September 28th 1973

“Borrowed Hawkwind – rubbish”
I do believe that this refers to the Hawks’ debut album from 1970.
Although over time I have grown to appreciate some of the tracks from this release a little better (Hurry On Sundown for one) Hawkwind have – for me personally – only really been about one single, “Silver Machine“, and one album, “In [...]

August 18th 1973

“Didn’t go to work. Finished mormor’s painting. went to get school stuff”
Woah!!!
I did a painting for my Mormor????
It wasn’t the Hawkwind one was it?

August 13th 1973

“Bludy hot. Done Hawkwind painting + but then. Andy G came up in afternoon”
I mentioned a few days ago about my attempt at painting, conjuring up the lousy excuse that I didn’t have a camera to photograph my 1973 art all these 36 years later.
Well with a new (albeit refurbished) camera suitably snagged from Olympus Auctions , here’s part [...]

July 25th 1973

“HAWKWIND – Top Rank”
Southampton’s Top Rank was part of a nationwide chain of dancehalls/nightclubs responsible – as history will attest – for putting on some of THE biggest acts in rock/pop during the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s.
The Southampton location was also an ice-rink – presumably the ice was covered when there were live acts [...]

April 2nd 1973

“Trev said he was sellin’ In Search of Space for £1.25 – I’m gonna buy” / “Got radio off of carol and got it going”
I pontificated at length about Hawkwind’s “In Search of Space” a few weeks ago.
I can’t understand why Trev would have wanted to sell such a classic. I wonder if I could have [...]

January 31st 1973

Pete lent me In Search of Space” / “Dun another Martin silly tape” / “Had an ‘aircut” / “Got Pictures at an Exhibition back from Dave”
There it is again – a reference to “a silly tape” for Martin. Whoever the hell Martin was. There’s obviously something ‘artistic’ going on, but nothing so memorable to….well, allow [...]

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 [...]

August 20th 1972

“took mormor back to london” / “taped all the young dudes, silver machine, seaside shuffle and school’s out” / “coffee evening christine’s house”
My poor, poor Danish grandmother (mormor). She’s been staying with us for the past few weeks and I have mentioned her just the once before now… and that was tell my diary that [...]

August 11th 1972

“trev rolled up here at 12.15. he carried with him Greasy Truckers Party”
Ah, the magnificent Greasy Truckers Party album.
A live double album, recorded at a show in London just 6 months earlier, it was sold by United Artists records for the (then) bargain price of £1.50 ($3.00). In an early nod to “limited edition” marketing [...]

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 [...]