World of Chig   

27.3.06
40 in 40 days: 1966 and all that

10.40am, Friday 6th May 1966, 11 Foxes' Way, Warwick: Chig enters the world. First child of two, born in the back bedroom in the three bedroom terraced house which my parents bought new for £2,000 when they married in 1964. It is still standing. There is no blue plaque. The land was previously a football pitch. It backed onto the woods owned by Warwick Castle (still does), so I've always liked to think I was born on land that was formerly part of the castle grounds, but I don't know if that's actually true.



Later that very same day, at Chester Assizes, lovers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady were both sentenced to life imprisonment for killing three children; the 'Moors murders'. Luckily, I managed to live the first 38 years of my life without ever realising this horrible coincidence. Funny, my parents never mentioned it. Perhaps they had other things on their mind that day.



Also on Friday 6th May 1966, one Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was celebrating becoming a teenager. I wonder if he remembers the Moors murderers being sentenced?



Number One on the day Chig was born, Friday 6th May 1966:
'Pretty Flamingo' by Manfred Mann, but the week before it had been Dusty Springfield's 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me', and I was five days late, so I like to think it was that instead.

Eurovision Winner 1966: Merci Cherie by Udo Jurgens (Austria).
The eleventh Eurovision Song Contest was long gone by the time I arrived in May 1966, having taken place much earlier in those days, back on 5th March. It's still Austria's only win (and will be for at least another 14 months, as they've withdrawn from the contest this year).
UK's Eurovision entry: Kenneth McKellar, in a kilt, singing the final song of the night, 'A Man Without Love'. He finished 9th, the UK's worst performance up to that point and a record he held until 1978. Poor thing.


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