Piccadilly 261
I was having a clear out at my parent's house recently and came across this old piece of wood - I think it was used as a clipboard but the bulldog clip is long gone. Some years ago I found a photo of some of the stuff on the walls in what was my old bedroom before I moved out and posted them on Flickr under the title "My 1980s Bedroom". Thousands of views later.....
This is the back of the clipboard - unseen for many years. A sign of the times I suppose and a bit "random". This was in the days before ipads n stuff so kids had to do something with their time. Kids TV was on for an hour or so a day and the TV shut down altogether at the end of the night and there was no "breakfast" TV back then. Unthinkable now isn't it? So we painted pieces of wood and put stickers on. Or something like that.
Exhibit #1 - the Piccadilly 261 sticker. Piccadilly Radio was so cool and pretty much every teenager in (Greater) Manchester had a Piccadilly 261 sticker in their bedroom window. They had some great DJs and I think Chris Evans started there. The studios were, funnily enough in Piccadilly Manchester and there were giant photos of the DJs in the windows on Portland Street. It eventually became Key 103.
Exhibit #2 - The Thin Lizzy Official Merchandise sticker. I saw the band live in their hey day a few times - at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. One day I was walking to Manchester Piccadilly station and bizarrely the full band came out of The Portland Hotel - dressed like they'd just come off the stage. I shook hands with them all including Phil Lynott - they weren't that friendly or cooperative.
Exhibit #3 - The John Player Special sticker. I think that I must have been interested in car racing back then for some reason. Three or four years ago a group of F1 enthusiasts suggested that I go with them to Hockenheim for the racing but its dull as bloody dishwater compared to motorcycle racing. I hadn't got a clue who was where in the race as everyone kept pulling in to have stuff changed - like tyres. Just why DO people get all excited about how long it takes to change four tyres? At the local tyre bay they take ages, but its quite nice because you get a free coffee and can read the newspaper for a while. Back in the day, JPS was pretty cool - the logo looked fab in black and gold and Emerson Fittipaldi was one of the drivers and (I think) the World Champion. I don't think tobacco sponsorship of sporting events and teams is allowed now. I remember the "good old days" of 500cc two stroke Grand Prix motorcycles which were sponsored by the likes of Marlboro, Lucky Strike and Rothmans to name but a few. So if the two stroke smoke didn't get ya, the tobacco smoke just might....or you might get spat off the bike in a "highside" - those things were vicious.
Exhibit #4 - when I started riding I had a wax cotton Belstaff jacket. I'd probably need to mortgage the house if I wanted one now. I do still ride my motorbike in some Belstaff leather jeans -which I was wearing when I had the massive accident a few years ago. My leg was pretty badly damaged but heaven knows what it would be like if I wasn't wearing them. I guess that now there might not be a leg to pop in 'em.
Exhibit #5 - Scan sticker. Scan was a HUGE supermarket that eventually became Tesco Walkden. Shaun Ryder of the Happy Monday's autobiography has some hilarious stuff in about Scan. There were so many stories round there of people walking in with white coats on and just walking out with TVs and things, it was a shoplifters paradise.
Exhibit #6 - the Corona Fizzical. Corona = pop - or "mineral" as people called it round here. Basically carbonated sugary drinks. Dunno if Corona is still going as a brand, but the Government in the UK recently introduced a tax on sugary drinks because basically people are getting fat and fatter round here. Take a look at some photos from the 70s and 80s and pretty much everyone is thin. Now they're not. Fast food and sugary drinks...…
Exhibit #7 - Clunk Click Every Trip sticker. A TV campaign by the now very much disgraced Jimmy Savile to encourage people to wear seat belts in cars. Personally I've never needed any encouragement to wear a seat belt as I have somewhat of an aversion to having my face and head smashed in by hitting a car windscreen in the case of a crash. Maybe some people like it?
Exhibit #8 - Look Out For Traffic sticker issued by Greater Manchester Council aka the GMC. Sound advice if you ask me, if not a very exciting sticker. They probably had a whole department to approve and design that in the days before public sector cuts. Exhibit #9 another seat belt thing - issued by GMC. So maybe the department designed TWO stickers.
Exhibit #9 Woody Woodpecker. No explanation whatsoever for this one....
Piccadilly 261
I was having a clear out at my parent's house recently and came across this old piece of wood - I think it was used as a clipboard but the bulldog clip is long gone. Some years ago I found a photo of some of the stuff on the walls in what was my old bedroom before I moved out and posted them on Flickr under the title "My 1980s Bedroom". Thousands of views later.....
This is the back of the clipboard - unseen for many years. A sign of the times I suppose and a bit "random". This was in the days before ipads n stuff so kids had to do something with their time. Kids TV was on for an hour or so a day and the TV shut down altogether at the end of the night and there was no "breakfast" TV back then. Unthinkable now isn't it? So we painted pieces of wood and put stickers on. Or something like that.
Exhibit #1 - the Piccadilly 261 sticker. Piccadilly Radio was so cool and pretty much every teenager in (Greater) Manchester had a Piccadilly 261 sticker in their bedroom window. They had some great DJs and I think Chris Evans started there. The studios were, funnily enough in Piccadilly Manchester and there were giant photos of the DJs in the windows on Portland Street. It eventually became Key 103.
Exhibit #2 - The Thin Lizzy Official Merchandise sticker. I saw the band live in their hey day a few times - at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. One day I was walking to Manchester Piccadilly station and bizarrely the full band came out of The Portland Hotel - dressed like they'd just come off the stage. I shook hands with them all including Phil Lynott - they weren't that friendly or cooperative.
Exhibit #3 - The John Player Special sticker. I think that I must have been interested in car racing back then for some reason. Three or four years ago a group of F1 enthusiasts suggested that I go with them to Hockenheim for the racing but its dull as bloody dishwater compared to motorcycle racing. I hadn't got a clue who was where in the race as everyone kept pulling in to have stuff changed - like tyres. Just why DO people get all excited about how long it takes to change four tyres? At the local tyre bay they take ages, but its quite nice because you get a free coffee and can read the newspaper for a while. Back in the day, JPS was pretty cool - the logo looked fab in black and gold and Emerson Fittipaldi was one of the drivers and (I think) the World Champion. I don't think tobacco sponsorship of sporting events and teams is allowed now. I remember the "good old days" of 500cc two stroke Grand Prix motorcycles which were sponsored by the likes of Marlboro, Lucky Strike and Rothmans to name but a few. So if the two stroke smoke didn't get ya, the tobacco smoke just might....or you might get spat off the bike in a "highside" - those things were vicious.
Exhibit #4 - when I started riding I had a wax cotton Belstaff jacket. I'd probably need to mortgage the house if I wanted one now. I do still ride my motorbike in some Belstaff leather jeans -which I was wearing when I had the massive accident a few years ago. My leg was pretty badly damaged but heaven knows what it would be like if I wasn't wearing them. I guess that now there might not be a leg to pop in 'em.
Exhibit #5 - Scan sticker. Scan was a HUGE supermarket that eventually became Tesco Walkden. Shaun Ryder of the Happy Monday's autobiography has some hilarious stuff in about Scan. There were so many stories round there of people walking in with white coats on and just walking out with TVs and things, it was a shoplifters paradise.
Exhibit #6 - the Corona Fizzical. Corona = pop - or "mineral" as people called it round here. Basically carbonated sugary drinks. Dunno if Corona is still going as a brand, but the Government in the UK recently introduced a tax on sugary drinks because basically people are getting fat and fatter round here. Take a look at some photos from the 70s and 80s and pretty much everyone is thin. Now they're not. Fast food and sugary drinks...…
Exhibit #7 - Clunk Click Every Trip sticker. A TV campaign by the now very much disgraced Jimmy Savile to encourage people to wear seat belts in cars. Personally I've never needed any encouragement to wear a seat belt as I have somewhat of an aversion to having my face and head smashed in by hitting a car windscreen in the case of a crash. Maybe some people like it?
Exhibit #8 - Look Out For Traffic sticker issued by Greater Manchester Council aka the GMC. Sound advice if you ask me, if not a very exciting sticker. They probably had a whole department to approve and design that in the days before public sector cuts. Exhibit #9 another seat belt thing - issued by GMC. So maybe the department designed TWO stickers.
Exhibit #9 Woody Woodpecker. No explanation whatsoever for this one....