Record of the week: Stranglers – Nuclear Device Highest entry: Suzi Quatro – She’s In Love With You
10th Aug 2022 – The Stranglers had passed me by until now and I reckon I only heard Nuclear Device once and never again until I bought a copy a few years later. It felt strange that a song I loved and I believe charted was so rarely heard on the radio. I was starting to feel that someone out there had it in for the punks and good music. I don’t recognise this Suzi Quatro song but she was always a pleasure to watch on Top of the Pops, though as a weird soon-to-be 12-year-old I didn’t quite understand why!
21st October 1979 Nuclear Device (Wizard of Aus) is great 2p 188p*
10th Aug 2022 – Perhaps this was the start of my education into the terrible power of nuclear weapons which would only cast a longer shadow over our lives in the early 80s. I did love the pun in the record’s title. Perhaps a first inkling of an interest in language.
22nd October 1979 (tick) Specials Message To You, Rudy is as above 2p 186p*
10th Aug 2022 – The Two Tone ska revolution was just starting to swing and my friends and I were getting into it. The music wasn’t punk but the messages were. I could identify. Any youth culture was interesting to me at this formative stage.
23rd October 1979 (4) Not long Took radio to school 2p 8p 1756p*
10th Aug 2022 – Countdown to my birthday. Birthdays were still exciting. Soon to be 12. I took a radio to school so we could listen to music and particularly the chart run down.
24th October 1979 (3) Not as long as yesterday 2p 1754p*
25th October 1979 (2) Even shorter 1. Lena Martell 2. Buggles 3. Michael Jackson 4. Dr Hook 5. Sad Cafe 2p 152p*
10th Aug 2022 – Apart from the Buggles this top 5 is pretty atrocious, though I do have a Sad Cafe song in the memory banks.
26th October 1979 (1) One day Christopher’s coming down tomorrow Greatt! 2p 150p*
27th October 1979 Great HEYY! Ipswich v. For what I got, look at next week 2p 148p*
10th Aug 2022 – A Saturday birthday with a friend visiting. Unfortunately, no memories retained, sadly.
An Ipswich Town related info box in my diary for my birthday week.
Chris’ house on the left and the entrance to the ‘mansion’ opposite.
Record of the week: Secret Affair – Time For Action Chart entries: 40 – Secret Affair – Time For Action, 38 – Billy Connolly – In The Brownies, 34 – Commodores – Sail On, 32 – Nick Lowe – Cruel To Be Kind
22nd Jun 2022 – The Secret Affair song is a great mod tune though it wouldn’t be long until my allegiance to punk had to see me dislike anything that didn’t fit into a strict definition. Billy Connolly making fun of the Village People, there’s the cool disco-funk of the Commodores and the very 70s pop tune from Nick Lowe. Music was good.
2nd September 1979 Part 12 of the Dickies saga De-ciphered some words from Dickies album 2p 209p*
22nd Jun 2022 – The Dickies songs were so fast, the vocals blurred and spasmodic but I really wanted to sing along. I couldn’t wait any longer for the unlikely event of Smash Hits printing lyrics for Dickies album tracks. I’m not sure they ever printed the lyrics for Banana Splits but everyone already knew the words to that from watching the TV show. Having no comprehension of record collecting yet I wrote the lyrics in some spare space on the inner sleeve and wrote on the cover too. I completely ruined the Boomtown Rats ‘Tonic For The Troops’ doing that too. That album had a lyric sheet but there were so many mistakes and missing lyrics that I attempted to fastidiously fix.
3rd September 1979 Oh no (arrow pointing to tomorrow) 2p 207p+135p = 342p*
22nd Jun 2022 – I wonder what I bought this time? I’m guessing it was some 7″ singles or Matchbox cars.
4th September 1979 School S’arite in fird yer 2p
22nd Jun 2022 – Middle school was split into two sections somewhat. Years 1 and 2 did things together as did years 3 and 4. In Year Two you had some sway over the kids in Year One. Moving to Year Three didn’t really give you sway over the two years below, instead, you became the target of attention from the Year Four kids. It was during this year that a bunch of them started calling me Sid as that was the only punk icon name they knew. One tomboy girl, in particular, took umbrage at me being a punk and would punch and kick me at any opportunity.
The main point of contention for me was in the school football team. I was the top player when I was in Year Two but now I struggled to make it into the team with the Year Four kids. I did end up playing a few games though and felt like I got a little respect from some of them.
5th September 1979 Forgot about the charts yesterday so I got it today 2p 338p*
6th September 1979 1. Cliff Richard 2. BA Robertson 3. Gary Numan – Cars 4. Roxy Music 5. Money 6. Specials 7. Street Life 8. Rats 9. Vanwarmer 10. EWF 2p 2p
7th September 1979 Going to I Eye and staying the night and coming back Sat 7.00pm 2p 2p
22nd Jun 2022 – The secret code of I Eyes is lost to time though I think it may have been Chris Foote. He, Graeme and I were the only three kids interested in the Sex Pistols and punk at the time. I do recall staying at his place once or twice until I was deemed too unacceptable as a dirty punk by his parents and later him too.
He lived on the corner of one of the hills that led down into Wimborne. We could climb his fence and still atop and shoot peas through a peashooter at cars as they drove by. This was great fun until some guy spotted us and got out and came in and told us off in front of Chris’ parents. Maybe that’s what got me into trouble with them.
Also, opposite his place was a big hidden mansion, or so it seemed to us. Their drive had a little bridge and a dry moat-like area that was hidden from pedestrians and the owners. We adventured through the hedge and down into the ditch in search of treasure, perhaps hoping for a porno mag or…who knows. What we did find on one occasion, under the bridge, was a huge human shit, which was both fascinatingly huge and seriously disgusting. Who was responsible for this!? What kind of massive butthole evacuated it?
The other road of the roundabout outside Chris’ place led down to the chippie which I most remember for having a cigarette vending machine standing by itself on the pavement, like a mailbox. You could buy single cigarettes for tuppence or five pence but we never had any money. We did see if we could get our little hands inside though, which worked occasionally. Of course, the fragility of the device meant that some folks would come along and just bash it until the glass broke and we would take advantage of that if we ever found it in that state.
It was also walking up this hill that one time I actually did find a porno magazine in the bushes which I had to hide in my pants and smuggle home.
8th September 1979 Great at I Eyes Ipswich 1-0 Bristol 2p
22nd Jun 2022 – It would have been around this time that my mum lent me a cheap camera to finish off a roll of film which saw me pretending to take a shit, squatting over some dog poo on the pavement and hungrily pretending to grab at cigarettes on a billboard.
1994ever 