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Saturday, 8 November 2025
The Saturday list #365 - A list celebrating every year of my life!
When I saw the number of this list, I thought to myself 365? The number of days in a year, except for leap years. Maybe I should make a list detailing something great that has happened every year of my life. Can I do it? Well it is a challenge.
1962 - The year I was born. Perhaps you hate my guts and think this shouldn't have made the list, but for me it is something I celebrate every single year!
1963 - Well I can't really remember 1963. I had a look at the number one singles of that year and thought "are there any that make me happy to this day" and realised that one stands out, I still sing a version of it at the top of my voice, changing the words Glad all over to "Guardiola" when I am on the terraces at Manchester City! So thank you to the Dave Clark five.
1964 - Again, I can't remember the year. Well actually, I have a very vague memory of going to Manchester with my mum to see her Aunty Mary and Aunty Gladys on a train. When I first went to watch City at Maine Road in the 1970's, I remember looking at the roof of Piccadilly Station and thinking, I remember this place. I asked my mum and she dated it. But as that is all I can remember, it isn't something to celebrate. However 1964 saw the launch of Radio Caroline and Pirate radio in the UK. I suspect this was the moment when trhe seed was planted of my love of music.
1965 - Again, I can remember nothing from 1965 that is tangible. However, it is the year the Post Office Tower was built and it is perhaps the one building in London that I always see and feel happy. To me, at the time, it seemed to be the future. When I was at St Vincents School, on a clear day you could see it. I really don't know if there is a more iconic building that signifies the good things of UK 1960's architecture. It was also the year Joe Mercer became Manchester City manager. Joe was the most successful City manager until Pep Guardiola took over. He won the league, FA Cup, League cup and European Cup Winners Cup. I met Joe, he was a gent an a legend and went on to manage England as a caretaker manager.
1966 - I have a big memory. I was still three at the time, but England won the World Cup. I don't remember the football, but I do remember having a house full of people watching it. Not everyone had a TV and my brothers and their mates all came around and there was a wonderful party. I also remember my brothers had their 21st Birthday party. We had an outside bog and my Mum put a sign up saying "Gents toilet outside" as she didn't want men peeing on the seat of the upstairs posh loo. The outside bog was a grim place full of spiders. My brothers mate saw the sign and all went to the bottom of the garden and had a wee on the bluebell bed. My mum was horrified. This was part of the inspiration for the False Dots song "We all love a party"
1967 - This might shock a few of my friends. I am not noted for my love of Pink Floyd, but it was the year See Emily Play was released. This was the first song that really captivated me and to this day it is one of my favourites. I recounted the story of why this song is so special to me in a blog back in 2009. I suppose this was another of those moments that set my life on its tragectory, even though I didn't realise it at the time.
1968 - This is a no brainer for me. It was the year I started supporting Manchester City. My brother Frank was a Manchester United fan. It was around Easter and he asked me what football team I supported. I was four years old. I said I didn't know. He said "You should support Manchester United, they are playing their rivals City today and if they win, they will win the league". So I became a United fan, as I rather like my brother and it seemed like a good idea. The next day, I said "Did we win?". He said "No, City won" rather glumly. I realised I'd made a dreaful mistake and said "well, City must be better, so I am a Manchester City fan!". My Mum was rather pleased. She'd been a City fan when she lived in Oldham. Her brother Jim would take her to Maine Road on the bus and although she had no interest in football, it was great fun. I have no regrets!
1969 - I have few memories of 1969, but one massive good thing happened. The Victoria line opened in London. I can remember being at St Vincents and watching a TV programme about it. It was apparently the most modern underground line in the world when it opened. I always like using it. I worked in Victoria for a year and used it every day and I can never remember it breaking down. It should be celebrated.
1970 - This was the year we got a colour telly! My Dad got one because the Mexico World cup was being shown live. He was excited. Dad hated football but loved technology and a party. He invited all and Sundry around to watch the games in colour. It was amazing at the time. It was also great seeing Scooby Doo and The flintstones in colour. Even better though, it was also the year when Gerry Andersons UFO was first screened. It is still me favourite TV show ever
1971 - I have a vague recollection of seeing this on "Tomorrows World" which was my Dad's favourite TV show. I didn't know that forty years later it would save my life! It was the year the CAT scanner was first used in the UK. As my mum was recovering from cancer it seemed hugely important. Sadly the claim that "in the future, we will use this to spot cancers early and people will stop dying of the disease" was a bit wide of the mark.
1972 - This was the year T-Rex became my favourite band. Jeepster and Children of the Revolution, which still sound amazing today. Bolan was someone that was looked down on by musical snobs, but to me will always be an icon.
1973 - This was an amazing year for film. Have a look at the top ten grossing films (from Wikipedia)
I have seen all of these and they are classics of their genre. The only two I saw at the time was The Sting and Live and Let Die. The Exorcist is the scariest horror film ever, American Graffitti invented that genre, Last Tango in Paris was the film that introduced us to all manner of naughtiness. For me, it is the best year in Hollywood history.
1974 - The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali vs Foreman. Possibly the greatest boxing event of all time. My Dad loved boxing and loved Ali. We watched it and after five rounds of Foreman pummelling Ali, I said "He's killing him". My Dad replied "No, he's wearing him out, Ali is too smart for him, he'll knock him out in the 8th", which is exactly what happened. My Dad admired Ali as a man of high principle.
1975 - General Franco died. My Dad hated fascists, having fought them in WW2 as a bomber pilot. He'd refused to go to Spain whilst he was alive. This meant that we could have a family holiday in Spain, Dad immediately booked a holiday and took me out of school in December to go to The Canary Islands, something he'd always wanted to do but refused to whilst Franco was alive.
1976 - The Summer of 1976. I was 13/14 at the time. The best summer ever. Even better, Southampton beat Manchester United in the FA cup final. For me, it was the last summer when I was truly a kid without worries.
1977 - Punk Rock! On the 6th June, I saw The Ramones, Talking Heads and The Saints, and my life changed forever. I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
1978 - This was the year I left Finchley Catholic High School and went to Orange Hill Senior High school. It was like being let out of prison. I was out with mates from Orange Hill on Thursday. Unlike FCHS, there were girls and they liked punk rock! I cannot say how wonderful that was.
1979 - The year I started Mill Hill Music Complex (It wasn't called that then) and also The False Dots. It was the year my life flipped into actually being someone making music than just dreaming of it.
1980 - The False Dots first gig! This was the event that cemented my love of performing.
1981 - The year I left school. I started working as a painter/decorator and playing as a musician. But the highlight was meeting a beautiful Swedish girl and moving to Stockholm. This opened my eyes to the fact that UK was just a small island off Europe and we really are not as important as we think.
1982 - The False Dots first European tour! I set this up whilst living in Stockholm. Sadly, it resulted in me getting banned from going to Sweden for ten years, as I broke immigration rules.
1983 - This was the year I got a 'proper job' working in IT, mostly to repay the debts I'd run up putting on the Sweden tour. In hindsight it was one of the best things to happen to me. It gave me the sound basing to develop my other business interests.
1984 - This was the year when The False Dots were at their 1980's pinnacle, with Venessa Sagoe on vocals. Our gig in February was probably the best gig ever until the recent line up. Sadly by the end of the year it had all gone up in smoke. Que Sera Sera. Here's Veness at her best
1985 - The year I actually learned to write songs properly and play guitar properly. I did a songwriting course and although it doesn't sound exciting, it was so important. Even more important, it was the year I met my missus. Things got better ever since.
1986 - This was the year we decided to make Mill Hill Music Complex into a proper business. We started renovating what was studio 2 and I got a bank loan to buy PA gear.
1987 - I struggled to think of anything this year. My Dad passed away in January, that cast a massive shadow. But then I remembered that in October, I bought the family house off my Mum. She couldn't stand living here anymore. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
1988 - Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final. Manchester City were going through a bad patch, English clubs were banned from Europe, football seemed plagued with awful things, Heysel, The Bradford fire. But them Wimbledon, who'd risen from non league, beat Liverpool. It gave every fan of every small club reason to dream. When Wigan beat Man City a few years ago, I was not upset a I felt it was good for football.
1989 - This was the year we started the project to build our recording studio at Mill Hill Music Complex. It was a real hard slog, but it has made so much good music, that it should be celebrated.
1990 - This was the year I think I wrote the three best songs of the first period of The False Dots, If you really mean it, Come back home and It's alright (I wrote the music, Tony Robotham wrote the lyrics). Tony was an inspiring guy to work with. The songs don't suit my vocal style, but I am dead proud of them and will record them with a guest vocalist at some point. It was also the year I got my wonderful short haired British Blue cat Norman, who was my best mate for 14 years.
1991 - This was the year I decied to become a Freelance IT consultant. I was working for BACS and they offered me a big sum of money to take redundancy. All my Xmas came at once! My plan had been to take the cash from BACS, do a world tour then look for a job, but I was offered a lucrative six month contract at my leaving do. That was that!
1992 - This was the year that a band called The Sway came to my attention. They were rehearsing at the studio and I thought they were brilliant. I ended up managing them, getting them national tours, radio plays and making two great singles. I lost a shedload of money, but it was massive fun.
1993 - The channel tunnel. I have always beleived that the UK should be close to Europe. I bought shares in Eurotunnel, as I believe in putting your money where your mouth is. It opened that year. I went on one of the first trains through the tunnel for free! What happened was disgusting. Small shareholders got shafted and large banks made a killing. I am proud to have been a small part of making it happen, but it is a lesson in how fat cats will always rob you if they can. The British and French governments should have protected small shareholders. It was not like a normal business, it is a huge national asset and many invested because of this.
1994 - It was the year that Ernie Ferebee joined our studio team and we really started building it into what it is today. Ernie became studio manager when I bought my previous partners out (using the cash I got from my BACS redundancy). Ernie and I worked tirelessly for six years together. The studio, in his tenure went from 2 studios to 10 and also added a shop. It was also hugely profitable.
1995 - Two amazing things happened. I got married and my eldest daughter Maddie was born.
1996 - Like many new parents, not much really happened, but watching my daughter start the year as a non vocal baby and end it with her toddling about and chatting away is about as good as it gets!
1997 - It was the year my second beautiful daughter Lizziewas born. It was alsothe year we started our shop. This was a massive step for Mill Hill Music Complex. Ernie was a brilliant shopkeeper. It was also the year Fil Ross started working for us. He is now our chief recording engineer and my bandmate in The False Dots.
1998 - Having stopped playing 11 a side football when Maddie was born, I started playing 5-a-side at Powerleague on a Thursday night. This was a massive part of my life for 25 years.
1999 - This was the last year that my Mum and Ernie were both well and healthy. We enjoyed a cruise with my Mum and Ernie and I were seeing the financial rewards of five years hard work arriving. It is a wonderful feeling when everything is good. We sometimes overlook this fact,
2000 - My son Matt was born. I was incredibly busy with both IT work and the studios, trying to complete the fitting out of studios 8,9 and 10, so that was a clear highlight.
2001 - This was the year The False Dots reformed with Paul Hircombe (our long standing bass player), Fil Ross and Tony Caveye, with the plan to record a few old tunes. I had no idea that it would still be going now. Itw as also the year I got involved with the HCPT charity which became a major part of my life.
2002 - The False Dots did our first gig since 1990! That was a massive buzz. A benefit at the Red Lion in Colindale for Ernie's family (He passed the previous year), I realised I had the buzz again.
2003 - The year I stopped working in IT to concentrate on the studio. My IT career had done its job, I no longer needed it. Now I could concentrate on the studio!
2004 - I went back into IT! A legal problem meant the whole studio project was at risk. I had to get plan B on the go. The chip and pin project was kicking off and I got a great contract goinga round the country certifying retailers systems. It was great as I was able to use it to be paid to see a lot of Man City games, as many of these retailers were based in the North West and I could combine trips with watching matches. City were a bit rubbish, but it was fun.
2005 - I am not going to be mean and say that is the year the Glazers bought Man Utd and ruined them. That would be unkind. What was a highlight was going to Lourdes with my Mum and my sister Catherine. Mum had a stroke in 2001 and had aged 30 years in five seconds. This was probably the best she ever was after. We had real fun. It was great spending time with my sister Catherine, who is lovely and I don't see enough of
2006 - The False Dots play at the Mill Hill Sports club, with my mate Steve Nash's daughter Kate as support. six weeks later she had a number one single!
2007 - My Daughter Maddie became National Age Group BAGCAT swimming champion. I'll always be so proud of her. She was a brilliant swimmer and this year she was absolutely on fire.
2008 - I fulfilled a lifelong dream of seeing The Steve Miller Band in California. This was also the year that I started blogging as The Barnet Eye. I guess that is worth celebrating.
2009 - This was the year that I was asked by The Lib Dems to stand as a candidate in Mill Hill. Although we lost, I am proud that a major political party considered asking me to represent them in a seat that was thought winnable.
2010 - Connie Abbe joined the False Dots. I love Connie, she is a brilliant singer. It was one of the best periods of my musical career. I'd love to collaborate with Connie again. Playing the Purple Turtle in Camden was a massive highlight.
2011 - Manchester City won the FA cup and I was there with my son. In truth, the semi final was better as we beat Man U! I enjoyed it with my son. We Started work on our new studio block which was a massive thing. I was so proud that the work had started after five years planning, no thanks to the banks, it must be said.
2012 - The film I'd produced, A Tale of Two Barnets was shown at The Phoenix cinema, The House of Commons and The Edinburgh festival. The opening of our new studio block was even prouder. I also quit my IT career as we had a business that was in a postion to support me. It was also a proud moment when The False Dots played the end of occupation party at Friern Barnet library, when we saved it from closure by the Council.
2013 - Having saved Friern Barnet Library, we set about saving The Bohemia pub and The False Dots staged an "occupation gig" with Occupy. Charles Shah Murray of the NME also played. It was a great night of musical anarchy!
2014 - Having quit IT, I went back to it again. We had a few rather unexpected large expenses and to be honest, I was a bit bored. A mate at Lloyds Bank offered me a job. It was actually good fun. I got a trip out to India out of it which was amazing. I always made jobs work for me.
2015 - We launched the Save London Music campaign on BBC Radio London with the help of Robert Elms, then got Del Richardson of Osibisa to play at the launch party with us at The Fiddlers Elbow.
2016 - Pep Guardialo joins Manchester City. The best manager in the world at my club that a decade before had been a joke. Nuff said.
2017 - The North Finchley Festival. I put this together with the then Cafe Buzz owner Helen Michael and some other locals. It was a great weekend. The False Dots did a gig at The Bohemia which was brilliant as part of it. Oh yes and I finally quit IT for good.
2018 - The studio finally returned to profit after the building project. I felt vindicated (what could possiby go wrong).
2019 - The highlight of this for me was an event we put on to attract investors for a new studio block, to complement the one we put up in 2012. The outlook was rosy, we got serious investors and started looking for builders. It was a real buzz.
2020 - Covid. I was trying to think what good things happened that year? Then I realised that the sun was shining, my kids were at home and we had barbeques every night. If you can't enjoy that then you are missing something.
2021 - One of the grimmest years of my life. Graham our drummer lost his son to suicide. The singer in our band Allen decided he couldn't risk rehearsing with covid about. So we started rehearsing as a three piece and I wrote new set of up beat Ska songs to try and put a smile back on Graham's face and to take his mind off what he was going through. He told me that when he rehearsed it was the only time he wasn't thinking about Daniel. The set evolved and we recorded a few songs.
2022 - We unleashed the new set on the world. They liked it. We were given a residency at The Dublin Castle. The videos got thousands of hits. The band were back! It was amazing. We also went to Portugal to record an album!
2023 - Tom Hammond joined the band on Trumpet. The band had morphed into exactly what I always wanted it to be, without even trying. Up beat Ska punk which puts a smile on everyones face. The gigs were great.
2024 - The band released our album "A finger in the Sun", we did a record number of shows and the studio broke even for the first time after covid.
2025 - This year was our 30th Wedding anniversary. I can't imagine a life without Clare and the kids.
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