*The Week That Was – 5th August 1985

Record of the week: (Group at Waterlooville that played for 4 hours), Hawkwind (still)

7th August 1985
Fuckin’ ace practice at Dorchester. Really good laugh.
8.5

8th August 1985
Had gig in Southampton. Fuckin’ excellent laugh though it took two and a half hours to find. Bought B.G.K. and Mornington Crescent 7″s and fanzines.
9

10th August 1985
Worked in morning. Went to Waterlooville in afternoon/evening with Paul, Nicky and Ken. Had a fuckin’ fine time.
10

11th August 1985
Came back at 9am. Crabby drove up near to Basingstoke. Quite a laugh. Went down Stocks. I got merrily drunk.
8

*Tube Train – 18th March 1985

Travelling on the tube train
Noise rattles your brain
Sitting on the dirty seats
Escalator takes your feet
Away
Riding on the tube train
Ride, ride, ride, ride
You’re deep inside
The underground
Taking you around
On tube trains


The Week That Was

Record of the week: False Prophets – Banana Split Republic, Husker Du – 59 Times The Pain/Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill

18th March 1985
Started work with another kiddy. It’s quite good fun. Bloke’s pretty decent as well. Working in Sandbanks. Stayed in.
6

19th March 1985
Working on my own. Down Leigh Road. Bloke used to be in the Pretty Things.
6

20th March 1985
Working same place. Others are helping too. Went to Holtwood. Pete offered an expenses-paid concert there. Can’t be bad. Went down Hinton Martell for meeting. Saw Tammy for first time. She’s OK but always talking about herself. Scott was getting off with her last I saw.
7

21st March 1985
Morning went quick. Afternoon was boring. Mr Ashby said if Atrox want he can put us in touch with someone who can get us a record out. Rung Paul, told him about gig and record deal. Maybe practice Sunday.
6

23rd March 1985
Got Conflict 7″ Flux 7″, Husker Du LP, Stupids 7″, DOA 12″

24th March 1985
Shit practice. Gonna have a break for a while.

*The Void – Wimborne Youth Club, Dorset, UK – 4th March 1985

The Week That Was

Record of the week: Toy Dolls – Dig That Groove Baby, Atrox – Elitist Prey

4th March 1985
Got up at 10. Went to Wimborne. Met Sharon, Mayo and Paul Miller. Bought laces and sweets. Went to sign on. Went to Careers Office. Bought crosswords book. Came back. Just about to go see Void when Scott came round. Took him along as well. Void were pretty boring. Saw Wayne so gave him the tape. Got back at 10.30.
6

5th March 1985
Got up at 11. Farted around for most of the day. Started doing crosswords. Played Toy Dolls LP – it’s pretty good. Went on common and climbed a few trees. Trying to improve my singing. Went down Youth Club. Everyone was in a pissy mood. Going down to see Pete’s group tomorrow. Came back.
5

6th March 1985
Can’t remember what happened during the day so I’ll tell you what happened tonight. Pete gave me a lift down to Parkstone. Met the rest of his band. One of them told me that Madisons holds a musical workshop every Monday. They played pretty well. It wasn’t my type of music but it made a welcome change.
7

7th March 1985
Oh shit, what happened today? Oh yes. I went for interview in Corfe Mullen. Bloke said I could start on the 18th so I said I would. It’s doing painting and decorating. New programme was on tonight called Street Hawk. It’s great – typical US trash.
6

8th March 1985
Sent off for Internatione PEACE Benefit double LP and 3 Maximum Rock N Rolls. Went down Youth Club – it was piss boring. Took some records down that no one liked. We can’t do our trick on the pool table anymore – which is a big fuck off.
6

9th March 1985
Everyone went down Poole – so I went. It was OK at times but got boring after a while. Jasper was pissed off cos he wasn’t the leader. Met Justin, Ratty and Midge down there. Let off smoke bomb on the bus. Played Spotlight this evening which was quite a good laugh.
7

10th March 1985
Went down Wareham. Got train to Dorchester. Practice was really good. Met Tony on the way down. He came along. Got back about 7. Watched telly all evening. Done my back in though which isn’t very pleasing. Night Court was good.
8

*(?), (Zen), Manitou, The Cat – Academy, Bournemouth, UK – 25th February 1985

The Week That Was

Record of the week: Atrox – Screaming At Deaf Ears demo, Manitou – Something Happened (live)

25th February 1985
Work was pretty boring. Mike’s back but I’m not talking to him and he’s getting the message. Pulled a muscle in my back. Got home, watched Grange Hill. Rode down to Bournemouth. Managed to find The Academy. Saw a Brighton group called The Cat – ok. Manitou – good (had a laser show). Sold two singles. Fucking foggy.
7

26th February 1985
Only slept 5 and a half hours last night. Cos I started talking to Mike he’s fucking following me again. He nearly started crying cos he fucked up an order. Had a good game of football. Not going to Salisbury tonight. Some timber course or something. Came home. Don’t remember what I did tonight. Went to sleep at 9.30.
5

27th February 1985
Woke up at 6.30. Decided not to go to college. Went back to sleep. Didn’t get up til 3.30. (Slept 18 hours!) Felt pretty dizzy and tired. Drum kits falling apart. Went down Youth Club. Felt like I was pissed. Had a go at Bennett cos he pissed around on my bike on Sunday. He said he didn’t but he finally admitted it, so I had another go and went and told his mum. Came home.
3

28th February 1985
Went to work today. Can’t remember a lot of what happened today. I can remember what happened tonight though. Me, Muz and Crabb had a laugh around Gaunts. Took the piss out of Jasper. Went back to Muz’s. Recorded some shit. It was as well.
5

1st March 1985
Went to work. Left at ten to go to Winton for Sales Training. Mr Andrews was there, I said I wasn’t going to be there in the afternoon. So Mr Andrews chucked me off the scheme cos I walked out. Told MJ. Went to Job Centre. Came home. Went to sleep. Made appointment for interview tomorrow. Spent an hour looking for everyone. They raided Dumpton. Jasper, the twat, nicked a fire extinguisher.
6

2nd March 1985
Got up late. Went down Gaunts. Everyone was pissed off with each other. Went home. Went to Wimborne. Had interview at 4. Sounds like good work – hope I get it. Came back after an hour. Scott was gonna get some videos but didn’t, so had a game of Spotlight. Took the piss out of Crabby. Came home. Film last night – Mean Streets.
7

3rd March 1985
Got up at 10. Rode down to Wareham. Got train to Dorchester. My singing was pretty bad so Paul said. Didn’t do a lot otherwise. Came back. Borrowed Young Ones book and Toy Dolls LP and demo. Came back. I think I stayed in this evening. Young Ones book is good too.
6

*Angels – 28th January 1985

Diana is divine
Katie is so clean
Claire is my sweet
Julie is so keen
Lovely angels, broken wings
No one told me of these things
Angela is my angel
Susan is my dream
Lisa is so lovely
But Jane just makes me scream
They’re my lovely angels, broken wings
Now I know of these things


The Week That Was

Record of the week: Husker Du – Metal Circus, Manitou – 7″, Manitou – Live (Waiting For My Girl, Something Happened, Nervous Breakdown)

28th January 1985
M: Went to work. Went to Careers at 9. Drew £70 from Building Society. Paid £5 fine. Went back to work. Rest of the morning went fairly quick.
A: Afternoon went as quick as morning. Me and Ian are swapping over next Monday. Ian’s joining Navy in March.
E: Did Postal Course stuff. Continuing doing the Void art – I hope they use it. Manitou on Thursday.
7

9th Feb 2024 – An image of Ian jumped into my memory as I was writing this today. Yesterday I wasn’t even sure who he was! He was a Weebly-looking kid, a round body and round head, no neck and freckles. He certainly had the look of someone in the Navy.

29th January 1985
M: Feeling fucking tired. This morning took a long time to get over with – especially having to count Key Terrain.
A: Afternoon was OK. Only 4 tickets to book which can’t be bad – for me at least. Got back – rung Paul up. Atrox 16th Feb. Prac. on Sunday.
E: Went to Matt’s. He said that my lyrics were good. Got records back.
5

30th January 1985
M: Got on bus.Chucked till roll out of back. Went down college. Got bored during plumbing.
A: Acid rain!? Carpentry – oh wow. Wayne wasn’t on bus. Got school bus back again.
E: Went to YC. Went to Wimborne YC. Ulterior Motive played very well. Matt passed his test.
7

31st January 1985
M: Went to work. Can’t remember what I did but it went quick anyway.
A: Afternoon went ok. Looking forward to tonight. Fuck all to do at work really.
E: Went to see Manitou – they were absolutely fucking brilliant.
8

1st February 1985
M: Decided not to go to work.
A: Woke up about 12. Stayed in just resting.
E: Went to YC. Had plenty of free games of pool. Took Lee home
6

2nd February 1985
M: Went to Wimborne. Couldn’t get DM’s. Came back. Pissed around Gaunts for a while. Sharon came down so we got on her nerves.
A: Went to gravel pits on the heath. Fucked around there for a while. Came back.
E: Went to Muz’s. Played computer til about 1.30. Left at 2.30
8

3rd February 1985
M: Went to Paul’s. Got train to Dorchester.
A: Atrox practice was pretty boring but their demo sounds quite good. Got in at 7. Had a bath.
E: Don’t feel too good. Bad back, legs, arms, chest and got a cold.
5

Vince – 15th September 1983

Vince is a brain
An anarchist punk
So in the election he stood SDP
They won’t let him have an anarchist party
It’s too much brains for him you see
Vince the prince of the SDP
You won

4th May 2023 – Vince was the class clown and sure enough after finishing high school, he became a children’s entertainer ie. a clown! The school decided that they would perform elections for fun, though I’m not sure if there was actually any duty to carry out once elected. Vince applied, with all our support but was denied having an anarchist party so chose SDP instead. They were a third party to attempt to balance Labour and Conservative in British politics. They never faired much in government but Vince won our school election by a landslide. The cult of personality.
Vince was also a drummer and he would be a member of my first real attempted band with Rupert and Jeremy along with a younger kid who wanted to be part of it and said we could practice at his house one afternoon. He lived way out in the countryside and my mum dropped us all off with drums and guitars only to find out the kid wasn’t even home. As my mum had already left we were thankfully invited in by the kid’s parents and banged around making a dreadful noise for a few hours before the kid turned up about 10 minutes before my mum was due to pick us up. Our one and only practice was good fun but showed us we completely lacked any kind of musical ability.