Headline news in today's UK papers.
Can't say this is a great surprise.
Headline news in today's UK papers.
Can't say this is a great surprise.
I was in the pub as a I was reading this news and 'Living Doll' came on over the sound system.
I mean really, who the hell plays that track anymore and what are the chances of it coming on in a Hong Kong bar at the same time this news was coming out.
What 80s icons have been shown to be unsafe? If Cliff was an icon in the 80s it was an alternate universe to the one I was in.
It's generational, not national. Cliff Richard was an 'icon' in the 60s. In the 80s he appealed to the grans and mums, and fundies, except at Christmas. We got all the UK shows and music in NZ, and my mum loved Cliff, we all just groaned when his cheesy grin appeared on Parky.
Guess it depends on your definition of icon, but I take it to be the decade in which you were 'in'. An icon represents the best of an era, which wasn't the 80s for Cliff. He had 2 number ones in the 80s, one a remake of Living Doll with the Young Ones, which was more the Young Ones than Cliff getting it there, and the other a predictable Christmas song. 80 s icons would be New Order, Billy Idol, Depeche Mode, joy Division, The Cure, Madonna, U2, Kate Bush, Michael Jackson, Prince....but Cliff, he was someone your mum told you to stop giggling at when he came on Top of the Pops singing Mistletoe and Wine. He might was the cosy reminder of home and family, and watching the Christmas special at home on Christmas Eve, he was a 'living legend' but he wasn't an 80s icon.
Semantics yes, but let's not tarnish the 80s by defining Cliff's pop songs as being iconic of the period.
Also, this latest news, no surprises there. Rolf was a surprise, Cliff no.
I don't know, Cliff was very much an 80's icon in my opinion and Sony Corp especially with the WALKMAN ( cassette tapes, remember them ? ) would have attested to that with the early 1980's smash hit: Wired for sound.
Yep and teaming up with the Young Ones certainly kept Cliff in the 80's limelight, but agree he is probably better known for his Summer Holiday movies in the 1960's etc and songs like devil woman etc during the 70's, but for me Wired for Sound was the one I remember him most for.
Last edited by Skyhook; 15-08-2014 at 04:10 PM.
To me an icon doesn't necessarily have to have an era.
If somebody was massive in the 80's or 90's say. To me it doesn't make them any less of an icon to me even if they haven't produced anything of note since.
I don't see one song as making him an iconic reminder of the 80s. Do you honestly think of 80s music and automatically associate it with Cliff? I think of the 60s and think of Cliff and The Beatles as icons for UK music, but the 80s was not Cliffs decade.
Quite surprised there haven't been any murmuring about Bill Wyman and a 13/14 yo Mandy Smith.