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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!