nostalgia
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I was chuffed to bits; I had just bought my first tape and put vinyl records behind me. I was on the cutting edge of music (yes, I know many of you won’t know a) what a tape is or b) what on earth a vinyl record is, but this was 1984) and I couldn’t…
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When I feel in need of blowing the cobwebs away, I’ll stick my headphones in my ears, scroll down my playlist to Linkin Park and crank the volume up. In my mother’s words it’s, “Shouty music. Simply dreadful. It’s certainly not The Everly Brothers.” That, it isn’t. I first came across the band when they…
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One of my favourite music artists has always been Bryan Adams. I first fell in love with his songs when I heard Run to You, released in 1984, from the album, Reckless, when I was the tender age of 12. I saved my pocket money for the single, but it wasn’t long before that wasn’t…
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When I heard The Mamas and The Papas California Dreamin’ on the radio recently, I was reminded of winters at home when I was at primary school. I’d dread getting up in the mornings as the house didn’t have a lot of heating (incidentally, it still doesn’t. And the little heating it has is barely…
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Whenever I hear Phil Collins’ ‘In The Air Tonight’, I’m always reminded of my first holiday abroad. Like many parents in the 1970s, Mum and Dad struggled to find money for holidays and so by the age of 17, my travels had taken me to the far shores of Bournemouth, Torquay and Wales. So when…
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When my mother-in-law recently started talking about how I used to wear mini-skirts when she first met me, I thought she must be going mad. Did I really? But, as this photo clearly shows, I did and she’s not mad at all. There I am, wearing a short skirt, together with a ‘fetching’ perm. Perms…
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When I look at this photo, taken in 1979, when I was aged 7, it isn’t the big ears and gappy mouth that catch my eye. Well, they do stand out a bit but it’s the wonky fringe which looks like it’s been chewed by mice that my eyes are drawn to. Dear Mum; we…
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This week’s guest writer is one of my ex-students (he’s completed the whole course so an enormous well done to him). Nest Madden has shared his wonderful reminisces on my blog many a time. This one is a real treat: As a young police constable at the end of the 1960s I hated night duty.…
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In 1986, my favourite TV programme was Top of the Pops. Every Thursday night, I could be found glued to the TV waiting to hear if my favourite song had made it to the prestigious No.1 slot. Mum and Dad used to moan and groan about the ‘hideous racket’ coming from the TV, but they…
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There I was, eleven years old, glumly trudging round the shops with Mum and Dad, when I saw it – the sign. It was in the shop window of Clarks shoe shop – ‘Free with any pair of school shoes – a Top Ten Single. Exclusive to Clarks’. It was 1983 and I’d just started…
Esther Chilton 