11 September 1988: Most of My Friends Were Strangers When I Met Them

1. Phil Collins: Groovy Kind of Love
2. The Hollies: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
3. Womack & Womack: Teardrops
4. Bros: I Quit
5. Brother Beyond: The Harder I Try
6. Bill Withers: Lovely Day [sunshine mix]
7. Yazz & The Plastic Population: The Only Way Is Up
8. Yello: The Race
9. Bomb the Bass: Megablast / Don't Make Me Wait
10. Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine: Anything for You
11. Julio Iglesias featuring Stevie Wonder: My Love
12. Jane Wiedlin: Rush Hour
13. Jason Donovan: Nothing Can Divide Us
14. The Proclaimers: I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
15. Michael Jackson: Another Part of Me
16. Breathe: Hands to Heaven
17. The Commodores: Easy
18. Kylie Minogue: The Loco-Motion
19. a-ha: Touchy!
20. Inner City: Big Fun
21. Level 42: Heaven in My Hands
22. Salt 'n' Pepa: Shake Your Thang (It's Your Thing)
23. Spagna: Every Girl and Boy
24. BVSMP: I Need You
25. Coldcut featuring Junior Reid: Stop This Crazy Thing
26. Marc Almond: Tears Run Rings
27. Bill Medley: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
28. Anthrax: Make Me Laugh
29. The Pasadenas: Riding on a Train
30. Guns N' Roses: Sweet Child O' Mine
31. Fairground Attraction: Find My Love
32. Tanita Tikaram: Good Tradition
33. UB40: Where Did I Go Wrong?
34. Kim Wilde: You Came
35. Status Quo: Running All Over the World
36. The Primitives: Way Behind Me
37. Transvision Vamp: Revolution Baby
38. Robbie Robertson: Somewhere Down the Crazy River
39. Belinda Carlisle: World Without You
40. The Mac Band: Stalemate

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Mondays	Tuesdays	Wednesdays	Thursdays	Fridays
English	English	General History	French	P.E.
Maths	Drama	English	Music	General Science
Geography	General Science	Maths	Maths	Maths
Home Economics	Art & Design	P.E.	I.P.	French
Religious Studies	French	C.D.T.	General Science	Library

         
"So, what did you do over the weekend?"

"Well, we drove out to Stonehenge on Saturday and then visited Street and Cheddar. Then on Sunday we took the train into London and visited Tower Bridge and then we took the ferry to Greenwich."

"Blimey! What are you going to do for the rest of the year?"

This was a conversation that took place between my dad and one of his colleagues in the Maths department on Monday, September 12th. I wasn't a part of this exchange but it has been told and retold to me over the years enough that I feel as if I had been there. (And, for the record, I have no idea if my dad's co-worker actually said "blimey", I just felt one was called for) It seems that some believed we had already begun to tap English tourist spots dry; the more perceptive, however, might note the visits paid to the Somerset villages of Street and Cheddar: as sure a sign as any that we were going to visit as much of this country as possible, whether there was anything to see there or not. (Notably, this would also be the closest I'd ever come to going to Glastonbury)

This was my first full week at school. Coming from an elementary school that typically divided the day between English in the morning and French in the afternoon - with the occasional Phys Ed period or trip up to the Math Lab thrown in - it was quite an adjustment to suddenly have fifteen different classes. All through that baptism by fire that was the first week I'd been fretting that I'd be late, that the distance between classrooms would conspire with the scant amount of time between classes - even with morning and afternoon playtimes accounted for. As it turned out, my only experience with tardiness ended up working out for the best.


Dreary Monday afternoons began with Home Economics on the top floor of a three or four story building. That finished, we had to trudge down the stairs for afternoon playtime, only to have to go up a separate set a stairs in the same building in order to get to our Religious Studies class, itself on the top floor. Not paying attention to details, I went up the wrong set of stairs to get to R.E. only to discover I was heading back up to the Home Ec. department. But I wasn't alone: a quiet ginger boy of average height from my form room was also going up the wrong way. Conferring, we realised that none of our other classmates was around and that we must have gone the wrong way. We turned around and dashed down the stairs, only to race up the correct flights. We were dreading a bollocking and our panic only increased as we got close to the top floor and heard a terrible shriek. We looked at each other and braced ourselves for trouble. Luckily, it wasn't directed at us but at everyone else who had the nerve to show up on time! Apparently, our classmates showed up to an empty classroom and decided to enter and take their seats and Miss Wickens didn't appreciate such eagerness. Just as we were showing up everyone else we exiting the room as punishment. We avoided getting in trouble by  being late: a bizarro world occurrence if there ever was one. Sean and I delighted in our fecklessness turning into some good luck and, thus, a friendship was formed.

Other chums came about, albeit in far less memorable fashion. Two days of sitting next to the highly perverted Colin in form room proving to be more than enough, I asked the round-faced, brunette-but-sporting-freckles Richard if I could sit with him instead. Richard possessed a wicked, cutting tongue that could regale and appall me in equal turns. And we talked a lot about music. Soon, we began eating lunch in the courtyard surrounded by the library, our music class and the dining room's poor cousin, the galley. Sean began joining us too.

One lunch break the three of us were sat on a bench in the courtyard when we were met with a small boy with blondish hair and a disgruntled visage. Neil told of us of how fed up he was of some of the other boys in our class and wondered if he could join us. Now we were a foursome. Neil, Richard and Sean would be my closest friends for the rest of the year.

The Thursday of this week I tuned into Top of the Pops for the first time. I don't recall how I got into it. The Australian soap Neighbours was still relatively new and something everyone was talking about and, therefore, something that wasn't going to escape me for long; TOTP, on the other hand, was a venerable institution, one that was regularly lambasted by critics for its lip-synching pop stars. I doubt anyone bothered to recommend it to me given how everyone must have taken it for granted. My sister caught it a week earlier and told be about seeing the porcupine-cropped Italian signer Spagna and I probably couldn't resist something so tempting. The performers that week were nothing special (The Proclaimers doubtless looked like sexy, macho rock 'n' roll gods next to the likes of Phil Collins and The Hollies) but the format of gradually running down the Top 40 with video clips spliced in appealed to me. To go along with a group of friends that would remain, I now had a music show that I would never fail to tune in to. I was beginning to feel at home.

Before closing I should bring up that this is likely the last week on the listings for Robbie Robertson's unique but not nearly as good as I remember it being Somewhere Down the Crazy River. As we were still largely ignorant of the music scene at the time, my Canada-deprived family was unaware that there was a compatriot in the top 40 for the first few weeks of our time in England. Had it entered the charts just a few weeks later it would have been a source of pride among us. In the weeks and months ahead we would get excited at the mere hint of our country being referenced on TV or if we happened to notice a Canadian flag flying outside a large London hotel. So much for feeling at home...

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young Paul's favorite: another cringe-inducing week of Nothing Can Divide Us, I really hope a pair of musical heroes of mine comes along to displace it
older Paul's retro pick: Big Fun