Live at Leeds

Funny how the mind works, isn't it? I was reading about Ian Dury and the time Pete (long before being caught by the police for "researching" kiddie porn) had him convinced that Kilburn & the High Roads would open for them in the States. Not surprisingly it didn't happen but did perhaps lead to Ian moving on to run the Blockheads. However this threw my mind back into the past, when I tried to rehabilitate my studies and returned to Oxford Poly for a second go at a degree.

I met a young lady called Jacqueline, who luckily had not spent all her grant on booze or whacky baccy, and she became a fixture in my caravan, although hardly trailer trash. Never having been fond of the name Jackie, I rechristened her "Sam". Back in those days it seems that while women were celebrating the pill and other such things they could still be renamed by a rather callow partner.

And in the bar each lunch time there was a fascinating example of modhood, often wearing Union Jack jacket and apparently entranced by my lady. "Samantha" he would gush "can I buy you a drink?". This was not something to be turned down, especially if she could get one for me as well, so it was quite some time before she admitted to Jacqueline rather than Samantha, naturally choosing a time so as to inflict maximum embarrassment.

But that was the sixties: peace, love and regular total embarrassment. Particularly, of course when looking at old photos many years later.