FOREVER RETRO - a look back at the 70s & 80s
by Blair Matthews

FOREVER RETRO is an entire print magazine dedicated to all kinds of stuff from a time where everything was 'new and improved'; when a whole generation was defined by its toys, videogames, clothes, television and music. There was no Internet, and no one had heard of a dvd - in fact the CD player hadn't even caught on yet. The Spice Girls were still, well, girls, and Harry Potter hadn't been dreamed up yet. Coca-Cola decided its cola was boring and created New Coke - and to celebrate, Pepsi gave its employees a day off to signify that they had won the cola wars.

Was the world ready for the roaring 1980s? Not hardly, but it was a decade the likes of which we've never seen since...

FOREVER RETRO is full of articles and columns with nostalgic memories, photos and a few things that I hope will spark your interest in re-visiting two very unique decades the world has lived through. Being a child of the 70's and 80's myself, I got to experience firsthand some very bad fashion trends and hairstyles, and my parents have the photos prominently displayed in their living room to prove it.

It fascinates me that everyone who was around for the 80's decade remembers many of the same things. I've been mentioning this project to a few friends and their reaction was the same - "oh yeah, wasn't the Commodore 64 a great machine?" I called my friend Tim and the first thing he remembered about the 80's was the Vic-20 (which I had totally forgotten about).

That particular computer system came with a tape drive... the best part about it, Tim says, was that you could start the thing booting up on the tape drive, go off and have a coffee, grab a bite to eat and by the time you were done, the Vic would be ready to go! I guess I remember a very different part of the 80's when I think of Tim... the G.I. Joe and Star Wars phase.

Tim and his brother Mike (both now married with their own kids) were big into Star Wars and G.I. Joe - they had every action figure and playset that came out. I had Lego, and a few Transformers, but Star Wars I not had. They knew all the G.I. Joe guys by name, and had seen every Star Wars movie 10 times over. I had seen Star Wars once at the drive-in with my parents, but had never owned a G.I. Joe figure; all I knew is that it was the cartoon show that came on right after Transformers (or was that right before?).

Anyway, I spent a great deal of time over at the Beamans' place when I was a kid and was exposed to lots of 80's culture that I wouldn't have experienced at my own house, like Strange Brew and the MacKenzie brothers (both Canadian boys). The Beamans were the first people I knew to buy a VCR, and it made me step up the pace on my paper route so that I could save up my money to buy my own (which I did in 1988 with the help of my dad, who paid for half of it). We got it just in time to tape WWF wrestling... which brings me to my next obsession.

In the mid 1980s, I was a Hulk-A-Maniac. Chances are, you've at least heard of Hulk Hogan. Right now he's making his way around the U.S. helping to promote his daughter Brooke's fledging singing career.

Retired from professional wrestling for the moment, Hogan sold out arenas around the world in the 80's locking up with every big name wrestling had to offer. First it was Rowdy Roddy Piper, 'Mr. Wonderful' Paul Orndorff, and King Kong Bundy. Andre the Giant challenged Hulk at WrestleMania III in an event that may still hold the world indoor attendance record at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan (the number was recorded at 93,000+ but the number was an extreme exaggeration since only 70,000 were actually paid).

I stood by Hogan as a card-carrying Hulk-A-Maniac until he crossed paths with my other favourite wrestler - Macho Man Randy Savage. When Hogan tried to steal Macho's woman (a storyline that originally caused Savage to turn into a bad buy), I dropped my allegiances to the red and yellow and for me, it was all Randy Savage.

The 80's era was an explosive time for wrestling. Vince McMahon brought wrestling out of the dark dingy smoke-filled arenas from the 70's and introduced glitz, glamour, and just the right combination of soap opera and athletic showmanship. It was broadcast 52 weeks a year without an off-season. It came to a town near me often, and when I got my driver's licence, suddenly I had a way to travel to Toronto and London when the bigger shows came to town at Maple Leaf Gardens and the Ice House. I was hooked.

I'm sure if my mom were reading this right now, she'd be disappointed that I'm choosing to mention wrestling in this otherwise interesting and nostalgic publication. She was never a fan of my wrestling hobby. She hoped it was just a phase that I would quickly grow out of. Now, at age 34, not only do I still glue myself to my television every Monday night for WWE RAW (the name was changed from WWF to WWE a couple of years ago) but I also follow the business of wrestling. The truth is, I couldn't be more into it unless I was actually training to become a professional wrestler - which I'm not, but it's always been my secret dream to become a pro wrestling referee). Sorry mom.

Many of you will remember The Pop Shoppe brand of soda pop that was popular in the 1970s and 80's. It was a whole new way to shop for pop - you'd go into your local Pop Shoppe depot and fill up a red case with any variety of flavors you wanted and buy it by the case. Then, you'd turn around and return the empties there and get your deposit back.

My memories of Pop Shoppe are probably different than yours. You see, when I was a kid, we had a few Pop Shoppe depots in town but I hardly ever had a chance to try it because my mom wouldn't let us have pop (because of all the sugar). There was a convenience store about a 5 minute bike-ride from my house and a Pop Shoppe depot was also located in the back of the store. On some days, I could be found in the back sitting on top of three or four empty Pop Shoppe red cases that had been flipped upside down playing videogames in the store's mini-arcade. The game of choice back then was Hyper-Olympics, a game my cousin Brad had perfected at around that some time. That's about as close as I ever got to Pop Shoppe on a regular basis. Now, years later, I collect Pop Shoppe memorabilia, including those nostalgic red cases.

When I was a teenager, I admit it - I had a major crush on 80's pop princess Tiffany (I even had a poster of her up on my closet door). After her first album was turned down by 14 record labels, 16-year-old Tiffany (born Tiffany Renee Darwish), landed a Number 1 hit with "I Think We're Alone Now". She promoted her debut album by performing across the United States at shopping mall tours, gaining fans across the country by going to where they were gathering in droves. In the process she sold 4 million albums, had two No. 1 singles from her debut album and was on the fast-track to stardom. It wasn't long before Tiffany was on the road with New Kids on the Block and became one of the biggest stars of the 80's.

She ran neck-and-neck with fellow 80's female recording artist Debbie Gibson (who has also re-surfaced as a judge on a reality-based kids singing show as Deborah Gibson).

Fame wasn't kind to Tiffany though, when a rift formed between Tiffany's mother and manager George Tobin. Tiffany ended up suing her mother for emancipation in a very public battle that spilled out into the limelight. Three years later, with three albums to her credit, Tiffany vanished out of sight when her 1990 album flopped. She continued to record in Japan and from time to time, she popped up with a new single - but never with the attention she grabbed in the 1980s... until a new day dawned in 2002.

One day in March I checked my e-mail and got a message from a friend with an assortment of photos attached... all of a naked woman! The message header was: 'Check out these pics of Tiffany!!' I didn't make the connection until I looked at the photos a little bit closer - it was the former red-headed pop princess herself, now a 30-year-old mother, baring it all on the cover and photo spread in PLAYBOY!

Somehow, my mind just couldn't process this... it was like a car wreck - you don't want to look, but for some reason, you just have to. I think I nearly had a stroke... not that they weren't great photos mind you, but it just seemed so wrong to be looking at pictures of a girl whose music I listened to some 15 years earlier as a teenager. She was definitely baring her soul a radically different way. I pictured myself throwing her an oversized sweater and telling her to cover up!

Apparently, she did it to shed the shopping-mall singing 'girl' mentality that has plagued her for years - and she wanted to announce in the most public way possible that she wasn't a girl anymore... she was a woman. All I could think of was, that's such a Britney Spears-ish thing to do. In many ways, Britney of the 2000 decade is what Tiffany from the 80's was (on a much grander stage mind you, with much tighter clothes that don't leave much to the imagination). It's a different time now, with the information age upon us, and different musical obstacles (cd burning capability, iTunes, shifting musical and fashion trends), but the basics are all there: A young, pretty girl with a fresh look who can belt out a tune that speaks to that particular generation and reflects the current trends of the day.

Britney never sued her mom, but she did kiss Madonna on the mouth, got married twice, launched her own perfume, shaved her head, and paraded around concert stages wearing little more than a bra and panties... where was I going with that?

If Tiffany is posing for Playboy 15 years after her enormous fame, can we expect to see Britney follow a similar path in 2014? Not according to Tiffany: "I don't think Britney would have to pose nude in Playboy," Tiffany said recently in a VH1 interview. "She is doing what she does in her videos and stage shows and has already established a sexy image."

Put Britney into a bulky sweater and a pair of legwarmers... now THAT would be a sight to behold.

OK, that's all for now. I hope you'll consider picking up a copy of FOREVER RETRO when it debuts in December (you can get your copy directly from the foreverretro.com website using PayPal). This print magazine is definitely shaping up to be nothing like you've ever seen before.

If you have memories from the 70's and 80's that you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you.