The following is what I’ve been doing since I was born. Many things have obviously been left out because they are too embarrassing, boring or personal.

1950 – 1957 Benfieldside, Consett

Born 11^th June 1950 in Stafford. We stayed there for ~two years then moved to a council house in York Road, Benfieldside; my dad worked as the Treasurer for Consett county council, my mum looked after me and the house. I went to school at the local infants [not being allowed to go for a pee on my first day and dark blue multiplication table posters on the wall] and juniors [playing that game where a group of lads bend over in a long column and another group of lads run and jump onto your back in order to break it or the column; getting the cane for leaving the school grounds to retrieve a football; endless spelling tests and writing with a scratchy ink pen on a fibreboard rest]. Friends names I can remember – Michael Simmons, Raymond and Harry Bunny. I can remember climbing the billboard near our house and going to buy sweets every Saturday morning at Mr Briton’s local shop.

1957 – 1965 Bridgehill, Consett

When I was seven we moved to our own house in Barley Mill Road, Bridgehill, number 51. My mum still lives there. I used have a comic delivered every Saturday, ‘The Buster’. Friends were Ali (Alistair Todd) and Bill Johnson plus quite a few more.

Memories – playing ‘blocky’; cricket in the street; long hot summers playing in the fields and woods nearby; my Dansette record player; Del Shannon; black and white television between 5 and 6 ‘o’clock; falling through the ice in a pond near the slag heaps and saying “I’m wet”; falling out of a tree and breaking my arm whilst being lookout for our bonfire (the ‘Catholics’ would come and pinch our wood); Christmas in Manchester in my Grandparent’s cold house.

 I passed the ’11-plus’ exams (after much extra work at home) and got a telescope. Went to secondary school at Consett Grammar ~1,000 pupils. Started off in the artsy stream but soon moved over to sciences. I hated outside sports. Homework and swotting for exams – they were crap.

At about this time my Dad had moved on from owning a Vespa scooter to an Isetta bubble car – the type where the door was at the front and all three of us sat on a bench. We went to Scotland for our holidays staying in a caravan or farm house and touring around, which in your early teens is a bit boring. However I remember discovering Radio Luxembourg and Scotland does have some marvellous scenery. I used to read quite a lot – John Wyndham, the 69^th precinct books and all of the James Bond books.

I was very spotty as a young teenager and my hair was Brylcreemed and combed back like all the pop stars. On Saturday mornings my Dad would give me a lift to Consett swimming pool.

Stealing from Lambs

There was a bookshop in Consett called Lambs – I pinched a little booklet which was all about the Gemini star sign, in the introductory paragraph it said “Prone to petty theft” – I was impressed.

1965 - 1969

We had started getting proper cars – Triumph Heralds and Vitesses. My mum was now working her way up through the teaching profession, working in Shotley Bridge junior school. This period just seems to belong to swotting for ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels. There was camping in Keswick though and walks with my air rifle in the country. Far to quiet for my own good – I did not go out on Saturday nights like many of my school friends. Towards the end of school I did start going to the pictures to see crap horror films and Brigitte Bardot films (where you got to see her naked back a lot). I read the New Musical Express and listened to Alan Freeman’s ‘Pick of the Pops’ every Sunday – he was one of the few DJs who would keep quiet during the music, so you always got a good recording.

On being a prefect – chocolates, mistletoe

Prefects get to stay inside when it’s cold or wet, they also have their own room – ours was lined with beer mats. The rule was that when you went for a University interview you brought back some mats from that area.

I was a nice-guy prefect, towards the end of one term, about six girls from the second year (12-13 years old) bought me a box of Cadburys Milk Tray. A nice girl in the fourth year hung some mistletoe over my head and gave me a snog one Christmas.

1969 – 1970 Sheffield

I finally finished school in June 1969, me and some school mates hitched down to London – we had tickets to see Led Zeppelin at the Royal Albert Hall. The visit was made on a shoestring budget and we slept in Hyde Park. It was round about this time that Margaret and I met and needless to say, we had a lot of fun.

Prior to college I worked for six weeks at the Consett Iron Company, pushing a brush. It was a big place so there were loads of spots where you could hide and do nothing – I drove to Durham one afternoon and bought Margaret a pink Ben Sherman shirt, drove back to work and clocked off as normal – hard graft. I got to use a pneumatic drill though.

Having only one ‘A’ level in Chemistry I could not go to a University, so I ended up at Sheffield Polytechnic – which I enjoyed. I stayed in lodgings during my first year and did not do too much work, being obsessed with Margaret and the music that John Peel was playing (which I used to record on one of those clunky big tape recorders). Had a college friend called Jake who was from Sheffield, so we used to go to pubs with his mates. I had the occasional joint and once took speed – stayed awake all weekend and walked for miles.

1970 – 1971 Boston and St Albans

Margaret joined me in Boston, Lincolnshire during the first six months of an industrial placement at the River Authority. I analysed water samples and Margaret worked for the DHSS and at Fogertys. We stayed at Henry Smith’s house, bought an engagement ring and a proper record player although the amplifier was the Dansette on the left channel and the tape recorder for the right.

We had no car or television, so entertainment was going to the local cinema or just listening to music.

We then spent the next six months in St Albans on another industrial placement. I caught the train each day to Harpenden to work in a laboratory at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. I was analysing pesticides and the daft buggers asked me to talk to a small committee in London once. Margaret again did office work and we lived in a house where we rented the bottom floor from Mr Rayner. We had a television now and we got married during a lengthy post strike – so nobody knew; we did have some friends with us though. Lack of transport stopped us getting too far away from St Albans.

1971 – 1972 Sheffield

For my third year, we moved to a flat in Sheffield, always being helped by financial support from my parents. I worked hard during this year and did very well at the end of the course. We went to one or two rock concerts at the City Hall and watched films like Straw Dogs at a cinema in the centre of Sheffield. (My friend Jake had left the Poly at the end of the first year). Margaret had a bad back for some time and had to stay in bed, but she did also work at the DHSS again. Her father died while I was working for my final exams.

1972 – 1973 Hull

After my good showing at the Poly we moved to a flat in Hull while I worked hard at failing the ‘GRSC ptII’. I should have picked another college, but never mind, I did extremely well at programming in Algol using punched cards. This was still years before the ‘Commodore Pet’ started appearing. Still no transport, so it was watching television, cinema and listening to progressive music. Hull was a bit of a dump at the time and our flat was bloody cold during the winter – the indoor toilet froze over. Margaret did more office work at Richard Sizer, an import/export facilitator.