Just What The Doctor Ordered

Last Friday saw me on my annual pilgrimage to Butlins, Bognor for a weekend of 80’s music, fun and frolics. I had arranged to interview Clive Jackson, lead singer of Dr. & The Medics, later that evening, but it was by pure chance that I became aware of his arrival on site.

The balcony of our hotel room (I once made the mistake of staying in the “cheap seats” – never again!) overlooked the vehicle entrance to the park, offering a great vantage point for people watching. I was on the balcony, bemoaning the fact that the 2 hour spa session we’d just finished (it’s a hard life, I know) had made my hair return to its natural, huge, wild 80’s style state, when a car pulled up to the entrance barrier. The driver had hair bigger and wilder than my own and, even without his make-up, was instantly recognisable as the Doctor. Can you see where one oversized hairdo ends and the other begins in this photo???

We met after the band came off stage, which gave me chance to see their performance first. I hadn’t known what to expect. It was a safe bet that “Spirit In The Sky” would be played at the end, but what about the rest of the set? A fabulous diversity of songs was the answer.Fronting a line up of the Angelow brothers (Dan and Matt) on guitar, Jon Randle (bass), Ade Hill (drums), Melissa Weekes (vocals) and Wenda-Kate Randle (band dancer – think of a Gothic, corset-wearing version of Bez!), Dr. Jackson delivered an impressive performance on a variety of tracks, including “Proud Mary”, “The Ace of Spades” and their current single, a cover of Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)”. Not only was every song musically and vocally superb, the band looked like they were having a great time too. The fun continued backstage…

As I entered the band’s dressing room, I could hear a strange noise. “What’s up?” asked Clive. “Haven’t you ever seen a Dalek being deflated before?” I then noticed the stage prop slowly shrivelling in one corner of the room. It was a bizarre start to what has to have been one of the funniest, and definitely funnest, interviews I’ve undertaken. It became a real group effort, with contributions from all band members, especially when I asked what had been Clive’s worst fashion mistake of the 80s. The answer will appear in “Your Eighties”, to be published later this year, and will leave you with an inerasable image in your mind!

Until then, I shall leave you with the band’s latest video. Enjoy.

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The Age of Apathy?

Growing up in the Eighties may have meant listening to some of the best music ever, often whilst wearing some of the worst fashion ever, but it also meant having an awareness of and an opinion on what was happening in the world. It wasn’t only what we saw on John Craven’s Newsround or, as we got older, the “real” news. Sometimes, events reached our consciousness without us even realising, via the music we were listening to. Whilst the lyrics of Special AKA’s “Free Nelson Mandela” and Billy Bragg’s protest song “Between The Wars” made the subject matter of the songs very clear, how long did it take us to realise that Ultravox’s “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes” and Nik Kershaw’s “I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” were about nuclear war?

Regardless of how we knew, the fact is that we tended to have a fair understanding of the issues of the time and, dare I say it, actually cared about them. Whether it was war or strikes, apartheid or famine, local issues or international affairs, we knew enough to know whether something was right or wrong, and when it was wrong, we wanted to change it. So what’s happened to that generation of kids who didn’t only think they could change the world, but who went ahead and brought about some of the biggest changes in living history?

I was saddened, but not really surprised, by the lack of response to a Facebook status I posted recently. Linking to a report about the fact that, on average, one Nepalese worker dies every other day, whilst working in Doha on World Cup-related construction, I had commented about the indignity with which the bodies of these men were then returned to their families. The news report had shown family members wheeling the coffins of their relatives out of the airport, across two baggage trolleys, as the authorities had made no other arrangements. Shocked that these men were being treated no better than excess luggage, I had asked “where is the dignity and humanity?”. With only three acknowledgments to that post, I wonder more so now.

We live in a world where information and news are more easily accessible than they have ever been, so ignorance cannot be the reason for lack of interest. Neither can it be that it’s too difficult to make yourself heard. Gone are the days when the only way of having a voice was mass protest, or raising a petition by physically traipsing around gathering signatures, both of which I had done by the age of 14. At the end of 1984, I had organised and submitted to Downing Street a thousand signature petition against VAT being charged on the original Band Aid single, and the following year taken part in a protest march against the Channel Tunnel being built. Being part of a like-minded crowd, shouting “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie – Out! Out! Out!”, as the Prime Minister arrived just feet away not only gave this teenager a sense of belonging, but a sense of purpose too.

As it turned out, neither petition nor protest was successful, if judged on their outcomes, but both helped to strengthen my beliefs that you should never be afraid to stand up and be counted, and that there is indeed strength in numbers. I don’t think I am alone in those beliefs today, just that somewhere along the way priorities seem to have become skewed. When Jeremy Clarkson lost his job at the BBC earlier this year, over a million people signed an online petition calling for him to be reinstated. Around the same time, only half that number of signatures were gathered for a petition to “save the NHS”. Similarly, little more than a week before my post was met with underwhelming apathy, my Facebook newsfeed had been awash with comments and opinions on Sepp Blatter and FIFA corruption. So, it’s not that people don’t care, just that focus needs adjusting.

What’s the answer? I honestly don’t know. I’m not suggesting we take to the streets in mass demonstration every single time we feel strongly about an issue – that part of me departed around the time that Ben Elton stopped referring to “Mrs Thatch”. But surely we can find time in our busy lives to consider what is happening behind the headlines and scandalmongering, and act on what really matters to us? I understand that this happened on social media, which often equates to videos of fluffy kittens and ridiculous selfies (both of which I confess I’m guilty of posting), but surely social media should also be a reflection of our wider social lives? This is no different to discussing current affairs down the pub, or a friendly debate on the latest hot topic, is it? Although, if our current affairs are what is happening between the cast of TOWIE, and the latest hot topic is who’s between the covers of “Heat” magazine, then I guess we’re all doomed!

I am really interested to know what everybody else thinks about this; whether I’m alone, stuck in an 80’s nostalgic timewarp of beliefs, or whether there are others out there who still care and believe that we can make a difference, who will restore my faith in this race that’s supposedly human.