Saturday 22 August 2009

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.....

Friday night saw us packing up a picnic, loading up the car with chairs, brollies, thick jumpers and heading out to Clumber Park in North Notts for an 80's Concert. The line up was:

T'Pau - or rather Carol Decker from T'Pau still sounding great and looking utterly fantastic for her age (almost 52!!). Must email her and ask for top tips!

Go West - I used to play their "LP" (ask your mum Michela!!) all the time.

Belinda Carlisle - also looking fantastic.

ABC - disappointed that Martin Fry didn't wear his gold lame jacket, but they sounded great.

and finally, and by far the best, Sheffields own - Human League. Whilst Phil Oakey has lost all of his trade mark hairstyle, he and the girls all look so good and took me right back to a time when a Friday night out involved:

1. Getting ready listening to Alexander O'Neal "Critisize" LP playing full blast whilst drinking a nice glass glass of Lambrusco!!!
2. Blow drying my permed hair with my head upside down, spraying it with "Elnette" whilst still upside down, and then throwing my "big hair" back and spraying with even more Elnette.
3. Lying down on the bed to pull the zip up on my super skinny size 10 jeans.
4. Buttoning up my silky electric blue oversized shirt, belted at the waist, with the biggest shoulder pads (loved shoulder pads!) and turning the collar UP!
5. Applying matching blue eyeshadow - lots of.
6. Clipping on the most enormous earrings (you couldn't wear pierced ones as they were so heavy you ended up with deformed lobes.)
7. Popping on my super white stilleto's and off I went, trip trapping around Sheffield.

I looked and felt fabulous!

Anyway, the concert was great. The sun shone and we didn't need the brollies, but the thick jumpers were required later when the sun went down. I loved all the people that had turned up in 80's fancy dress - 1 lady was dressed as a Rubix cube all night!!
The evening finished with a fantastic firework finale.
I'm off to a 75th birthday party this afternoon, and tomorrow I am scaling the heights of the ironing pile! Enjoy your weekend. xxxx

22 comments:

Marie said...

Hi Diane,
Thanks for your lovely comment over at my blog. Your concert sounds great, all those bands take me back to my late teens and early twenties; when I was at college, a friend introduced me to ABC's Lexicon of Love, I wore the tape out I listened to it so much. I never managed the size 10 skinny jeans though! Happy days! M x

Michela said...

I wouldn't mind to see a picture of you in your 80's dress-up...
Enjoy the party! ..P.S. are you going to listen to the gramophone this afternoon?! ;-)
Happy ironing!

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

Hello Diane, I loved your story about the 80's concert. I loved your description of how you used to get ready to go out in the 80's. I think you must be a bit younger than me as I was more of a metal head and into other stuff than you! Still, it took me back too!

Hope you enjoy the birthday party! Have fun!

Carolyn

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

Hi Diane, I'm just turned 47 but I was totally into headbangin' rock and metal. I had (and still have) a one track mind and didn't like anything else really. Punk and 80's stuff went straight over my head!

I did like that Human League song tho' "Don't You Want Me" - it reminds me of a bloke I went out with for only two weeks. It was number 1 at the time!

I love how music takes you right back to a time when ......

Pomona said...

Do you remember rara skirts as well?! And lots of shawls and frilly shirts and blue lipstick and stripes on the face! I still wear the shawls but had to give up the rest!

Pomona x

...Nina Nixon... said...

Fantastic - lucky you!

We saw this advertised when we went up that way back in June.

Glad you had fun,

Nina x

The Ample Cook said...

Oh my goodness. That brings memories flooding back, except it was Liebfraumilch instead of Lambrusco! :0)

The Girl said...

Sounds like you had a great time - Human League were brilliant weren't they?!

I scaled my ironing pile this morning instead of leaving it for Sunday like I normally do, I won't know what to do with myself tomorrow!

Lisa said...

I love your description of your night out routine! Shoulder pads are just so 80's!
What a fab line up, love the Human League too.
Lisa x

Shabby Chick said...

I bet you looked bloody amazing! In some ways I wish I'd been born 10 years earlier (was 1980) because the 80's are my absolute favourite decade. Fluorescent laces, blue eyeshadow (luckily I had a very indulgent Mum where makeup was concerned, heehee), roller skates and crimped hair. It was fantastic!

Mel xxx

Flower Girl said...

Oh, you've taken me right back...Alexander O'Neal and Lambrusco!! Still love Human League - sounds like a great night! Rebecca x

Rosie said...

I'm just rewarding myself with a cup of coffee, a biscuit and half an hour on the computer for finally getting to the end of a huge pile of ironing:) Sounds like a great night out and lots of nostalgia - I loved your description of getting ready for a night on the town. I still play ABC's Lexicon of Love album - one of my favourites:)

Caroline said...

That looks like the most glorious trip down memory lane! I would have loved to hear that concert, the line up sounds like real fun, so many happy memories!
Talking about trips, have a lot of fun in Paris in October, love to hear how you enjoyed it.
And btw, yes, Norfolk looks a lot like Holland, there are even a some tulip nurseries there. And the whole drainage system they use in the fields apparently had been devised by a Dutch man. Or so I have always been led to believe...

menopausalmusing said...

Head banging going on here..... but, not to music (I wish), NO IT'S TO BLOODY BLOGGER NOT LETTING ME LEAVE A MESSAGE: here goes again: The same lineup was here locally a few weeks ago. I didn't go, but a chap I clean for did, and he waxed lyrical about it. Glad it brought back memories. Can't be bad!:O) x

Blueberry Heart said...

oh, Ellnett... - Extra Firm hold was the spray of choice...I can smell it now, even feel a reminiscent coughing fit approaching as that always came with the 'Elnett cloud'... having a sly fag at 16 doing the 'bouffant' for a big nite out really came with extra health hazards when the spray was let loose...wonder if the parents house insurance covered 'large haired teenage secret smoker'???
LOVE the gin palace spot...not too public for when I'd INEVITABLY and none too gracefully end up in the drink...and I dont mean me gin either....

sarah-jane down the lane said...

Hiya, you couldnt pop over and give me a hand with ironing pile!

Loving your eighties memories! I was a second hand girl, always customising and making broaches and strange necklaces! I always had a second hand Man's suit, tightly belted with loads of diamonte and lacy fingerless gloves, what a look! Oh and I nearly forgot the oversized floppy bow in hair! tee hee, those were the days x x

Ticking stripes said...

Hi Di.
Sounds as if you had a great weekend! Thanks for your message - yes I did stay on the site behind the beach. I have to go and find a horrid beach to get some glass - I spent hours last week and got nowhere!

Ruth said...

Thankyou for your visit to my blog. I can just picture you now all dressed up and looking fabulous! Didn't know some of those groups were still together (I remember the 60s & 70s with more nostalgia!). Such a shame that house has been left to go derelict. Who used to live there?

BadPenny said...

What a laugh. Recently dressed up for a ABBA tribute eve & a 70s eve where a gang of us were The Village People.

lesley said...

I saw this advertised on TV, & watched the interview with T'Pau, our group of friends all had our children in 1980, they were brought up on this music, & we took them to all the concerts we possibly could, we miss it so much. :0)

JuliaB said...

OMG!! Is Carol Decker REALLY nearly 52? I heard her on the radio the other day. She had such lovely hair. Is it still as lovely? I saw The Cult playing a couple of years ago. It took me quite a few songs to accept that the beautiful, raven haired boy of the 80's was infront of me, with the same incredible voice, but looking more like Bill Oddie. sigh ....

Louise said...

I was in my late teens in the early eighties, and loved clubbing, dancing round handbags etc! Great music. Remember Modern Romance with Best Years of our Lives - they really were! x