Tag: Keele

1982 Summer Subsides: Sandown, Spurs, Shule & Sleepy Start To My Second “P Year” At Keele, Late August To 3 October 1982

Sandown Park, photo by 80N, CC BY-SA 2.5

21 August 1982: “Went To Sandown Park In Afternoon, Very Nice”

As part of my summer job that year, I was doing a fair bit of work for Laurie Krieger’s businesses – a link that sustained through much of the 1980s for holiday jobs and beyond for several years after Keele. Laurie had recently divested Harlequin Records and was entrepreneuring with several other interesting things in the 1980s.

I think Laurie and Betty had been invited to some sort of guest enclosure charity thing and at the last minute couldn’t go. Laurie gave me the tickets. It was too last minute for me to rustle up a date, so I took my mum with me.

This was my first visit to the horses since Mauritius three years earlier:

Another Day At The Races In Mauritius, This Time In the Press Box, 12 August 1979

I remember having a very enjoyable afternoon. We were both utter rubbish at choosing winners (I have never got the knack of betting on horses – I’m not sure there is one).

Sandown 21 August 1982 TelegraphSandown 21 August 1982 Telegraph 21 Aug 1982, Sat The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Mum and I probably read the above tips in the Telegraph before we set off.

On one occasion, after I had placed my bet on a horse with a name that rang true to me, we went down to the paddock to see our picks and I remember mum saying:

I think yours is limping…

…which it was, to which I said,

…maybe we’re supposed to have a look at the horses BEFORE placing our bets.

These are the ways some of us learn our lessons. Mine all came in last or second to last. I don’t think mum’s did much better. Mercifully, we were only betting pin money because we knew we were rubbish.

The next day, Sunday 22 August:

Doris & Stuart [Kent – second cousins from Grandma Anne’s side of the family] popped in unexpectedly. Paul came over in the evening.

I think Doris & Stuart told us how going to the races is supposed to be done, but my next visit wasn’t to be for another decade or more, so I don’t suppose the advice helped me much.

Late August Early September – Not Much Going On – Some Socials As Well As Work

25 August 1982 – Work OK – went to Pam & Michael [Harris – aunt & uncle] in evening for coffee etc.

28 August 1982 – Birthday – shopped in afternoon – Drew [presumably Andrew Levinson] came for dinner in evening.

9 September 1982 – Not bad day at work – lunched with Michael – went to pub after work briefly.

10 September 1982 – …pub after work…

11 September 1982 – Footy & Barbie

Football has not played a large part in my life, but on this particular day it most certainly did.

Saturday 11 September 1982 – Played football in morning – went to Spurs in afternoon with Duncan -> David’s barbeque party – came home late – a very nice day

We (by which I mean some work friends/colleagues plus some of their friends) played some sort of rudimentary five-a side game in a North London park local to Duncan (out Finchley way if I remember correctly), before going mob handy to see a fairly star-studded but perhaps a little superannuated Spurs lose. I have even managed to find a clip from that very match.

Mid To Late September 1982 – Some Socials As Well As Work Part Two, Plus Some Shule & Mum’s Ungodly Fall From Grace

Sunday 12 September 1982 – Angela & John [Kessler – cousins] came to tea. Paul [Deacon] came over in evening.

Friday 17 September 1982 – Lunched with Marie-Anne [Gilmore] – last day at work – went to pub after with the lads – came home quite early.

Sunday 19 September 1982 – Shule in morning [Rosh Hashana – Jewish New Year] – nice lunch, lazy afternoon. Pam & Michael came over in evening.

Tuesday 21 September – …met Jimmy [Bateman] in evening

Wednesday 22 September – went over to Wendy’s [Robbins] for the day -> Grandma’s -> Croydon etc. -> got home quite early.

Thursday 23 / Friday 24 – did some work/taping …Paul came over in evening.

Saturday 25 September – went up to meet Caroline [Freeman] for lunch…

Sunday 26 / Monday 27 September – …Col Nidre…Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] – mum fell down stairs.

I shall write up the Paul and Wendy tapes from that late summer separately.

Mum’s ungodly fall on Yom Kippur was entirely due to her choosing not to go to Shule (in those days I was still going to Shule on such days to keep dad company). Apparently she put the Col Nidre prayer books on the stairs in advance of putting them away, forgot they were there and slipped on them.

Irony.

We spent the next couple of days nursing mum.

Dad very kindly agreed to take me up to Keele and then return home – my parents’ plan had been to drop me off on their way to the Lake District for a short break.

30 September 1982 – I Return To Keele In The Dad-mobile

Finding the above diary entries makes me realise that the “dad’s ultra-embarrassing moment” that I wrote up as a 1981 memory, was in fact on this day in 1982. I have redrafted that piece accordingly – in any case I have subsequently been reintroduced to Cathy who was the protagonist in dad’s sort-of #METOO moment. If you haven’t read that story before it’s probably well worth a click/read if you want a laugh.

My Top Embarrassing Parent Moment At Keele, 30 September 1982

30 September 1982 – Rose early – left for Keele – arrived, lunched – dad left 2:00ish. Did some unpacking & a little work. Went to Union in evening – OK. Pete’s [Roberts] for coffee after.

Keele Prior To A New Academic Year: Calm Before The Storm 1 to 3 October 1982

Friday 1 October – did a little work – shopped etc. Went to Union in evening. Disco etc. v quiet

Saturday 2 October – did quite a bit of work – got some things sorted out. Went to Union in evening. Quietish time.

Sunday 3 October – stayed in most of the day – did some work. Went to Union in evening. Very quiet indeed.

Have no fear, dear readers, if this calm before the storm makes you think that my P3 year might have been a bit dull. The story starts to get more interesting pretty rapidly from 4 October 1982 onwards!

From https://www.studentcrowd.com/hall-l1004515-s1043587-barnes-hall-keele_university-keele

My Top Embarrassing Parent Moment At Keele, 30 September 1982

Dad, what were you thinking?

I suspect that many people have been embarrassed by their parents when the old-‘uns visit the young-‘uns at university. This particular memory stands out in my mind.

My parents didn’t drop me off or visit me much at Keele. This drop off, for the start of my P2 (third) year, was organised around what was supposed to be a short break for them in the Lake District.

But Mum had injured (it turned out, broken) her foot around that time, so they postponed their trip but dad brought me up to Keele anyway.

On their only previous visit to Keele, I hadn’t shown them around much, so I agreed to show dad around the union and stuff before he returned to London.

Mark Ellicott’s 2016 picture of The union

While wandering across the main car park, dad and I ran into a friend of mine from FY, Katie (aka Catherine or even, as she is now known, Cathy), whom I hadn’t yet seen since arriving back.

In traditional Keele student-friend fashion, Cathy and I greeted each other warmly, exchanged a few bants about our respective summers and agreed it would be good to catch up properly soon.

Within a few moments of Cathy going her separate way, dad exclaimed, in a stentorian voice:

gosh, that was a beezer girl you were chatting with just then.

I was pretty sure that Cathy would still have been in earshot, given the shortness of the interval and the uncharacteristic loudness of dad’s voice at that moment. So that’s the sort of thing that happens when you release dad from mum’s clutches for even one day.

Collins Dictionary defines the adjective “beezer” as “excellent, most attractive”; some other sources date the adjective to the 1950s, although I’d guess my dad acquired that archaic adjective as a young man (late 1930s or 1940s).

Cathy was (and assuredly still is, forty years on) a beezer girl. I didn’t remember her second name when I first wrote this up, but I did recall that she was from Leicester and I remember her going out with another friend of mine, Rana Sen, for some time…quite possibly still at that time. She is (forty years on) known as Cathy Butcher.

I never found out at the time whether or not Cathy heard my dad’s outburst and therefore have no idea whether she was amused, offended or totally oblivious to this tiny but memorable event. It certainly didn’t seem to upset our casual friendship, which was sustained throughout Cathy’s/our time at Keele.

If this short piece does find its way to you, forty years on, Cathy – I hope you are well and thriving and…

…sorry about dad. You know what they can be like.

Oh dad.

Postscript: I have subsequently been reintroduced to Cathy who is (forty years on) a Facebook Friend and claims no recollection of the dad outburst. Phew.

Another Informal Subsidiary In Contemporary Music From Keele In the Summer Of 1982: Tutor On this Occasion – Jon Gorvett

Jon Gorvett on the far right (pictorially, not politically) next to Simon Jacobs (also a Keele alum), together with me and Jon’s partner Stephanie in 2018

In August 1982, during the Keele summer break, Jon Gorvett visited my family home in Streatham for the weekend.

The diary is a little low on detail. It looks as though we focussed on wine more than beer (unusually for me at that time) and we seem to have focussed on trendy London places – Brixton, Camden Lock & Notting Hill – how cool is that!?

Somewhat higher on detail is my log of tape recordings, which lists a whole heap of albums with Jon’s name beside them. How we found the time to rip all those albums onto tape while doing the listed activities from the diary is a mystery to me. I’m guessing that Jon might have left that pile of albums with me and I returned them to him at the start of term. Either that or there were some recording sessions deep into the early hours.

Here is a list of the albums:

There were some singles too, which I used to fill up the tapes, but I was not so meticulous about logging who lent me which singles and I know I had a similar (smaller) recording session with Wendy Robbins later that summer break; she also had some cool singles. But I think the following classics were from Jon:

Yet still questions remain about that visit. Why was Jon delayed on arrival on the Friday? How scary did he find my mum? Which wine bar did we go to in South London – I don’t remember such places existing in those parts in those days.

Memorable sounds though, for sure. I listened to those recordings one heck of a lot in the subsequent years and still rate several of those albums very highly indeed.

Thanks, Jon.

On Return From Keele, “Hair Brutally Severed”, Early Summer 1982

Ronnies – Photo with thanks to Graham Gower Collection 1972

On return from Keele University in late June, but before starting work in early July, I sorted myself out, including, by the looks of it, a hair cut:

Thursday 1 July 1982 – had hair brutally severed – went to G[randma] Jenny in afternoon

I suspect I treasured my student mop, while recognising that I needed to look “young professional” for the summer weeks of work.

I never much liked having my hair cut.

My childhood memories from Ronnies in Leigham Avenue, Streatham (depicted above) involve my mother cajoling me into going to the place.

Under normal circumstances, a very patient, younger barber named Oliver would cut my hair while distracting me with the sort of chatter that kept a reluctant kid calm.

But occasionally Oliver would not be available and Ronnie himself would cut my hair. I didn’t take to Ronnie’s methods, which invariably (probably because I was an unwilling participant) seemed painful and not to my aesthetic taste. Mind you, my aesthetic taste at that time would have been to have hair as long as I possibly could get away with and on no account to present myself at any barber shop.

My haircut reluctance probably upset my mother a good deal, whose father, my Grandpa Lew, had been a barber all of his working life.

Grandpa Lew & Grandma Beatrice, both sadly predeceased my birth

My good friend Rohan Candappa had a much happier relationship with his hair and wih his barbers – he even wrote a performance piece about it: The Last Man Cave…

…here’s a cut from a performance of it (did you see what I did there?)

But Rohan’s early visits to the barbers would have been in Thornton Heath and Bromley – not Ronnies of Streatham.

I am pretty sure that Oliver had left Ronnies before my childhood ended. I am not sure whether Ronnies was still there in 1982 (knowledgeable folk on the Streatham history FB group might be able to confirm), but I have a feeling it was still there and that I probably went there for my brutal severing.

I don’t think I’d have made a fuss about it in that post-Keele cut of 1982. I took my revenge in my diary – suspecting that, at some stage in the future – say 40 years hence – I could publish the diary entry and the phrase “brutally severed” would no doubt take off as “a thing”, once and for all to expunge the despised hair-cut from the cultural canon.

I raised this matter with Rohan Candappa the other day, who suggested that Brutus Severus would be an excellent light-hearted name for a modern barbers. It’s probably just as well that Rohan’s days in advertising are now over.

Sadly, I have no pictures from 1982 to depict the exact “before and after” look, but I do have some from two or three years earlier, which probably will give the casual reader a reasonable idea and will give old friends a recognisable glimpse back in time.

Before Severance
After Severance

Informal Contemporary Music Subsidiary Course At Keele In The Summer Of 1982, Tutor: Mark Ellicott

I have discovered a cassette tape of “contemporary” music which Mark Ellicott made for me in the summer of 1982. I remember little of the background to this tape, but I did play it a fair bit during that summer break from Keele and quite a lot during the ensuing academic year 82/83, which Mark missed.

During his first year at Keele, Mark was, self-confessedly, going through a bit of a transformation, from “Tory Boy” at the Keele Royal Ball…

Mark Ellicott Guest Piece: A Right Royal Keele Ball, Starring Princess Margaret, But At What Price?, 3 December 1981

…to becoming a more iconoclastic figure in Keele circles, going on to become Social Secretary later in the 1980s and subsequently managing some of the best-known venues in the UK.

I think Mark might have given me this tape right at the end of the summer term in 1982, perhaps by way of an apology for getting me roped into playing cricket on his behalf – long story told here and below:

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

Below is the tape listing from Mark’s one-side of a C90 offering, which I labelled “ME Batch” with a clear note on my log that Mark had made this for me:

Some fascinating choices there, which I have attempted to find in the best versions possible on the web. It will be interesting to learn Mark’s thoughts about this mix tape (or what people latterly would call a playlist) forty years on.

To add a little to the intrigue, the second side of the cassette is a recording of Changestwobowie, which my log says was made for me by Andrea Collins (now Woodhouse). Did Mark and Andrea collaborate on making this cassette for me, or did Andrea offer to fill in the second side of the tape for me after Mark gave me a one-sided cassette? My diary and logs are silent on such details and my memory only retains the extent to which I played this cassette quite a lot in the second half of 1982.

To close, here’s one of my (many) favourite tracks from that Bowie album:

Forty years on, just in case I didn’t express sufficient gratitude at the time: thanks Mark, thanks Andrea.

After The Exams, Lots Of Fun At Keele, Late June 1982

Joe Jackson – photo by David Gans, CC BY 2.0

I have such happy memories of my time at Keele in the summers after the exams. 1982 was no exception.

For those who have come late to this “forty years on” series, I wrote glowingly about the glorious time I had at Keele late June 1981 – click here or below:

A Very Special Week, The Last Week Of My First Year At Keele, But There Was A Catch… 21 to 28 June 1981

In June 1982 there was a football world cup and the union did a lot of “big screen stuff” to encourage business and to enable most of us to watch. (In those days a TV was a luxury item that only slightly better off students had). I probably watched more football during that 1982 fortnight at Keele than I have watched in the forty years since.

Plus there were the balls, the parties, the inaugural International Fair…and of course, lots of chat.

Tuesday, 15 June 1982 – Last exam this morning. Drank at lunchtime. Watched Scotland versus New Zealand – went to union – Pete [Roberts] came back for coffee after – late chats.

I had forgotten that I befriended Pete (or Pete befriended me) at that stage. I have good memories of Pete getting involved with our anti-cuts campaigning the following term (he was sabbatical Education & Welfare in 1981/82) but I now realise/remember that those conversations started in the summer of 1982.

Wednesday, 16 June 1982 – Latish rise – dossed around. England V France in afternoon. Spain V Honduras in evening -> bar -> disco. Sharon and Louise came back after.

Thursday, 17 June 1982 – Got up early. Went shopping -> Carol’s [Downes] for coffee. Dossed around Keele in afternoon. Northern Ireland v Yugoslavia in evening. -> bar and reggae disco.

With thanks to Chris Parkins for this superb photo of Carol

Carol Downes had been sabbatical Education & Welfare in 1980/81. She was super friendly, very encouraging to those of us who were active in the Student’s Union and had presumably finished her finals by then. Sadly, she is no longer with us 40 years on.

Soon the weekend beckoned…

Friday, 18 June 1982 – lazyish sort of day – drinking lunchtime – cooked tonight. Watched the football -> union disco * early-ish night.

Saturday, 19 June 1982 Early start – got things done. Jon [Gorvett] came round in afternoon – watched footy in early evening -> Jazz Night -> Y Block [Hawthornes] party, somehow got home.

I apologise to football lovers that I stopped reporting which match was which. They probably all merged into one in my head and (as you can probably tell) I was not making full use of my cognitive faculties by that stage of the term. This on-line resource might help you. I assure you it doesn’t help me.

The Y Block party will have included Ashley Fletcher, Miriam, Nicola, Heather, probably Simon Jacobs & Jon Gorvett too, plus many others. I love my “somehow got home” comment – how many of us Keele alums from that era must remember staggering to or from Hawthornes in a state of…not really being capable of staggering quite that far?

Sunday 20th of June 1982 – Rose quite hung over – went down to International Fair most of the day – watch football in the evening. Joe [Benedict Coldstream ] came back – played cards till late.

I have talked about the birth of the International Fair in earlier posts – e.g. this one. I am very proud of the fact that I was involved in the conception of this wonderful Keele tradition. I was also involved in its delivery at times, but it seems not so much in that first edition of it, unless “hungover attendance” qualifies as delivery.

Why Benedict Coldstream became known as Joe is lost in the mists of time. I think Richard Van Baaren gave him that nickname early in our time at Keele because he didn’t believe Benedict’s real name.

The card game in question was almost certainly Piquet, the Keele origins of me & Joe playing that game are described at the end of this piece.

Monday 21 June 1982 – rose quite early – easyish day about the place – watched football – went to Lindsay Ball in evening – Osibisa v good.

Dave Lee also gives this Osibisa concert a superb review in his book The Keele Gigs. But now I come to think of it I did provide him with my feedback , so I was probably one of his main sources. It was an ideal concert for a summer ball at University – fun Afrobeat that just sounds like sunshine. Below is a live gig of theirs from the following year – it should make you smile for a good few minutes:

Tuesday 22nd of June 1982 – Rose at a reasonable hour – got results – went to meeting in afternoon.

Evening battle of bands etc in the union – [?? someone] came back to flat after – up all night chatting etc

Wednesday 23rd of June 1982 – easyish sort of afternoon – went to Barnes to watch footy in evening – went to bed.

Apologies to whoever it was whose name I scribbled so badly I cannot work out who came back and chatted all night after the Battle of the Bands. Perhaps someone can help out by deciphering the original diary page (below) – there are people out there better at reading my handwriting than me:

Thursday 24th of June 1982 – Rose quite early. Sorting some things out. Got roped into playing cricket all afternoon. Went to ball in evening (Joe Jackson pretty good). Up all night –

I have written up the cricket story separately, some time ago – click here for the Ogblog posting…

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

…or if you prefer the King Cricket style, it is written up differently on that site – click here or below.

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

I was impressed with and remember enjoying Joe Jackson at the Summer Ball. It was a pretty darned impressive gig, with Joe Jackson on the verge of getting properly big (i.e. breaking through in the States) at that time. You can see a good live vid from that era below:

Friday, 25 June 1982 – Went to went for brekkie in Newcastle with Sandra. Got subsid results. Meeting in afternoon – watched football – lounged around – took early night.

Sandra – from the previous year’s summer term – reappeared at that Summer Ball (I suspect she had been doing finals between times rather than actually disappearing) allowing us to spend just a little more time together before she left Keele. I didn’t remember the bit about going into Newcastle for brekkie, but if I wrote that in my diary, that’s for sure what we did.

Saturday 26th of June 1982 – Spent all day packing etc – went to union in evening – ok.

Sunday 27th of June 1982 – Mum and dad came up – went down to London – easy evening.

My second academic year at Keele was over.

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

Mike Stephens, caught out

By 1982, the annual Gentlemen (of the right) v Players (of the left) cricket match had become an iconic feature of Keele Festival Week. It was many years later that I learnt that this “tradition” had only started a year or two earlier. Keele traditions were a bit like that back then.

The Roping In

I made a pigs ear of writing this event up previously, combining my memories of the 1982 match with the 1983 match, having forgotten that I ended up playing this match three illustrious times while at Keele; my last appearance being 1984.

My mistake was spotted by Mark Ellicott, whose name I had delicately left out of my previous write up of this first occasion, as it was for an “intoxicated” Mark that I was hurriedly found and roped in as a late substitute. Mark pointed out that it must have been 1982, as that was the summer during which he was caught up in all this stuff and he was involuntarily on sabbatical from the University the following academic year. Mark later went on to be a Students’ Union sabbatical, stretching his Keele duration yet further.

On the topic of this 1982 cricket match, my diary entry merely says, with surprisingly little enthusiasm:

Got roped into playing cricket all afternoon.

Here is the Mark Ellicott substitution bit of the story, as I originally wrote it, before Mark got in touch. Naturally I have now cleared with Mark the idea of attaching his name to the story:

“I got a knock on the door early afternoon…a certain wild-haired student (even more wild-haired than me), who latterly – more latterly even than me – became a sabbatical, had been experimenting with an acidic chemical – presumably something to do with his subsidiary or extra-curricular studies – and had accidentally ingested rather too much of the stuff…

Mark Ellicott two or three years later

…he might have been experiencing something like this:

In short, the accidental acid victim was away with the fairies and I was in the team.“

Mark describes his experience slightly differently, presumably starting the evening before:

It was on Results Day for finalists in the summer of 82. I had scored two tabs previously and was working that day as a waiter in Oysters wine bar serving up bottles of wine etc to celebrating finalists. I dropped one tab whilst working idiotically enough and after ten minutes when nothing was happening even more idiotically dropped the second. Thereafter it all gets hazy, but like you I have kept a diary since I was a kid so can refer back. I must have wandered away from my workplace because the next thing I remember is wrestling with an anonymous young woman outside the Computer Science lab. Then it’s several hours later and I’m sitting in the Union bar with Truda Smith, Mark [Bartholomew], Simon [Jacobs], Anna [Summerskill] etc. I’m completely incapable of speech at this stage. I hear Truda’s disembodied voice explain to people “he’s tripping, keep an eye on him”. Next thing I recall I’m hiding under a bush by Keele Hall and Mark and Simon come looking for me, find me, and gently return me to the Union and a disco where I have a vague recollection of ‘dancing’ to ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’ by Soft Cell. Then I’m at a party in Stoke talking to a woman who runs a chippie. Completely brilliant day that was !

When I gently suggested to Mark that I might link his name with my cricket-career reviving incident, he replied…

…please go ahead and use my name. I’ve never been embarrassed about my psychedelic experiments then.

The Match Itself

Under the circumstances, I didn’t expect much of a role for The Players and got pretty much what I expected.

I was reminded of this 1982 match in August 2018, after Adil Rashid had a rare “thanks for coming” (TFC) test match – i.e. he did not bat and did not bowl in the whole match – a very rare event in test cricket – written up here…

…but not quite so rare an event in beer matches. Indeed, both the 1982 & 1983 Gentlemen (of the right) v Players (of the left) match at Keele were TFC matches for me.  I did not bat; I did not bowl, but…

…I did field.

In this 1982 match, I recall The Players captain Toby Bourgein (who sadly died in September 2020) sending me out to graze in the long grass, on the boundary, where he supposed I’d do the least damage. I recall that enabled me to keep a trusty pint of ale close at hand.

But the ball tends to follow the team donkey. I recall the Gentlemen doing rather well against us at that stage of the match, with Mike Stephens (Secretary 1980/81) batting well & properly, along with a beefy, sporty fellow…I think his name is Steve Bailey, who had been the Chair of the Athletic Union, providing some humpty to the innings.

I’m pretty sure the above picture shows “the humpty chap”, Steve Bailey, at the 1980 Christmas Ball – apologies if I have grabbed a picture of the wrong humpty chap.

Three times the humpty chap lifted the ball skywards in my direction. Three times I failed to catch it. One of those misses was a juggled attempt which failed even after several potential reprieves. One I think I lost sight of completely, perhaps even running the wrong way.

Toby sent me to backward point instead, where he suggested that catches were far less likely but I might at least save some runs if I continued to put my body (the only asset I seemed to be bringing to the party) on the line. I think I brought my skiff of ale infield with me.

A few balls later, Mike Stephens executed a firm, albeit slightly uppish, late cut, which should have hurtled to the left of a diving backward point for four…

…but the diving backward point, me, somehow contrived to dive at the correct moment and the ball contrived to stick in my hand. A stunning, potentially match-turning catch.

It might have looked like a left handed version of this one from school a few years earlier, c1979, for which I was the photographer, not the catcher.

I recall Mike Stephens stomping off in an uncharacteristic huff of “it’s so unfair. He can’t catch for toffee…”

…it was a little reminiscent of the James Pitcher “TFC with single moment of glory” match against The Children’s Society 21 years later, almost to the day:

Match Of The Day & Play Of The Day, Z/Yen v The Children’s Society, Holland Park, 22 June 2004

I don’t think my derring-do was enough to help salvage this 1982 match for The Players, but revenge was sweet for the next couple of years.

My Second “Thanks For Coming” (TFC) Keele Festival Week Match, 21 June 1983
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 game, sadly, nor the 1983 nor 1984 ones, but this one from a year or two 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 any more memories and/or photographs of our festival week beer matches, I’d love to hear from you.

Subsids, Subsidence & Sub-Standard Soccer At Keele, First Half Of June 1982

Forty years on, reading about this particular fortnight in my diary, I can see that I did, for a short while, perhaps a day or two before and during the exams, give some proper care and attention to the end of academic year tests.

In particular, I had to complete two subsidiary courses that year – I had chosen Psychology, plus Applied Statistics & Operational Research.

Actually I remember enjoying both courses and I am also sure that both proved useful to me in later (working) life, not that I had chosen those courses particularly with vocational training in mind. The former sounded like an interesting course to take at subsidiary level (it was) and the latter I imagined to be the closest match between my numeracy skills and a subsidiary that qualified as a science (also true).

Hey baby, would you like to Kammhuber to my place?

No evidence of much work the week before the subsid exams. In the union every night. At Film Soc watching Time Bandits and getting stoned afterwards on the Friday evening – well, it was the end of the “working” week, Friday.

Sub-standard Soccer

Sunday 6 June 1982 – Dossed around most of today – tried to do a little work and failed. Q Block. Played football with Ahmed and the lads. Earlyish night.

It took the diary to trigger a memory of ever playing football at Keele. I was thoroughly useless at football. “Ahmed and the lads” means my Malay flatmate, Ahmed Mohd Isa, four Malay guys who shared a flat in Q Block Barnes and probably my Bruneian flatmate-to-be 82/83 – Hamzah Shawal.

I remember telling the lads that I was no good at football. I remember them telling me that it was just a kickabout and that it didn’t matter. I remember them being much too good at football to be kicking about with me. I remember them being thoroughly polite about it and I have no recollection of ever being invited to play football with them again.

The field of dreams…or, in my case, nightmares

They were a very hospitable bunch, the Q-Block Malay gang, so I was certainly invited again for other activities, not least eating. Almost certainly part of this football occasion was a delicious Malay curry back at Q Block – usually with mutton as the core ingredient and usually wet-style Malay curry, not dry-style. At least two of the Q-Block lot were very adept at cooking Malay food, as was Hamzah – I was to discover to my delight the following academic year.

I always enjoyed spending time with that gang and I guess the football session, humbling though it was, at least warmed me up for the festival of football madness that was to kick off a bit later in the month.

So I Subsided After My Subsid Exams In My Subsiding Flat

Monday 7 June 1982 – Did fair bit of work today. Dossed around a bit too. Early night.

Tuesday 8 June 1982 – Psychology subsid for six hours today. Didn’t feel like doing anything [afterwards].

Wednesday 9 June 1982 – Stats subsid – got pissed lunchtime – came home – ate – felt exhausted – crashed.

Bless.

I think we can take it that the Stats subsid was just the single three hour paper. I wasn’t THAT negligent towards my studies.

Thursday 10 June 1982 – Shopped and laundered. Did some work later of course.

Friday 11 June 1982 – Worked a fair bit. Went to film (Arthur) – came back worked after Earlish night.

Saturday 12 June 1982 – Worked pretty hard today – went to Union in evening for a quick drink. Simon [Jacobs] and Jon [Gorvett] came back for coffee.

Sunday 13 June 1982 – Did a fair amount of work today – stayed in trying to anyway – early night.

Clearly I took my law exams a bit more seriously than the subsids. Probably with good reason – i.e. there was more I needed to cram.

Monday 14 June 1982 – Law exams all day – yukky. Not quite finished but went to UGM anyway – left early.

In the next episode you’ll learn about the last of the exams and what I did next. It’ll be more exciting and have more name drops in it than this episode, that I can promise.

Informal Subsidiary Course In Contemporary Music At Keele In My P1 Year, 81/82, Part One: Dave From Lancashire

I just couldn’t get enough contemporary music

At Keele in those days we had to take two subsidiary courses during our first degree year. I’ll write about those in time, but for now I want to write a trilogy of pieces about the informal subsidiary education I enjoyed around contemporary music at Keele that year.

My source for these pieces, for once, is not the diary – it is my collection of music; in this instance mostly cassettes that Keele people made for me.

I only had a radio cassette player at Keele – see image below for the one I had for the first couple of years – while my record and reel-to-reel collection at my parents house also burgeoned during my Keele years.

My system at Keele back then, a Philips Spatial Stereo Ghettoblaster/Boombox

Of all the pieces I shall write about friends influencing my interest in music, this is the most mysterious and perhaps the Keele alum community can help me identify Dave.

I don’t think I mention him at all in the diary – nor can I trace the particular evenings when, as my memory stores it – I went to his room with my blaster and he recorded several of his records onto cassette for me while we drank, smoked and chatted music.

Listing “the Dave Eight” just before my March-June charts rip tape sort-of dates it

I’m pretty sure he was Lancastrian – I can hear in my mind’s ear him saying “Depeche Mode” with the word “mode” sounding like the past tense of a cow making noise…”mooed”. Indeed, until recently I had assumed that Depeche Mode was a Northern electro pop band – only forty years on have I learnt that they were from Basildon. Dave was strangely attracted to their sound and style – I think he had cognitive dissonance about them. I was not a fan and have none of their music in my collection, but I must say, forty years on, the video below just oozes 1981/82 and I felt bound to share it with you.

Dave thought Depeche Mode had hidden depths, I thought hidden shallows

I think my fleeting, casual friendship with Dave sprung up around the topic of Van Morrison, whom I had discovered in the summer of 1981. I played Astral Weeks incessantly and I think Dave might have first introduced himself to me by knocking on my Lindsay F Block door on hearing Astral Weeks blaring from my room.

I think Dave was involved with social committee to some extent – perhaps on the technical side. Unusually, he had connection leads to enable us to connect my blaster to his “gramophone”.

I guess we made a din recording those albums

The two Van Morrison albums that comprise the first Dave tape – TB Sheets and Into the Music, while interesting and informative, did not get air play in my room to anything like the extent of Astral Weeks.

The tape with Surrealistic Pillow by Jefferson Airplane and The Best Of Grace Slick & The Great Society on it got played so much, it is a miracle that it survived. For the Airplane heads amongst you, Dave’s “Pillow” was the 1967 UK release – I subsequently acquired decent copies of both the UK and the US version of the album. I also now have the digitally remastered Grace Slick & The Great Society collection.

Here are a couple of samples to whet your appetites:

In truth, I did not listen much to Crown Of Creation or Baron Von Tollbooth – perhaps I should give them a proper try now and see what I make of them in my dotage.

The other album I listened to oh so many times at Keele (and subsequently) was Goodbye Pop by National Lampoon. Much as I liked Not The Nine O’clock News, the sketches and especially the song pastiches on Goodbye Pop are of the very highest quality.

The Gilder Ratner song/sketch I’m A Woman is superb and seems just as relevant forty years on…

…and if you think the Sid Gormless character at the start of the Art Rock Suite reminds you a bit of Nigel from Spinal Tap, that might just be because it is indeed Christopher Guest playing that role. Oh, stuff it, here’s a link to the whole album. You can get it on Spotify and Apple and all those places now.

So thank you, Dave, whoever and wherever you are now.

Question for advanced students among the Keele alums of the time – any thoughts on who the mysterious Dave might be and where he might be now?

The Business End Of My P1 Year At Keele, Last Three Weeks Of May 1982

For the benefit of people who were not at Keele back then, the term “P1 Year” referred to second year students who, like me, had opted to the the Foundation Year (FY) in their first year. P stood for “principal” I think.

Those who didn’t enjoy the cognitive and recreational benefits of FY would describe their undergraduate years as T1, T2 and T3 – T standing for “three” I think.

Before I trawl my diary for that May period, I’d like to talk a little about the vibe in my flat, M65 Barnes. The diary is silent about it, so unless I describe it soon, my P1 year will be over, M65 will be demolished and I won’t have told you about our quirky group of four.

Barnes M65 From February To June 1982: Me, Ahmed, Margaret & Jo

Barnes M Block was behind that tall tree

I have already described why I chose to move into a Barnes flat around February 1982 and how I went about doing so -click here…

…not least, I was very keen to secure a flat for the following year and guessed that, with two of us electing to continue to have a Barnes flat, we’d get first dips on the vacant ones due to the M Block demolition.

Ahmed Mohd Isa was the member of that flat who wanted to stay on in a Barnes flat and was due to be my flatmate beyond 81/82. He was part of the small Malay community at Keele in those days – I got to know that crowd well through Ahmed that year and then subsequently. I’ll write more about that gang separately. Most of them lived in a flat in Q Block Barnes, while Ahmed I think had been allocated to M65 entirely by chance at the start of his Keele career.

The other two in M65’s last year were named Margaret and Jo. Margaret was from Manchester I think – while Jo was from the South-West if I remember correctly – Hampshire perhaps.

Both of them were vegetarians who disapproved of (but did not prohibit) my meat preparation and eating in the flat. I remember one occasion when a really bad smell started to pervade the kitchen and the girls became convinced that I had left some meat to rot somewhere.

Jo wandered around the kitchen, sniffing in a rodent-like manner behind cupboards and fittings, determined to find my errant flesh product. In fact, she discovered something especially foul-smelling that could not possibly be attributed to my carnivorousness. Behind the corner cupboard/pantry shelf, Jo found a decomposing cabbage, which she delicately removed from the flat at arms length with one hand while holding her nose with the other hand.

But the girls did have an absolute golden rule in the flat and woe-betide either me or Ahmed if we broke this rule: complete silence between 19:30 and 20:00 when Coronation Street was being broadcast. Margaret was the strictest enforcer of this rule. “Shhh”, she would hiss if either of us was so thoughtless as to want a glass of water or to grab a spoon and go back to our room during that broadcast. They would both sit in a leaning forward posture – usually with heads propped forward between fists, to ensure complete concentration and maximum proximity to the tiny screen of their portable black-and-white telly.

I’m pretty sure that Tony, who moved out to allow me in, had been to some extent at war with the girls, which was the main reason he moved out – but I didn’t have direct evidence to support that theory.

Margaret and Jo were finalists and in many ways were quite tolerant of both me and Ahmed as stop-out non-finalists, although we were both reasonably respectful of their need for some peace and quiet for revision.

They had some interesting friends, the most eccentric of whom was a posh lad known as “Dips”, who was the young country gent type and was known on occasion to drive his Land Rover across the playing fields – a recipe for getting caught red-handed and fined as his was almost certainly the only vehicle on campus that would leave tyre marks of that exact kind.

Who knows, 30 years later I might have re-encountered Dips at the Mollington Point-To-Point

It’s a shame I have no pictures of that flat or any of that crowd.

Given It Was The Business End Of That Academic Year, I Don’t Appear To Have Done Much Business For At Least A Couple Of Weeks

Here is a transcript of the first scrawl-ridden diary page:

Sunday, 9 May 1982

Rose very late today after returning [from the aftermath of the Clint Eastwood & General Saint evening] about 8 am.

Went to union in the evening for a quiet one.

Monday 10 May 1982

Easyish day – did little.

Went to union for a few – Jon [Gorvett] and Mark {Ellicott] came back afterwards for [Tarot] readings etc.

Tuesday, 11 May 1982

Busyish day – as is common on a Tuesday – though not feeling too good.

Went to film nonetheless – Four Seasons – really good.

Returned still ill.

Wednesday, 12 May 1982

Easyish sort of day really.

Didn’t go to union in the evening as I was feeling terrible.

I have written elsewhere about my Tarot readings at Keele – click here or the image below:

In truth I don’t recall doing readings for Jon Gorvett and Mark Ellicott, but I am in touch with both of them forty years on, so I’ll ask them if they remember me reading for them.

I also don’t recall what ailed me – probably just a debilitating cold.


Thursday, 13 May 1982

Easyish sort of day – did some work but not too much.

Contrived a suitably easy night.

Friday, 14 May 1982

Went to my tutorial and straight off to London with Rob [Schumacher?] and Simon M[orris?].

Lazy evening with Ma and Pa.

Saturday 15 May 1982

Did some taping etc today. Lounged a lot – spoke to some people.

[Cousins on mum’s side] Hannah [Green], Sidney [Pizan], Jacquie and Len [Briegal] came for dinner – very pleasant evening.

Up till very late washing up.

Sunday, 16 May 1982

Rose quite late – had lunch – taped, lounged and spoke to more people.

Completely lazy evening – good break (from what? – Ed).

I guess the dinner with cousins was a slightly belated 60th birthday event for mum.

I particularly like my sarcastic note to self, which I must have written more or less immediately after writing the phrase “good break” asking myself, “from what?”

Self aware, that comment.

I hardly seem to have been over-exerting myself in the summer term of my P1 year, perhaps because there were no exams of any consequence that year – just finishing off some written work.

Sunday 17 May 1982

Return from London in the morning – spent the rest of the day writing my last essay of the session.

Tuesday, 18 May 1982

Essay went in.

Went to Anju [Sanehi]’s in the afternoon – decided to give film a miss – lazy evening in instead.

Wednesday, 19 May 1982

Easyish sort of day – spent whole evening in union – drank quite a bit etc.

Thursday, 20 May 1982

Did some work today – not too exerting though.

Lazy evening in tonight.

Friday 21 May 1982

Lazyish day today – did very little.

Spent quite a bit of time in union (EGM etc – chatting). Boozy afternoon and evening.

Went to film [McVicar – thank you Tony Sullivan for keeping records]– disco – back to Anju’s for tea.

Saturday 22 May 1982

Big shopping spree today – a late start.

Went to union in evening and to disco with Simon [Jacobs], Jon etc etc. Earlyish night.

Sunday, 23 May 1982

Easyish day – did very little – spent most of evening in the union do very little really – cooked a lot.

Monday 24 May 1982

Easyish day – mainly in union. UGM in the evening – a goody I feel.

Joe [Benedict Coldstream] came back after.

The mood of my May 1982 diary, which uses terms like “easyish” and “lazy” rather a lot, suddenly changes on the next page or two.

More Speed, Less Haste: The Rest Of May 1982

I sense that I rather realised that I really did need to get a bit of work done that term. I also remember quite clearly that I attempted at least one terrible technique for getting stuff done.

In short, although the diary is fairly quiet about it – the next week went a bit weird.

Tuesday 25 May 1982

Busy day of work – did quite a lot. Stayed in in the evening and did quite a bit more work.

Wednesday 26 May 1982

Busy most of the day getting ready for flat inspection. Did a little work – watched football [European Cup Final – probably a big screen job in the ballroom] & film [probably a TV broadcast not Filmsoc]– ok.

Thursday, 27 May 1982

Flat inspection today – last tutorial – [Union election] counts – FA Cup [Final replay] – cheap beer – futurist disco* dash home for supper// and all nighter of talk and writing.

Friday, 28 May 1982

The day seem to flash by – went to Pete [Roberts]’s office in ‘noon – took early night.

Cheap beer and hanging out with friends is more likely to have been my motivation for the football matches than the football itself.

I have no idea what a Futurist Disco might have been – presumably not futurist music as I now understand the term:

Social Committee preparing for a futurist disco?

…but the symbols suggest I had a good time and then retreated to take some speed to get me through a period of intense talking and writing. I remember this stupid experience well – it was the second and last time I experimented with that dangerous stuff. I remember feeling at the time that I was getting through loads of writing and getting loads done, only to realise that, after having lost a day-and-a-half, that I had written utter drivel and would need to rewrite everything I had attempted to get done that way.

I also chewed my lips to shreds…again.

Not a good idea, Speed in the hope of cognitive productivity. Certainly not for me – I would now advise against it.

Saturday, 29 May 1982

Rose late – lazy sort of day.

Went to union -> Mark’s [Bartholomew this time I think] with Si [mon Jacobs], Johnny Rothman [who must have been visiting Simon] etc. – stayed till late…

Sunday, 30 May 1982

… Went to Amphitheatre in the early hours. Got out about 8 am.

Went to bed – got up for a few hours and went back to bed!!!

Monday 31st of May 1982

Lazyish day about place – tried to work in eve.

Tuesday, 1 June 1982

Quietish day. Tried to do some work. Saw film [The Deer Hunter – thanks again, Tony Sullivan] in eve.

The “amphitheatre” is just behind that row of trees – picture “borrowed” from University website nature trails – click here or picture for those.

Yes, I remember wandering off in the early hours, after that ad hoc party of Mark & Simon’s, with a chap whose face I can picture but whose name I’ve forgotten and we ended up jabbering some sort of a theatrical role play of our own devising in that amphitheatre until well after sunrise. As with my speed-induced writings, it seemed terribly profound when we were doing it and then on reflection the next day was mere drivel. Still, it was fun and every Keele student should have a spring or summer nighter down the amphitheatre under their belt before they leave Keele.

On rereading my diaries forty years on, I realise it is just as well I didn’t have too much serious academic work or examinations to prepare that term – I was well off the pace in the spring of 1982.