I came across this story by accident as I was researching other subjects in back issues of The Guardian.

In April 1971, 15-year-old Claire Ufland was found dead on her bedroom floor with empty pill bottles nearby.

She had danced on Top of the Pops four times. But her mother had banned her from doing so again after she read the daughter’s diary and discovered she had spent the night with a “well known disc jockey. “

The DJ isn’t named and it seems Claire Ufland lived in Watford. But there’s a Leeds connection…

She had recently appeared on two editions of Junior Showtime, made by Yorkshire Television in Leeds, and the company was editing the tapes to remove her following her tragic death.

If you really want to do the Safety Dance properly you should visit the village of West Kington, which is near Bath. (more...)

As anyone who was a child in the 1970′s knows, Mr Benn lives at 52 Festive Road.

The artist David McKee lived ‘next door’ at 54 Festing Road in Putney (the house with the red front door) and his drawings of Festive Road were based on the real street.

I’ve been transferring my audio cassettes to digital. It’s a job I put off for a long time, as there are about 250 of them.

Those that date from 1980 onwards are played in my Tascam Porta05 Ministudio — a multitrack cassette recorder that I bought in 1988.

Tapes from the 1970′s are more tricky. (more…)