Month: October 1980

Richard Marks Visits Me & Simon Jacobs At Keele, Not Least For Stoke v Manchester United, 19 & 22 October 1980

Richard Marks With Terri Vine (now Phillips) c Spring 1979

In truth, the only bit of this visit I remember is Richard talking me into joining him at The Victoria Ground to see Stoke City play Manchester United on the Wednesday. But the diary is clear that Richard came to visit initially on the Sunday.

My guess is that Richard did not hang around on campus with us for several days. My guess is that he visited us on the Sunday, went on to Manchester to visit some of his many BBYO friends and/or attend to some other business for a couple of days, then returned to North Staffordshire for the football match he yearned to see.

Simon’s party trick

I’m fairly sure Simon could not be persuaded to come with us to the football match, so it was just me and Richard.

Richard’s purpose was to see the debut of Garry Birtles for Manchester United, as Birtles had just been signed from Nottingham Forrest for a record transfer fee. Get this number; £1.25 million. I’ll repeat that number in words, just in case the sheer scale of it blows readers away. One-and-a-quarter-million pounds.

People who know me well know that I am not exactly a football person. Cricket, yes. Tennis, yes. Rugby, no. Soccer, no, not really. But I was up to have a butchers at my now local soccer venue on an historic night.

Here’s the 11v11 card for the match – sadly lacking the Stoke team but delightfully full of names that even I recognise on the Manchester United side of the card.

Lou Macari, one of those Manchester United players (indeed one of the scorers), went on to manage Stoke and formed an extraordinary relationship with Neil Baldwin, a Keele legend, celebrated in the film Marvellous.

For the record, Manchester United won the match 2-1. Here’s the Guardian review of the match, including both teams’ names:

Stoke v Man UStoke v Man U Thu, Oct 23, 1980 – 20 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

But my main memory of the evening was Richard suggesting that I might get us both killed.

The thing is, not being a football person, I didn’t really understand some of the subtleties of going to watch such a match.

Richard had got us seats in a part of the ground where Stoke home fans watch.

It didn’t occur to Richard that I wouldn’t understand that neutrals and/or supporters of the other team need to travel incognito in such circumstances.

I don’t actually support any team but I was with Richard and he was there to see Birtles and Manchester United so I started cheering for my friend’s team.

It was at that juncture that Richard warned me that I might get us both killed and I must admit that I noticed a few dagger-like looks coming our way. Richard found a way to mollify those around us (I think by signalling with eye rolls and gestures that I was simply a clown, an imbecile or both), enabling us both to survive the potential ordeal.

Diary says that I enjoyed, so I must have enjoyed..

Thanks for the educational and entertaining evening out, Richard.

My First University Of Keele Students’ Union UGM, Starring Princess Margaret, 20 October 1980

I have no idea why Princess Margaret loomed so large at Keele University, but throughout my time at Keele our titular Chancellor was the source of countless controversies in absentia…which is indeed the manner in which I chose to receive my degree in 1984.

I knew nothing about this when I signed up for Keele. I knew more or less nothing at all about the place, other than the fact that Simon Jacobs had been to visit Keele in August and liked the look of it.

Getting In To & Starting At Keele University, 8 October 1980

Indeed, it was along with fellow fresher Simon Jacobs that I took my seat at my first Students’ Union UGM…the first of a great many as it turned out…on 20 October 1980.

I don’t remember all that much about that first UGM, other than the hoo-ha that was the Princess Margaret controversy.

There were no doubt student political machinations involved in the matter dating back to before our time. But in short, it seemed, the new union sabbaticals had invited Princess Margaret to the Union’s Christmas Ball without seeking approval for such a manoeuvre from the whole committee nor from a UGM which is (or at least was) the sovereign body of the union.

Trying to recall how I felt about it, looking back on the event almost exactly forty years later, I don’t think I saw the matter as especially newsworthy or even all that controversial on the night itself. It just felt like good debate with some political theatre thrown in…and we even got to vote. The argument that the student ball would be far more restricted if HRH attended and that anyway she probably didn’t really want to come to our student ball seemed the most convincing to us and indeed to the majority of those who bothered to turn up, listen and vote.

Extract from The Daily Mirror Diary Page, 22 October 1980. Click the picture link above to see the whole page, including a piece about Mick Jagger describing him as an ageing rock star…he was 37 back then.

The Daily Mirror saw it a little differently. We’d been at Keele for less than a fortnight and already we were “bolshie students” and “little devils”. Yay!!

A week or so later, the student newspaper, Concourse, covered the story in a far more balanced manner:

The controversy rumbled on and had an impact on several of my activities in the first couple of terms, as my unfolding story will reveal. Within a few weeks, Simon and I and others were lampooning the whole affair through a street theatre skit which I wrote up a year or two ago – click here or below:

Street Theatre, Princess Margaret and The Ball Debacle, Keele, 10 December 1980

Not even two weeks after coming through those Keele gates for the first time, I felt that I’d well and truly arrived by the night of 20 October 1980!

In The Absence Of Glittering Prizes…Stardust Memories, Keele Freshers Week, 12 To 18 October 1980


AVRO, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons

I didn’t hang around long after getting to Keele and enjoying my first few days.

Getting In To & Starting At Keele University, 8 October 1980

I was still on the National Executive of BBYO and spent my first weekend in Glasgow. Travelling to and from Glasgow from Keele for the weekend is not a brilliant idea but according to the diary I got back to Keele early enough on the Sunday evening to show up at the Union bar. Yes, really that is what the Sunday entry (below) says.

Monday 13 October – First lectures – OK. Went to Union in evening. Quiet day.

Tuesday 14 October – Lectures OK, Politics OK. Went to drama workshop in eve – good.

I was doing the Foundation Year (FY). In those days most Keele undergraduates did four year courses, starting with FY. It is was a wonderful course which helped me to learn how to learn and also enabled me to decide what to study for my degree. Politics was one of my two sessional courses (the other was History).

Simon Jacobs did a three year degree without FY. Simon and I threw ourselves into the drama workshop in our first term.

Simon Jacobs throwing himself into something, 1979

The brains behind that drama workshop group was Brian Rawlins, whose picture and cv nearly 40 years later can be found through this web link…

…or, if anything ever goes awry with the above Wirral Festival link, click here for a scrape thereof.

Several of us who had enjoyed doing drama at school wanted to do a bit of performance stuff without getting involved in the formalities of the drama society and full scale productions. This group proved to be just the ticket for us. We were very lucky to be led by someone of Brian Rawlins’s quality for such a group. That story ends with this piece of street theatre…

Street Theatre, Princess Margaret and The Ball Debacle, Keele, 10 December 1980

…but I’m getting way ahead of myself there.

Wednesday 15 October 1980 – dull lectures today. (??) Pleasent [sic] afternoon. Went to J-Soc & Freshers Ball till very very late.

Didn’t take long for the novelty of foundation year lectures to wear off, did it?

Our Freshers Ball was supposed to be headlined by Gary Glitter, but apparently he fell ill, so Alvin Stardust was wheeled out at the last minute as a replacement. This event was long before Gary Glitter’s infamy as a child sex offender, of course. Indeed Glitter did show up at one of the balls I attended some time later in my Keele journey. Unlike Glitter, there was nothing edgy about Alvin Stardust, neither in performance nor, as far as we know, in real life.

There are two Concourse pieces about the Freshers Ball. The first one a damning news piece with no byline…

…the second a rather more upbeat music review by Dave Lee. Do you know who wrote the first piece, Dave? If so, do tell.

Dave Lee talks highly of Glass Torpedoes. I certainly recall enjoying the warm up act more than the Alvin gig. Embedded below is the Glass Torpedoes Peel Session from earlier that year:

Dave Lee also talks up the Tour de Force gig in Room 14 upstairs, which I also vaguely recall enjoying more than Alvin. I have managed to find some interesting material on the former, including a rare recording on the following embedded vid.

Thursday 16 October 1980 – V tired today. Law v good. Got some letters written, received some letters as well. Went to bar with Simon in evening.

Law was a four week topic with Michael Whincup. We needed to do several such topics during FY. So inspired by that law topic was I, that ended up switching to study law (along with economics) as my degree the following three years.

Going to the bar with Simon in those early weeks/months of Keele not only included beer drinking but invariably a few games of table football. I have no pictures of me playing table football with Simon, sadly, but more than a quarter of a century later, when visiting Jinka in the South Omo Region of Ethiopia, I learnt that I hadn’t mis-spent that aspect of my youth at all; I was able to call on the skills acquired in those all-too-frequent games in the Keele Students’ Union to great effect:

Friday 17 October 1980 – Not bad lectures today. Disco in eve, bad.

Saturday 18 October 1980 – Easy day. Went to disco in eve, good.

How was I assessing the discos in those days? I doubt if I was doing the “disco aficionado” thing at that stage. Admittedly, I had experienced an Ian Levine special at Mecca in Blackpool by then…and a few good ones in London no doubt. But my guess is that “bad” and “good” would have been determined by the extent to which I had managed to perk up any interest among the female freshers who were still in the market by the Friday and Saturday of that week.

Not that I had really worked out what to do about it when I got a bit lucky. As much as anything else, I was committed to traipsing up and down the country for the rest of that term still. I do recall getting friendly that week with a pretty girl with a turned up nose from the North-East named Jo. Her father was a vicar and she was even more shy with that sort of stuff than I was. We didn’t get far. I think we went back to her place for a cup of coffee and had…coffee. But we remained smiling, nodding acquaintances for several years at Keele. Bless. That pleasing non-event might well have been after the “good” disco.

Getting In To & Starting At Keele University, 8 October 1980

Tanya Dedyukhina / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

I saw Keele University for the very first time on 8 October 1980. I entered through the main gates, on the bus from Stoke, carrying a suitcase and a holdall; less stuff than I would take with me for a weekend these days.

[“These days” means almost exactly 40 years later at the time of writing].

I stayed at Keele for five years.

It was Simon Jacobs’s fault. (Simon, right, trying to look cool and uninterested).

It was Simon Jacobs’s fault that I was there. No ifs no buts no maybes.

It happened like this.

Both Simon and I had made a similar mess of our A levels. We’d both thrown ourselves into BBYO at a local level (Pinner in his case, Streatham mine) and at a national level as well; we were both on the National Executive and indeed that summer I had been running the office after the sole full-timer, Rebecca Lowi, had left.

Simon started to address the educational “oops, what happens next?” problem far quicker than I did. On one unsung occasion in mid-to-late August 1980 Simon popped in to see me at the office at Hillel House, after he had visited Keele.

It seems like a really nice University. It’s small and friendly, the campus has large and very attractive grounds…and…they’ve offered me a place, even with my crummy A levels. You should give it a try.

I phoned Keele the next morning. I explained my predicament. The official I spoke with sounded quite promising.

Sure – come and have a look in the next week or so and we’ll have a chat about what we might be able to offer you with your so-called crummy A levels.

I demurred.

That might be a bit difficult. I am running this office all by myself and we have our annual National leadership training course starting next week and a bit of a governance crisis going on at the same time. You come highly recommended to me by Simon, whom I trust, so if you have a place for me I’m sure it will work out well for me and for Keele.

The Keele official demurred…slightly.

Well, that is a rather unusual request, but I suppose you have described a rather unusual predicament…let’s see what we can do…

I recall being asked to provide character references from senior teachers at my school, Alleyn’s, which wasn’t too difficult for me to achieve. Thank you, Colin Page; house master, games master, nice guy and teacher whom, I believe, never actually taught me academically-speaking. Not quite sure what he organised for me, but it worked.

My diary on Wednesday 10 September notes:

…good day (possible good news from Keele)…

I think that might be the news that I had a place subject to references.

Then Monday 15 September:

Got back from Nottingham [BBYO that was, not University hunting] – phoned Keele – in.

So when I entered through the gates on that bus with my measly bags, all I knew about the place was Simon’s review from his interview/tour day and the correspondence the University sent me between accepting me and my arrival.

Still, by 8 October, Simon had been there for a few days, so he was an expert already. He recalls being taken up at the weekend by his parents. That must have been the Sunday, because my diary says that Simon (along with several others) spent Saturday at the Harris residence in Streatham, but Simon wasn’t among those who stayed over.

Wednesday 8 October. Left home early. Easy journey. Registered. Met Simon, easyish day. Disco in evening v good.

That first day of Keele reads a bit Adrian Mole.

Thursday 9 October. Tons to do. Sorting things out. Saw Supercharge in evening.

No comment on Supercharge there. I do recall buying, for a very modest sum, one of their albums, Local Lads Make Good, in Record & Tape Exchange later that academic year. I realised on listening to it that they worked better live than they did on album…and I recalled that they hadn’t worked all that well for me live. They were fun, it was Freshers’ Week and we were all up for pretty much any live music.

I have subsequently found the micro review of the Supercharge concert from Concourse, the student newspaper – see below. I don’t think Christine was impressed.

Friday 10 October. Lots to do today. Sorting things out. Evening down union & singing songs avec Simon.

Cripes. I’d been at University for fewer than 72 hours and already I was clipping phrases such as “down Union”…

Keele Students Union 0877

…and where did the phrase “avec Simon” come from? Was it an in joke from the evening – perhaps we had sung a French song or parodied the French chanteur style.

I recall the singing taking place in the Walter Moberly Hall. Certainly on more than one occasion and I’m pretty sure that evening must have been the first. Simon was itching to play the piano, so after a drink or two (and almost certainly a game or three of table football) we went in search of a piano for Simon to play and discovered that the Walter Moberly Hall was left open in the evenings for the convenience of scallywags like ourselves.

Keele University Walter Moberly Building

Of course, Simon has subsequently gone on to have a glittering avocational musical career, with album launches…

Simon Jacobs, Circle Line, Album Launch Showcase, Old Paradise Yard, 10 September 2017

…and more recently his latest album, from lockdown, which is previewed on the following track:

Coincidentally, Janie and I had arranged to visit Simon 10 October 2020 in blissful ignorance of the fact that it was 40 years since he and I had started Keele. It was only some chat on Facebook that alerted me to the “anniversary”.

A Week Of Serious Training For University Life Ahead Of Heading Up To Keele, 28 September To 4 October 1980

OK, so it seems that I somehow managed to blag my way in to Keele University…with a little help from my friends (in particular Simon Jacobs) and teachers (in particular Colin Page).

I returned alone from a week in Bournemouth with my parents (a one anecdote story about that trip will appear on Ogblog in the fullness of time), while my parents went on to explore the South-West of England for a week.

So, I had the run of Woodfield Avenue for my second and last week of holiday before steeling myself to the arduous task of student life.

I needed to do some training to get fit for the specific Herculean labours that the early part of my student life was likely to involve.

Fortunately I had plenty of friends to help me. Here, with just a little shame as well as pride, is my diary of that week.

Sunday 28 September. Left [Bournemouth] for London with [Dina? Nina?]. Advisors doobrie. Simon & Caroline came back. Went out for food. Drank.

Simon
Me & Caroline

Out for food in Streatham in those days probably meant Italian at Il Caretto or Chinese at the Blue Whatnot. I’ll guess Il Caretto.

29 September 1980. Simon & Caroline left. Went to Grandmas. Easy evening.

Not sure if there is an apostrophe catastrophe there, as it is quite possible…even likely…that I did a round trip of both Grandmas; Anne and Jenny.

Grandma Anne
Grandma Jenny

Tuesday 30 September 1980. Went to office. Helped Jay [Marks]. Came home., read, slept.

A relatively gentle start to my training. One evening on, two evenings off. A bit feeble, actually. Then, mercifully, my friends rallied around and matters got serious.

Wednesday 1 October 1980. Easyish day. Simon came over early evening, stayed over, drank.

Thank you, Simon.

Thursday 2 October 1980. Simon left. Easy day. Lewis [Sykes, I assume] came over – stayed over, drank.

Picture “borrowed” from David Menashe. I’m sure David won’t mind, but if there is ever a blank space where the picture once lived, then you’ll know that David did mind..

Friday 3 October 1980. Lewis remained. Anil came over. Anil & Lewis stayed. Drank.

Anil. Yup, I’m sure we smoked too.

Saturday 4 October 1980. Anil & Lewis left. Simon, Caroline, Richard [Marks, I assume], A.N. Other [I can only apologise to this forgotten person], Melisa [yes, I remember Melisa, Hendon BBYO I think, but I shall need to do some more archaeology on my archive], came over, & Andrea & Wendy who stayed. Drank.

Richard
Andrea
Wendy

I am wondering what we drank. My dad usually had a handy stock of more than half-decent Bulgarian red wines in those days, as he was friendly with his importer neighbour near the shop on St John’s Hill, Battersea. I’m guessing that dad left me a case for that week with a nod and a wink. He was that kind of dad.

Forty years later, I’m still in touch with most of the people who helped me train that week. Thank you so much, folks, for helping me prepare for University. So kind and the kindness is not forgotten.

Mix Tape Of Popular Music Around The Time I Started Keele, c1 October 1980

I have already written up the week I spent “training” to go to Keele:

A Week Of Serious Training For University Life Ahead Of Heading Up To Keele, 28 September To 4 October 1980

At some point during that week, I will have made up a mix tape of current popular music.

In less frenetic times, I would record the odd song or two or a few, while listening to the chart show every few weeks. These were frenetic times, though. I had just finished working for BBYO all summer (living in at Hillel House most of the time) and was soon to go off to Keele University.

So I recorded quite a lot of stuff from the radio during those few days off. Initially, that would have been recorded onto the Sony TC-377 reel-to-reel tape recorder (see photo above). But as I knew I planned only have a cassette player with me at Keele, I then copied said recordings onto a cassette.

Quite laborious stuff.

Here is the list of recordings I made at that time:

  • Masterblaster Jamming, Stevie Wonder
  • I Die You Die, Gary Numan
  • Don’t Stand So Close, The Police
  • Don’t Lose Your Temper, XTC
  • Best Friend, The Beat
  • I Wanna Be Straight, Ian Dury and the Blockheads
  • Baggy Trousers, Madness
  • Give Me the Night, George Benson
  • Searchin’, Change
  • Oops Upside Your Head, Gap Band
  • Tom Hark, The Piranhas
  • Eighth Day, Hazel O’Connor
  • Feels Like I’m In Love, Kelly Marie
  • One Day I’ll Fly Away, Randy Crawford
  • What You’re Proposing, Status Quo
  • Stereotype, The Specials
  • Misunderstanding, Genesis
  • Fallout, Data
  • Fashion, David Bowie
  • Army Dreamers, Kate Bush
  • Mad At You, Joe Jackson
  • All Out of Love, Air Supply
  • I Got You, Split Enzz
  • Another One Bites the Dust, Queen
  • Amigo, Black Slate
  • Disco, Ottawan

In truth, I wouldn’t be choosing many of these for my Desert Island iPod now. I can try the slightly lame excuses that I hadn’t really been paying that much attention to the chart music that late summer/early autumn and that I will have made up this tape in a bit of a rush, possibly with more willingness to pad out the tape than usual.

Anyway, to the extent that I am able, below are links to public domain versions of each of the above, so you can decide for yourselves, if you can be bothered. In any case, I’m sure some readers will be curious enough to want to listen to some of the recordings.

The play list starts brilliantly…and ends.

Gosh, that was quicker and easier than making up a mix tape, by a long, long chalk.