LOSE YOURSELF IN 1984

BRIGHTON BOMB

Brighton caught people’s attention for more than just classic cars this year when the IRA attempted to assassinate prominent members of the Conservative government – including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – with a bomb at the town’s Grand Hotel. The device had been planted almost a month before the October Brighton Tory conference under a bath in a room above the PM’s suite and was missed by sniffer dogs because it was wrapped in clingfilm. It went off at 2.54am on 12 October, blowing out a significant chunk of the Victorian hotel’s façade. Mrs Thatcher was unharmed; her suite and bedroom escaped damage, although the bathroom was badly affected by the blast. Five people were killed and 31 injured. Patrick Magee was found guilty of planting the bomb in 1985 and received life imprisonment, but was released in 1999 under the Good Friday Agreement. The Grand reopened in August 1986.

BAND AID

A powerful BBC news report broadcast on 23 October showed Michael Buerk reporting on the Ethiopian famine amid heartbreaking scenes of starving millions, many of them children. Buerk described it as ‘the closest thing to hell on Earth’ and ‘a biblical famine in the 20th century.’ The Boomtown Rats’ Bob Geldof and Ultravox’s Midge Ure organised the Band Aid supergroup to record Do They Know It’s Christmas? as a charity single to raise money. It was number one for five weeks, selling a million copies in its first week alone – more than all the other records in the chart combined.