Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
I have published the hand-written version of these “minutes” under the date of the “meeting”.
Here is the typed up version, scanned from what I think must be carbon copies. Is there anyone else left on the planet who remembers what carbon copies were?
I guess I prepared these for our glorious return visit in January 1986 for the traditional UGM/AGM thingie.
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.
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.
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.
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?
On top of my Hackgrass reveal antics on our last morning in office, it seems we held some sort of bogus committee meeting later in the afternoon. More a symposium than a mere meeting, by the looks of it.
It looks as though I completed the minutes that December, ahead of our January 1986 appearance at the UGM I shouldn’t wonder, so I’ll publish the typed version at that date. The hand-written version that follows must have been part-written on the day and then concluded later.
Looks as though my Daily Mail rebuttal might have been around the same time.
Experts at handwriting analysis forensics might be able to work out exactly what went on. John White – I suggest you might choose not to apply for this role, if your attempt at the Hackgrass cypher is anything to go by.
When signing out Hackgrass from Concourse in February 1985, I left my name hidden in a not very complex code of initials in the final sentence of that piece.Hackgrass Signs Out, Concourse The Juicy Bits, February 1985 Part Two
Hackgrass Signs Out, Concourse The Juicy Bits, February 1985 Part Two
Most of my fellow committee members didn’t know that I was Hackgrass. Indeed the only person on the committee who did know was Pete Wild, as the only people still at Keele who did know my identity were my remaining former Barnes L54 flatmates (hence Pete), Petra Wilson and Annalisa de Mercur.
For the last day of our office as sabbaticals, I wrote a final Hackgrass one-pager and revealed myself to the lovely Pat Borsky in the print room. (As Hackgrass, I mean; please retain some decorum and concentrate, dear reader). Pat agreed to print the one-pager as a publicity circular (pub. circ.) special and the rest is history.
The one-pager caused more than a bit of a stir that day in students’ union circles. I thought best to lie low in my office.
Soon enough, John White plonked himself in my office with pub. circ. and a copy of the February Concourse, saying that he wanted to break the code.
I said that I didn’t much care who Hackgrass was and that I wanted to finish off some work, as I was still very busy.
John laboured with the puzzle for some time in my office, concocting some highly convoluted theories such as:
a=1…z=26, reverse the number series and rework the letters
Once I got irritated enough, I suggested to John that whoever Hackgrass was, he or she probably wasn’t that sophisticated a cipher-wright, so John might be better off trying something really simple like the initial letters of the words in the sentence.
About 10 seconds later, I received an unrepeatable (indeed forgettable) stream of invective from John. I have forgiven him for the invective and I believe he has forgiven me for keeping my identity as Hackgrass a secret during our sabbatical year.
Post script – John White has left an extensive comment on the above few paragraphs, but for reasons known only to himself (perhaps cognitive dissonance between a need to vent his spleen in public while simultaneously hoping no-one will find and read the venting) has posted the comment on a different posting – click here to read both posting and comment.
In all the excitement, I don’t seem to have kept a copy of the printed pub. circ. itself, but I do have the original text, a scan of which follows.
I have extracted a few good pages from the May 1985 edition of Concourse. By that time, my Education and Welfare sabbatical year was coming to an end, so the paper was interested in ushering in the new and ushering out the old. Hold the front page…
There had been some sort of hoo-ha about the FY exams that Easter, so it seems that I got busy and Margaret Gordon (a lovely lass, I wonder what became of her?) interviewed me about it:
I like the next two pages – a double page spread on the new sabbaticals. Nice to still have pictures of faces I remember. Hayward Burt’s comments on my style raised a smile with me.
I love this little article about John White, Kate Fricker and the Students’ Union cleaners. John looks like a rabbit startled by headlights in the picture. Little did he know that he would subsequently become seasoned for photo shoots, such as his gig as the poster boy for Food Retailer Monthly magazine (or whatever it was called, why can’t I remember?)
Finally the following review of the UGM. These days, the (anonymous) author of this piece would surely not get away with the ethno-physiognomy remark made about me, especially in that context. Where was editor Krista Cowman’s red pen when I needed it? Surely the UGM and Concourse should have been safe space from such comments for people like me? Is it too late for me to seek redress?
Strangely, I have no recollection whatsoever of reading that comment before, although I must have read it, so it must have seemed like water of a duck’s par for the course back then.
I asked DeepAI to reimagine the RingRoad gang desperately searching for family friendly sketches in the “RingRoad cornflake boxes”, where the sketch archive lived.
My diary doesn’t even mention the RingRoad show that we put on, with only limited success in the February Food Fest, which we held in the Students’ Union. The Food Fest was a spin off idea from the summer International Fair, which I had, as a cub student activist, helped to establish back in the early 1980s…
The idea of the Food Fest was to have a winter “international festival”, indoors in the Students Union, as well as the summer outdoorsy one. Among the main organisers for the Food Fest (as with the International Fair) were friends of mine from the Arab cultural community, mostly postgraduate Iraqui students at that time, many of whom were at Keele with their spouses and families.
A couple of the guys approached me and wondered whether RingRoad, the Keele students’ in-house comedy troupe of which I was, by then, an intrinsic part, might put on a show as part of the Food Fest.
It seemed like such a simple request and how could I say no to friends and colleagues who were putting so much energy into a festival idea that I supported wholeheartedly? Of course I said yes. Of course the warm-hearted RingRoad team said yes.
But when it came to wading through the archive of RingRoad sketches, we realised that the show comprised almost entirely of material that was, to use the modern parlance, politically incorrect and or NSFW. In short, only a handful of sketches in our collection were family friendly or lent themselves to minor edits to become family friendly.
The result was a flurry of sketch writing, mostly by David Griffiths, to produce a few new sketches for that show. I also remember going through tapes of my favourite radio sketches and transcribing a few of those for the family friendly show.
It was not our finest hour as RingRoad, but nor was it our darkest hour…
…as the Food Fest show served its purpose and seemed, if only mildly, to amuse. Fortunately, a family-friendly show’s audience tends to be friendly, so the feedback we received was, if not effusive, at least kind.
The above palaver barely gets a mention in my personal diary for that weekend, which reads:
Saturday 23 February 1985 – rose quite early – shopped etc – went to Union for Food Fest all day and evening – went okay. Drink after – Petra [Wilson] came over.
Sunday 24 February 1985 – rose reasonably early – Kate’s [Kate, now Susan Fricker] for lunch – very nice. Stayed till late. Went to Petra’s briefly in the evening.
Indeed, for the week that followed, my appointments diary says far more than the personal diary:
Hell’s bells, that’s a lot of meetings. No wonder I have been somewhat allergic to committees and meetings since my Keele Students’ Union sabbatical year!
The first meeting of the week, regarding Wot Subsid, I shall write plenty on that matter in a few week’s time, as the run up to publishing that booklet started to feature more in my diary. The “A” no doubt stands for “Annalisa de Mercur”, who did lots of the hard yards with me on that publication. More anon, I promise!
The rest is probably best left to the artwork that is the above scan. If any readers want to know more about what happened in some of those individual committees and/or meetings, by all means pop a message in the comments or “contact us” and I’ll try to answer your questions. I’m not expecting to be inundated with requests.
Here is my personal diary for the same period:
Monday, 25 February 19 85 – very rushed/busy with meetings all day and evening. Petra came over after.
Tuesday 26 February 1985 – very busy with meetings etc – morning noon and night. Petra came over after hustings.
27 Wednesday 27 February 1985 – rushed like crazy – not feeling too good today. Went home to bed early.
Thursday 28th of February 1985 – very busy day rushing around – meetings etc. Cooked Petra a meal in evening – stayed – very pleasant.
Friday 1 March 1985.– Very busy morning to get all out of way – left Keele early…
I recall that Petra was not too keen on the Horwood refectory food. As time went on, when timetables allowed, I tended to cook for her (as well as myself) more often.
Petra’s taste in food was quite different from that of Kate (now Susan) Fricker and John White, for whom I also cooked a fair bit. Both Kate and John were quite partial to spicy food. Petra was not keen on spices, so I tended to cook “pan casseroles” for her, although she was also partial to several of my Chinese dishes, which tended to need more ingredients and preparation time, so I would tend to cook those at the weekend. Kate and John also liked my Chinese style dishes.
I have a mind to produce a mini-series of recipes from that era, once I find the time to browse through my yellowed recipe sheets and delve a little deeper into my memory about the food.
I also am minded to write a small mini-series about the music that was the soundtrack of that era for me. Not just the discos that John White and I used to do in the ballroom (although we are working up some wicked playlists for nostalgics and/or fans of those genres to enjoy), but also the classical music that helped me to unwind from all of the hustle and bustle that year. I’ll stick those classical pieces into some public playlists too.
All those ideas are for later, for now let’s bring Petra in for her dinner…or as they would say in the Potteries, “tea”.
DeepAI image of a John White & Ian Harris bust fund disco
I am so impressed by that DeepAI image, based on a mere 30 word description. It even reminded me of the “Rasta shirt” I would sometimes don for such occasions. My dad, for some inexplicable reason, had treated himself to a pair of brightly-coloured pyjamas (primarily acid green in dad’s case) with Ethiopian lion motifs all over them. They were not really big enough for him and hardly his style. I rejected the bottoms but fancied the shirt for parties and other suitable occasions such as bust fund discos.
The Bust Fund was a mandatory Keele Student’s Union “trust” established by UGM some years before my time. It’s sole object was to help students pay fines for possession of cannabis. Helping students convicted for possession of any other controlled drug, or for supply of cannabis, was beyond the trust’s powers. The mandate included a requirement to raise money to meet the trust’s purpose through periodic (I think at least once a term) bust fund discos.
Some sabbatical education & welfare officers were more enthusiastic about their bust fund duties than others. I was and remain in favour of the legalisation of cannabis. At that time, I was not exactly averse to a toke of the stuff myself. I have written a bit about this topic and the February 1985 period previously, when extracting some chunks of Concourse:
Let’s start trawling through my diary for the second half of February 1985.
Friday, 15th February 1985 – very poorly today – got up 4 pm went to count – cooked Petra a meal after – stayed.
Saturday 16 February 1985 – went to town and shops today. Did 60s disco in evening with JohnBoy [John White]. Great. Petra came back.
Sunday 17 February 1985 – Rose late today – did some work etc. Went film briefly etc. Had early night.
My short waves of poorliness are a running theme through my diaries for a few years after my struggle with glandular fever in February 1983:
John White and I took great pride in our 60s discos. There’d be a lot of Motown in there for the dancing and also some of our favourite hippy-dippy stuff too. Many Keele students at that time enjoyed those discos for variety, although I do remember one young woman who was most persistent in trying to get us to play “some up to date” stuff. When I explained that the event had been billed as a 60s disco, these didn’t seem to hold any sway with her. I did at one point threaten to put on some Tchaikovsky, as I had recently purchased some early symphonies of his that date from the 1860s, so that would qualify as 60s music too.
Monday 18 February 1985 – went to court in morning – University Court in the afternoon. UGM in evening – Petra came over after.
Gosh I remember that day at the Newcastle-Under-Lyme Magistrates Court. I went a few times, to provide moral support to students who had been busted for cannabis.
On that occasion, I recall a female student had been busted for a small quantity of cannabis but also had in her possession a pethidine tablet for which she had no prescription. She told me a friend had given it to her because she sometimes got pain that OTC analgesics wouldn’t relieve. Unfortunately for her, this resulted in a bigger fine than students normally got for cannabis only and also excluded her from applying to the bust fund for help. Moral support was all I could provide.
Also that morning, I recall, prior that unfortunate young woman’s hearing, another student was in the dock for doing some serious mischief to another young man in a fight one night in town. He was done for actual bodily harm and/or malicious wounding (albeit without a weapon). That student got a suspended sentence and a smaller fine than the unfortunate young female student. I remember that so clearly.
I also remember a policeman coming and sitting next to me during the young woman’s trial. The copper casually enquired of me whether Keele Student’s Union still had a fund for settling the fines of students who had been done for drugs offences.
I couldn’t tell you, I’m afraid..
…I said, expecting a follow up question or three. But I think the copper decided that I must therefore be from some other department at Keele and left it at that. I might have broken down under proper interrogation quite easily, so I’m glad he didn’t try.
After that sobering morning at the local magistrate’s court, the afternoon was spent at University Court. This was a joint gathering of the University’s Senate and Council. It felt like a largely ceremonial affair, as I recall it, as I believe everything that was, technically, approved by the Court had been “made oven ready” by the respective constituent body and there was, as I recall it, no discussion at all. Maybe some years there was discussion.
No wonder I was tired ahead of the UGM, which, I believe, must have been the appearance referred to in this March issue of Concourse.
Not the best Concourse review I ever had of my UGM appearances. But not the worst either.
Tuesday 19 February 1985 – busy day with union committee etc. Went to talk in evening. Petra for dinner – Ali and Ruth awkward – Petra came over after.
I won’t repeat here the comedy of embarrassment that unfolded at the Union Committee retreat in Somerset – click here or below to read all about it:
Suffice it to say that, some six weeks later, Petra and I had not yet disambiguated the matter with Ali Dabbs and clearly engineered an opportunity to do so on the evening of 19 February. Petra’s lovely friend and neighbour Ruth, who will appear in at least one other context as my 1985 diaries unfold, must have joined this gathering to help try and smooth the evening. How and where it unfolded is lost in the mists of time. Not in my flat, if the surrounding words provide clues. Perhaps at Petra’s place, which was a stone’s throw away. Not that there would have been any stone throwing, just the awkwardness described.
Wednesday, 20 February 1985 – very busy – meetings etc. Cooked Kate meal – departmental meeting – drink then early night.
Thursday 21 February 1985 – Busy with meetings etc – went to JSoc Fiddler in evening – did Bust Fund disco later Petra came later.
How on earth do I remember that I cooked Kate (now Susan) Fricker a curry, when all the diary entry says is meal?
In truth, my memory is not that good and I don’t remember, but I do still have my 1984/85 appointments diary as well as my personal one. In the appointments diary I wrote:
Kate Curry 7.30
So there.
“What type of curry was it precisely? Madras based or garam masala based perhaps? Or did Kate favour a milder, korma style…or possibly one of those punchy vindaloo style curries that John certainly favoured at times?”
I don’t remember. Leave me alone. But the appointments diary does tell me that the departmental meeting was with the Security Department – quite possibly to sort out the arrangements for ensuring that scallywags couldn’t get into the Student’s Union to steal drink, as had been uncovered a couple of week’s earlier.
The next night, it seems I went to a J-Soc showing of Fiddler On the Roof before doing the Bust Fund Disco with John White. On that basis, it is impossible to imagine that we didn’t use Swing Easy by The Soul Vendors at some stage of the evening – a delicious rock steady rendering of the Fiddler On the Roof theme tune.
I have actually been trying to remember the tracks John & I tended to play when we did Bust Fund discos. A lot of reggae, dub and rock steady of course, but mixed in with some other styles that would have seemed appropriate or took our fancy.
John has promised to help me give that matter some thought. The result will be a reimagined mid 1980s Bust Fund Disco playlist. Come to think of it, while John and I are at it, we should try and reimagine those sixties discos, especially the Motown/Northern Soul ones. Watch this space.
My appointments diary for 21 & 22 February also reveals that I did something totally counter to my nature – sailed close to a payment deadline:
I will have written the rent deadline into the diary well in advance to remind myself to pay. The “Oh shit” will have been written later, when I realised that I hadn’t organised myself properly to pay it ahead of time and I had a copy deadline that day. Knowing me, I will have found a way to meet both deadlines in the end – no doubt in a flurry while hollering…
…”I’m busy”…
…as I scurried by.
