July, 1980.  Bon Scott was dead, John Lennon was yet to be murdered.  Evonne Goolagong Cawley had just won Wimbledon, and Alan Jones was on his way to becoming the Formula One World Champion.  Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister, and here in WA, Sir Charles Court was premier.  We were listening to Split Enz’s “I Got You”, Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” on Perth’s very first FM radio station, 96fm.  Meanwhile, in Sydney and Melbourne, SBS had begun broadcasting (it would be a few years before it beamed into Perth), “Dallas” was the most popular TV series in the world, and by the end of 1980 “The Empire Strikes Back” would be the year’s biggest movie.

 

It was the beginning of a decade that would revolutionise the way we watched TV (MTV and Video Cassette Recorders), the way we listened to music (FM radio, Walkmans and Compact Discs), change the political landscape (the fall of the Berlin Wall, boycott of the Moscow Olympics) and economics (1987 stock market crash, WA Inc).  Heroes like Alan Bond were yet to become villains, and new heroes were about to be born (The West Coast Eagles).

 

This was a time before mobile phones, the Internet and home computers, plasma screens and IPods.  A time when a humble advertisement in a suburban newspaper would bring together a small group of like-minded enthusiasts barely four years after the last GT rolled off the production line, that would eventually lead to the formation of the progressive and active car club you are a member of today 25 years down the track, The Falcon GT Club of WA (Inc).