The University Years: Music: It’s Part In My Downfall #university #bristol #1976

Posted on Mar 28, 2020 by TanGental

In October 1976 I started my law degree at Bristol University. This was the most important phase of my life to date and as such the memories of those early days remain as vivid today as they were then. The story continues as I realise I may have bitten off more that I could chew…

There’s nothing you can say, is there? Oh that hair… 1976 was not a good year for anyone of the Archaeologist me or mum…

It’s difficult, looking back, to big up my room in my hall. There was about ten by ten foot of floor space, a metal framed window looking out on the bike sheds and an avenue of horse chestnut trees of significant vintage. During revision I spent a lot of time staring into those boughs and branches seeking inspiration and rarely finding it. Most people, on seeing those monsters commented on their magnificence, their magisterial standing and their sheer bloody scale. What I remember most is how disgusting their blossom smelt in May and June. I know the exact descriptor but decency prevents me from sharing it with you.

Still, learning that unedifying fact was some eight months away and I had yet to so much as empty my bags and pack away my meagre possessions. There were some drawers for socks etc, a wardrobe for coats and trousers and shoes, a shelf for whatever – most people put their toiletries there, a desk with three drawers, a chair of limited comfort, a singularly narrow bed and bedding and a bedside table on which, eventually my stereo sat.

Perhaps a digression into my musicography might be apposite. For all their many wonderful qualities my parents relationship with music was similar to politicians with truth -occasional and mostly tangential. Dad like Glenn Millar and the big bands and mum Sinatra and Nat King Cole but neither to the extent of having any machinery in the house that might play same. Their listening therefore was confined to the radio and that was to the Home service, now radio four with the occasional retuning to the third programme – radio three – but solely to listen to the test cricket. Of the two music channels, the light programme – radio two now – was avoided ( though once in a while mum might be caught listening to Jimmy Young). And of the new fang led radio one? Every radio in the house was set to melt should anyone – me – tune to that station. It took me until 1972 to afford my own transistor and discovered radio Luxembourg on 208mw. The signal was rubbish – it faded in and out – but I clung to that in an effort to catch up with my peers.

It had to be mid March 1972 because I remember that week Harry Nilsson was no. 1 and the New Seekers no.2. Looking at the chart now it also shows up a little of what was to be my social downfall in those early weeks at university, a gaff so deep and so potentially fatal to anything resembling street cred that I could easily have been shamed into leaving.

My little stereo – a white turntable with the standard 3 speeds back then and two speakers – was accompanied by my limited music collection. I made little money at the gardening job I did and a fair bit went into my passion for cricket – kit for me and a season ticket to watch my beloved Hampshire. What was left went on all sorts and only a little on music. I was happy to listen to the radio, to Luxembourg and Radio 1, John Peel et al. But none of that saved me when my newly met fellow students visited my room. Back then one of the first things that happened was your guest checked your albums, partly to see if you had anything they didn’t so you could listen to it and partly to judge.

Oh boy did they judge. And with good reason for the first album I bought was by Gilbert O’Sullivan and the second by the Carpenters. There was no coming back for the that.

About TanGental

My name is Geoff Le Pard. Once I was a lawyer; now I am a writer. I've published several books: a four book series following Harry Spittle as he grows from hapless student to hapless partner in a London law firm; four others in different genres; a book of poetry; four anthologies of short fiction; and a memoir of my mother. I have several more in the pipeline. I have been blogging regularly since 2014, on topic as diverse as: poetry based on famous poems; memories from my life; my garden; my dog; a whole variety of short fiction; my attempts at baking and food; travel and the consequent disasters; theatre, film and book reviews; and the occasional thought piece. Mostly it is whatever takes my fancy. I avoid politics, mostly, and religion, always. I don't mean to upset anyone but if I do, well, sorry and I suggest you go elsewhere. These are my thoughts and no one else is to blame. If you want to nab anything I post, please acknowledge where it came from.
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58 Responses to The University Years: Music: It’s Part In My Downfall #university #bristol #1976

  1. Ritu says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 10:24 am

    1976… I turned one that year….
    😝😝😝

    Liked by 1 person

  2. willowdot21 says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 11:23 am

    OMG Geoff, really.. consider yourself off of the Christmas card list. …happy days, Oh! Baby Ritu I had been married four years in 1976 💜

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Mary Smith says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 12:14 pm

    Oh, dear. My mum listened to the Carpenters.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Erika says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    Oh, wow, tell me what records you have and I tell you if I will party with you… lol. How the conditions changed… lol. 1976 was a very important year for me too… I started my school career and was in first grade… hehe.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. V.M.Sang says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 3:38 pm

    All these youngsters! I feel like Methusela. (How do you spell it?)
    I’m even older! But my records were The Beatles, and I’m afraid to say, Roy Orbison. Some Wagner, too. I can’t really remember what else. And I borrowed from my eventual husband, The MJQ, John Coltraine and a few other jazz things.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. arlingwoman says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 3:39 pm

    1972. I turned 15 that year and remember Nilsson. What a voice he had. Can’t Liiiiiiivvvvvvee, if living is without you…I found people weren’t so judgey about the albums as the stereo equipment. Mine was from Sears, so…not the latest, greatest hot brand.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. thecontentedcrafter says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    I can see if those were the only two albums you owned you might have been ostracised forever. Roll on 1973, let’s find out what was in the stack by then……

    Liked by 1 person

  8. M. L. Kappa says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    That really brought some memories back! I must have had the exact same room at Sussex University in 1975. My parents too me, and my father dithered about leaving me there- my mum had to drag him away. Holes in the walls from previous posters, a metal bed frame, and communal bathroom with separated taps!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Elizabeth says:
    Mar 28, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    It appears you had a room to yourself. I had bunk beds and a anorexic roommate who spent the year obsessing about the French boyfriend who had “deflowered” her rigid Catholic self. She had no music! I had a little record player where the turntable folded down and the two speakers detached and could be spaced a little apart. True technological miracle!

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Chelsea Owens says:
    Mar 29, 2020 at 7:18 am

    No comment on age from me. I think your taste in music sounds fine. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Rebecca Moon Ruark says:
    Mar 29, 2020 at 8:00 pm

    The Carpenters! I love it!

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Widdershins says:
    Mar 30, 2020 at 2:14 am

    The first album I ever bought with my own money was ‘Rumors’ by Fleetwood Mac … Stevie Nicks, oh my! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  13. JT Twissel says:
    Mar 30, 2020 at 8:11 pm

    My ex husband loved the Carpenters! How long ago it seems.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter says:
    Mar 30, 2020 at 10:55 pm

    I still like The Carpenters! What a voice. My cousin recently met her youthful crush, Gilbert O’Sullivan. He’s still going.

    Liked by 1 person

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