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Images copyright 2008 |
So the New book finally arrives, and the old arguments surface about whether the 80's was better than the 70's, looking at this book I can honestly say the 80's was swings and roundabouts for me. I am glad to say a good proportion of the book is from the early 80's, strips like Buck Rogers which gets a whole 12 pages, an early CHiPs story and DM are good reading, but as the annual goes on things like Super Gran, No.73 and The Five Star Life show that ideas were running thin later on. Still, we are spared Dogtanian and Galaxy Rangers, so there is a god. At least the best strip of the 80's Robin of Sherwood makes the latter end of the book worthwhile, God help us, they have even had to put a 'Krankies' When They Were Young strip in the book, (did Kylie want too much?). The notable omission this time is Knight Rider, there is a Hasselhoff C-A-P though. For me though the 80's was all about the music, there was some good stuff about, and a very diverse range are featured here, a Duran The Story So Far strip, as well as plenty of features, Bucks Fizz, Bananarama, as well As Madness, Haircut 100 and Bucks Fizz again in strip form. A lot of strange choices for Collect-A-Pages though, Tracey Ullman?, Roland Rat?, Dempsey and Makepeace? one can only assume, that again, budget prevented showing some of the bigger artists. Notable in their absence are Spandau Ballet, (although if you look very carefully you'll spot Tony Hadley somewhere in the book), Wham!, Kylie and Madonna (really shocking). Some really nice features including a tearful 'Goodbye Magpie' (Sob!), a long lost gem 'The Whizzkids Guide', with Kenneth Williams, the very last 'Stewpot's Newsdesk' (left), and a great one about Royal Wedding memorabilia. It's generally, a really pleasant read and again you'll find loads to jog your memory, remember the Worzel T-Shirt? (left), 'Keep it in the family'?, Sigue Sigue Sputnik? and Tommy and Bobby's LP? (which probably flopped), there's an ad for it within. Look-in did have it's fans in the 80's, it has been said before and Colin Shelbourn confirms in a quote during the foreword pages, that Look-in's highest ratings were in the mid-80's (350,000 readers - REALLY shocking!), so this is hopefully going to appeal to a good number of people. was the 80's worse....or just different?, judge for yourselves, especially if you bought the first book, it's an interesting comparison. The PC brigade made sure we were living in a very different world, and I guess Look-in had to follow suit. This either made the magazine boring, or 80's kids were easily pleased. For me it's never going to be as good as the first book...but you knew I'd say that! I'm not sorry I bought it though, not in the least, there are still plenty of good memories in this volume, and I also have to mention that there is a dedication to Angus at the start of the book which I tip my hat to, richly deserved. Another great compilation. Question is....do we want a best of the 90's?....errrm....probably not! A second 70's compilation would be great though Graham?.....!!!!
8/10 |
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