Friday 11 May 2012

Waking Up To The Eighties.

Having slept the sleep of a news cameraman last night, i woke up this morning to a strange feeling that i had travelled back in time to another era. The 80's in fact. You see, the first thing i do after waking up (following a fart, cough and scratch) is switch on the tellybox and tune into the news to acquaint myself with the worlds machinations over the last 12 hours or so.

This morning, i woke to a BBC Breakfast News report about plastics recycling. Fair enough. They even managed to link said recycling with the upcoming Olympic Games... Genius. (This is going to happen a lot from now on)

Then... they linked straight into a story about the recycling of the favourite 80's stage show Starlight Express, which is being reanimated and thrust onto the west end stage to delight and enthrall those of us who couldn't be arsed to go and see it the first time around.

Following that trip down nostalgia avenue, they then linked to an upcoming piece with everyone's favourite 80's pop star, Morten Harket, the impossibly good looking chap from the popular beat combo, a-ha. Remember them..?

I could feel the mullet growing on the back of my head as memories of my youth flooded back to me in a haze of spots, alcoholic experimentation, and trying to get girls to like me. So i watched the news for 10 minutes or so and having been appraised of what was happening in the 1980's, i got dressed into my cameraman action slacks, pulled up my Fame style ankle warmers, poured a coffee, and went to kick the tyres on the news van to make sure it was still roadworthy.

The more dynamic ukcameraman in the 80's... Memories are hazy.

Now here is where it got weird. In the news van, Radio 2 were playing a medley of hits from the early 80's so i switched off. I then pulled into the petrol station, where, as i payed the exorbitant bill, the dulcet tones of Duran Duran's seminal hit Rio wafted into my ears and has, as yet, to clear from my head.

"Her name is Rio, and she dances on the sand..."

Go on, sing it... i dare you. I've been suffering it now for around four hours or so and it won't leave. I find myself humming it, even though i don't want to. It was like being in an episode of Ashes to Ashes, except without Keely Hawes.

I blame the media, and the very industry i work for. It seems that wherever i go i am watching, listening to or reading things that evoke memories of another time or bring be bang up to the present. There is no getting away from it. I suppose i am just going to have to roll with it today...

In my mind i am currently firing up the Quattro, as i wind down the window and start to sing...

"Oh Rio Rio dance across the Rio Grande..."

Paul Martin is @ukcameraman on Twitter.

www.media-attention.co.uk

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2 comments:

  1. So I arrive home at 03.45, thinks I will boot the computer, I came here to read what one of the British news gatherers has to say, thank you Paul, so I now go to bed singing "Her name is Rio, and she dances on the sand..." and will probably wake up later with the sound of Morton Harket`s "Take On Me".
    The 1980`s were not that bad.

    Heiko

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  2. I vaguely remember the 80's. Early eighties are a bit of a haze, but i joined the army in 1986... serious lifestyle change i can tell you.

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