From gigs to haircuts: The best ways to get your 80s cultural fix this year
In 1984, when The Terminator came out, Arnold Schwarzenegger told audiences he'd be back. Well, it turns out, it wasn't just him: the 80s are, absolutely, back – in art, in music, in film. Here's what to look forward to this year if you fancy a trip down memory lane.
The gigs
Every 80s musician worth their shoulder pads is on tour this summer. Duran Duran in July; The Human League from June to August; and, also in June, Billy Idol is playing at Wembley Arena and Bananarama are headlining at the Hampton Court Palace Festival. The 80s mania continues into autumn, too: Marti Pellow and his Wet Wet Wet bandmates have 19 UK shows in October while Adam Ant also goes on tour that month. And for those who want to kill several bands with one stone – head to Darlington. On 24 August the town will host '80s Calling!', a day-long concert at Darlington Arena. Tickets start at £56 and the line-up includes The Human League, Bananarama and Tony Hadley. Bodacious!
The musical
This week Just For One Day, a musical about how Live Aid came together begins its eight-month run in the West End. It's a 'jukebox musical', which means the songs aren't originals but covers of 80s hits. (At one point, the Margaret Thatcher character, who is refusing to waive VAT on Bob Geldof's charity single, performs a version of 'I'm Still Standing'.) The costumes are nostalgic, too; Craige Els, who plays Geldof, wears triple denim – jacket, shirt and jeans. Tickets start at £25.
The film
The Naked Gun has returned, sort of. The 80s film series about hapless New York policeman Frank Drebin hasn't been remade but, rather, given a sequel. Now Liam Neeson is playing Drebin's son, another hapless New York policeman called Frank Drebin Jr. The trailer – which got 11 million YouTube views in three weeks – looks suitably bonkers. It features 72-year-old Neeson wearing a schoolgirl's kilt and slaughtering bank robbers with a lollipop-shaped shank. If that wasn't enough to persuade you to watch it, Pamela Anderson also stars. Out in cinemas in August.
The exhibition
If you haven't seen it already, check out the Leigh Bowery retrospective at Tate Modern – on until 31 August. The gallery describes the Australian-born artist as being a 'fashion designer, club monster, human sculpture, nude model, vaudeville drunkard, anarchic auteur, pop surrealist, clown without a circus, piece of moving furniture, modern art on legs'. Which is a varied and impressive CV. Appropriately, the exhibition rooms have been decorated with disco balls (tickets are £18). And, for more clubbing nostalgia, The Design Museum in London has Blitz: The Club That Shaped The 80s. Tickets aren't on sale yet, but the show starts in September.
The opera
The historian and podcaster Dominic Sandbrook has paired up with the composer Joseph Phibbs to create an opera about Margaret Thatcher. Seriously. The two-act show is called Mrs T and will be performed in an unconfirmed location this autumn. According to Phibbs, the opera will feature 'key scenes' from Thatcher's tenure – including an evening where she danced with Ronald Reagan. Weirdly, this isn't the first opera concerning the former PM. In 2013, Allies, an opera about Thatcher's relationship with the ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, toured Europe. For some reason, the production never made it to British theatres.
The haircut
It's not a culture trend, exactly, but it feels worth mentioning: the mullet remains. Frankly, it's been back for a while. Actors like Paul Mescal (left), Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler have all – at some point in the past three years – had mullets. But now the 80s cut is not just for Hollywood types. On the latest season of Race Across The World, contestant Tom, 21, from Bury St Edmunds, has a mullet. The trend has spread to Gen Alpha, too. Last month, a hairdresser from Surrey told The Times she'd seen 'boys as young as five or six, coming in with their parents and asking for a mullet'. Thankfully, the schoolboys are too young to try another 80s hair trend – moustaches.
Manuel Harlan, Steve Schofield, getty images, Leigh Bowery: Fergus Greer, Leigh Bowery Session I Look 2 1988 © Fergus Greer. Courtesy of The Michael Hoppen Gallery
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
30 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EuroMillions jackpot rolls over AGAIN: One ticketholder could now land an eye-watering £208MILLION in Friday's draw
One lucky ticket-holder could bag the biggest lottery win the UK has ever seen if they scoop the top prize in Friday's record EuroMillions draw. The jackpot has rolled over again after Tuesday's £199million draw, which would also have been a record-breaking amount, had no winners. There is now an eye-watering £208million up for grabs - which would see the winner pip the likes of Harry Styles and Rory McIlroy on the wealth scale. Andy Carter, Senior Winners' Adviser at Allwyn, said: 'We are now on the verge of potentially creating the biggest National Lottery winner this country has ever seen. '[It would make] a single UK winner instantly richer than the likes of Adele and Dua Lipa while also landing them at the number one spot on The National Lottery's biggest wins list.' An anonymous UK ticket holder won the existing record jackpot of £195 million on July 19 2022, while just two months earlier, Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, won £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket for the draw on May 10 2022. The UK's third biggest win came after an anonymous ticket-holder scooped the £177 million jackpot in the draw on November 26 last year, while the biggest this year was £83 million in January. MailOnline reported last month that a grieving son found his mother's winning lottery ticket three days after she had died. Liam Carter, 34, found the EuroMillions ticket folded inside an envelope, which his mother Anne and avid lottery player had heartbreakingly scrawled on the front 'Sat draw - don't forget!'. She died on April 16, aged 67, just two days before her winning numbers came up having played every week and 'never winning anything big in her life'. Mr Carter, originally from Hampshire but now living in Aberdeen, discovered the folded envelope inside her kitchen drawer, where his loving mother usually kept her tickets. It meant Anne had won a payout of £18,403. Mr Carter had almost ignored the ticket but said 'something told me to check'. 'I scanned it using the National Lottery app, and it said it was a winning ticket — but I'd have to call the lottery line,' he added He phoned the line last Saturday and 'just froze' when he was told of how much the winning ticket was worth. Mr Carter said: 'I must've gone quiet on the phone. It didn't feel real. She never won anything big in her life — and now this.' He added: 'She always said if she ever won, the money would be for me,' he said. 'And even though she never knew about this win, it really felt like something she left behind for me. Like one final gift.' He plans to use the money towards a deposit on a flat, something he says his mother always wanted him to achieve. 'She always said if she ever won, the money would be for me,' he said. 'And even though she never knew about this win, it really felt like something she left behind for me. Like one final gift.' The ticket had matched five main numbers — 20, 27, 35, 39 and 48 — just missing the two Lucky Stars, 03 and 08.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
PATRICK MARMION reviews Fiddler On The Roof's first night at the Barbican Theatre: Topol made the film sing, but this Fiddler dances to its own tune
Fiddler On The Roof (Barbican Theatre, London) Rating: The big musical in London's Barbican Theatre this summer is a joyous, but finally sombre, revival of the sixties classic about life in an East European shtetl in the early 20th century. The show is surely still best known from the 1971 film starring Chaim Topol as the hard-working, God-fearing milkman Tevye with five feisty daughters to marry off. But the great achievement of this Olivier Award-winning production (first seen in Regent's Park last year) is to stand squarely on its own feet – thanks largely to the terrific Adam Dannheisser as Tevye (alongside Lara Pulver as his wife Golde). He is a proper put-upon mensch, who dutifully drags the weight of his Jewish heritage behind him like the cart normally hauled by his lame horse. With a twinkle in his eye, Dannheisser is a big softy who brings heartiness, pathos and mischief to the part. Accompanied by a gangly violinist (Raphael Papo) who mirrors his inner pain, Tevye – and the show – are buoyed by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's music and lyrics, most famously in the stomp of Tradition, but also in the comic plea for God to smite him with a just small fortune in If I Were A Rich Man. American director Jordan Fein's production includes a glorious dream sequence resurrecting Golde's long-dead grandma. And Julia Cheng's reeling choreography is a riot –whether it's toasting Tevye's eldest daughter's betrothal in the tavern (ominously interrupted by menacing Cossacks), or at the actual wedding, which has celebrants spinning like huge black spiders with bottles balanced on their heads. Surrounded by grassland torched in a violent pogrom authorised by the Tsar, the second half takes a darker turn. And we are kept mindful of global events today – as Perchik, a suitor from Kyiv, warns Tevye: 'You can't close your eyes to what's happening in the world.' Fiddler On The Roof runs until July 19.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Test Match Special Brook bags clean sweep as Kohli crowns career with IPL
Henry Moeran presents reaction to England beating the West Indies at The Oval to win the ODI series 3-0. West Indies World Cup winner Carlos Brathwaite & England World Cup and Ashes winner Ebony Rainford-Brent analyse the result. Jamie Smith gives his thoughts on the win with the batter starring as England's opener, Brook reflects on a winning start to life as England white-ball captain, and West Indies captain Shai Hope looks back on a tough series for West Indies. Nikesh Rughani, Matt Kabir Floyd, and former IPL batter Abhishek Jhunjhunwala give their reaction to Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Virat Kohli winning the IPL. Plus, an emotional Kohli gives his thoughts on finally winning the Indian Premier League.
