John White – Page 8 – Ian Louis Harris

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…

We Interrupt Keele Festival Week To Dice With Death On A Theatre Trip To London, 28 June 1985

…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…”

“Something’s Wrong” In The Keele Hall Salvin Room & I Am Keele’s “Bamber Gascoigne”, 19 to 24 June 1985

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.

Keele Action Group Springs Forth Campus-Wide, Constitutional Matters Mingle With A Crucial Culinary Debate In My Barnes L54 Flat, 8 to 11 October 1982

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?

Hayward: yes you have, Ian. Just hand over the keys…

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:

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:

Players (of the left) v Gentlemen (of the right) – match report + wagon wheel

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:

The Best Pot I Had In Five Years At Keele, i.e. The First Weekend I Tried Cooking In The F Block Lindsay Kitchen, 11 to 15 February 1981

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.

Perhaps WPAR is something to do with “womens group”, but I’m still none the wiser

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:

Ringroad Finalists Revue, Keele University Students’ Union (KUSU), 27 June 1985

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:

Hackgrass Reveal in Pub Circ, Keele, 10 June 1985

I have also previously written up some sort of spoof Union Committee meeting we held after a wet lunch that day:

After The Hackgrass Reveal…Later That Same Day…A Strange Sort of Committee Meeting, 10 June 1985

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:

Like my face, my life membership card has seen better days. 40 years is a long time.

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.

A 1984/1985 Keele Students’ Union Bust Fund Disco Playlist

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.

After The Hackgrass Reveal…Later That Same Day…A Strange Sort of Committee Meeting, 10 June 1985

Hackgrass Reveal in Pub Circ, Keele, 10 June 1985

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.

Hackgrass Reveal in Pub Circ, Keele, 10 June 1985

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.

Keele Students’ Union, Concourse – the Juicy Bits, May 1985

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…

Concourse May 1985 Page 1 — Superb picture of John White on the front page, the main (nay only) reason I have uploaded this 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:

Concourse May 1985 Page 4 — FY stands for Foundation Year, the late lamented “try a bit of everything” course, sadly no longer taught at Keele. Gresham College is perhaps the closest thing to 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.

Concourse May 1985 Page 13 — I don’t think the term “stress head” had been invented back then, not least because, if it had existed, I think that is exactly the term Hayward would have used to describe 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?)

Concourse May 1985 Page 14 — Top tank top, John.

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.

Nuts In May 1985 At Keele: Breakfast, Bugs, Barlaston & Much More

Sunday, 12 May 1985 – nice day. Rose late had “breakfast” – came to office late afternoon worked here and at home. Petra came over later.

Years later I discovered that there is a well-known term for the Sunday meal I described as “breakfast”… brunch. I cannot remember what I would prepare for such a meal but it probably bore more than a passing resemblance to an English breakfast.

Monday 13 May 1985 – busy day today – meetings etc. Cooked Petra meal in evening.

Tuesday, 14 May 1985 – union committee and meetings all day (including staff meeting). Petra cooked me a meal in evening.

15 May 1985 – busy day. Senate in afternoon. Long Ringroad rehearsal.

Thursday, 16 May 1985 – went to [magistrates] court in morning – meetings all afternoon – J-Soc early evening – Ringroad performance in the evening.

Friday, 17 May 1985 – busy day on birth control – committees et cetera. Very tired after. Shopped – cooked Petra meal.

Saturday, 18 May 1985 – road quite late – Kate [Fricker] came over to work on grievance/discipline [procedures]– Petra cooked us a meal in evening.

Having lived through the agony of the Tommy and Ralph saga for more or less half of our sabbatical year…

When The Keele Students’ Union Bars (aka Tommy And Ralph) Saga Came To A Head, Early August 1984

…Kate and I were determined to try and help leave behind a better set of grievance and disciplinary procedures than those we had inherited when we came into office.

Sunday, 19 May 1985 – Rose quite late – had breakfast. Did some work in office – Petra came over later.

Monday, 20 May 1985 – hard day in office – UGM in evening (so so) – Petra came over.

I cannot remember what was happening at our penultimate UGM to make it “so-so”. But I have discovered the following snippet from Concourse which made me laugh. Around that time, it became public knowledge that Princess Margaret was going to give up the Chancellorship of Keele. Concourse asked a few of us to suggest a suitable replacement.

I still think that Bugs Bunny would be a great choice.

I have subsequently found the first three quotes from that article – John’s mine and Hayward’s, were picked up by the Evening Sentinel:

Margaret Succession in Sentinel 08 Jun 1985, Sat Evening Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England) Newspapers.com

Tuesday 21 May. 1985 – busy day – meetings etc. Did Bust Fund Disco in evening – Petra came over later.

The Bust Fund Disco will have been with John White – click picture link below for example playlist.

Wednesday, 22 May 1985 – rushed with meetings. Birth control [leaflet] etc. Cooked Petra meal in evening.

By this stage, the publication, which we named Sexplanations, perhaps even on that very day, had become more than just birth control. I remember that Jean Mackay was especially helpful with the editing of that document at the end. I’ll write some more about the publication of it in a subsequent episode very soon.

Thursday, 23 May 1985 – rushed with meetings and stuff – OSS [Overseas Students Society]meeting in evening – Petra came over later.

Friday, 24 May 1985 – busy day in office – went rebate etc. Cooked Petra [a meal] in evening – went to jazz night etc.

Not sure what “rebate” was about, but Hayward Burt was involved and there was some sort of finance committee meeting that day.

Saturday 25 May 1985 – rose quite early – shopped – did some work – cooked Petra dinner in evening.

Sunday 26 May 1985 – fairly lazy day – breakfast – did some work – Petra came over later.

Monday 27 May 1985 – took morning off – went to Barlaston – worked thereafter. Petra came over later.

I think Barlaston Hall was a crumbling ruin still in 1985, mired in controversy over the project to restore the place that was supposed to be completed in the mid 1980s but…

That visit would almost certainly have been Petra’s idea rather than mine, but I’m sure we both had a splendid time. I suspect that I was in a deadline frenzy over completing the Sexplanations booklet on time, while Petra was on a mission to reduce my writing/editing excess on a Bank Holiday Monday.

That’s All Folks!…

…for now.

Boiled Beef & Carrott: Cooking & Thesping At Keele, Start Of Summer Term 1985 – But Who Was The Nerd?

Judging by my diary, I spent most of my time at the start of Keele’s summer term 1985 cooking meals for Petra Wilson (or occasionally being cooked a meal by her), or sitting through interminable meetings, as was my wont as SU Education & Welfare Officer.

Although, if the Concourse and Geordie mag wags are anything to go by, I must have been generating huge quantities of verbiage in the publicity circular and the like, as well as crafting my magnum opus, Sexplanations. I also was spending time rehearsing the new improved Ringroad with the enhanced team, including Dave Griffiths, John Bowen & Warwick Cairns – more on those topics to come soon.

This article is covering a dull-sounding period at the start of term in all of its exquisite diary dullness. It livens up as the piece goes on…honest.

Monday 22 April 1985 – Busy day in the office – interviews and What Subsid. Worked late – had early night.

Tuesday 23 April 1985 – More interviews today etc. Got quite a lot done – earlyish night – Petra came back [to Keele] in middle of the night.

Wednesday 24 April 1985 – Early start – meetings etc today. Cooked Petra dinner in evening.

Thursday, 25 April 1985 – Busy day with meetings and interviews etc – early night tonight.

Friday 26 April 1985 – Rushed day with Union Committee Meeting etc. Petra came round later.

Saturday 27 April 1985 – Rose late – went into town late – ran around the shops etc. Cooked Petra dinner in evening.

Sunday 28 April 1985 – Rose late – did some work later on – saw Petra for a while later.

One of the union cleaners, Kitty, retired around that time, so I suspect those interviews were about replacing her. I was busy researching Sexplanations and for sure I spoke with lots of medical people about that, but I don’t think in those days I would have called such research meetings interviews – for those I tended to write the name of the hospital or medical practice I visited.

For sure we launched Wot Subsid 1985-87 at the start of that term.

And the more I think about it, the more I think I should publish a collection of my Keele recipes in a booklet entitled “Wot Subsist”, for students everywhere henceforward.

In truth, boiled beef and carrots would not have tended to appear on my menu. I would occasionally cook beef for Petra but she preferred lighter fare – mostly chicken or fish – sometimes pork. Not spicy food (although I did have a canon of spicy dishes for others). Mild creamy sauces, for sure. If I were to cook beef it would be Chinese style – normally stir fry – although I had already cultivated a wicked Guangzhou style brisket of beef cooked in a “to die for” stock. I suppose that is sort-of boiled beef.

Monday 29 April 1985 – Worked quite hard today – got quite a bit done. Petra cooked meal in evening.

Tuesday 30 April 1985 – Rushed and busy today with meetings etc – Petra came round later.

Wednesday 1 May 1985 – Very busy day with meetings till late etc – Petra came round after.

Thursday 2 May 1985 – Got quite a bit done today as meetings were cancelled etc. Petra came around later.

Friday, 3 May 1985 – Busy day in office today – lots of hassle in afternoon. Shopped and went pictures (A Private Function) then Petra cooked meal.

Saturday 4 May 1985 – Did very little today. Rose late etc and cooked Petra dinner in evening.

Sunday, 5 April 1985 – Didn’t get up till late – did a little work in the evening and popped over to L54 briefly.

Ah, A Private Function. I remember that movie – about a chiropodist rearing a pig for a party:

Who’d have thought that, within 10 years, I’d be mixed up with a chiropodist, Janie, throwing a pig party. Trigger warning on the album that follows – some of the pictures are seriously piggy and I don’t mean the Janie & Phillie picture on the cover:

But I digress.

As for visiting Barnes L54, that had been “my flat” for two years: 82/83 and 83/84:

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

Still there in 84/85 was Alan Gorman, who the only one who had been there throughout my time in that flat. Also Chris Spencer, who had been there for most of the time I was in that flat, plus Pete Wild who joined us in 83/84. Hayward Burt had taken my place…quite literally:

Monday 6 May 1985 – Worked hard despite bank holiday – cooked Petra meal in evening.

Tuesday, 7 May 1985 – Busy day with Union Committee morning, meetings etc till late. International Affairs – drank after until quite late and then went to see Petra.

Wednesday, 8 May 1985 – Hard day in office – Welfare Committee etc. Ringroad rehearsal in the evening – went well – went to see Petra after.

Thursday, 9 May 1985 – Busy day in office with enquiries etc. Busy evening – met Vice Chancellor [new VC was Brian Fender] – Union Committee meeting and Shirley and Kitty’s party. Went over to Petra’s after briefly – came back later.

Friday 10 May 1985 – Busy day in office – rushed off feet – especially in the afternoon. Went to theatre to see The Nerd and cooked Petra meal after.

I remember that we called Brian Fender “Uncle Fester” in those early days.

Jackie Coogan playing the role of Brian Fender…I mean Uncle Fester

Shirley & Kitty’s party got a whole page in Concourse that month. But surely the most newsworthy element, forty years on, is John White’s mop top hair and tank top garment.

JOHN – WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

As for The Nerd, I remembered little about it until I looked it up. Clearly this production went on to Coventry after Stoke:

Nerd Carrott 10 May 1985, Fri Coventry Evening Telegraph (Coventry, West Midlands, England) Newspapers.com

We saw it at the Hanley Theatre Royal. I remember being pleased that I had seen Jasper Carrott perform live but not thinking too much of the show. The Evening Sentinel slammed it in a way that only the Sentinel could:

Nerd Bentley Sentinel 07 May 1985, Tue Evening Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England) Newspapers.com

Still, I cooked Petra a meal afterwards and no doubt let my inner nerd flow while vocalising my opinions on the lightweight play.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Ronnie Frankenberg & The Keele Day Nursery Nurses But Were Afraid To Ask – Plus Other Tales From The End of Spring Term 1985

The Keele Day Nursery, Spring 1985, reimagined with the help of DeepAI

There was a lot going on in the Students’ Union and University life in the first half of March that year. Add to that the fact that Petra got some sort of lurgy that landed her in the health centre and I was intermittently poorly too. My diary entries are not exactly upbeat but they are revealing.

4 t0 10 March 1985 – Meetings & Writings &Workings & Dancings…

Monday, 4 March 1985 – busy day – got some work done – FP [family planning] meeting in the afternoon. Constitutional committee in evening – Petra came over.

The family planning meeting was with Dr Anne Pedrazzini, who was a big cheese in the North Staffordshire family planning world at that time. This was the first of several research meetings that led to my magnum opus, Sexplanations. More on that publication once the ideas conceived in March gestated and came to term…the following term.

Tuesday, 5 March 1985 – union committee in morning – busy day. Did Bust Fund disco in evening – Petra came round after.

I recently published a Bust Fund disco playlist, curated jointly with John White, with whom I DJ’d those events. Click here to listen to the YouTube Music playlist directly or below for the article that contains the list:

A 1984/1985 Keele Students’ Union Bust Fund Disco Playlist

Wednesday, 6 March 1985 – meetings etc. all day. Had a relatively easy evening and early night for once.

Thursday, 7 March 1985 – busy day with meetings etc. all day – cooked Petra a meal in evening – nice, stayed.

Friday, 8 March 1985 – went to DHSS in morning. Busy day – social secretary election and big fuss in evening – went Kate’s briefly in evening – not feeling too good left early and slept well.

I think the DHSS meeting was also connected with research for the nascent idea that became Sexplanations. I don’t recall what the big fuss was over the Social Secretary election that Friday. I was a veteran of big fusses over elections by 1985, especially, it seems, on days when I wasn’t feeling well. The story linked here and below, from two years earlier, is my best story about such an evening:

A Week When Everything At Keele Made Me Feel Sick, Even Smoke-Filled Rooms & Students Union Politics, 6 to 11 February 1983

The March 1985 Social Secretary shenanigans was probably a mere bagatelle compared with the golden era of election shenanigans.

Saturday, 9 March 1985 – shopped etc. today and worked all day in office. Went to Nigerian do for awhile – Petra came over later.

Those Nigerian community events were great fun. I’d got to know that community well the year before my sabbatical. There was a fair smattering of Cameroonian students who also “qualified” and tended to hang with that crowd, so “West African” might be a more accurate description of the events. The parties were lively; there was always music and dancing aplenty.

No doubt some seriously funky Fela Kuti music formed part of the scene. The following clip will give you an idea of the Fela Kuti vibe at that time:

Sunday, 10 March 1985 – Rose late. Busy day working today in office etc. Worked till late – stayed at Petra’s.

I was working hard and playing hard that year – no wonder I was poorly a fair bit of the time. I’m feeling a bit run down right now, just thinking about all that activity and typing about it.

Ronnie Frankenberg & The Day Nursery Crisis

Monday, 11 March 1985 – busy day with meetings all day – Petra in Health Centre – UGM in evening – didn’t go too well.

Tuesday, 12 March 1985 – busy all day – union committee and Reading folk up for the day. Day Nursery, hustings, RingRoad rehearsal in the evening. Also visited Petra in evening.

I don’t in truth remember the visit from the Reading folk, but I do very clearly remember the Day Nursery crisis.

RAI 39784 Portrait of Ronnie Frankenberg photographed by Jochen Resch, c. 1990s ©RAI – this picture from the Royal Anthropological Institute site, used on a fair use basis and to provide a link to the RAI’s biographical note on Ronnie – click here or the picture.

As Education & Welfare Officer, I was, ex officio, a Trustee of the Keele Day Nursery, which was a small, non-profit organisation, existing solely to provide day nursery facilities for toddlers of staff and students alike. The Chair of the Day Nursery was Professor Ronnie Frankenberg, a wonderful fellow who had been the initiating energy behind Keele’s highly-regarded Sociology & Social Anthropology department. Here is a link to his Guardian obituary from 2016.

The day nursery crisis was caused by an outbreak of pregnancy among several of the handful of nursery nurses who operated the day nursery. I can’t remember how many staff we had (not many), but the team was sufficiently small that having two or three on maternity leave at the same time was going to generate a hugely problematic shortfall of staff. Even in those days, there were strict staff to toddler ratios and it was proving prohibitively expensive to cover multiple maternity leave periods with temporary, qualified staff.

I remember Ronnie making a genuinely interesting and hugely informative speech at the meeting – quite a long speech – explaining the sociological… or perhaps I should say anthropological… phenomena, making it surprisingly likely that a day nursery might be blighted with such “outbreaks” of pregnancy by several members of the team around the same time. Psychological factors, social factors, cultural factors and even biological factors all come into play, we learnt. It was like a mini Foundation Year lecture. I almost found myself making notes and thinking up a really good question for the Q&A at the end of the lecture.

But in reality, my mind was juggling the engrossing complexity behind the causes of our problem with the practical realities that the tiny trust’s coffers were emptying at an alarming and unstoppable rate.

As Ronnie’s extrapolation wound down, I interjected by saying, “this is all absolutely fascinating, Ronnie, but where are we going to find the money to cover the additional costs?” My comment raised a laugh and also refocussed the meeting. I can’t remember what fundraising ideas we came up with, but I suspect that they only partially solved the money problem. A begging bowl in Registrar David Cohen’s direction probably helped to make up the remainder of the shortfall.

That is my favourite (but not only) memory of Ronnie Frankenberg…which is, by the way, pronounced “Ron-knee Frank-en-berg”:

Joking apart, my memory of Ronnie Frankenberg is that he was not only a very impressive Professor in his field, but also an extremely likeable and decent man.

Wednesday 13 March 1985 – loads of meetings all day (including Senate). RingRoad rehearsal. Petra came over after.

Thursday, 14 March 1985 – busyish day – followed by rehearsal and performance of RingRoad – went well. Petra came over after.

Friday 15 March 1985 – horrid mood today – E&W election – v worried – Hayward [Burt] won – hooray – cooked Petra dinner and she stayed.

I have no idea why I was so worried about Hayward’s chances in the Education & Welfare election for 1985/86. Presumably there was a candidate competing with him who I thought might win and then undo a lot of the initiatives I had been working towards. While Hayward and I did not see eye to eye politically on all issues, I basically saw Hayward as “one of the good guys”, who would work hard and build on many of the things I was trying to achieve. Indeed I’m sure he did.

Saturday, 16 March 1985 – got up quite early cooked Petra lunch and took her to the station. Had a very early night.

Sunday, 17 March 1985 – Rose quite early – pottered around – cooked Kate lunch – had a lazy day. Had another early night.

Someone sneakily added some unrepeatable graffiti in my appointments diary about that Sunday lunch with Kate. The graffiti is in Petra’s handwriting. I don’t think I could have spotted it at the time – otherwise I’d doubtless have scratched it out – so I suspect that the outrageous mock-diary-entry has sat there, previously unread, for forty years. I must admit it made me smile out loud, all these years later. Private requests only for a copy of that note. Young people, honestly!

Monday, 18 March 1985 – went doctors etc in morning – rather an unproductive day. Ruth and Jackie [Wong] came over – had earlyish night.

Ruth and Jackie were both friends/neighbours of Petra. Lovely lasses, both. I wonder whether Petra is still in touch with either of them?

Tuesday, 19 March 1985 – union committee in morning. Last day of term – hassle over disciplinary hearing etc. Had some wine – earlyish night.

Wednesday, 20 March 1985 – Pady and I took a day off – shopped and cooked meal for Crawfy’s [Andy Crawford’s] birthday. All got drunk.

Me, Pady & Crawfy. As usual, thanks to mark Ellicott for the lovely picture.

Oh dear, that last line: “All got drunk.” Well, I suppose it was the end of term.

A 1984/1985 Keele Students’ Union Bust Fund Disco Playlist

Were John & Ian the only ones dancing?

Click this link to see the 40 track, 150 minute example playlist of a John White & Ian Harris Bust Fund Disco from 1984/1985.

Don’t be put off if the link looks struck through – anyone can play the playlist. If you don’t have a YouTube Music subscription you’ll get occasional adverts, that’s all.

John and I have separately tried to remember our most regular and favoured tracks, then swapped notes…

…eventually a metaphorical puff of (totally legal) white smoke came out of a metaphorical chimney.

Your role, dear reader, is simply to enjoy the playlist. But please, if you wish, do chime in through comments with your own memories of bust fund discos, which I believe started several years before our sabbatical year and presumably went on for some years after.

For any readers who might be baffled by what a Bust Fund disco might have been – I explain the phenomenon in this piece – click here or below:

Keele Sabbatical In Court Twice In One Day, Discos Including A Bust Fund Disco, Courting Controversy & More, 15 to 22 February 1985

John White and I tended to focus mainly on ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub – as had oft been the wont of bust fund discos, plus a nod to sixties/psychedelic music, which “bust-fund-disco-istas” also tended to like.

Our DJ-ing style was to cluster types of sound and to favour segues that had some meaning…even if you needed a degree in musicology and/or expertise in music of those particular styles to get the gist of the segue choice!

For those who just want to look at the list rather than click and listen – the track listing is shown below.

But surely you’ll see something you want to hear – here’s the link to the YouTube Music playlist again, where you can skim the list just as easily.