LOSE YOURSELF IN 1979

ALL TOGETHER NOW The Music for UNICEF Concert benefit gig promised ‘a gift of song’ in New York City in January 1979, but ultimately, it turned out to be a somewhat lacklustre affair. Despite featuring some of the biggest stars of the era, including Rod Stewart, Donna Summer and the Bee Gees – and ABBA having reputedly written the song Chiquitita especially for it – the event raised less than a million dollars. Broadcast around the world, with David Frost, Gilda Radner and Henry ‘ The Fonz’ Winkler as compères, both ABBA and the Bee Gees lipsynched their songs, while Elton John was supposed to appear, but didn’t. Still, at least Rod performed Da’ Ya’ Think I’m Sexy? as his contribution to marking the start of UNICEF’s International Year of the Child. A subsequent LP and longer term royalties did bring in more money for the cause, but Live Aid it most certainly was not. CLOSE CALL The world came perilously close to Armageddon on 9 November when US military computers erroneously indicated that the USSR had launched a full scale nuclear attack on the USA. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) initially reported 250 incoming missiles, then a further 950, leaving between three and seven minutes for president Jimmy Carter to decide whether or not to retaliate. The air force was put on alert, US missiles sites received preliminary warnings and the president’s ‘doomsday’ command post aircraft was scrambled. Fortunately, back-up data from satellites and radars convinced the military that the whole thing was a mistake before World War Three broke out. It later transpired that a training tape simulating all-out war had been accidentally loaded into the system. In the months afterwards, there were three more false alarms at NORAD, two of which were traced to faulty computer chips.