CONFRONTATION Billy Elliot the Musical is set in the North East of England in the tumultuous years of 1984/1985. It was an extraordinary time in many ways. Margaret Thatcher’s government survived the most ambitious assassination attempt since the Gunpowder Plot; the country faced the fiercest strike action it had seen in 50 years; and famine in the third world prompted an extraordinary humanitarian effort and the release of one of the most famous songs of all time. Bishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against South African apartheid; Britain agreed to hand Hong Kong back to China; and Ronald Regan was returned to the White House with a landslide victory. We can also thank the ‘80s for the fond memory of Arnie first telling the world that he’d be back in The Terminator, whilst Liverpool held their nerve on penalties to win the European Cup for the fourth time. Many of the 1980s’ most enduring images are from the nationwide miners’ strike, which unfolded over 12 torrid months. The battle began in March 1984 when, after an economic recession exposed the industry, the government announced pit closures. But as strikes spread, the demands of the National Union of Minesworkers, and in particular, its leader, Arthur Scargill, became the focus. As the strikers became more defiant, the government reacted with intransigence and intimidation. Police and pickets played out almost daily confrontation and by March 1985, when the strike was finally defeated, 11,291 people had been arrested. It was the longest running conflict of the year. But others had equally enduring legacies. In April, a demonstration against Libya’s leader Colonel Gaddafi outside the Libyan Embassy in London escalated into a siege after WPC Yvonne Fletcher, helping police the crowd, was killed by gunfire thought to have come from inside the building. As armed police surrounded it, the Libyan authorities countered with a siege of the British Embassy in Tripoli. It took 11 days before negotiations finally ended the stand-off, and diplomatic ties between Britain and Libya would not be restored for 15 years. And in Brighton, six months later, came the IRA’s audacious assassination attempt on Thatcher and her cabinet. A 100lb bomb ripped through the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Tory Party’s annual conference, killing five and injuring 34 others. Thatcher was working on her speech for the final day of the conference when the explosion devastated the building in the early hours of the morning. True to her uncompromising style, she delivered the speech the same day. “This attack has failed,” she declared. “All attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.” Grim news was not confined to Britain. Ethiopia, ravaged by feminine and Civil War, was in the grip of the worst humanitarian crisis of the 20th century though it was not until a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired that the full horror hit home. One viewer, the Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof, got straight on the phone to his contacts in the pop industry – and Band Aid was born. On 25 November 1984 the biggest names in ‘80s pop met to record, in one day, what would become one of the largest selling singles in chart history. Boy George flew from New York on Concord to take part; Phil Collins recorded the first track; and Paul Young was drafted in as a last-minute replacement for David Bowie. Midge Ure’s celebrated tune rocketed to the Christmas No. 1 position, sold over 3 million copies, and raised more than £8 million for the starving. It was not only the music industry breaking records. More than 24 million, then the largest UK television audience for any sporting event, watched Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean score maximum points as they scooped gold on the Sarajevo ice rink at the Winter Olympics. Sebastian Coe (1500m) and Daley Thompson (decathlon), won golds at the summer games in Los Angeles, but it was Torvill and Dean who etched themselves on the national consciousness as they performed their ravishing, groundbreaking Boléro on Valentine’s day. Science, too, was breaking new ground. AIDS remained a mystery to many, but scientists working independently in France and America announced that they had isolated the virus that caused AIDS, naming it HIV – Human Immuno-deficiency Virus – and optimistically suggesting that a vaccine would be ready for testing within two years. Meanwhile DNA testing, now helping to convict criminals and resolve paternity cases, was developed after British scientist Dr Alec Jeffreys discovered by chance that certain strands of DNA were unique to every individual. It was also an important era for a computing firm called Apple, which launched a new personal computer, the Macintosh, beginning their campaign with an advert at the NFL Superbowl directed by Ridley Scott. But the ad was not half as surprising as the computer itself – a small machine that weighed in at only 16lbs and came complete with a strange, movable object with a tail, appropriately named a mouse. 13
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