Cliffennium Volume 8

71. Cliff embarks on first solo tour of the US
3 March 1980After top ten success with Devil Woman and We Don't Talk Anymore, it was decided that Cliff would embark on his first solo tour of the US.
The tour started out on a sour note when, a few days before the first show in Seattle, the trailer containing all the band's equipment was stolen from outside their motel. Other than that, however, the tour went well with a very enthusiastic response from the audiences, and the shows in New York and Los Angeles selling out.

72. Cliff awarded an OBE
23 July, 1980 Five weeks after completing his I'm No Hero album, Cliff was presented with an Order of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace.
Cliff took his mother along for the investiture, the first time a pop star had been recognised in such a way since the Beatles were awarded their MBEs in 1965.

73. Kids give Cliff the thumbs up
27 September, 1980Amongst a swag of awards given to Cliff during 1980, one stands out as particularly significant and this was the award of top male vocalist as voted by listeners of Swap Shop.
Swap Shop was hosted by Noel Edmond, and had an audience predominantly made up of children who, in the year of his fortieth birthday, voted Cliff to be their favourite male singer.

74. Congratulations! Cliff celebrates his fortieth birthday
14 October, 1980 Cliff celebrated his landmark fortieth birthday in concert at the Apollo in London. During the show the audience would break into spontaneous renditions of Happy Birthday, and the band even managed to work the tune into one of the guitar solos!
After the show he could barely squeeze into his dressing room for flowers and gifts, and a surprise party was held for him at the Waterloo Arts Centre which lasted until four the next morning!

75. Sue Barker and Cliff begin to date
March 1982 One of the most talked about aspects of Cliff's life is his relationship with Sue Barker. She was his first publicly visible girlfriend since Jackie Irving in the early sixties, and perhaps the No.1 female British tennis player at the time, so I guess it was inevitable that as soon as they were seen together that gossip was going to spread.
Cliff and Sue first met in September 1981 through sports commentator and supporter of Christians in Sport, Gerald Williams, who felt that Cliff would be the perfect person to help Sue cope with the pressure that comes with being a Christian in the public eye. It was when Cliff flew out to Denmark with Sue to watch her play an exhibition match in Denmark that the press first spied the two together, and the next day the papers were full of headlines such as The Sun's 'Sue and Cliff In Love Riddle'.
During the short term of their relationship, the press put enormous pressure on the couple, with the question of marriage being asked almost immediately. By the end of August that year their relationship had effectively finished, but they remain friends and the speculation remained. Ultimately it took Sue's relationship with a different man in late 1984 to break down the speculation.
Out of his relationship with Sue, Cliff gained a love of tennis which was to stay with him for the rest of his life.

76. Cliff earns blacklisting from UN for South African tour
1983 Despite visiting the country on a gospel tour to raise money for charity, Cliff earned a blacklisting from the United Nations for touring South Africa.
Cliff's attitude was that by visiting a country he wasn't condoning its political system, and perhaps he could help effect change with the message he was presenting. His shows were multi-racial, and he cancelled one show in a venue which prohibited an interracial audience.
While touring Scandinavia, Cliff's hotel also received a bomb threat as a result of his South African tour.

77. The first Cliff Richard Pro-Celebrity Tennis Tournament
12 December, 1983 Sue led Cliff to begin an annual Pro-Celebrity Tennis Tournament aiming to raise money to improve the standard of tennis in Britain. Players are Cliff, Hank Marvin, Trevor Eve, Mike Read, Sue Barker, Sue Mappin and Anne Hobbs.
While the first year's tournament was only half full, the even has become increasingly popular and now sells out almost without fail.
This match was also Cliff's public debut as a tennis player.

78. New Musical Express review prompts legal action
13 October, 1984 For the first time in his career, Cliff was prompted to sue a publication over what was loosely termed as a 'review' of one of his gospel concerts, written in the form of a conversation between the writer and Satan.
The article, published in NME, made no mention of his music, but was rather a vitriolic attack on Cliff, his fans and Christianity. It referred to Cliff as a 'Nazi', ridiculed his celibacy, and referred to his fans as 'two-dimensional masochists'. Cliff won £5,000 damages, which he immediately donated to the Arts Centre Group.

79. Cliff and The Young Ones resurrect Living Doll
March, 1986 Twenty-seven years after it first topped the charts, Living Doll made it to the top once again thanks to a duet between Cliff and the cast of the British comedy show The Young Ones. In the show one of the characters, played by Rik Mayall, has an obsession with Cliff and thus this pairing to raise money for Comic Relief.
Not only did this song give Cliff his eleventh No.1 hist single, but it also gave him further credit in the music industry. The remake of Living Doll ended up selling almost as many copies as the original, selling well over a million copies.

80 Cliff's Debut in a West End musical, Time, premiers
9 April, 1986 Appearing in a West End musical was a long time ambition of Cliff's, and in the early eighties he began to form a clear picture of the type of musical he wanted to be a part of. 'Having had a little experience in the acting world I would like to bring that together with the kind of singing I do to create the first real pop-rock musical,' he said, 'I'd like to do I show where every song gave me goose pimples, songs like Miss You Nights, Devil Woman and Dreamin'.'
In 1983 Dave Clarke, formally of the Dave Clark Five, approached Cliff with a science fiction musical that he had co-written and was keen to produce. The show was called Time and dealt with the judgement of the earth by a time lord for crimes relating to the mistreatment of the planet, with Cliff playing a young rock star called Chris who pleads the earth's case.
A great deal of talent was involved with this show, with artists such as Julian Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Dionne Warwick and Steve Wonder contributing songs to the soundtrack. Sir Laurence Olivier also appeared in holographic form as Akash, a God-like figure.
Despite scathing critical reviews, the show went on to sell a phenomenal 700,000 tickets during Cliff's run at the Dominion Theatre, and helped encourage Cliff to further pursue his interests in the theatre.