What was it like to be a student in the 1970’s?
Luckily I kept a diary – although how I found the time amongst all the gigs, bars and occasional lectures baffles me!
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1976: Homeless in London – part 4
Five days without a change of clothes, roaming the street for much of the day, visiting umpteen people and organisations that seemed powerless to help – and a car chase around Stoke Newington. Being homeless is painful, tiring, squalid and I felt very much alone.
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My groovy 45’s: ‘What’ by Judy Street
Very few singles from my days as ‘Funky Genghis’ survive, but some did – and still sound great today! This is ‘What’ by Judy Street, which will be known to most for the 1982 synth version by Soft Cell.
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Trouble @ Home – events that would have a dramatic impact on my life – part 3
After a great Easter weekend I arrived home to find all my possessions on the wrong side of a locked door. The realisation that I was homeless dawned on my only slowly, and all I had were the clothes I stood up in.
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Trouble @ Home – events that would have a dramatic impact on my life – part 2
50 Years Ago: my last day at City & Guilds; drinks with work colleagues; home to a growing sense of fear… how long would I have a place to live?
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The first week of April 1976 – finding a temp job, buying a Gentle Giant ticket, a Eurovision win for Britain and an interview with Michael Foot
The first week of April 1976 saw me arriving back in London from Swansea and setting off first thing for a temp agency to find work. It ended with buying a Gentle Giant ticket, a Eurovision win for Britain and a TV interview with Michael Foot MP.
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Swansea field trip: the final days fading away into beer and a failed attempt to get home
The fag-end of the geography field trip seems to have just faded away. I was wandering around trying to find potential tourist attractions – for a forthcoming essay – and failing to hitch back to London. Back at home I learned that sadly my flatmates had lost Tigger in Market Rasen.
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Who decides what is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty?
Two days on the Gower Peninsula evaluating the landscape. How can you apply a score to hills, valleys, lakes and rivers? I had no idea, but that is what we had to do.
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Geography field trip: late nights, parties, cooked breakfasts, mystery tours – and lot’s of Welsh beer!
Swansea days 1 & 2: fast train from Paddington, numerous beers, late night parties, cooked breakfasts, Old Grey Whistle Test. Oh, and a bit of geography too.
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Four long days of temp work and evenings of study. And then I bought a ticket to Swansea…
Week ending 21st. March was very tiring, and my first experience of work through a temp agency. Long days of learning a new job and long evenings of study. But joy was on the horizon – a residential geography field trip to Swansea!
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Easter break – and that meant finding work! Got a temp job at Harrap Publishers
50 Years Ago – Unlike some of my fellow students my parents were unable to subsidise the student grant, so it was essential to find work outside of term time. Today I managed to get work at Harrap Publishers in Upper Holborn.
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Mike Absalom, The Listener & Infra-red Mapping
An obscure and bizarre celtic poet and musician, The Listener magazine and other journals, and lectures on energy flows in ecosystems and infra-red and satellite mapping. A day in the life of a student in 1976.
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Trouble @ Home… the start of events that would have a dramatic impact on my life
My LSE Diary on this day in 1976 records events that would be the beginning of one of the most difficult periods in my life.
Colin Anderson 