Book Review: The 80s Kid

A copy of The 80s Kid was deposited into our greedy little hands this time last week. It had been talked up somethin’ fierce by the guy who suggested we review it and was cleverly delivered when Team Culch were onto their third Friday night drink and would’ve been endeared by a triangle-cut sandwich. On a quick page-flick we were impressed with the poppingly-colourful design and the neat little handbag size of it … but would it pass muster when we sat down for a proper read? Only Saturday morning’s hangover and a dimly-lit room in Culch Towers would tell… But wait, says you, just what is The 80s Kid? In a sentence, it’s a hardback full-colour 160-page nostalgiafest featuring everything it meant to grow up in Ireland in the 80s and 90s. Written by Andrew Murray, himself an 80s kids, it features the hairdos, hairdon’ts, bad telly, good telly, … There’s more

Nostalgia Week: This Is The Post You’re Looking For!

Seeing as Nostalgia Week here on Culch is just about finished, I thought I’d pop by and make a little contribution. While I understand that ‘nostalgia’ for a lot of people here would be considered the 80′s and the early 90′s, for me it’s the 90′s and the early 00′s. I know, I’m only a young’un, but still. Ironically enough, this post is going to cover something which originated in the late seventies, continued into the early eighties, then popped back up again for the late nineties and noughties. Of course, I’m talking about….. Apologies for the cheesy reference in the title. Couldn’t help it! That’s right: STAR WARS. Everyone’s favourite saga (well….maybe half-saga). Don’t worry, I won’t be going into too much detail about the prequels. Even though they were released during my younger years, it was actually more the Originals which left an impression on me.

Nostalgia Week: In Search of Nirvana

I’ve been trying to write this post for a couple of days but every time it turns into a depressing chronicle of Kurt Cobain’s drug addiction, mental illness and suicide. I’m not really sure it fits with the tone of Nostalgia Week but it’s impossible to talk about Nirvana without talking about Cobain and it’s impossible to talk about Cobain without talking about his death. Too often his death overshadows his life, we focus on the tragic end rather than what preceded it but to talk about one side without talking about the other would be to only tell half the story. Kurt Cobain and Kris Novoselic first meet in Aberdeen, Washington in the mid 1980s. Their mutual love of punk lead the two to form a band and by the end of 1988 Nirvana, featuring Cobain on guitar and vocals, Novoselic on bass and Chad Channing on drums found … There’s more

Nostalgia Week: The 80s films that defined a generation

80s

It’s Nostalgia Week here on Culch and with that I’m looking back at my favourite 5 films from the 1980s. The important consideration for me in choosing these fab five was that they reflect the generation more than simply being the best examples of cinema from one of films finest decade. With that in mind such cinematic legends as Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Star Wars sequels and Batman miss out. So without further ado here are my Top 80s movies.

Competition: Nostalgia Week Day 5: Fashion Fads and Fails

We’ve talked a lot of nostalgic talk on Culch this week. Memories, retro telly, old music, forgotten sweets, outdated toys, and adverts of the past. There’s been reminiscing over cringey teenage crushes, mention of the Blur / Oasis war and if that weren’t enough, a whole heap of prize giveaways. Sadly though, all good things must come to an end…and this is your last chance to win a bunch of goodies from Culch in conjunction with the many simply awesome prize sponsors who helped make Nostalgia Week a week to remember (nostalgia…remember….see what I did there?) Today’s mission is going to be a little more difficult, because we’ve thrown in an extra bitta swag just for the hell of it, and, well, really because it’s the final competition and like a strung out nostalgia junkie you may be willing to do anything for your last chance to score and we … There’s more

Nostalgia Week: Bryano’s Reminiscent Ramblings

“When we were young nobody died And nobody got older The toughest kid in the street Could always be bought over And the first time that you loved You had all your life to give” ~~Whipping Boy - When We Were Young~~ Ah nostalgia, it just isn’t what it used to be… As a kid, everything was new and sparkly; coated in a layer of shine that only the sense of surprise or the unexpected can offer. Eventually, the relationship between one’s senses and one’s environment ‘dulls’ somewhat, as experience eventually readies you for virtually anything this strange grossly over-inhabited rock can throw at you. Now, this may sound like a lyric from Radiohead’s latest release and admittedly such maturity does have its advantages (anyone for a pint?) but I still believe that nothing ever quite matches the feeling of being a kid. Whether it was the feeling of finding … There’s more

Nostalgia Week: We Had A Cold War Too, Y’Know.

In a case of not so much looking back through rose-tinted glasses as looking back through a tose-tinted kaleidoscope, Bloc Party, in their track Hunting For Witches, referenced the transition from 90s to Noughties with the lyric “90s: optimistic as a teen / Now it’s terror…” And while the 90s was indeed a great decade to grow up in, with a slap bracelet on every wrist and a poster of Lee Sharpe on the inside of every locker door, I feel that Bloc Party are glossing over the terrible conflict of the summer of 1995, a scuffle that divided best mate from best mate and brought the spirit of football hooliganism into what was previously a foppish kind of hobby. I refer, of course, to the Blur vs Oasis War, the lowest, nastiest point of which was the release of Blur’s Country House and Oasis‘ Roll With It on the … There’s more

Competition, Nostalgia Week Day 4: Top 30 Hits - The Best Radio Jams of the 90s

You remember it, don’t you? Back before the days of Sky Digital, NTL, Chorus, and all of them, there was just one place to find music on television, RTE’s Top Thirty Hits. It counted down both the singles and the albums charts, as well as the dance chart. Oh the dance chart… However, for this part of nostalgia week, I’m not looking back at Scooter or Darude, but instead the 30 best radio jams of the nineteen-nineties. Beware, there is some woeful songs coming up. But they do bring back great memories. You’re going to have to hit “Play” on them all though. [Sorry I couldn't get all the videos, but at least a live version is better than watching a ball with the album cover on it for three minutes. And like every good top 30 list, there's 32 entries.]

Nostalgia Week: What was on the soundtrack to your youth?

Can you remember what song was playing during your first kiss? How about during your first break-up? The truth is music has the power to dredge up long buried memories like no other medium so we want you to tell us some of your favourite songs and what memories you associate them with. If we get enough suggestions we’ll put together a little playlist, a sort of soundtrack to our collective naval gazing. To get the old grey matter warmed up here are some songs that will forever remind me of my own teenage years.

Nostalgia (Hump Of The) Week: Will Smith ALWAYS Gets A Free Pass.

… aaaaand we’re over the hump of the week. Happy Wednesday afternoon, everyone! Half the week is gone! Two and a half days out of your life you’re never getting back. Two and a half days closer to death! But never mind. Yeah, you’re not fourteen anymore, but if you were, you wouldn’t be able to roar your guts out to this beauty, would you? I want you all to do me a favour. Click the link (because we’re not allowed embed this piece of cultural history, boo, hiss). Square your shoulders. Press play. And wherever you are: the office, on the train, at the bus stop, in the hairdresser’s - sing out at the very top of your lungs! For this is the greatest nostalgic tune there ever was or ever will be! This separates the twentythirty-somethings from the boys. This. Is. THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR!

Nostalgia Week: Boys of the Nineties

As a fully qualified kid of the Nineties, I have to say I’m loving the revival that’s going on at the minute. 80s nights are gradually being supplanted by 90s nights flush with high top runners, brightly patterened shirts and Boom Shake Shake Shake The Room. So naturally I’m delighted that Culch.ie have decided to go all retro on our asses with Nostalgia Week. Now to the topic at hand. I’ve decided to focus on some of the boys of the 90s. At least, the boys that I found myself blu tacking to my bedroom walls as I entered the adolescent minefield of crushes. Saved By The Bell was a show that gave us comedy, questionable fashion, “serious issues” episodes where they’d crowbar in a moral message about smoking, alcohol or drugs, but most importantly to my eleven year old self, it gave us Zack Morris and AC Slater. Dreamboat … There’s more

Competition Closed: Nostalgia Week Day 3 : The Den Saves Christmas

The occurrence of nostalgia can a lot of the time be pinned down to one exact moment. It’s that magical time during a night out with your friends and a couple of bar stools. It’s at the point which is post the slightly sober conversations of if Mizzoni’s is simply the best pizza in Dublin or actually an addictive cocaine topped slab from God himself. While it’s pre the part of the night where you have fallen out with your best mate and are drunkenly obsessing about some stranger with a degree in politics simply because ‘The Frontline’ with Pat Kenny happened to be on in the back ground when your Ex stamped all over your heart, the adorable little thing. Yes, the trip down Nostalgia road should happen somewhere in between the two and is clearly marked with a ‘Sure you know what I miss?’ line from one of … There’s more

Competition Closed: Nostalgia Week Day 2, and the worst toys EVER.

This post is, by its very nature, depressing as The Cleveland Show, except that The Cleveland Show is a recent kind of letdown and this one will twang at the very fibres that you’re spun out of. Yes, it’s Nostalgia Week on Culch.ie, and it’s all very well reminiscing about the great and the gloopy, but a huge, blown chunk of the Irish psyche is “suffering” - that bit chipped out of your rose-tinted glasses - and we’re gonna wallow in that for the day. Want to hear something even more disappointing? This isn’t even an original list; I wrote it about a year ago. Disappointment is like the smell of boiling turnips, though; it lingers. It doesn’t matter that this is an old list. Nothing. Has. Changed. I’m gonna sweeten it up with a prizey at the end for those of you sturdy enough to get through this, though. … There’s more

Competition Closed: Nostalgia Week Day 1: Eilish’s Memories

In the first of our Nostalgia Week posts, here’s are some childhood memories extracted from the spluttering neurons shooting blanks in Eilish’s mind. - Sinead TELLY Pajo’s Junkbox It’s Saturday morning and you’re jacked up on Cornflakes with 15 spoons of Siucra. There’s a punk, anarchist rat with a pink mohawk presenting a childrens’ TV show on RTE 2. Alongside him is yer wan who played the nun in the ‘Lent’ edition of Fr. Ted (most recently seen as a cleaning lady in a Meteor ad. One time I saw this woman having coffee in Avoca and was almost starstruck). Pajo was bad-ass. He wore a leather jacket and (if I’m not making this up) may even have had a piercing or two. I can’t confirm this because THERE ARE NO PHOTOS OF HIM ANYWHERE ON THE INTERWEBS. Anyway, he was amazing and a reminder of the time RTE may … There’s more

Nostalgia Week

Happy Nostalgia Week! Is that a real thing? Well, if Guinness can have Arthur’s Day, Culch can have Nostalgia Week and while you probably can’t get off work for it, for the next five days we invite you to be retro with us. What does that involve exactly? Well, a certain announcement about 10 days ago made some of us (me) feel shockingly old. The Den…Dempsey’s Den, D’Arcy’s Den, Den TV or whatever it was to you…is no more. After 25 years it’s gone, cancelled, out with the old. If you remember The Den you are officially the holder of a memory of a thing past that will never be discovered by a new generation of kids…which is really very sad if you actually can’t remember a world before The Den. How’s that worth celebrating and being retro? Well here’s the thing. I was an 80s and 90s child and … There’s more