Surreal

[Guest manusf3a]

Having not been there to witness it myself but heard it on good authority from the lads themselves I can think of a scene that must have had surreal written all over it to the members of Kettering constabulary called out to attend a burglary many years ago.The two lads were Mick Caine aka "snotty",and John Boyd(great lad and one of thee originals of the scene from round Corby along with Passy and Brian).It was around the early eighties and all our lot had stopped going to all nighters,John many years before, but everyone was up for the refreshments still that the magic white box contained.Snotty and John were on the roof of Boots in Kettering one evening after closing time for the shop.They were on the dispensary roof which if you could see it was a bit like a dead end alley if you were on it,no were to go but the way you got up,impossible to climb to a higher level.Anyway the skylight bars were in the process of being removed when the lads saw torch light shining up and voices saying the usual",come on down weve got you surrounded etc". The two lads had a quick conference!

Snotty was already on bail that he had broken and the old bill were looking for him everywhere John was free of anything hanging over him at the time so they put their plan into action.John would make out he had heard Snotty had gone to do the chemist and worried that he would get himself into worse trouble had gone up up on the roof to talk him down.Now knowing these two lads well the old bill were not in any hurry to climb up on the roof so taking the oppurtunity John moved back from Snotty and started saying come on Mick dont do it ,you know youll only get in more trouble,making sure it was loud enough for the old bill to hear,with Mick replying something along the lines of ",No ,I wont let you talk me down John,you shouldnt have come up here I am going to burgle it and no one can stop me!.By the time the coppers had got there heads over the edge of the roof they would have been greeted to what to them would have been a surreal sight,one of the areas biggest chemist robbers ever standing there as if a concerned citizen trying to talk another of the most wanted dda breakers not to go ahead as it would get him into trouble.As mentioned earlier the old bill were in no hurry to get up there and take on John and Snotty(who had a tool bag bristling with jemmies etc) so according to the lads the little drama went on for some time with John doing his good citizen act and the old bill watching for what seemed like ages before they eventually got up on the roof themselves to nick the lads.

In court the lads stuck to the story that John was only on the roof to talk Mick down but the filthy bar steward of a judge wasnt having any of it so both lads got custodials.What a lad Mick r.i.p was hes still missed by many who knew him ,John was a one off to they dont seem to make them like that these days.Last saw John many years ago just before he moved to Brum with his missus,wicked sense of humour but not one to mess with as more than a few came to find out.

Edited August 30, 2012 by manusf3a

[Guest Soulatthedale]

At a Soul night in about 1976, a famous Northern DJ (now deceased) was slumped on the stairs leading from the dance floor to the stage, (directly in front of the stage) trousers round his knees as a young female relieved him!

[Tezza]

Circa 1976 - Me and a few mates called in at the Bar of Middlecroft Leisure Centre in Chesterfield. In the main hall they were setting up some speakers and a small stage. Asked around and apparently there was a band on. Decided too stop and watch to see if they were any good. Us 3 and 6 other people in the big Hall - Johnny Johnson and The Bandwagon !! No one knew who they were !!!

[Dave Rimmer]

Only a very vague connection to the scene with this one, but I found it quite surreal.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the courtyard of Jessica's local pub in Llandeilo in Wales. Now Llandeilo is a town of 2000 people, with, I think five pubs, so you can imagine what it's like.

So we were sitting chatting, when Katjca (Spelling?), the only Finnish girl in the town comes across for a chat. So, we have a Finn, an American, and an Englishman sitting outside this pub. Katjca happens to ask where we are the following weekend, and Jess says I'm DJing, so we are at my house. Katjca asks what sort of music I play, and I say northern Soul.

This is the scary bit: She then says you don't know a guy called Heikki from Helsinki do you. We both say yes ! It turns out that Jessica only knows one guy from Finland, and I know two, and Heikki is one of them. Not only does Katjca know him, she's got his phone number in her phone, and he's moved into her old flat !

What are the odds on that happening ?

[Guest manusf3a]

Surreal was going round and round and up and down inside a multi storey carpark youve never been in before and taking sometimes hours to get out,this was usualy the result of the driver(and passengers!)being blocked up and whizzing well.What would happen would be that after the all nighter wherever it may be finished in the morning folk would want to carry on over the entertainment and this could mean driving somewhere nearby etc to do whatever was decided on doing by said groups,On a number of occasions when reaching where you wanted to spend the rest of the day you had to park up in a towns multi storey,innocent easy thing to do when you are straight,hard as hell to do when you are blocked out your head.All those one way systems of internal turns to go up and down and the more the number of floors the worse.Unless you have experienced it(I woud say a fair few back then did)you could not imagine the sense of being trapped with no way out as you went up and down and round and round in what seemed to be forever inside this mad fairground like ride gone mad.The longest I experienced was over an hour getting out of the one in cambridge and f*ck that sure seemed surreal however I know someone who used to do the multi storey thing regular who one time took the whole afternoon out of it on methedrine pills with a car load of folk to get out of a multi storey in either leeds or bradford(cant quite remember which)he was also driving on the cambridge carpark jaunt.Lots of surreal things seemed to happen the morning and day after nighters I just used to think it was all part and parcel of having fun since those days I have never been trapped in a multi storey like all the other good and wholesome things of the past sadly they are now in the past but hey theres still mad surreal things waiting to happen so its not all bad.

Edited September 3, 2012 by manusf3a

[maslar]

My only real surreal moment occured at WC.. This would have been on one of the first times I went. Not the first but the second, third or fourth so would be in June/July 1980. I was sitting on the balcony in front of the record booth when the 3 before 8 came on. Only it wasn't time yet.. or so I thought. When TWPYB came on I just thought it was a little strange. Then when LATIAO came on I started to get a little worried, even moreso when IOMW came on. I just sat there thinkiing "where's the time gone"? I was in this sort of timeless state for about 4 or 5 minjutes. I couldn't understand it. Then everything just carried on as normal.

Just as soon as it happened I forgot about it and I never mentioned it to anyone or asked anyone about it. If you'd asked me the next day if anything strange happened I probably wouldn't have remembered it. Then a few years ago I was in Waterstones flicking through one of the WC/NS books (can't remeber which one) and there was a story about how Mike Walker had come into the Casino a little worse for wear and refused to leave until they played the 3 before 8 ( or something along those lines). Straight away I remembered that night- the first time I'd thought about it since it happened almost 30 years earlier. . Even now I can't remember the exact night or even roughly what time it happened.