Category: Student Life

Doing Stuff In The Keele Students’ Union, An Anarchist Bonfire, The Fall Supported By The Stockholm Monsters and Partying In A High-Falutin’ Place, Mid November 1983

Ticket image borrowed from The Fall Gigography

It’s hard to imagine a week getting more exciting after the “Truda Smith incident” on the Monday, reported last time…

A Keele Finalist In Autumn: Visits To Careless Talk, The Financial Times And The SU Women’s Toilet, Early November 1983

…and indeed the rest of that week has little worthy of report in it.

Union Stuff

The diary suggests a fairly settled pattern of work, spending time with Bobbie and spending time in the Union, mostly around elections and such matters. The Chair of Constitutional Committee also chaired Election Appeals Committee and it seems there were elections that week.

I found a stray voting slip some years ago, when rummaging through a file for something else – it might well have been for the election that week.

Keele Students’ Union By-Election Voting Slip, guessing November 1983

The other thing that is clear from my diary that week is that I became good friends with Vivian Robinson around that time. She was SU Secretary (and therefore also returning officer) that year – so we were thrown together ex officio in terms of running elections.

Fortunately we got on well and I think the elections that year ran smoothly – even the one that I ran in…just about. Viv and I remained friends after Keele, not least when she lived on Bedford Hill in the late 1980s, about 10 minutes walk from my parents house. Watch this space for future tales.

Anyway, that week, it seems, Viv cooked me dinner one night and I made her lunch a couple of days later.

Anarchist Bonfire Party, 11 November 1983

I like the reference to going to an “anarchist bonfire party” after dinner with Viv on 11 November. Ashley and/or Sally Hyman might remember some details about that event, but I must admit I don’t remember much about it.

Perhaps it was part of a trend at that time to perceive Guy Fawkes as a radical hero, which, frankly, he wasn’t. Or perhaps it was more an excuse to have a bonfire party a week or so after the conventional Guy-effigy-burning occasion and avoid the unpleasant connotations of all that, by simply having a lively bonfire party, which I’m sure it was.

The Anarchist Bonfire Party won’t have looked like this

The Fall Supported By the Stockholm Monsters, 16 November 1983

This was a pretty memorable Keele gig in my book, as much for the buzz there was around The Fall at that time as the sound itself, which was only sort-of to my taste.

The Stockholm Monsters were a more than half-decent support act, well suited to support The Fall. In 1983 they sounded like this:

The Fall appeared on The Tube just over a week after our Keele gig. Their set on The Tube looked like this:

Andrea’s Party At Bushy House, 19/20 November 1983

By the end of that week I was writing in red ink, reporting on a trip to London. I love the fact that I note that I had a haircut on the Saturday morning. I’m guessing that my mum would have strongly suggested I needed a haircut, probably because of the location of the party I was going to that night.

My friend Andrea Dean was living in Bushy House, Teddington at that time. Her father had become Director of the National Physical Laboratory and a rather sprauncy apartment came with that job.

Andrea c1979

Bushy House is a former residence of King William IV, although I suspect he made use of the whole house.

I remember more than one entertaining party/gathering at Bushy House when it was Andrea’s place. This November 1983 one was especially memorable.

…And Forty Years On?

I rather like the juxtaposition of an anarchist bonfire party one weekend and a party in a formerly royal residence the next in November 1983.

Forty years on, both of those parties were good training for the week that I have just been through:

Pomp Given The Circumstances: Mansion House & The Lord Mayor’s Show, 11 November 2023
After The Lord Mayor’s Show Comes…The Lord Mayor’s Banquet, Guildhall, 13 November 2023

Keele Students’ Union By-Election Voting Slip, guessing November 1983

This is a strange thing to have survived in my document box. I think it has done so because Ashley Fletcher scribbled his telephone number on the reverse.

Still, we see Kate Fricker standing for a minor election, presumably just a few months before she ran for President. Running against someone by the name of Ged, but on this occasion not one of my multiple personalities.

In those days I was very much myself; Chair of Constitutional Committee and Election Appeals Committee. So perhaps I need to ask myself some serious questions about this stray ballot paper. Is that a hanging chad at the top of the slip?

198384 By Election Scrap with Ashleys Number on Reverse

A Keele Finalist In Autumn: Visits To Careless Talk, The Financial Times And The SU Women’s Toilet, Early November 1983

1983 – Long before gender neutrality for conveniences had been invented

I sense from my autumn 1983 diary that I was hunkering down to do a reasonable amount of studying that year. That said, the first two evenings on the page below show me focussed at least as much on student politics. There was a UGM on the Monday, which passed with a mere “OK” from me…

Careless Talk

… on the Tuesday it says I went to Careless Talk. Straining my brain, I think that was an anarchist discussion group, which was colloquially known as “Bob & Sally’s Thing”, much to the chagrin Sally Hyman, and the late (also lovely) Bob Miller.

In truth, it was probably Ashley Fletcher more than anyone who nicknamed the group “Bob & Sally’s Thing”, knowing full well that the idea that the group had leaders or figureheads was anathema to Bob & Sally. It was outrageous for Ashley to nickname the group – it was Bob and Sally’s thing, so really only they should have had the power to name the group. Which they did. Careless Talk.

Photo by Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 2.0

I think we might have met in The Victoria. Sally or Ashley might remember. I vaguely recall Ashley perpetuating the “power joke” because the chosen place was in Miller Street. I remember Bob especially liking whichever pub it was because it served the best pint of Bass he could find in town. That was an aspect to which Bob would have given a great deal of care and attention.

At the time we possibly thought we might solve the world’s problems through sheer weight of discussion and reasoned debate. Forty years later…it seems we didn’t make a great fist of it. Heck, but at least we tried. And some of us still do charity work to try and patch some of the broken bits back together again – e.g. Sally Hyman and her superb charity CRIBS International – not to be described as “Sally’s Thing”.

The Financial Times

Thursday 3 November 1983 – Lots to do before leaving for London after Election Appeals. Had Chinese meal and stayed up quite late.

Friday 4 November 1983 – Busy day – went to FT [Financial Times] in day – worked on it after. Watched Woody Allen & Richard Pryor film.

I had an Economics dissertation to research (the economics of the pharmaceutical industry – supervised by Joe Nellis – more on that in a future article). My parents were away and the Financial Times, bless them, were prepared to let an undergraduate like me loose on their archive library. In those days, that meant me going to their offices, taking up a desk for a day and the FT allowing me to photocopy and/or print out from microfiche a gazillion articles. Nowadays I suspect they might grant students a free electronic archive subscription for a limited time…or possibly make students pay.

I remember crawling across town to my parents’ house with a couple of bags full of printouts – I probably looked like a bag-person.

Goodness knows where I got the Chinese meal having got back to London after election appeals on the Thursday. I’m going to guess that I stopped off in Soho to eat and got a late bus from there.

I must have got home before 1.00 am because the Richard Pryor Live In Concert movie was shown on Channel 4 at 00:50. I had been dying to see that movie ever since Graham, who worked for a Laurie Krieger’s myriad businesses and who used to drive me to and from Kenton quite often that summer…

Keele Student’s Summer Working In London 1983, Part Four: Twixt Kenton, Centre Point, West End, Streatham, Friends & Family, September 1983

…waxed lyrical about Richard Pryor Live In Concert to me on one of our many long chats over the summer, claiming that it was the funniest movie he had ever seen. It is a good movie and some of it is very funny.

The only clip I can find feels more like prescient and sobering documentary than comedy today – TRIGGER WARNING: Richard Pryor uses the N-word a great deal, especially so in this potentially distressing clip.

The movie The Front, which I watched on the Friday evening, I recall having a profound affect on me and I still remember its poignancy. It is about left-wing people who were blacklisted in the US media, especially Hollywood, in the 1950s McCarthyism scare. US potty politics precedes Trump. The film was mostly made by people who had suffered at that time, including the wonderful Zero Mostel.

https://youtu.be/nL4LYkDKLhc

I remember also working hard on my research project and also doing a fair bit of taping on the Saturday and I saw Paul Deacon on the Sunday, who I’m sure presented me with another tape, which I might well go through separately from this piece if/when I have time.

Constitutional Committee & The Truda Incident, 7 November 1983

7 November 1983 – Returned from London – went to classes – const. comm. in eve – stayed down bar – went back to B’s [Bobbie Scully’s] after Truda [Smith] incident.

I don’t remember why the Truda incident occurred. Truda had been the SU president the year before, with limited success and even less goodwill left in the tank at the end of it all, in my humble opinion. I seem to recall that the immediate past President sat on Constitutional Committee ex officio, which might explain why she was there and why I felt some sense of responsibility for helping her post meeting.

I don’t recall anything in the meeting upsetting her – the meetings were orderly and well-tempered throughout my year as Chair as I recall it – but I think that meeting might have brought home to Truda the past-President’s absence of power.

Private Eye would describe her as “tired and emotional” that evening. I remember that Ashley was around. Bobbie wasn’t. At some point, quite late in the evening, someone (possibly one of the stewards) approached me and Ashley because they (or someone) was concerned that Truda had staggered into the Women’s toilets in the main lobby of the SU some time earlier and…not yet staggered out again. There were no women on hand to check the situation out.

I recall Ashley, quite skittishly, celebrating the opportunity to see inside the Women’s…

…I’ve always wondered what it might be like in there. I don’t suppose you’ve ever seen it either, Ian…

I was not really concerned about the aesthetics of the Women’s loo compared with the Men’s – I was wondering whether there would be blood…or vomit…or blood & vomit…

…actually there were none of those things. Just a very drunk, very weepy Truda who needed consoling – so we did our best to console – although frankly neither of us felt especially sympathetic to her (lack of) plight.

For pity’s sake, give it a rest.

Keele Rememberings: Confusion, Films, Adam Fairholme RIP & Elvis Costello Live, Late October 1983

I had returned to Keele in Autumn 1983 armed with my copy of Punch The Clock

At times I really didn’t write enough in my diaries. This last week of October 1983 is an example of that.

Put aside the fact that I went to see three films that week without noting any of the film titles. Anyone out there keep notes on Film Soc 1983/84? Where’s Keele Film Soc archivist Tony Sullivan when you need him? – I think Tony had left Keele by then, unfortunately.

Worse yet, I cannot recall what led to the Monday note:

…Busy day – classes etc. Const[itutional] Comm[itee] in eve – confusion in Union!…

I don’t think the confusion and the committee meeting were connected, but maybe they were.

Perhaps the confusion was connected with the other aspect of my memory which I am pretty sure was that week, which was news of the tragic, sudden death of Adam Fairholme.

As I remember it, Adam had gone into town with friends to see a movie and had succumbed to an epileptic fit. No-one in the party had known what to do to reduce the risk of serious injury or death in such circumstances and Adam had tragically choked on his own tongue.

I remember the news of the circumstances so clearly because several of us had gone to the flicks in town with Adam only 10 days or so before the tragedy – ironically to see The Meaning Of Life:

A Wild First Week Of The 1983/84 Year At Keele: Pete Wild, Amazulu, The Man Upstairs, Bobbie Scully, The Meaning Of Life & More

I remember in particular discussing with Ashley Fletcher the irony of our last evening with Adam, given the film’s title, together with the unquestionable fact that, had Adam had his fit while with us, we wouldn’t have known what to do in those circumstances either. Possibly we would have instinctively done something different and helped save him. More probably, we’d have been in the same helpless situation as his companions that night, who must have been in great distress.

My own sadness at the loss of Adam was accentuated by the fact that I had beaten him in the election for the Chair of Constitutional Committee the previous term…

Getting Elected To The Naffest Role In The Keele Students’ Union, But Did I Have The Constitution For It In May 1983?

…a role which I think Adam really wanted, whereas I ran for that election more than a little reluctantly. I vaguely remember Ashley making an off-colour joke about me now unquestionably being better qualified for the role than Adam…and then feeling badly about even thinking such a line, let alone speaking it.

Adam was a very decent fellow. His family, his friends, Keele and who-knows-what beyond was deprived of one of the good people when he died so young.

I am pretty sure the heavy drinking session and resulting hangover Friday/Saturday was in part a sorrows-drowning exercise with regard to Adam.

…went to party in Thorns – drank to[o] much

Saturday 29 October 1983 – Felt very ill when I rose – Hungover wasn’t the word. Recovered in time for Elvis Costello concert – brill.

Here I’m going to give myself a big gold star, as my memory sensed that this concert was at Victoria Hall Hanley, not in the Union. Checking in to the Elvis Costello wiki enabled me to confirm my memory and indeed to see more about that gig on a web page than I could possibly have imagined – click link below for all the details of the tracks played and even a link to the Evening Sentinel review that followed:

Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Victoria Hall Hanley, 29 October 1983

I cannot remember who came with me to that concert. Simon Jacobs, Keele’s one-man Elvis Costello Fan Club, had left Keele that summer and tells me that he is sure he did not return for that gig. Yet in my mind Simon was there. I cannot imagine having seen Elvis Costello perform without Simon being there.

Latterly, in the 1990s, as I report elsewhere, I got to know Elvis Costello surprisingly well, as we were both members of Lambton Place (now BodyWorksWest). I chatted with him idly for years before asking him what he did for a living and then, when he said he was in the music business, asking him his name.

Simon Jacobs is just about still talking to me after I told him about that. At least I hope Simon is, otherwise next week’s meal (I say, reporting 40 years after the Hanley concert) will be a rather quiet one.

Well, Elvis Costello does look different latterly and I had no TV in the 1990s… Photo by Shayne Kaye, CC BY 2.0

First Classes Of A New Keele Year, JoBoxers At The Ball & Plenty Of Socials, Mid October 1983

Chancellor’s Building, image “borrowed” from keele.ac.uk site

In my P3 (final undergraduate) year, I think all of my classes were in the Chancellor’s building. I was primarily taught by:

  • Don Thompson – Civil Liberties;
  • Michael Whincup – Consumer Law;
  • Keith Smith – Economics (lead);
  • Joe Nellis – Economics (special topic).

All excellent teachers – all made a lasting impression on me as people and with the learning I achieved with their help.

Monday 17 October 1983 – First classes of term – not too bad – went for drink in eve

Tuesday 18 October 1983 – Lots [of things] to do today – did some of them – stayed in eve

I didn’t realise that I was already a “do-lister” by 1983, but the Tuesday entry suggests that I was…and that I was already failing to clear my daily do list!

Wednesday 19 October 1983 – Busyish day – shopped etc. – kept busy. Went ball in evening – Jo Boxers [sic] – quite good ball – stayed Bobby’s [Bobbie Scully]

I apologise unequivocally to JoBoxers for spelling the name of the band incorrectly back then. Capitalising letters in the middle of words wasn’t yet “a thing” in 1983 and I clearly was unaware of that thing. I have even less excuse for spelling Bobbie’s name incorrectly, which I did for quite some time in my diaries. I think she’s still talking to me, despite my juvenile sloppiness, 40 years later – she was still talking to me in September 2023, anyway.

JoBoxers looked a bit like the video below when performing live:

https://youtu.be/ZStDrd65m8I

JoBoxers looked and sounded like the one below when making a promo video – such videos being fashionable around that time, as video jukeboxes were gaining some popularity:

I remember very little about that Freshers Ball, apart from JoBoxers, but “quite good ball” suggests that there was more too it than that. Others might remember more.

What I do remember about the start of that term was that the musical earworm that affected many of us was Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, which was number one for weeks and weeks and weeks. Dig this promo video – a bit weird.

The focus of the rest of that week, for me, was Wendy Robbins’s visit for a few days. Wendy had visited me a few times at Keele before – e.g. June 1983.

Thursday 20 October 1983 – v tired today – classes etc. Dozed in afternoon – Wendy phoned etc. – went Union – earlyish night.

Friday 21 October 1983 – went to classes etc. – shopped – Wendy arrived early eve – cooked – stayed in chatted etc.

Saturday 22 October 1983 – Rose quite early – did little. Went to town – messed about. Went to Michelle’s [Epstein] party in eve – back to Union – late night

Sunday 23 October 1983 – Rose too early! Cooked etc. Andy [Shindler, presumably, as he knew me and Wendy from BBYO, pre-Keele] came over – Wendy left early eve – went Union in eve – v tired.

“Wendy phoned” will sound like an everyday thing to younger readers, but people who were at Keele decades ago will realise that receiving a phone call from someone was a logistical exercise back then which needed to be done by prior arrangement so that the Keele student who was receiving the call was in the Union at the appointed hour to take the call. Given Wendy’s irregular relationship with time and space (certainly not quite as calibrated as most people’s) it is a minor miracle that we got those telephone call logistics to work – but clearly we did!

I also enjoyed reading my reference on the Sunday “rose too early” – I sense that I wrote up the diary that evening when I was “v tired”.

My several references to cooking, at that time, almost certainly comprised oriental food cooked in my wok and the rice cooker I “inherited” from my departing flatmate Hamzah at the end of the preceding summer.

Cooking in a wok. Source: Jan van der Crabben (Photographer) cc-by-sa-2.0

I was (and I’d humbly argue remain) pretty decent at cooking oriental food. In those days, a wok needed to be cleaned very thoroughly and then seasoned after each use. That is effort I might struggle to muster 40 years later, especially at the end of the day when “v tired”.

A Wild First Week Of The 1983/84 Year At Keele: Pete Wild, Amazulu, The Man Upstairs, Bobbie Scully, The Meaning Of Life & More

Pete & Me, c1985, photo thanks to Mark Ellicott

A hyperactive week to say the least, from Monday onwards, following my “Union – quite dull” diary comment on the preceding Sunday.

The diary page for that week will need some unpicking, forty years on. Stuck together with ancient, yellowing Sellotape, some aspects might best be left unpicked.

Monday 10 October 1983 – Busy sorting things out today – went to town etc. Ashley [Fletcher] came for dinner -> Union – saw loads of people.

Tuesday 11 October 1983 – Lots to do today – did a little work – etc. Went to Union in eve – saw more people.

Hello people! I’m sure you all know who you are…who you were…whoever you are/were. Sometimes I really wish I’d written more down.

Wednesday 12 October 1983 Busy day – did a little work – went to [New] ‘Castle [Under-Lyme]. Showed Pete [Wild] around – went to Freshers Union do in eve.

Pete Wild was a fresher, allocated to us in Barnes L54 quite by chance. Aficionados of this Ogblog series might recall that Alan Gorman was such an allocated fresher the previous year, when my former flatmate Ahmed Mohd Isa was not invited to return for the 1982/83.

Enter Stage Left, My New Neighbours & Flatmates At Keele In Barnes L54, 4 to 7 October 1982

For 1983/84, the Barnes L54 line up was supposed to be me, Alan Gorman, Chris Spencer and “A. N. Other-Person”, the name of whom escapes me. Indeed I cannot recall anything about that fourth person other than the fact that they, like Ahmed before them, failed to make the cut for the 83/84 academic year and we had a vacancy. Chris Spencer might remember and I am now in touch with him again. Alan is sadly no longer with us, although I have made contact with his family in the USA.

One might be forgiven for wondering whether Barnes L54 was cursed, as a 25% drop out rate was way above the Keele norm at that time. But certainly those of us who remained were blessed rather than cursed, as these happenstance thrown together flatmate groupings somehow worked and thrived. Chris, Alan and Pete stuck with it the following year, when Hayward Burt signed up for the fourth place in Barnes L54 and **SPOILER ALERT** all of them actually took up residence as planned!

My immediate take on Pete was that he was fun and would fit in, which he did. The rest of us already had flat nicknames and his emerged pretty quickly and obviously:

  • Alan Gorman – The Great Yorkshire Pudding…or just “Pudding”;
  • Chris Spencer – “Farmer” – from Devon, you understand;
  • Me – “Bagel Boy” – I could probably have them all arrested for that now;
  • Pete – “Hippy” – see hair in headline photo.

Thursday 13 October 1983 – Busyish day – Exam in afternoon etc. Union in evening – drank a little went to see Amazulu.

I cannot recall what the exam might have been right at the start of term. The only thing I can imagine was that it was an econometrics exam, as that discipline was meant to test our ability to analyse numbers from our instinctive/unconscious competency in economics rather than from swatting.

Amazulu were great live, I recall. A good choice for Freshers week. They were little known at that time, but certainly lit up the ballroom that night. Here’s a clip of Amazulu live in London a few months later:

https://youtu.be/HYPD24des44

Friday 14 October 1983 – sorted things out departments etc. – went to town in afternoon. Went to Michelle’s [Epstein]. Went to see [Monty Python’s The] Meaning Of Life in evening -> Lindsay – The Man Upstairs – Ros came back

Saturday 15 October 1983 – Got up late. Liza [O’Connor] came around – stayed until early evening – went to Union in eve – Bobby [sic – ie Bobbie Scully][ came back stayed till late

Sunday 16 October 1983 – Easyish Sunday – rose v late- did some things – went union in eve with Ash [Ashley Fletcher]

I’m not blooming surprised I “rose v late” on the Sunday.

Sometimes I’m really glad that I didn’t write more down. To my shame I cannot even recall who Ros was in this context.

Ashley Fletcher might remember, at least in terms of who came with us to see The Meaning Of Life – I know it was a reasonably sized group of us and for the saddest of reasons, which I’ll write about in a couple of week’s time, I recall at least one of the people who was with us that night.

Anyway, the upshot of my metaphorical revolving door weekend was that I settled in to a relationship with Bobbie, who forty years later, is still talking to me…at least she was a month ago when she came along to Hampton Court…

Gresham Society Visit To The Royal Tennis Court, Hampton Court, 14 September 2023

I guess “forty years on” history pales into insignificance when you lose yourself in “400+ years on” material.

I also want to write a bit about The Man Upstairs, which was a band comprising Keele students hat did many gigs around the campus in the early 1980s. They were a good bunch and were able to get the Keele students going with their fashionable live sound. Warmly remembered by many of us.

I think they had left Keele by the autumn of 1983, so were returning as a touring band that happened to comprise Keele alums. Here are links to some of their stuff…

…and here’s a link to an interview with Nigel, whom, I always thought of as their leader. (If that link has gone, click this scrape).

A Two Week Break After Summer Job, Then Return To Keele, Late September To Early October 1983

Keele Beckoning

After finishing my 1983 summer job with a swathe of nights out…

Keele Student’s Summer Working In London 1983, Part Four: Twixt Kenton, Centre Point, West End, Streatham, Friends & Family, September 1983

…the diary suggests that I spent a couple of weeks seeing friends, buying records and making tapes – the perfect preparation for the 1983/84 academic year that would be my P3 year (i.e. fourth year at Keele, third and final year of undergraduate studies).

It seems I was enjoying myself so much I even got my days mixed up in the diary:

Monday 26 September 1983 – …Paul [Deacon] came over for dinner _> Radio Kings in evening – click here for article on that event.

Wednesday 28 September 1983 – …went out for dinner with Jilly – came back here [Woodfield Avenue] after – late night

Thursday 29 September 1983 – Went to Brixton with Jilly in morning – lazyish afternoon – Andrew [Andy Levinson] came over late afternoon – dinner – wine bar

Frankly I wouldn’t have remembered that Streatham Hill had such a thing as a wine bar in those days. Perhaps it was new and we wanted to try it. I vaguely remember one in the 1980s on Sternhold Avenue – perhaps that was the one.

Saturday 1 October 1983 – went to visit Marianne [Gilmour] – pleasant lazy evening

Sunday 2 October 1983 – went to Makro with Dad in morning. Wendy [Robbins] came over in afternoon

My “business ” at Makro on that occasion was probably limited to a few record albums at discounted prices (see link to my October 1983 album purchase list) and some stationery for the forthcoming academic year. Goodness only knows what Dad wanted there.

Monday 3 October 1983 …went up West & to R&T today…

R&T meant “Record & Tape Exchange” as it was then named.

I bought lots of albums on that visit – the use of a different colour of ink listing them on my log tells me exactly which ones, so I have listed them in a separate article – click here or below.

Albums I Bought In Early October 1983 Ahead Of My Return To Keele

6 October 1983 – went to shop with Dad in morning – went to office – met Caroline for lunch

I suspect I helped Dad prepare his books that morning, hence stopping at the office (Newman Harris) on my way to lunch. Efficient, I was, even back then.

7 October 1983 – …went to G Jenny’s in afternoon. Paul came over in evening.

8 October 1983 – Busy day packing etc. taping too – getting ready to come back to keele

9 October 1983 – Left early – came to Keele lunched at Post House – unpacked some – went to Union – quite dull

I can only imagine that this meant that Dad drove me up on this occasion, as I cannot imagine why else I’d have eaten at a roadside convenience place such as The Post House. Of course nothing much up at Keele would have been open on a Sunday. In the circumstances, The Sneyd would not have been a diplomatic choice.

I love my comment that the Union was quite dull – yet again, in my enthusiasm, I had come back to Keele ahead of the excitement. But there was plenty of fun, as well as hard work, to come in that Autumn 1983 term. watch this space.

Keele Students’ Union – only dull when there is no-one around.

Albums I Bought In Early October 1983 Ahead Of My Return To Keele

“Exchange” – in my case, was almost always buying, very rarely selling

The diary says that I went to Makro (Woolwich) with my Dad on Sunday 2 October and then to Record & Tape Exchange (in Notting Hill) on Monday 3 October.

Unusually, I can work out from the ink colour in my logs the purchases I made on those occasions. Forty years on, this will enable musicologists, Keele historians, friends, members of the Dull Men’s Club and others to analyse my purchases at will. Indeed, in excruciating detail if they wish.

Here is the batch of eleven albums I bought at Makro, each with a Discogs link:

Here is the extract from my R&T log for that October 1983 visit:

Allow me to translate and link to Discogs:

No wonder I had a frenzied bout of taping for the next few days, before returning to Keele 9 October. I put several of these albums onto cassette in their entirety and made up a couple of none-too-shabby mix tapes too.

Keen to know what readers think of these records, forty years on.

Free Bonus Brainstrain, Visiting Radio Kings And Remembering The Free Bonus LP, 26 September 1983

In September 2018, Paul Deacon asked me to dig out whatever I might have left of our old silly tape recordings and stuff.

Sadly, little survives, as explained in my piece on Execution Scenes, recordings of which do survive:

Execution Scenes, Coin Tossers And Miscellaneous Silliness Recorded With Paul Deacon, 12 April 1977

But I did find a copy of a tape which I made for Paul – a fiendish pop quiz named “Free Bonus Brainstrain”.

By all means give it a go. Music from the 1960s to the early 1980s – mostly mid 1960s through 1970s. It’s tough and in two chunks, c10’30” and then c7’30”:

I have the answers and will gladly mark attempts and/or send the answer sheets  to anyone who dares to try the quiz and requests the materials.

Paul Deacon – I expect you at least to apply.

I recall that this epic effort was in response to a tape that Paul made for me, which he called “The Free Bonus LP”.

In 2018 I wrote, of that tape:

I recall that I had that tape – I think it was a 4″ spool – when I started my digitisation project but something disastrous happened to it. I think it was one of those (a minority, but a significant number of) tapes that had so denatured over time that the magnetic coating simply flaked off the tape making it inaudible and hazardous to the rather delicate reel-to-reel machinery I was trying to maintain for the purposes of digitising my collection.

I’m trying to recall what was on that tape. I think Paul might have cut some copies of our old silly stuff onto that spool, but it also included some comedy classics. The only one I remember for sure was on it was Bo Dudley, a piece that is so non-PC by today’s standards I almost blush to provide a link to a video of it:

The only other thing I recall about the Free Bonus LP was Paul doing a booming, echoing voice-over saying, “The Free Bonus LP” several times during the tape.

In 2020, however, for reasons explained in this linked piece…

The Free Bonus LP, A Reel-To-Reel Tape Gifted To Me By Paul Deacon, 26 September 1981

…I did manage to recover The Free Bonus LP. It was not a duff tape, but it was recorded at 7 1/2 ips and I now recall that the additional gear/belt that drives my Sony TC377 died before I had digitised that tape. Being 12 years wiser, I realised in 2020 that I could spool the tape into Audacity at 3 3/4 ips and simply tell Audacity to render the digital sound 100% faster when finalising. Result!

Anyway, my Free Bonus Brainstrain emulates the technique but it was not done anything like as well as Paul’s…Paul was becoming a vocal pro, whereas I…wasn’t.

In July 1983, I was doing my regular accountancy summer job at Newman Harris…

I got a job with Stanley, he said I’d come in handy.

…but on the Saturday:

went to Paul for afternoon

I’ll guess that he gave me the Free Bonus LP that day.

More interesting is the entry for 26 September 1983, by which time I had stopped work ahead of my return to Keele:

Lazy day – shopping – taping etc. Paul came over for dinner -> Radio Kings in eve

I think that was the day I gave Paul the Free Bonus Brainstrain.

Of course Paul was already doing DJ stuff by then as a volunteer at Kings College Hospital, the scene of my birth as it happens, on Radio Kings.

I’m sure Paul has many memories of Radio Kings but I wonder whether he remembers much about the evening he took me there and showed me the ropes. I remember being fascinated by it, but little of the detail.

Keele Student’s Summer Working In London 1983, Part Four: Twixt Kenton, Centre Point, West End, Streatham, Friends & Family, September 1983

Centre Point Snooker Hall – This Picture “Borrowed” from the Crossrail Learning Legacy

My last few weeks of work that summer were a busy time. I was mostly working on Laurie Krieger’s various enterprises during the second half of that summer, which included Price Buster Records in Rupert Street (the one bit of the Harlequin Records empire he retained), Leisureplay (which was an arcade games business) and Centre Point Snooker Hall (depicted above), which at that time he was expanding also to include a gym venture, one within Centre point and the other out east (Barking if I remember correctly).

I spent most of my time for him pulling together various accounting records at the empire’s nerve centre – a modest former retail unit in Kenton. The team there was governed by a wonderful administrator named Marge who had a trusty part-time assistant (Jean I think), occasionally interrupted by Laurie’s former majordomo Mossy (Mr Moss) who ran Leisureplay and the occasional visit from Laurie himself.

You’re a young man. What do you think of this idea…

…he’d say, bouncing some new commercial idea off me. I usually didn’t much fancy the offer, but would always caveat my answers by saying that I’m probably not his target audience.

…yes…alright, but do you think young people in general will go for that?

…Laurie would often persist. He was a relentless entrepreneur.

The previous summer I had endeared myself to Marge and the team at Kenton by proving to be more than useful at the daily quiz on Radio London, which seemed to please them no end:

Winner, Winner, Radio London Pop Quiz Winner, Seven Singles – Summer 1982

Anyway, we’re here to talk about the tail end of the 1983 summer in this piece, so here are the diary pages and some comments/links to explain the interesting bits

Wednesday 31 August…Marianne [Gilmour’s] for dinner

Thursday 1 September…met Jilly [Black] went on to proms..

My First Night At the Proms: Me, Jilly & Claudio, 1 September 1983

Sunday 4 September 1983…[Uncle] Michael for lunch [he’d have visited my grandparents’ graves as was traditional at that time of year]…Paul [Deacon] came over later.

Friday 9 September 1983 – …helped Mum – Jacquie, Len & Mark [Briegal], Michael & Pam [Harris] came over for dinner – v nice

Sunday 11 September 1983 – Stanley & Doreen [Benjamin] came over for lunch – went over to Wendy’s [Robbins] in evening.

Basically the Jewish holidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur dominated these weeks.

Monday 12 September 1983 – Busy day Kenton – went out with Caroline in evening.

Tuesday 13 September 1983 – Finished P/B [Price Buster] today – went to office. Took mum and dad to The Rivals in eve.

The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Olivier Theatre, 13 September 1983

Friday 16 September 1983 – busy day of work – lunch with Ashley [Michaels]…

Saturday 17 September 1983 – Yom Kippur – broke fast with G Jenny & Uncle Louis [Barst]…

Sunday 18 September 1983 – Nice lunch – Wendy came over in afternoon…

Tuesday 20 September 1983 …went to Annalisa [de Mercur’s] for lunch – went out with Jilly in eve – Pastels [was that a wine bar or something?] -> Joy King Lau [a favourite Chinese restaurant near Leicester Square]

Wednesday 21 September 1983 …worked late – boozing with Mike [King] till late

Thursday 22 September 1983 Felt grotty today! [see worked late / boozing till late the day before – what did you expect, kid?] Went to lunch late with [Sandy] Yap…cold coming on [this all reads a bit self-inflicted to my older eyes forty years later]

Friday 23 September 1983 – Last day. Went Stockpot lunch Yap – after work Phoenix -> Mayflower for feast – v nice.

Mayflower – was excellent – now closed – image “borrowed” from Hungry Onion.

Either I was now seen as part of the team or the gang wanted to make absolutely sure I was gone. You, dear reader, can decide.

Saturday 24 September 1983 …went to Caroline [Freeman’s…now Curtis] party – stayed at Simon’s [Jacobs]…

Sunday 25 September 1983…left about midday. Had Chinese meal at home…

The Chinese meal at home was probably from Mrs Wong. Not quite the same ass Mayflower feast, but it would have been good enough. Anyway, 40 years later, Mrs Wong is still there…

…well, the restaurant is, possibly not the middle-aged woman who ran the place abck then…

…whereas Mayflower is gone.

Image “borrowed” from All In London