Blue John Mines I was probably about 9 or 10 years of age at the time and there were roughly about 30 or 40 other children and a couple of teachers who accompanied us on a school trip to Blue John Mines in Derbyshire. It was always such a thrill and usually very noisy on the coach wherever we went. I remember very little about this particular adventure but I do recall going down the mine and a guide came with us explaining the various geological aspects of this cavern. We were also told that Blue John, was a very …
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When I was 14 years of age I went on holiday to Torquay with my mum and dad. The year was 1974, so I knew I was 14 because I was born in 1960 and could do the simple arithmetic to work out my age. If that wasn’t enough proof of my age, I was trusted by my parents to go to the cinema on my own to watch The Towering Inferno, which I found out recently was released and was in the cinemas in 1974, so I was definitely 14 when I went to Torquay for the first time …
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My Brief Time Working at Butlin’s Holiday Camp in the late 70s (Brief being the operative word) In 1978 I thought it might be a good idea to get away from home for a while, stand on my own two feet and gain some experience on my own in the big wide world, so I applied for a job at Butlin’s Holiday Camp at Filey on the North Yorkshire coast. The least said about that the better but suffice it to say, I didn’t remain long in that job; in fact I didn’t start it. Well while I’m on the …
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After the sophistication of the early seventies disco scene a whole new phenomena struck in 1974 with the emergence of The Tartan Army. Don’t worry it wasn’t a Braveheart style attack on those of us south of the border but a new band called the Bay City Rollers. Les McKeown joined the line-up as lead singer in 1974, Remember Sha La La was released the same year and Rollermania was born. They were billed as ‘The biggest group since the Beatles’ and tartan became the fabric of choice for teenagers. More hits followed such as Shang a Lang and Summer …
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Getting ready for your first trip to a proper Disco was like going from primary school to College in one step. The preparations were similar but with knobs on, not only did you have to look good, you had to look older. Most discos had an admittance policy of 21 plus and sophistication was the byword. In reality it wasn’t that hard to get in but the first time you went you didn’t know that and running the gauntlet of the DJ clad bouncers was terrifying. My first trip was to Neros, the local disco in the seaside town where …
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Fridays always took an age to arrive and it was essential to keep on the right side of your parents all week if you wanted any chance of making it to the school youth club on Friday night. Not having to be asked to wash up and keeping some floor space free in your bedroom helped as well as looking as interested in possible when your dad went into graphic detail about the new lawn mower he’d just bought. School breaktimes would be spent plotting how you and your friends were going to get to the disco in clothes that …
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Gabs and Spix So there we have it, I had got myself my first ever girlfriend and not even John Hale, our leader had one so I felt good and very proud about the whole thing. When the idea of actually having a girlfriend began to sink in I started to get a little nervous because I had never had a girl before and I was extremely shy and reserved. Chris on the other hand was totally opposite to me. He was outgoing, confident, older, and as mad as a March Hare. We came from very different backgrounds. Chris had …
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Sport and many other activities as previously stated almost completely dominated my leisure time in the early 1970s; I did boys things and played every sport that was popular at the time. My friends and I were always focused on winning and nothing else really mattered (well not in my case because I couldn’t care less if we won or not), we skated on the Brickies when it froze over one winter, played hide and seek, rode our bikes and numerous other activities that were common to the 1970s boy. But things were about to change, because we discovered something …
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In 1974, when I was about 14, Peter Whelan who lived on Dell Drive just around the corner from where I lived, gave me a No.3 wood, a golf club which I was later to underestimate the power of. In fact Monk’s even had coconut golf mats which members used for practicing their golf drives. Of course when I acquired my new sporting accessory I was keen to have a go. Word soon got round that Gazza had a new golf club and several of my friends all wanted to have a go too. I was very keen to try …
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Dolcis 1976 : The Day I Found a Dead Body in the Attic! And the Girl with the Goldfish. After my sudden and unexpected departure from The Good Companions the previous year my only source of income now, apart from my 50p a week pocket money was my paper round which wasn’t a great earner. On my pittance of a wage “doing papers“, how could I afford to buy the latest Slade or T Rex singles, the ever widening flared trousers, multi coloured flowered shirts, tank tops, 3 feet high Platform shoes not to mention my entrance fee to the …
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