Week off morning routine – get back into it. Heavy breathing – work, tired body. Looking good – but not where I want to be yet. Turn fat into muscle. Little by little – as I taught the kids.
Sleep easy – alarm surprised. What dreams – I don’t know.
Today today today – easy day, so fill it. Get ready for Ellen’s students again. Have no desire to do it – so I will do it – push through. But do it well. I know the hardest step is just starting again – and I’m not afraid.
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for my full free day yesterday. I enjoyed it so much. Running around the garden with Baimon, listening to Alice Donut whilst looking through old photos, writing in my journal, reading comics and playing Xbox. Lazy and fun day which has made me feel very happy.
I pulled myself out of bed and forced myself back into my morning routine, including 10 burpees, which I was contemplating skipping. I also had time to write morning pages though they still couldn’t quiet my brain during meditation. Maybe tomorrow I will switch back to sitting up to meditate.
The result of this effort was a day of weird happiness and joy that I couldn’t help feeling. So, the best thing that happened?
On several occasions when I was communicating with students I felt a better understanding despite difficulties in verbal communication – a more common bond – it made me feel good.
I did a sketch of House and will try to do some more. I read some Dostoevsky which was very meaningful and marked certain parts – something I’ve always forgotten to do before! I’ve bounced back from my cold – and now Amy has it instead.
I also did a quick video call with a new student that I will start teaching online tomorrow.
I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up. The ducks and drakes of evil are for a lesser form of people. The razor cuts, one hundred and twelve times, across the throat, the voices of reason.
Highly curated, carefully selected and specifically ordered* for your listening edification by world-renowned DJtenzenmen, who has over 100 years of experience in this business.
This week there’s music from Action Beat, Slapp Happy, Shudder To Think, 7 Seconds, Marnie Stern, Sleaford Mods, Slade, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sun City Girls, Umlaut, The Dickies, Dangerous Girls, Jawbreaker, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Users, Orthrelm, Massicot and Trumans Water.
Incidentals taken from the Church of the Sub Genius Hour of Slack.
Listen right here or Podbean, Stitcher, Apple, Amazon…..all those cool places I guess.
I am so happy and grateful for a few hours of whisky-inspired singing to old favourite songs in my room last night. I am so happy and grateful for the nice shirts I like to wear. I started wearing them at work just to stand out a little from the boring office shirts people always wore. Now I really enjoy a good-looking shirt.
Record of the week: Conflict – Cruise Record of the month: Anti-Sect LP, Sex Gang Children – Children’s Prayer, Mauritia Mayer, Abyss, Confessions of Sin – Loose (Live)
26th March 1984 Woke up at 9 minutes to 8. Physics – had a go at Hayward. Maths – shit. Lunch – didn’t go for a fag. Social – messed around with Mandy and wrote a song. H.E. – had a go at Pritchard. Pissed off really. Watched some telly. Went down club – got some baccy. Bike’s not working properly. Watched Hill Street Blues.
27th March 1984 Got up at right time. Had Physics practical most of the morning. Went for a fag after it. Lunch – pissed around with Burd. Went to typing exam all afternoon. Did ok in that I think. Bus home was quite funny – it was very quiet. Look at bike to see if anything was visibly wrong. Went for a runaround – seems ok. Doing some more art – it’s coming on quite well. Enjoying The Dickies. Just about to watch 5-a-side football. Night, night.
28th March 1984 H.E – (?) with 4 years – had a chat with Sarah. Physics – organising the PCH party. Lunch – me, Jim and Burd went for a fag down in the woods. R.E – ok. English – did this play. Biz – had a chat with Julie. Maths – shit. Waiting to watch Milk Cup replay and soccer six later. Not a lot else really. Can’t wait for PCH. Liverpool 1-0 Everton. Went to sleep.
29th March 1984 Art – burnt a picture and nothing else. P.E. – played football, pissed around. Lunch – nicked some clackers (?). Should be able to get drums from Sponge. Played football. Social – did projects. Biz – did (?). English – read play. Went out to Just’s – gave cassette to his mum – he wasn’t in. Came back to Gaunts. Me, Muz, Burt and Graeme went up to Houldeys. Chased them home. Came back – typed up PCH, organising songs. Went to sleep.
30th March 1984 Assembly – snore. English – did fuck all. H.E. – wrote some songs. Maths – shit. Lunch – played football. Art – ok, new ideas for pictures. Biz – typed up PCH cos Bell wasn’t here again. Physics – pissed around – wrote a song ‘Apeshit Hayward’. Went to see Dandy. Went on over to Burd’s. Went to club with him and Ben. Went over to Roo’s – nicked his bike as he’s gone to Devon. Ben rode it, Burd on the back of me. Met Rich down at Gussage. Played cards in the Drovers. Did a smart wheelie on the way back. Burd came off the back. Came back to the club – me and Ben got chucked out. Came home. Watching horror film Dr Phibes Rises again – looks pretty silly.
31st Match 1984 Football’s not on so went to Poole. Burd and Ben were on bus – wrote song. Found out Mike doesn’t like me. Gilly was fucking following me everywhere. Met Paul and friends, still he followed. Met Simon, still he followed. Met Paul again. Finally Gilly pissed off. Got the bus back. Burd got on at Wimborne. He got off at my place. Ate some frogspawn, wrote some songs. Went to Houldey’s – tried to shit up Jamie. Put road sign in someone’s drive. Came back, recorded some stuff. Took Burd home. Came back, watched Comic Strip and some of the film. Also found out that can get some drums now. Get them on Monday.
1st April 1984 Got up. Did some typing. Chris came round. He went to get me some roly papers – told my mum he was getting some chocolates. Had some jam roly-poly. Pissed around doing fuck all. Watched TV. Went to Simon’s – didn’t stay long. He went and practised with Ian Bryant’s group. Came back, watched Spitting Image, film and Sky At Night.
Record of the week: Dickies – Knights In White Satin Chart entries: Buggles – 24, Blondie – 7
14th Jul 2022 – The Dickies kept rolling out awesome singles this year, this one a precursor to their second album and another great punk rendition of a classic tune. The only downside is that the b-side is a track from the first album. The Buggles new wave one-hit wonder ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ was making its run-up to number one and the Blondie track Dreaming was when I started losing interest in them as they fully hit the slick pop sound. Looking up the Buggles they had a couple of albums and a bunch of singles though none of them I’ve heard of.
23rd September 1979 (15th after Trinity – Autumnal Equinox) But it’s still winter 2p 2p 264p*
14th Jul 2022 – I have no idea what 15th after Trinity means but it’s interesting to me that this information was in the diary. It’s kind of like a nugget of information that might send a child to a parent to seek more knowledge. It feels to me like this type of accidental/incidental learning is missing these days though I obviously have little current experience with being 11 or using a proper English diary.
24th September 1979 Fucking hell. How I hate school 2p 2p 260p*
14th Jul 2022 – Was it me or was it school? I definitely changed my attitude toward school over the ages of 10-12 and then by the age of 13 I hit full teenage delinquency and developed a contradictory personality that annoyed the help out of my mother for a year or so.
25th September 1979 It’s not so bad today ? Went on a fungi hunt 2p
26th September 1979 Naffin 2p
27th September 1979 1. Police 2. Cars 3. Bellamy Bros 4. Dollar 5. ELO 6. Cliffie 7. Blondie 8. Commodores 9. Crusaders 10. Frantique 2p
Record of the week: The Dickies – Eve of Destruction, Curb Job, Waterslide Highest entry: Ian Dury – Reasons to be Cheerful (Part 3)
20th May 2022 – Ian Dury was a loveable character, with his limping walk and absurdist humour. Music icons seemed to have more depth than the manufactured stars of these times. I know I’m hardly in the target demographic for modern music but when I was young music was everywhere and if you didn’t like it you still knew who everyone was. Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Alvin Stardust, Suzi Quatro, Phil Lynott, John Lydon, Pete Townsend, Mick Jagger and on and on. With the diversity of entertainment on offer these days, people are famous within their niches and not on such a wide spectrum.
Do I sound like I’m desperately trying to avoid sounding like the old man saying ‘it was better in my day’!? I think most people appreciate the times of their teens and twenties, whatever decades they were across. I’m glad I’m not ‘growing up’ through these times.
5th August 1979 Part 11 Yesterday and today, I haven’t played it. 2p
20th May 2022 – It’s possible my record collection was now growing to a point where I couldn’t listen to everything in a single day. Starting to develop my fascination with finding the next new interesting thing.
6th August 1979 Eileen and Dick came. Great Polo (car) 2p
20th May 2022 – Eileen was my granny’s sister I think, making her my great-aunt. I remember liking her and Dick(her husband) though in my mind they were just old people, like my granny. They were alive when Queen Victoria was alive! That made them Victorian! Despite some hangovers from empire days, my grandparents were quite liberal, I think.
Modern cars such as the Polo were always interesting as they were way out of our price league. At this time we still had an Austin Morris (I think it was the A30 by checking on old pictures). This had indicators on arms that popped out of the struts between the front and back windows. This car made me feel poor as modern cars had ‘proper’ indicators near the front and rear lights. Now, I think it’s cool and interesting but then I didn’t want people to think we were poor.
7th August 1979 Matthew came down 2p
8th August 1979 Eileen and Dick go. Going out with Fred and Ann to Bridport 2p
20th May 2022 – Fred was my mum’s employer for knitting guernseys. He and Ann live in the Channel Islands, on Jersey. Now, they turned up in an Aston Martin and he had a habit of upgrading it every year. I was quite jealous of them, not really having any real understanding of how the world works yet.
9th August 1979 1. Boomtown Rats 2. Cliff Richard 3. Abba 4. Police 5. The Dooleys 6. Ian Dury 7. Hersham Boys 8. The Diary of H.W. 9. Girls Talk 10. Patrick Hernandez Go to Tiv wif Matthew. We saw Superman. 2p
20th May 2022 – Being able to go to the movies was something very special in those days and Superman was all that kids were talking about. Hurray for the heroes. Finding a picture of the Tiv I’m reminded of the shop next door that sold knives and other farm tools such as rook scarers. This is where I nervously bought my first knife, a lock knife, as the flick knife I asked for I was told was actually illegal! I lied that I needed it for fishing.
10th August 1979 Going to ge’ ‘Ersham Boys and mebbe Reasons t’ Be Cheerful Part 3 2p 95p*
20th May 2022 – When I could still approximate an English accent. Now I’m very accentless, much to Amy’s disappointment.
11th August 1979 Still no news on Ray Wilkins X He says he’s not going to join Ipswich
Record of the week: The Dickies – Poodle Party, Paranoid, Rondo (The Midget’s Revenge) Highest entry: Sham 69 – Hersham Boys Entries: The Boss, Telex, The Bitch, Showaddywaddy, Spyro Gyra, EWF
19th May 2022 – Days when Sham 69 were the highest entry in the charts! In the big scheme of things, punk was a flash in the pan. I’m a flash in the pan. Humanity is a flash in the pan! I was all about the Dickies this week.
29th July 1979 From Tues Last week was great Part 7 of the Dickies saga Haven’t stopped playing the album. 2p
30th July 1979 Part 8 As you can see my records of this week and next are off the album. 2p 2p
31st July 1979 ‘ad me ‘air dun Part 9 Got the single Paranoid. The B-side is I’m OK You’re OK. 2p
19th May 2022 – This new Dickies song was a little bit of a let-down when compared with the album but it was still great. I wonder what madness I tried to get the hairdresser to perform this time?
1st August 1979 1 – Going to get the Dickies LP The Incredible Shrinking Dickies – False 2 – I’ll get it on 27th July – False 3 – 20th July 2p
2nd August 1979 1. Boomtown Rats 2. Police 3. Dooleys 4. Dave Edmunds 5. Abba 6. Janet Kay 7. Tubeway Army 8. Knack 9. Supertramp 10. Sparks 2p Going to Johnny’s.
19th May 2022 – Probably stayed at Graeme’s for a night or two. At the back of his house, which was above the pub, there was a camping and caravanning area, with shower and toilet blocks. Graeme had an air rifle and we took it out around the woods to ‘play’ with as the sun was coming down. We got back to the campsite not yet satisfied with shooting at things. I think we’d scared a few birds by this point. In the dark, Graeme said that there was a garbage bin next to the toilet block and we should shoot across the car park and see if we could hit it. So, with no thought or care for anyone else, that’s what we did. And we did hit the garbage can! And no one was hurt.
Little did I know that in my future I would come very close to being killed with an air rifle!
3rd August 1979 Part 10 of the Dickies saga I’m going to try and play the album every day until the Eve of Destruction. Get it? 2p
4th August 1979 Hope Ipswich sign Ray Wilkins. That’s for 930,000 pounds. 2p 10p 107p*
19th May 2022 – I had to look up Ray Wilkins. Not sure why I was that excited about this possibility but I obviously rated him at the time. He ended up at Manchester United and so I soon forgot about him!
Record of the week: I Don’t Like Mondays Highest entry: Sparks – Beat The Clock – 21
17th May 2022 – Well, there you go. After writing about my dislike for this song ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ now, I liked it enough to make it my favourite record then.
22nd July 1979 When I did my leg in yesterday hurdling…well, nothing happened to any other part of my body until today, I can’t move my head 10p 2p 54p*
17th May 2022 – I recall a time I woke up and couldn’t move my head, it was stuck to one side and trying to move it was intensely painful. I’m not sure if I worked it out at the time or much later but I’m guessing it was probably related to sleeping on my front, something which I may have mentioned elsewhere, which was because I heard that Jimi Hendrix had died choking on his own vomit when laying on his back. I sure didn’t want that to happen to me.
As I write this and think about it, I don’t think that was the real reason. It was just a bad habit I had picked up as a kid, I’m sure. Sometimes, before falling asleep I would pull the sheet and blanket up over me and pretend my bed was a spaceship with the controls down the edge of the mattress. I probably played this until I fell asleep laying on my front. Star Trek repeats on TV would’ve been an influence. Maybe Dr Who as well.
23rd July 1979 I made a Star Special featuring Sid Vicious 2p 17 1/2p* 40p*
17th May 2022 – I’m guessing a Star Special was some kind of feature in a magazine like Smash Hits or something like that. As they would never do one on Sid, I did it myself. The genesis of my DIY journey?
24th July 1979 Why ain’t Sex Pistols No. 1? 2p 55 1/2p*
25th July 1979 Made an ??? by Steve Jones. Great Must get Boomtown Rats I Don’t Like Mondays 2p 2p 51 1/2p*
17th May 2022 – My bad handwriting. I’m dreading looking at some future diaries for their inexplicable, illegible scrawl, some blotched by humidity or damp.
26th July 1979 1. I Don’t Like Mondays 2. Tubeway Army 3. Silly Games 4. Dave Edmunds 5. Dooleys 6. Knack 7. Chic 8. Sex Pistols 9. Lady Lynda 10. Supertramp 2p 47 1/2p*
27th July 1979 Part 6 of the Dickies saga I GOT IT. Look at 25th July. Well. I did. Part 7 2p 45p*
17th May 2022 – The Dickies first album had a huge effect on me. They played fast and with great melody. It was fun and frantic and featured great songwriting on their originals and also made the covers they did their own, fitting seamlessly into this set of songs. I didn’t even know ‘She’ was a cover until much much later. The picture on the album cover was also so cool. These were days of pouring over every minute detail to fill in the blanks. Cool crazy haircuts and clothes. Without a lyric sheet, I would try to discern the furiously fast words as best I could so I could also sing along. Were these people even real?
28th July 1979 Dunno First Dunno since 27th June 4.4 weeks. 32 days. 2p
Record of the week: Sham 69 – Hersham Boys, The Members – End of Term Highest entry: Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays – 15
17th May 2022 – Had to go back and check out the Members tune again. A great bopping number with particularly relevant lyrics for a schoolkid. Very much of its time and not as classic as some of their other singles, I love the sound of it though. I guess I do have a nostalgia through music. Hersham Boys was a classic at the time though hasn’t really stood the test of time for me. I had the 12″ single with the extended mix and live tracks (with the swear words beeped out – which made me feel a little naughty).
As for the Boomtown Rats, I kinda like this song but when it got to number one and could be heard everywhere all the time I soon got sick of it. Gone was the upbeat tempo, great songwriting and dizziness of their first two albums and earlier singles. The end of my love affair with the Rats.
15th July 1979 Finished poster to go up on me wall 2p 28p^
17th May 2022 – Like most teenagers and pre-teens I was ripping out pictures from magazines and putting them up on the wall of my bedroom and this developed into making my own which often featured titillating images such as page 3 topless pictures with Princess Diana’s head on top. Decorating my room soon became graffiti over the following 5 years.
16th July 1979 Hopefully I’m going to get the Dickies LP this week 4 2p 30p^
17th July 1979 Didn’t get it today Hope Sex Pistols are number one 2p 2p 32p^
18th July 1979 Highest entry – Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays – 15 It’s great
17th May 2022 – Finding out this was about a school shooting was weird. It seemed unthinkable and didn’t really seem to be a common thing back then, at least not reported on the shores of Blighty. On the one hand, I found it fantastic that someone was so pissed off with school that they went there and killed people! On the other hand, what had anyone really done to deserve that fate?
With the situation becoming more common in the US over time I still can’t believe the situation there. It makes me feel like the place is dangerous, just in general.
19th July 1979 1. Tubeway Army 2. Janet Kay 3. Sex Pistols 4. Dave Edmunds 5. Chic 6. Beach Boys 7. Gerry Rafferty 8. Amii Stewart 9. Squeeze 10. Dooleys 38p^
20th July 1979 Break up for holidays Skill I didn’t get Dickies this week Part 5 Next 40p^
17th May 2022 – Skill! I had forgotten we used to say that. Ace! too. Every kid enjoys the end of term, right!?
21st July 1979 I don’t think there’s been any big move to do with Ipswich Got 2 cars. Notes 42p^
17th May 2022 – Transfer news wasn’t such a big deal back at this time, or so I imagined. Nowadays, it’s like every little piece of everyone’s business is dissected and analysed to death. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. Really just gossip and out of one’s control.
Record of the week: M – M Factor Highest entry: Squeeze – Up The Junction
20th Apr 2022 – M Factor was the b-side of Pop Muzik and is a preferable listen these days as Pop Muzik became too successful and familiar. Squeeze’s Up The Junction is another classic pop tune that makes me want to go and seek out more of their music though I have a feeling I may have done this in the past and been disappointed to discover that they were just a great singles band.
3rd June 1979 Since I bought Banana Splits, I’ve never not played it 6 2p
20th Apr 2022 – Music obsession was forming fast this year. Of course, at the time it was much more difficult to hear new music and there were far fewer options for entertainment. This really focused interest on whatever it was that caught your attention.
4th June 1979 Average day First day back at school 7 2p
5th June 1979 Qualified for everything except High Jump and Long Jump in Athletics 10 2p 2p
20th Apr 2022 – As well as being in the football team I was good at sprinting and other field events. I eventually got good at Long Jump and High Jump too. In the last couple of years, an old school friend posted on Facebook about how I seemed to be nonchalantly unconcerned about these events and that it seems I was just very casually good (or better than other participants at the time) at them. I was quite proud of myself but when moving up to high school later, the competition got much stronger. I still did fairly well though.
6th June 1979 Find out whether I get into the top four in Athletics (June 5th) I know I got into the Sprint and cricket bungin’ I don’t know about Long Jump Gotta sore throat 7 2p 78p*
20th Apr 2022 – We didn’t often play cricket in PE but at this time we were too young to be trusted with javelins so there was an event to see who could throw a cricket ball the furthest. I loved this and I was very good at it. One time, balls were being returned from the field and Jonathan Duncan wasn’t paying attention. A ball came flying at speed and smacked him right on the temple, with an echoing clunk. His eyes rolled and his legs crumpled as he dropped to the grass. He soon got back up and went to the sick bay for a while but earned his deserved reputation as a ‘tough nut’.
7th June 1979 1. Blondie – Sunday Girl 2. Roxy Music – Dance Away 3. Anita Ward – Ring My Bell 4. Earth Wind And Fire – Boogie Wonderland 5. Peaches and Herb – Reunited 6. ELO Not at school got bad throat 7 2p
20th Apr 2022 – Sick again. I wonder if I was really sick, or I probably was a little but not really that bad. Well, that habit certainly continued for the following 40 years or so. Lucky that I always had a set wage. As I learn about and see different parts of the world I realise how much I have taken for granted in my life.
8th June 1979 Off school again Matthew came down. I found out that I’m not in Long Jump. 8 2p
20th Apr 2022 – Not so sick that friends couldn’t come and play! And likely I was making a healthy recovery by lunchtime when it would be too late to bother going to school. As kids, we already know how to play the game.
9th June 1979 Arnold Muhren is Ipswich’s Player of the Year 8 2p 2p
20th Apr 2022 – Arnold Muhren and Franz Thiessen were the first players (of note at least) from abroad to play in the English League. It was a big discussion point at the time. In the following 20 years, things moved along to the point that it seemed as if some teams had NO English players.
Football feels fully biased towards the teams with the most money and spending power so that there are very few exceptions to the same 6-10 teams winning every year. Although somewhat floored, I like the systems in place in Australia to try and balance things out as much as they can.
52
20th Apr 2022 – 52 out of 70 seems pretty good for a week I was supposedly sick.
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 