Well, today was different – feeling relaxed, talkative, confident… Even struck me while it was happening and then I tried to work out what it was that I was feeling and figure out how I could draw on that in times when I need it.
I see people on the train miserable and grumpy and I wanted to shout at them that everything is ok… But I know how they feel – I’ve been there often myself.
Anyway, I couldn’t figure out what the hell the difference was and how I can draw on it when required… oh well… Maybe it’s just the overall general well being… Everything’s going along ok – no diff to three weeks ago but I just seem more positive. Hopefully got over this sick feeling for the last two months – if it is an allergy though I guess it could come back pretty much anytime.
Records of the week: The Damned – Curtain Call, Minutemen – Politics of Time LP, Self Abuse – EP
23rd April 1984 Woke up. Got bored. Roo came round. Played records. Took dog (for a walk). Went to Houldey’s. Went to track. Met everyone. Came off bike, did the steering in. Came back. Rang Zoe – she wasn’t home. Roo went home. I went out. Went down BMX track again. Bought some fags for them lot. Went back to Houldey’s and played pool. Mini – Beki’s boyfriend came round. Came back – watched Hill Street Blues. Read book. Had a wank. Fell asleep.
24th April 1984 Can’t remember a lot of what happened today. Had to take their dinner in. Took dog. Went down BMX track, pissed around, came back. Zoe rang – chatted for a while. Went down club. Burd beat me at snooker. Watched this and that. Fell asleep.
25th April 1984 Got up. Rang Burd. He came over. Took both bikes down the BMX track, had a laugh on them. Went to Houldey’s. Came back. Went to Burd’s. Got bottle of milk and petrol. Went to club. Got fags and crisps. Went to Gussage. Went to sexy Sue’s. (Ron’s them Goobers??). Went to Hinton Martell. Saw James. Went to a barn. Wimborne Football Club. Couldn’t sleep anywhere.
26th April 1984 Went to Rec. Went to barn near Rupert’s. Built walls of hay. At about 3 am we started building a roof. Went to sleep at 4 am. Woke up at 5 am. Went out for a fag. Went back in, plugged all the holes up and sat in the dark. Heard noises so scarpered. Went to Rupe’s – broke a gate. Went to Witchampton bus shelter. Burd went home. So did I. Went to sleep at 10 am. Woke up at 6 pm. Burd rang. Zoe rang.
27th April 1984 Woke up. Pissed around. Went down track. Burt and Jasp came down. Then Scott. Then Jamie. Four of us went to Stanbridge. Met Carly and Priscilla. Got some fags for Priscilla. Came back. Went back to BMX track. Came back. Rung Burd. He came over and decided to stay. Went to Houldey’s, had a game of pool. They went for a walk so we chased them. Went down to the BMX track in dark. Came back. Rang Zoe earlier. Had a chat. Pissed around in my room. Got to sleep about 2 am.
28th April 1984 Woke up at 9. Burd wouldn’t let me sleep. He went at 10. Took dog. Went to BMX track. Watched Holt lose 5-0 or something. Came back. Zoe rang – talked for an hour. She’s finished with Andy. Watched telly all night whilst pissed around with Art. Been pretty depressed today. Must be missing Zoe.
29th April 1984 Not cheered up much. Went down to track. Started a new bit of track round the back. Came back. When I went to ring Zoe, kept getting a number in Coventry. Managed to get through by the operator. Had a chat with Zoe. Can’t remember owt else. Did more on the wall.
Record of the week: Dickies – Banana Splits Highest entry: Damned – Love Song – 26
21st Mar 2022 – Seeing the Dickies play Banana Splits on Top of the Pops – it was a video, not in the studio – was amazing. I’d never seen music played so fast before. It was thrilling and exciting. And Love Song – it was a time of great music, but look at the top of the charts and it was not so good. However, it provided the balance to kick against. It’s hard to put yourself back in the position of the context of the past.
6th May 1979 Dunno, quite a good day wasn’t it Exactly one year since Ipswich won the cup
21st Mar 2022 – This was a great period of time to be an Ipswich Town fan and I was annoyed when Bobby Robson was eventually enticed away to manage the England team. They never got the mojo back after that.
7th May 1979 Carey Camp starts Nothing much 2p
21st Mar 2022 – Hmm – a couple of hundred kids camping for 5 days. Was that a good idea? As a teacher now, I think I would refuse to be part of that! But then, when I think about the teachers at the time they were probably all in their twenties and thirties and still full of enthusiasm. As a kid though, as a student, this was an interesting week, that did eventually get out of control.
For the most part, we were sleeping in tents of 8 and I don’t recall any shenanigans. The teachers were probably smart enough to pick which kids were in which tents and we weren’t yet brave enough to go against the rules sent down for us.
Image from Carey Camp Facebook page
8th May 1979 Went to Old Harry God were my legs killing me 2p
21st Mar 2022 – Again, probably a good adult tactic was to wear us the fuck out so that we would get back to camp and just sleep. I found out that on Friday we would be going to Swanage and I was desperate to find a record shop so that I could the Pop Muzik 7″. It was all I could talk about. Pun intended.
9th May 1979 My legs weren’t as bad as yesterday UEFA Cup Final (1st Leg) Borussia Muchengladbach 1-1 Red Star Belgrade 2p
10th May 1979 1. Art Garfunkel – Bright Eyes 2. M – Pop Muzik 3. Boney M – Holiday 4. Abba – Does Your Mother Know 5. Racey – Some Girls 2p
21st Mar 2022 – On this night several of us got to sleep in a different field in two-man tents and this was a cause for shenanigans as the teachers were not around. Also, longer summer nights made for a long period of twilight and so we screamed and shouted whilst roasting food on campfires and generally causing the kind of mayhem that 11-year-olds can – which really isn’t that much. But eventually, the teachers in the faraway field came and told us to pipe down. They noticed that there was a big smear of butter down the side of one tent and were very upset about it. Matthew owned up that it was him who threw the butter and we expected him to be led off in disgrace but instead, we all got punished and sent back to join the others.
I was worried about the ramifications because I really wanted to go to Swanage the next day. That was all I could think about.
Image from Carey Camp Facebook page
11th May 1979 Sick at camp Wish I knew what was at No 1 QPR 0-4 Ipswich 2p
21st Mar 2022 – And so fate intervened as I started vomiting up dodgy food as the sun rose in the early morning and I felt sick as a dog. Someone else had suffered the same fate and we got put in a room at the camp for the rest of the day. Not to be outdone, I gave my money to one of the teachers in the vague hope that they would pass a record store and could be the single for me.
But I was to be disappointed and frustrated, feeling sure that they probably didn’t even bother to find a record shop, because my request was obviously far more important than whatever else it was that the teachers had planned.
I had recovered my dodgy stomach throughout the day, enough to enjoy the final night of festivities, where everyone sat around a huge bonfire singing songs. No doubt Kumbaya was in there.
Some of the kids had prepared a short skit, which I’m sure was initiated by the teachers. It involved a girl standing by a tree and another person came along. The girl said – oh I like your shoes, where did you get them? To which the traveller replied ‘John Lewis’ (a famous clothing store). Another person comes along – oh I like your socks, where did you get them? ‘John Lewis’ again. Another person – trousers – ‘John Lewis’. Another – shirt – ‘John Lewis’. Another – hat – ‘John Lewis. And finally, (I can picture the boy but don’t recall his name, he was a bit of a class clown) a boy comes along in his underpants and the girl says Who are you? to which he replies ‘I’m John Lewis.’ We all cracked up and thought it was very daring.
12th May 1979 Carey Camp ends FA Cup Final Arsenal 3-2 Man Utd Rangers 0-0 Hibs 2p
THE DICKIES were Leonard Grayes Phillips on vocals, Stan Lee (aka Stan Sobel) on lead guitar, Chuck Wagon (aka Bob) on keyboards and sax, Karlos Kaballero on drums, and Billy Club on bass, a year zero punk outfit that emerged from a San Fernando garage in late 1977.
Within a matter of weeks, they’d been given a spot at the Whisky on the Sunset Strip.
“We just came out of nowhere,” said bassist Billy Club. “We’d been together about a week when Rodney Bigenheimer (L.A. man-about-town) came out to the garage we were in. We had about eight songs. He booked us at the Whisky.”
The Dickies were based just outside L.A. and all agreed that the radio was “an outrage – all that disco shi t. We’ve been hearing the same thing on it for the past five years”. But acting on their anti-disco manifesto had to wait until punk reared its head in the form of the Sex Pistols crossing the Atlantic and passing through the States.
“We played the Whisky – like, it was a Tuesday night, no one was there, but we got a cult following, and we started headlining the Whisky weekends and playing the Starwood,” explained Stan. “It was a joke, then all of a sudden: Dickiemania.”
A typical description of a Dickies live show went something like this: “…The lead singer wears a plaster leg cast, while guitar player Stan adorns womens’ lace panties on his head. The bassist wears a flasher’s yellow raincoat with black polka dots…It’s party-time.”
As for the music, a Los Angeles Times writer called it “primarily punkoid in structure and delivery, but pop elements to set them apart from the blunt, primitive school”. After much debate, “Easy listening punk” appeared to be the band’s favourite. Time would see their catchy melodic sound labelled “pop-punk” or “bubble-gum punk”.
Their songs were covers – ‘Paranoid’, The ‘Tra La La Song’ (from the Banana Splits cartoon show) and brilliantly odd picks like ‘Sound Of Silence’, plus a growing number of originals.
Notably, The Dickies achieved a series of firsts: the first California punk band to appear on network television, the first California punk band to be signed to a major (A&M Records) and the first U.S. punk outfit to tour Europe. By 1979, they‘d won over a lot of British fans.
1994ever 