But before that, only a couple of months after getting it together, we took in some theatre and dining on a long weekend in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
My diary is not terribly helpful with the details:
In those days, bookings and arrangements would have been made by telephone, so there is no electronic trail to speak of. But I did save programmes and started retro-logging theatre visits a bit later in the 1990s. That, combined with our memories, gets us quite a long way towards remembering this trip, even as I write 25 years later.
29 October 1992
We drove up from London to Stratford-Upon-Avon, probably in quite good time (if Janie was already hopeless at packing she would have hidden this from me back then and been ready with her bags, even if had taken her hours to pack).
We would have driven up in Red Noddy, my (or I should say, at that time, still Binder Hamlyn’s) Honda Civic.
We checked in to Twelfth Night Hotel in Evesham Place…recommended by Janie’s client Margaret if Janie’s diary is anything to go by…£22 per person per night according to Janie’s diary…
…(I originally thought The Shakespeare Hotel in Chapel Street, but Janie’s diary is explicit and I now recall that The Shakespeare was from our second visit)…
I think we did a bit of gentle sightseeing during the day. Both of us had been to Stratford-Upon-Avon several times before, but neither of us had done much of the “Shakespeare trail” sightseeing stuff. So much so, that I recall we left some sightseeing stuff over for a future visit.
We weren’t going to the theatre this evening, so we booked a “top notch” place to eat; Lamb’s in Sheep Street. We had a very good meal on that visit and at the time of writing (October 2017) if TripAdvisor is to be believed it has become top notch again. But I do recall a subsequent visit (perhaps late 1990’s or more likely during the twenty-noughties) when the place was in dingy decline. Anyway, top notch it was for our first long weekend together.
31 October 1992
I think we chose to hold back on the sightseeing today (deferring to a future visit) to avoid the weekend crowds. So we mooched around and had a light lunch, ahead of a marathon effort to see a preview of Antony and Cleopatra at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, where Janie recalls we ate and drank in situ, before during and after the performance.
1 November 1992
We drove home. The diary suggests that we went to see NewsRevue at the Canal Cafe Theatre that evening. I suppose I was hopeful to see some of my stuff in the show and I don’t suppose I was disappointed at that time. It might have been Janie;s first visit, although we shall do some archaeology into Janie’s old diaries in the fullness of time. Janie’s diary appointment notes might reveal more details about her NewsRevue experiences and perhaps also about our very first long weekend away together in Stratford-Upon Avon.
Janie and I don’t remember enough about this evening.
I had played bridge at Andrea’s place with the gang (probably Daniel and Maz back then) the night before.
Janie had taken patients on the Saturday morning, as she did in those days.
I know it was the first time I met Anthea. I know we went out to Bethnal Green – down Anthea’s way. I wrote down Anthea’s address for the purpose.
We went to an ethnic restaurant quite near to Anthea’s place in Bethnal Green.
Janie and I both think there were other people there that evening; not just we three, but for the life of us we cannot figure it out. Anthea just might.
We ended up back at Janie’s place that night; that much Janie and I both certainly remember.
We’re not sure how long I stayed, but I do have an electronic record of lyrics written onthe Sunday time stamped bbetween 17:00 and 18:00. So I’ll guess I stayed for some brunch.
John’s a good fellow. John will be able to read my hieroglyphics.
If John is unable to read my hieroglyphics, he will nevertheless remember the occasion vividly and remind me where we went that evening and what we did/ate.
Or if by some fluke John cannot remember exactly what we did a mere 29 years ago, I’m sure his diary will reveal more secrets about the evening than mine.
We met at 6:30 in the evening. I can say that with authority.
I didn’t stumble across this page while looking for something else and think “wtf does that say”…I really did, very specifically want to write up that particular evening…honest guv.
The preceding week, the only item of note was my visit to mum and dad’s place for dinner on the Saturday. My surge of social activity between completing my accountancy finals and settling down at Binders replaced by a more austere “work hard” lifestyle. Not least because I didn’t have that much spare dosh at first, with most of my pay going on rent and driving lessons to pay for. Must have done something for new years eve I’d have thought, but it’s not recorded, so lost in the mists of time.
NH & Co is Newman Harris & Co, SB is Stanley Bloom. I don’t recall where we went for lunch.
Had leaving do in eve. Drinks at Phoenix. Meal at Melati.
I’ll write more about Newman Harris elsewhere no doubt. The Phoenix on Cavendish Square was often the pub of choice by virtue of being the nearest, not the dearest. Thirty years on, a Google search finds the description…
…Shabby chic pub with worn-in tables…
…which surely applied back then too.
Melati was one of my favourite South-East Asian eateries back then – gone now it seems:
The location would have pleased the several South-East Asian colleagues I had at NH&Co and also would have pleased me as an echo of my “leaving do” ten years earlier when, as a 15 year old finishing my first holiday job, at NH, we went to a Malaysian restaurant named Rasa Sayang – I believe long gone and unrelated to any current restaurant of that name.
I cannot remember who joined me for the 1988 leaving do, but I shall list a few names of those I am pretty sure would have been there. Ashley Michaels, Mike and Sandra King, Dilip Vora, Terry, Duncan, Lelash Shah, Varsha Yadav…
…perhaps someone who was there and who has a phenomenal memory will stumble across this piece and help fill in the details.
The exact details of this gathering will doubtless be lost in the mists of time, but…
went to Sharani [sic] & Mark’s
…must mean that the gathering started at their place, which, from memory, was in Gibson Square. Apologies to Shirani for spelling her name wrong in my diary.
…must mean Bobbie (who was my link with this crowd; Bobbie & Shirani were fellow law reporters). The crowd probably included Ying Hui Tan, Peter (Ying Hui’s then beau), Maria (who ended up living in Clanricarde Gardens years later) Paul McGrath (Maria’s then beau) and possibly some others.
I’m going to guess that the purpose of the gathering was to celebrate Bobbie’s birthday with her. I’m also going to guess that it was a very jolly evening with good food and wine.
I think the meal at Le Caprice was my parents’ idea – to celebrate my qualification as a Chartered Accountant along with Uncle Michael, Auntie Pam, Stanley Bloom and his good lady (Sharit?).
Le Caprice was a trendy place even then – I’m not quite sure what would have made mum and dad choose it. Perhaps to show off a bit. Perhaps because they had heard that it was a restaurant that was able to cope with fussy eaters…we had at least one in our party that day in Auntie Pam.
Roll the clock forward 30 years and I note that Kim likes that place, perhaps for similar “trendy but able to cope with a fussy eater” reasons.
I don’t believe any photos were taken that evening to mark the occasion – such meals were not seen to be the thing of photos necessarily back then. But it is just possible that I’ll stumble across some pictures when I delve into dad’s “late works” box of negatives and prints, which still awaits my trawl.
“Kates” means Kate (Susan) Fricker’s place. I’m pretty sure Kate was, at that time, living in a pied-à-terre flat in Hampstead, part of the house that had been the family home before her family moved to York.
Evenings with Kate were always pleasant. We both enjoyed cooking and eating good food. We both liked decent wine and we would always have interesting conversations. I’m sure that Saturday evening would have been such an evening.
I’m guessing that we would have both been in celebratory mode, work-wise, at that time – Kate was called to the bar around the time I qualified.
Saturday 18 January 1986 – Busy day – did quite a lot of shopping, got hair cut went to Brixton etc. Went up West in evening, met Bobbie, went to see My Beautiful Laundrette + then had a Vietnamese meal. Very nice evening.
In the absence of my diary, I’d have sworn that I saw My Beautiful Laundrette with John White, but clearly I saw it with Bobbie. I remember thinking it a truly excellent film.
The restaurant we ate in afterwards was almost without question Saigon in Frith Street, which was pretty much the only Vietnamese Restaurant up west in those days.
Sunday 19 January 1986 – Rose fairly early + had large Chinese lunch with folks + lazyish afternoon & evening at home taping, reading etc.
Monday 20 January 1986 – At work in Sam Phillips factory this week – not too pleasant really. Had a lazy evening tonight.
Tuesday 21 January 1986 – Still at factory in Finsbury Park – working quite hard. Had a quiet evening at home.
Wednesday 22 January 1986 – Working at factory in Finsbury Park today. Went into town to meet John [White] after work – Andy [Crawford] was there too. Went to Punch & Judy – had a few drinks then on to Kowloon restaurant – got home quite late.
Thursday 23 January 1986 – Working in Finsbury Park today – which is OK if you like that sort of thing. Quite tired + had a lazyish evening in this evening – watched some TV etc.
I really didn’t like working in that Finsbury Park garment factory, did I? And who could blame me? It was cold and far from friendly.
Friday 24 January 1986 – Work or went to Finsbury Park in morning – rushed back met Caroline [Freeman, now Curtis] for lunch – worked in office in afternoon. Went to Euston – had a drink – went up to Keele – arrived late & very tired. Petra [Wilson] cooked mussels (delicious) in evening – very nice.
I had arranged a short break in Keele for the next few days, which included the AGM, which was one of those events that the previous committee was “expected” to attend, as this “order” from the Union attests:
Monty Mendelson (forgive me if the surname is not spelt correctly) was a manager at Newman Harris who worked primarily for partner Lesley Cohen, whose office was in an office building in Wigmore Street, around the corner from the main Cavendish Square office. Monty at that time looked after one or two clients in Stanley Bloom’s portfolio too (Laurie Krieger’s “empire”, if I recall correctly), which might explain why I got to use his office in his absence.
The other possible reason is that the computer room was in the Wigmore Street office and I was the designated youngster who was supposed to try and sort out the problems that the departing “computer manager” had failed to sort out.
Monday 6 January 1986 – Work ok today – in office all day. Pretty uneventful day. Got to use Monty’s office which is cozy. Had a lazy evening at home reading mostly.
Tuesday 7 January 1986 – Uneventful day at work – still got Monty’s room – a cushy number. Spent the evening at home reading a book etc.
Clearly this role in Monty’s office felt cosier and cushier, to me, than real hard graft at clients’ sites doing actual accounting work. Who knew?
Wednesday 8 January 1986 – In office this morning (Monty’s) – met Kate [Fricker] for lunch – went to Cinecittà [see below]– pleasant enough lunch. Went to Laurence Corner in afternoon – ok. Lazy evening in – watched some TV + read etc.
In the 1970s and 1980s, London was home to a very famous, eccentric Italian restaurant called Cinecittà, located right behind the old Debenhams department store at 74 Welbeck Street, on the corner of Henrietta Place in Marylebone. It was highly memorable for its unique setup: The Concept: It was a theatrical, self-service Italian restaurant designed like a movie studio lot. The Decor: Diners could choose to sit and eat their meals inside various novelty “movie sets,” most famously including a full-sized vintage train carriage booth.
Google’s AI mode
Thursday 9 January 1986 – Spent the day at Laurence Corner – ok. Had a quiet evening in – watched some TV etc + read books.
Friday 10 January 1986 – Went to office today – did budget for CAA [Concert Artiste’s Association]. Had a drink with Mike [King], Sandra [soon to be or just became King]+ Terry [errand “boy”] after work. Went up to Keele – pretty tired etc. Had dinner + earlyish night.
Saturday 11 January 1986 – Got up reasonably early – had breakfast at [the] SU. Went out in afternoon – saw Ali [Dabbs], Pitty [Graham Pitt], L54 [Alan Gorman, Pete Wild, Hayward Burt] etc – went on to Hanley. Saw “Plenty” at cinema + then went for drink – decided impulsively to eat at Hanley Garden + get cab home.
Sunday 12 January 1986 – Rose quite late – after getting papers etc. Ben [Benita Wishart] came over for latke “lunch” etc – went for walk in woods in the dark. Lazed some more – had dinner watched a lot of TV + turned in.
Monday 13 January 1986 – Returned to London from Keele. Work OK – in office all day doing bits of this + that. Pretty tired though – had a quiet evening in + early night.
Tuesday 14 January 1986 – In office today – pretty uneventful day all told. Stayed in this evening – got a few odds & ends done.
Wednesday 15 January 1986 – Work OK – nothing very exciting happened. Stayed in evening.
Thursday 16 January 1986 – Went to Sam Phillip’s factory today – fairly hard work. Went on to Andrea [Dean]’s in evening – for booze, fondue etc. Very pleasant evening with that crowd. Stayed over there.
Friday 17 January 1986 – Set off to Finsbury Park (Sam Phillip’s) – worked in factory all day – pretty tiring – had a quiet evening at home + earlyish night.
With thanks to Dave Lee for the “loan” of this frosty Horwood picture.
For those who haven’t been avidly following this saga, the Shrewsbury Industrial Tribunal relating to our Union Committee’s dismissal of the Students’ Union bar managers was supposed to conclude 19 December…
…but required two additional days, which were set as Friday 28th and Monday 31st December.
Keele was bitterly cold when I returned to the campus on 27 December and remained so until we left on 31 December. It also felt incredibly bleak too, with almost nobody around.
The diary barely tells the tale, but let me translate my scrawl:
Thursday 27 December – Got up quite early [at parents’ house] – came back to Keele. Kate came over for a while.
I recall that Kate (now Susan) Fricker and I were a little spooked by the bleakness and the fact that Ralph was wandering around the campus. I don’t think he intended to spook or intimidate us, I think more likely Ralph was struggling to come to terms with what was happening to him and was walking a lot, as people with heavy weights on their minds often do.
In my (I now think false) memory, Kate asked to stay at the flat and I slept on the floor, but the diary says “came over for a while”, so on reflection I think the idea of her staying was mooted, but Kate decided in the end to spare me the floor and returned to her own flat for the night.
Friday 28 December – went to Tribunal – seemed to go OK – lazy evening in.
Saturday 29 December – shopped and read in day. Went to Koh-I-Noor with John & co in eve.
I think we sensed that Friday, perhaps for the first time, that the Tribunal was going our way. It was mostly Kate under the cosh that day, plus summing up from both sides, if I remember correctly. I certainly got the impression that Kate was fending off the cross-examination questions well and that the members of the panel were getting more than a little frustrated with interrogation by cross-examination that wasn’t really getting anywhere.
Would you believe the Koh-I-Noor restaurant is still there, forty years later, in Newcastle-Under-Lyme – click here. “John & co” suggests that Kate didn’t opt to join us that evening but that some other members of the committee were with us. Pady and Andy I’d guess. Perhaps also Pete & Melissa. The Koh-I-Noor was a good choice when we had vegetarians with us, as, in those days, Indian restaurants tended to be the only type of meat-serving restaurant that really “got” vegetarianism.
Sunday 30 December – Lazy day in reading etc. Kate & I went to see Ghostbusters in eve. Latish night.
Ghostbusters was THE movie to see in December 1984. I remembered that I had seen it “around the time the movie came out”, but did not remember, until I saw this diary entry, that I had seen it with Kate on the night before the tribunal judgment.
Forty years on, I have “cog. dis.” as to whether that particular movie on that particular evening was especially appropriate or especially inappropriate in the circumstances.
Great movie. The theme song had charted at the end of that summer, so John & I had been playing it at regular discos (i.e. not our 60s/Motown/Northern Soul ones) for some months. It charted again over Christmas when the movie came out. You know you want to hear it…and maybe even shimmy around your living room to that infectious rhythm:
When we returned to Shrewsbury on the Monday morning, we were given the judgment quite quickly, in summary form, with the promise of a full judgment to follow in writing. Basically the tribunal had unanimously found in our favour.
The Evening Sentinel summarised that oral judgement the next (publishing) day:
Of course we were all relieved, not least Tony Derricott, the Permanent Secretary, who must have felt especially exposed – as to a great extent did I – if the judgment had gone against us.
When we got back to the Students’ Union late morning/early afternoon, I remember Tony getting out cigars and offering them to us, which felt inappropriate to us student reps. We were relieved but not celebratory.
John and I had arranged to meet Annalisa de Mercur and Petra Wilson in London for New Years Eve, so we were also in a hurry to head down to London.
Rushed back to London with John to meet Annalisa and Petra…
…says the diary.
I remember far more than the diary tells. John might remember yet more or other details.
We had arranged to meet the girls at the Albert Memorial. No idea why there, other than it being a well-known landmark which all of us felt reasonably able to find easily and which we felt wouldn’t be a crowded place early evening on New Years Eve. It wasn’t.
John and I had a drink or two (or in John’s case possibly more than two) on the train down. Perhaps we can explain John’s, previously undisclosed, identification blooper as, at least partially, a result of the drink.
As John & I strode along Kensington Gore, John and I had a conversation along the following lines:
JOHN: (excitedly) I think that’s Annalisa in the distance, standing in front of the railings…
ME: (unconvinced)…I don’t think so…(even less convinced)…whatever it is, it’s not moving…
JOHN: (embarrassedly)…oh gawd, it’s not Annalisa. It’s a large pile of bin bags.
ME: Don’t worry, John, I won’t tell her.
Now let me be crystal clear on this point. Annalisa doesn’t and never did resemble a pile of bin bags. John’s excited outburst was no doubt enthusiasm for the anticipated evening with the girls. We were at a ridiculous distance to try to identify anyone – or to distinguish between objects and people.
Also in John’s defence, his optical delusion might have been born of eagerly looking forward to telling Annalisa and Petra that we had won our case. In those pre-mobile-phone days, there was no sensible way to get messages out ahead of meeting up – hence the pre-arrangement to meet at the Albert Memorial.
In fact, John & I had arrived at the Albert Memorial well ahead of the girls, leaving us quite literally in the cold for a good few minutes.
In the February 1985 issue of Concourse, in H Ackgrass’s final/parting newspaper column, I…or rather, better to say, H Ackgrass…wrote:
It’s all coming back to me. John will no doubt claim that he was simply finding imaginative ways to try and keep warm.
Soon enough Annalisa and Petra joined and the mood soon lightened once they learnt that the tribunal judgment had gone our way.
I am 99% sure that we ate at Melati in Great Windmill Street that evening, which was one of my/our favourite places at that time, although the diary is silent on that detail.
I’m pretty sure we then ventured in the cold to get as close to Trafalgar Square as we could – which in those days I think meant so darn close that we were actually in the square. For sure we could hear Big Ben striking loud and clear. For sure we celebrated the New Year with the crowds. I vaguely remember hugging and kissing rather a lot of strangers on that occasion. In those days, such conduct was not micro-aggressive or inappropriate – it was simply doing what everyone else was doing in those circumstances.
Petra had arranged for the two of us to stay in a flat in Kennington – her brother, Christian had friends there – they were away and were happy for us to stay. Christian had sensibly advised Petra that we would want to be walking distance from wherever we were going to stay if we were going to do the “midnight in Trafalgar Square” thing. Kennington fitted that bill.
It was actually quite a long walk in the cold after such a long day. I also recall clearly a long cold night at that flat as well. Either the heating in the flat didn’t work or we couldn’t work out how to make it work…we found imaginative ways to try and keep warm. We just about managed to avoid hypothermia.
Tuesday 1 January 1985 – went home mid morning. Lunch. Lazy day at home.
Wednesday 2 January 1985 – went to town – met Caroline lunch. Went NH [Newman Harris] then shopping then met Pete Roberts for dinner.
Thursday 3 January 1985 – rose late. Went Junction [Dad’s shop] in afternoon after taping etc. Lazy evening in taping etc.
I’ll talk some more about the taping in a separate piece about music.
I often met Caroline Freeman (now Curtis) for lunch in those days. I’m intrigued that I visited Newman Harris that day. I sense that I had told someone (Stanley Bloom, presumably, by then) that if the tribunal went against us, I would resign from the Students’ Union and be looking for work in January. I’m just guessing that this visit was to tell them that we had won and to arrange a start date in September.
The only other possibility is that I was already, by then, helping dad keep his shop’s books, in order to help keep his costs down (goodness knows, dad wasn’t doing much business by that time). This visit might have been to deliver or collect something pertained to dad’s accounts, which might explain me visiting the shop the next day.
Dinner with the Pete Roberts will have been fun and interesting. Pete was my predecessor’s predecessor’s predecessor Education & Welfare Officer (in other words 1981/1982). He had become a friend and mentor before he left Keele, and we met up/kept in touch for several years after we both left. I think he was living in Parsons Green by this time or perhaps he was still around Pimlico.
Pete will no doubt have helped me to reorient my thinking about my role post Tribunal. I remember bouncing ideas off him and really valuing his experience and wisdom in matters E&W. He was also reliably good company with an interesting and often amusing take on most subjects.
I thought he’d gone quiet on Facebook of late and was saddened to learn that he died in December 2023.
My time in London was short yet again, as I shortly returned to Keele ahead of a Union Committee team bonding long weekend in the Somerset countryside. What could possibly go wrong with that sort of idea?
