Wednesday 29 February 2012

2004 - Fiesta siesta

Shipman hangs himself, Hutton says OK
Madrid bombs, Spain's PM exits Iraq
Putin wins again, Blair in Libya, J
Mourinho wins with Porto, lots of flak
For US in Abu Ghraib prison. Back
In Athens, the Olympics. Lance Armstrong
Wins Tour de France again. Beslan school. Fox
Hunting protests. Schumacher drives along
Van Gogh film-maker killed, Ukrainians long
For fair election. Massive earthquake, they
Drown all around the Indian Ocean. Black
Fiesta engine's knackered, I'm buying
A red Fiesta after holiday
In Newquay, marriage problems once I'm back

Tuesday 28 February 2012

2003 - Now we are 03

Space shuttle breaks apart on re-entry
Darfur War begins, then war in Iraq
(Despite mass protests), and it seems to be
Over in less than a month. Statues crack
And TV journalists seem to ejac-
ulate, but prematurely. The laughing
Genome greets us. In Chechnya the sky's black
Saudi, Morocco, Turkey exploding
Indonesians Aceh-pacifying
David Kelly death, Hutton Inquiry
Arnie's the Governor. England's team brings back
Rugby's World Cup from Oz. Saddam's hiding
In a rat hole. Iran earthquake. Josie
Born, I'm wed, then to Naples we make tracks

Monday 27 February 2012

2002 - Blonde bombshells

The euro's in use. No Child Left Behind
Says Bush, but Daniel Pearl, he truly is
Princess Margaret and the Queen Mum are found
Dead in their beds. The Afghan war raises
More dust. Bombs in Israel, which then enters
The West Bank once again. It's Jacques Chirac
Better than Le Pen, perhaps. The Far East
Hosts the World Cup. Golden Jubilee - Buck
House echoes to live rock. The Germans tick
A Schroder-Greens coalition. The sound
Of bombs in Bali. A Moscow theatre's
Held by Chechens. Brazil's Lula's in luck
Will Saddam heed UN, or is he blind?
Me and my blonde lady - she enlarges

Sunday 26 February 2012

2001 - Towering infernoes

Wikipedia and foot and mouth are here
Ariel Sharon comes, Milosevic goes
Nepalese prince shoots king and family there
Koizumi, strange-haired chief of Japanese
Israel wedding disaster, and Hamas
Bomb a Tel Aviv disco. Musharraf
Pres of Pakistan, riots on Genoese
Streets at G8, and Peruvians get tough
With Fujimori. New York's smoking cough
As twin towers topple. Patriot Act calms fear
And Afghans invaded - the West soon throws
The Taliban out of Kabul, will have
To battle on and on. Taxi driver
At weekends, my number of girlfriends grows

Saturday 25 February 2012

2000 - Keep on moving

The dot-com bubble is about to burst
Lethal injector Doctor Shipman's shopped
Playstation 2 is launched, let's all be first
Putin's president, meanwhile Microsoft
Guilty of unfair practice. Senor Fox
Mexican Pres, and Bashar al-Assad
Takes over from his dad. A fire stops
Concorde's flight in Paris. News of the World
Campaigns against paedos. Russian sub drowned
Sydney Olympics, UK fuel protests
Al Qaeda blows up US ship. Bush propped
Up by Supreme Court, Gore gored. The Dome's had
It. Poor Kirsty MacColl, that was the worst
Thing. Me, I rent my house out and change jobs

Friday 24 February 2012

1999 - Party like it's Y2K

The euro's here, and new King of Jordan
Poland, Czech and Hungary join NATO,
Who bomb the Serbs in Kosovo. Clinton
Isn't impeached. Columbine inferno
Mont Blanc tunnel fire. Death of Jill Dando
Nail bombs in London. Scots, Welsh Parliaments
Milosevic war criminal, now go
Say crowds in Belgrade. Napster circumvents
The music industry. Solar eclipse
Earthquake in Turkey, while in Pakistan
Musharraf's army coup. Man U Euro
Cup winners. Two holidays, as I spend
My security guard earnings - biked from
John o' Groats to Land's End, and French drive, too

Thursday 23 February 2012

1998 - Omagh God

Saddam opposes inspections, then caves
Water on the Moon? Good Friday, Belfast
Suharto goes, Pakistan misbehaves
With nukes, Tsar and kin reburied at last
French World Cup, Congo war, Yangtze outsplash
US embassies bombed, East Africa
Omagh high street bombed, meanwhile Google starts
Hugo Chavez wins in Venezuela
Deaths of Pol Pot, Ted Hughes, Frank Sinatra
George Michael caught in Beverly Hills lav
Tommy Lee beats Pammy. I run quite fast
Up and down Snowdon, and round Stockport where
I now live, with a lodger, and I have
A second job (promoted in my first!!)

Wednesday 22 February 2012

1997 - You can run, but...

Divorce finds Ireland, Tamil Tigers fight
Algerian war and Tupac in Peru
Hale-Bopp Comet, suicide at Heaven's Gate
Versace shot and Blair PM, woo-hoo
Bertie Ahearn hello, bye Mobutu
Hong Kong goes back to China, and Di dies
Louise shakes baby, Teresa dies too
Scots and Welsh parliaments soon, French truck strikes
Block ports, hello to Mary McAleese
Luxor shootings, Kyoto saves climate
JK Rowling and Philip Pullman do
Kids sci-fi, Titanic and Girls of Spice
Mike Tyson bites an ear, I run up quite
Tall hills, drive my green Ford, and move anew

Tuesday 21 February 2012

1996 - More than thirty years of hurt

IRA Canary Wharf explosion
Garry Kasparov beaten by Deep Blue
Hamas bombs Israel, Arafat condemns
Them. Aznar wins in Spain. Dunblane school, who
Can forget the sadness? Mad cows, Cairo
Tourists shot, Turkey counters Kurds, Yasser
Accepts Israel exists, and Romano
Prodi replaces Silvio. Chechnya war -
Yeltsin calls a ceasefire. Cloned sheep are here
Euro 96, Atlanta games on
Manchester bomb - soon the old town looks new
De Klerk says sorry for apartheid. The
Taliban take Kabul, Clinton's next win
I leave home, but family, I still love you

Monday 20 February 2012

1995 - Aha Shake Earthquake

Kobe earthquake, Nick Leeson moneyquake
Tokyo gas, Oklahoma Cityquake
France quakes as they at last elect Chirac
Superman shaken off by a horsequake
Seoul department store collapses like a cake
France and Russia sell weapons to Iraq
Montserrat mountain, Bosnian warquake
Srebrenica massacre after fake
UN protection, then NATO bombs shake
The Serbs, so do the Croats, till handshakes
End the war by December. How'd they make
OJ not guilty? Rabin is taken
Out by assassin. Bosman footballquake
I bike round Wales and South West - pedalquake!

Sunday 19 February 2012

1994 - From the Yorkshire Moors to the West Bank

Bosnia's still a seething cauldron of hate
The Scream is stolen, oh no, oh Oslo
Fred and Rose West, don't go inside their gate
Baruch Goldstein and Kurt Cobain's gun show
Somalia's a failure, say US. Whoa -
Berlusconi wins in Italy and
Andreotti had Mafia links. Don't go
To Rwanda, they're chopping off their hands
And killing in the churches. Nelson Mand-
ela President. John Smith dies, Blair takes
Job from Brown. OJ Simpson, drive more slow
US lands in Haiti, and Brazil lands
USA World Cup, IRA placate
I head north by bike, and love to video

Saturday 18 February 2012

1993 - View from a bike

Czech out the old country splitting in two
Salvatore 'The Beast' caught, Palermo
Bush Senior replaced by Clinton...and who
Placed bombs in the World Trade Center? Waco
Fire kills Koresh's cult. North Korea no
Fan of non-proliferation. A bomb
In Warrington, and Jiang Zemin's the new
Chinese leader. Stephen Lawrence dies young
Stabbed at a bus stop. John Wayne Bobbit's schlong
Isn't so long now. A Zambian plane flew
Its footballers to death. The PLO
And Israel sign peace accords. Mike Jackson
A child molester? Suede, Ace of Base, new
Home in Burnage, bike ride to London...Go!

Friday 17 February 2012

1992 - Yugo, I'll stay

The break-up of old Yugoslavia
Quite clean in Slovenia and Croatia
But dirtier in mixed-up Bosnia
Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks are all there
Sarajevo the flashpoint area
The EC gets much closer together
Becoming the EU at Maastricht. The
Danes reject it however. Jeff Dahmer
Sentenced to life (he's killed two years later)
LA riots after Rod King's assaulters
Acquitted. Judge Falcone, Mafia
Scourge, is killed. Bones of Tsar and Tsarina
Islamic election, Algeria
Quashed by army. Charles and Di split uproar

Thursday 16 February 2012

1991 - Waiting for the hammer to fall

In '91 the Gulf War (Number One)
Breaks out mid-January, with Scud missiles
From Iraq to Israel, Americans
In Saudi also hit, Saddam's men file
Back out of Kuwait by March, their stockpile
Of chemical, biological, nuclear
Weapons being scrutinised from then until
The Second Gulf War. Ethiopia,
Somalia change, Commie USSR
Can no longer support them, one by one
Its republics secede. Yeltsin reviles
A reactionary army coup, and the
Papers are signed with Belarus, Ukraine
Dissolving Union hammers and sickles

Wednesday 15 February 2012

1990 - Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Manuel in Panama is treated rough
Stasi HQ, Berlin, records surveyed
Soviet satellite states, they've had enough
Nelson Mandela walks out of the shade
Anti-poll tax fights and Europe have made
Maggie vulnerable to the circling sharks
Strangeways prisoners up on the roof, they've stayed
There three weeks. The Hubble stares at the stars
Yemen unites, IRA shoots soldiers
On Lichfield station platform, a real duff
World Cup Final and a Mecca stampede
Iraq invades Kuwait, Germany is
One, Thatcher goes... and Louis starts his life
I start work as a VAT Man and get paid!

Tuesday 14 February 2012

1989 - Abroad thoughts from home

Hirohito he goes, here's Sky TV
PW to FW, SA
Exxon Valdez oil, blood, Tbilisi
Hillsborough crush, bye Ayatollah K
Tiananmen Square, Solidarity
Aung San Suu Kyi, Nintendo, Menendez
East German demo's, porous Hungary
Honecker goes, the Wall falls and the Czechs
The Bulgars and Romanians win their chess
Games against Big Brother, Brazil, Chile
Elections, Batman, Remains of the Day
Bye Robin Day, hello Paxman, distress
Of Rita in Blackpool (Alan Bradley)
I pass job interview, waste time away

Monday 13 February 2012

1988 - Lovely Longsight

Perestroika in the USSR
The House rejects Ron Reagan's Contra funds
Death to the IRA in Gibraltar
And to Brit officers at Belfast's hands
Piper Alpha huge oil rig explosions
This year's Olympics got a lot of Seoul
The deadly Iran-Iraq war now ends
Slovaks and Estonians act like the Poles
Demanding freedom, Palestinian calls
For same, Armenian earthquake, from the air
A plane falls on Lockerbie, while Salman's
Fat words cause fatwahs, George Bush wins the polls
Dukakis screws up, acid houses, we're
In Longsight, Pearl's born, I'm a house-husband

Sunday 12 February 2012

1987 - More time on Maggie's Farm

Reagan held to blame for Contra scandal
Zeebrugge ferry sinks, Iraq's gas bombs
Thatcher wins for a third time at the poll
The world population is 5 billion
Docklands Light Railway, Hess dead in prison
Hurricane in England, Black Monday hits
King's Cross fire, IRA Enniskillen
Intifada, Palestinian conflict
Lethal Weapons and Full Metal Jackets
Spycatcher and Commitments (Roddy Doyle)
Mike's Bad, George has Faith, there's Roses n' Guns
Mike Tyson, Steve Davis, Nelson Piquet
I graduate and we live in Lichfield
A while, then Mancs again, now she's pregnant

Saturday 11 February 2012

1986 - State of non-independence

Space Shuttle Challenger a ball of fire
Mir space station, Single European Act
Marcos exiled, Aquino is admired
Olaf Palme of Sweden shot in back
Kurt Waldheim's war crimes means he gets some flak
Berlin disco bomb, US bombs Libya
In revenge. Chernobyl ruins Pripyat
Raining death on Europe. In Mexico
The Hand of God turns cheat into winner
London Stock Exchange Big Bang, they're freer
To do what they want. Ollie North's hand smacked
For Iran-Contra. From America
I return, marry, get cats, move flats here
Watch Neighbours, see The Smiths, study Yank facts

Friday 10 February 2012

1985 - I'm so excited with the USA

IRA bombs RUC in Newry
Chile earthquake, a million left homeless
Beirut car bomb, AIDS blood tests come to be
Gorbachev is chief of the Soviets
And with Ronnie in Geneva he meets
Bradford football fire, Heysel disaster
Schengen ends border checks, some EU states
Rainbow Warrior, hole in the ozone layer
Live Aid by top bands, Back to the Future
Nintendo's Super Mario, look through the
Windows from Microsoft. I'm engaged as
I fly off to Long Island for a year
At New York State Uni, Old Westbury
Drinking, smoking, snogging... and some studies

Thursday 9 February 2012

1984 - Marvin, the dead can dance

The Apple Mac lives and Andropov dies
The year-long British coal strike starts, Scargill
Against Thatcher. Old Tommy Cooper dies
'Just like that...' and Yvonne Fletcher is killed
Indian troops storm the Sikhs' Golden Temple
Amritsar, and Indira Gandhi's killed
In revenge. The LA Olympics held
Reagan jokes about bombing Russia, old
Cold war humour. The Nicaraguan polls
Show the Sandinistas have won the prize
Thousands killed by chemicals in Bhopal
The bombing of Thatcher's Brighton hotel
Reagan beats Mondale, Ethiopia dies
And American Studies going well

Wednesday 8 February 2012

1983 - Bloody student

Belt up, by law, and Reagan starts 'Star Wars'
Stern publishes 'The Hitler Diaries'
Start of the long Sri Lankan civil war
Landslide election win by the Tories
My first vote (wasted on the SDP!!)
Filipino Aquino, he no more
Thirty-eight prisoners escape from The Maze
Kinnock Labour leader, Cruise missiles scare
The Greenham women, and the US are
Grenada invaders. Muddy Waters
Karen Carpenter, Dennis Wilson, these
Die, Nobel Prize for Pole, Lech Walesa
And William Golding. Hacienda doors
Open, and Manchester University's

Tuesday 7 February 2012

1982 - Fun on the dole

A plane crashes into the Potomac
UK unemployed over 3 million
Laker crashes and Haughey's the Taoiseach
Chariots of Fire, the Argentines land on
The Falklands, Gotcha, Rejoice, we have won!
Villa Euro Champs, the World Cup in Spain
Prince William and the SDP are born
Geoffrey Prime, Sun Myung Moon, Michael Fagan
IRA bombs London, Beirut camps shame
Schmidt becomes Kohl, we're rolling down the track
From Calella to Barcelona in
September sunshine, Mary Rose regained
Brezhnev expires, CD players, Mike Jack-
son's Thriller, Grace dies, The Tube and Countdown

Monday 6 February 2012

1981 - Class of '81

Greece joins EC, and earthquake in Athens
Hostages released, deal struck by Reagan
Poland has martial law against unions
Brand new stainless steel car, De Lorean
Tejero waves his gun around in Spain
And I go on a school camping trip there
Reagan shot, Bobby Sands self-starvation
London Marathon, Buck's Fizz, streets on fire
In Brixton and Toxteth, Columbia
Space shuttle, Pope shot, in France Mitterand wins
Yorkshire Ripper jailed, AIDS, Ian Botham
Charles and Di, MTV, Sadat beware
CIA helps Contras, Marley succumbs
Tom Baker morphs into Pete Davison

Sunday 5 February 2012

1980 - A kick up the eighties

Andrei Sakharov exiled to Gorky
Banisadr PM of Iran briefly
Israel and Egypt become more friendly
Carter's hostage rescue crashes badly
Mugabe is PM of Zimbabwe
Moscow Games boycotted by USA
Bristol riots, SAS embassy
Tito dies, Mount St Helens skies heavy
Quebec stays Canuck, Pac-Man game's funny
Lech Walesa and Solidarity
At Ayer's Rock, dingo takes a baby
Iraq attacks Iran, new Pres Ronnie
Who shot JR and Lennon, NYC
Ian Curtis hangs himself, closer to thee

Saturday 4 February 2012

1979 - Apocalypse postponed

Bantry Bay French oil tanker explosion
Shah of Iran flees, hi Ayatollah
Airey Neave, Warrenpoint, Mountbatten bombed
Carter/Brezhnev SALT II in Vienna
Manchester tragedy, the Woolworth's fire
Pope goes to Poles, shows solidarity
Afghans invaded by USSR
China begins its One Child policy
Maggie Thatcher, union-basher, Tory
PM. First Euro Parliament election
Films - Muppet Movie, Apocalypse Now
Alien, Manhattan. Music - at ten, the
John Peel Show, with Banshees and Fall sessions
Joy D, Ruts, Jam, Two-Tone and Gang of Four

Friday 3 February 2012

1978 - Can't wait for '78

Managua riots against Somoza
Tehran riots against Iran's old Shah
Roman Polanski flees America
Swiss ski-trip for me, keep falling over
Ted Bundy is caught down in Florida
Bob Marley's One Love Peace Concert, Kingston
Italian Reds kidnap and kill Moro
A military coup, Afghanistan
In Argentina, the home team has won
Thessaloniki earthquake, Greek quiver
Louise Brown delivered, the test-tube star
Three popes, Paul 6, and John Pauls 2 and 1
Camp David, Begin and Sadat friendlier
Jonestown, spilt Milk, Viets in Cambodia

Thursday 2 February 2012

1977 - Two sevens clash

'Roots' on TV, and Pompidou Centre
The Clash LP, big Zep gigs, Red Rum's third
Taksim Square deaths, Tenerife air disaster
Begin begins as Israel's PM, word
Grows about Star Wars, Close Encounters, stirred
And shaken by The Spy Who Loved Me, New
York blackout, Queen's Silver Jubilee, tried
My first pint at the street party, a few
More months til I like it. I Feel Love grew
All summer, the Pistols, Stranglers, Jam were
On the tranny, holiday near the Broads
(Few broads though, sadly), Elvis on the loo
Drops one then drops, Liverpool conquerors
Of Europe, Bjorn Borg, poor Lynyrd Skynyrd

Wednesday 1 February 2012

1976 - Long Hot Summer (Number Two)

The Yanks veto Palestinian statehood
London's direct rule of Northern Ireland
Argentina's generals up to no good
Harold Wilson resigns, Jim Callaghan
New PM, Chou Enlai and Mao are gone
Concorde to Washington, Soweto fights
Against Afrikaans in schools, the Ramones
First album, heatwave, Butlin's Bognor nights
Learning the hustle, playing pinball, White
Lightning at Montreal, Son of Sam's dread
Patrols in NYC, Lauda is burned
Ford beats Reagan but Carter wins the White
House race, Belfast peace women, Viking's stood
On Mars, and punk's in Manchester, London