ICM - Leeds Design Agency

I was 9 in 1988. Things looked a lot different then, here are some examples.

Me and my friends looked like this (I’m second from left). Simply, if you didn’t have a mullet and wear fluorescent clothes you couldn’t hang out with us. (My sister – far right – should not be in this photo! She’s nowhere near cool enough and for some reason is wearing her bridesmaid dress).

I worshipped Michael Jackson back then and 1988 was a big year for him. He looked like this back then.

That’s taken from the Moonwalker set which was released in 1988. I loved that film.

Boy bands looked a bit different back then too. ‘Big Fun’ were formed in 1988 and although nowhere near as amazing as Micheal Jackson I did allow them 1 poster space on my wall.

Comedy was already an important part of my life (this is not a reference to my fashion sense or hair cut which was very very cool) so it’s fitting to mention that it was the first Red Nose Day in 1988. The first Red Nose looked like this. I seem to remember it pinching quite a bit.

TV looked different too, with the premieres of some true classics in 1988 like The Wonder Years, Home and Away and Count Duckula (Whose Line is it Anyway also premiered in 1988 but I wasn’t really interested in that at the time). It’s a wonder I had time to do anything what with styling my mullet, perfecting my moonwalk, learning how to jump onto my tiptoes whilst screaming ‘Ow!’ and watching these gems.

TV sets themseves looked great – mostly all of them featured bits of wood, very cool. Here’s a Sony ad from back in the late 1980’s.

I could go on, but lets leave it at that…

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When I was the spritely age of 9, my mother who I fondly remember grunting at me as she sat by the fire in our caves in the Pennines scraping sabre tooth pelts with pieces of flint for a living, decided it was time my education should encompass the wonderful world of art. She took me to our local cave gallery in Skipton where I was shown colourful wall paintings of our tribe hunting dangerous rabbits and mice. We were not brave, or come to think of it, fat, but we were happy unlike the obese 9 year olds who go around in gangs today demanding respect from everyone. For what?

Ug.

!cavepainting_20090807120406.p…

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Nine was a great age to be; not much in the world seemed to phase me, there were no big decisions to make, world news was rarely important, tea was usually on the table at 6pm and you could play out in the streets until the streetlights came on.

It was around the age of nine when you would start talking to your mates about the future; ‘big-school’ was only a couple of years away, the year 2000 seemed like a lifetime away.

In the year 2000 I would turn 26. What would that guy be like? Would he have a job, be married, have kids? Big questions that at the time were never really answered, someone would be handing out sweets, there were bikes to ride and football grudges to be settled.

Television only offered up the three channels in ’83, it seemed enough then. There would be national uproar today! The mobile phone didn’t exist apart from in the wealthiest briefcases of pin-striped southerners. Our kitchen didn’t have a microwave, I’m not sure we even had a video recorder?

By the year 2000 we would all be driving hover-cars and eating space food, our daily work would be performed by robots and there would be at least ten channels on the TV.

Looking back at these halcyon days I never realised just exactly what was going on around me. Ronald Reagan was announcing his plans to take his wars into space, there were numerous bombings at various embassies around the globe, airports and aircraft seemed prime targets for terrorism and hijacking, earthquakes, tsunamis, disasters, at nine years old didn’t really register.

Modern media is all-too in-your-face. All too often I hear the phrase ‘kids are growing up too quickly these days’. I fear they have no option. Bombarded by information and advertising wherever they turn; Bebo, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, the events of the world are there, unfolding in real-time, their lives played out in status-updates and instant messaging.

It makes me thankful I grew up in one of the last generations not subjected to this info-stream. An age where you could leave the house giving parents a rough guide as to where you were going (although that’s not where you were), who you were with and what time you would be home. No mobile phone in your pocket. No worries.

The year is 2009, Richard wishes he was 9 again…

So to help, here’s a little playlist of some of my favourites of ’83:

1. Down Under – Men at Work
2. Karma Chameleon – Culture Club
3. Electric Avenue – Eddy Grant
4. Too Shy – Kajagoogoo
5. Baby Jane – Rod Stewart
6. We Are Detective – Thompson Twins
7. Candy Girl – New Edition
8. Double Dutch – Malcolm McLaren
9. Give It Up – Kc & The Sunshine Band

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