term 1 new year

Monday December 31st A TYPICAL NEW YEAR New Year’s Eve. Every year the same. While Christmas Eve would usually be spent in the company of my Mum’s side of the family, we always spent New Year with my Dad’s - more specifically, with my grandparents Mary and Jack Shepherd, who held a New Year’s Eve party every year at their bungalow in Durkar. This basically meant a gathering of all Dad’s side of the family - like Mary’s brother Ernest and his wife Rita (although they might not have been there that year thanks to a massive bust-up Ernest had with his sisters over the arrangements for their Mum’s funeral. Seriously. I’ve no idea what happened but they never spoke again for the rest of their lives); Mary’s sister, also called Rita, her husband Les (who absolutely terrified me, even though he was lovely - maybe because he smoked a pipe and had big thick dark bushy eyebrows) and their teenage daughter Kim. Then Jack’s brothers and sisters - Nan and her husband Jim; their son Paddy and his wife Amanda; Vin and his wife Maureen (who I once upset by having a wild tantrum round their house when I wasn’t allowed to watch Play School); Dad’s cousin Martin and his wife Angela (of whom more another time). Loads of them. So many I’ve probably forgotten half of them. It was always so quiet in Durkar - quite disconcerting for a town lad like me. Even a sleepy village like Fairburn had a motorway running through the middle of it. So Durkar unnerved me a bit. But New Year was different - loud and colourful. Music and dancing. Joe Loss. Brown Girl in the Ring. Plenty of alcohol (which obviously I didn’t drink, unless maybe someone treated me to a Babycham). And the conga. Before the end of the night, everyone did the conga, all around the bungalow. There are a few photos on the left, of Jack’s - stuff I inherited when he died. Difficult to be sure about the dates - it’s harder than you think trying to put things like that in chronological order - but I don’t think any of them are from this particular night in 1979. I reckon the first two are from 1977 and the second pair from 1978. They’re mainly from before the parties started, so they don’t do my memories justice. But I do miss those days. Everything was so much simpler. Nothing had gone wrong yet. Everything was, temporarily, absolutely fine. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world… 10.30pm, BBC 1: Late News • Main news: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan • Thatcher foresees a difficult year for Britain’s economy • Steel strike imminent • Rhodesia ceasefire happening, but very slowly • Children march through London in support of the International Year of the Child, which ends today BBC 2: Old Grey Whistle Test: Blondie in Concert Adam and the Ants live at the Electric Ballroom, Camden - the last gig they did in their original formation, before spectacularly splitting up: • better quality, shorter • worse quality, longer 11pm, ITV: Kenny Everett Special, ITV: The “Will Kenny Everett Make It To 1980?” Show - featuring: • Roxy Music • Boomtown Rats • Cliff Richard (in leather!) • David Bowie (with a bespoke re-recording of Space Oddity, filmed on the same set he used for Ashes to Ashes) • Thin Lizzy & Sex Pistols (singing a Christmas medley) • plus of course Hot Gossip (dancing to Sleazy and Brown Sugar) HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Monday December 31st, 1979

TERM 1: New Year’s Eve

TERM 1 (Sept - Dec 1979) Week 0 (Aug 25 - Sep 2, 1979) Week 1 (Sep 3 - Sep 9, 1979) Week 2 (Sep 10 - Sep 16, 1979) Week 3 (Sep 17 - Sep 23, 1979) Week 4 (Sep 24 - Sep 30, 1979) Week 5 (Oct 1 - Oct 7, 1979) Week 6 (Oct 8 - Oct 14, 1979) Week 7 (Oct 15 - Oct 21, 1979) Half Term (Oct 22 - Oct 28, 1979) Week 8 (Oct 29 - Nov 4, 1979) Week 9 (Nov 5 - Nov 11, 1979) Week 10 (Nov 12 - Nov 18, 1979) Week 11 (Nov 19 - Nov 25, 1979) Week 12 (Nov 26 - Dec 2, 1979) Week 13 (Dec 3 - Dec 9, 1979) Week 14 (Dec 10 - Dec 16, 1979) Week 15 (Dec 17 - Dec 23, 1979) Christmas (Dec 24 - Dec 30, 1979) New Year’s Eve (Dec 31, 1979)

TERM 1 IN LINK FORM

Destiny of the Daleks Sep 1, 1979

Cars Gary Numan

ITV Returns Oct 24,1979

The Path of Least Resistance The Human League

Mountbatten State Funeral Sep 5, 1979

Video Killed the Radio Star Buggles

Iran Hostage Crisis Nov 4, 1979

Life of Brian Debate Nov 9, 1979

< CHRISTMAS 1979

Thatcher's 'Shut up, I know what I'm talking about' face

Kenny Everett with his legs wrapped around his neck

Mum, Major Tom's starting to scare me now...

Hot Gossip give birth to the 1980s live on TV

TERM 2 WEEK 0 >

TERM 2 (Jan - Apr 1980) TERM 3 (Apr - Jul 1980)

< CHRISTMAS 1979

Monday December 31st, 1979

TERM 1: New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

11pm, ITV: Kenny Everett Special, ITV: The “Will Kenny Everett Make It To 1980?” Show - featuring: • Roxy Music • Boomtown Rats • Cliff Richard (in leather!) • David Bowie (with a bespoke re-recording of Space Oddity, filmed on the same set he used for Ashes to Ashes) • Thin Lizzy & Sex Pistols (singing a Christmas medley) • plus of course Hot Gossip (dancing to Sleazy and Brown Sugar)

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world… 10.30pm, BBC 1: Late News • Main news: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan • Thatcher foresees a difficult year for Britain’s economy • Steel strike imminent • Rhodesia ceasefire happening, but very slowly • Children march through London in support of the International Year of the Child, which ends today BBC 2: Old Grey Whistle Test: Blondie in Concert Adam and the Ants live at the Electric Ballroom, Camden - the last gig they did in their original formation, before spectacularly splitting up: • better quality, shorter • worse quality, longer

It was always so quiet in Durkar - quite disconcerting for a town lad like me. Even a sleepy village like Fairburn had a motorway running through the middle of it. So Durkar unnerved me a bit. But New Year was different - loud and colourful. Music and dancing. Joe Loss. Brown Girl in the Ring. Plenty of alcohol (which obviously I didn’t drink, unless maybe someone treated me to a Babycham). And the conga. Before the end of the night, everyone did the conga, all around the bungalow. There are a few photos above, of Jack’s - stuff I inherited when he died. Difficult to be sure about the dates - it’s harder than you think trying to put things like that in chronological order - but I don’t think any of them are from this particular night in 1979. I reckon the first two are from 1977 and the second pair from 1978. They’re mainly from before the parties started, so they don’t do my memories justice. But I do miss those days. Everything was so much simpler. Nothing had gone wrong yet. Everything was, temporarily, absolutely fine.

This basically meant a gathering of all Dad’s side of the family - like Mary’s brother Ernest and his wife Rita (although they might not have been there that year thanks to a massive bust-up Ernest had with his sisters over the arrangements for their Mum’s funeral. Seriously. I’ve no idea what happened but they never spoke again for the rest of their lives); Mary’s sister, also called Rita, her husband Les (who absolutely terrified me, even though he was lovely - maybe because he smoked a pipe and had big thick dark bushy eyebrows) and their teenage daughter Kim.

Then Jack’s brothers and sisters - Nan and her husband Jim; their son Paddy and his wife Amanda; Vin and his wife Maureen (who I once upset by having a wild tantrum round their house when I wasn’t allowed to watch Play School); Dad’s cousin Martin and his wife Angela (of whom more another time). Loads of them. So many I’ve probably forgotten half of them.

NEW YEAR 1980 >