The Seventies Go Up North (For a Beer and a Smoke)

Things have taken something of Northern turn in the Seventies project of late, with a recollection of a particular song from 1979 that us young (post-)punks took to our hearts – ‘TV Stars’, the b-side of the Skids’ ‘Into the Valley’ hit single (which we likewise favoured) – providing the inspiration to source an image featuring the particular one glorified in the song’s chanted chorus, Albert Tatlock, the cantankerous old pensioner from the cast of the soap opera that endures to this day, ‘Coronation Street’. The most appropriate image to suggest itself proved itself to be even more for also including the character of Stanley Ogden in the company of Mr Tatlock, as Stan is also celebrated within the lyrics of ‘TV Stars’ along with a pair of other ‘Street’ regulars of the time. The glee with which Ogden (played by Bernard Youens) is regarding the pint of beer he’s encouraging Albert (Jack Howarth) to appreciate is delightful in this image, the simple pleasure of a working (bin)man sharing his enthusiasm with a neighbour, and formed part of the programme’s charm back in the day when I was a regular viewer, thus there is a proper hauntological aspect and poignancy to processing such a drawing, as well as recalling our schoolboy enthusiasm for the music we were discovering and enjoying (and I still do!).

‘Albert Tatlock and Stan Ogden/Coronation Street’

Graphite and putty eraser on Seawhite cartridge paper/42 x 30cm

As a period piece itself, the picture sleeve of the Skids single is worth reproducing too.

Skids ‘Into the Valley’/’TV Stars’ 7″ single picture sleeve, 1979

 More flat caps, beer and fags in a northern setting to follow, with a representation of the Chairman of the Committee of the ‘Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club’ (another Granada TV production), the comedian Colin Crompton, in the full flow of one of his interjections – announced by the ringing of a manual fire bell that he had on the top of the table at which he sat – during the course of the variety show based in a simulacrum (a word I wouldn’t have used at the time!) of a typical working men’s club. This was a character I can recall impersonating amongst friends.

‘Colin Crompton/Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club’

Graphite and putty eraser on Seawhite cartridge paper/42 x 30cm

If anything upping the Northern ante yet further, the following pair of drawings represent the former England international cricketer Fred Trueman, as I recall encountering him for the first time, during his subsequent media incarnation, as the  laconic, cardigan-wearing, pipe-smoking presenter of ‘The Indoor League’, a compendium of essentially pub challenge games such as darts, bar billiards, shove ha’penny and suchlike. A man entirely at ease with himself (hardly surprising given what turned out to have been a very successful sporting career), resplendent in the fashions of the 1970s and a magnificent jet-black tonsure, Fred would sign off each programme with a gruff Yorkshire “Ah’ll sithee” (“I’ll see you”) and it is this that I recall most clearly, in fact to the exclusion of all else about the show: that wink in the first portrait surely captures just such a moment of closure.

‘”Ah’ll Sithee” (Fred Trueman/The Indoor League)’

Graphite and putty eraser on Seawhite cartridge paper/42 x 30cm

‘Fred Trueman/The Indoor League’

Graphite and putty eraser on Seawhite cartridge paper/42 x 30cm