Tag: Susan Fricker

Twixt Keele & Cardiff: Classical Collections & Connections, Early March 1985

Photo by Jacques, CC BY 2.0

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.

My Second Taste Of Classical Music In The Early To Mid 1970s: “The Great Musicians” And Few Other Classical Records

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…

My First Night At the Proms: Me, Jilly & Claudio, 1 September 1983

…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:

e.g. this one. Image from Discogs, linked below.

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.

Mozart And Salieri by Alexander Pushkin, Almeida Theatre, 11 March 1989

I went to see this production at the Almeida with Kate (previously and latterly Susan) Fricker. I rated it as very good and I’m pretty sure that Kate really enjoyed this production too.

It was an adaptation of a short Pushkin play about the interaction/rivalry between the two composers. This play inspired Peter Shaffer to write Amadeus on the same topic but the pieces are quite different other than the core topic. Here is the Wikipedia entry about the play.

Of course there is little on-line about these old productions – this one doesn’t even have a Theatricalia entry – but I did find this fascinating Guardian piece, including a wonderful photo of Tilda Swinton in the role of Mozart – click here.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on Mozart SalieriBillington on Mozart Salieri Mon, Apr 10, 1989 – 37 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Ratcliffe on Mozart SalieriRatcliffe on Mozart Salieri Sun, Apr 16, 1989 – 43 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The dates on these reviews imply that Kate and I attended a preview in March 1989.

The diary is silent about what Kate and I did before or after the show; I’m sure we will have eaten something or at least taken some refreshment and had a chat. Perhaps Kate remembers.

My memory isn’t brilliant on this one. I would have sworn that we saw Stella Gonet opposite Tilda Swinton in this, but all the evidence says we saw Lore Brunner. I can see no sign of ever having seen those two (Swinton and Gonet) on stage together, although both were prominent in the leading roles we were seeing at that time.

In any case, I believe this was only my second visit to the Almeida, the first having been some six months earlier, to see Hello And Goodbye. I do recall falling for the Almeida as a place itself on this second visit – whereas that first visit I was simply bowled over by the production and didn’t especially associate that visit with the Almeida. That was partly, I think, because Kate was especially taken with what they seemed to be doing at the Almeida in terms of restoring an old theatre for modern use.

Two Dinners, Le Caprice Restaurant & Kate’s Place, 10 November & 12 November 1988

I think the meal at Le Caprice was my parents’ idea – to celebrate my qualification as a Chartered Accountant along with Uncle Michael, Auntie Pam, Stanley Bloom and his good lady (Sharit?).

Le Caprice was a trendy place even then – I’m not quite sure what would have made mum and dad choose it. Perhaps to show off a bit. Perhaps because they had heard that it was a restaurant that was able to cope with fussy eaters…we had at least one in our party that day in Auntie Pam.

Roll the clock forward 30 years and I note that Kim likes that place, perhaps for similar “trendy but able to cope with a fussy eater” reasons.

I don’t believe any photos were taken that evening to mark the occasion – such meals were not seen to be the thing of photos necessarily back then. But it is just possible that I’ll stumble across some pictures when I delve into dad’s “late works” box of negatives and prints, which still awaits my trawl.

“Kates” means Kate (Susan) Fricker’s place. I’m pretty sure Kate was, at that time, living in a pied-à-terre flat in Hampstead, part of the house that had been the family home before her family moved to York.

Evenings with Kate were always pleasant. We both enjoyed cooking and eating good food. We both liked decent wine and we would always have interesting conversations. I’m sure that Saturday evening would have been such an evening.

I’m guessing that we would have both been in celebratory mode, work-wise, at that time – Kate was called to the bar around the time I qualified.

How Did Family Friendly RingRoad Work?, Plus “Hell’s Bells, That’s A Lot Of Meetings”: A Bum-Numbing Keele SU Week, Late February 1985

I asked DeepAI to reimagine the RingRoad gang desperately searching for family friendly sketches in the “RingRoad cornflake boxes”, where the sketch archive lived.

My diary doesn’t even mention the RingRoad show that we put on, with only limited success in the February Food Fest, which we held in the Students’ Union. The Food Fest was a spin off idea from the summer International Fair, which I had, as a cub student activist, helped to establish back in the early 1980s…

The Business End Of My Autumn P1 Term At Keele, 22 November to 5 December 1981

The idea of the Food Fest was to have a winter “international festival”, indoors in the Students Union, as well as the summer outdoorsy one. Among the main organisers for the Food Fest (as with the International Fair) were friends of mine from the Arab cultural community, mostly postgraduate Iraqui students at that time, many of whom were at Keele with their spouses and families.

A couple of the guys approached me and wondered whether RingRoad, the Keele students’ in-house comedy troupe of which I was, by then, an intrinsic part, might put on a show as part of the Food Fest.

It seemed like such a simple request and how could I say no to friends and colleagues who were putting so much energy into a festival idea that I supported wholeheartedly? Of course I said yes. Of course the warm-hearted RingRoad team said yes.

But when it came to wading through the archive of RingRoad sketches, we realised that the show comprised almost entirely of material that was, to use the modern parlance, politically incorrect and or NSFW. In short, only a handful of sketches in our collection were family friendly or lent themselves to minor edits to become family friendly.

Intro to “Romantic Novel”, one of dozens of sketches we didn’t use in the family friendly show.

The result was a flurry of sketch writing, mostly by David Griffiths, to produce a few new sketches for that show. I also remember going through tapes of my favourite radio sketches and transcribing a few of those for the family friendly show.

It was not our finest hour as RingRoad, but nor was it our darkest hour…

When Lenny Henry Came To Keele & Ringroad Performed The Warm-Up Act, 29 November 1984

…as the Food Fest show served its purpose and seemed, if only mildly, to amuse. Fortunately, a family-friendly show’s audience tends to be friendly, so the feedback we received was, if not effusive, at least kind.

The above palaver barely gets a mention in my personal diary for that weekend, which reads:

Saturday 23 February 1985 – rose quite early – shopped etc – went to Union for Food Fest all day and evening – went okay. Drink after – Petra [Wilson] came over.

Sunday 24 February 1985 – rose reasonably early – Kate’s [Kate, now Susan Fricker] for lunch – very nice. Stayed till late. Went to Petra’s briefly in the evening.

Indeed, for the week that followed, my appointments diary says far more than the personal diary:

Hell’s bells, that’s a lot of meetings. No wonder I have been somewhat allergic to committees and meetings since my Keele Students’ Union sabbatical year!

The first meeting of the week, regarding Wot Subsid, I shall write plenty on that matter in a few week’s time, as the run up to publishing that booklet started to feature more in my diary. The “A” no doubt stands for “Annalisa de Mercur”, who did lots of the hard yards with me on that publication. More anon, I promise!

The rest is probably best left to the artwork that is the above scan. If any readers want to know more about what happened in some of those individual committees and/or meetings, by all means pop a message in the comments or “contact us” and I’ll try to answer your questions. I’m not expecting to be inundated with requests.

Here is my personal diary for the same period:

Monday, 25 February 19 85 – very rushed/busy with meetings all day and evening. Petra came over after.

Tuesday 26 February 1985 – very busy with meetings etc – morning noon and night. Petra came over after hustings.

27 Wednesday 27 February 1985 – rushed like crazy – not feeling too good today. Went home to bed early.

Thursday 28th of February 1985 – very busy day rushing around – meetings etc. Cooked Petra a meal in evening – stayed – very pleasant.

Friday 1 March 1985.– Very busy morning to get all out of way – left Keele early… 

I recall that Petra was not too keen on the Horwood refectory food. As time went on, when timetables allowed, I tended to cook for her (as well as myself) more often.

Petra’s taste in food was quite different from that of Kate (now Susan) Fricker and John White, for whom I also cooked a fair bit. Both Kate and John were quite partial to spicy food. Petra was not keen on spices, so I tended to cook “pan casseroles” for her, although she was also partial to several of my Chinese dishes, which tended to need more ingredients and preparation time, so I would tend to cook those at the weekend. Kate and John also liked my Chinese style dishes.

I have a mind to produce a mini-series of recipes from that era, once I find the time to browse through my yellowed recipe sheets and delve a little deeper into my memory about the food.

I also am minded to write a small mini-series about the music that was the soundtrack of that era for me. Not just the discos that John White and I used to do in the ballroom (although we are working up some wicked playlists for nostalgics and/or fans of those genres to enjoy), but also the classical music that helped me to unwind from all of the hustle and bustle that year. I’ll stick those classical pieces into some public playlists too.

All those ideas are for later, for now let’s bring Petra in for her dinner…or as they would say in the Potteries, “tea”.

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

DeepAI image of a John White & Ian Harris bust fund disco

I am so impressed by that DeepAI image, based on a mere 30 word description. It even reminded me of the “Rasta shirt” I would sometimes don for such occasions. My dad, for some inexplicable reason, had treated himself to a pair of brightly-coloured pyjamas (primarily acid green in dad’s case) with Ethiopian lion motifs all over them. They were not really big enough for him and hardly his style. I rejected the bottoms but fancied the shirt for parties and other suitable occasions such as bust fund discos.

The Bust Fund was a mandatory Keele Student’s Union “trust” established by UGM some years before my time. It’s sole object was to help students pay fines for possession of cannabis. Helping students convicted for possession of any other controlled drug, or for supply of cannabis, was beyond the trust’s powers. The mandate included a requirement to raise money to meet the trust’s purpose through periodic (I think at least once a term) bust fund discos.

Some sabbatical education & welfare officers were more enthusiastic about their bust fund duties than others. I was and remain in favour of the legalisation of cannabis. At that time, I was not exactly averse to a toke of the stuff myself. I have written a bit about this topic and the February 1985 period previously, when extracting some chunks of Concourse:

Recreational Drugs, Industrial Tribunal Judgements and Me, Concourse Juicy Bits, February 1985, Part Three

Let’s start trawling through my diary for the second half of February 1985.

Friday, 15th February 1985 – very poorly today – got up 4 pm went to count – cooked Petra a meal after – stayed.

Saturday 16 February 1985 – went to town and shops today. Did 60s disco in evening with JohnBoy [John White]. Great. Petra came back.

Sunday 17 February 1985 – Rose late today – did some work etc. Went film briefly etc. Had early night.

My short waves of poorliness are a running theme through my diaries for a few years after my struggle with glandular fever in February 1983:

Isolation, “Socially-Distant” Visits, Steroids, Peculiar Reading Matter & Strange Happenings: A Week In The Keele Health Centre With Glandular Fever, Mid February 1983

John White and I took great pride in our 60s discos. There’d be a lot of Motown in there for the dancing and also some of our favourite hippy-dippy stuff too. Many Keele students at that time enjoyed those discos for variety, although I do remember one young woman who was most persistent in trying to get us to play “some up to date” stuff. When I explained that the event had been billed as a 60s disco, these didn’t seem to hold any sway with her. I did at one point threaten to put on some Tchaikovsky, as I had recently purchased some early symphonies of his that date from the 1860s, so that would qualify as 60s music too.

Winter Dreams…California Dreaming…it’s so easy to get confused…

Two Courts In One Day (Plus A UGM)

Monday 18 February 1985 – went to court in morning – University Court in the afternoon. UGM in evening – Petra came over after.

Gosh I remember that day at the Newcastle-Under-Lyme Magistrates Court. I went a few times, to provide moral support to students who had been busted for cannabis.

On that occasion, I recall a female student had been busted for a small quantity of cannabis but also had in her possession a pethidine tablet for which she had no prescription. She told me a friend had given it to her because she sometimes got pain that OTC analgesics wouldn’t relieve. Unfortunately for her, this resulted in a bigger fine than students normally got for cannabis only and also excluded her from applying to the bust fund for help. Moral support was all I could provide.

Newcastle Magistrates Court as it looks now, photo by Jonathan Hutchins used under CC 2.0

Also that morning, I recall, prior that unfortunate young woman’s hearing, another student was in the dock for doing some serious mischief to another young man in a fight one night in town. He was done for actual bodily harm and/or malicious wounding (albeit without a weapon). That student got a suspended sentence and a smaller fine than the unfortunate young female student. I remember that so clearly.

I also remember a policeman coming and sitting next to me during the young woman’s trial. The copper casually enquired of me whether Keele Student’s Union still had a fund for settling the fines of students who had been done for drugs offences.

I couldn’t tell you, I’m afraid..

…I said, expecting a follow up question or three. But I think the copper decided that I must therefore be from some other department at Keele and left it at that. I might have broken down under proper interrogation quite easily, so I’m glad he didn’t try.

After that sobering morning at the local magistrate’s court, the afternoon was spent at University Court. This was a joint gathering of the University’s Senate and Council. It felt like a largely ceremonial affair, as I recall it, as I believe everything that was, technically, approved by the Court had been “made oven ready” by the respective constituent body and there was, as I recall it, no discussion at all. Maybe some years there was discussion.

No wonder I was tired ahead of the UGM, which, I believe, must have been the appearance referred to in this March issue of Concourse.

Verbous? Moi? Ah, you must mean verbose!

Not the best Concourse review I ever had of my UGM appearances. But not the worst either.

The Early January Embarrassment Story Dénouement

Tuesday 19 February 1985 – busy day with union committee etc. Went to talk in evening. Petra for dinner – Ali and Ruth awkward – Petra came over after.

I won’t repeat here the comedy of embarrassment that unfolded at the Union Committee retreat in Somerset – click here or below to read all about it:

Keele Students’ Union Committee Goes Mad In Somerset & I Get Mortified With Embarrassment, 4 to 6 January 1985

Suffice it to say that, some six weeks later, Petra and I had not yet disambiguated the matter with Ali Dabbs and clearly engineered an opportunity to do so on the evening of 19 February. Petra’s lovely friend and neighbour Ruth, who will appear in at least one other context as my 1985 diaries unfold, must have joined this gathering to help try and smooth the evening. How and where it unfolded is lost in the mists of time. Not in my flat, if the surrounding words provide clues. Perhaps at Petra’s place, which was a stone’s throw away. Not that there would have been any stone throwing, just the awkwardness described.

Cooking Kate Curry, “Fiddler” & Bust Fund Disco

Wednesday, 20 February 1985 – very busy – meetings etc. Cooked Kate meal – departmental meeting – drink then early night.

Thursday 21 February 1985 – Busy with meetings etc – went to JSoc Fiddler in evening – did Bust Fund disco later Petra came later.

How on earth do I remember that I cooked Kate (now Susan) Fricker a curry, when all the diary entry says is meal?

In truth, my memory is not that good and I don’t remember, but I do still have my 1984/85 appointments diary as well as my personal one. In the appointments diary I wrote:

Kate Curry 7.30

So there.

“What type of curry was it precisely? Madras based or garam masala based perhaps? Or did Kate favour a milder, korma style…or possibly one of those punchy vindaloo style curries that John certainly favoured at times?”

I don’t remember. Leave me alone. But the appointments diary does tell me that the departmental meeting was with the Security Department – quite possibly to sort out the arrangements for ensuring that scallywags couldn’t get into the Student’s Union to steal drink, as had been uncovered a couple of week’s earlier.

From Concourse, Page One, February 1985. For the record, Simon was the Bar Manager & Tim was the assistant Manager, but Concourse never let all the facts get in the way of a hot scoop.

The next night, it seems I went to a J-Soc showing of Fiddler On the Roof before doing the Bust Fund Disco with John White. On that basis, it is impossible to imagine that we didn’t use Swing Easy by The Soul Vendors at some stage of the evening – a delicious rock steady rendering of the Fiddler On the Roof theme tune.

I have actually been trying to remember the tracks John & I tended to play when we did Bust Fund discos. A lot of reggae, dub and rock steady of course, but mixed in with some other styles that would have seemed appropriate or took our fancy.

John has promised to help me give that matter some thought. The result will be a reimagined mid 1980s Bust Fund Disco playlist. Come to think of it, while John and I are at it, we should try and reimagine those sixties discos, especially the Motown/Northern Soul ones. Watch this space.

My appointments diary for 21 & 22 February also reveals that I did something totally counter to my nature – sailed close to a payment deadline:

I will have written the rent deadline into the diary well in advance to remind myself to pay. The “Oh shit” will have been written later, when I realised that I hadn’t organised myself properly to pay it ahead of time and I had a copy deadline that day. Knowing me, I will have found a way to meet both deadlines in the end – no doubt in a flurry while hollering…

…”I’m busy”…

…as I scurried by.

Winning Ways At Keele – Success With The Referendum, “One Of the Most Incisive Statements Ever Made At Senate”, A Divine Valentine’s Evening & Much More From Mid February 1985

Pontificating Nicaragua?

Monday, 4 February 1985 – Busy day – did surgery – did referendum forum in evening – drink after – Petra came over.

Our Union Committee conducted “surgeries” in the refectories, on a fairly regular basis. The idea was to be accessible to students in a way that, say, being in our offices in the Students’ Union, couldn’t possibly be accessible. As my gossip columnist persona, H Ackgrass, put it, later that month in his signing off column:

The theory is that they simply don’t get enough visitors behind the closed doors of their offices, so they all go and sit in the refectories, and actually observe the swerving and other avoidance techniques that students use in order to save themselves from having to talk to these creatures.

You wouldn’t have thought that surgeries had been as much my idea as anyone else’s reading that, would you, eh readers? 😉 😉 😉 .

As for the referendum forum, I remember that the Conservative “NUS disaffiliation” people wheeled out a Scottish chap from a Scottish University – purportedly Labour yet pro-NUS-disaffiliation. Kate Fricker similarly yet conversely (on advisement no doubt) wheeled out a floppy-haired posh fellow from a posh university, who was purportedly Tory yet in favour of NUS affiliation.

The Scottish chap riffed about Union Committees being out of touch, sitting around “pontificating Nicaragua” for the NUS rather than looking after students interests. I remember turning to John White and wondering whether we had ever given Nicaragua a moment’s thought at that time. More than thirty years later, Janie and I visited Nicaragua and thoroughly enjoyed the place, but that’s another matter and another sort of pontification:

Nicaragua, Overview, Summary and Links, 6 to 23 February 2016

Tuesday 5 February 1985 – Union Committee in morning – busy for rest of day – went RingRoad rehearsal in evening. Petra came over later.

Wednesday, 6 February 1985 – Very busy today – committees etc [including PS&D – Policy Staffing & Development committee]– referendum – we won – got drunk – went gig.

I cannot find a reference anywhere to what this particular gig was. Where’s Dave Lee and his canonical inventory of Keele gigs when you need him? Still, we had won the referendum, so there!

Thursday, 7 February 1985 – Lousy day – feeling very hung over. Went to forum in evening. Petra came over – cooked meal in evening – very nice.

Friday 8 February 1985 – got work out of the way. Went to London and got back quite late – ate and chatted.

Saturday 9 February 1985 – pottered around today – went over Highgate late afternoon – went to theatre and meal very nice – went back after.

That theatre visit with Bobbie was to see Saved at The Royal Court Theatre – I have separately written up our visit to see that astonishing production – click here or below:

Saved by Edward Bond, Royal Court Theatre, 9 February 1985

Sunday 10 February 1985 – came home in morning – had Chinese lunch – left for Keele – travelled up with Petra – came over later,

Monday 11th February 1985 – lots to do today – meetings etc. Cooked Petra some food later – stayed.

Tuesday 12 February 1985 – busy with meetings etc – evening also. Petra came over later.

Wednesday 13 February 1985 – busy with meetings – very tired today (fell asleep in Senate). Cooked [for] Kate and went to meetings – early night.

Student Senator Falling Asleep In Senate-gate

I remember my “falling asleep in Senate” incident very clearly.

Earlier in our tenure, Kate Fricker had fought hard for me to join her as the student observer on Policy Staffing & Development Committee (PS&D), which was the sub-committee of Senate in which important academic decisions were really made. Some Senators had objected to my nomination as a student rep on PS&D, because the Education & Welfare Officer only had observer status on Senate. We argued, successfully, that I was eligible to be an observer on PS&D by dint of being an observer at Senate.

Why is the above tedious paragraph relevant? Because the week before my sleepy senate incident, I attended PS&D. One item had taken up quite a large chunk of the meeting. The subject of the debate was something quite dull, but whatever it was vexed Professor Denis Dwyer of the Geography Department, who made a rambling speech for some 15 minutes, expressing what was destined to be a minority view, which lost the vote by some distance.

Come Senate, the following week, I was self-confessedly very tired on the day, having spent the weekend away and then the first half of the week in back-to-back meetings, some running into the evening.

When that resolution from PS&D came up for “discussion” – which under normal circumstances would be a rubber stamp from Senate as the matter had clearly been scrutinised and approved by PS&D, Professor Dwyer stood up and said he wanted to have his objections to the resolution heard. He then unfolded his several pages of notes and started to repeat the self-same speech that he had made at PS&D.

I remember that several Professors made harrumphing noises, as all of us who had been at PS&D realised that Dwyer was going to repeat the exact same speech, with even less chance of success at Senate than he’d had at PS&D, given that the resolution had passed by a large majority at the appropriate sub-committee.

I found myself unable to do anything to keep myself awake during what felt like hours of repetitive droning to no purpose.

I remember Kate telling me afterwards that she realised that I was struggling a bit and nudged me a couple of times, but to no avail.

By all accounts, I visibly and rather audibly nodded off. I think Kate was more than a little horrified and embarrassed.

The good news, though, was that my gesture apparently went down rather well with several of the academic Senators who were, like us, suffering the sound of this speech for a second time.

Philip Boden informed us afterwards that he thought it to be one of the most succinct and incisive statements he’d ever heard or seen in the Senate Room.

To commemorate that historic moment, I have asked DeepAI to imagine the scene. I think it has done rather well with the following, which was its first and only attempt based on a 30-word description:

I looked shaggier than that. DeepAI has a very tidy image of what shaggy looks like

Thursday, 14 February 1985 – busy day – Valentines, casualties etc. Did surgery. Went to ball early – RingRoad – went well – Petra later – me v bad.

Yes, despite my fatigue and the fact that clearly I was going down with something, I rushed around like a nut the following day, performed in RingRoad and attended the ball. Divine was the main act that year.

In truth, I remember little about that ball and that gig. The phrase “me v bad” is expressing the fact that I was feeling poorly later in the evening.

Divine’s biggest hit was “You Think You’re A Man”, which, pop trivia people might like to know, was Stock Aitken & Waterman‘s first top 40 hit in the UK:

That’s pretty much all I can say about Divine.

Fortunately for readers here, Simon Brooke, with wanton disregard of pronoun etiquette, interviewed Divine at Keele and wrote it up for Concourse.

Ronnie Scott Jazz Evening, Freezing Weather & NUS Disaffiliation Nonsense Kicks Off: Keele In Late January & Early February 1985

Ronnie Scott himself, at Keele, 25 January 1985

The Ronnie Scott concerts at in the SU Ballroom at Keele were hugely memorable events. I wrote up the first of them that I attended at length – those who enjoy comedy of embarrassment (not least when the embarrassment is mine) should click here or below:

Many A Slip (On An Icy Keele Campus) Between Jazz & Lip: Ronnie Scott & Friends At Keele, 16 January 1982

By gosh it was cold at Keele that winter of 1981/82. So again it was in 1984/85. I remember it cold and the Evening Sentinel reported on that factor in excruciating detail, suggesting that January 1985 was even colder:

...continued P94 Sentinel Keele Cold…continued P94 Sentinel Keele Cold 23 Feb 1985, Sat Evening Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England) Newspapers.com

Anyway, Ronnie Scott could warm the cockles of even the coldest Keele hearts. I have previously published the Concourse review of this concert – here’s a link to that review – click here or below:

Ronnie Scott Review, Concourse Juicy Bits, February 1985 Part Eight

Here are my diary extracts:

Thursday, 24 January 1985 -Busy and productive day. Lots of meetings in early evening. Petra came over later.

Friday 25 January 1985 – Busy and not very productive day. Went shopping in late afternoon. Went to [Ronnie Scott] jazz evening and got drunk.

Saturday, 26 January 1985 – Really miffed off today – did some work etc – went to bed early – Petra came over later.

Sunday 27 January 1985 – Lounged in bed most of day – went film in early evening – had John, Kate and Pady for dinner later.

Monday 28 January 1985 – Busy day in office – then getting ready for UGM in the evening – Petra came over after.

Tuesday 29 January 1985 – Meetings etc all day and early evening – very busy. Had early night.

Wednesday 30 January 1985 – Busy day meetings – referendum business etc. Cooked Petra meal in evening, very pleasant.

Thursday, 31 January 1985 – Lots to do today. Had Ringroad rehearsal early evening – Bust Fund disco after.

I’ll be writing more about Ringroad and the Bust Fund discos in later pieces. Those readers who are chomping at the bit to read more on those topics, please hold your horses.

I think the reason for my miffed-off-ness that last weekend of January was the National Union of Students (NUS) disaffiliation business that kicked off around that time. I felt that the referendum was a huge distraction from the good work we wanted to get done that year and largely an act of sabotage to divert us from our purpose. It was FCS (Federation of Conservative Students) policy at that time to campaign for disaffiliation, although they didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the referendum at a place like Keele.

Mind you, there were plenty of snowballs to be had at Keele that winter. More on that “campaign” as it unfolded in the first half of February.

Friday 1 February 1985 – Busy day with meetings etc. – pretty rundown – went to bed early (Petra came over).

Saturday 2 February 1985 – Rose quite early – canvassing meeting – shopped – Ali [Dabbs] came over in the afternoon – went to Keele Hall party in evening – Petra came over later.

Sunday, 3 February 1985 – Got up late – late lunch etc.. Went canvassing, office, radio interview etc.

I can’t remember what I said in that radio interview. It might have been about the NUS disaffiliation business, or it might have been a more general interview about academic and welfare matters at Keele. BBC Radio Stoke I think it was.

It won’t have been about cricket, unlike my 15 minutes of fame in Jagdalpur some years later…now THAT’S an unusual and interesting story:

Originally reported on King Cricket (in my capacity as Ged. Janie is Daisy)…

Interstate competition, Bhawaripatnam v Konta at Jagdalpur – match report

…subsequently written up on Ogblog as part of that travel adventure in the central plains of India.

More Bastar Visits; Nayannar (Bison Horn Maria People), Jagdalpur, Commentating On Interstate Cricket Match, Pamela Market & More, 6 February 2011

Keele (Including A Free January 1985 SU Disco Playlist), Knightsbridge, Kings College Hospital & Multiple Wine Prizes, Mid January 1985

I believe this scribbled note is the playlist from the Real Ale Bar Opening Disco

In the last episode, I described the re-opening of the Ballroom Bar as a Real Ale bar, with John White and I DJ-ing the disco in a less than sober fashion.

Why Oh FY? – My Most Highly Praised Piece Of Statistical Work Ever, Plus Other Keele Happenings Such As Opening The Real Ale Bar, Early In The Spring Term, 1985

I am now pretty sure that the hand-scrawled disco playlist I discovered amongst my papers some years ago, see headline picture, must be the playlist from that gig. It looks like a playlist conceived by committee – it certainly doesn’t remind me of the type of playlist that John and I would (often quite hastily) construct earlier in the evening to give the disco the vibe and shape we wanted. Our personal choice tended to focus more on Motown, Northern Soul and general sixties dance music.

I vaguely remember the discussion with several members of the committee. Pady Jalali insisting that we play the Band Aid song at some point – John and I reluctantly agreeing to open with that song as a clarion call to let people know that the show was starting, as it would empty the dance floor anywhere else in the set. I’m pretty sure Kate Fricker chose the Madonna song and it had to be Pete Wild and/or Hayward Burt who insisted on some ZZ Top.

John and I unquestionably insisted on Police Officer by Smiley Culture, which was high on our list of personal favourites at that time:

Actually, you can hear the entire playlist, which I curated into a 40th anniversary playlist on my YouTube Music account – click here for that playlist – don’t be put off if the link is struck through – anyone can click and listen – you’ll get adverts if you don’t have a YouTube Music account, that’s all. I’ll be surprised f you haven’t had a little bit of a private dance (or in my case at the time of writing, hobble) by the time you hear Neutron Dance by the Pointer Sisters, if not before.

Let’s move on.

A Quick Trip To London, Including A Chance Encounter With Neil & Trish Hyman In Knightsbridge And A Planned Encounter With My Mum In Kings College Hospital

Not Keele: Knightsbridge, London, SW1 by Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0

Here’s my diary extract from that weekend.

AI systems are now smart enough to read the charred remains of the Herculaneum scrolls…but still have no chance with my handwriting. I’ll have to do this transliteration myself:

Friday, 18 January 1985 – Very busy in office with busts etc. Went to London quite early. Stayed in etc etc

Saturday, 19 January 1985 – Rose lunchtime – drank and had haircut. Went to Chicago Rib [Shack, in Knightsbridge] in evening – Met Neil Hyman and Trish [Hyman] etc – weird. Stopped over.

Sunday, 20 January 1985 – Went home in the morning – lunch at Levinsons [friends in our street]. Went to see mum – then back to Keele. Went to see Petra [Wilson] briefly.

I’ll explain, in a later article, a bit more about my role as Education & Welfare officer helping students who had been busted. No idea why I saw so many on that Friday – I don’t think it was anything to do with our disco a couple of nights before.

I assume I stayed at Bobbie’s place in East Finchley. “Rose lunchtime, drank, had haircut” does not sound like me any more (he says, while writing between 6:00 & 7:00 am), but it does sound like the 22 year old me.

It will have seemed and still seems a strange coincidence to encounter Neil Hyman & his sister Trish, friends from my BBYO days, in the Chicago Rib Shack in Knightsbridge. Firstly, because Neil and Trish were from the Lytham St Annes group, which is some way removed from Knightsbridge . Differently posh, I suppose.

Secondly, the Chicago Rib Shack is not the first place you might think of to encounter, by chance, friends from a Jewish Youth Organisation. Perhaps we were all trying out some seminal vegan options in the place.

In some ways more coincidentally, on the back of a subsequent conversation, I discovered that Bobbie’s mum was Greta Spector’s sister. Her sons, Martin Spector and the late, great Jeffrey Spector were mainstays of BBYO in St Annes and indeed nationally. Neil and I served together on Jeffrey’s National Executive for a while in 1979.

Jeff Spector, Spring 1979

On the Sunday I went over to Streatham for lunch with my dad at Norman & Marjorie Levinson’s house. Presumably they were taking pity on dad and feeding him while my mum was in hospital. Very kind people they were – to me as a child and great friends to my parents for the rest of their lives.

Norman up front, my dad to the right

Mum was in hospital having her second hip replaced in Kings College Hospital. She had the first one replaced there in February 1975 and then needed the second one done 10 years later. Don’t know what it is about the start of years with a five in them, but I need to have one of my hips replaced and shall do so in a couple of week’s time (as I write in January 2025).

Back To Keele, Where Wednesday’s Wine Win & Waffles Needs Explaining

What do you mean, you can’t read or understand that? Oh, all right then:

Monday 21 January 1985 – Union Committee in morning – very busy rest of day. Const [itutional Committee] in evening – drink after. Petra came over later.

Tuesday 22 January 1985 – Busy day today – meetings etc. Cheap drink in evening. Petra came over later.

Wednesday, 23 January 1985 -Lots to do and meetings etc. Won wine today. Stayed in in eve – went for Waffles at Ben’s [Benita Wishart] later.

Thursday, 24 January 1985 – Busy and productive day. Lots of meetings in early evening. Petra came over later.

“Cheap drink” presumably means one of those promotion evenings in the Union, when one of the suppliers would try to encourage students towards their brand with infeasibly cheap offerings. I remember being put off Pernod for life with one of those earlier in my time at Keele. Sadly, with my diary being unspecific about the brand involved on 22 January 1985, unless a reader chimes in with a detailed memory, we’ll never know which particular tipple was cheap that night.

Clearly I didn’t over-indulge as my diary for the next day reads very industrious and perky. And who wouldn’t be perky when they had “won wine”. A whole case of Henri Maire wine at that.

Photo by Marianne Casamance, CC BY-SA 4.0

Here’s the story of how I won it.

While I was with my parents for Christmas, my dad showed me some vouchers and forms he had collected for an Henri Maire wine prize competition. He had bought enough of the wine for two entries. You had to answer a few quite simple questions about Henri Maire wine and then provide a slogan. Top prize, a case of Henri Maire wine. Several other prizes were also on offer. Dad had no clue on the slogans and asked me to help.

My entry – i.e. the one in my name, which ended up winning the case of wine that was sent to me at Keele, was:

Whatever the fare, drink Henri Maire.

Simple and to the point, I thought it might pick up a consolation prize. Dad preferred my other, more baroque idea for a slogan:

Tous les “Hooray Henris” boivent Henri Maire

The arrival of the winning case of “more than half decent” wine caused quite a stir in the Students’ Union that morning. Not exactly an every day event at Keele, that.

I remember excitedly calling my dad to let him know then news. He excitedly told me that my other slogan had also won a prize.

Screw you, Henri Maire. (That wasn’t the slogan). That prize, forty years on.

Dad was absolutely insistent that I keep the corkscrew. I still have it, although, as you can see, it has seen better days. I did keep back a couple of bottles of the prize-winning wine for dad, which I took down on my next visit to my folks.

For some strange reason I became tremendously popular at Keele, for a short while, after that case of wine arrived.

I don’t really understand the diary reference that says that I stayed in that evening but then went over to Benita’s place for waffles. It can only mean, I think, that my intention had been to stay in and that I had sunk into an evening off mode, before Petra (who was very friendly with Benita at that time) persuaded me to join the waffle party…

…possibly with one of those bottles of wine in hand.

Lovely lass, Benita. I think I have tracked her down on the net so we’ll see if she has anything to add to the memory of waffles or even other matters in this series of articles forty years on.

Why Oh FY? – My Most Highly Praised Piece Of Statistical Work Ever, Plus Other Keele Happenings Such As Opening The Real Ale Bar, Early In The Spring Term, 1985

All about timing…more than could be said for the Keele Clock House clock back then

I had been approached by some FY (Foundation Year) students at the end of the autumn term who said that they would have preferred FY exams to be at the end of the term being examined rather than the first Friday of the new term. Those students suggested that they thought that the majority would agree with them.

I put the matter to Professor Watson Fuller, the head of the physics department and Chair of FY Committee, who agreed with me that I should do a survey of the students to ascertain their views on this. He would support a change if a clear majority wanted a change.

Annalisa de Mercur, who was Academic Secretary that year, worked with me on a simple survey. We considered using this as an opportunity to ask other questions, but decided in the end to focus on the single question, with a binary choice, plus room for comments.

Thinking very far ahead and very deeply indeed

Annalisa recalled that the first FY lecture of the spring term was a crowd puller with maximum attendance and thus a suitable time and space for us to maximise “voting turnout”. I am pretty sure it was Eddie Slade himself (also Physics, then Senior Tutor also) delivering the lecture and I am pretty sure he gave our survey a good plug. We had left a form on each seat in the packed FY lecture theatre.

In truth I cannot remember what the lecture was about. Perhaps it was cosmology or perhaps it was atomic physics. Something to do with one sort of big bang or another, I shouldn’t wonder…possibly both sorts.

Annalisa and I were focussed on guarding the doors and, between us, getting as many people as possible to vote. If I remember correctly, some 95% of the FY students turned up to that lecture and some 95% of attendees voted, making our turnout around 90% of all FY students.

I also recall that the interval between that lecture and the next FY Committee meeting was very short and that the deadline for papers was actually the Friday before the lecture. I agreed with Watson Fuller that I would write a short method paper to meet the committee papers deadline, and table the results of the survey itself on the day of the meeting.

The vote was, as I recall it, roughly 70% preferring to keep things as they were, with some 30% of FY students preferring to get the exams out of the way before the holidays.

Chi-squared distribution test for sampling proportions – surplus to requirements

Mercifully, I didn’t need to dig out my (at that time, probably quite rusty) notes on statistical significance tests, as a 70%/30% vote with the “sample” comprising some 90% of the entire population being sampled is, in technical statistical terms, “a slam dunk”. I also summarised for each side of the case the three or four most commonly stated (and main) points that came from the comments. Some people would prefer to be examined while the material was fresh in their minds and to get the exams out of the way – most wanted to use some of their holiday time to revise (or “vise”, I should imagine, if they were anything like me in the matter of FY lecture attendance).

At the meeting, Professor Fuller heaped this tiny piece of research with glowing praise, admiring our method – in particular the decision to keep the survey focussed and simple, the attention to detail in maximising the size of the sample and the clarity with which we expressed our findings.

So fulsome was he with his praise, I thought he might be taking the piss, but I was told by several academics afterwards that Watson Fuller would have been completely sincere when saying those things. He certainly repeated them at the Senate meeting when that point came up in the FY Committee report.

I have spent a fair chunk of my working life making a living out of operational research and statistics – some of it award-winning and much of it quite sophisticated stuff using machine learning…

Click here to read all about it – you know you want to.

…yet I cannot ever remember a piece of my statistical work being heaped with such lavish praise as Professor Fuller’s fulsome praise of that January 1985 FY Committee paper on exam timings.

It was only my appointments diary that reminded me about that research interlude; my personal diary was relatively bland over that period. For the sake of completist readers (or more likely just for my own benefit) here is a transcript of those days:

Monday, 7 January 1985 – Not very productive day – stayed in and had early night.

Tuesday, 8 January 1985 – Got quite a lot done today. Played trivial pursuit at Pady’s in evening.

Wednesday, 9 January 1985 – Not terribly productive day. Petra came over in the evening and stayed.

Thursday, 10 January 1985 – Didn’t get much done today – went out for meal (UC) for Pady’s birthday to Micky’s.

Friday 11 January 1985 – Got lots done in morning – Union Committee in afternoon (chaotic). Staff party in evening – few showed – very unpleasant day.

Saturday, 12 January 1985 – Really low today. Went shopping. Moped around all day. Petra came over late evening. [That must have been fun for Petra judging by my description of my mood!]

Sunday, 13 January 1985 – Stayed in bed virtually all day. Went over to Kate’s for dinner in evening.

Monday 14 January 1985 – Very busy in office today. First real day of term. Stayed in the evening.

Tuesday 15 January 1985 – Lots on today – rushed a bit. Stayed in in evening – Petra came over.

Wednesday, 16 January 1985 – Senate etc today – lots to do. Opened Real Ale bar – did disco with John [White] – got v drunk.

Thursday, 17 January 1985 – Lots on today – including FY committee. Busy evening – Petra came over later on – cooked meal etc.

After all we had been through in the matter of the bar managers in the first half of our year, opening the new real ale bar (i.e. converting the Ballroom Bar into a real ale specialising bar) felt like a positive new beginning.

Image of the Ballroom Bar “borrowed” from the Keele Oral History site.

During our grand opening and disco, no doubt John sank several pints of Pedigree. I might have focussed on the Banks’s Mild but probably partook of both.

Ironically, I can no longer drink beer at all – as I worked my way through my forties I became completely intolerant to it. Still, better to have been able to drink the real ale back in my Keele days, when I was best placed to appreciate it. As with the FY exams question, I believe I got my timings right!

Keele Students’ Union Committee Goes Mad In Somerset & I Get Mortified With Embarrassment, 4 to 6 January 1985

Haywood Farm in Somerset Maurice Pullin, CC BY-SA 2.0…not to be confused with Hayward Burt’s family farm in Somerset, which was the location of our visit.

Whose idea was it to have a Keele Union Committee team-building countryside retreat in Somerset early January? I’d love to “blame” anyone and everyone on the committee but me. However, my appointments diary entry of 22 November reminds me that I was involved in the planning.

“Farm & Fricker (4.30 to 5.00 pm)”, I now realise, was a meeting with Kate (now Susan) Fricker and Chris “Farmer” Spencer, the later of whom had been one of my Barnes L54 flatmates and was now one of Hayward’s Barnes L54 flat mates.

Hayward Burt in Barnes L54, sitting in “my” favourite place

We discussed the logistics of getting the whole of Union Committee from Keele to Somerset. I think, from memory, the plan involved Chris visiting his family in Devon that weekend in the Union minibus, dropping us Union Committee folk at the Burt farm in Somerset and then collecting us again on the way back to Keele.

The happening was arranged for the first weekend of 1985.

Before I describe the singularly mortifyingly embarrassing episode from this adventure, I should say that, on the whole, I remember the event as being a success. We had, as a group, been through quite an ordeal with the Bar Management Saga, which had just reached its Tribunal conclusion just a few days ahead of this “Union Committee field trip”. The idea of team building and resetting for the remaining two terms of our three term tenure was a good idea that mostly worked.

Friday, 4 January 1985 – Left London early and came to Keele. All went off to Somerset in the afternoon – went to pub in evening.

Saturday, 5 January 1985 – Lazyish day in Taunton – walked in afternoon – went to pubs in evening etc.

Sunday, 6 January 1985 – Went out to farm for lunch, then came back to Keele early evening – had drink in Union.

My diary is very light on detail, so it is just as well some aspects have stuck indelibly in my memory. No idea where we did our pub drinking, but the picture below, dated 1985 by the author, is quite possibly one of the pubs we tried. In any case, The Greyhound Inn is great eye candy and a pleasant diversion ahead of the tale of my embarrassment.

1985 Staple Fitzpaine Greyhound Inn, near Taunton, Somerset by Hazel Greenfield, CC BY-SA 2.0

Whose idea was it to have an informal sort-of confessions game one evening as part of that Union Committee team-building exercise? I’d love to “blame” anyone and everyone on the committee but me. Unfortunately, it was my type of idea. I am pretty sure that I suggested it, or at least warmly welcomed the idea when someone else suggested it while we were planning the event.

One of the reasons I was keen to play such a game was my increasing unease at the fact that only a small sub-group on the committee (basically the other sabbaticals) knew that I had started going out with Petra Wilson the previous term.

Enter Petra Wilson, Stage Left…Plus A John Martyn Gig On The Keele SU Ballroom Stage, 8 to 15 November 1984

It wasn’t that I had deliberately kept the matter secret, it was simply one of those things that emerged by stealth and which I had only, until then, disclosed to those with whom I was spending more time; in the case of the committee I think just the sabbaticals. Annalisa also knew by then.

Anyway, point is, I thought the confessions game, one evening in the pub, would be an ideal opportunity to let the others know…

…which it would have been…

…but for the unfortunate seating arrangement, with Ali Dabbs directly to my right and therefore having his go at the confessions game just before mine.

Ali Dabbs confessed to having a crush on Petra. Ali probably didn’t speak for all that long – I think we were all aiming for “just a minute” or 90 second vignettes – but I was mortified with embarrassment and Ali’s speech seemed to be going on for ever.

I didn’t want to catch the eyes of any of the other sabbaticals, who all will have been acutely aware of what was unfolding – not least because I had told them of my plan to use this game as my opportunity to let the rest of the gang know that I was going out with Petra.

[Life must be so much easier these days, where all you need to do is change your social media relationship status and wait for people you know to spot it. On second thoughts, social media relationship status might raise more potential problems and questions than it answers. I digress.]

Worse yet, it dawned on me very quickly that I couldn’t possibly use the confession that I had planned to use. It would have been cruel, albeit truthful.

The whole episode just felt like a kick in the eye for both me and Ali Dabbs. Coincidentally, I was listening to the Bauhaus track of that name quite a lot at that time:

I’m not good at constructing an oral argument without carefully planning what I am going to say. That’s one of the reasons why I like to write rather than make speeches. I’m also not good at lying, nor am I good at bluffing.

In those few seconds that I had to decide what I was going to say, I decided…

…that I couldn’t think of anything at all. My mind was a complete blank, apart from the acute sensation of embarrassment.

In the end, I pathetically aped Ali’s speech and pretended that I had a crush on someone else. I think I picked on one of Petra’s friends, Margaret Gordon, for no better reason than I couldn’t really think of anyone to pick on and her name seemed to have a “least harm” aspect to it if…or I should really say when…the sorry matter needed to be unpicked…within a few weeks. I have a diary mention of Ali Dabbs coming round to my flat on 2 February, which was part of that unpicking.

“I have…I mean, I DON’T have an announcement to make”. Hayward, Trish, Me, Kate (Susan), Ali, Pete.

For some strange reason, I have been utterly averse to confession-type games ever since.

My embarrassing episode, while top of the pile, was not the only embarrassing thing I remember from that “field trip”. I remember Hayward’s dad, who, in my mind’s eye, I’m sure unfairly, resembled The Farmer from Shaun The Sheep movies, referring to Chris Spencer, our Barnes L54 flatmate, as…

…that old bloke you’ve hired to drive your van.

Chris did have a moustache, which possibly made him look a bit more grown up than the rest of us, but I don’t think he looked old. Hayward more or less managed to maintain his trademark deadpan delivery when saying:

That’s not an old bloke, dad, that’s Chris, my flatmate.

Small beer embarrassment compared with mine, but still.