At Fifer's Lane in my first year we mostly dwelled in H Shaped Blocks. Six rooms in a corridor, So about fifty of us per block. Potential teachers, engineers, historians, journalists; retail, classroom civil service, healthcare and factory fodder. Knowing precious little. Imagining we knew a lot.
It was mostly London and Home Counties UEA for the most part in 1985/ 86. A smattering of foreign students including my Malaysian honey but not frankly the norm. And actually not that many Irish, Scottish and Welsh students either, But there was a guy from Leeds called Paul and we warmed to each other immediately.
We were both enrolled on EAS. English & American Studies. Literature and History. Paul was into Powell and Pressburger. We did a course on the Thirties novel. I commented in a seminar that Evelyn Waugh was rather racist . The seminar leader an American critic of note in a pastel, homely sweater, dismissed my comment but Paul afterwards in the coffee bar agreed that what I'd said was fair enough. They all were from that class at that time and it should be remembered,
Paul roomed in the teeming, sprawling Z Block which was like the Watership Down warren by comparison with our comparative comfort. Musically he worshipped Prefab Sprout and got quite irate when townies chattered at their show. I liked Steve McQueen but actually the gig the gig was rather anemic for my tastes at the time.
I've warmed to Cole Porter since but frankly I was looking for a but more flesh on the bone at 20. Velvet Underground. Seven Chinese Brothers. Prefab had plenty of myth but didn't really tick all the Top Trumps boxes when it came to Rock & Roll. Jonny Thunders and Jerry Nolan would not have hung with them.
Paul later got a job in a record shop and we compared notes between its racks in my final year in Norwich. He'd moved majorly onto Neil Young as had Icicle Works following their intensely florid eponymous debut album. It didn't help their sales. But I'll play this now in happy memory of Paul. I have his parents telephone number in Leeds. I'll give him a ring, see if I can track him down.
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