blimey, how fast the world rotates! no sooner is Christmas over and Lyla's birthday celebrated than he we are in February, a month with a bit of a birthday festival in it. the most important birthday, of course, is Mum's. Holly Johnson's, which was yesterday, would be a close second, although strictly speaking he is not a member of our family as such.
well, i shouldn't really presume to speak on behalf of my siblings, but to start with here is a pic of the three of us probably as Mum would like to remember us all. i think we look as innocent and loveable in this pic as we are ever likely to get, then or now!
i have probably posted the above pic before, but it is always class to have a look at how Mum, for some reason, seems to have styled Richard to look like Rod Stewart!
moving on in time, and a lovely pic from one of my all time favourite holidays, Torquay in 1983! sadly not a pic from the ace Radio 1 Road Show we got to go to, but all the same a great one from the camp site we stayed at!
dig the ace t-shirt of The King, Elvis Presley that Richard has on!
from that holiday i recall a great "variety competition" in the camp site entertainment hall. in order to win you had to be the first to rush up to the compere / MC type chap with "a pair of green knickers". needless to say, in our youthful enthusiasm, Richard & I rushed straight over to our Mum, asked her if she had green knickers on and if so would she mind terribly taking them off, oblivious to the fact that we were in a hall packed full of holidaymakers. well, how were we to know he was making reference to two One Pound notes? pocket money in those days was strictly coins!
moving on a touch in time still and the best, biggest "family" picture that i could find of us around Mum was from the day Michele and I got married; a day Michele tells me is the single happiest of my life.
Mum put an awful lot of effort and work into our wedding, and made sure it was an amazing day! thanks very much again for that!
notice how comfortable Erika looks in the above, oddly it was on that day that she met a good many of us for the first time. she must have liked what she saw, since she stayed around!
and what keeps Mum busy most of the time these days? well, beyond Dad's many and varied curious good ideas, it would be less being a Mum and more being a Grandma!
as much as Mum would like me to dominate this post with all her lovely grandchildren, without showing any sort of favouritism let me instead give her a walk down memory lane to the first grandchild arriving, the adorable and much loved Katie!
well, Katie is the first known and confirmed grandchild, at least. Richard didn't exactly spend as much time reading as i did all those years ago, the mind boggles as to who exactly is out there wandering around.......
and moving on from that, just how cool is my Mum? well, let' see. she supported all of us in doing whatever we wanted to do with our lives, and as far as possible gave us the freedom to go right ahead and make our own mistakes, but never shyed away from helping us when we went wrong. for me, she always stood behind as the strongest supporter of my educational ventures, indulged and understood my various musical obsessions (before there was Frankie there was the small matter of devotion to Adam & The Ants, after all), has always been quite prepared to join in high level conversations with me and my mates (example : there's a certain thing that me and my good mate Shaun believe that followers of Leeds do to horses; her view is that they in fact do this certain thing to sheep), and has always admired the fine work of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as much as I.
she also, once upon a time, had no hesitation in taking me to the cinema to see Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, despite me being one or two (well, three i think) years below the certificate the film had been given. i thought it was out of being kind to me; as it turns out it was so that she could "admire" Mel on the big screen. i mention that moment now as it gives me the perfect excuse to give a birthday treat; yes Mum the below pic of Mel is just for your benefit!
well, once again then, happy birthday Mum! hope it is, or has been, a most excellent day!!!
as for other birthdays this month, well, watch out next week for a special tribute to the 37th anniversary of Blockbuster! by The Sweet being number one.........
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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