January 7th 1974

“Berfday. Got lamp, pygamas, £2 from Mormor – bought Stranded – Roxy – Smart!”
So the wild and crazy out-of-control teenager turns 16 and celebrates with … erm… some pyjamas (mis-spelled), a lamp (a lamp??) and a couple of quid from his Danish grandmother.
However, it seems like I made up for it a little later in the [...]

April 13th 1973

“Had lie in, in morning (great)” / “Went up Dave C’s. Brrwd Roxy Music, lent him Phantasmagoria. Started work at 4 o’clock”
On of the strange things about being a teenager is this inate ability for them to just sleep and sleep and sleep.
I was no different.  On Sundays – or days when i didn’t have [...]

March 27th 1973

“Day Off” / “Went to Southampton with Mal & Nig – Went in Wimpy’s for dinner – I bought Magical Love – Saturnalia” / “Got Roxy Music tickets”
This could end up being a meandering lengthy post…….

Let’s start off with the reference to Wimpy’s shall we?
Wimpy – or Wimpy Bars as they were known then – [...]

February 7th 1973

“Cup City 2 Liv 0 (Colin, Tommy)” / “Arguverge > Argument (agane)” / “Went up Nigs in evng - lent him Phantasmagoria + borrowed family – Anyway – Quite Good really” / “Found out that I was 4th in TD with 60% although I haven’t dun homework for 3 months”
City for the cup… City for the [...]

November 24th 1972

“took ‘ome Phantasmagoria – Curved Air. Only one word for it – PHANTASMAGORIA”
Not one of my classier music reviews this one!
In fact, its got more cheese than a ploughman’s lunch!
Curved Air were one of those (what I call) should’ve/would’ve bands in the history of music.
I think the reason they never crossed over to ’super-stardom’ was [...]

November 22nd 1972

“told Ian S I would like to buy Phantasmagoria – Curved Air off him for £1.25″
EFA70’sTRO was already wheeling-dealing in recorded music!
Just out of curiosity I took a look on eBay UK to see how much this album goes for nowadays.
At the time of writing this, there was just a single listing for it. No less [...]

An Aside (XI)

Part 4…

Comments:-
1) Once again I say…. “Best Miscellaneous Instrument“????
2) As John Lennon once said of Ringo Starr “He isn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles”…
3) Whatever WAS the attraction of Joe Cocker? I have always thought he was awful.
4) Brightest Hope #10 …… Fanny … the world’s first ever female heavy rock band? Never [...]

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 [...]