Autobiographical

The launch of Top of the Pops was a key event for many young people in 1964. It also coincided with the election of the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, which ushered in a period of low unemployment and prosperity, albeit at the same time as a balance of payments crisis.

Known as the swinging sixties, the decade ushered in an era of freedom of expression, hedonism, modernity and creativity, with music to the fore – the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Animals, the Beach Boys, David Bowie’s first hit in 1969 Space Oddity, which capitalised on the Moon landing, Pink Floyd and many solo singers.  Oh and of course, 1966, the only time that England has won the World Cup, naturally on home soil.

But back to 1964 and coincidentally the big hit “I’m the One” by Gerry and the Pacemakers in February. To commemorate my birth, I added these two photos, as I can’t believe my brother Adrian wouldn’t have actually preferred a four-legged friend if he had come to know Angie or Bella: their stories will come later in the tale.

A young Angie

And then there was Bella

Unfortunately, I have only a very limited recall of my younger years – apart from a fight in the playground with a Romanian kid Nicolae N., nicknamed “nasty” at school, who had used a denigrating term about my mother. I must have been ten at the time. I told him to apologise or fight in the playground. Nicolae chose the latter. He tried to kick and scratch me. In response I just pushed him slightly into the railings. No real force and no actual damage. He still ran off to the teachers in tears. Naturally I denied all responsibility. Not surprisingly, he didn’t bother me subsequently. 

When I look back now, I must admit to feeling some guilt. It must have been hard to be Romanian in the UK in the early 1970s when the Socialist Republic of Romania was an impoverished totalitarian country under the leader of the Romanian Communist Party and Head of State Nicolae Ceaușescu. Admittedly that psycho got his just desserts, albeit after oppressing his country and people for almost a quarter of a century.

Around this time I was also chosen by a teacher at The Hall to play the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk – I have to assume that nobody else wanted the role. I stood high up on a ladder behind a screen – probably unimaginable in today’s climate given the evident risks. It felt surreal – and I doubt my roars and shouts scared anyone! This led me at one stage to nurture hopes of an acting career, but that didn’t play out. 

I did, however, have success in chess at school and at a local club, entering tournaments and winning prizes. At the UK national championship I ranked 66^th for the under 13 age group when 11 and felt good. However, I subsequently got the chance to play future grandmaster Nigel Short who was a year younger where I was outclassed – or to be honest, humiliated. I realised that this was another avenue where I was unlikely to make it to the top.

The scariest event, however, was when I was chased home by a rabid Alsatian – at least that was the impression I had at the time from the excessive aggression and drooling. Luckily I was fast back then!

We did have pets at home – hamsters, although there were one major drawback – they didn’t live long.  We did have another resident, albeit unknown for a while until mum opened the cracker box to see another four-legged creature – a little dormouse or possibly rat clearly terrified of the fate awaiting him. We carried him to Hampstead Heath which was just down the road and let him roam free there. I hope he lived to a ripe old age, but doubt it!