I got to know Peter Held on several of the University committees; he was a prominent member of the University Council. I remember being pleasantly surprised when he invited me and Kate to a Lichfield Festival concert towards the end of our term of office, that summer. I’ll write up that concert in the fullness of time; I’m pretty sure I have the programme.
I would have written quite promptly to Peter to thank him for his (i.e. Marling Industries’) hospitality. This letter is his thanks for my thanks, with the offer of a little bit of employment insurance tucked in there, which I remember pleasing me when I first saw the letter.
Not that I can really imagine a career in industrial textiles, looking back, but who knows where life might have been taking me back then?
On top of my Hackgrass reveal antics on our last morning in office, it seems we held some sort of bogus committee meeting later in the afternoon. More a symposium than a mere meeting, by the looks of it.
It looks as though I completed the minutes that December, ahead of our January 1986 appearance at the UGM I shouldn’t wonder, so I’ll publish the typed version at that date. The hand-written version that follows must have been part-written on the day and then concluded later.
Experts at handwriting analysis forensics might be able to work out exactly what went on. John White – I suggest you might choose not to apply for this role, if your attempt at the Hackgrass cypher is anything to go by.
Most of my fellow committee members didn’t know that I was Hackgrass. Indeed the only person on the committee who did know was Pete Wild, as the only people still at Keele who did know my identity were my remaining former Barnes L54 flatmates (hence Pete), Petra Wilson and Annalisa de Mercur.
For the last day of our office as sabbaticals, I wrote a final Hackgrass one-pager and revealed myself to the lovely Pat Borsky in the print room. (As Hackgrass, I mean; please retain some decorum and concentrate, dear reader). Pat agreed to print the one-pager as a publicity circular (pub. circ.) special and the rest is history.
The one-pager caused more than a bit of a stir that day in students’ union circles. I thought best to lie low in my office.
Soon enough, John White plonked himself in my office with pub. circ. and a copy of the February Concourse, saying that he wanted to break the code.
I said that I didn’t much care who Hackgrass was and that I wanted to finish off some work, as I was still very busy.
John laboured with the puzzle for some time in my office, concocting some highly convoluted theories such as:
a=1…z=26, reverse the number series and rework the letters
Once I got irritated enough, I suggested to John that whoever Hackgrass was, he or she probably wasn’t that sophisticated a cipher-wright, so John might be better off trying something really simple like the initial letters of the words in the sentence.
About 10 seconds later, I received an unrepeatable (indeed forgettable) stream of invective from John. I have forgiven him for the invective and I believe he has forgiven me for keeping my identity as Hackgrass a secret during our sabbatical year.
I have extracted a few good pages from the May 1985 edition of Concourse. By that time, my Education and Welfare sabbatical year was coming to an end, so the paper was interested in ushering in the new and ushering out the old. Hold the front page…
Superb picture of John White on the front page, the main (nay only) reason I have uploaded this page
There had been some sort of hoo-ha about the FY exams that Easter, so it seems that I got busy and Margaret Gordon (a lovely lass, I wonder what became of her?) interviewed me about it:
FY stands for Foundation Year, the late lamented “try a bit of everything” course, sadly no longer taught at Keele. Gresham College is perhaps the closest thing to it.
I like the next two pages – a double page spread on the new sabbaticals. Nice to still have pictures of faces I remember. Hayward Burt’s comments on my style raised a smile with me.
I don’t think the term “stress head” had been invented back then, not least because, if it had existed, I think that is exactly the term Hayward would have used to describe me.
I love this little article about John White, Kate Fricker and the Students’ Union cleaners. John looks like a rabbit startled by headlights in the picture. Little did he know that he would subsequently become seasoned for photo shoots, such as his gig as the poster boy for Food Retailer Monthly magazine (or whatever it was called, why can’t I remember?)
Top tank top, John.
Finally the following review of the UGM. These days, the (anonymous) author of this piece would surely not get away with the ethno-physiognomy remark made about me, especially in that context. Where was editor Krista Cowman’s red pen when I needed it? Surely the UGM and Concourse should have been safe space from such comments for people like me? Is it too late for me to seek redress?
Strangely, I have no recollection whatsoever of reading that comment before, although I must have read it, so it must have seemed like water of a duck’s par for the course back then.
Having run myself down in the early spring of 1985, doing the Keele Students’ Union sabbatical thing, I took a bit of a break during the Easter holidays and then returned to Keele for a relatively calm period before the storm of my final term.
“Holy Week” & Passover Resting/Convalescing At My Parents House
Of course Holy Week had no meaning in my family, but the week or so in question was the run up to Easter and the Easter weekend. It coincided with Pesach (Passover) that year.
Monday 1 April 1985 – Lazy day – went shops – stayed in mainly taping, reading and feeling low.
Tuesday to April 1985 – Lazy day in – taped, read etc – feeling grotty and lazy. Stayed in evening also.
Strangely, although the diary is silent on this matter, I very clearly remember reading Something Happened by Joseph Heller during that particular Easter break. It didn’t cheer me up, but I remember finding the book jaw-droppingly good. I had loved Catch 22 and had not expected to be that impressed by Heller’s so-called difficult second novel. Something Happened is a much under-rated classic in my opinion, but I digress.
Wednesday 3 April 1985 – Went to town [West End of London] today – went Newman Harris & Co – Caroline [Freeman, now Curtis] for lunch – shopped etc. Lazy evening in.
Thursday 4 April 1985 – Went to Edwina [Green, doctor] in morning. Went to Dad’s shop in the afternoon and had an easy evening in.
Friday, 5 April 1985 – Did little today – went for a [traditional bank holiday, with Dad] walk etc. Had a nice dinner and watched TV etc. – lazy day.
Saturday, 6 April 1985 – Easy day – did some taping etc – went to seder that evening with Grandma Jenny. Very pleasant evening.
Sunday 7 April 1985 – Lazy day – nice lunch – went to Briegals [Jacquie, Len, Hilary & Mark] afternoon and evening – had a nice time there.
Monday, 8 April 1985 – rose quite late. Had a nice lunch. Went to Auntie Frances [Harris] in the afternoon. Lazy evening in on phone and in front of box.
No doubt Angela, Vivienne & John (Kessler) will also have been there – this picture is of the former two a few years earlier in Auntie Frances’s flat:
Returning To Keele & Preparing For The New Term
Tuesday, 9 April 1985 – rose quite early – Winfred [May – neighbour & Mum’s friend] came over for lunch. Petra [Wilson] came over – returned to Keele – had dinner and early night.
That will have been the first time that my parents encountered Petra. I recall that dad was quite taken with her and that mum didn’t have a clue that we were going out with each other, probably because mum was so weird still about that sort of thing. Mum – I was 22 years old FFS.
Wednesday 10 April 1985 – rose late – lazed around. Went shopping in afternoon. Met Ashley [Fletcher] had a drink and stayed in. Lazy evening.
Thank goodness. Another Ashley mention to keep Ashley happy.
Thursday, 11 April 1985 – rose early – Union Committee in morning – lazy afternoon – went to union. Had a drink with John [White] in evening and then home for dinner, etc.
Friday, 12 April 1985 – Lazy-ish morning. Rose late. Had lunch – went SC – busy afternoon and evening – had nice meal etc.
If any of you Keele alum detectives can fathom what SC means in this context, please help me out. I am clueless.
Saturday 13 April 1985 – rose quite early went to Chester for the day – lunch – Toy Museum – drinks etc. Stayed in evening had a nice dinner etc.
I do remember an enjoyable day trip to Chester with petra, but I don’t in truth remember the Toy Museum there. Perhaps the place wasn’t all that memorable as it permanently closed down some years ago, as I write 40 years on.
Sunday, 14 April 1985 – Rose quite late had nice food went for a walk, etc. Big meal in the evening – did little. Nice day.
Monday 15 April 1985 – More or less worked all day – sorted some things out. Petra and I went for a very nice walk after. Lovely evening.
Tuesday, 16 April 1985 – Took day off – went Mainwaring. Shops – did some work etc. Ashley popped in. Lazy evening very pleasant.
Don’t panic – The Mainwaring Arms is still there in Whitmore.
I don’t find it extraordinary that my mood was clearly much better when recuperating at Keele in Petra’s company, compared with convalescing at my parents’ place. But what I do find interesting is how clearly the changed emotions ring out (and how well my memory can be triggered forty years later) by so few words in my diary entries.
Wednesday, 17 April 1985 – Easyish day in office – union committee morning – Petra went home – easy evening – walked with Annalisa early eve, stayed in evening, early night.
Thursday, 18 April 1985 – Fairly light day in office today – did a little work in the evening. Ashley and Co came around – cooked them a meal etc.
Friday, 19 April 1985 – Busyish day at work getting odds and ends done. Went over to Kate’s in the evening – got drunk and stayed late.
Saturday 20th of April 1985 – Rose late – shopped with Kate – did a little work and then did disco [with John White] in evening.
Sunday 21 April 1985 – Stayed in most of the day – saw Kate and Annalisa for a while and did work on birth control leaflet.
I really must get around to putting up some more “John & Ian Disco Playlists” after the success of the Bust Fund Disco one. Watch this space.
Interesting that, in April, I was still referring to the publication that became “Sexplanations” as a birth control leaflet, as it became more than that between April and its publication in June. Watch this space for that too.
…one thing I do remember about a visit to Keele was… round to someone’s house…going into the kitchen for supper and being somewhat disturbed by the fact someone was sitting at the table with just a towel on. Do you remember who that might have been? Thank you anyway for another trip down memory lane. I remember our having an argument about what size of tampons should go in the machines in the women’s toilets at the university as well. What a selective memory I seem to have!
I suggested to Jilly that the venue was Ashley Fletcher’s place and that “towel man” was almost certainly Simon Legg, one of Ashley’s flatmates at that time. Simon might confirm or deny.
I then, perhaps foolishly, asked Jilly to elaborate about the great tampon debate. The following diatribe came:
Now, as far as the tampon size argument is concerned, I’m now trying to remember if Annalisa [de Mercur] was the one to support me in the argument that we had. Anyway, it was the year when you were running the student union or similar (please forgive my lack of specific information, as I didn’t keep diaries like yours unfortunately) but I do remember you were involved in deciding what tampon machine would go into the ladies loo, and, together with (I think) Annalisa, I was quite indignant over your choice of tampon size to go in the machine, as this had been made without suitable consumer experience of the selected product, and we were both of the opinion that your judgment on this occasion might not be so well appreciated by the eventual product users. If I’m not wrong, it seems that you took an executive decision and decided to stock the tampons you liked the most in the facilities without further consultation or discussion, and I frankly wonder to this day how it might have affected the overall wellbeing of those women who weren’t fortunate enough to make their own informed choices at the time.
I, personal care product expert, early 1980s
In my own defence here, I cannot imagine that I ever made a decision about the products to be supplied in the women’s (or indeed anyone’s) lavatories.
This debate feels to me, like the work of wind-up merchants, which might well have included Ashley, Simon and, if I’m not mistaken, Helen Ross, who also shared a flat with Ashley. I don’t think Annalisa was there that evening.
I can certainly imagine all three of them: Ashley, Simon and Helen, wickedly confirming: “oh yes, Ian makes all of those personal care decisions in the union, with reckless abandon and no regard for the opinions of the service users”.
I can also imagine that any attempt at denial by me would have been systematically refuted by the others as a weak attempt by me to cover my dictatorial tracks in the matter of personal care products.
Ashley: “Wind-up merchant? Do I look like a wind-up merchant?”
But Jilly’s strange memory piece raises a genuine question in my mind. Was there ACTUALLY an issue with regard to a mismatch between the products that students wanted and the products that were supplied in the Student’s Union loos? The truth of the matter, of course, was that the decisions about the specific mix of products in the machines would have come from the commercial provider. The economist in me believes that such a provider should, by dint of simple sales data, be able to provide a near optimal mix of products to maximise sales and satisfy demand. I realise that Ashley might now be laughing his head off while waving a copy of Careless Talk at me.
Anyway, putting politics and economics to one side, I would genuinely be interested to know whether or not Keele students from that era (or indeed any other era) actually felt that the vending machines were dispensing the wrong menstrual products.
As the Rolling Stones put it on the album Let It Bleed, “you can’t always get what you want”.
Thursday, 21 March 1985 went to doctors and onto CGH [City General Hospital?] etc. Went to see Ashley [Fletcher] and Co – after back to office. Not feeling too good. Did some work etc.
I was working on two publications that Easter Holidays. I was completing an update of Wot Subsid, and I was also starting research into an idea of my own – a publication on sexual health for students – which gained the title Sexplanations. More on the latter publication over the coming months.
Ashley gets very uppity if his name is missing from these “40 years on” pieces for too long, so it was a relief to see him mentioned twice in the space of 10 days in late March 1985. I am trying to remember who “and Co” might have been at that time. Helen Ross? Simon Legg? Ashley might remember.
Friday, 22 March 1985 – busyish day with Wot Subsid etc – not feeling too industrious. Stayed in evening – early night.
Saturday 23 March 1985.– Worked on What Subsid – shopped and worked some more – popped in to union and met Annalisa [de Mercur].
Annalisa is one of the two people I thanked especially for helping with Wot Subsid. The other person so named in my introduction is Sarah Heatherley.
Annalisa (above) & Sarah (below). Pictures by Mark Ellicott.
Annalisa and Sarah must have been incredibly tolerant, if that thank you is anything to go by, although I cannot imagine either of those two being silently tolerant! Both of them will have been among the un-named page collators, back in the days when that sort of thing had to be done by hand. I did my fair share of the collating and I recall Graham Pitt was a great help whenever collating was needed.
Graham Pitt – again from the Mark Ellicott collection
If you want to read the whole Wot Subsid booklet – and I find it almost impossible to imagine Ogblog readers not wanting at least to have a skim of the thing – I have scanned and uploaded Wot Subsid 1985/87 in all its glory.
Sunday, 24 March 1985 – Rose quite late – worked on Wot Subsid. Played host to Margaret [Gordon] and Simon unexpectedly due to Contact lockout – fed & sheltered them and did some work.
In truth, although I remember Margaret Gordon well I don’t remember Simon. I’m not sure whether he was Margaret’s significant other at that time or a co-volunteer with her at Contact.
Contact was Keele’s Samaritans-like service managed and run by student volunteers. I’m not quite sure what went awry for Margaret & Simon that evening/night. Perhaps they had planned to use the Contact room as temporary accommodation for the night but discovered that it had been locked up for the vacation.
My little Horwood flat was not exactly proportioned for several overnight guests, so I can only wonder how we dealt with that, but there was some sort of a sofa and some floor space as well as my modestly proportioned single bed.
I also recall Margaret interviewing me at length about the Foundation Year (FY) for a piece she was writing for Concourse. Whether she took the opportunity to conduct the interview that night, or whether she just set up the interview at that time, I don’t remember. But here is the result of that piece of journalism, which was published in the May 1985 Concourse:
Let me see if I can track Margaret Gordon down and find out if she remembers anything about this.
Monday 25 March 1985 – busyish day in office today – stayed until quite late finishing Wot Subsid etc.
Tuesday 26 March 1985 – Easy sort of day in office – did very little work. Jilly nearly came to Keele, but didn’t. Had quiet evening.
Wednesday, 27 March 1985 fairly easy day in office. Jilly [Black] came today – had trauma with Kate [Fricker]’s flat etc – had nice meal tho and Kate stayed also.
I have no idea why Jilly nearly came but didn’t on the Tuesday, but clearly her change of plan was merely a delay of one day.
I also have no idea what went wrong at Kate (now Susan) Fricker’s flat to cause “trauma”, but Kate was quite a robust person, so I suspect it was something quite serious, such as a burst pipe or electricity failure, rendering the place temporarily uninhabitable.
Stretching my food supply out to feed multiple people was never too difficult in those days, as I always had plentiful supplies of grub in the flat and my choice of dishes tended to be expandable ones.
I should really produce an additional booklet for the Keele Students’ Union, full of my delicious, nutritious and eminently-expandable recipes, to assist future students in their choices of home-cooked meals. I think I shall name that booklet “Wot Subsist”:
In addition to eating, I am pretty sure that Jilly, Kate and I spent some time that evening listening to the records that Jilly had helped me to buy on my visit to Cardiff a couple of week’s earlier.
As for the sleeping arrangements in those, once again, unexpected and overcrowded circumstances, I don’t suppose any of us can remember.
Jilly – I’m pretty sure from an earlier visit to Keele – there is an autumnal look about the place.
Thursday, 28 March 1985 – Union Committee in morning – lazyish afternoon – Jilly and I went to Ashley’s for dinner. Very nice. Left quite early.
I have quite a strong memory of that very enjoyable visit to Ashley’s place for dinner. Jilly and Ashley had enjoyed meeting each other on a previous occasion. Ashley was keen to host us when he found out that Jilly was going to visit. In particular I remember a conversation about whether Marmite was a suitable product to use as “vegan stock” or not. Some elements of that conversation would not pass the student acceptability test today.
Friday 29 March 1985 – Rose early – Jilly left early – [I] tied up loose ends – came down to London – had a lazy evening in with folks.
Saturday, 30 March 1985 easy day – went to High Street – did very little today – stayed in evening.
Sunday 31 March 1985 Rose late – had nice Chinese lunch – lazy day in with folks – had a walk and watched TV.
A few days with the folks – other people spoiling me for a brief change. That Chinese meal can only possibly have been at Mrs Wong’s.
The Keele Day Nursery, Spring 1985, reimagined with the help of DeepAI
There was a lot going on in the Students’ Union and University life in the first half of March that year. Add to that the fact that Petra got some sort of lurgy that landed her in the health centre and I was intermittently poorly too. My diary entries are not exactly upbeat but they are revealing.
Monday, 4 March 1985 – busy day – got some work done – FP [family planning] meeting in the afternoon. Constitutional committee in evening – Petra came over.
The family planning meeting was with Dr Anne Pedrazzini, who was a big cheese in the North Staffordshire family planning world at that time. This was the first of several research meetings that led to my magnum opus, Sexplanations. More on that publication once the ideas conceived in March gestated and came to term…the following term.
Tuesday, 5 March 1985 – union committee in morning – busy day. Did Bust Fund disco in evening – Petra came round after.
Wednesday, 6 March 1985 – meetings etc. all day. Had a relatively easy evening and early night for once.
Thursday, 7 March 1985 – busy day with meetings etc. all day – cooked Petra a meal in evening – nice, stayed.
Friday, 8 March 1985 – went to DHSS in morning. Busy day – social secretary election and big fuss in evening – went Kate’s briefly in evening – not feeling too good left early and slept well.
I think the DHSS meeting was also connected with research for the nascent idea that became Sexplanations. I don’t recall what the big fuss was over the Social Secretary election that Friday. I was a veteran of big fusses over elections by 1985, especially, it seems, on days when I wasn’t feeling well. The story linked here and below, from two years earlier, is my best story about such an evening:
The March 1985 Social Secretary shenanigans was probably a mere bagatelle compared with the golden era of election shenanigans.
Saturday, 9 March 1985 – shopped etc. today and worked all day in office. Went to Nigerian do for awhile – Petra came over later.
Those Nigerian community events were great fun. I’d got to know that community well the year before my sabbatical. There was a fair smattering of Cameroonian students who also “qualified” and tended to hang with that crowd, so “West African” might be a more accurate description of the events. The parties were lively; there was always music and dancing aplenty.
No doubt some seriously funky Fela Kuti music formed part of the scene. The following clip will give you an idea of the Fela Kuti vibe at that time:
Sunday, 10 March 1985 – Rose late. Busy day working today in office etc. Worked till late – stayed at Petra’s.
I was working hard and playing hard that year – no wonder I was poorly a fair bit of the time. I’m feeling a bit run down right now, just thinking about all that activity and typing about it.
Ronnie Frankenberg & The Day Nursery Crisis
Monday, 11 March 1985 – busy day with meetings all day – Petra in Health Centre – UGM in evening – didn’t go too well.
Tuesday, 12 March 1985 – busy all day – union committee and Reading folk up for the day. Day Nursery, hustings, RingRoad rehearsal in the evening. Also visited Petra in evening.
I don’t in truth remember the visit from the Reading folk, but I do very clearly remember the Day Nursery crisis.
As Education & Welfare Officer, I was, ex officio, a Trustee of the Keele Day Nursery, which was a small, non-profit organisation, existing solely to provide day nursery facilities for toddlers of staff and students alike. The Chair of the Day Nursery was Professor Ronnie Frankenberg, a wonderful fellow who had been the initiating energy behind Keele’s highly-regarded Sociology & Social Anthropology department. Here is a link to his Guardian obituary from 2016.
The day nursery crisis was caused by an outbreak of pregnancy among several of the handful of nursery nurses who operated the day nursery. I can’t remember how many staff we had (not many), but the team was sufficiently small that having two or three on maternity leave at the same time was going to generate a hugely problematic shortfall of staff. Even in those days, there were strict staff to toddler ratios and it was proving prohibitively expensive to cover multiple maternity leave periods with temporary, qualified staff.
I remember Ronnie making a genuinely interesting and hugely informative speech at the meeting – quite a long speech – explaining the sociological… or perhaps I should say anthropological… phenomena, making it surprisingly likely that a day nursery might be blighted with such “outbreaks” of pregnancy by several members of the team around the same time. Psychological factors, social factors, cultural factors and even biological factors all come into play, we learnt. It was like a mini Foundation Year lecture. I almost found myself making notes and thinking up a really good question for the Q&A at the end of the lecture.
But in reality, my mind was juggling the engrossing complexity behind the causes of our problem with the practical realities that the tiny trust’s coffers were emptying at an alarming and unstoppable rate.
As Ronnie’s extrapolation wound down, I interjected by saying, “this is all absolutely fascinating, Ronnie, but where are we going to find the money to cover the additional costs?” My comment raised a laugh and also refocussed the meeting. I can’t remember what fundraising ideas we came up with, but I suspect that they only partially solved the money problem. A begging bowl in Registrar David Cohen’s direction probably helped to make up the remainder of the shortfall.
That is my favourite (but not only) memory of Ronnie Frankenberg…which is, by the way, pronounced “Ron-knee Frank-en-berg”:
Joking apart, my memory of Ronnie Frankenberg is that he was not only a very impressive Professor in his field, but also an extremely likeable and decent man.
Wednesday 13 March 1985 – loads of meetings all day (including Senate). RingRoad rehearsal. Petra came over after.
Thursday, 14 March 1985 – busyish day – followed by rehearsal and performance of RingRoad – went well. Petra came over after.
Friday 15 March 1985 – horrid mood today – E&W election – v worried – Hayward [Burt] won – hooray – cooked Petra dinner and she stayed.
Me and Hayward
I have no idea why I was so worried about Hayward’s chances in the Education & Welfare election for 1985/86. Presumably there was a candidate competing with him who I thought might win and then undo a lot of the initiatives I had been working towards. While Hayward and I did not see eye to eye politically on all issues, I basically saw Hayward as “one of the good guys”, who would work hard and build on many of the things I was trying to achieve. Indeed I’m sure he did.
Saturday, 16 March 1985 – got up quite early cooked Petra lunch and took her to the station. Had a very early night.
Sunday, 17 March 1985 – Rose quite early – pottered around – cooked Kate lunch – had a lazy day. Had another early night.
Someone sneakily added some unrepeatable graffiti in my appointments diary about that Sunday lunch with Kate. The graffiti is in Petra’s handwriting. I don’t think I could have spotted it at the time – otherwise I’d doubtless have scratched it out – so I suspect that the outrageous mock-diary-entry has sat there, previously unread, for forty years. I must admit it made me smile out loud, all these years later. Private requests only for a copy of that note. Young people, honestly!
Monday, 18 March 1985 – went doctors etc in morning – rather an unproductive day. Ruth and Jackie [Wong] came over – had earlyish night.
Ruth and Jackie were both friends/neighbours of Petra. Lovely lasses, both. I wonder whether Petra is still in touch with either of them?
Tuesday, 19 March 1985 – union committee in morning. Last day of term – hassle over disciplinary hearing etc. Had some wine – earlyish night.
Wednesday, 20 March 1985 – Pady and I took a day off – shopped and cooked meal for Crawfy’s [Andy Crawford’s] birthday. All got drunk.
Me, Pady & Crawfy. As usual, thanks to mark Ellicott for the lovely picture.
Oh dear, that last line: “All got drunk.” Well, I suppose it was the end of term.
Don’t be put off if the link looks struck through – anyone can play the playlist. If you don’t have a YouTube Music subscription you’ll get occasional adverts, that’s all.
John and I have separately tried to remember our most regular and favoured tracks, then swapped notes…
…eventually a metaphorical puff of (totally legal) white smoke came out of a metaphorical chimney.
Your role, dear reader, is simply to enjoy the playlist. But please, if you wish, do chime in through comments with your own memories of bust fund discos, which I believe started several years before our sabbatical year and presumably went on for some years after.
For any readers who might be baffled by what a Bust Fund disco might have been – I explain the phenomenon in this piece – click here or below:
John White and I tended to focus mainly on ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub – as had oft been the wont of bust fund discos, plus a nod to sixties/psychedelic music, which “bust-fund-disco-istas” also tended to like.
Our DJ-ing style was to cluster types of sound and to favour segues that had some meaning…even if you needed a degree in musicology and/or expertise in music of those particular styles to get the gist of the segue choice!
For those who just want to look at the list rather than click and listen – the track listing is shown below.
While Students’ Union events, gigs and discos were my staple during my sabbatical year, I found myself increasingly listening to classical music on my rare evenings off in my micro-apartment in Horwood K Block.
The place was described as a resident tutor’s flat and I was very lucky to be allowed such space and comfort for my sabbatical year. In truth, the “flat” was two study bedrooms at the end of a corridor cobbled together with a small galley kitchen and a tiny en suite bathroom and toilet utilising the would-be corridor space and some of the would-be study bedrooms.
Still, I had a sitting room in which to eat, relax with friends and (surprisingly frequently) to act as a dossing floor at night for people who lacked the energy or ability to stagger home. John White, who lived off campus, was quite often such a guest.
Returning to the classical music, my tiny personal collection of classical recordings had not moved on since the early to mid 1970s. I have pretty much documented it all in one Ogblog posting – click here or below.
I had no record player at Keele; hence the couple of hundred cassettes I had accumulated during my Keele years.
I consolidated the fancied bits of that tiny classical record collection on to eight cassettes, which I have replicated through the following two YouTube playlists, which you can access despite even if you see off-putting strikethroughs:
Wherever possible I have found the exact same 1960s/1970s recordings for those playlists. I have rather enjoyed listening to them again after so many years. Of course I can hear more modern and technically much better recordings at the press of a button these days, but these are the performances and recordings I remember from back then.
I played bits of those eight cassettes quite a lot in 84/85.
My only sound system until the record player loan…excellent it was too.
While John White and I tended to trawl my far more copious collection of modern music, partly with a view to planning discos and the like…I’ll be writing more on that topic in a future piece…
… Kate (now Susan) Fricker used to like to hear classical music when she visited, while Petra also quite often requested a classical music backdrop on the increasingly frequent occasions that she was at the flat.
Indeed, it was through Petra, or more accurately one of Petra’s friends, I think probably Ruth, that a record player found its way into my flat. Petra’s friend had discovered, like many Keele students before her, that there was not much room for a turntable and stereo system in a study-bedroom.
The record player was lent to us for an unspecified period (I think it ended up at mine for the rest of the academic year), taking pride of place in my so-called living room. It looked rather grand in that setting, but for the inconvenient truth that I had no records at Keele. Not one.
Occasionally someone would come round with a record, and we could play it, but this seemed like underutilisation to me.
All this is a preamble to the one big thing I remember about visiting my old (as in long-term, not elderly) friend Jilly Black in Cardiff that first weekend of March 1985. Here’s all I wrote in the diary about it.
Friday 1 March 1985.– Very busy morning to get all out of way – left Keele early. Went to Cardiff – supper and drink – earlyish night.
Saturday 2 March 1985 – rose quite late – did some work – went to Cardiff Union -> shops -> back – went drink -> Chinese -> back for more drink – pleasant day.
Sunday, 3 March 1985 – got up quite late – had lunch – left Cardiff – long journey – went union – went Petra’s – [she] came over later.
Jilly was studying music at Cardiff. It was Jilly who had introduced me to Claudio Abbado at The Proms some 18 months earlier…
…and I recall that my visit to see her in Cardiff was long overdue.
My enduring memory of that particular visit was purchasing 10 classical records under Jilly’s “tutelage” on the Saturday. The only other things I remember about that visit were:
being reminded that everything in Wales, at that time, shut down ridiculously early on a Friday evening – hence the otherwise out of character “supper drink and early night”;
that Jilly’s “then but soon to be ex” boyfriend did something of a no show, so I didn’t get to meet him and this was a bit of a cloud over an otherwise very enjoyable weekend
an excellent Chinese meal in a restaurant on the Cardiff Riverside which I think might even have been named, suitably, Riverside Cantonese or some such.
But let us examine the 10 classical albums that I bought on the Saturday with Jilly’s help. Where I can identify the album I have added a Discogs link, which, for some obscure reason, tend to look struck through even though you can click them happily:
I vaguely remember a running gag in which Jilly and I imagined sequels with names such as “Sidney in Spain and “Monty in Bournemouth”. Perhaps you had to be there.
If you are reading this article, pining for that fine mini collection of ancient recordings of classics, brilliantly curated by Jilly, pine no more. This YouTube playlist has all but one of them (I have so far failed to trace the particular Vivaldi sonatas and concerti on the album so-named). Here is a link to the YouTube playlist that includes those classic albums. The usual “don’t worry if you see a strike through, you can click happily” rule applies.
I’ll be returning to the topic of Keele discos and playlists for those soon enough.
