March 4th 1973

“Went up Trevs and got bike wheel” / ” In afternoon took out drawers of bedside cabinet and primed them – gonna paint them red and gold (smart) – Gonna paint chair gold as well” / “In evng (no tibs) recorded In + Out of Focus + Old Songs new Songs – Family”
My word, what [...]

February 14th 1973

*valentine* / “Got Bandstand – Family off of Martin S – It jumps as well – must be needle, gonna get a new one” / “carried on wiv jigsaw” / “went up nigs”
The word “valentine” was printed in the diary. I chose to highlight it by making it look as if it was exploding from [...]

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 [...]

January 29th 1973 (I)

“Wrote a silly play” / “Borrowed Family Entertainment – Family – Quite Good”
No idea what “wrote a silly play” refers to exactly – maybe the next few days entries will give a little more of a clue?
“Entertainment” was Family’s second album – referred to these days as their “sophomore” release – first released in 1969. 
I [...]

Number Ones of 1972 (Part 5)

…[continued from Part 4]
You know when you write about a year in these terms – all the number ones – you wonder whether it gives a realistic representation of the music everyone listened to.
In terms of sheer public popularity I guess it does, but in my own personal world I feel there were many different songs [...]

October 6th 1972

“went up Nigs and borrowed Anyway – Family” / New set batts > 50 days”
Nig – Or Nigel – was a school chum who lived just around the corner from me.

Like Trevor, he also had an older brother (Keith) who was something of a experimental music fan. I feel as indebted to Keith for some [...]

June 6th 1972

“Gave in Career booklets” / “Sent away for LP – ‘Old Songs, New Songs’ Family £1.05″ / “bought singles 20p”
No idea what career booklets were, but I’ll hazard they were booklets intended to help us schoolkids pick a career. I’ll warrant none of them featured the careers many of my closest friends, or I, eventually [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]