1981

In 1981 the Iran hostage crisis ended minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in, and weeks later he was shot outside a Washington hotel. Space Shuttle Columbia made its first flight in April, the first London Marathon set off with 7,500 runners, and Bob Marley died in May at 36.

Heavy metal was busy turning a British scrappy upstart movement into a proper business. Iron Maiden released Killers in February and followed it with the live Maiden Japan in September. Motörhead were everywhere: St Valentines Day Massacre, Stay Clean, Great Pleasure and the live No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, which arrived in June. Def Leppard's High 'n' Dry came out in July, a step along their road to bigger halls. Autumn brought Black Sabbath's Mob Rules and Ozzy Osbourne's Diary of a Madman within days of each other, the two sides of a split now plainly on show. AC/DC's For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) landed in November, while Queen and Pink Floyd tidied their back catalogues into compilations for the Christmas shelves.

The year had its share of mayhem. In March Ozzy bit the head off a dove at a CBS gathering in Los Angeles, which did his reputation no harm at all. In September Iron Maiden parted with singer Paul Di'Anno because of his heavy drinking, and Bruce Dickinson took over the microphone. Elsewhere, Wendy O. Williams of The Plasmatics was arrested in Milwaukee in January, and Yes announced their break-up in April, though they would not stay apart.