` by GQ in 1997, he was last heard of renovating railway arches in South London. A claim was made that he bedded 3,000 women in his life, not that any of them seemed to care. Interviews with some of his conquests revealed attractive, intelligent professionals who should have known better but who couldn’t keep the smiles off their faces when talking about their moments of passion with the poster man.The only one to come out of all this unscathed was the baby, Stelios, who made no money out of the shoot and had to buy his own poster!

Nik Kershaw was born Nicholas David Kershaw in Bristol, England on March 1, 1958. And since has graced the world with his truly weird lyrics and interesting hair! If you want to buy his greatest hits (rather than having to buy all of his albums just for 3 great songs) click here

In 1983 he signed a contract with MCA Records, a deal which spawned his debut single, “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”. Then in 1984, Kershaw released his breakthrough song “Wouldn’t It Be Good”, featuring a video of Kershaw dressed as a weird alien-being with “telly static” for a body!

Despite winning awards, attracting admirers such as Elton John for his writing and gaining a huge teenage fanbase, Kershaw was not without his critics. Some complained that he did too much on stage when he had a competent backing band called the Krew to play all the required guitar and keyboard parts of his songs. Others derided his fashion sense. Kershaw made the snood and fingerless gloves into vital sartorial requirements in 1984. Kershaw’s second album The Riddle came quickly on the heels of his debut release. The title track, released as a single, would send fans, journalists and linguists into overdrive, as each tried to establish what the meaning was behind the strange set of circumstances and clues which Kershaw wove into the verses and chorus. “The Riddle” proved to be another major hit. In July 1985 Kershaw was among performers at Live Aid, held at Wembley Stadium.After that his teenage fan base dwindled and his fingerless gloves were old news!    He was to record two more albums with MCA before quitting in 1989 to concentrate on song writing and ferret husbandry. One thing I did not know is that Nik Kershaw actually wrote “The One And Only”, that was famously sung by Chesney Hawkes. Confirming his legendary status as a songwriter of fab songs!!  Old Nik has now got his own website if you want to have a gander http://www.nikkershaw.co.uk/

Neighbours has been airing on BBC 1 since 1985 and it follows the daily lives of several families who live in the six houses at the end of Ramsay Street, a quiet cul-de-sac in the fictional, middle class suburb of Erinsborough (which I did not realise was fictional until now!…next they will be saying Walford does not exist!) In the late 1980s it regularly had a UK audience of over eighteen million and was watched by more people than the population of Australia

In the beginning, the show mainly focused on two families, the Robinsons and the Ramsays, neighbours in Ramsay Street. The loud and fiery Max Ramsay (Francis Bell), after whose grandfather the street is named, ruled his household with a iron fist, and had a turbulent relationship with wife Maria (Dasha Blahova) while clashing with his sensitive son Danny Ramsay (David Clencie). Max had more time for his athletic oldest child Shane Ramsay (Peter O’Brien), involved in competitive diving. Max acted as though he owned the entire street and sustained a feud and rivalry with his more thoughtful, business-owner neighbour Jim Robinson (see him looking dead evil in the OC)

Max’s sister Madge Mitchell moved into the Ramsay home in early 1986 and quickly became a key character in storylines. Madge’s daughter Charlene Mitchell (Kylie Minogue), an energetic tomboy, soon moved in, while Max moved away to Queensland. Max’s son Danny settled into his new job of bank teller moved away soon after, and Madge’s son Henry Mitchell (Craig McLachlan) moved in to the house after his release from prison. Charlene began a romance with neighbour Scott Robinson and their Romeo and Juliet-style romance storyline was one of the show’s most popular. Scott and Charlene’s close friends were Des’s latest lodger Mike Young (Guy Pearce), and the plain and studious Jane Harris (Annie Jones). Jane and her grandmother, the meddling Nell Mangel, had moved in to Ramsay Street in mid-1986. Mike and Jane later started a romance. Scott and Charlene’s wedding was a key event in the series. Meanwhile Madge took up with Harold Bishop and they later married. Platonic housemates Des and Daphne eventually fell in love, and later married. After leaving to care for her sick father, Daphne was badly injured in a car accident. She very briefly returned for her death scene in hospital where her final words were the whispered ‘I love you, Clarkey’. It was the first death of a main character

Neighbours has launched the Careers of some very famous stars

Kylie Minogue - Is an international pop pixie!
Jason Donovan - Had a stratospheric rise as a pop star and an equally large fall from grace!
Alan Dale (Jim) - Has found a niche playing evil bastards in the OC and Ugly Betty
Guy Pearce - Is a really really famous actor and recently played Andy Warhol in Factory girl
Craig McLachlan - Had a breif pop career with Hey Mona and starred in BUGS

Other very famous people are Natali Imbruglia (Beth) and Russell Crowe played Kenny Larkin in 1987!

Byker Grove was a British children’s drama television series which started in 1989. The show was broadcast at 5pm on children show CBBC on BBC One.

Byker Grove has tackled some controversial subjects such as drug addiction, child abuse, homelessness, teen pregnancy and abortion. In November 1994 Byker Grove became the first British children’s drama to breach the subject of coming out when one boy (Noddy Fishwick) kissed his close friend (Gary Hendrix) at the back of a cinema. The 2004 series saw the character of Bradley agonising over his sexuality and eventually coming out as gay to his girlfriend Sadie, after a romantic holiday together had failed to live up to their expectations.

The series frequently depicts life as unjust, with bad things happening to good people. One of the most shocking episodes is when P.J. is accidentally blinded in a paintball accident. It is one of many tragedies to befall Byker Grove characters through the years. Others include Gemma being electrocuted by a faulty electricity mains socket, Flora’s death from a brain tumour, Greg’s fall from the roof of the Grove which left him paralysed from the waist down, youth leader Geoff Keagen’s death in an accidental gas explosion, and the latest tragedy, Ben Carter being knocked down and fatally injured by a car driven by Craig on the Quayside.

This programme launched the careers of Ant and Dec and Donna Air! I remember one of the most traumatic episodes being that unbelievable moment where PJ is blinded during a paint-balling game!
It was a tragedy! And to this day I will not go paint-balling!  If you want to to buy the book that kicked it all off Click Here

It’s not much of a life when you’re just a pretty face. Just to be whoever you are is no disgrace. Don’t be scared if you don’t fit in, look who’s in the reject bin. It’s the Raggy Dolls, Raggy Dolls, dolls like you and me… Nice!! just the thing to tell a kid. You can have as much fun as you like, but at the end of the day nobody loves you. You are a waste of space! 

The Raggy Dolls. As you might have gathered by now, it’s about a bunch of dolls that didn’t quite make the grade. But that’s OK, because they have lots of adventures and fun together, and always end up helping out someone else in the process. How nice. What would we do without rejects?
 
This fantastic cartoon was shown on ITV before Childrens ward, My favourite character was the little blonde one who was meant to be a princess. I was gutted when they cancelled this cartoon..we should start a petition to bring this back! 

The blonde Raggy Doll was actually supposed to be a princess, not a ballerina (Although she does look like one) and her name is Princess. The other six were Dotty (The girl in dungarees who had blobs of paint in her hair), Lucy (The girl with shorter brown hair), HiFi (The guy who had a stammer and wore headphones all the time), Claude (The French Doll) Back-to-Front (The builder doll with his head on backwards) and Sadsack (The one who looked like a bean bag.)

The series was created by Melvyn Jacobson, and produced for Yorkshire Television from 1986 to 1994. The episodes were written and voiced by Neil Innes, who also wrote and sang the theme song. The owner of the factory was Mr Grimes, who falls in love with a woman called Cynthia. Cynthia eventually marries Mr Grimes and the Raggy Dolls were moved from the Reject Bin to live at Mr Grimes’ house. (see he did love the little freaks!)

Unfortunately the Raggy dolls have not been put on to DVD yet but Amazon has lots of copies of it on VHS click here

Just remember kids….Just to be whoever you are is no discrace!