Switching To A Cracking Good Flat In Barnes, Keele, Mid February To Early March 1982

Picture borrowed from Studentcrowd.com

My experience staying in Barnes G3 Flat with friends over the Christmas holidays had convinced me that I had missed a trick by staying on in Lindsay for my second year. Quite early in that second term I started to investigate possibilities to swap my way into a flat. It took until mid February for me to hit pay dirt, by which time I was getting a little tetchy, if the diary is anything to go by:

I won’t even both to translate most of that – the word “dull” appears several times and “none too eventful” is an Ian diary euphemism for…”dull”.

Sunday 21 February 1982 – None too eventful day – went to see Beneath the Valley [of the Ultra Vixens] film -> U Block. Did some work in evening – found out about flat.

My guess is that we saw a quite heavily cut version of the notorious Ultra Vixens movie – I found it mostly silly and minimally dirty, but what do I know of such films?

More importantly, “found out about flat” means that my cunning plan to swap my way into a Barnes Flat had basically come to fruition. The difficulty was finding a swap that worked. A finalist named Tony in Barnes M65 wanted to move out of that flat into a Lindsay room. Problem was, he wanted to move into a quiet, finalists block and my room in F Block Lindsay was not that. One of the reasons I wanted to move was to seek a quieter environment.

I solved the puzzle by finding a fresher (name long since forgotten) who had found himself amongst finalists in a Lindsay block – the fresher was seeking a livelier environment. Hey presto – we pulled off a three-way swap to everyone’s satisfaction.

Monday 22 February 1982 – Did little today. Confirmed move into flat – though had busy evening sorting that out.

“But just a minute,” I hear Keele 1980s experts cry. “M65? M65?? There was no M Block…”

The tragic demise of M Block had been writ in the Keele plans by then – M Block was subsiding into a disused mine beneath it. there were already significant cracks but it was deemed safe for occupation for the remainder of the 1981/82 year.

Some friends thought I was crazy to move into a condemned block, but I figured that refugees from the condemned block would be top of the list for Barnes Flats the following year – ahead of any ballot – as long as at least two of us were planning on staying in a Barnes Flat, which was the case with me and Ahmed Mohd Isa, who was the other non-finalist in M65. I was right.

Wednesday 24 February 1982 – Made half-hearted effort to start packing. Went to see Theatre of Hate – walked out again – oh well.

Well, it seems that I walked out on an historic gig. Theatre of Hate were supported by Southern Death Cult at that gig. According to Dave Lee in the Keele Gigs!, Billy Duffy of Theatre of Hate was so impressed with Ian Astbury of Southern Death Cult that he popped the question and the result was The Cult.

Below is a recording of Southern Death Cult from a bit later in 1982:

Below is a recording of Theatre Of Hate live a little later in 1982:

Thirdly, below, is The Cult, live, a few years later.

Thursday 25 February 1982 – Last day in room – busy packing etc – did no academic work – had quite a good time considering. Lindsay dinner in evening.

Did I time my departure to ensure that I had some sort of special dinner just before I moved? Sounds like it!

Friday 26 February 1982 – moved into flat today – went to count of election. Stayed in evening, unpacking etc.

The election count during the day that Friday will have been the controversial re-run of the presidential election, during the original version of which there had been some shenanigans, which (if I remember it correctly) the “shenaniganistas” (mostly under the auspices of a Machiavellian character named Chris Boden) then used as a mechanism for insisting that the election be rerun.

The result of all that was that Truda Smith got elected for a second time and was actually deemed the winner on that Friday.

Saturday 27 February – Tried to get sorted out in flat – shopped in afternoon. Went to union in evening – met Andy Shindler & the lovely Dalia? Busy.

I don’t really remember meeting up with much Andy Shindler at Keele but if I wrote that it must be true. As for “the lovely Dalia?”, perhaps Andy remembers more about that than I do. I’ll try to find out – I still have my sources, even 40 years on.

By Monday 1 March, it seems I was the President (or was the term Chair?) of JSoc – an honour I seem to remember not really wanting but I found a shilling in the bottom of my beer glass or something like that…

…I am the boss!!!…

…stated with some sarcasm, I imagine.

The beginning of March was not too exciting, despite the new surroundings.

6 March 1982 – Busy morning. Went to Liverpool late afternoon – ball etc – really bad do. Came back in very early hours indeed.

7 March 1982 – Got up very late. Did little during the day. Went to see Watership Down & Animal Farm. Did some work in evening.

8 March 1982 – Did quite a lot of work during the day. Went to UGM in evening. OK

9 March 1982 – Did some work – busy day, Went to Lawsoc AGM – did work after.

I don’t recall the Liverpool visit. Probably with Rana and his flatmates – they had wheels – but I’m not sure.

The Watership Down animation was so much better than the Halas/Batchelor Animal Farm stuff – yet I remember thinking that the latter film was so much better.

I find it hard to believe that I ever went to a Lawsoc AGM and can only imagine how excruciatingly dull such an event must have been. There’s me using the word dull again.

But we’re zooming towards the end of term, when life starts to speed up again.