Hump Day History – 1995 (SM Off Topic)

So, this week for “Hump Day History”, the randomly selected year to focus on is 1995. 

Let’s see…

Well, I think at the beginning of the year I was still having Friday/Saturday nights out with my bestie, Steven. We’d venture into the city together at weekends and hang out around George Street around Town Hall. Sometimes we’d end up down by Darling Harbour or down by Circular Quay. There’d be gigs too. Our favourite band then, as a pair of friends into the same music, was a band called You Am I. The last time I saw them, in fact, was with Steven when I went back to Oz in 2015/16 (but I shouldn’t really relay that story much, as that wasn’t 1995). Our favourite venue to see bands was The Metro on George Street, literally 200 yards from the exit of Town Hall station. We saw You Am I (and another Aussie band, The Cruel Sea) there several times – and it was where they played their gig in 2015 also. 

Sometimes we’d peruse around Glen A Baker’s Timewarp record store on the corner of Clarence Street. At that time I was really wanting to add to my Bowie collection and I can remember coveting an import copy of the Buddha Of Suburbia CD and Timewarp would be one of few places to get the imports. The CD was $50 – FIFTY BUCKS! Insane money for a CD at that time, when the average price of a used, v. good condition CD would be about $15, and new would be about $20-25. We could wile away HOURS in that shop. 

Another way we’d wile away hours was to go to the amusement arcade. I know! I’m like 24 years old at this point. Steven is 21 – and there we are playing arcade games. Lol. No “fast times” down at Kings Cross for us! 

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That would be most ways the weekend hang out would go. Timewarp, Timezone (the name of the amusement arcade), then a film (or two) or a gig. Then the night bus home (no trains home after about midnight so we’d have to get the “nightride” bus home – which was always…entertaining! Steven lived 5 stops down the trainline from Liverpool (Liverpool being the nearest train station to where I lived – and always required a bus to get there first) and the nightride bus would only follow (loosely) the train station stops so I’d go back to Steven’s place and we’d stay up the rest of the night until I could catch the first train back home.

As usual, some images are really vivid in my mind, others not. Memories in my mind play like snippets of cinefilm. Glimpses of bits and pieces. Bouncing up and down at a You Am I gig, rummaging through the stacks of vinyl and CDs in Timewarp, playing skee-ball in Timezone and getting streams of tickets that could be cashed in for silly, worthless trinkets. Walking along George Street late at night seeing all manner of sights. Warm afternoons in Darling Harbour.

One other vague memory from 1995 was seeing another band that I really love called – they were originally called Spy vs Spy byt they had to change their name to vSpy vSpy as…I think they got into trouble because of the comic that was around at the time, I think. Anyway…they put on this free gig at Darling Harbour and I had never had the chance to see them. It was on during the day, so I had no worries about getting myself back home from Sydney late at night and there’s even bits of footage of this gig. I bloody loved it! I was so happy to see them. It wasn’t the longest gig or anything but it was a lovely day. The weather wasn’t too hot and Darling Harbour was looking fabulous and there weren’t TONS of people around. In fact, not many people were even that bothered about standing around watching the Spies, which seemed unfathomable to me. If truth be told, I loved the Spies more than I loved You Am I, but the Spies weren’t really touring around that much by that time. I think they were about to split, or had split and reformed. Their last album was out in the early 90s and it was all very “on again -off again” by this point in time. I was just over the moon to be able to catch them play at least once.

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In September of this year, I started working with my brothers David and Quince (not his real name but a nickname that he got in his late teens that stuck with him – until I started working with him, I doggedly referred to him by his real name. I was the only one of my family left that did.). It was a chemical company specialising in providing chemical mixes for the electroplating industry. The company is called MacDermid – check out the company logo (somewhat modernised in appearance from how it looked when I was working there, but still with that same tartan tab – or “plaid” as the Americans like to call it.

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I initially worked there for work experience but was offered a full-time position after two weeks of being there. I was then on a one month trial and that all worked out fine too. I was working in the office as the Customer Service Clerk. I was the first port of call for anyone enquiring. I manned the phone and would take orders and provide safety information sheets on chemical mixes when they were required. There was lots of filing, lots of photocopying, lots of answering phone calls. Few people walked in off the street (usually only local, small business electroplaters) but when they did, I’d be the one to initially see to their inquiry. 

It was two buses for me to get to work. I’d take the buses because if I went into work with David (who lived only a couple of streets away from mum’s house), I’d be going to work at 7.30am and didn’t need to start my shift until 9am. I was meant to work 9-5 but as the guys worked from 7.30 until 4.30 and it would be easier for me to get a lift home with David each afternoon, I was allowed to work my hours from 8.30 to 4.30. The way the buses ran meant I usually got in just after 8am anyway. It’s not as if I got to sleep more or anything, I just didn’t want to be at work way earlier than I needed to. 

I enjoyed the bus ride anyway. Well, “enjoy” is probably too positive a term for I experienced anxiety EVERY morning. I’d feel sick every morning I went in. Once there and in the office and settled down for a day of work, I’d be fine…but each morning, every single day of my time there I’d feel sick travelling in. Just…dreading it. But to have a stable job was great. I had a regular income. Money! I bought myself my first mobile phone and I bought myself my first PC. I was able to pay my mum a decent rent, buy groceries…everything. And, yes…it took until I was nearly 25 to be able to do that. 

These things are hard for me to look at with the passage of time. I feel like an absolute pathetic failure. I have nothing to show for my life, just nothing. If I could have been stronger, more confident, backed myself more, not been scared to fail, not been so…shit scared of EVERYTHING, then perhaps I’d have something to be proud of now. But there’s nothing. I’m now about to turn 52 and what is there? Where’s the “life” I have lived until now? Look at it! They say everyone has a book in them. A story. What would mine be? A book on how NOT to live? A book on why you don’t ever want to be a loser? A book on why you must never give up, because you’ll end up like me and perseverance will be something you just CAN’T do!

“Only dreamers move mountains.” Do they? What have I moved? Does it mean I’m not a dreamer at all? I’ve moved a molehill. I’ve moved a little mound of dirt. No mountain. 

I did feel like I had SOME promise in 1995, towards the end of the year when I started out at MacDermid. Where did it go???? That’s for another time. Another year. Another “Hump Day History.”

What about the music, films or TV of 1995? Let’s see!

One of the more vivid memories I have from 1995 that combines both work and music is a drive home from work with David and the radio station we were listening to on the way home played Bowie’s The Hearts Filthy Lesson. I hadn’t heard a NEW David Bowie song played on radio since…geez, I’m not even sure stuff from Never Let Me Down was played on the radio – but it must have been. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – in terms of having a new song of his being played on the radio.

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Bowie’s “1. Outside” is definitely the album of the year for me in 1995. I loved it and played it to death. 

There’s some stuff I will be at pains to admit loving back then like…the Rednex Cotton-Eye Joe. Lol. I also had Simply Red’s Fairground on cassingle. OMG – Alex Party’s Don’t Give Me Your Life! Lol. Geez! I was mostly loving Brit pop and indie stuff though. Okay, here’s a small sample of what I was into.

Pulp – Disco 2000, Common People
PJ Harvey – Down By The Water
Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees, High and Dry, Street Spirit
Supergrass – Alright
Elastica – Connection
Presidents of the United States of America – Peaches, Lump, Dune Buggy
No Doubt – Don’t Speak, Just A Girl
TISM – (He’ll Never Be An) Ol’ Man River, Greg! The Stop Sign!!
K’s Choice – Not An Addict

Albums:
David Bowie – 1. Outside
Bjork – Post
Garbage – Garbage
You Am I – Hi Fi Way
Alanis Morrisette – Jagged Little Pill
Kd lang – All You Can Eat
The Cruel Sea – Three-Legged Dog

TV:
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Rage (weekends)