Crap Old Days: Why All That Old Stuff Was Actually Rubbish

by Wayne Williams, Darren Allan

Do you have fond memories of The Bangles, Rubik’s Cube, and Magnum, P.I.? Well, forget what you’ve seen on TV and don’t believe the hype. Why? Because they were crap, and this book tells you why. The Crap Old Days de-bunks the myth of how great everything used to be—apparently. Crap covered includes Action Man, The Benny Hill Show, Brut, Cabbage Patch Kids, candy necklaces, CB radio, Deeley Boppers, Dirty Dancing, Doctor Who, Dungeons & Dragons, Duran Duran, Etch-a-Sketch, Fantasy Island, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, He-Man, Highlander, The Incredible Hulk, Kim Wilde, Knight Rider, Magic 8 Ball, Nena, platform shoes, perms, Pong, punk, Sea Monkeys, The Six Million Dollar Man, Slinky, Smurfs, Space Invaders, sweat bands, TaB, Trivial Pursuit, Village People, Weebles, Wham!, and Yahtzee.

144 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 2008

About the author

Wayne Williams has been writing, editing and publishing magazines for over 23 years. Until September 2005 he was the co-owner and Editorial Director of Live Publishing, an independent magazine publisher based in South Manchester.

He is now a full-time freelance writer, focusing on his twin passions of technology and travel.

I Know What You Did Last Supper, co-written with Darren Allan, is his first novel.

Reviews

[Thk]

Interesting look at past fads in the past decades, but decidedly in a more British context than desired. Thundercats, Benny Hill, Mullet, Atari etc all evoked a strong sense of nostalgia in me. However there are a few key points which made it hard to recommend this book.

Firstly, the strong British humour utilised in this book may be lost on some but not to fans of 'Allo allo and Monty Python, but can be offensive due to the strong bias of the author against some items (New Romantic bands etc) and the vulgarities used, both of which may disappoint the relevant fans. Secondly, the text accompanying each of the items featured were too short, and mostly contained the gripes of the author. It might be better to incorporate some element of how fans can grab a piece of history again in the current age, such as fansites or availability of DVDs for old cartoon series etc. At the end of the day, it seems pretty empty to read as the pictures are sparse and few in between. Many of the items featured have to be imagined by the reader or Googled for even a basic understanding.