Dan O’Grady (Shay Duffin), a drunken, middle-aged ex-patriot Irishman, returns to his small North Dakota hometown after attending his mother’s funeral in Ireland and tells his submissive, dough-faced wife (Pamela Mant) that he caught a leprechaun while he was in…

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Pinball was originally developed as a small game that could fit on a tabletop, but its size soon changed as its popularity grew. By the 1940’s, large, stand-up pinball games were the norm in the arcade world. This trend changed…

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This 1984 arcade hit from Bally Midway was unique in every way – featuring everything from a realistic beer tap control to a Budweiser tie-in, all designed to give adult arcade fans a game of their own. The duty of…

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Chicago Coin’s Demolition Derby was configured for one or two players – with a steering wheel, accelerator pedal and two-position gear shift lever (forward and reverse) for each – and allowed players to run mad in a rectangular arena. Two computer-controlled…

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Released in 1984, Pac-Land was a video game based on a cartoon series based on a video game . . . The ghosts, the fruits and the energisers were all still there from the original 1980 Pac-Man game, but Pac-Land…

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1 9 9 2 (USA) 11 x 30 minute episodes In this bizarre post-apocalyptic comedy, kids playing with remote control cars at a small Midwestern parade accidentally set off some nuclear missiles that were being paraded. The missiles hit assigned targets…

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The Red Hot Chili Peppers came together in Los Angeles in 1983, formed by high school friends Anthony Kiedis and Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary. The naughty party boys of LA rock began playing funk-infused punk, moving to the club circuit in…

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This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas formed in 1969 in and around Houston, from rival bands The Moving Sidewalks (Gibbons) and The American Blues (Hill and Beard). Their first two albums reflected the strong blues roots and Texas humour…

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The Herd reached #6 in Britain in 1967 with From The Underworld. The blossoming of ‘flower power’ at that time brought the group two more hits in 1968 with Paradise Lost and the superb I Don’t Want Our Loving To…

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The roots of The Blues Magoos were laid when Ralph Scala and Ronnie Gilbert met as members of the golf team at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx area of New York. Recruiting drummer John Finnegan they called themselves…

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The Move brought a blast of Black Country grit – plus an unlikely dash of classicism – to the fey realm of 1960s British psychedelia. Formed in Birmingham (UK) in 1965 they had their first UK hit in 1966 with…

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Formerly known as The Chosen Few, this Newcastle band changed their moniker to Skip Bifferty in 1966. The following year they arrived in London, playing the Marquee and ended up signing a management deal with Don Arden. They released three…

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Born in Beckenham, Kent, in 1950, Frampton was an old mate of David Bowie (Frampton’s father, Ossie, taught Bowie art at Beckenham Technical School). The first time he played the guitar in public was at a Boy Scout variety show when he…

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Axl Rose (real name William Bailey) put Guns N’ Roses together in Los Angeles after hitch-hiking from Indiana with old school friend Izzy Stradlin’ (real name Jeffrey Isbell). Slash (real name Saul Hudson), Duff McKagan and Steven Adler from LA…

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In the year 2022 people are still the same. They’ll do anything to get what they need. And they need Soylent Green! Charlton Heston is Robert Thorn – a policeman in a society so overcrowded that decent air, habitable living…

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With a vast army of street fighters from South-East Asia to do his bidding, psychotic fascist warlord General M. Bison (Raul Julia) is holding a group of 63 westerners hostage in the (fictitious) country of Shadaloo and has demanded a ransom…

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Mad scientist Dr Charles Decker (Michael Gough) returns from Africa after it has been presumed for a year that he died in a plane crash. During his year in Africa, he discovered a method of growing plants and animals to…

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In Britain, Radio 1 and Top of the Pops began in the Sixties, but by 1970 the Disc Jockeys (or DJ’s) had been elevated to stardom, and many were household names; Tony Blackburn, David ‘Diddy’ Hamilton, Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman, Dave Lee Travis,…

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Born on 13 July 1910, and married to Ernest Whitehouse in 1940, Constance Mary Whitehouse (nee Hutcheson) was an art teacher and mother of three who campaigned vociferously for more than 30 years against sex, violence and blasphemy on television,…

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This arcade standard, a distant, distant relative of bowling, Skee-Ball was invented and patented in 1908 by Joseph Fourestier Simpson, a resident of Vineland, New Jersey. Simpson licensed the game to John W Harper and William Nice Jr. who created…

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“Beware! I live!” One of the fastest-paced, most challenging arcade games of the golden years, Sinistar also featured one of the era’s most memorable villains. The evil Sinistar itself was a gigantic, detailed metal face with flashing red eyes, silver…

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Launched in 1979, there was little doubt where Exidy got the inspiration for StarFire. From the logo to the ship design to the very concept, everything about the game screamed Star Wars – and back in 1979, that was a…

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In the brief history of the video arcade, a handful of games have started major trends, but very few have inspired a true revolution. Capcom’s Street Fighter II earned its spot on the shortlist by creating the one-on-one fighting game…

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Borrowing the famous theme from the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire (1981) for its mode music, Konami’s Track & Field – launched in 1983 – brought six Olympic events to the arcade in a single game. Each of the game’s events…

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Launched in 1980 and one of the first arcade games to feature distinct levels of play, Phoenix took a few basics from Space Invaders and Galaxian, and added a style all its own with its bright pastel graphics and multi-stage…

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Site of a peace demonstration on public land near Newbury, Berkshire, UK, outside a US airbase.  The women-only camp was established in September 1981 in protest against the siting of US cruise missiles in the UK. The demonstrations ended with…

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January 01 – Albanian fighters shoot down a British freight plane that allegedly strayed into Albanian airspace. 01 – The European Economic Community (the “common market”) comes into being. The UK is not included. 01 – West German forces join…

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January 01 – The US gives $216 million in aid to South Vietnam. 01 – The 1955 Cotton Bowl Classic American football game is won by the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. 02 – President José Antonio Remón Cantera is assassinated…

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January 01 – In Britain, Alf Ramsey is knighted and Bobby Moore gets an OBE in the New Years Honours. 01 – 48-hour ceasefire ends in Vietnam with B-52s attacking the DMZ. 01 – All Night Rave at The Roundhouse…

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January 01 – In Australia, the Bogle/Chandler case mystifies police who believe poison may have been used to kill the couple. 02 – UPI reports that 30 Americans have died in Vietnam combat to date. 10 – Premier of Cliff…

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November 22 – 25, 1963 (USA) Air Force One touched down at Andrews Air Force on 22 November a little after 6 pm, a mere two minutes after technicians had cobbled together a bank of microphones that would enable Lyndon Johnson, the…

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January 02 – Erica Roe Streaks at Twickenham. 03 – South Korea lifts its night-time curfew after 36 years. 05 – Public donations to the Penlee lifeboat disaster fund amount to £2,000,000. All to be shared by the families of…

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The Australian TV Week King of Pop awards began in 1967 as an extension of the Go-Set Awards, named after the weekly pop newspaper of the day. When Normie Rowe was voted most popular performer by Go-Set’s readers in 1967,…

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