On the day Maggie came to power

I was oblivious to what it would mean. Sixteen. At school I fought with the teachers and tried to avoid the O-levels looming just ahead. And in the evening, we went to Barbarella's. To see Iggy Pop. Crunching over broken glass, and lifting feet stuck to carpet with beer and ash. Broad Street before it was redeveloped. No go canals full of trolleys and dead dogs. A ragged dirty city, where men tumbled out of The Antelope on a Saturday night and threw up beside bus stops where grannies in their Sunday best would stand on their way to church the next morning.

We took the night bus home - May 4th, - and sat upstairs, smoking, joking, as people stumbled their way off the bus. Tight drainpipe jeans. Men's jackets from Oxfam. Remembering Iggy Pop pulling down his trousers to his knees and waving his penis at the crowd.

Comments

  1. I was just thinking about Barabarella's recently - THE place to go then. And Horts Wine Bar, for some reason I never quite understood.

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    1. It was absolutely THE place - although I'm not really sure why!! Was Hort's down past the law court's? With ecclesiastical furnishings? I do remember the Hostaria Romana - very upmarket compared to Barbarellas!!!

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  2. Ahhhhh... I was there with you!! Memories flooding back missus.. lovely, lovely! Hosteria was ace.. bulls blood and general flailing.. good times, my friend, good times xxx Tommo xxx

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  3. More memories, curious cat, we want more... you;re the only one who seems to have half a brain cell left... xxx Tommo xx

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    1. Not so much brain cells - I have all my diaries from 1979 to 1983 - and I was extremely anal in writing every day during 1979/1980/early 1981..... I could tell you what you were doing in any given week!!!
      I even have dream diaries, new year resolutions, lists of albums and singles to buy, books to read - ovay ovay that's what happens when you live in Sparkhill with a slightly deranged family dynamic!!

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  4. Hosteria down by Patti Labelles shop...Horts was Five Ways, wasn't it? Need a photo

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