Dear Diary:1980 - December. The Last Post

It seems fitting that after two years and 24 posts, as Dear Diary reaches it's last entry - so we finish on King of the Blingers, Jimmy Saville who also bowed out with a closing coda this year. Light on entries but heavy on celebrations (three birthdays,  Christmas and New Year's Eve) -  a couple of moments to note include...

My First Concert: Adam and the Ants at Chelmsford Odeon (13th) - as we've mentioned previously an absolute skull-cracker of a gig, during the brief transitional shift when Adam was slowly shedding the hardcore of mohicans and kilted fans that had dragged around behind him as the shadowy Ant People - before the pre-teen/ Televisual crowd massed on the now cavalary jacketed Adam (with newly installed songwriting team-mate Marco Pirroni). The Chelmsford audience for this date was a sweaty swell of ructious skins and punks snarling, scrumming and thumping lumps out of each other at stage front, to a point where Adam had to stop the performance midway through one number - to bark at a hot-spot of rucking punks/skins..

The Shadow of The Damned: from the earliest Dear Diaries well May 79 - the as it happens (not in  the Jimmy Saville sense) output of those first-past-the-post(s) punks have been rendered and recorded with regular entries. December 80 sees The Damned at their most dynamic - a one off Christmas curiosity single - There Ain't No Sanity Clause and the widescreen genius of double LP The Black Album. Not surprisingly my second gig and follow-on to the Ants outing was The Damned at the Lyceum 5th July 1981 for their fifth anniversary gig with a setlist supporting the Black Album (details here)..

Now and then: all singles bagged December 1980

The Quinn Martin style epilogue: If, back then, some anonymous bod, had told me  'in 2011 you'll write the sleevenotes and interviews for Marco Pirroni's latest album (The Wolfmen - Married to the Eiffel Tower), and rattle off 8 pages of overviews  and interviews for a magazine cover feature on The Damned' - it really would have scrambled my teenage brainwaves. In fact it scrambles my middle aged brainwaves now.. I mean, really, who'd a thought?

To borrow a question from Marc Bolan - whatever happened to the teenage dream? Well in this case, it came true!

So that's it chums - we're all done with Dear Diary. If you've been in from the beginning, a huge thank you is due for sticking around - if you've been a dipper-in or occasional grazer of these scribbled bits - a tip of the titfer is due to you too.

What's next - there's a new monthly motif possibly lined up for 2012. A magazine based take on vintage times - but more on that in Jan. So until then, have yourselves a hoot for hogmany, a knees-up of a New Year's Eve - and I'll catch you next year x

The singles list is fairly sprightly, but beware the album chart - a giddy mix of nutty comps, new wavers and A O R-tists

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

The Damned - There Ain't No Sanity Clause

Dear Diary:1980 - November

Without question - the most muted month in the history of Dear Diary doings. As the action switches (temporarily) to the trusty ol' Silvine notebook - where the news is...

Coming 105th in Cross Country Run (and some poor puffing shunters 'got lost' apparently). Well it was through the woods. And who knows - some of those runaway nags may still have been on the gadabout.
On the 8th: a trip to Leigh, buying Adam's King's album and,  where we pop in to see Liz Karslake whose older sister (Jo) later became Mrs Ron Wood

Everybody's favourite Science Teacher Mr Hamilton - spent a lump of the lesson unravelling and popping holes in the baggy formulas and theories that made up Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. A trip to nan's for Pie and Mash (also Sounds and The Unexplained too).

And how about this - pals Andy Hampson and Barney pop up as presenters on TV's musical yoof show - Something Else. Dexy's Midnight Runners were the turn on this episode and you can catch a Dexy's extract from this exact edition below. Calendar-wise. It's the return of our school year's lumpy chums Mullen and Turnidge who 'went mad'. Although there's no anecdotal evidence to support this - I suspect 'narking' them was probably the root truth of the meltdown.

Records bagged were Kings of the Wild Frontier and The Black Album. Two albums that, for me, were Narnian wardrobe moments of other worldliness and portals to punk/new wave's potential possibilities and technicolour dreamscapes, that left formulaic punk fodder seeming generic, dated and faded. A bi-dynamic pairing which are equally, early outings in new wave experimentation  - and templates that stand as indicators and shapers of the 80s fads and fashions that followed: new romanticism, narcissism, new-wave-goes-pop, guitar twang, psychedelic revival, 60s revisionism, goth.

Black Album not pictured - it's buried in the loft somewhere

Exactly 31 years on from buying these albums - I've seen most variations on both bands this year Adam (June), ex Ants -The Wolfmen (July) and last Saturday, The Damned recreating the Black album at The roundhouse (review here). The Damned, who've always delivered and never disappointed live are now, more polished and accomplished than ever. The Wolfmen take Adam's antics into new glam/garage areas. And Adam has compressed his characters into a composite rather than move on - but he hasn't lost it ( in a performance sense) either.

Two tasters from both then - The Damned's midnight cinematic shimmer, with a coda that always reminded me of  the Hooray for Harold Lloyd incidental music...

The Damned - Twisted Nerve

And Adam's feedback and drum-rumbling psychological self portrait  - that's perhaps King's closest relation to Dirk-era Ants

Adam And The Ants - Killer In The Home



Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

Dear Diary:1980 - October

Fight,fight,fight - when I had rumble with Rochard (pronounced roach-ard). Our school year's notoriously handy Judo bloke. It started when he whipped a few stinging flicks of his school tie at a mate o' mine in the changing rooms - and ended with me having quick a straightener with him. Although the PE teacher walked in put the handbrake any more fiesty hi-jinx.

In other news, it's a weekend in London at cousin Sylv's where we call in to see her best mate Nick Saloman (who stopped by the blog for a guest spot earlier this year) and his legendary record collection. Including the rare Hot Rods edition of the Damned's debut album and tales about his childhood chum Stuart Goddard. Dig about and you'll spot Nick's mum making an appearance in Adam Ant's biog!

The London weekend

Then later - an evening at the pub to see his Nick's band the Von Trap Family, who had managed to nip a couple of spins on the Peel show, where I wore my dad's old Mothers Pride coat for it and put purple crazy colour in my hair. Would you believe in moment of psychedelic synchronicity Nick Saloman as Bevis Frond has just released a new album - The Leaving of London

Crazy Horses

And those wild horses are back, busting loose and running riot through  the school grounds. Although I'm still no clearer who the strange girl is who follows me home. And sits on the bus!

Records added to collection include: ver Subs - Party in Paris (with Capt Sensible on keyboards), Adam Ant - Dog eat Dog and The Professionals with Steve Jones doing a B A Robertson barnet..and of course The Von Traps..

The Von Trap Family - Dreaming Again



UK Subs - Party in Paris



Top 75 Singles

Top 75 Albums

Dear Diary:1980 - September

September seems to be the month for horses and house parties - not at the same time obvs!

I say 'parties', they were actually more of a - buy some cider (Triple Vintage/ Merrydown) from the old dear at Unwins and get it down the hatch at a friends house - type tear-ups. For Hayes's socials, while the parents were out, the top-loader stereo -shaped and weighted like a mahogany block with wooden stalk-like legs - would be lumped down from upstairs for some music to booze to in the front room.

Horses: I'd chosen horse riding as a PE option but couldn't get on with it. The blooming things were typically either rearing up Lone Ranger style, or stopping for a steaming, streaming gusher of a comfort break. For extra curricular activity, we'd nip along to see J. Mowatt and mate Hayley Bill (not her real name, we added the surname for chuckles) daring a ride on Tempest. A flighty nag who was several hands too high for a 'rider' of my casual calibre, and why after being given a giddy-up slap on his back-end, Tempest shot off like a thundercrack, throwing me out of the saddle - but because of one foot still trapped in a stirrup, dragged  me behind like a sack of old spuds, bouncing across the tree roots and muddy bumps. I was black and blue for days after.

And photos too, (Michael) Hayes, (Jackie) Calvy and myself (with new bow tie) doing a photo booth squeeze at Southend Bus Depot (27th) - and Ye Olde School Photo taken on the 22nd

M.Hayes - top row, 3rd from left. Me  - next row, 5th from left. J.Calvy - bottom row - 4th from left

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

Records collected this month are: The Plasmatics, The Damned, more Spizz, more Splodgeness and Dead Kennedy's Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - most which had been ear-wigged from late night listens to John Peel....

 The Plasmatics - Monkey Suit



Dead Kennedys - Chemical Warfare






A teaser trailer for next month's diary doings - where the entries are expanded in a Silvine notebook..
I haven't a clue who the 'weird girl' that follows me home is, or why I hide in the garage from her. And how about that! LOTR at our school!

Dear Diary:1980 - August

We posted a pic, some years back - of a buzzed-up teenage me wearing a just-bought muslin shirt (Anarchist Gang design). It was one of three tees bought from the ex-Seditionaries stock being sold off at Boy, while 430 King's Rd was being refitted as World's End. And behold, here's the very date in week two of our holiday (a week spent at home with trips and days out: Clacton, nan's...) 6th August!

After two weeks away, the record buying is back on track with everything from Spizz to Crass, being added to the collection (although I can't seem to find Discharge's (Fight Back). The Damned pitch in with three appearances - look away if you don't want to know the answers: White Rabbit (on import), the Rat Scabies produced Urban Gorilla and the entire band (minus Vanian) backing Magic Michael on Millionaire. We'll have more on this one-off curiosity later (with an exclusive from C Sensible)

But the key 45 here is Adam and the Ants. I'd heard 'Kings' deep into a Peel show one night - it may well have even been the playout track - the disjointed twanging and modal tones of Marco's riff, the clattering war drums and the tribal callback and chants crackling out of my radio at near-to-midnight, made it sound like nothing on earth - and of course I was hooked from the first hearing.

Well really! How's your blooming luck - all those stolen moments of flashes and snatches of free-eyefuls (if you'll pardon the phrase) from LOTR and she only goes and winks at my best mate Whitlow doesn't she (17th). Incredible! Although there's a snip of follow up news (22nd), but I'll leave that for another time...

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

A couple of oddities and obscurities rather than the obvious...The poppy-horror B-side to White Rabbit and an early doors version of 'Kings'...

The Satellites - Urbane Gorilla



The Damned - Rabid (Over You)



Adam and the Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier (first version)




Speaking of Rabid - the 'rabbits film' noted on the 9th - is low budget, mutant bunny flick. Night of the Lepus

Dear Diary:1980 - July

It's holidays a go-go for July. A school camping trip to Danbury, where Dave Wright and I were wedged cat/fire brigade style up a tree while the school bus was rumbling its engines,  readying to head home.

Off to Surrey for and Auntie Sylv and Uncle Wally's, as I'd signed up for week long drama course in Leatherhead. I'd mentally doodled with the idea of becoming an actor at the time - but was plainly so shoulder-cringingly shy, it was never going to happen. Bless mum and dad for indulging me with a week to find out though. The week's group was an eccentric collective, mostly pooled from bored broker wives in velour tracksuits or soon-to-be-Sloane Ranger types. Except Eileen (22nd)- who looked like Oliver Cromwell in a tutu.

Keeping with the theme of theatrics, and amost as a  reprise of last month's Johnny Rotten run-out, was my improv school disco rendition of Sid Vicous doing My Way (16th). I'd slipped my copy of the single to the metalwork teacher turned DJ, and became so fired up when the slow-groaning opening notes came into play - I was off, miming Sid's gangly moves to the tune. It went down a treat. Spontaneous applause from the disco teens and pats on the back from pals. Even the RE tutor bought me a celebratory orange squash..

Next stop, Sale in Cheshire (never say 'in Manchester') for a week parked up with Uncle Les and Auntie Jean.  A run on the Corkscrew and terrifying dad by shaking our cable car during its slow-dragging, dangle-of-doom across the Alton Towers estate were trip highlights. All this and Blackpool too

A bit thin on records bagged this month though. Just Charlie Harper's (he of the UK Subs) solo single on snot-green vinyl..

Charlie Harper - Barmy London Army

Keep 'em peeled for a mad mix of metal and AOR in the charts

Top 75 singles


Top 75 albums

Seen in Swindle-vision at Southend's Odeon on the 19th - would you believe 31 years later, I'm nipping to our Rock 'n' Roll local to catch Tenpole Tudor in action this Saturday..



Sid does it his way...

Dear Diary:1980 - June

In June, Ye Olde PC went pop and the scanner had a sympathetic breakdown - but after a summer break Dear Diary is back and we're rewinding through time to 1980...

'Acted mental' is a phrase that appears more than it should - and during school time too! Well it was the 80s. Waddya mean that's no excuse...

The Belgian trip was a deathly early start and parked up in Brugge by mid-morning, so can you imagine what grave-quaking hour I must have been pulled from my pit to set off on a rattle-about coach. Pictured below on the the Brugge run, my GStQ tee is the one bagged (at the Chelsea Drugstore) on my first King's Rd visit - 16th here

And two smashed windows in one week. First on the 15th (not mentioned) - in the Arts Festival heats. I'd been doing some wiry flailing as a fidgety impression of Johnny Rotten, miming to Satellite and somehow (God only knows how) ended up lumping a slatty ventilation window out if it's fixings, sending it shattering to the ground two floors below. We didn't qualify for the next round of heats..

Records bought included Crass (possibly Stations of the Crass ), Simon Templar/Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please - and from Woolworths, Christine when the singles were racked on the shelves in their chart positions..

Siouxsie and The Banshees - Christine



Splodgenessabounds - Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please



 Low-level (and non) charters bagged were Human League, The Plasmatics, Discharge - and the Pistols. Although just over a year on from buying my first Pistols single, and the darker, saltier antics of Crass and Discharge - fatigue from Virgin's flogging a dead horse ethics were setting in. Otherwise the charts looked like this...

Top 75 singles 

Top 75 albums






She's back - our showy chum from across the street - LOTR near the bottom. 'done 3 hours gardening'

Dear Diary:1980 - May

Phew! May is a month of high jumps and runarounds. Literally

Spooky doings on the 14th when a cracked and phantom voice started summoning me (by name) from the record player 'are you there' - 'come in'. Dark arts that had me bolting from the bedroom a'Scooby Doo style. Worra relief then. when, mystery solved! It turned out be a ham radio fan that had somehow beamed and broadcast himself from my speakers, trying to tap up a fellow enthusiast - one of the 'Spud' family across the street.

Sleeping in the park - not in anyway likely to be the soundest of nights snooze is it. Factor in being charged and chased by a local gang of older skinheads known as the Ant Hill Mob ( named after the Wacky Races mobsters - not for crime connections, more the bonehead-count they could cram into a single Cortina). Bolting off again to grab a few shattered hours in the back of garage forecourt 'Self Drive' transit van. No wonder Sunday was spent sleeping. And behold! Budgie spin-off series Charlie Endell Esq..

All that and,  a first shave, switching from DM's to Monkey boots (J J Burnell influence there) and local busybody 'Boing' poking his beak in.

Chart-wise it's just the Subs Teenage, but items bagged being: The Damned's debut album, and,  for the first time, dipping an indie toe outside Top 75 with two Crass albums and one single..

UK Subs - Teenage



Crass - Bloody Revolutions

Would you believe it -  the exact chart I flunked on my 'which year' Pop Master Q..

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

The full Persons Unknown foldout - incredible. And all hand drawn

Dear Diary:1980 - April

April 1980 comes with a handful of calendar conundrums.....

Which era did ITV's Hollywood series cover (finished on the 1st)? I seem to remember it being the just silent/Sennett/slapstick age - but this may be because of a tie-in Harold Lloyd poster still in the loft.

Pelican Tennis (5th) - rings an unanswered bell

But 'snake, pub, fair' (13th) ? Not a clue!

Sinclair (9th) was the local bobby on the beat. A 'Mr Nasty' cut of copper, famously quick with his clips and fists, who on this occasion took to throwing me around the rose gardens (mostly trees and holly bushes in reality) by the throat - simply because he thought I was 'smirking'. Perhaps my God Save the Queen tee rattled him, or that we'd sometimes sing the Batman theme as he went barreling by on his boneshaker bike with the wind catching and flapping his cape.

'Gillow hit on head by roll' (22nd) could be where some sparky type threw a jam roll out of the school changing room windows, bouncing off of Andrea Gillow's noggin, only for a second sarney to land squarely on the head of a passing PE teacher. Whoops..class detention for that one (at lunchtime too - grrrr)

And it must be spring as local temptress LOTR seems to to be presenting again (18th)!

Singles added to the collection are: Devo, the Cockney Rejects brand of boot-boy of Oi and The Undertones. As a variant I'll post a lesser heard versh of My Perfect Cousin

The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin (demo)





Chartwise the top 75 is as Randomland as ever - 10 to 20  being a cross generational peppering of pop.And the albums *goes cross-eyed* John Cooper Clarke neighboring up with Martie Webb. And where did Bobby Vee come from!

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

The Bruce Lee double bill, seen at The Classic, Westcliff was my third trip to an X certificate. Previous peeps were Saturday Night Fever (age 12) Carrie/Pirhana (age 13)

Dear Diary:1980 - March

Huzzah and hurrah! Finally, after two long months, the PVC trousers finally land on the doormat (7th) But what's this, just four days later - 'zip fell off' - Ho hum! They surely can't be the same pair that split on the 28th! That really would be too much...

Poor ol' Geoff 'narked' on the 9th by way of fire extinguisher hijinks was one of two parkies and the softy Mr Barrowclough to strict ol' Bill's Mr Mackay. Incidentally later 'narks' included: heaving the Witch's Hat clean off of it's pole, leaving it stranded on the asphalt. Balancing a bucket of water atop Geoff's office door, which, landed perfectly placed, upside down on his bonce and had us chased all around Hadleigh by police in panda cars.

Parkie Geoff looked exactly like Oscar Goldman, lived with his mum in Benfleet and took an unhealthy interest in my PVC troos ..rolling out regular references and questions about them. Bizarrely, last week, I had a call from an old mate (Jay, appears on the 19th Feb - when I crashed his bike) - who had just spotted Geoff in Benfleet, with dyed hair 'the colour of a dog's coat' and a briefcase and mac to complete the Oscar Goldman look .

Other scraps of note - pig's ear (10th) was some biology lesson offal/off cut found and flung about on the bus (number 24) - which I think, led to the next day's reports of a rash - charming!

A quiet month musically - just the UK Subs Warhead (did they ever release anything on black vinyl) so I'll give A and B sides - the Subs Another Kind of Blues album (17th) , The Damned's Music For Pleasure (14th) and the Sex Pistols File (22nd) round out the budding punk collection..

For those who haven't heard I met Charlie Harper at a gig and got talking to his wife about Ukulele's. Turns out they're both keen uke strummers - of course I had to ask: can they play the Warhead riff on their ukes? A giggled 'Yes' was was the reply.

UK Subs - Warhead



UK Subs - The Harper



Not quite hitting the hi-randomness range of last month's charts - both Top 75s are a polarised playlist of pick 'n' mix bits...

Top 75 singles

Top 75 Albums

Oh and trailers for

Nightwing - premium cheese, but a Mancini theme

Dear Diary:1980 - February

What still no PVC trousers! (ordered 4th of Jan, they were)

Get in the swim - seems to be the motif of month, with a micro-buzz for splashing about in our local venue - Runnymede. Originally built for swimming competitions, with an Olympic size pool and a deep end for competition diving - but no viewing gallery! Smart moves donuts!!

On a similar riff, one of the design faults/or bonuses (depending on your view - literally) of our school's PE changing rooms were the boys/girls interconnecting radiators, which, mirrored each other on either side of a breeze block wall - joined by a copper pipe running through a small 'I-spy' hole in the brickwork.

Those that were sly-eyed, prepared to kneel, squint and take a faceful of raging radiator heat -  could tune into the the other side's fruity doings like a fox staking out a hen house. Unless of course, some quick thinking gal had hung a towel over the 'hers' side of the rad's. Although no such barrier was in play when Chaselton settled himself in for a righteous eyeful on the 26th.

Chaselton (nickname:Mullen - don't know why) was the sort of boy you wouldn't get away with tagging as Educationally Sub-Normal now, but could in 1980. Mullen moved with the lumpy rhythm of stop-motion animation and was usually paired up with Turnidge - who, looked like Graham Garden and gave a gritted peeled-back, grin, but never spoke. Together these two odd-boys bobbed around the school grounds in their own outsider orbit.

Until Mullen, like the rest of us, heard his hormones calling and took a turn peeping into the wee gap of mystery and magnificence - only to have his beady-eyed freeview hand-braked by the untimely tapping of the PE teacher on his cringed shoulder. For a few over-heated moments, Mullen had finally come into alignment with the rest of us and was one of the gang. The gang being a rolling collective of sweaty faced fidgeters, knee-shifting like snipers for maximum accuracy.

Of course, the moment his lusty bubble burst, Mullen was once again the same old sack-like lad... who, later that year, we locked in the school greenhouse with pal Turnidge, bolting off to leave them silently shouting through the misty panes and tomato plants. Cruel, yes - but that was kids in the 80s. Who were probably just as cruel as kids of any other decade.

Appropriately given this month's radiator tales: singles bought were The Angelic Upstarts, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Vapours..

Angelic Upstarts - Out of Control



Stiff Little Fingers - At the Edge





Chartwise the rundown for this date in 1980 looked like this

Top 75 Singles
Top 75 Albums

Possibly the most bizarre album chart in human history - with Des O'Connor (17), snuggled betwixt John Foxx and The Clash. Dare to go below 40 and it's an all-out mind-fry. You have been warned pop pickers..

Dear Diary:1980 - January

I'd forgotten, until seeing this Calendar, how much I hated the idea of shedding the 70s. And felt, as the 80s loomed into view like a sky-high iceberg - that in one crash and midnight-click of the clock the amazing technicolour, Cinderella 70s would be gone forever..

Sure enough, for years they were unfairly reported and revisited as a dated and desperately unfashionable era 'The decade that taste forgot' and similar baggy mantras - like any other decade didn't bring it's own stylistic horrors and howlers?

Anyhow, so onto the 80s. Jumble sales (26th ) became a rummage-hunt for skinhead and mod mates rooting about for Fred Perrys, Ben Sherman or Brutus shirts and red tab Levis. Although at this one if I remember, a giant-sized, monster spider leapt out from some old scrap or other, scuttling around and about like severed hand - sending DM booted skins, mods and punks reeling backwards, nimble footed and fleeing smartly doorwards...

Singles wise it's only The Specials to report, but as I'm sure you know what that sounds like and LPs begin to appear in the diary, I'll  pitch in links to the album charts - this week includes: Cozy Powell, The Fawlty Towers Original Television Soundtrack, Peace in the Valley, The Ramones and Nolans !?! - and perhaps drop in occasional album tracks like these two sex and violence songs..

No LOTR news for Jan - but this Specials skit could have been written especially for her.

The Specials - Stupid Marriage



Another tune that chimed with the times of inter-tribal punch ups and kickings that happened to several mates, but luckily I managed to avoid..

The Specials - Concrete Jungle



The charts for this week are well worth a squint. A mis-matched batch of unlikely bedfellows sharing the same slots and spaces almost high rise style: Fiddler's Dram, Rupert Holmes and Mike Oldfield's Blue Peter Theme bunched up like resentful tenants alongside The Clash, The Specials and at number 41 Prince !!! Well I never..

Dear Diary - December

Which album is Kid Christmas is holding? Scroll down for the answer

And so shipmates we come to our end-of-year sign off, the closing chapter in our 12 month part-work. But what a year, skin-shedding from disco poppet to teenage punk and junking Edwin Starr for Sid Vicious, with all manner of hi-jinks, capers and carry ons recorded forever by way of a few scribbled bits. Coincidentally I found the 1980 (mentioned on 12th) calendar last month. What do you reck' give it a go, or stick to '79?

What was traditionally a bumper month for birthdays 14th, 16th and 28th has become a case of 'last man standing'. But let's not end on morose note, and before we step into Christmas...I'll dedicate the entire run of Dear Diary posts to mum and dad who made this year, and every year, so special for me.

What can we spot in December then: a torn ankle ligament, early snow (18th), black DMs (10th) and two family traditions. The tree and deccies up around my birthday. And a London run driving to the maternal aunts and uncles handing out gifts and prezzies. I literally loved this, dad zipping around town and seeing the capital kitted out in it's Christmas shiny finery

Chart-wise the closing moments of '79 looked like this. Tune-wise I'll leave you with a couple in keeping with the punky mood of this month (Damned, Wolfmen). The Greedies (a re-up, as my single's dropped down the back of our wardrobe), a New Year's variant of the same track from the Kenny Everett show plus a best of '79 chart run-down with Tony Blackburn...sensational!. And not 79-ish in anyway but also a tune from Spector LP pictured with David 'Kid' Jensen..

Let's all meet up in the year 2011. Until then - have yourselves a merry little Christmas and a rocking New Year doings. Make the most of your loved ones, go easy on the port and plum duff, and hope Santa brings you everything you've worked and wished for..

x

London Calling should be in here too, but seems to have gone the way of The Greedies

The Greedies - A Merry Jingle.mp3



Darlene Love - It's A Marshmallow World

Dear Diary - November

Four song references scribbled around this pic' - can you get them all?

There's almost no greater spectator sport for a schoolboy than a bundle between your same-year peers (with the chants of 'fight, fight, fight, fight' ringing round and about) - better yet, when it's the unlikeliest of scrappers having a bash. And if this isn't robust enough, it's a double bill of bracket-punching in one day (28th) as Colbert (a Spaghetti Western drifter type) Vs Nelly (a sort of Gok Wan of our year) and Huggins (small with huge eyelashes) Vs Neary (rugger~team lump).

In other news, our frisky friend from over the road (LOTR) continues to put the 'goods on the barrow' with her free-wheeling liberated ways (28th) and Ye Olde Stereogram gets moved from the front room to my bedroom. Although it seems I jumped the gun slightly by adding The Stranglers to October's playlist when plainly it's November (24th). If you fancy a peep November '79 charts looked this

The Undertones - You've Got My Number



Couple of deviations and variants from the usual vinyl rips - just for this month

The Damned - it's the rare radio edit of 'Happy Today' instead of the standard single edish.

The Damned - I Just Can't Be Happy Today (Radio Edit)



The Undertones - instead the fine refit of Let's Talk About Girls B-siding 'Number' let's hear the Chocolate Watch orig'

The Chocolate Watch Band - Let's Talk About Girls



If you haven't seen it, The Damned's appearance on OGWT is a career highlight for both show and band.



The Cross and The Switchblade (14th)  was shown in a local church hall to warn corruptible teens about the perils of peer pressure, gangs, drugs.....  for us it was a free film, an evening in the warm and something with Poncho from CHips in...

Dear Diary - October

Hormonal boys and bangers: a teenage rampage of fidgety trigger fingers and blue touch papers. So what were the targets on our pocket-size pyromania hit list? Old boys dozing in cars waiting to collect their wives from the WRVS (bangers under, not in the cars) Mr Whippy dollops of doggy doings and poor ol' Heidi Roxborough (30th) discreetly reading in the park, had her library book lifted and a fast-fizzing banger placed bookmark style between the pages. Cue offstage pops, puffs and ever-diminishing smoking scorch holes receding from cover to cover.

Punky trimmings are taking hold with two T-shirts leopard skin and Sid Vicious bought from Nasty in Southend (now the brilliantly named Threads Atomic Dustbin)

Picture courtesy of Southend Punk

The Pistols may have been the Pied Pipers of punk who reeled me in - but The Damned were the band that maintained my momentum (note Love Song scrawled at the heading of last month's entry and Smash It Up on this.)

Oh, and the tick system for sick days - I uncovered these decoding notes scribbled on a back page. You'll notice most calendar sick day ticks are downward...

All this and a new scarf (black and white Grimsby colours - but inspired by The Stranglers). October's chart for this week of '79 looked like this - and singles added to the collection included...

I haven't ripped the vinyl of Smash It Up, but a version that appears to be demo, found on this compilation

The Damned - Smash It Up



Possibly the only song to ever feature the word 'gerrymander'

The Stranglers - Nuclear Device



John Du Cann - Don't Be a Dummy