I follow something called Madness lyrics daily on Twitter. It’s fascinating the stories behind some of their lyrics.
Oh and check out Madstock 98 on YouTube. I was amongst the masses there, front right.
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I bought that very album when it was first released.
Television was black&white, no one had stood on the moon, a pint of beer was ten pence.
For 50p you could buy cigarettes, a beer, go to the movies and have a little left to pay for fish and chips and the bus home. In those days it was a brown paper note called ten shillings.
I was paid around £3 for a days work in a laboratory, that’s around 35p an hour. My rent was £5 a week. You could buy a house for £700-800.
My second hand motorbike cost me £5.
An L.P. cost about 70p.
It was pound shillings and pence, LSD the currency of the day.
I was busy making memories, an activity I highly recommend.
keep on keepin’ on
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@Bobbi LSD the currency of the day? I hope you’re talking about pounds, shillings and pence otherwise those memories you were making probably were’net real 
I hate to say it but it was released in the same year as I was, 1968, so never bought it when new (although I do have 3 different UK versions on vinyl in the collection - there was one other that I’ve not found yet).
@stokiejoey I’ll check that out, I’ve never seen them in a venue (was due to see them in the BIC a few years back but work got in the way) only at Glasto back in the mid 80s and then Hyde Park about five years ago.
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I last saw madness in 2001 ( I think) at the NEC. It was all seated which really was madness cos the seating made it so restricted and just in the way and unable to dance, especially when you’ve been having a few 
in the bars on Broad Street 
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Well you mostly all seem to be younger than me, in body I am 78, but in brain I will always be 18 …. I was born in the late 1940s but when we started to get real pop stars etc … I loved all rock stuff …. Got to see the Rolling Stones when they first started out, and they are still my favourites, along with The Who, but I also love Robbie and Take That …… born and bred in Great Yarmouth but sadly live far from home up North …. we had a great choice of groups/singers soo long ago and got to meet a few outside the back door of wherever they were performing …. for you Madness fans , they did one of their videos of one of their songs in Yarmouth …. (In the Pleasure Beach) ….
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I’ve just posted on Twitter about the famous wooden rollercoaster at Great Yarmouth that features in the House of Fun video. Been on it a few times myself.
It’s funny you should mention Take That and Robbie Williams. I actually live half a mile from Burslem where he grew up and we used to play golf together at Burslem golf Club. He was really great lad( my claim to fame I tell everyone ) and I also enjoy his music, especially his first few albums but not the frank Sinatra style music he did.
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I actually loved that album …. He said himself he was not the best at singing that style of song, but he loved that sort of thing … that is a very famous old wooden roller coaster and been on it many times, many years ago though …. When we were young and at school we could go on and try all the rides one night before the place was actually opened, free of charge realise now we were all guinea pigs to make sure they were safe …. No health and safety in those days …. But us Yarmouth lot were very hardy folk …happy days, happy memories. Still got my family there but can’t travel well nowadays and it’s a long long car drive ….
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My in laws ( no longer here) used to live in a village near Thetford and we’ve been on 2 holidays on the broads( north and South) so even though I live in Stoke, I’m very familiar with large parts of Norfolk including Great Yarmouth. My daughters when they were younger used to love the snail ride at Funland. Great Yarmouth Pleasure beach also features in an episode of Keeping up Appearances.
Incredible how a thread goes completely off topic. 
I prefer Escapology and Life thru a Lens by Robbie Williams.
He was actually a decent golfer and his dad Pete Conway still lives locally
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Thank you for sharing this, my wife an I have been estranged from our families for 12 and 24 years, she is my best friend,I am lucky to have 4 wonderful grown up children, I am only a few years older than yourself too, even though I enjoy my job, I have found it incredibly easy to be at home (but it only my fifth day) but I find that sometimes being the “Jolly Postman” can be quite tiring everyday so this has been removed and I feel less stressed and disillusioned with it, this may be the catalyst for change, plenty of time to think now though
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