Stumps & Runs & Rock 'n' Roll by Tim Quelch

Author:Tim Quelch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2015-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

1983

Beat It

Speaking of celebrities, they did not come much bigger than American pop star Michael Jackson. Despite his freak show lifestyle, earning him the sobriquet ‘Wacko Jacko’, his brilliance as a performer, producer, choreographer and composer is undeniable. His 1982 album Thriller, on which ‘Beat It’ features, is the highest-selling album ever with 65 million worldwide sales. In ‘Beat It’, Jackson rails against gang violence and alpha-male macho posturing. Jackson’s detestation of violence stemmed from the abuse he allegedly suffered as a child. The funky guitar riff is provided by heavy-rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen. This represented a new departure for Jackson. He explained, ‘I wanted to write a song, the type of song that I would buy if I were to buy a rock song.’ I have no argument with that.

By 1983, macho posturing was no longer a male prerogative in British politics. Denis Healey might have dismissed her as a ‘bargain basement Boadicea’, but Mrs Thatcher proved to be as tough, if not tougher, than any of her male political colleagues or opponents. Her reward for a decisive response to the Falkland Islands crisis was a landslide victory at the polls in June. Labour was almost wiped out as an electoral force in the south of England with the Liberal/Social Democratic Alliance runners-up in two-thirds of these southern constituencies. No matter how much Conservative values were condemned by their detractors, such as the makers of the Emmy award-winning film, The Ploughman’s Lunch, in 1983 Mrs Thatcher’s stock could not have been higher.

But as England cricket fans know only too well, a slip has a wretched habit of becoming a slide, and when the luck runs out, a trickle can quickly become a torrent. During her second term in office, Mrs Thatcher lost her disgraced aide Cecil Parkinson; her Brighton hotel was bombed by the IRA; she was humiliated by the Spycatcher revelations and discredited by the Westland affair; and then challenged not only by the obstreperous Greater London Council, but by her own MPs in disputes over pay, pension, tax concessions and welfare reforms. This was a year of living dangerously. Trigger fingers were very itchy as a South Korean 747 found to its cost having strayed into Soviet airspace. Star Wars was high on the US agenda but Glasnost was not yet in sight.

Meanwhile back on the cricket field, an England touring party led by conscientious Bob Willis failed to retain the Ashes. On balance, Willis’s men acquitted themselves as well as might have been expected given the unavailability of some of England’s best and most experienced players. In the absence of Boycott and Gooch, the opening positions were never satisfactorily filled, although Tavare played with commendable adhesiveness at Perth (89) in the first Test, where important contributions by Randall (78 and 115), Gower (72), and Lamb (46 and 56) helped earn a creditable draw.

Despite losing Lillee and Alderman to injury – Alderman dislocated his shoulder at Perth following an oafish pitch invasion – Australia proved far too good at Brisbane, winning by seven wickets.

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