- Phil Collins: Groovy Kind of Love
- Brother Beyond: The Harder I Try
- Yazz & The Plastic Population: The Only Way Is Up
- Womack & Womack: Teardrops
- The Hollies: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
- Bomb the Bass: Megablast / Don't Make Me Wait
- Julio Iglesias featuring Stevie Wonder: My Love
- Yello: The Race
- Kylie Minogue: The Loco-Motion
- Breathe: Hands to Heaven
- a-ha: Touchy!
- Level 42: Heaven in My Hands
- Jane Wiedlin: Rush Hour
- BVSMP: I Need You
- Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine: Anything for You
- Michael Jackson: Another Part of Me
- Tanita Tikaram: Good Tradition
- Fairground Attraction: Find My Love
- The Proclaimers: I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
- The Commodores: Easy
- Bill Withers: Lovely Day [sunshine mix]
- Kim Wilde: You Came
- Spagna: Every Girl and Boy
- Guns 'N Roses: Sweet Child O' Mine
- Bill Medley: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
- Anthrax: Make Me Laugh
- UB40: Where Did I Go Wrong?
- Marc Almond: Tears Run Rings
- Robbie Robertson: Somewhere Down the Crazy River
- Status Quo: Running All Over the World
- Inner City: Big Fun
- Metallica: Harvester of Sorrow
- Coldcut featuring Junior Reid: Stop This Crazy Thing
- Big Country: King of Emotion
- S'Express: Superfly Guy
- Salt 'n' Pepa: Shake Your Thang (It's Your Thing)
- Jason Donovan: Nothing Can Divide Us
- Natalie Cole: Jump Start
- Donny Osmond: Soldier of Love
- Chris Rea: On the Beach ['88 remix]
~~~~~
"Dad! How do you tie a tie?"
So now we come to my first day at Mayflower Comprehensive - and, with it, a brand new chart topper. Yazz's reign had come to an end, having to make room for the Phil Collins slush-fest Groovy Kind of Love from the movie Buster. It didn't occur to me at the time but was the significance of an optimistic summer anthem being displaced by a bland, middle-aged love song not lost on kids as they were glumly heading back to school? After-all the charts are supposed to reflect the times we live in so why not usher in September with a number one that perfectly - if unintentionally - captures the misery of being back at school? Of course this is all pure coincidence but it's important to point out that Groovy Kind of Love seemed to kick start a trend of more MOR-style number ones. (That said, the infectious yet understated grooves of Womack & Womack's almost bluntly adult Teardrops, which had just moved into the Top 3 after a steady climb, stand in stark contrast to a new entry by a young star of the megahit soap Neighbours; Jason Donovan's naive and badly-sung Nothing Can Divide Us was for some unfathomable reason a big favourite of my over the next couple weeks while I couldn't have cared less about Teardorps) It will be quite some time before we get something even moderately current topping the charts, let alone something genuinely thrilling; the best thing I can say about most of the number ones for the remainder of 1988 is "meh".
In that spirit, September was underway and I had my first day of school. Going back to school is typically a depressing event but this year I was more terrified than anything else: I would be attending a new school, with kids I didn't know, wearing a suit and tie, all of which in a foreign country. The school itself was massive, seemingly more like a university campus than a high school. It in fact wouldn't be long before I began taking pride in Mayflower's size, what with its swimming pool, multiple gymnasiums, two cafeterias and numerous buildings. It may sound like I'm simply exaggerating its enormity in retrospect but I exaggerated my new school's scale at the time as well.
Tuesday the 6th was my first day of school. The drive from Laindon to Billericay was long enough to make me feel more nervous and anxious than I already was. We arrived and dad left me in a square with a number of other first year boys; none looked especially nervous or anxious. I thought about how my friends back home were starting grade 6 and, thus, were the big boys of elementary school; I, on the other hand, was back at the bottom of the pecking order - the fact that there were many others who were in the same boat as me failed provide me with the coldest of comforts.
"C'mon, you lot!" My daydreaming was interrupted by the brash Mr. Lawrence. The man walked with swagger and forcefulness; he was the type who inspired a level of intimidation that you could sometimes confuse for awe. He could rub some people the wrong way and he practically dared students to cause trouble while he was present - but he was also pragmatic enough to know that kids need to be preoccupied, particularly first year boys. And that's why he was there: he was taking it upon himself to show us where to catch the bus. Uninterested, Lawrence's forceful personality convinced me to come along.
"You aw'right?" a boy of a about half my size asked me. We were standing at the school bus stop and he must have noticed that something was amiss. Feeling scared and lonely, I'm sure my face gave me away. Fraser introduced himself and his mates. No sooner did I begin to speak than I was greeted with a query from one of these lads: "You Amer-ee-can?"
This was a question that would hear all-too-often during the course of the next year, one that would never fail to irk my sensitive Canadian soul. But here it was a sign of friendship. It mattered little to this gaggle that I wasn't Amer-ee-can and it mattered little to me, I was just happy to have some boys to talk to. We were led to a classroom where we were told to wait. In the meantime, I basked in the attention I was receiving, the scant knowledge I'd picked up over the last two weeks about Neighbours and Bros coming in mighty handy.
We were then led to an assembly where we were placed in our houses and form rooms. My new chums - wouldn't you know it? - got placed in Frye house and I was left alone. I got placed in Lister and formed a queue with my new classmates. Led to our form room, I took a seat by the window and scanned the room: I wondered who these kids were and if I was going to be friends with any of them. Miss Mitchell, our form room teacher, took attendance and just like that I was exposed. I soon began to feel sorry for my classmates during the course of that first week: between our form room and all our individual classes, they got to hear me tell the story of being from Canada and having a dad in the Maths department who was on exchange about fifteen times! I certainly got sick of telling this to each of our teachers and I'm sure they all got pretty sick of hearing it.
Introductions and information about our classes and something called a homework diary out of the way, we had playtime, something I'd always called "recess". I spent a fair amount of time looking for Fraser and his gang. Once I did manage to find him, we traded information about our classes and form teachers before the bell rang commanding us to return to our classes. Almost instantaneously, everyone disappeared and I suddenly had no idea
Soon after playtime, we were ushered to our first class: General Science. Not a big favourite of mine during this year - conveniently getting me into the swing of resentfully having to take years of compulsory science classes by doing as little as humanly possible - this introductory class passed by painlessly enough although it did result in my first encounter with a geographically confused classmate:
"So, 'ave you been t' Disneywuld?" Joanne quizzed me.
"No," I replied, shaking my head.
"Well, 'ave you been t' Disneyland?"
"No, I haven't been there either," I responded, almost regretfullly.
"So, where 'ave you been in Amer-ee-ca?"
"Nowhere really. We once took a day trip to Montana but..."
"I fought you said you were Amer-ee-can!"
"Canadian!" I shot back.
"Ah well, it's the same thing anyway," she said. Joanne looked away: she was done making my acquaintance.
The rest of the day went by without too much trouble. In Art and Design, Mrs. Templeton insisted I come up to the front of the class to fill out my name that had been left off the class role - as it would prove to be in all fifteen of my classes. I'd never heard the terms "surname" and "Christian name" before, as I would prove by getting them exactly wrong - much to the visible consternation of the persnickety teacher. French finished off our first day, giving me my first taste of the easiest class I would ever take.
And that was that. I met up with my dad and we headed back home to Laindon. I slouched in my seat, rolled down the window and sighed. No longer of use, I promptly removed my tie - taking it off proving a far simpler task than putting it on.
~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Nothing Can Divide Us and god only knows why
older Paul's retro pick: still going with Megablast / Don't Make Me Wait, although I reckon its days are numbered
In that spirit, September was underway and I had my first day of school. Going back to school is typically a depressing event but this year I was more terrified than anything else: I would be attending a new school, with kids I didn't know, wearing a suit and tie, all of which in a foreign country. The school itself was massive, seemingly more like a university campus than a high school. It in fact wouldn't be long before I began taking pride in Mayflower's size, what with its swimming pool, multiple gymnasiums, two cafeterias and numerous buildings. It may sound like I'm simply exaggerating its enormity in retrospect but I exaggerated my new school's scale at the time as well.
Tuesday the 6th was my first day of school. The drive from Laindon to Billericay was long enough to make me feel more nervous and anxious than I already was. We arrived and dad left me in a square with a number of other first year boys; none looked especially nervous or anxious. I thought about how my friends back home were starting grade 6 and, thus, were the big boys of elementary school; I, on the other hand, was back at the bottom of the pecking order - the fact that there were many others who were in the same boat as me failed provide me with the coldest of comforts.
"C'mon, you lot!" My daydreaming was interrupted by the brash Mr. Lawrence. The man walked with swagger and forcefulness; he was the type who inspired a level of intimidation that you could sometimes confuse for awe. He could rub some people the wrong way and he practically dared students to cause trouble while he was present - but he was also pragmatic enough to know that kids need to be preoccupied, particularly first year boys. And that's why he was there: he was taking it upon himself to show us where to catch the bus. Uninterested, Lawrence's forceful personality convinced me to come along.
"You aw'right?" a boy of a about half my size asked me. We were standing at the school bus stop and he must have noticed that something was amiss. Feeling scared and lonely, I'm sure my face gave me away. Fraser introduced himself and his mates. No sooner did I begin to speak than I was greeted with a query from one of these lads: "You Amer-ee-can?"
This was a question that would hear all-too-often during the course of the next year, one that would never fail to irk my sensitive Canadian soul. But here it was a sign of friendship. It mattered little to this gaggle that I wasn't Amer-ee-can and it mattered little to me, I was just happy to have some boys to talk to. We were led to a classroom where we were told to wait. In the meantime, I basked in the attention I was receiving, the scant knowledge I'd picked up over the last two weeks about Neighbours and Bros coming in mighty handy.
We were then led to an assembly where we were placed in our houses and form rooms. My new chums - wouldn't you know it? - got placed in Frye house and I was left alone. I got placed in Lister and formed a queue with my new classmates. Led to our form room, I took a seat by the window and scanned the room: I wondered who these kids were and if I was going to be friends with any of them. Miss Mitchell, our form room teacher, took attendance and just like that I was exposed. I soon began to feel sorry for my classmates during the course of that first week: between our form room and all our individual classes, they got to hear me tell the story of being from Canada and having a dad in the Maths department who was on exchange about fifteen times! I certainly got sick of telling this to each of our teachers and I'm sure they all got pretty sick of hearing it.
Introductions and information about our classes and something called a homework diary out of the way, we had playtime, something I'd always called "recess". I spent a fair amount of time looking for Fraser and his gang. Once I did manage to find him, we traded information about our classes and form teachers before the bell rang commanding us to return to our classes. Almost instantaneously, everyone disappeared and I suddenly had no idea
Soon after playtime, we were ushered to our first class: General Science. Not a big favourite of mine during this year - conveniently getting me into the swing of resentfully having to take years of compulsory science classes by doing as little as humanly possible - this introductory class passed by painlessly enough although it did result in my first encounter with a geographically confused classmate:
"So, 'ave you been t' Disneywuld?" Joanne quizzed me.
"No," I replied, shaking my head.
"Well, 'ave you been t' Disneyland?"
"No, I haven't been there either," I responded, almost regretfullly.
"So, where 'ave you been in Amer-ee-ca?"
"Nowhere really. We once took a day trip to Montana but..."
"I fought you said you were Amer-ee-can!"
"Canadian!" I shot back.
"Ah well, it's the same thing anyway," she said. Joanne looked away: she was done making my acquaintance.
The rest of the day went by without too much trouble. In Art and Design, Mrs. Templeton insisted I come up to the front of the class to fill out my name that had been left off the class role - as it would prove to be in all fifteen of my classes. I'd never heard the terms "surname" and "Christian name" before, as I would prove by getting them exactly wrong - much to the visible consternation of the persnickety teacher. French finished off our first day, giving me my first taste of the easiest class I would ever take.
And that was that. I met up with my dad and we headed back home to Laindon. I slouched in my seat, rolled down the window and sighed. No longer of use, I promptly removed my tie - taking it off proving a far simpler task than putting it on.
~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Nothing Can Divide Us and god only knows why
older Paul's retro pick: still going with Megablast / Don't Make Me Wait, although I reckon its days are numbered
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