I might have some notes or other artefacts from the meeting itself which I’ll post separately if/when I find them. I know I did attend the meeting. I’m pretty sure several/most of us did. If June said you had to be there, you had to be there.
Category: Student Life
University of Keele Students’ Union, Letter Requesting Help, 1 November 1985
I remember Nigel Dempster writing a whole load of factually inaccurate stuff about Keele Students’ Union generally and me in particular. I also remember writing a rebuttal, which the Daily Mail, surprisingly, published.
This letter request from June Aitken probably explains why I cannot find copies of the rebuttal and other materials – I suspect that I simply sent them to her without making further copies for myself. In 1985, photocopying/scanning was not the simple, almost automatic thing it is today.
Perhaps this letter from June is now all that remains of the Dempstergate debacle.
A Letter From Keele, Professor Les Fishman, 2 September 1985
I have no idea what must have gone wrong with the earlier correspondence, unless it turns up in a pile I have not yet excavated. I got on well with Les, both in my capacity as a student and as a students’ union officer. He was, in my experience, a wonderful lecturer and steward of his undergraduate students. So my comment about the long-forgotten faux pas would have been tongue-in-cheek on my part, as would Les’s rebuttal have been on his part.
A Letter from Peter Held soon after I left Keele, 24 July 1985
I got to know Peter Held on several of the University committees; he was a prominent member of the University Council. I remember being pleasantly surprised when he invited me and Kate to a Lichfield Festival concert towards the end of our term of office, that summer. I’ll write up that concert in the fullness of time; I’m pretty sure I have the programme.
I would have written quite promptly to Peter to thank him for his (i.e. Marling Industries’) hospitality. This letter is his thanks for my thanks, with the offer of a little bit of employment insurance tucked in there, which I remember pleasing me when I first saw the letter.
Not that I can really imagine a career in industrial textiles, looking back, but who knows where life might have been taking me back then?
We Interrupt The Process Of Me Saying Goodbye To Keele With A Two Day Interlude In The Lake District With Petra, 7 & 8 July 1985
Whose idea was this? Almost certainly Petra’s, not least because she had a car, making such an idea possible. She probably also sensed that mooching around Keele for too many days might not be as good an idea.
My diary recorded the trip and for once I took a few photos. Not too many, mind.
That reads:
Sunday, 7 July 1985 – Brekker [breakfast] – left for lakes – Kendal (jazz lunch). -> Windermere -> Bowness. Drove to Keswick – stayed in pub [The Pack Horse Inn] and went on to meal.
Monday, 8 July 1985 – breakfast -> town, Bowder Stone -> Honister Pass -> Cockermouth for German lunch -> back [to Keele] another way – got to hospital [to visit Petra’s best friend Ruth] late – returned home, cooked meal
I remember that short-but-sweet break fondly. It came as a surprise when I realised from the diary that we were only away for the one night. Kids, eh?
My Last Keele Sixties Soul Disco, My Last Visit To Barnes L54 & Other “End Of Keele” Memories, Late June & Early July 1985
Hayward Burt sitting in MY Barnes L54 chair
Having survived a visit to London with Petra in her car…
…my diary for the next few days has an end of era tone to it.
Saturday, 29 June 1985 – returned through night – slept in – went to town late – cooked John [White] and Petra [Wilson] a meal – John and I did last Sixties [Soul] disco. Went down well.
Sunday 30th of June 1985 – Rose quite early – Ruth’s folks – Petra’s car – breakfast – visited Ruth – Pitty [Graham Pitt] came over for dinner.
John and I have very happy memories of doing those sixties soul discos. It was kind of Pady Jalali (Social Secretary) to award us the end of Festival Week slot as a last hurrah.
If you are wondering what one of our Sixties Soul Discos might have sounded like, please feel free to click the image above – or here – for a YouTube Music playlist curated by me and John in the style of those discos.
Some people described our discos as Northern Soul style, but in truth they were more mainstream than that, not least because Keele’s record collection at that time had few “rare grooves”. Our soul discos always went down well, as confirmed by my assessment in my diary.
Ruth’s Parents, Petra’s Car & Hospital Visits
I have already told the tale of Ruth, Petra’s close friend, having been hit by a car in the street, in a piece named “Something’s Wrong…”
I should hasten to add that Petra was not the errant driver in the Ruth incident, as evidenced by Petra being elsewhere (with me) at the time of the accident. More seriously, Petra proved to be a very constant friend to Ruth during her recovery, in hospital, as my late June/early July diary attests. We (or at least Petra) visited Ruth almost every day, except when we were out of town.
I also remember that Eddie Slade, the Senior Tutor, visited Ruth in hospital to see how she was and to inform her in person that she had won an academic prize that year. A lovely touch, I thought then and still think now.
In truth I remember little about the visit from Ruth’s parents. The fact that I blurt the phrase “Petra’s car” between the phrase “Ruth’s folks” and “breakfast” suggests that something once again happened to (or in) Petra’s car, as part of that expedition. Lost in the mists of time from my memory, that one. It can’t have been as dramatic as our near death experience on the Marylebone Road.
Monday 1 July 1985 – lazyish day – signed on, shops, went to hospital., Cooked Petra meal.
Tuesday 2 July 1985 – easyish day – office briefly – Petra packed – I went to Kate’s [now Susan Fricker] for a while – hospital – cooked Petra a meal etc.
Wednesday, 3 July 1985 – sorted things out – went to hospital – then walk round lakes etc.
Thursday 4 July 1985 – easyish day – rose late – went to Trentham Gardens in afternoon – hospital – dinner etc.
Friday, 5 July 1985 – Easy day – office briefly etc – went to hospital – had dinner – went union and then onto L54 to see John, Hayward etc.
Saturday 6 July 1985 – Rose late – shopped – went to hospital – cooked nice meal etc.
I think Trentham was a bit of a crumbling old ruin back then, but I suppose it was one of the few vaguely local attractions near Keele.
I don’t remember John staying in Barnes L54 at that time, but he must have done. My guess is that John had already given up his flat (room) in town and wanted to stick around Keele a while longer. I’ll also guess that it was Alan Gorman who had departed early and therefore had left space for John to squat in L54 a while.
I had lived in Barnes L54 for two very happy years – Autumn 1982 to Summer 1984.
It was strange visiting that place for the last time – especially with Hayward Burt sitting in MY chair and all – have I mentioned that bit before?
Postscript – Actually my very last visit to L54 was the following week, where I saw Kate, Pady, Hayward and [Chris Spencer] Farm. That evening will have been my last visit:
We Interrupt Keele Festival Week To Dice With Death On A Strindberg Theatre Trip To London, 28 June 1985
Petra: “I wonder if someone here does advanced driver courses?”
The appointment diary reads “day off” in big letters, but I latterly inserted:
11:00 Day Nursery
Despite the fact that my term of office was over, I was still taking my students’ union duties very seriously and the meeting will have taken a good couple of hours – I have written about my experience of such a meeting previously:
As a result, Petra and I set off from Keele for London a fair bit later than we had intended.
My personal diary entry skims over the details of this…
…but I remember the hair-raising aspects of this episode very clearly.
We took this trip in Petra’s car, as the idea was to have a Chinese meal in Soho’s Chinatown, see The Dance of Death at the Riverside Studios, and then return to Keele at night. That sort of round trip only makes sense in a car.
It also only really makes sense to do that sort of road trip if you allow plenty of time for the journeys and know your way around London by road. We were more than a little deficient in both of those regards.
Imagine the scene – Petra driving east along the Marylebone Road in Friday afternoon traffic, by which time we realised that we had not allowed enough time to eat before heading out to Hammersmith to see the play. I was trying to work out, by landmark and road sign, where we should turn off for Chinatown…or perhaps we now meant to turn off for Hammersmith…
…to be fair, my directions might have been less than perfect…to be equally fair, Petra’s knowledge of the road layout of the Marylebone Road must also have been less than perfect…
…but in truth, I couldn’t fathom then and certainly couldn’t fathom now how the next bit happened. We continued driving east along the Marylebone Road…on the wrong side of the dual carriageway.
I think I adopted the crash bracing position. For sure I covered my eyes at least and no doubt expressed orally my terror. I vaguely remember Petra saying reassuring stuff like:
Don’t worry, don’t worry. It’ll be OK. I’ll get us out of this.
I think she must have manoeuvred across all of the lanes and turned right onto Judd Street, although how she managed to dodge all of the Friday rush hour traffic while doing that I can barely imagine.
The irony of having diced with death ahead of going to see The Dance Of Death might have been wasted on me then, but it is not wasted on me now.
I also recall how bad the traffic was between Marylebone “Dice With Death” Road and The Riverside Hammersmith, such that we were cutting it fine ahead of seeing The Dance Of Death. But we did make it to the theatre in time and by gosh was it worth the trip and the trauma.
The Dance Of Death by August Strindberg, Riverside Studios
All we had forfeited was one day of Keele Festival week (and nearly our lives), but it transpires that the great Alan Bates gave up a Hollywood movie for the chance to play Edgar in this production. Here is a preview interview piece from The Standard:
Dance Bates Standard 17 May 1985, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
I had long wanted to see some Strindberg, having read plenty of it at school and then more during my working summers, when I tended to read plays voraciously while commuting to work. The opportunity to see Alan Bates opposite Frances de la Tour in a Strindberg play, albeit one I hadn’t read at that time, had been enticing to say the least.
Dance Of Death Promo Southall Gazette 17 May 1985, Fri Southall Gazette (Ealing, London, England) Newspapers.com
I don’t suppose I saw that advert in the Southall Gazette. I suspect I saw a review in The Guardian or The Observer.
Michael Radcliffe in the latter loved it:
Dance Ratcliffe Observer 02 Jun 1985, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh in The Guardian seemed less sure but still positive:
Dance de Jongh Guardian 01 Jun 1985, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
John Barber in The Telegraph was not so sure about the play or the supporting cast, but waxed lyrical about Alan and Frances:
Dance Barber Telegraph 03 Jun 1985, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
That last article reminds me that the production we saw was The Dance Of Death Parts One & Two, barely expurgated, so it ran for a bum-numbing four hours.
That’s FOUR HOURS on those excruciating seats they had in The Riverside Studios back then.
Still, my review of The Dance Of Death was a one-worder:
Excellent
Petra and I will have arrived in Chinatown around midnight, by which time the choice of eateries was limited to say the least – I suspect the choice was either Yung’s or the notoriously and relentlessly rude Wong Kei.
Extravagantly, and wisely, I plugged for Yung’s, sparing us the indignities and lesser food of Wong Kei. Clearly I thought the meal at Yung’s was very nice as I described it as such in my diary.
I like the diary description “returned through the night” for the drive home, which was, as far as I can recall, relatively incident free.
So was it good manners or post traumatic stress related amnesia that made me miss out the details of the “driving the wrong way along the Marylebone Road” incident from my diary? It’s hard to recall my diary entry mindset, forty years on, although my memory of the incident remains very clear indeed.
More Festival Week Stuff Including My Last Keele Students’ Union Ball, 25 to 27 June 1985
1985 Summer Ball image with grateful thanks to Andrew Macmillan
In many ways the things unsaid in my personal diary entries for that Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday are more interesting than the things said.
Allow me to transliterate those three days for you:
Tuesday 25 June 1985 – busy day – shopped – Ringroad rehearsal – popped over to Kate’s – had dinner – went to Pop Quiz – got drunk – Petra came over.
Wednesday 26th June 1985 – meetings etc – quite busy – dinner – Ball (including weak Ringroad!) – left about 2:30 am.
Thursday 27 June 1985 – meetings etc went to WPAR [if someone remembers what that was, please let me know] – hospital – cooked dinner – Ring wrote summer review – went down very well.
My appointments diary for the Tuesday shows that I had fully intended to play the festival week cricket match for the fourth year running, but became quite inundated with requests for meetings and gave up on the idea of one last go at the cricket.
Those readers who missed out on my Keele cricket (so-called) career can catch up with it through this King Cricket piece authored by Herbert Ackgrass with me appearing pseudonymously as Ged Ladd. It takes some gall to have one of your noms de plume write about another of your noms de plume, so clearly I have some gall:
But I digress.
The fact that we had a last-minute rescheduled Ringroad rehearsal suggest to me that the Ringroad show we performed at the Ball, which I described as weak, was a last minute idea, perhaps to fill a gap in the Ball schedule. We had a long-planned Summer Revue the next day and I think we needed to dredge the bottom of the Ringroad cornflake box of scripts to come up with a second show in as many days that wasn’t going to overlap.
I don’t remember much about the pop quiz on the Tuesday, but as I state that I “got drunk” rather than “won”, or “did well”, I think you can draw your own conclusions.
Frankly, I remembered little about the Summer Ball too. It is only fair to say that John White’s memory did no better. Interesting also that I didn’t note the names of the bands we saw – not even the headliners (Darts).
So I am truly grateful to Andrew Macmillan for supplying the headline image which helped bring back the memories.
One reason that I would not have thought Darts that exciting a pick is that I had seen them at an SU ball early in my Keele career. No doubt Pady chose them precisely because only a handful of us would have seen them at the Valentines Ball in 1981 – written up in this piece:
You can hear/see some Darts in the above 1981 write up, but if that’s not enough for you, here’s another embedded video of that retro group. They were seriously retro, even when at their peak in the 1970s:
More interesting perhaps were the support acts. I remember being less impressed by The Higsons than I was by The Untouchables, but enjoying the sound of both.
The Untouchables were very much “John’s and my sort of thing”, with their Mod/Ska revival sound. I wonder whether Pady [Jalali] chose them for our last hurrah deliberately to please us. Forty years on, John [White] and I can ask Pady that question when we all meet up in late July.
I particularly remember liking The Untouchables version of a Northern Soul classic, I Spy For The FBI:
I love the parting remark in my diary, “left about 2:30 a.m.”.
And I had SO many meetings the next day, and THE Ringroad Summer Revue to perform. Did I make it?
Of course I did.
Not only did I do all of that on the Thursday, but my diary reports that Petra and I visited recently run-over Ruth in hospital in amongst all of that too. I’m getting hot and bothered just thinking about it.
Some years ago I wrote up that Summer Ringroad Revue, my final Ringroad performance, including an audio recording of that show – here’s that write up:
“Something’s Wrong” In The Keele Hall Salvin Room & I Am Keele’s “Bamber Gascoigne”, 19 to 24 June 1985
Bamber Gascoigne, image use permitted by the National Portrait Gallery
My diary entries for 19 June 1985 barely tell the story. I’d had a busy day of meetings, but the day was supposed to end in an enjoyable fashion, as Petra and I had been invited to an Overseas Students Reception in the Keele Hall Salvin Room, which we planned to follow up with a party/disco in less salubrious Lindsay – probably the Hexagon.
I remember a very relaxed atmosphere at the party – I knew many of the overseas students well from my Education & Welfare activities.
About an hour into the party – I’ll never forget this – Petra suddenly seemed very anxious and said:
I’ve got to go. Something’s wrong. I need to go back to my room.
I went with her, really not understanding her vexation. I don’t suppose she understood it at that moment. We soon got back to Petra’s Horwood block, H if I recall correctly, where one or two people were looking for her. Word had reached the block that Ruth had been run over by a car in town. Ruth was in A&E at North Staffs Royal Infirmary and had been asking for Petra.
I don’t much believe in extra sensory perception – I certainly don’t understand it -and am sceptical about the way that some people profess to have it – but for sure Petra profoundly sensed something that evening in Keele Hall.
Anyway, we jumped into Petra’s car and headed for the hospital.
The staff at the hospital were very nice to us. They explained to us that Ruth had suffered some significant fractures and that there was a fair bit of superficial injury to her face which looked worse than it was. Would we like to go in to the observation ward now?
Petra said yes. Squeamish back then as indeed I am now, I said that I would hold back for the time being.
Two or three minutes later, one of the nurses came out to inform me that Petra had fainted at the sight of Ruth and was recovering on a spare bed in the observation ward. Would I like to go in and see the pair of them?
Do you have another spare bed in there?
I asked, instinctively. Perhaps it was the wrong moment for comedy, but there was also veracity in my question.
Actually I did go in to the ward and understood why the events of the preceding hour or so, not least “the big reveal” of entering that small ward, had been so upsetting for Petra. She was a very close friend to Ruth and they are still very much in touch with one another, as I understand it, 40 years on.
My diary entries for the following few weeks have daily visits to see Ruth, apart from a few days when Petra and I were apart (when Petra would have visited without me) or when Petra and I were away from North Staffs together.
Wednesday, 19 June 1985 office – union committee meetings – overseas student reception – heard Ruth had been run over – went to hospital – got back late.
Thursday, 20 June 1985 – Rose early Leisuregames lunch – then went around with Petra to hospital etc – dinner after.
Friday 21 June 1985 – busy sorting out things for Ruth with Petra etc. Had Chinese meal at Hanley Garden.
Saturday, 22 June 1985 – got up quite early. Went home to visit mum and dad.
Sunday, 23 June 1985 – moved belongings around – had lunch. Left [for Keele] quite early – had dinner – Petra came over.
Monday 24 June 1985 – Rose quite late – did university challenge heat (compere) – had dinner with Petra and Ruth’s mum.
Gosh, yes, I remember being “Keele’s very own Bamber Gascoigne, just for one day”, doing the University Challenge teams selection heats in the ballroom that Monday. It was one of the first activities in Festival Week that year and I took the job of compering it very seriously.
I especially remember all the effort I put in on the preceding days, including the couple of days I spent visiting my parents, going through the huge wad of questions that the Granada TV people had sent through to help with those heats. I tried to select collections of questions that I thought would be fairest and best help separate the Keele quizzing wheat from the Keele quizzing chaff.
I must admit I find it hard to think about University Challenge “in our day” without thinking of The Young Ones episode in which the anarchic quartet from Scumbag College take on a bunch of infeasibly posh students from Footlights College Oxbridge. Here’s a link to that episode on BBC iPlayer – you know you want to peek at it.
In the next episode of this forty years on series, I’ll be writing up, amongst other things, the Students’ Union Summer Ball, which took place a couple of days after the University Challenge heats. I need your help, dear readers…
…SO…
…fingers on buzzers and no conferring, here is your starter for 10:
Which act headlined at the Keele Students’ Union Ball on 26 June 1985?
And, your bonus questions for five points each:
Name the support acts…
…(Ringroad doesn’t count as a support act).
Answers in the comments or by private message please.
Out Of Office But Not Quite Yet Out Of Time At Keele, Mid June 1985
With thanks to Mark Ellicott, who captured the historic moment at which I symbolically handed the keys to the Education & Welfare Office to Hayward Burt.
10 June 1985 was the day of the last UGM of the academic year and the official end of my sabbatical year of office as Education & Welfare officer. Not that the official ending seemed to reduce the number of meetings and things I attended for the next few weeks. We sabbaticals in particular undertook quite a substantial “handover”, which we hadn’t received with such gusto from our predecessors but which we felt we should do for our successors.
I have previously written up the “Hackgrass Reveal” story, which dominated the early part of that historic day:
I have also previously written up some sort of spoof Union Committee meeting we held after a wet lunch that day:
My appointments diary tells a slightly maudlin tale, with the entry “UGM, The End” on that day:
My personal diary sort-of covered the day…
Monday 10 June 1985 – last day officially in office – did little – “union committee meeting” for awhile – then somewhat chaotic last UG M – drink after etc. Very late night.
…although it failed to mention that I was awarded life membership of the Keele Students’ Union at that UGM. I was given a card the following day to prove it. Very proud of that card I am, such that I carried it around with me at all times for years. It now looks like this:
I always knew I had something in common with Nelson Mandela, but in truth had forgotten, until I found this article in the Sentinel while looking for something else, that Nelson & I both had life membership of UKSU conferred upon us that night:
Nelson gets life on 10 June 1985 15 Jun 1985, Sat Evening Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England) Newspapers.com
Here’s the text from my personal diary for the next week or so:
Tuesday, 11 June 1985 – Rose late – residential services in afternoon etc – had dinner with Petra.
Wednesday, 12 June 1985 – busy day – meetings etc – celebrated after Senate – had dinner with Petra.
Thursday, 13 June 1985 – meetings – in office most of the day – had an easy evening [Strangely, the appointments diary says that I did the Bust Fund Disco that night. I expect the appointments diary is right and the memory at the time I wrote up that week was wrong.
Friday, 14 June 1985 – meetings, office etc. Cooked dinner for Petra, Ruth and [Graham] Pitt.
Saturday, 15 June 1985 – lazyish day – shopped etc – popped over to Pitt’s – went to Jackie Wong’s for dinner.
Sunday, 16 June 1985 – Rose late/lazy day –brekker etc. Cooked Petra dinner later.
Monday, 17 June 1985 – went to Derbyshire for day with June – peak/picnic etc. dinner. Got back late – Petra came round after.
I have very happy memories of the day June Aitken (the Keele Student’s Union administrator extraordinaire) took us outgoing sabbaticals (me, Kate, John & Pady) to the Peak District, for a day of picnicking and walking.
It was a truly special and memorable day – I am so irritated that I didn’t take a camera and a roll of film that day. I fell in love with the Peak District that day and visited it many times since – especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s – the following photo from 1990:
Tuesday, 18 June 1985 – meetings etc – Ringroad rehearsal – Petra cooked dinner later.
The next day…something significant happened. I’ll write up that story and its aftermath next time.
