Panini Stickers, Tangled Cassettes & Sugar-Free Lies

Crack open a lukewarm can of Aldi 'Red Thunder' and get your pencils ready—we are taking an impromptu stroll down a very specific, tape-tangled memory lane.

We kick off this week’s second-half double header by tackling the ubiquitous world of sugar-free drinks. They are absolutely everywhere, but we’re not entirely convinced they deserve the health halo they’ve picked up along the way. We dig into the awkward question people tend to skip past: if you’re having a fizzy drink as a treat, why pretend it’s a moral decision? From full-sugar classics to Diet and Zero versions, we compare taste, talk honestly about artificial sweeteners, and admit why some of them still don’t quite work for us.

Things get even stranger when fast food chains start policing the drink menu while leaving everything else completely untouched. We unpack the logic of serving fried chicken, chips, and desserts alongside strict rules on full-sugar cola, and question whether these choices are really about health—or just corporate messaging.

From there, the diet chat gets a bit too real. We confess to our own terrible habits: skipping breakfast, surviving on coffee and biscuits, and the recurring tragedy of never packing a lunch to work (a stream-of-consciousness anecdote Ben loves so much he literally retold it from Episode 5). We lay our questionable food intakes bare and talk about the exact moment a throwaway comment about cholesterol suddenly stops being funny.

Finally, a museum postcard featuring a classic cassette tape triggers a sharp turn into heavy, unadulterated nostalgia. We dive headfirst into the sights and sounds of our youth: mixtapes, Sunday chart countdowns, ghetto blasters, VCRs, video rental shops, Panini stickers, and the sacred art of rescuing a tangled tape with a pencil. We do our absolute best to prove we genuinely grew up as children of the 1980s, all while trying (and slightly failing) to stay clear of the usual American pop-culture clichés.

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If you survived the '80s, still know how to rewind a cassette by hand, or just enjoy listening to two tired teachers spiral into a stream of consciousness, hit subscribe and share this episode with a mate down the hall!

Drop us a review and let us know: Are you team full-sugar, team sugar-free, or team water? (And do your friends actively refuse to listen to your podcast, too?)

• Email: bandjcdb@gmail.com
• Web: benandjamescoulddobetter.com

Transcript

The Case Against Sugar-Free Fizz

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Two original red thunders. When it's algae to buy the red thunders, I could only see the one original. Right. There was a lot of red thunders on the shelf, but only one original. I've got my managed to by digging to the back of the shelf. I got two. They were the sugar trees, were they? But there's there's one Red Thunder original and there's two sugar-free options. Two. Two sugar-free options. One is pink.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

A pink thunder. And one is blue. I cannot be the only person on the planet. And clearly not, because Coke is still making Coke and all the rest of it. But in vastly reduced quantities. Because everybody's well, almost everybody. Clearly not everybody. Otherwise they wouldn't make any. Almost everybody is is over to the zeros or the sugar free. They are awful. Absolutely awful. You know, if you're gonna if you're gonna have a a soft drink, why not commit to it? None of them are any good for you, are they? Surely surely all the rubbish they're throwing into the sugar freeze is is gonna prove to be as damaging for you as as the sugar is. Nobody I'm not here to advocate for sugar. I know it's not good for you. We know scientists have told us for decades, sugar's not good for you and salt is not good for you in high quantity. So we know that. So I know me filling my face with coke, which I do love, is not good for me. It's not good for my skin, it's not good for anything else. Alright? But I like it. And it tastes as it should have done. The diet coke doesn't taste anything like it. Coke Zero doesn't taste anything like it. But I'm just saying, do how what's your view on it? Because I mean I mean exactly yours, actually. Um But there's nothing there's nothing virtuous about having a sugar free. There is something virtuous, I suppose, about being a vegetarian. Particularly if you're saying it's because I don't like the way animals are treated and all the rest of it. I I can go with that, totally. But I don't it's not being virtuous saying, oh are you having the full fat, are you?

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Then they don't drink it. Well, some people will say they prefer the zero and the sugar-free.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

I I I've never been able to understand that. I don't understand it. Remember the lolly from the last episode, that didn't work either.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

There's no taste to it.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

The uh the sugar-free stuff, I I don't like it. My dad would drink it because he's diabetic. So I suppose it exists.

SPEAKER_04 2:34

Yeah, of course. Of course. I understand that. Do you want a sugar-free donut?

SPEAKER_02 2:38

No, I don't want sugar-free donut.

SPEAKER_04 2:40

It's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

But um, no, if I if I want to be healthy, I'll drink water. And if if I don't want to be or if I want a treat, I'll drink a coke. What I quite find interesting is that um some of the the fast food outlets McDonald's will still sell a full fat full fat. It's full sugar coke, but we call it a full fat coke.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

Why do we call it a full fat coke?

SPEAKER_02 2:58

No fat in it, is there? It's sort of just an accepted kind of it's a joke. It's a joke we all make that none of us really find funny, but we all make it, and therefore it's sort of kind of funny by virtue of the mass usage.

Fast Food Health Claims That Collapse

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Anyway, I'm gonna get on to when was the last time you had a KFC?

SPEAKER_04 3:16

Oh, probably six months ago.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

And six months ago, because it was true six months ago, you wouldn't have been able to buy a full sugar coke in KFC. In KFC. This is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

In Kentucky fried chicken, it's hardly known as a bastion of um healthy eating, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 3:34

You can buy deep fried chicken, you can buy fries, you can buy all kinds of you can buy an Oreo crushams, all kinds of sugar-filled treats for desserts, but you cannot buy a full sugar coke. Or I think it's Pepsi they sell. Now, Pepsi doesn't for Pepsi's gone down the road, even full sugar. Pepsi's not full sugar, they've got some of the sweeteners in, like your Lilts and your Dr. Peppers. I don't like it. But you can't even buy that in KFC. It is just Pepsi Max or Diet Pepsi. That's what you can buy. You can only buy sugar-free drinks, but not sugar-free desserts, and not fat-free deep fries. None of that's sugar-free. So basically, everything on the menu at KFC is incredibly bad for you. Yes. But you can't wash it down with a coke.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

And and why have they taken that decision? They honestly think that that's the virtue signaling, is it? We don't we don't do it. I mean, I'm I'm not really into KFC's business model. Tell

Packed Lunches And A Shocking Diet

SPEAKER_04 4:33

you what, all of this has made me uh think of though, and that is my diet is absolutely shocking.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

I mean, I can't disagree with you.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

It's shocking. How how I'm still alive is a testament to the human body, and in particular my body, yeah? And I'm not I'm not calling upon you or any listener to admire it, but internally it should be admired.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Oh, I've seen what you put into it.

SPEAKER_04 4:55

It's uh it's absolutely diabolical. For example, and I I and nobody believes me when I say this. How long have I been working? I've been working and and I was working long before university in jobs where I should have taken packed luncheon or whatever it is. So I've been working in that regard since I was 16, I suppose, but full-time working from 21, 22 onwards. But then all the teaching practice on top. So all of those years, not once have I taken a packed lunch to work in all of those years.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Well, our listeners know that, of course, because you've said that on the podcast before. Have I? You have, it's in a previous episode. Oh. Because and I know it's but it is I think it's in episode five. Um and I know uh I think uh the reason I can be that specific is because that's the first episode my wife listened to in full while I was sort of listening to the uh the raw.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

Did she have any comment to make at all?

SPEAKER_02 5:50

She was she was absolutely staggered by the fact that you've never taken a pack lunch.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Never never never I mean point is never had one made, never made one myself.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Whereas as you know, I I do make a pack lunch every time.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

You do, you like a quinoa, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Well, I don't like that's the point. I don't really like a quinoa, and sometimes it's a bulgur weed, but I did make the decision to start eating health healthier. I've always eaten fairly nutritious meals at least once a day. I started trying to eat more healthily, and for about a month I was really, really, really good at it, and it was really having an impact. But the thing is, I do still like all the bad stuff too.

SPEAKER_04 6:24

Well, I've I've noticed you've got real extremes. Yeah. I mean the bulger wheat with you know a diced pepper and all the rest of it in it.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

It's a diced tomato, but yeah, yeah. Well let's just say seasonal veg uh might get chopped and put in in all the major supermarkets, including your Aldi's and Liddles, you can buy tomatoes and cucumber all year round. So uh probably not from this country though. They're probably uh shipped in.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

No, but so you go from that to and and water to oh don't mind if I do packet of biscuits.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

And I'll eat the entire packet, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

Yeah. Yeah. But I think that is still better than what I do.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

It well, it is because I do have the nutrition inside me, even if I have all the sugar and fat as well.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

If Jen was worried about the the no pat lunch, she's gonna she's not gonna know what to do with this. Because I don't think well, I don't particularly like fruit, so that doesn't exist in the diet at all. I do like a salad, but only if it's prepared for me by somebody else. I can't be bothered to make one myself. I love a salad, actually. I would actually choose a salad above a pizza if I was in Pizza Express, let's say something like that, right? But I know they're not particularly healthy for you. No, that's not a good example of it. They'll be laced with uh sauce is not that's another thing. I don't particularly like lots of sauce. I don't really get that either. When in the fast food restaurant slathered with, you know, tomato sauce and I don't like any any of that.

Condiments, Sauce Politics And Free Breakfast

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Well there there we are on the same page, and to to the extent that although we often sit at breakfast on a Friday, because we get a free breakfast in work on a Friday. It's not supposed to be, is it? Well, no, the breakfast's free, but we are supposed to make a donation to charity. But that's not that's not having the breakfast is not contingent on the donation. Yeah. It's a nice thing, isn't it? It's a nice thing to do on top. But then we get this free breakfast, and obviously there's um you'll make me feel like a crisp rice. You're having a crisp rice.

SPEAKER_04 8:14

Which is kind of reinforcing what I'm saying, really.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

But you will um it's a bit anemic, isn't it? We're often on the same table as the condiment box provided by our good friend Rob.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Neither well, I liked the first mention. He was quite happy with that. Okay. I think I mean I I assume that's correct, Rob. Correct me if I'm wrong. You you liked us uh giving you a shout out. Don't know if you listen to the show, actually. Um No. I'm not sure if you actually listened to it, but you could be a faux listener. Well, I I don't think he's ever claimed to listen to it. But uh I tell you who, one of our other friends, Matt, has actively said he doesn't listen to it. That was good of him. With some pride. I've never never listened, never listened to it, mate. Never listen to it. Seemed to be quite triumphant about him. He was he was like, he was uh, you know, yeah, no interest in that. No interest. What's I I mean I'm mire is on, he's not he's not listening to it. Did he actually say he had no interest? Yeah, he's not listened to it in dis it's not like he's listened to it and gone, that's not for me. Matt has just never listened. He's our friend, actively considers himself to be a friend of both of us, and we would consider him a friend too. It's reciprocal. We we all we both like Matt, and Matt likes both of us, and and lots of people in work have listened to it, and us I th uh hopefully are still listening to it right now. Matt has never listened to this. So um, there you go. But Rob brings the condiments every week. Yeah, he does revise the condiments. Little basket, isn't it? Uh little sort of grey kind of plastic topic. It's like they'd give you in Wimpy, actually. Yeah, and and should Rob be unavailable for work for whatever reason, people panic that the condiments aren't there. So people love those condiments, but like they were a brother almost. But we sit on the condiment table, so to speak. The table where the condiments are. Neither of us have any of them. No.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

We don't use the so we've got But if you've got beans or tomatoes on a plate, sauce enough. You do not need a sauce on top of that. What tomato sauce on tomatoes?

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Well, ridiculous. There's all these arguments about that. So for a while, Rob provided a brown sauce, but it wasn't HP. He buys these with his own money. I know. To give to the staff, and and he because he's not he's not providing you know, he's just a colleague, he's not in charge of the school.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

And he It's not like he bought pH sauce or something like that, you know, some sort of imposter brand.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

But people complained it wasn't HP.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

It's like rocking up in the canteen for the free breakfast and saying, are these a are these heinz? And then saying, Oh no, and it's not for me. But anyway, back to my health, which you should be much more concerned about as my friend and my podcast. But despite what I've said and the level of self-realisation I have about this diet, which includes, and may I just say this, and I don't say this with any pride, I'm disgusted about what I'm about to say. Never eat breakfast apart from Friday in school. Never.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

You missed it this Friday then, didn't you?

SPEAKER_04 11:04

No, I did have it. I did have it, but just without you. It's the first time I've had breakfast without you.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

It was it was difficult for me.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

I had to eat alone.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

Yeah, it was and I ate alone. I there was a room full of people I could have sat with and I didn't. I sat on my own. They were quite happy about it, don't get me wrong. But I was happy about it as well. And this is not because I don't like them, but I I wanted to eat that sausage and bacon with some tomato, a little bit of mushroom, on my own. The sauces were next to me and they were they were left on their own.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

So you sat at the same table that I sat at earlier.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

Yes. Um we both cut very lonely dashes at that table.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Sometimes Rob often sits with us, and Lucy often sits with us, and they were both in school as well. We all ate separately. None of us together.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

So uh that was a what a sullen morning. That was uh yeah. But

Cholesterol Worries And The Biscuit Impression

SPEAKER_04 11:53

despite the level of self-realisation, when a doctor said to me not so long back, cholesterol's not looking very good, I was shocked. So no breakfast, might have a coffee with a biscuit halfway through the morning. That'll be my body's you know, you can imagine the whoever it is that works inside you. I always imagine little men down there working. Going, oh right. Here comes some useless caffeine down the system. Oh, and a biscuit. Wonderful. That's gonna be no good for anybody.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

I'm just gonna because you've you've reminded me of something here. There's a student, there's a few students who listen to the show. There's one student in our school. He's no well, I mean, by the time this goes out, he won't be a student in our school anyway. He's finished. And by the time this goes out, I might be dead. Well, no, he's not gonna be. No, but uh he won't be. I might be. That's true, you might be. Anyway, he's he's a recently recently completed his GSE's year 11, so he's he has he has actually left the school. But big fan of the show when it first came out. Uh like to comment on it. But he does an impression of you. Right. And it's not I'm all he is. I didn't think it was a very good impression.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

But it's growing on you, is it?

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Well, because then you turned up and kind of did what he was doing. Well So what he does, what don't leave me hanging. Have you got a biscuit? Is what you say to me. Go, have you got a biscuit? And I'd go, what? What? And he'd go, what do you mean you haven't got a biscuit? And I was like, just stop, stop it, leave me alone. What are you doing? What do you mean you haven't got a biscuit? And then you literally did that the same day. The same day. Have you got a biscuit? What do you mean you haven't got a biscuit? Right, right. It's a frighteningly accurate. As if the world owes you a biscuit. Uh you do get quite offended when people don't have biscuits to provide you in uh into such an extent that I now make sure there are always biscuits in my office. I mean that felt painfully accurate to me.

unknown 13:39

I think it is.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

I think it's now I I as I say I haven't mentioned that that student by name because we have we have got some we have mentioned a few colleagues by their first names, but we we will not mention students. We'll never mention a student by name.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

They'd like us to, but we will not be.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

But he will, if he's still listening, and I imagine he is still listening because he's he was quite a big fan. That was for you. I said I'd mention you. Not by name, but I've done it. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 14:00

I'm 50 now. I need to start doing something about this. I mean, I do walk around at high speed a lot. I do stand up and move around in lessons. I don't I don't adopt a sedentary position.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Shall we uh have a go at making the show?

SPEAKER_04 14:13

Yeah, let's let's crack on.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Right.

Welcome To Class And A Denmark Detour

SPEAKER_02 14:15

So uh welcome to Ben and James Could Do Better.

SPEAKER_04 14:18

And I think we all know we could.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Do we?

unknown 14:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Perhaps uh you could do the register again. It's it's going well, I think, that that way round.

SPEAKER_04 14:27

Yeah, yes, I love it. I love it. Alright, come on, class. Come on, all of you sit down. Thank you. Yeah, no, on a chair, please, Jones. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Right. Okay. Well, I'm here. I'm your teacher. Uh JJ Burke. Yeah yeah here. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 14:47

I thought that was Give me, give me cha-cha heels. Ba ba ba ba da ba.

SPEAKER_04 14:53

Remember the Earth Kit song?

SPEAKER_07 14:55

Ya ya heels. I don't, but what language is that?

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Uh that is Danish, believe it. Oh. Danpak. Yeah. Now, the last time I went abroad on holiday, it was to Denmark. It was Copenhagen.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

Was it?

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Yeah. And Copenhagen, I have to say.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

Oh, I love a Scandinouir set in Copenhagen.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Well, it was very pleasant, but there wasn't a great deal to do from what I recall of Copenhagen. It was there's a pleasant week. Pleasant.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Did you ever watch the bridge? Known as Bronn, uh Scandinoir favourite of mine, starring Sophia Helen and Kim Bodnier.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Don't would you count the girl with the dragon tattoo as Scandinoir?

SPEAKER_04 15:35

Yes, ish, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Because that's about that's where I sort of dipped my toe in that, and that's about all I've really in terms of that genre.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

My mother's not keen on the grey filter, as she calls it. The Scandinavoir.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

The sort of Oh right, yeah. Well again, I don't know what you're talking about. She's much more into Inspector Morse, really. Well, I mean me I'd I'd agree with her. There. Uh although I never watched the uh I've never watched either Lewis or Endeavour. Only only Oh goodness me. And don't get me started on those stupid ones set on a Paradise Island. Lost uh Death in Paradise. Oh Death in Paradise. Absolutely awful. And uh the spin-off Beyond Paradise. I've no I've not watched any of those now. I don't watch a lot of TV to be honest. So uh do you want to do postcard first or do you want to reminisce about the week you've just lived?

The Postcard That Sparks Cassette Nostalgia

SPEAKER_02 16:16

No, no, I would like to do the postcard. That's a picture of a cassette tape, and then sort of in front of the cassette tape, there's sort of the this not silhouettes, there's sort of drawings. Um there's two people sat in front of a cassette wearing headphones. There's no cassette player.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

Did you remember the BASF cassettes and the TIAC? That rings more of a bell, yeah. Uh the the cass the cassettes. I remember my music teacher saying to me, What you need is a good quality cassette recorder.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Sounds like good quality cassette recorder. Anyway, that's I think that's probably an appropriate image for And that reminds me of a good quality cassette recorder as well. Well, it's a it's a good quality cassette, certainly. And they seem to be enjoying listening to it. Although there's the twin headphones there, so there's they're sort of independently. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Sort of linked for me, I think one of the first cassettes I bought was Introspective by the Petchup Boys. Right. Which looked like which again is 80s, because obviously it was looked like a trebore refresher packet.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

If you know the introspective album by I don't my earliest cassette cassette memories, I remember having sort of singles on vinyl, actually. I mean, when I was very young, they were uh Cliff Richards and the Young Ones, but the young ones, you know, Rick Mail's young ones. I remember having that on a vinyl single and the spit in image song. Oh yes. That hold a chicken in the air. Yes, yes, I remember that. Um and then cassettes. I I vaguely remember having Queen's Greatest Hits One and Greatest Hits Two. Yes. I remember having Miracle on Cassette.

SPEAKER_07 17:58

God's creations great and small, it's a miracle, it's a miracle.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember that would have been on the on the greatest hits two. I think I would have had Michael Jackson's band on cassette. But one I remember quite profoundly is the Paul Gascoigne album. Now that's not one I was expecting you to No, and I don't know uh Fog on the Tain is All Main and Fog and the Tane is All Main. Yeah, that's it. You did that, didn't you? And I had that on Cassette, and uh which again because Good quality was it? Well it would have been I mean at the time I would have thought it was it was great. But that's uh just to just to sort of a little nod there, so the World Cup is still going on in the background. Uh you're not you're still not a fan of football.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

No, no, but I'm working on it.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

You're trying your best. Uh um obviously Gaza reminiscent of uh C19.

SPEAKER_04 18:47

My first foray into the cassettes was dipping into John Slade's collection, which included John Denver.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:56

And uh Neil Diamond. Uh now you know there's a lot to admire in Neil Diamond. Uh Silky Voice, you know, some lovely uh songs.

SPEAKER_06 19:11

Remember that one?

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Not not not hugely.

SPEAKER_06 19:13

Crackling rose it on pa yeah, so that was the that was the introduction.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

Rubber Soul, obviously, by the Beatles. But then moving into my collection, uh my first ones we had Telstar Hits of 86. Right now, that that takes me back. Yeah, I I had uh The Greatest Hits of 88.

SPEAKER_05 19:32

Which I think had Foreigner Wanna Noah is Yeah, that was that was there.

SPEAKER_04 19:40

Mine was very much the Kylie and Jason era. Yeah, I think there might have been a Kylie on that on that one as well. But um then we had David Bowie's Let's Dance album. So he's getting a bit more credible now. Yeah, on on Cassette. Um and as I said, Introspective by the Pet Shop Boys. I had a Morrissey album, I seem to remember, on Cassette, or it might have been the Smiths actually at that time. Maybe it was the Smiths.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

It's sort of, yeah, we're kind of because we're moving into the compact disc era when we get into sort of more Morrissey solo stuff, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_04 20:15

Yeah, maybe it was the Smiths. Yeah, but yeah, I yeah, so Smith's Bowie, and then I had not the best Elton John album of all time, let me tell you, but I I have to tell you because it was one of the early C um cassette purchases, and that was Ice on Fire. Right. No, I'm not familiar with that one. Yeah, Ice on Fire. Uh on there you would have had Nikita.

SPEAKER_07 20:36

Hey Nikita is it called In your little corner of the world.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Gosh, it's interesting, it's quite a musical edition, isn't it?

SPEAKER_06 20:46

You can roll around the globe.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

So

CDs, Britpop, Bowie And The iPod Shift

SPEAKER_02 20:50

I'm I mean I'm not a lot younger than you, we're very close in age, but I think that couple of years younger than you I am is probably you're feeling it, are you? Well, more that I wouldn't have had like I've I've listed all my cassettes. Um, but really I my music collection started really with the compact discs, uh the CDs. But even then, I think I because I I was quite into music in quite a big way in my teen years, and I had quite a credible music and I saw a lot of these bands live, and I but my earliest CDs, I I think so I had a a different version of Queen's Greatest Hits, which I got from America. Yeah. Because my godparents are American. Um and they I went to visit well, we went to America when I was uh sort of in my early teens, and uh for the first time I'd ever been to America and we because I've got family over there as well. But I met my godparents for basically the first time since I'd seen since I'd I was a very small child. And they bought me a CD. I didn't have a CD player, so that's that's how I remember that. And they bought me Queen's Greatest Hits, the American edition, yeah, which was largely the same as the UK edition, but with a different cover and one extra song that wasn't on the UK edition, because they thought I was a big well, I think I must have been professing to be quite a big Queen fan. So that was my first CD, which was just a sort of the same as the same as my. Assets. And then the next CD I bought was Genesis Life. Okay. Okay. Uh so yeah, my early CD collection doesn't then reflect the kind of uh collection.

SPEAKER_04 22:11

You see, my mine were quite eclectic because I remember, you know, I mean this is quite advanced really, but I'd I had um so I had all of the the Guns N' Roses CDs.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

No, I absolutely refused to buy Guns N' Roses for many reasons. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_04 22:26

I I I did love that. And then went through a phase of Deaf Leopard.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Now I did have Def Leopard in my collection.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Pour some sugar on me, etc. etc. I had the The Hysteria album.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

I had no, I had adrenalise.

SPEAKER_04 22:40

Oh right, yes. Well I had that as well.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Do you want to get rocked?

SPEAKER_01 22:46

He was from Sheffield. He was from Sheffield. Do you want to get rocked?

SPEAKER_02 22:50

And he said, Do you want to get rocked?

SPEAKER_04 22:52

He's from Sheffield. Yeah, well while you were listening, do you wanna get rocked?

SPEAKER_05 22:56

I was going, You know what you are? You in a jungle, baby.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Yeah, so I was I was listening to that. But then yeah, I really went to the sort of Brit pop stuff and all of that, sort of um that kind of that was that was the the the lion share of my sort of compact disc collection was uh the blur, the oasis, the supergrass, the pulp. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

You see, I yeah, you see, you you're a big Brit pop fan, whereas I I went down the avenue then of Bowie, Bowie and Moore Bowie. Uh loved all of that. I remember it obviously we had the Let's Dance album, then I started getting into the earlier stuff, and then everything else, and then I got to a point where I'd have to go to Spiller's Records in the U.S. I remember Spiller's Records on the Haze. Yeah. And uh in order up copies of Oh yeah, he's gonna drop um Telling Lies in the 90s, uh special um nine-inch or whatever the hell it was, um version of something. And you'd queue up outside Spillers and you'd have to have your name with me down to get a copy of it. But that was a much better way of listening to music, I thought. And then when we moved on to the iPod. Well, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

The the album kind of died at that point.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

It did, but but the iPod uh I remember downloading it. Must have been the first thing I downloaded was was um another Bowie album called Heathen in the early 2000s, I would have thought. Something like that. So yeah, that that was good, but I I I remember the the the CDs um uh and then uh you know the Dr. Dre and then into MM the first time round.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

I I uh yeah, I did like that.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

Yeah, so there was there was that sort of s side of it, but then I I I would have enjoyed a bit of M people and all that kind of stuff. Um so yes, quite quite eclectic, but then I I would have had I also had the Paul Simon Graceland album, things like that. So yeah, it's always been and then I because I was in choirs when I was younger and orchestras, I'm I've I've never been a classical music buff of any description, but I'd always like some of it. I'd have some of that as well. Uh so yeah, uh probably makes me a real toffee nose um uh chance to be a fine thing, I think. But yeah, so and then where have that where's it all gone now? I've I've still got a box of David Burry's CDs, but everything else seems to have disappeared.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Yeah, I mean I think I've got CDs still in the house, but nothing really to play them on anymore. So uh that's uh it's a shame moved on, isn't it? Um and I I don't listen to albums anymore. I listen to songs now, not not albums, but so I quite missed the cassette actually.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

And all of that came off that postcard scene.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

The postcard does have some merit.

SPEAKER_04 25:32

But but we what we haven't touched on is uh listening to the old top 40 countdown.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Mark Goodyear.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

Uh with Mark Goodyear, Bruno Brooks.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Before him, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:42

Yeah, uh, and all of that. And I'm I'm sure, I'm sure back in the day it was Mike Reed.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

I think it would have been as well, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:48

Yeah, and and they literally were smashy and nicely back in those days, weren't they? Even Mark Goodyear. In at 20.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

And a non-mover, you'd have a non-mover at eleven, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_02 26:00

I particularly because of going back to Climby Fisher. Going back to the Brit Pop kind of era and the the blur versus oasis, and it was like it was actual news on the tell. John Humphreys read that on the BBC News. This is the biggest thing since the Beatles versus the Rolling Stones. Was that even a thing though? The Beatles versus the Rolling Stones? I I don't think it actually was. So it was a bit of a joke.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

And in for the 13th week at number one, it's wet, wet, wet.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Ah yes. Was that Goodnight Girl, or was that Love Is All Around? Love is All Around. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 26:31

The feeling in the bad ba ba.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

And I looked the other day, he's blinking touring it again, hasn't he? Marty Pellow.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

My my mother likes a bit of Marty Pello. Right, well, I mean, and it's been a couple of weeks since we did a list.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

It is, and I mean, uh if that's going to be linked to the eighties, I've just got that vision of a teacher wheeling in the big TV on the metal trolley.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

Well, it is gonna be linked to the eighties, but it's not gonna be linked to school, really, because I um didn't find anything good really.

SPEAKER_04 26:58

So uh No, other than the BBC micro in the corner that only two people are allowed to touch.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

I mean I've I've I've checked and I'm pretty sure we both did grow up in the 1980s, amongst other periods of time. I mean, obviously you were born we were both born in the 70s. You might have vague memories of the 70s, very vague memories as very small.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

I I I'm not one of these, oh yes, I was in the Pram and I remember this. No. No, you didn't have three when when the 80s rocked around, you might remember. Four. Four, so you might have some. So yeah, I do remember I had one of the mats that you pushed a car around.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

Right, there you go. So you've got some memories of being alive in the 70s, but you wouldn't really remember the 70s, you'd remember the eighties.

SPEAKER_04 27:39

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

And I was born in 1979, so I really can't remember the 70s, but I do remember quite a lot of the 80s. Certainly the certain the latter half of the 80s I'd remember.

SPEAKER_04 27:48

You used to listen to the radio.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

In the car.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

No, in in the bedroom. That was there was no TV in the bedroom. Right. No, I radio.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

I don't really I did listen to the radio in the 90s.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

There can't have been many people listening to Radio 4 you know when they're at eight or nine were there. Well, I was one of them. Right, no, I I wasn't one of them. But uh scaring myself witless with Edward D'Souza as the man in black who used to read a horror story out for half an hour on a Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Well, I hate to break it to you, but listening to Radio 4 in your bedroom is not one of the 15 signs that someone grew up in the 1980s. No, well I have them. I have them in. I want to just check the veracity of your claim that you grew up in the 90s.

Testing Our Real 1980s Credentials

SPEAKER_02 28:26

Because I don't, even though I know your age, yeah, and therefore I know you must have spent some time alive in the 1980s, I brought with me today 15 signs someone because we do need to check whether people are telling the truth. Oh, of course we do, yeah. So here's 15 signs that someone grew up in the 1980s, just in case someone claims they did, but really they didn't. Basically says here's 15 telltale signs someone grew up in the 1980s. Oh telltale. Right. If you find yourself nodding along, you're definitely part of this unforgettable generation.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Unforgettable generation.

SPEAKER_04 29:02

So uh we will be forgotten, I can assure you.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

I think probably the most forgettable generation of the people who grew up in the night. I mean, 60s different, isn't it? 70s, different. I tell you what, we didn't ask each other what we got up to this week, and uh I can categorically tell you I didn't. What I would have liked to have got up to this week, and I didn't do, is I didn't go and see the new Masters well it's not new, it's been out for a few weeks, but I sort of would like to at some point go and see the Masters of the Universe movie.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

Oh goodness me.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

I did enjoy that, that in the but I haven't been because uh I've got children, so the last time I went to the cinema was uh 2019 or something like that. Apart from when I went to see Paul Patrol, that that was with my children.

SPEAKER_04 29:40

I'd love to spend time with you, but it wouldn't be in the cinema watching that. No, I've seen both Paul Patrol movies actually in the cinema. No, I prefer to see Paul Patrol than what you just said. Masters of the universe.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

No, we don't have at all the same tastes in popular culture, do we? I think that's a good thing though. Well, if it was the basis of a friendship, it would we'd be faltered. It would falter. So it's a good job it's a good job that we enjoy uh confectionery.

SPEAKER_04 30:05

No, no. For me, you know, but Blur or Oasis didn't like either of them. No really.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

Anyway, number one on the list. Saturday morning cartoons were sacred.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

Well, I don't know about sacred. And I don't like cartoons. We're learning more about I mean it'd be probably quicker to do a list of things I do like. I don't like cartoons, with the exception of I used to like a bit of Roadrunner.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Not specifically of the 1980s Roadrunner, that's called Pink Panther. Again, pre-1980s.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

And Bugs Bunny, pre-19.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:37

I mean they were all shown in the 1980s, but I didn't know I didn't go for any of the stuff from the 80s.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Because the 80s thinks, and I really was into cartoons in the 1980s. He-Man's He-Man well, he Masters of the Universe, yeah. Uh, which obviously the spin-off of that was She-Ra, uh Princess of Power. There was also uh Dog Tanyon, you must have liked Dog Tanyon.

SPEAKER_04 30:57

I didn't like Dog Tanyon.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Quite actually quite a faithful adaptation of the original Dumas uh novel The Dumas.

SPEAKER_04 31:03

Oh, back to the old French. Yeah, yeah, the the original Alexander Dumas.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yeah, uh uh that the three musketeers, Dog Tanyon is surprisingly faithful to that. Danger Mouse? Danger Mouse, absolutely classic, yeah. Yeah, I I loved all that stuff. I did. Oh good for you. Yeah. You you failed on sign one.

SPEAKER_04 31:22

Uh but they weren't sacred as far as I was concerned.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Uh they were there. Uh I I was aware of them. I would say cartoons were sacred. I couldn't specify Saturday morning specifically, though.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

No, I get the Saturday morning television.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Yeah, but I would I would actually say probably after school as sacred, you know, sort of uh five of four thirty slot. C B C I I think Saturday's children's eye TV.

SPEAKER_04 31:49

C I TV used to be presented by Tommy Boyd. I remember Tommy Boyd and Michaela Strachan.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

They did the Wide Awake Club.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

That's right, with with Timmy Mallet.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

But then Timmy Mallet went on to do Wackaday, which was which I did like, but I also hated it. Yeah, I think everyone felt that way about that. And Wackaday, the the W A C was the Wide Awake Club. Yeah. The sort of abbreviated to whack.

SPEAKER_04 32:11

Mallet's mallet. Um the the irony of it was he he he's not actually called Timmy Mallet. No, no. So it wasn't Mallet's Mallet.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Right, so let's just move on to point number two, because uh I'm not sure. I'm now not sure you're gonna pass this test. I'm slightly worried about it.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

You're not scoring very high, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:27

You might have to remove your 80s credentials. Okay. Number two. Alright. Yeah. You remember when MTV played music videos?

SPEAKER_04 32:35

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Yeah, I do too, but I don't remember.

SPEAKER_07 32:38

I want my I want my MTV.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Well, I think your memories are stronger than. Right. Which band? Come on. I don't know. No, no. First on MTV. Death Leopard. Dire Straits. Dire Straits, right, okay. I remember watching MTV, but not really in the 1980s. I think I'd probably watched it.

SPEAKER_04 33:00

No, I'd I I think that was a course.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

It wasn't really available on terrestrial TV.

SPEAKER_04 33:05

Would have contributed hugely to the Michael Jackson's success.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

No, no, I'm I'm I'm I'm sure MTV I'm sure it was a thing in the 1980s. What I'm not sure is if you grew up in the UK in the 1980s, you would have seen very much of it unless you had a satellite.

SPEAKER_04 33:20

Well, that's right. No, not TV.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

No, we didn't have a satellite, we never had satellites.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

So I don't think I think this this Perhaps I watched it over somebody else's house.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Yeah, or or in the 90s when it was uh when sort of things became a bit more available. Uh late nineties as well, so you've been really noise. Uh so I don't think you would necessarily I remember the chart show on ITV.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

So so far I've failed one but passed two. You've passed one but failed two.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

But I think you've lied about passing two, because I don't think you could possibly have watched MTV in the 1980s if you didn't have a skydish.

SPEAKER_04 33:52

No, but I would have gone around a friend who did have a skydish.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Alright, I'll I'll give you that one. Yeah. All my friends are better off than we were. Well I remember music videos, I just don't remember watching them on MTV. Yeah. Alright, okay. Right. We'll call it a draw so far. Thank you. We've we've both got questions. Look, we're checking with the veracity of our claims that we we remember the 1980s. Yep. We we don't three? Number three, okay.

Pencil Repairs, Consoles And Dial-Up Memories

SPEAKER_02 34:17

You used a pencil to fix a cassette tape.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely did that. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Winding it back in when it got chewed round the Yeah, or someone pulled it out, just pulled it out for no good reason. Because you could Yeah, you could just pull it actually out. Ridiculous, isn't it? And then you could wind it back in with a pencil. Yeah. So I do remember that. Well we're we're 1.4 now. Now I'm gonna fall I'm gonna fall foul here. You had a trapper keeper. What the hell are you talking about? Okay, well I'll read I'll read the bump on this one then. Speaking of school supplies, there's a link to school. Yes. Yeah, because we have this is an education podcast. If you were born in the 1980s, you probably begged your parents for a trapper keeper. Right. This iconic binder was the Rolls-Royce of school supplies, featuring colourful covers, velcro flaps, and dividers that kept all of your assignments organized. Plus they were customisable, which made them feel even cooler. I think this might be an American list I found by accident.

SPEAKER_04 35:10

Oh goodness me. Not another American list. Move on to number five.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Uh number five, very eighties this one. Except not probably not the beginning of the 80s, though. Hmm. This will be later 80s. We're not going to talk about legwormers, are we? No. Uh you spent hours playing on a it says it says here. You spent hours playing on a NES, but that means Nintendo Entertainment System. Now I think that's late 80s. I don't think that's I never had one. I did have one, but in the 90s, because we got our our my friend bought a Super Nintendo and got rid of his his old Nintendo and we got it. Oh right. So I had a second hand Nintendo in the hand-me-down Nintendo. Yeah, hand me down. I didn't not down, he was the same age as me, so hand me across, really. Hand me across that. A hand-me-across Nintendo.

SPEAKER_04 35:53

Well, I didn't have a hand-me-down, hand-me-up, hand-me-across, or anything else.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

I hated it, I was dreadful at it. I didn't enjoy it at all.

SPEAKER_04 35:59

Don't like computer gap, but although I did do a bit of, as I've said before, Commodore 64 conversation.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

So I think we recognise that the Nintendo Entertainment System was a thing. Yeah. So I think we can both take it. Just couldn't get my hands on one. Couldn't get my hands on one either, not in the 1980s. In the 1990s.

SPEAKER_04 36:13

So it was there but unattainable.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

Yeah. So super weird. Which is a very sad memory of the 90s. No, but it's a memory nonetheless. And it proves you were there. Yeah. It proves you were there. Good. Yeah. Right. Uh, number six. Now this is very 1980s, this one. Yeah. I recognise it straight away. Number six. Uh you had to call people, no texting.

SPEAKER_04 36:34

Absolutely. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Pretty much sums up the nice page.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

And if only people now would take my dad's advice, because the phone would go, or I'd say, can I and he would say the phone would go and he would go, Who's that? There was no caller display.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

No.

SPEAKER_04 36:54

Um, it was just how did I know who it was? But we would we would all stop. It was as if we had been electrocuted in our respective chairs. I would freeze because I'd think, oh my dad's gonna think this is a gross intrusion into the evening. Uh my mum would freeze thinking, who who have you asked to call? Because it would be my fault. Or my sister, I suppose. And do do they not realise this is our time? But we weren't in earlier. So they could only have called. And then my dad would say, This is ridiculous. You've just seen them in school. Tell them you'll see them tomorrow. As I was walking to the phone, tell them you'll see them tomorrow. So I had to pick the phone up and go, Oh, hello, Clive, or uh hello. Um, yes, I'll see you tomorrow. We'll see each other in school tomorrow. And you'd go, but hang on, mmm, I'd have to go away. It was not acceptable to intrude like that.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

That's that is evocative then of your so really uh my only my only question about this one then is uh memory of the 1980s is that I sort of remember quite a lot of the 1990s as being a time when I could only call people and I'm pretty sure phones existed before the nineteen eighties. I think uh Alexander Bell invented it quite a lot earlier than nineteen eighty. So yeah, it's not just a memory of the 1980s.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

I think I've seen films that are in 1940s, perhaps we could have done the same thing. I think probably yes. I don't think that's in that wasn't that's not a specific.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

Although I was people were calling in and out on the on the dial the baker like dial phone. Did you have one of those?

SPEAKER_02 38:31

No BT. I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did have one of those. What we actually dialing, yeah. Actually having to dial, which gets us on to a later point, but not number seven. Yeah. Um, so you had to call people no texting. Yeah. It's a legitimate memory of the 1980s, but it's also a legitimate memory of quite a lot of the 20th century. So uh number seven's not going to apply. It's clearly I've clearly fixed an American list by mistake. So number seven, the mall was your social hub. The mall. You filter out the American. The mall was your social hub. It was clearly not we we didn't have malls in this country. We had shopping centres and they Right, number eight. Number eight. You know the frustration of dial up internet. Again, not eighties. Not eighties at all. Absolutely not eighties at all. I would say nineties, yes, a bit, late nineties.

SPEAKER_04 39:15

But w uh early noughties. Had the Commodore 64 connoisseur, there was no linking it to the internet. No. What you did have linked to it, however, was the tape deck, which takes us back to the cassette. And there would be a long wire going out, and then you had the you had to screw them in, do you remember? Into the back of the Commodore 64. It'd be screwed in. Screw the cable would be screwed down. And you you'd have to put a good 20 minutes aside if you wanted to to look to run Frogger between you doing it. And it would go. So there there were it was almost like a phony internet.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Yeah, I know I do now you've said that. I might I didn't know.

SPEAKER_04 39:56

It was loading, and it would have something on the screen that would just be lines.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

I didn't have a Commodore 64, but I had a friend.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Well the BBC would have been similar.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Yeah, I remember my friend had a Commodore 64, and now you've that's been very evocative, that uh description there.

SPEAKER_04 40:08

So you'd be you'd have to I mean you could have gone out and eaten two school breakfasts, for example, in the time that would take to load.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

With or without source.

SPEAKER_04 40:16

Well, if you put the source on, you might be able to.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

So it says here it says being born in the 1980s mean you were there, means you'll remember this. But of course, being born in the 1980s was not a precursor to growing up in the 1980s. No. It this didn't happen in the 90s, this happened later.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

This happened in the 90s.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Mid nineties. Even early noughties.

SPEAKER_04 40:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Number nine, you had a boom box. Did you have a boom box?

SPEAKER_04 40:36

No, don't even know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Uh it's probably a ghetto blaster, we would have called it.

SPEAKER_04 40:40

A ghetto blaster.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

I did have a ghetto blaster, actually. Ghetto blaster. I did have a ghetto blaster.

SPEAKER_04 40:45

You didn't put it on your shoulder and misappropriate somebody else's culture, did you?

SPEAKER_02 40:49

And also didn't until until this very day saying it again understand what a ridiculous name that is for a music. Ghetto blast. A ghetto blaster. And we when we called it that.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

Yeah, we called it a ghetto blaster.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

And um we can't have known what we were saying.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

It's got to be cultural appropriate appropriation, isn't it? Why were we calling them ghetto blasters? Don't know. Yeah, but there were a lot of things that we were saying that we shouldn't have been saying in that day.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

I mean, and that should be on the list, although it wouldn't be printable. Yeah, you know you grew up in the 1980s if you said inappropriate things and had no idea they were inappropriate, which is uh a lot of us were guilty of. Right, number 10. That's just number 10. You wore hyper colour t-shirts.

SPEAKER_04 41:29

Uh I did. I did. You did that more than I did. But again, I refused to conform to anything.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

In the 1990s, I wore a hyper colour t-shirt, not in the 1980s.

SPEAKER_04 41:39

I think so. Well, I I definitely would have had some bright Bermuda shorts or something, but that feels nineties.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

That feels nice, early nineties again, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:46

Stupidly long shorts, but I like them though.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

I like them.

SPEAKER_04 41:49

They were ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

My mum used to make them. Did she? Yeah, that was a thing. Um my mum used to buy this outlandish material that was and I had a lot of Bermuda shorts. Yeah, I like them as well. Really brightly coloured clothes. I mean, that's number 11. You know how to fix a VCR.

SPEAKER_04 42:05

Well, you did have there was a hierarchy of VCRs because uh you could have the front loader or the top loader. The old top loader. Remember that? Presumably where the band got their name from.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

That's what I remember the band top loader, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

Yeah, no, but the top loader is.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Oh no, I do, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I do remember that. Yeah. We had it. And it would come out so they earlier models of the VCR would have had a top loader, and then the later models had the top.

SPEAKER_04 42:33

There was a beta max, if you remember. A different uh rival format to the V8.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Yeah, I do. Right, uh, number 12. Uh, you owned a swatch watch.

SPEAKER_04 42:43

No, I never did.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

I did, but not in the 1980s.

unknown 42:47

Uh.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

I think even the the noughties, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:51

Uh it wasn't an 80s thing, definitely not. It wasn't it was fine, but it was it might have come out in the 80s, but it certainly wasn't affordable.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Yeah, I don't think I owned a particularly good one, but I I did own a I think I owned anymore.

SPEAKER_04 43:02

I still would have been sporting what are now seen as cool, but the Casio Digital.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

Ah no, yeah, I don't I I did have a Casio digital.

SPEAKER_04 43:10

They're now seen as absolutely cool as you like.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Well, people can't read the clock faces.

SPEAKER_04 43:14

Back in the day, I don't they were even cool when they came out.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Did you ever have a calculator? Now that if that had been on the list, a calculator watch is evocative of the 1980s. Number 13, you played with garbage pail kids cards.

SPEAKER_04 43:27

Uh I remember playing with other people's, if you'll pardon the five.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

I I had some, I had some as well, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:32

So uh But I yes, I do I do remember that.

SPEAKER_02 43:35

Yeah, yeah, that that's that's 1980s, and that is definitely 1980s. That's not that's not later. Right. Number fourteen, then, because we can we can accept that one. We can just accept that's fine, there's nothing to say about them. They weren't that good.

SPEAKER_04 43:46

No.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

But they uh there was a movie though. Actually, there was a movie.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

There was a movie. Never saw it.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

1980s movie as well, garbage pal kids the movie.

SPEAKER_04 43:52

Maybe I saw bits of it.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

I think I saw it, but it's not stuck with me. Well no, going back to the the VCR, renting a renting a video.

Video Rentals, Panini Stickers And Mixtapes

SPEAKER_04 43:59

Ritz. Video which became Blockbuster video.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

So uh because you were cardiff, obviously I was in the Rits was the original. We just had sort of the there were two video shops in Penkoid. We called them video shops. There were two video shops. One neither was better than the other, but there was for some reason that it was more we I think my parents had a preference for one, and if we ever went to the other one, it was like very exciting.

SPEAKER_04 44:19

But when you think about it, I mean even back in those days, it was $3.99 or something. Yeah, to rent to rent a video for a night. For a for a night two nights sometimes, if you were. So you'd watch that film four times. Yeah, but I'm saying you you can you can often buy, for example, the you know, and let's not make a value judgment about it, but on demand five or ITV uh player is something like $5.99 for the month. Yeah, no, it's a but you had to pay $3.99, and I'm sure it was even more for a for a new release. It might even have been $5.99 for a new release. So then it then you'd load up on the popcorn and all the rest of it. This this was in in the or perhaps it was $1.99, $2.99, but it was still a lot of money. It was a lot of money. It was a big event, it was a big special occasion to rent a video. And the card there was a bit of a laminated plastic, which just would have my dad's name on it, because obviously and then it w it would say on the back who could use the card and how old they were.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:15

Because they were all about that BBF C product.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

What are you gonna do for your birthday? Are we gonna rent a video? Rent a video.

SPEAKER_04 45:22

No, no, we're gonna rent a video. Rent a video and get um a bucket of butterkist.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Yeah, well would it have been butter kissed or would it have been uh butterkist, I think it was was well that's still that still is a brand that's still because we talked about that on the podcast. Butterkist, yeah. Yeah, I'm a fan but my daughter's a fan of butterkist and uh Matilda likes a butterkist popcorn, as we've we've said, but wouldn't wouldn't want to rent a video for her upcoming birthday in August, would not want to rent a video. Number fourteen. Sort of related to number 13, really. Right. You had a sticker collection, panini sticker book.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

Yeah, no now now this takes me for a second, because although I knew nothing about sport and really disliked football, I had a panini.

SPEAKER_02 46:00

Collecters sticker because there's something there was something satisfying about collecting stickers.

SPEAKER_04 46:04

Oh, if you've got Ian Rush for the Welsh football team, do you remember? Ian Rush?

unknown 46:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:10

Welsh football.

SPEAKER_02 46:11

Milk, do you remember the milk advert? Ian Rush. He says, If I don't drink lots of milk, I'd only be good enough to play for Atkins and Stanley.

SPEAKER_04 46:16

Yeah, remember Terry Yorith?

SPEAKER_02 46:19

I do remember Terry Yorith, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:20

Who is the dad of Gabby Logan.

SPEAKER_02 46:23

Gabby Logan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:24

Exactly, yes. Yeah, no, I know, right. Yeah, he was the Welsh football manager for it. That's right. Back in the days when they were any good. Well, I mean Well, they've gone through several phases of being very good, but we're not in one at the moment, are we?

SPEAKER_02 46:35

They're okay at the moment. They're not then it's not the worst they've ever been at the moment. They're not they've not qualified for this little cup, but they're they're they're not terrible at all.

SPEAKER_04 46:41

It's not the hinterland, is it?

SPEAKER_02 46:42

It's not as good. I mean, 2016 was the uh the sort of the zenith when we got to the semi-finals of the uh European championships. In the uh the Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, and of course how Robson Carnu team. Uh Reading listeners will recognise the name Hal Robson Carnu because he played for Reading. Oh right. Yeah, there you go. Well you'd have to know something about football to do that.

SPEAKER_04 47:02

But of course I do, as I demonstrated at the start of the episode. As did Gunther.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

Anyway, uh right, number 15. You know what it's like to make a mixtape.

SPEAKER_06 47:10

Yeah, well, we've covered that.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

We have covered, it's the same point. I mean I'd get annoyed with it. If this was as a teacher list, I'd be angry at this point. Yes. If it was a teacher list. But because it's not, and I feel it's kind of benign and harmless, really.

SPEAKER_04 47:23

And because it's given us some sort of stuff to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Although I'd say I did make mixtapes in the nineties.

SPEAKER_04 47:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

Well I did was I'd record so this is the thing. I had CDs, but I'd make tapes from those CDs. Because we couldn't play CDs in the car. We could only play tapes in the car. So I'd make a but I I wouldn't then just record a CD onto a tape, I'd record songs off the CDs. I see. Onto the so I'd make a mixtape. But I didn't make it to give to a girl or to impress anyone. I just made it so that my parents would play musical I liked in the car on long journeys. Of which there were many. So, you know. In the Nissan Bluebird. Have you read Ghosty Costa yet? No, not yet. Now Tom Hanks made some good films in the 80s, didn't he?

SPEAKER_04 48:04

Yeah, he certainly did. So there we are. Well, that was a wonderful trip down memory lane. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

I mean, I feel it was actually quite a poor list, and I I'd like to apologize um on behalf of me for bringing that list to the table. I don't know if we convincingly convinced ourselves that we grew up in the 1980s there.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

No, um some of those points made me doubt it.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Yeah, but I uh I I'm sure I did.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

And I'm pretty sure I did. Bye bye.