Celebrated clinching the deal for the flat with Bobbie on the Friday evening, starting with an early evening visit to the National Theatre to see a platform talk about Kenneth Tynan. I think those Platform things were a new idea that autumn…an idea that is now more than 30 years old. Our first one had been Tony Sher some weeks earlier.
This Kenneth Tynan one was in the Cottesloe and was a really interesting, varied panel: Adrian Mitchell, Jonathan Miller, Edward Petherbridge, Kathleen Tynan and Irving Wardle.
As the diary says (if you can read it) we went on to the Archduke afterwards for dinner.
On the Saturday I collected the keys to Clanricarde Gardens and did some shopping. I remember spending more than a few bob in Tylers (which was up on Westbourne Grove back then) – I probably still have one or two of the items I bought that day – I’m pretty sure I am still on my first clothes horse, for example.
I also bought food for the Sunday, but the crowd that visited that day – John, Mandy, Ali Dabbs, Valerie and Bobbie would all have traipsed to Woodfield Avenue for that meal – I must have shlepped the grub from Notting Hill to Streatham Hill on the Saturday evening – the new flat was not yet fit for habitation.
What did I cook that day? Can’t remember. Bound to have been Chinese and/or South-East Asian food though…just possibly Southern Asian for that crowd. It would have been good, whatever it was, though I say so myself. I must have been knackered by the Sunday, though. What a week it had been.
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.
Met John after work – went to see Topical Heatwave (footlights review) – then for meal – nice evening.
I remember the show rather well. We thought it was quite good. Not vastly better than the Ringroad stuff I just finished doing at Keele, obviously, apart from the more significant production budget of course.
I learn, from searching that the cast was Bill Cashmore, Chris Luscombe, Alison Cook, Daniel Strauss, Kathryn Crew, Graham Wynne, and that the director was Charlie Pattinson. One or two familiar names in there.
The diary is silent on where we went for our meal – not even a mention of the type of meal we ate. Probably a modest eatery along Southampton Row. Italian perhaps.
Full day on [Financial Training] course – went to Annalisa’s -> meet John and Mandy. Saw Jumpers and had Chinese meal.
Again, nothing specific about the Chinese Restaurant. Probably Mayflower or Joy King Lau, is my guess.
Jumpers. I remember enjoying the play and the production without being bowled over by it. The cast was very 1970s/early 1980s sitcom heavy, which made them familiar, perhaps to excess. At least in those days you didn’t get sycophantic audiences giving “stars” standing ovations simply for turning up and walking on to the stage.
I am not going to write a great deal about my three apprenticeship years, autumn 1985 to autumn 1988. I had decided to qualify as a Chartered Accountant while I decided what I wanted to be when I grow up.
I succeeded in qualifying as quickly as possible but, 40 or so years later, I have yet to decide what I want to be when I grow up.
To facilitate the process of qualifying as quickly as possible, I returned to my parents’ house after leaving Keele. That decision probably didn’t much help my emotional state, which was a sense of “going backwards” from the highs of being Union sabbatical for a year to the mundanity of regular working life for apprentices in their 20’s.
Still, I didn’t find the studying too taxing [did you see what I did there?] so I was able to read a lot – my leisure reading focus being on play texts from the Westminster Library on Marylebone Road – and go out with friends to theatre, cinema, concerts and restaurants.
I was also able to help my parents out financially, contributing to the household bills, at a time that dad was looking to retire but signally failing to sell the shop.
Enough context – there’ll be diary extracts and articles about signature events.
Monday, 2 September 1985 – first day of full-time employment – went okay – stayed in evening.
Tuesday, 3 September 1985 – work OK – had a lazy evening in after.
Wednesday, 4 September 1985 – met Caroline for lunch today and went out with John [White] and Vicky [I cannot remember her surname, only her nickname] in evening –> Yung’s -> film Insignificance
Thursday, 5 September 1985 – office ok – went over to Martin and Barbie Wilson’s house [Petra’s father and step-mother in Burgess Hill] for evening.
Friday 6 September 1985 – work okay – had a drink with [work colleagues] Mike & Sandra [King] after – went home – lazy evening in.
Saturday, 7 September 1985 – lazyish day – taping – shops – easy evening in also.
Sunday, 8 September 1985 – lazy day – [Uncle] Michael came round – Chinese lunch – sorted things in the afternoon and lazy evening in.
Monday, 9 September 1985 – work ok – went to Annalisa’s for lunch – had an easy evening in.
Tuesday 10 September 1985 – work ok – went to meet Annalisa after work – went to Gate to see Three Strindberg plays -> Italian meal after – very pleasant.
OK, that evening in Notting Hill Gate seeing Strindberg and eating Italian food needs its own article.
…my diary for the next few days has an end of era tone to it.
Saturday, 29 June 1985 – returned through night – slept in – went to town late – cooked John [White] and Petra [Wilson] a meal – John and I did last Sixties [Soul] disco. Went down well.
Sunday 30th of June 1985 – Rose quite early – Ruth’s folks – Petra’s car – breakfast – visited Ruth – Pitty [Graham Pitt] came over for dinner.
John and I have very happy memories of doing those sixties soul discos. It was kind of Pady Jalali (Social Secretary) to award us the end of Festival Week slot as a last hurrah.
If you are wondering what one of our Sixties Soul Discos might have sounded like, please feel free to click the image above – or here – for a YouTube Music playlist curated by me and John in the style of those discos.
Some people described our discos as Northern Soul style, but in truth they were more mainstream than that, not least because Keele’s record collection at that time had few “rare grooves”. Our soul discos always went down well, as confirmed by my assessment in my diary.
Ruth’s Parents, Petra’s Car & Hospital Visits
I have already told the tale of Ruth, Petra’s close friend, having been hit by a car in the street, in a piece named “Something’s Wrong…”
I should hasten to add that Petra was not the errant driver in the Ruth incident, as evidenced by Petra being elsewhere (with me) at the time of the accident. More seriously, Petra proved to be a very constant friend to Ruth during her recovery, in hospital, as my late June/early July diary attests. We (or at least Petra) visited Ruth almost every day, except when we were out of town.
I also remember that Eddie Slade, the Senior Tutor, visited Ruth in hospital to see how she was and to inform her in person that she had won an academic prize that year. A lovely touch, I thought then and still think now.
Eddie Slade – what a good chap.
In truth I remember little about the visit from Ruth’s parents. The fact that I blurt the phrase “Petra’s car” between the phrase “Ruth’s folks” and “breakfast” suggests that something once again happened to (or in) Petra’s car, as part of that expedition. Lost in the mists of time from my memory, that one. It can’t have been as dramatic as our near death experience on the Marylebone Road.
Monday 1 July 1985 – lazyish day – signed on, shops, went to hospital., Cooked Petra meal.
Tuesday 2 July 1985 – easyish day – office briefly – Petra packed – I went to Kate’s [now Susan Fricker] for a while – hospital – cooked Petra a meal etc.
Wednesday, 3 July 1985 – sorted things out – went to hospital – then walk round lakes etc.
Thursday 4 July 1985 – easyish day – rose late – went to Trentham Gardens in afternoon – hospital – dinner etc.
Friday, 5 July 1985 – Easy day – office briefly etc – went to hospital – had dinner – went union and then onto L54 to see John, Hayward etc.
Saturday 6 July 1985 – Rose late – shopped – went to hospital – cooked nice meal etc.
I think Trentham was a bit of a crumbling old ruin back then, but I suppose it was one of the few vaguely local attractions near Keele.
I don’t remember John staying in Barnes L54 at that time, but he must have done. My guess is that John had already given up his flat (room) in town and wanted to stick around Keele a while longer. I’ll also guess that it was Alan Gorman who had departed early and therefore had left space for John to squat in L54 a while.
I had lived in Barnes L54 for two very happy years – Autumn 1982 to Summer 1984.
It was strange visiting that place for the last time – especially with Hayward Burt sitting in MY chair and all – have I mentioned that bit before?
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:
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:
The fact that we had a last-minute rescheduled Ringroad rehearsal suggest to me that the Ringroad show we performed at the Ball, which I described as weak, was a last minute idea, perhaps to fill a gap in the Ball schedule. We had a long-planned Summer Revue the next day and I think we needed to dredge the bottom of the Ringroad cornflake box of scripts to come up with a second show in as many days that wasn’t going to overlap.
I don’t remember much about the pop quiz on the Tuesday, but as I state that I “got drunk” rather than “won”, or “did well”, I think you can draw your own conclusions.
Frankly, I remembered little about the Summer Ball too. It is only fair to say that John White’s memory did no better. Interesting also that I didn’t note the names of the bands we saw – not even the headliners (Darts).
So I am truly grateful to Andrew Macmillan for supplying the headline image which helped bring back the memories.
One reason that I would not have thought Darts that exciting a pick is that I had seen them at an SU ball early in my Keele career. No doubt Pady chose them precisely because only a handful of us would have seen them at the Valentines Ball in 1981 – written up in this piece:
You can hear/see some Darts in the above 1981 write up, but if that’s not enough for you, here’s another embedded video of that retro group. They were seriously retro, even when at their peak in the 1970s:
More interesting perhaps were the support acts. I remember being less impressed by The Higsons than I was by The Untouchables, but enjoying the sound of both.
The Untouchables were very much “John’s and my sort of thing”, with their Mod/Ska revival sound. I wonder whether Pady [Jalali] chose them for our last hurrah deliberately to please us. Forty years on, John [White] and I can ask Pady that question when we all meet up in late July.
I particularly remember liking The Untouchables version of a Northern Soul classic, I Spy For The FBI:
I love the parting remark in my diary, “left about 2:30 a.m.”.
And I had SO many meetings the next day, and THE Ringroad Summer Revue to perform. Did I make it?
Of course I did.
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:
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.
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:
Here’s the text from my personal diary for the next week or so:
Tuesday, 11 June 1985 – Rose late – residential services in afternoon etc – had dinner with Petra.
Wednesday, 12 June 1985 – busy day – meetings etc – celebrated after Senate – had dinner with Petra.
Thursday, 13 June 1985 – meetings – in office most of the day – had an easy evening [Strangely, the appointments diary says that I did the Bust Fund Disco that night. I expect the appointments diary is right and the memory at the time I wrote up that week was wrong.
Friday, 14 June 1985 – meetings, office etc. Cooked dinner for Petra, Ruth and [Graham] Pitt.
Saturday, 15 June 1985 – lazyish day – shopped etc – popped over to Pitt’s – went to Jackie Wong’s for dinner.
Sunday, 16 June 1985 – Rose late/lazy day –brekker etc. Cooked Petra dinner later.
Monday, 17 June 1985 – went to Derbyshire for day with June – peak/picnic etc. dinner. Got back late – Petra came round after.
I have very happy memories of the day June Aitken (the Keele Student’s Union administrator extraordinaire) took us outgoing sabbaticals (me, Kate, John & Pady) to the Peak District, for a day of picnicking and walking.
It was a truly special and memorable day – I am so irritated that I didn’t take a camera and a roll of film that day. I fell in love with the Peak District that day and visited it many times since – especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s – the following photo from 1990:
Tuesday, 18 June 1985 – meetings etc – Ringroad rehearsal – Petra cooked dinner later.
The next day…something significant happened. I’ll write up that story and its aftermath next time.
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.
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.
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.
