Tag: Keele University Students’ Union

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

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

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.

My Second “Thanks For Coming” (TFC) Keele Festival Week Cricket Match, 21 June 1983

The Players Team In A Previous Year – c1981 – Thanks Frank Dillon

I made a right pigs ear of writing up this match originally, combining memories of the 1982 and 1983 games. It took the good offices of Mark Ellicott to put matters right in the matter of the 1982 match.

“Got Roped In To Playing Cricket All Afternoon”, Gentlemen v Players Cricket Match, Keele Festival Week, 24 June 1982

On the back of my 1982 derring-do (one catch, following a series of mishaps), presumably I qualified as an incumbent (Mark Ellicott was absent all year 1982/83) and was therefore invited along to the Players net session, which my diary shows taking place on Monday 20th; the day before the match.

If our captain, the late Toby Bourgein (who sadly died in 2020) had hoped, on the back of my willingness and enthusiasm to contribute, that there was some innate cricketing ability to be teased out in the nets, he was probably sorely disappointed.

Hardly surprising, given my relative lack of ability and the fact that I probably hadn’t played for five years or so. Even house games at school had resorted to using me as a neutral umpire towards the end of my schooldays. I was keen on the game but out of practice & quite useless by 1982 (and 1983). Latterly I got a little bit better again.

But Toby was the loyal sort and anyway probably only had eleven volunteers from which to pick his team, so I was in again.

As in 1982, I didn’t expect much of a role and yet again got pretty much what I expected.

Again I fielded, almost certainly with my trusty skiff of ale for company, but I recall nothing of note this time around.

The 1983 Keele Festival match proved to be an historic win for the Players. I recall Toby holding back a couple of our better batsmen who were more or less able to finish the job when we were six or seven down. I recall one of the match-winning batsmen fell just before the target,  so I was sent in to achieve a glorious 0* without even facing a ball.

As I put it in my diary:

…famous left-wing victory.

Toby, being Toby, remembered my derring-do from 1982 and TFC record from 1982 & 1983, so asked me to open the batting in the 1984 fixture. But that is another story of another great win for the mighty Players.

O Captain! My Captain! – Gentlemen Of The Right v Players Of The Left – Keele Festival Week Cricket Match, 26 June 1984

I have no photos from the 1982, 1983 nor the 1984 match, but this one from a couple of years earlier, thanks to Frank Dillon, should give the reader a pretty good feel for the look of the mighty Players team.

With thanks to Frank Dillon, this picture of an earlier “Players” team, probably 1981

If anyone out there has more memories and/or photographs of our festival week beer matches, especially this game, I’d love to hear from you.

The Keele “Naff” Guide by Frank Dillon & “Friends”, A Concourse Freebie, c1983

Frank Dillon: “It wasn’t just me, it was also them”

In 1983, the humorous publishing “mode du jour” was The Complete Naff Guide:

Purportedly by three authors, it was in fact written almost exclusively by William Donaldson, who was better known as Henry Root. I read the Henry Root Letters books earlier than 1983 in my time at Keele and found them laugh-out-loud funny. I still treasure my copies of those.

Perhaps it was those Henry Root book covers that inspired The Price Of Fish…

…but I digress.

The point is, Frank Dillon and others decided to put together a spoof of The Complete Naff Guide, in the form of a booklet, which was given away with Concourse. It caused a bit of a flurry, because it was, to Keele students at the time, very funny.

Indeed, at the time I recall thinking that the Keele “Naff” Guide was, to my mind, a lot funnier than the real thing. Returning to both recently, my view has, if anything, hardened on this. The Complete Naff Guide seems terribly dated and riddled with in-jokes directed at particular media people of that era, presumably those who were not on William Donaldson’s Christmas card list. I suspect that rather a lot of well-known people were not on Christmas card terms with Donaldson.

As for the Keele “Naff” Guide, while some jokes are dated, chunks of it remain funny and probably relevant. I think many of the jokes will resonate with Keele alums and students throughout the ages.

You can judge for yourselves and let us know what you think. Here, with Frank Dillon’s permission, I republish it in full. All 20 pages of it.

Frank says the following:

I did write at least some of it, but can’t take credit (or blame) for the whole thing, though the idea that I had “friends” will come as a shock to many.

I suspect that the harsher observations contained therein would not evade the blue pencil of 21st-century mores, so apologies to those who might have been offended (and are yet to be so, upon re-publication).

I echo the last sentence of Frank’s message, but suggest that you would need to be super-sensitive to be offended by any of the content, as long as you read it in its context: a 1983 comedic piece. The first item in the list of “Naff Records To Request At the Disco”, for example, reads like a cruel joke today, in late May 2023, whereas it was, at the time, a reference to a record that didn’t need to be requested, because it was almost always played at union discos and/or on the main bar jukebox!

Returning to the Keele “Naff” Guide…

…you can view the document two ways. I have uploaded all 20 images to Flickr, which is perhaps more navigable (or at least makes it easier to enlarge the pages) – the first link below is the cover, clicking on that one takes you to Flickr. Below that are the other 19 images shown within this piece – each one is clickable if you want to delve deeper or larger into that one page.

Keele Naff Guide 01 es

It does bother me a bit, though, that Frank and “friends” were persuading me to run for Chair of Constitutional Committee around the same time as they were listing that role as quintessentially naff.

I thought you were my friend, Frank. 😉

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

In the spring of 1983, one of the “big hit” comedy books that captivated the young (and young at heart) was The Complete Naff Guide.

Available second hand – click image if you wish

Not long after, there emerged a short publication at Keele named The Keele “Naff” Guide. It is attributed to Adrian Bore and Daphne Canard, but is actually the work of Frank Dillon, with a little help from his friends. I plan to e-publish the “tome” for the May Bank Holiday weekend 2023. Watch this space.

Point is, on the short list of Naff Union Positions gracing the back cover of the Keele “Naff” Guide, Chairperson Of Constitutional Committee does stand out as being quintessentially naff.

How Frank himself, with a little help from his friends, persuaded me to run for that position in the spring of 1983, is one of life’s mysteries that would probably best remain unsolved. But I’m going to try and solve it anyway.

I have mentioned before the shenanigans around several union elections in 1982 and 1983, largely caused by the Tory faction deliberately trying to game flaws and loopholes in the election rules in an attempt to disrupt the smooth running of the union.

In May 1983 my memory would still have been fresh with the (in my case literally sickening) shenanigans that February – click here or below:

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

Yes, I was on Constitutional Committee (which was also Election Appeals Committee) that year. Yes, I suppose I was seen as one of the good guys. Yes, only one person had put their name forward for the 1983/84 role – Adam Fairholme, who was a Conservative, albeit from a benign corner of that grouping.

I think it was a small posse that ganged up on me and persuaded me to run. I’m pretty sure that Frank Dillon himself was part of that posse. Also Vincent Beasley. I have a feeling that Genaro Castaldo (he who pleaded me away from my sick bed when things went awry in February) and possibly also Viv Robinson (who had been elected to succeed Genaro) leant on me.

I said I didn’t really want to do it. I said I had no time to put together a manifesto and contest the election. I said it was better that they find someone else.

Just do whatever you can. We think you’ll win the election anyway.

I sat in the Main Bar and wrote a few lines in large block capitals on a side of A4 paper. I wish I still had that scribbled-so-called-manifesto to show you. It was so sloppy and shoddy that, I recall, Viv Robinson and I subsequently used it in a guidance note to people who wanted to run for elections in 1983/84 as an example of what NOT to do.

It included my name writ large with a large cross in a box top and bottom. I recall that I pledged to

  • uphold the spirit and the letter of the constitution
  • explain constitutional matters in ways that would help and encourage students to participate in the union
  • seek to revise the constitution to block the loopholes that had recently been exploited to frustrate the union’s purposes.

In fairness to myself, despite the brevity of the pledges and shoddy presentation, I did see through those pledges to the best of my ability during 1983/84.

Having signed my nomination papers and deposited my scrappy piece of hand-written A4 purporting to be a manifesto, I then went back to Shelton for much of the next week, returning to the campus just for classes, a bit of private study and some infeasibly long tennis matches with Alan “The Great Yorkshire Pudding” Gorman. I don’t think I went to the union again until election day.

I’m pretty sure that my diary entry on 6 May which reads, in part “union for a while” reflects the above.

Friday 13 May 1983 – Busyish day – classes etc. – election for const. comm. – won – went to Shelton- had 1st drink (or 2) there.

I think I won the election on a small turnout but a significant percentage. Something like 120 to 80. I recall that Adam Fairholme was bitterly disappointed not to be elected; I think he campaigned quite hard and fancied his chances against an all-but-absentee candidate. Actually Adam was a good bloke and we became friends, albeit not close friends. I’ll write more about him and his demise come the 40th anniversary of that tragedy.

“1st drink (or 2)” relates to the fact that I had been completely off the sauce since February on the back of doctors orders due to my glandular fever (infectious mononucleosis). In May, Dr Scott told me that my “six month ban” could be reduced to “three months” for good behaviour, as I really hadn’t touched a drop.

But did I have the constitution for it?

Saturday 14 May 1983 – Rose quite early – came back to Keele for a while – dress and tennis – went back to Shelton – drag at party – not too pleasant – v late night.

I only very vaguely remember this party but I’m guessing it was some sort of costume party involving drag (they were an arty crowd, Liza’s North Staffs Poly crowd – I suppose that’s what you get when you study art). I don’t think I enjoyed it much, based on my diary entry.

Sunday 15 1983 – decadent day in bed – talking etc. – v pleasant – felt v ill – temp up – both [me and Liza] came back to Keele.

Even at the age of 20, I think its clear that I preferred smaller gatherings of friends/people I knew and liked, to big parties – regardless of costumes or lack thereof.

Even clearer is the fact that I did not yet have the constitution for drinking again. I voluntarily stayed off the sauce for quite a while longer. While my body didn’t tell me that three to four hour tennis matches might be overdoing it, it did tell me that one or two drinks was still one or two too many for my post-virus constitution.

How naff was that?

Keele End Of Term Absences, Escapes & Horrors, Mid March 1983

The UGM That Never Was (Photo: KUSU-Ballroom-1962-John-Samuel)

Don’t ask me why 7 March 1983 was noteworthy in my diary as “UGM That Never Was…”. Presumably some of us sat around for some time hoping for a quorum but the quorum never came.

Lots of mentions of Liza visiting me and even me visiting her at The Sneyd, so any hangover form my post-glandular-fever grumpiness had presumably abated…

Lowest Ebb On Release From The Keele Health Centre: Occupation Of The Registry & Eurythmics, Late February 1983

…lots of activity and lots of mentions of being busy…although I do recall getting uncharacteristic waves of fatigue for many weeks after my release from the Heath Centre.

Friday 11 March 1983 – Rose early – did quite a lot of things. Alan went home – election appeals – went to see film with Liza – back here after…

Alan’s early disappearance at the end of that term was not ominous or connected with our flatmate choice issues the week before…

Project, Plesch, “Bloody Party In Union” & How The Great Yorkshire Pudding Got His Name, Late February To Early March 1983

…I think Alan had some serious partying to do back home that weekend and had finished all of his course work for the term that Friday. I recall that Alan returned to Keele several weeks later looking a whiter shade of pale green, having been out on the lash with his mates just before returning to Keele. I wondered whether a single binge-boozy-party had been sustained throughout all of those weeks and asked him that very question.

ALAN: Feels a bit like that today.

ME: You look a very funny colour, to be honest.

ALAN: You haven’t exactly looked rosy-cheeked yourself lately, mate.

ME: Fair point.

But I digress.

I’m irritated that I didn’t write down the name of the film that Liza and I saw that night – but I needn’t have worried. A private message to Tony Sullivan, Filmsocista extraordinaire from that era, secured the vital piece of information.

Escape From New York. Ah yes, I remember it. Action/Sci-Fi. Not to my taste. Set in the distant future…1997. Manhattan is by then a high security prison and the US President’s plane crashes on the island. Slogans: “Once You Go In You Don’t Come Out” and “Some Guys Don’t Believe In Rules”. [Forty years on, by all means insert here your own topical joke about a rule-averse US President potentially incarcerated in New York.] But I’m digressing again. Anyway, thanks Tony.

More memorably, the next day…

…Liza, Mandy and I went to Hanley, saw Rocky Horror…

This must have been the Theatre Royal Hanley production – the theatre had just reopened in a new guise and I think we saw a pilot or preview version of the production of Rocky Horror that ran there for years. There is a wonderful web page of memories from that production on this “Memories Of Theatre Royal Hanley” WordPress site. (If anything ever goes awry at that site, here is a scrape.) Also this newsreel footage from when the resulting touring production closed in 1988. Lots of Keele students must have seen this show in the 1980s:

I had seen the stage production of Rocky Horror in London in the late 1970s with my BBYO pals, so felt very much “ahead of the curve” in the company of Liza and Mandy that night – a rare feeling in the matter of the arts with Liza and her “art school crowd”.

To add to the horror, I did a class test on the Tuesday morning (15th March) which must have been the formal last day of term as I signed on 16th March. [For younger readers who haven’t been following this series avidly for years, “signing on” was something students all needed to do each holiday if we wanted in effect to have our grants extended to cover holidays. The thought of the bureaucracy required to have most higher education students signing on and off the dole three times a year is truly mind-boggling.]

Friday 18 March – Easyish day – did a little work – watched TV in eve with Hamzah and Yazid.

Hamzah Shawal was my Bruneian flatmate. Yazid was one of the Malay guys who lived in a Q-Block Barnes flat with three other Malay guys, not too far away from our Barnes L-Block flat. I have no idea what we watched, but it is interesting that it was such a rare thing for me to do that I noted the fact that we watched TV. We might well have watched The Tube early evening, as Bono was interviewed that day:

I’m pretty sure this would have been one of the rare occasions I cooked for the South-East Asian gang, rather than them cooking for me. They were quite strict on Muslim dietary laws, which rather restricted my meat-based diet.

However, I did have a couple of tricks up my sleeve which satisfied their religious structures. I always had a supply of Osem Chicken Soup Mix

Picture borrowed from Amazon, which sells this stuff

This product is not only kosher but it is actually vegetarian, allowing me to make chicken soup & kneidlach (Matzo Ball Soup) for vegetarian and carnivore friends alike.

With thanks to Dall-E for collaborating with me on this image

My other piece de resistance for the halal & veggie crowd was potato latkes:

Again Dall-E produced this image based on my instructions.

If or when I can find my mother’s yellowed, hand-written pages of instructions for these delights I’ll publish the recipes. Hers were variations on the traditional Florence Greenberg & Evelyn Rose recipes.

Cheap, cheerful and heart-warming food.

Saturday 19 March 1983 – Liza came over in morning. Went to meet Julie -> Mike & Mandy’s -> dinner -> cam home quite early.

Sunday 20 March – Rose quite late – went down to lakes & back to Sneyd. Visited Ashley later.

I’m so glad that Ashley gets a mention that fortnight – albeit right at the end. Ashley has been known to complain if there aren’t enough pieces about him.

Lowest Ebb On Release From The Keele Health Centre: Occupation Of The Registry & Eurythmics, Late February 1983

A picture of a Keele Registry occupation, but probably 1970s, not “ours”, borrowed from the Keele Oral History Project.

The diary suggests that I was feeling really low and still poorly during those first few days out of the Health Centre. The short-term improvement of mood arising from my release soon morphed into realisation that there was a longish haul to recovery of my normal energy levels and high spirits.

The interesting day that week was the Wednesday, when I found myself at the occupation of the University Registry by day and at a Eurythmics concert in the Union by night.

Avid readers of this Keele series on Ogblog might recall that, in the previous November, the Keel Action Group, fronted by me of all people, got a resolution through a UGM to mandate an occupation.

Dating, Mandating & Catering To Scale At Keele, Mid To Late November 1982

That mandate was more than somewhat against the will of the Union Committee, under Truda Smith, who wanted to do something else (or possibly nothing at all) about the grant cuts.

I don’t think we mandated the Registry as the building to be occupied and I certainly was not involved in the planning of the event. I was persona non grata with Truda and her hench-folk by that time and in any case I was sick with glandular fever when the event bubbled to a head.

Dr David Cohen, a larger than life character recognisable for sporting large bow ties, had, only the previous term, switched from being the Senior Tutor (latterly referred to as Director of Studies) to being Registrar.

David Cohen 1960s COPYRIGHT KEELE UNIVERSITY – picture borrowed from a tribute to David which can be viewed through this link

I don’t suppose he was overjoyed at having the Registry occupied so early in his tenure. It was nothing personal – the Registry seemed to be the obvious place to occupy for such matters – partly because it was the centre of University bureaucracy and partly because it was centrally located on the campus and easy to occupy given its strange mix of formal construction and strung-together prefabricated Nissen hut-like structures.

I recall David being very suspicious of me when I became a Union sabbatical – I suspect he thought I was rabidly radical. But we found ways of working together quite quickly; he was open-minded enough to change his mind about people if the evidence was there for such a change. I was sorry to learn that he died in 2022, just shy of 40 years after the “historic” occupation of his office..

Frankly, 48 hours after my release form the Health Centre I wasn’t really up for it. I felt that I should show my face but probably looked like the ghost of occupations past; I had lost lots of weight (from a fairly skinny start) with my illness and I suspect that my skin colour was more yellow/green than ruddy/pink.

All I really remember was hating how I felt in that cramped, poorly ventilated space and sensing that pretty much everyone realised that I shouldn’t really be there, so I didn’t stay all that long.

I collaborated with Dall-E to produce the following artists’ impression of the event.

Not bad, Dall-E, but this lot look a bit better dressed than 1980s Keele students

The Eurythmics concert in the Union was a big deal for my girlfriend, Liza O’Connor. She was into synthesizer-based music and Eurythmics was one of the groups that everyone in the art school world was talking about.

Photo by Elmar J. Lordemann, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE
This is how Eurythmics looked in 1987 – not much different from their 1983 look

Indeed, the SU had timed their booking of Eurythmics to perfection. Their first hit, Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This, had come out a few weeks earlier and was climbing the pop charts at a rapid rate. Liza was really excited about the prospect of this gig and we deemed it to be our postponed Valentine’s Night.

However, the sweet success of Sweet Dreams also brought with it some logistical issues. If I remember correctly, Eurythmics had been called at the last minute to record a video or performance of the song or something, on the very day of our gig. The result was a very late concert indeed. I think the warm up act did their thing and then went home and we the audience were kept waiting a long time for Eurythmics.

I seem to recall Liza really liking the gig, but I was half-dead on my feet by the time Eurythmics showed up. I think it was quite a short set, book-ended by Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This. I remember being grateful for the brevity and not really enjoying the show, which is a shame.

Latterly I saw a lot of Annie Lennox; she was a regular at my health club in the 1990s and early 2000s and thus we became nodding acquaintances, even “hi and bye” folk in the neighbourhood.

I wish I’d seen her perform on a more suitable night.

Picture by Helge Øverås, CC BY-SA 4.0

I should imagine I slept well after that tiring day but I doubt if I had sweet dreams while in that glum mood. I don’t suppose I was good company for Liza when I was that gloomy and poorly, which might explain why she left me alone until the Sunday. On that day, the diary says that she came over for the evening and that we went to see Ashley [Fletcher] after.

I’m glad Ashley gets a mention in the diary that week. I have recently (forty years on) corresponded with him, not least about aspects of this period. Ashley complained that there aren’t enough pieces about him. Actually, for aficionados of Ashley Fletcher stories, e.g. Ashley, that will be rectified in the next episode.

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

Picture “borrowed” with thanks from the Keele University website

The following diary entry is the first clue that something was wrong:

Sunday 6 February 1983: Rough night – felt ill in morn. & all day – wrote essay in eve nonetheless

It didn’t get better – for the next couple of days my ill health was the only topic in my diary. I have hardly any photos from that era, let alone “lolling around feeling poorly” ones, so I commissioned Dall-E to reimagine the scene:

Monday 7 February 1983 – Pretty ill today. Stayed away from classes – early night – not well.

Tuesday 8 February 1983 – Pretty ill still – went to Health Centre – put on tablets. Came home – stayed in – early night – quite ill.

Actually I have very powerful memories of that 8 February 1983 evening. Everyone else in the flat went out or did their own thing. I stayed home and watched the movie The Harder They Come on Channel 4. I remember thinking it was a fabulous movie, despite the fact I felt so ill. Forty years on, it is available on-line so anyone can watch it. The music is awesome if you like ska and reggae.

https://youtu.be/j9U1zc8ys-Q

The other thing I especially remember about that evening is that I persevered with smoking even though my throat was incredibly sore.

By that stage of my short tobacco smoking career, which had started in 1979 in Mauritus…

Gris-Gris, A Wedding Feast And More, Mauritius, 21 July 1979

…my choice of smoke had degenerated from cigarillos on a beach in Mauritius, via conventional cigarettes for a couple of years, to low cost roll-ups:

SirGrok at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5

Anyway, I soon had time on my hands in the Health Centre to reflect on the stupidity of this practice. Hence I know that I smoked my last cigarette of tobacco while watching that movie that evening.

Interesting also that the TV listings tell me that the movie finished just before 23:00 – after which I would have gone to bed. At that time, this met the definition of an “early night”.

Wednesday 9 February 1983 – Came into Health Centre – pretty ill today. Don’t like it here much.

Thursday 10 February 1983 – Feeling bit better today – let up in evening into lounge etc.

More reflections on the Health Centre next time – my early release was premature

Not sure if I blagged my way out or whether they desperately needed the beds or what – but I was released with suspected flu and instructed to recuperate at my flat. I had at least resolved to quit smoking for good, which, with the benefit of hindsight, was an excellent longer-term health outcome.

From Smoke-Free Resolve To A Smoke-Filled Room: An Election Appeal

Friday 11 February – Came out of Health Centre – not at all well. Being sick all day. Went election appeals in eve – came home to bed.

I remember this business very clearly. As a member of Constitutional Committee I was ex officio a member of the Election Appeals Committee. I have mentioned in previous Ogblog articles the shenanigans that went on the previous year surrounding Truda Smith’s election as President…

Switching To A Cracking Good Flat In Barnes, Keele, Mid February To Early March 1982

…anyway, this season the shenaniganistas were at it again. I think this problematic election was that of Vivian Robinson, who was active in Labour Club and therefore “within the sights” of the Conservative crew who were keen to disrupt elections by deliberately breaking the rules and then trying to have the election annulled if they didn’t like the result because rules had been broken. These Machiavellian types probably thought that their techniques would enable them to run the country this way in future decades, given half a chance…oh crikey!

Anyway, there was I lolling around in my flat, looking like a Dall-E reimagining of a sick 1980s student, trying not to throw up all the time…

…when Gennaro Castaldo, the SU Secretary at that time, arrived at my flat. Gennaro was one of the good guys – I guess he probably still is. He had heard that I’d been ill and was hugely apologetic…while also being emphatic…he pretty much pleaded with me to come to the Election Appeals Meeting. Gennaro sensed that it was going to be a bare-knuckle tussle and was keen to have all of the voting panellists there.

Gennaro 40 years on, borrowed from his Twitter feed.

It was hard to say no to Gennaro in such circumstances – probably almost any circumstances, if he put his mind to being persuasive.

I remember telling Gennaro that I’d been throwing up all day and wasn’t sure I could get through a heated meeting without upchucking. My “humourist reflecting back ” self today reckons that a full-blooded chunder at some point in that meeting might have been the most apposite comment of the evening.

I have asked Dall-E to try recreating the smoke-filled room that was the SU President’s office at that election appeal.

It was more unruly-looking than this, but not bad for 21st Century AI envisaging the 1980s

Chris Boden, who I think was also a member of our panel, was the main voice of the (if not the actual) complainant. I have no recollection what the actual detail of the complaint was – only that it was pretty clear to me that the whole exercise was a stunt to disrupt the students union rather than a genuine uncovering of sharp practice by or on behalf of a candidate which should result in the election being overturned.

I recall that Gennaro had kindly/sensibly placed me near the door so I could make a break for it if I felt the need to throw up. I also remember the room being very smoky indeed, which was not good news for my still agonisingly sore throat.

I also very clearly recall that, at one point, when Chris Boden was trying to set out his complaint that “someone” had broken the election rules, Vincent Beasley jumped to his feet, pointed at Chris Boden and yelled “J’Accuse” at the top of his voice. At that point, I thought I might need to bolt out of the room to throw up, but I just about managed to contain myself.

Lovers of justice everywhere will be delighted to learn that the election appeal was dismissed and the election rightfully confirmed.

But my personal struggle with infection and the Health Centre was far from over, as you’ll learn next time.