January 31st 1972

“sent home early – snowed hard – had great fun snowfighting”
A post that stands all by itself as self-explantory.
Well, apart from the phrase “snowfighting” perhaps?
I don’t believe it meant that I single-handedly attacked every snowflake as it fell from the sky – as visual and valiant an act as that might sound – more that [...]

January 24th 1972

“Had letter about Scalextric cup”
At last, a random diary entry from 36 years ago that I have some level of conscious recall about!
For those not in the know, Scalextric is/was a slot-car racing ‘toy’, hugely popular with kids (and, I suspect, many Dads) in the 60’s and 70’s.
A couple of Christmases previous to 1972, my dear [...]

January 23rd 1972

“T.I.B. – Didn’t go”
To the untrained eye, “T.I.B.” could be some kind of bizarre acronym.
“Tried Intestinal Bleeding”, “Tie is Blue” or perhaps “Tinkerbell is Beautiful”?
It actually stood for – and I am not making this up – “Training in Being”, a 1970’s church group.
Now let me state, right out of the blocks, that I am [...]

January 22nd 1972

“Went to Winchester with Bernie”
Who the f*ck was Bernie?
… and why would I need to go to Winchester with him/her?
(Some of this is hurting my brain)

January 20th 1972

“Man City picture arrived”
I suspect this ‘City’ embarrassment will live with for some time during these early diary entries. The fact that I have dutifully written in EVERY match result on the day it took place some kind of peculiar testament to how much I ‘loved’ them.
It’s somewhat weird to consider that for most of the 80’s [...]

March 17th 1973

“1.68 wages” / “Arm muted all day ‘cos of injection, couldn’t lift anything heavy” / “In evng recorded Status Quo – tape recorder kept going rong – still taped it”
HAH! – The boss fell for my sob story.
What I meant to say was “wasn’t it a shame I couldn’t lift anything heavy at work because [...]

March 16th 1973

“Had tetanus injection at school. Felt a bit sick at work, went home 7pm”
Wikipedia describes tetanus thus:- Tetanus, also called lockjaw, is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani. Infection generally occurs [...]

January 14th 1972

“In the evening recorded ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ by Emerson, Lake & Palmer”
Proof, if it were needed, that musical piracy was rife even in the Seventies.
However, this was not your perfect “digital copy” of the 21st Century, but something FAR more rudimentary indeed.
The only record player I had was my parents Dansette, a cream flip-lidded [...]

January 11th 1972

“Hot seat at church”
As if to (completely) qualify the comments in my previous post, this is a sentence made up of words which mean NOTHING to me.
Does it suggest I sat on the vicar’s lap during the sermons or something?
“And Lo, the lord has risen”
“Yes, I think can feel him reverend”
I will talk at some [...]

January 7th 1972

“Went to see Oliver. Trev came with me”
Erm….. what better birthday treat can there be for boy of 14 than go and see a dodgy musical?
Trev was my then best mate. 36 years later this positively SCREAMS “alternative lifestyle” doesn’t it?
Considering “Oliver” – the film – was released 4 years earlier, I can’t imagine it [...]

January 1st 1972

“Travelled to Eastleigh. Took books back to library”
New Year’s Days were certainly mind-blowingly exciting back in the Seventies.
I know what you’re thinking. That this blog has all the makings of an online classic?
Please don’t leave, I bought extra pretzels.

The 1972 Diary (III)

I wrote my school year exam results on one of the “notes” pages. I presume these were for the year ending in the summer of 1972.
The first thing is the subject, the second my ranking in the class, the third my score on (presumably) whatever test we were given (I can’t remember how the scores [...]

The 1972 Diary (II)

One of the “notes” pages – before the actual diary pages – carries the sentence “I travelled 123 miles during the summer holidays“.
As this would undoubtedly have been on my pushbike, I can barely contain my pride in that sentence 36 years later…
… especially considering that during the ’summer holidays’ of 2007 I travelled about [...]

The 1972 Diary

As you can see, I have decided to remain coy about my real name by fuzzing out the incriminating evidence.
Not surprising when my hand-scribbled cover of this 1972 “personal memo diary”, printed by Northern Novelties (Pencils) ltd., from Bradford, is already proving incredibly embarrassing to the 50-year-old me.
Not only do I describe myself as a [...]

Starting the project

It feels a little daunting to be honest.
Here I am, one day over my 50th birthday, planning to share my personal little world from 30+ years ago.
I wrote in these “schoolboy dairies” completely unaware – at the time – that my life would take me from working in the music biz and being involved in [...]