Tracks of Carole’s Years: part 2

03 Dec 2021 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

My third song is Get into the groove my Madonna. I started my nurse training in 1985 initially in Weston Super Mare. Our nurse’s home was at Uphill that was just on the outskirts of the town. Being student nurses, going out on the town on a regular basis was an absolute must. Our very first weekend away from home my friend Julie and I decided to do just that. So after a few drinks in the local pubs; The Dolphin and The Ship, we made the decision to walk into town rather than waste money on a taxi. We thought it was a brilliant idea to walk in the dark along the beach, not even thinking about checking the tide times. Luckily there was no sea to contend with, but we spotted the golf course on the way and felt that would be a much quicker route. It probably would have been if it wasn’t pitch black and we could have seen the bunkers before we fell in them, but we emerged mostly unscathed and made it to the bars and nightclub to dance the night away to this tune and many other 80’s beauties.

Song number 4 is a David Bowie song, I’ve found it really hard to choose just one, but have narrowed it down to 2; Life on Mars and Star man. I’ve been a Bowie fan for a very long time and was lucky enough to see him at Wembley Stadium in 1987 on his Glass Spider tour. This of course was the old Wembley stadium and in those days you weren’t allocated seats. You had a gate number on your ticket, once you got inside you made a run for it to get you where you considered the best place to be.

We ran to the seats on stage left, we didn’t have a master plan we just thought it would be a good vantage point. Once settled in our seats we discovered that we were just a few rows away from the press and VIP section. I didn’t see them but apparently Elton John and George Michael were sat up there. But I did see, sitting just 2 or 3 rows away from me was Diana Princess of Wales, she looked relaxed, radiant and beautiful. I must admit I turn around a few times during Bowie’s performance to see her up and dancing with everyone else around her, but the chap in front me couldn’t take his eyes off her for most of the night, I think he was truly smitten.

I didn’t take this photo, but from where I sat and a smidgen of zoom I could have captured this image myself.

June 20 1987 Diana attends a David Bowie Concert at Wembley Stadium with Viscount Linley and Major David Waterhouse | Princess diana, Princess diana rare, Diana

Playing dress up

04 May 2018 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in 50 Fabulous things Tags: , , , ,

I’ve always had a propensity for dressing up, any sniff of a fancy dress occasion and I’m first in the queue.

As my formative years were in the 1980’s, a tribute night to the decade fashion forgot is always going to be a fabulous dressing up event.

So along with bestie Tart aka Jane. B I headed to the Fleece and Firkin for a Club Tropicana 80’s extravaganza and as an added bonus we discovered our friend Alison. The night didn’t start until 11 and was going on till 4 am, as our combined age is well over 140 we didn’t think we would last that long. But we danced the night away to all the classics from Wham, David Bowie, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and much more.

 

Halloween gave me another opportunity to morph into a witch, the last fabulous time was the Harry Potter pub crawl as Bellatrix. It was the Motown tribute night up the local club, unfortunately not everyone in the group got the memo about dressing up. But that didn’t kerb mine and fellow witches, Bev and Deb’s, enthusiasm, we had a fabulous time bobbing away to some amazing tunes.

 

 

Spring into 80’s action

10 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

A week ago my brother, my sister in law and I celebrated the decade that style forgot by going to a 1980’s disco in aid of a local children’s group. In our alter egos of Robocop, Adam Ant and fabulous disco chick we boogied our way to the fundraising event for Springboard Opportunity Group.

Based in North Somerset; Springboard provide support to children from birth to 5 years with addition needs. They run play sessions at Clevedon, Weston and South Weston where key people are assigned to the children , on a one to one basis, to develop a specialised play plan. They also support the children when they are ready to transition to school.

The support group Springboard 4 families offer mutual support, friendship, information sharing and advice about available benefits,  which is vital to prevent parents and families from feeling isolated.

In order to provide this essential service Springboard needs £1000 a day and they are totally reliant on charity and fundraising. Donations can be made via their website here, alternatively tickets can be bought for the Give and Win Voluntary Lottery.

When we first arrived at the disco was no one there except Mario and Luigi, we felt a bit self conscious in the main bar with the locals watching the rugby!  But very soon the place filled up with another 2 Adam Ants, a M C Hammer and lots of Wham followers in “Choose life” t shirts. Along with shoulder pads, leg warmers and garish colours we danced the night away to all the great 1980’s sounds.

More than £400 was raised by entry tickets and the raffle and we made it into the local paper.

There are more fundraising events planned; a barn dance, a fashion show and much more. If these are even half as good as the disco then a great time time will be had by all in aid of a very deserving cause.

Here are a few photos……

adam and roboadam antadam robo and chickadam roboglammc hammer