My Life Story In 50 Gigs

Good old Facebook. Without it, I really wouldn’t have a life. OK, I’ll qualify that: without it, I wouldn’t consolidate what makes up my life in such a structured fashion. I’m not “into” autobiography (I found writing my own “about” section for this blog and for a State featured writer blurb hugely difficult) but the […]

Pointless Nostalgia: Puffa Puffa Rice (again)

Due to overwhelming demand (and the extraordinary patronage of ANITA ALOHA , star of a 1960s Kellogg’s commercial), it seems we may have a ‘Bring Back Puffa Puffa Rice’ Campaign on our hands. Personally, I’m all for keeping the past in the past but, if they can bring back Wispas, we could be in with […]

Pointless Nostalgia: Patrick Hernandez

When Jim Carroll posted details about the latest round of Electric Picnic acts on his blog, one reader was so bewildered by the inclusion of Kid Creole & the Coconuts that they replied, “Kid Creole !!?? Mother of God! Anybody for Patrick Hernandez?” Now there would have been a reason for me to go without […]

(One Foot In The) Grave News

40 years ago today, this rather brilliant piece of music was No.1 in the UK charts. Coincidentally, my poor mum was enduring an experience she said she “wouldn’t wish on anyone” – namely, giving birth to me. I think I’m correct in saying she hasn’t had too much cause to regret it since, despite consistent exam […]

Who Says The 1980s Weren’t Stylish?

The second series of Ashes To Ashes began last Monday night on BBC1. It’s by no means as great as its predecessor, Life On Mars, but it’s a lot of fun nonetheless; Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) is still the finest current comic creation on TV. Anyway, this isn’t a TV review, it’s about the clothes. […]

Super Trouper, Pooper-Scooper

Ah, Hogmanay. ‘Tis the season for anyone with a dodgy beard and/or a crappy ’70s hairstyle to pretend they’re in Abba. And that, as they say, is just the girls. Yes, it’s the time of year when hundreds of clearly inebriated people pay good (a.k.a. scarce) money to sit in the function room of a soulless country […]

Pointless Nostalgia: The Wonder of Woolies

The shops are still open today but it looks like it’s finally curtains for Woolworth’s. From its origins in New York from 1878, F.W. Woolworth has been a fixture of the British high street for longer than most of our grandparents can remember. It is a genuine institution, a retail mainstay, as much a part of the fabric […]

Pointless Nostalgia: Peters And Lee

“Welcome Home…” Such a sweet song and yet, for some bizarre reason, it haunts me in a way that makes me shudder. It was one of those songs that soundtracked a part of my very young childhood and not necessarily the bits I want to remember. Lennie Peters and Dianne Lee couldn’t have happened in […]

Pointless Nostalgia: Horror Bags

The children of my generation were the luckiest ones when it came to crisps in the U.K. We were the guinea pigs for experimental manufacturers’ imaginations, those palate manipulators who wanted to test the very limits of our tastebuds’ endurance, from sweet to sour, mild to spicy, subtle to spanking. The biggest innovations came when […]

Pointless Nostalgia: Public Information Films

Apologies for repeating myself, but in the previous Pointless Nostalgia I mentioned those emails we all keep getting, about how on earth danger-loving children from the 1970s survived to tell the tale. Well, I’ve just remembered how – in Britain, we had Public Information Films. The government of the day were so concerned about our […]