*The Week That Was – 23rd January 1984

Although the picture is of the Our Price store in Watford in 1984 the Poole store looked very similar.

Records of the week: Black Flag – Machine, Husker Du – Diane

23rd January 1984
Pretty boring compared to yesterday. Physics was quite a laugh. Had a go at Haywire. Mr Shithead Langridge wasn’t here, thank god. H.E. was alright – actually didn’t do fuck all today.

24th January 1984
The week seems to be going fast. Gave out my Christmas card – to 6 people. Got two detentions for being with smokers. Had a laugh in Games and on the bus home. Maybe asking Angie out tomorrow – don’t know yet.

25th January 1984
Wasn’t feeling too well this morning so I didn’t go to school. Was reading and playing records most of the day. Writing letters to Social Distortion and Youth Brigade. Rung Paul. Andy rang. Had a bath. Had a wank. Not a lot else.

26th January 1984
King’s birthday – doesn’t seem to be partying it up. Just been finishing some art – pretty good. Got tape recorder back and made tape of MT, YB, SD etc. Got my detention tomorrow. Not a lot happened today. Angie wasn’t here today. Liz eventually got my Christmas card. Started cleaning up my room. Wall fell down.

27th January 1984
Decided to give out pieces of my wall to people at school. Did my detention – Devon’s Dartmoor – great fun. Gave tape to Vince to borrow. Went down Gaunts with Beki – to get some chips. YUK. Went down club afterwards – saw Carolyn. Amanda wasn’t there.

28th January 1984
Went down Poole – got 3 books and Husker Du 12″. Saw Jim, Rich etc, went into L.F. Kings (?), got some grub. Saw Simon who just missed his girlfriend. Set off a smoke bomb in a lift. Nicked some Fruit Pastilles. Fisher got me a wallet. Did something bad in Our Price – took me records from behind the counter. Saw Chunks and Cracks In The Sidewalk.

29th January 1984
Woke up 20 to 1. Didn’t do much. Pissed off with Mum treating me like a kid. Walked the dog. Had a wank. Had a bath. Watched Brighton (2) v Liverpool (0). Read a bit more of my book. Demolish my wall tonight. Fuckin’ loads came off. Changed my room around

No hope for you, no hope for anyone – 24th December 1983

28th Jul 2024 – Mum and me in my bedroom at Forest Cottage. I’m not sure why Mum let me graffiti the walls but I did, and my friends did, along with some painting and various other decorations. The writing on the right was WASTED which was my imaginary band at the time.

Her old Sony Trinitron was how I remember watching TV in those days. I think she had upgraded to a newer Sony Trinitron, happy with the quality. Those things used to last and the rate of improvement of technology was much slower then.

My room wasn’t much wider than this. My single bed fit perfectly across the width and the length was perhaps a little shorter than two bed lengths.

The three-piece suit was an Oxfam buy that was a bit of a fuck you to the traditional punk clothing that everyone was wearing and also helped me get lifts to Poole when hitchhiking there.

28th Jul 2024 – Sometime around October, I had bleached my hair and a week before the Christmas holiday started I got the sides cut to give me a nice wide blonde mohawk. The school were having none of it though and suspended me from school unless it was off or dyed black. So much for the Christmas spirit! Fucking school!

I thought that my Mum wouldn’t be that bothered about me missing the last few days of school but I was wrong and she insisted that I do something about it. So I got most of it cut and the tuft at the front I had to cover in boot polish until the end of the week. Ugh.

This picture was taken in the dining room where my grandparents would spend their time, the chair behind us belonged to our dog, Jenny, a springer spaniel that my mum overfed over time and eventually was unable to lift herself up there.