A shot in the dark; the big question mark in history

It's another timeslip moment, dear reader...

As it is now forty years since my favourite musical year, the year I left school and discovered a whole like-minded scene of kids-who-love-dressing-up (known in the press as "New Romantics"), the year of Brideshead Revisited, the Royal Wedding, riots, Reagan and the Ripper, I shall no doubt be paying regular visits throughout 2021 to...

...1981!

In the news headlines in early March four decades ago? IRA hunger strikes at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland; the shady world of Freemasonry in Italy was exposed with the discovery of a covert right-wing lodge called "P2" with links to politicians, the military and the Vatican bank; the "M5 rapist" was convicted of twelve counts of rape; the first Homebase DIY store opened in Croydon; the Sinclair ZX81 home computer was launched; and we bade a sad farewell to the prolific songwriter Yip Harburg. In our cinemas: Neil Diamond in the remake of The Jazz Singer; Blood Beach; Inseminoid. On telly: The Life and Times of David Lloyd George, Open All Hours, and the ill-fated North-Sea-ferry-based soap Triangle.

And in our charts? For the fourth week in a row, the eternal Ultravox classic Vienna was robbed of its rightful place at the top by Joe-bloody-Dolce and Shaddup You Face. Meanwhile, Roxy Music's Jealous Guy was on the ascendant and about to leapfrog them both. Also present and correct were Rainbow, Motorhead and Girlschool, Adam and the Ants, Coast to Coast (Do The Hucklebuck), Freeez, Status Quo and Madness.

Biding her time further down the charts however, and about to crash into the Top 5, was the "Queen of Post-Punk" herself - Toyah!

Toyah - It's A Mystery

Like so much from that year, I went mad for this song - and it still resides in my collection today...