Was it really ‘grim up North’ in the 1980s?
Nostalgia Editor LET’S face it, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, but for many folk in Newcastle and the North East, the 1980s proved to be a tough time.
The ever-quickening decline of the region’s traditional industries coupled with the right-wing economic policies of Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government delivered a harsh new wind of change.
For decades, for those who wanted to work, there would usually be a job.
Now, as the shipbuilding industry, heavy engineering and coal-mining ran into terminal trouble, a new phenomenon was ushered in - long-term unemployment.
Multiple generations within families would find that being out of work became the norm as the 1980s wore on, with the resulting poverty, deprivation and crime bringing problems to communities across the North East.
In the wider world, the Falklands War, IRA bombings in London and Brighton, inner-city riots, the ongoing Cold War, the arrival of AIDs, the Chernobyl nuclear explosion; the Lockerbie bombing, and football disasters at Bradford, Hillsborough and Heysel, all added to the sometimes downbeat nature of the decade.
Then there was the bitter, year-long miners’ strike in 1984-85 which tore communities apart - many of them in the North East - as the once-proud, all-powerful coal industry approached its sad swansong.
It’s a grim litany, but for many of us who lived through the 1980s, it didn’t always feel that bad.
On a brighter note, here in the North East, 1980 saw the opening of the Tyne and Wear Metro system.
The following year witnessed the first ever Great North Run - it would become an annual event.
In 1983, we met the Geordie brickies, Oz, Dennis and Neville as a genuine TV blockbuster - Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - hit the airwaves.
Come the middle of the decade, in 1985 thousands of North East pop fans headed to London’s Wembley Stadium for the giant Live Aid concert which saw million of pounds raised for famine-hit Africa.
This was also the year a precocious football talent called Paul Gascoigne emerged at Newcastle United.
In 1986, Queen and Bruce Springsteen rocked St James’ Park while, in the same year, the giant retail complex - the Metrocentre - opened on the site of an old power station in Gateshead.
And by 1989, as the Berlin Wall was set to come down, we could reflect that perhaps the 1980s hadn’t been all bad. Front: The first Great North Run leaving Newcastle, 1981; the Strawberry pub, Gallowgate, 1988; the Bigg Market, 1988; Debbie Harry of Blondie at Newcastle City Hall, 1980
Above, the first Tall Ships Race, Newcastle, 1986; left, popular Mexican restaurant One Eyed Jack’s, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle, 1989 Clayton Street, Newcastle, 1986, with prize bingo from 10p and Geordie Girl shop on the left