I was of an age when decisions about the clothes I wore, the movies I wtched, and the music I listened to were made by me. I had money in my pocket and freedom of choice to do pretty much what I wanted. I'd dress in batwing sweaters, miami vice jackets, crombie coats and trilby hats. I'd go to the cinema to watch movies first time round, on the big screen, and I was always Michael J Fox or Harrison Ford, John Cusack or Judd Nelson. It was a way of escaping into another place, of being a part of something bigger than just my small part of the world.

I would buy big old vinyl albums by the people you only see on VH1 retro shows nowadays. We'd sit around, listening to them all, and just 'being', being different than we were a couple of years earlier, when we were just kids.

I did a whole lot of growing during the eighties, and not just in age. at teh beginning of the eighties, I was still in many ways a child, but at the end of the eighties I was a married man, with responsibilities both emotional and financial. My approach to all of these new life areas were moulded in no small part by the world I had immersed myself in for the past ten years.

So to me, the eighties isn't just about fashion, or about movies, or about music. It's about the war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. It's about the Challenger disaster that I can still picture when I close my eyes. It's about standing in Wembley Stadium watching my team play in the cup Final alongside nearly 100,000 others, all sharing in the one moment. It's about remembering when I was there, and how it FELT to be a part of it all. A movie like No Way Out isn't just a movie to me - it's the movie I saw waiting for the plane the morning after my wedding night. Into The Night is more than just confusing to me. It's also disorienting, because all the plot twists and turns were still going through my mind when I emerged from the dark London theatre into the bright afternoon sunshine of the post-matinee performance. You can't lose this kind of memory. It's all a part of me, and who I am.

Nice to get another perspective, cuz being ages 4 thru 14 in the 80s, it's influence on me was so different. It was just about the next episode of Family Ties or Night Court, the next Jason movie, Friday night sleepovers playing Atari, racing outside when we heard the ding of the ice cream truck, and simply put...just fun.

No responsibilities (aside from school), the wonderment of girls, where romance was so much more powerful cuz it was new and unexplored. And a big feeling I don't have anymore...safety. As a kid, you knew no one could rob you, mug you, kill you for your wallet, cuz you were a kid. Nowadays as an adult, totally different story.