Was Xmas 1985/1986 when i
got drunk at parent's friends new year party - was massively in to Lou Reed's
Transformer LP - thanks to seeing Nico,
and because of Dave, the Velvet Underground was on my radar. I was given a
copy, on tape, of the first two VU albums - and much of the VU output just
wasn't available back then, but it would be made available over the next few
decades - look at what's on Spotify now - it's amazing and at the time of
writing I haven't had a chance to listen to much of it.
The friend was I think
called Diane.
this embarrassed me for
years but i met Diane and her daughter at my mum's funeral in 2016 and this
came up. So it feels like it's been exorcised from my conscience now. Diane's
daughter is my age almost exactly and we played together as tiny children, when
they lived in a flat in Plymouth, which i can still remember. There was a mural
in the toilet (tiny room with just a toilet as I remember it) and it was a
devilish looking man with a goatie all over one wall, behind the toilet so he
was staring intensley at you while you had a pee (was obviously old enough to
hold my own at that point), but i had the fear in me on that side of the flat
and was terrfied of the mural. Found out a few years later tha there had been
an intense haunting in the flat - including poltergeist acitivity and
manifestations - ghostly baby cries, things moving by themselves and one night
Diane woke up in the night and "saw herself" which has never been
explained to me.
I'd been watching space exploration stuff since I could remember - not quite able to remember the first Moon landing coverage, though I am told I did watch at least some of it. But on January 28 – Space Shuttle
Challenger disaster. Was a shock. It still affects me. Especally now we know what really happened, and NASA's cover up. I don't think its all over yet by a long shot. NASA is trying to escape its responsibilities but obvious families and friends never forget.
Politically - I'd been taken under the wing by a couple of left wingers - activists - who were locally involved with left wing politics. I'm quite vague about it all now because I can barely remember this period. The printers strike & Wapping – I wore that badge and man who reminded me of Michael Caine at Woolwich College commented on it – why would anyone boycott a good paper like the Times? Hmmmm.
I was there on Feb 8th – one week before it went completely nuts. The report below is typical of the spin that the media put on it - bad elements. Yeah, bad elements in the police force.
Eight police officers have been injured and 58 people arrested in the worst outbreak of violence yet outside the News International printing plant in Wapping, east London.
One officer, a 27-year-old sergeant, was taken to hospital with head injuries.
Police estimated 5,000 demonstrators gathered near the printing works for a mass demonstration.
Similar mass protests have taken place regularly outside the Wapping plant ever since the start of a strike three weeks ago over new working conditions and the move from Fleet Street to cheaper premises in East London.
For the first time since picketing began, police used riot shields during today's fighting, and mounted police were brought in to break up sections of the crowd.
Wyn Jones, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said, "We saw the classic example of honest well-intentioned union members supporting their cause being joined by diverse elements whose only interest was in causing as much trouble as possible.
"They were intent on disrupting business and assaulting officers."
Police barricades have been put up at entrances to the Wapping site, and traffic has been stopped from getting through apart from vans carrying copies of newspapers.
The Wapping dispute was one of the most protracted and bitter in Britain's industrial history.The picketing was exceptionally violent, with 1,262 arrests and 410 police injuries. The police were accused of being heavy-handed and aggressive in dealing with strikers and local residents.
The strike lasted a year, ending in February 1987 in ignominy for the print unions, near bankruptcy and under threat of court proceedings.
News International did not lose a single night of production during the strike.
Wapping effectively broke the power wielded by print unions over the newspaper industry.
It was the second time in as many years that major industrial action had failed, following the even more bitter miners' strike of 1984-1985.
Both strikes were held against a background of new legislation to curb the power of the unions, brought in by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
By 1988, all national newspapers had followed Rupert Murdoch away from Fleet Street to the newly-developed Docklands, and adopted new, cheaper computerised printing technology.
Easter – very ill - it was mumps or something and I was ill for almost the whole of the holidays, but well again in time for Poly. I was getting the coach to and from Plymouth, I had one of those student discount thingies.
I also had wisdon teeth trouble this year. There was a long waiting list though. So though I think my initital appointment was before my end of year exams in '86, i didn't get the teeth removed until much later in the year - hammered out by a student in Guy's Hospital by London Bridge.
Half Man Half Biscuit at Mean Fiddler – before the exams – I couldn’t get Dave to come with me so had to go by myself. It was a long way, but ironically just round the corner of where i was going to be living in about three years time.
J&MC at Brixton – and Kilburn.
There was a lot of shit happening in the world and I don't think I had much of a grasp of what was relaly happening. to be honest, few do. Not until I read Chomsky in the '90s did any of it really make sense. I was still under the impression in the mid 80s that America was essentially a force for good, wih some bad people in charge at the moment (Reagan, Bush, etc.). I had no fucking clue.
Jan 28th: President Jean-Claude
Duvalier ("Baby Doc") flees Haiti, ending 28 years of family rule.
February 25: The 27th Congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union opens in Moscow. The General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev introduces the keywords of his mandate to the audience:
Glasnost and Perestroika. People Power
Revolution: President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines goes into exile in
Hawaii after 20 years of rule
February 28th – Swedish Prime
Minister Olof Palme is shot to death on his way home from the cinema in
Stockholm, Sweden. Book by Jan Bondeson. This set my as yet still fledgling sense of conspiracy theory off and twitching. hopefully I'll be writing more about it as I research this Blog.
March 26: An article in
The New York Times charges that Kurt Waldheim, former United Nations
Secretary-General and candidate for president of Austria, may have been involved
in Nazi war crimes during World War II.
April 15th: Operation El
Dorado Canyon: At least 15 people die after United States planes bomb targets
in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the Benghazi region.
April 26th: Chernobyl
disaster: A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in
Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union "killed at least 4,056 people and
damaged almost $7 billion of property".[5] Radioactive fallout from the
accident is concentrated near Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and at least 350,000
people are forcibly resettled away from these areas. After the accident,
"traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were in nearly every
country in the northern hemisphere". And genuinely we dodged a bullet here. It could have been so much worse. I forget how much of a panic it was at the time.
I sailed through my exams
with the exception of one subject which I intended dropping anyway - electrical
power. Then, after our little trip to Holland, it was back to Plymouth.
 |
| Chris P, good looking unknown person, my bag, Brian, Julian, Chris M, Mark E, Paul Simon, Howard |
I'd bought some export
strength vodka and was busy using it up in the day or two I had left after the
exams had ended.
My Dad came to collect me
on such occasions. I had to move all my stuff out of the accomodation. He had a
Capri which wasn't the most practical for carrying a lot of stuff in, but we
managed.
He arrived while I was
sitting in my room with Paul Simon. He though we were kissing. Oh dear - he was a major homophobe; I was
just leaning over him looking at a photo from our dutch trip. My Dad kind of gave the game away here - I'm sure he knew I wasn't straight. but even so I was way too scared of him to ever come out as trans. For the record, I didn't even begin to find Paul attractive; some men, yes, but not the guys I used to hang out with.
Summer holidays is a
tradition I miss these days. In 1986 I needed to find myeslf a little bit.
Having become detached from me and what had been my lfe up till then I'd gone a
bit wrong. The weight gain - looking weird - depression - just feeling lost I
guess.
So - back to my mother's
cooking, going out with my friends at the weekend, and knocking around with
Mark again. The canoeing got me back on form and I lost the weight - that and
eating properly again.
Lisa was with Terry - a man
in his 40s and all the rifts had healed while i was away - it had escalated to fisticuffs between my Dad and Terry, who once had been friends, before my sister started going out with him. So I spent quite a
lot of time round there playing snooker in the garage. Terry supplied me with
bicycles through this period. He owned a removals company and used to get these
things from house clearances. I think he gave me two bikes in all before his
death from Leukeamia.
I remember, in particular, listening to the Simply Red album quite a lot that summer. I'm not proud.
I joined Lisa and Terry
down in Cornwall - they went camping near Newquay and I cycled down about 60/70
miles to join then for a night or two. I got a lift home though.
The canoeing with Mark involved
going out to the Great Mewstone. The Mewstone is an island off Wembury in south Devon, and it was pretty heavily covered in vegetation so we didn't get very far from the coast line.
We explored an old
fort out in the sound.
We even once made it onto Drakes Island which actually
isn't far from the mainland.
I got my hair cut in the
style of David Bowie on his 1984 album - Lisa was working in a hairdressers at
the time - and i think it was that one (?).
It was a cleaner leaner
fitter and more fashionable me that went back to Woolwich in September 1986.
Could sign on those days in holidays – which I did. I went out on a
couple of dates with a girl that went nowhere.
I worked at the Bowyer's
Plympton factory which isn't there any more. 10 Newnham Road, Plympton,
Plymouth, Devon.
Hilliers - had been boughtby Asda and burnt down in 2005
There was also a Bowyers factory on Alexander Road, Mutley, Plymouth. It had a large chimney with the name Bowyer running down it which was very well known in the city. The factory was formerly the Bedford Brewery premises which became the Beechwood factory in 1921, producing Devonshire bacons and hams. In 1959 it came under Unigate Dairies ownership when they took over Cow & Gate. The plant was subsequently sold to Bowyer's, who opened a new factory on the Newnham Industrial Estate in 1979 and the old factory was demolished; the famous chimney was taken down in May 1980. ~ Wikipedia
When I got the job I
thought I'd be working at the plant above, not realising that it was no longer
a functioning factory. But I remember the chimney and the plant being there for
much of my childhood. surprised it went as early as 1980 though. In my mental
map it's still there!
The factory was huge. It
had a meat processing up one end, where butchered corpses of pigs would be
brought in and the packaging happened up the other where i was based.
I applied for a job with
Bowyer's and this factory made Bowyers pies and pasties under license, and
Ginsters (made in Cornwall, yeah, right) and various supermarket home brands.
Presumably later they moved over to dedicated production for Asda lines. Which is a shame because Asda pies and
pasties are shit.
 |
| Bowyer's factory in Trowbridge |
Class difference became
fairly obvious. I consider myself working class, and always have done. It's why
I'm so fucked up, because I no longer fit in my own class. My parents brought
me up to think I was better than working class, which I probably did for a
while. Certainly at this point in my life I did. I had full arrogance of youth
and thought I could do everything right that everyone else had failed at. I was
working class and I read the Guardian, so I thought everyone should be reading
the guardian. Besides I could not read the Sun - I looked at one my dad brought
home from work once and it was awful, from the poor English to the offensive
ideologies assumed. It was the literature equivalent to eating cheap Asda
pasties. Basically cardboard with fat and flavouring.
So breaks were awkward and
I got a lot of shit for just trying to maintain my personal intergrity. Also
autistic. Also quite feminine in manner. I was easy meat for the bullies.
I met up with Gavin Smith
who was a trainee - management - while i was a grunt on the production line. I
had a lot of trouble there. I was tried out on getting hot stuff out of the
ovens, injecting pies with jelly, putting wrappers on the pasties - this was
done by machine but it was so decrepit that it kept going wrong so someone had
to be on hand to help it out - loads of pasties got broken
My hands soon became covered in blisters, I just
couldn't physically do the work I was being asked to do
First week I was on a
production line. Set up to fail as I was with experienced operatives who'd been
doing this stuff for years, motivated by production bonuses and hardened to all
the rough edges. literal rough edges. I mean i got shit for being slow but I
think they thought I'd get faster but my hands became more and more sore and I
got increasingly tired, and I slowed down. they were basically covering for me
at the end of the week. This manual work thing didn't suit me. thank fuck,
looking back. I was reading about some of these employees having worked here 30
years. 30 years!!
Lots of mealy mouthed words
about "I'm sure you're very capable at whatever it is you do at
Poly..." blah blah blah. All I wanted was some cash. £600 in my pocket
would have been huge but the 2 or 300 squid I earned from this was enough.
Yeah right - actually I
wasn't great at that either, but good enough. I made too many bad decisions while
being pressured by others.
July 23 – In London, Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.
August 20 – In Edmond, Oklahoma, United States Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers before committing suicide.
Back at Poly things were
better at first. But hit the same brick walls eventually, when I got tired and
became self hating. I went and hid. Second term was back to normal – being
isolated and anti-social. There was a girl who I hung out with for a while –
and I really liked her, but she was even more self deprecating than I was and
unbelievably told me I was too good for her. We went to gigs together, hung
out, but drifted apart. Maybe that was my fault. She was almost a first
girlfriend except that we never framed it like that – we were just friends.
Dad drove me up to London
with my stuff. I took a bike up this time - not sure how we got it in the car,
or whether i went back for it a few weeks later.
I was moving into a house
in Plumstead. Mrs Patak. At first I was sharing a room with Mark - a nightmare
scenario. In a bunk bed. I was underneath and it wasn't safe. the bed on top
wasn't attached and I feared being crushed in the night. also Mark was a
neanderthal in many ways.
We cooked together, which
felt really odd, but not as odd as shopping together. Eventually my room was
ready. I liked my room even though it had a large hole in the floor through
which you could see the kitchen. It was high up with tremendous view out the back.
I put my desk against the back window and watched the world while i studied.
also had a sofa. and a bar fire which i could use freely.
My wisdom teeth that had
flared up in the summer was no longer a problem, though still had appointment
for removal. Mum came up and saw me through it - it was a requirement that I
not be alone after being released from hospital. just as well, i could barely
walk.
I think I had even less
friends this year than the year before but somehow, it didn't bother me quite
so much. at least I wasn't fat, and had a decent haircut.
The man who worked for free
for Mrs P.
My fruit being stolen while i was ill.
in the run up to my second
year exams - I went onto a mainly muesli diet.
I got involved with the
Labour Party in Plumstead - a lovely group of people. We met in the Working
Men's Club / Labour Club - whatever it was....and in the pub. I started spending
my sunday afternoon's having drinks bought for me, mostly, being a poor
student, and sitting in lock-ins eating free grub, drinking free beer. But I
also campaigned for the Labour Party
Council elections in 1986 -
labour won.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loony_left
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_1987
26th February - a
byelection after guy barnett had died - rosie Barnes, a hateful SDP candidate
won.
3rd year - move
There was no Dave - he'd failed his exams. Harvey had disappeared. We never saw him again.
I stayed in touch with Dave though - I think I visited him once at some point - it was the start of me picking up the guitar. Kings Langley out near Watford, with the Ovaltinies factory. Dave's Dad worked for Mirror Group newspapers, and had a nice pension lined up...so he thought.
October 11 – 12 – Cold War:
Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland,
to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals
in Europe, which end in failure.[9]
October 26 – Bus
deregulation goes into effect in the United Kingdom, except Greater London and
Northern Ireland.
October 27 – The Big Bang
in the London Stock Exchange abolishes fixed commission charges, paving the way
for an electronic trading platform.
November 3
Iran–Contra affair: The
Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been selling
weapons to Iran in secret, in order to secure the release of 7 American
hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
November 21 – Iran-Contra
Affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn
Hall, start shredding documents implicating them in selling weapons to Iran and
channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
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