Day: 5 April 2026

Weeknotes #167: Shrewsbury and Easter

Easter travels, good food, nostalgia, and small wins along the way.

Week commencing Monday, 30th March 2026

Birmingham Moor Street railway station, a red-brick building with arched windows and period details, seen on a bright day with people walking past and gathering near the entrance; the station served as a key part of Easter weekend travel.
Moor Street: essential stop on Easter weekend journey

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 3/7. (52%). Morning walks: 0/3. Office days: 1/4. Total steps: 39,476. 13.4 hours in meetings.

Life

  • Middling at the pub quiz this month. Let’s move on.
  • Recording a message for the West Shropshire Talking Newspaper took me a lot longer than I anticipated because every room echoed too much.
  • After-work beers were nice on Thursday, but it was also nice that they finished early and I could get home to pack.
  • If you don’t ask, and because I did, they let me on an earlier train than the one I’d booked on Good Friday. Engineering works meant I had to go via Birmingham Moor Street station.
  • Friday, Saturday, and Sunday lunches were all in restaurants around Shrewsbury. All different and all very good.
  • I found things in the loft that I had not looked at for more than thirty years. Fascinating.
  • On Easter Sunday, an egg hunt around the garden, and then the Easter trail around Attingham Park.
  • Exciting: Artemis II launched successfully, sending astronauts on a crewed flyby of the Moon for the first time in decades.

Media

There Was A Time

Ah, the power of the web. A friend of mine – who occasionally passes by here – spoke on his site about advertising. Then, it appears he removed it. Sad, really, because it included the paragraph:

I grew up in the UK. In the 80s. It was a weird time, people were buying their council houses and forcing themselves to drink Asti Spumante in a bid to live a more sophisticated life.

Of course, he really knew that Asti was sophisticated in the 80s. Is it a passing-age thing, or were the 80s a much more aspirational time? Even today’s On This Day points to the 80s being different (although you debate the sophistication element of Steve Strange between yourselves). Hell, I even thought Footloose was sophisticated (and for Google: this is the official site of the London musical production of the movie Footloose, and this might be what made it interesting to me at the time). Anyway, the 80s are in vogue, and who am I to deny the world some joy? Footloose is on stage, and Dirty Dancing is coming. Reading the paper tonight, I noticed that Dirty Dancing is advertising ‘open dance auditions’ for dancers with a variety of bodies and partnering skills. Perhaps a career change beckons. Male auditions are on Thursday, 6th April, from 2pm!

Ambassador, what do you have for me today?

Elsewhere: Blitzed! The Autobiography of Steve Strange

In some respects it’s a fascinating tale of fame and hedonism. If, however, you’ve read biographies of other Eighties pop stars then you’ve heard a lot of it before. The story seems to have been repeated: humble beginnings drive creativity which lead to fame and then there is a some-kind of fa

I’ve just finished Blitzed! The autobiography of Steve Strange and posted my review to Amazon:

Blitzed! The Autobiography of Steve Strange

I’ve just finished Blitzed! The autobiography of Steve Strange and posted my review to Amazon:

Steve Strange was an icon of the Eighties music scene, a visionary and a leader. I suspect he’s often overlooked, but his contribution was vital. His clubs kick-started a movement, and the band he fronted,Visage, were pioneers of what became the New Romantics: make-up, big hair, big hats, and even bigger shirt lapels and cuffs. From the beginning of the decade, and out of the punk movement, came the classic Fade To Grey. Visage and Steve Strange were combining fashion and music in a radical new way.

Blitzed: Steve Strange Bokoer Cover

Blitzed has an informal style, which makes it quite readable. Strange name-drops his way through a decade and apologises quite a lot for his behaviour. It’s a cautionary tale of a rise to fame, money mismanagement, and drug addiction. It’s the story of London squats and club-land rivalry and of a community that knew they were changing nightclubs, the fashion scene and music – and doing it all in a few short years. It is a struggle to stop a man falling over the edge and trying to make sense of a life where once his name was in lights, but the money is long gone.

In some respects, it’s a fascinating tale of fame and hedonism. If, however, you’ve read biographies of other Eighties pop stars, then you’ve heard a lot of it before. The story seems to have been repeated: humble beginnings drive creativity, which leads to fame, and then there is a kind of fall (usually, drink or drug-induced). Blitzed is an enjoyable read, but Boy George will give you more, and Marc Almond will take you further. If you knew the club scene of the time, there’s an insight into the door policies of the new breed of Eighties clubs and how they worked. If you are looking for the story of Visage, then, obviously, it’s covered here, and this will be a valuable reference – but it’s more about the man than the band.

If you remember the decade, then you’ll read this book regardless, but, sadly, I felt there could have been a little more. Nonetheless, Blitzed reinforces Steve Strange’s rightful place as a leader of a movement that’s certainly not about to fade away.

You can buy Blitzed!: The Autobiography of Steve Strange at Amazon now.