Dear Lady Diana / Take That / Famous Dead Men

If you were around in the 90s, there’s a really high chance you remember where you were when you found out Princess Diana died. I was in Scarborough for the weekend, visiting my first boyfriend (first real one, not any of the pretend ones I told you about in the last issue).

He actually broke up with me at the very end of the visit, minutes before I boarded the train back to Doncaster. I cried quietly while looking wistfully through the train window all the way back, then got home and wrote about it extensively in my diary. Of course.

A few days later I told my diary I was feeling better and hadn’t cried at all that day, but noted I had felt tearful about Princess Diana.

I was 16 in 1997, so I’ve jumped ahead in terms of the chronicling of my teen diaries here in the newsletter, but the reaction to Diana’s death is one of the topics we covered when I was a guest on It’ll be Alright In The 90s podcast this week, and I wanted to update you on the podcast experience now that the episode is out in the world.

First, big thanks to everyone who’s listened so far — and extra special appreciation to those who’ve shared, commented or messaged to tell us what you thought of the episode. As I mentioned last week, after we recorded the ep (so before I heard it back) I had this niggling sense I could have given ‘better’ answers, and I felt strange about not being able to edit myself like I can when I put writing out into the world.

But this week, when the episode aired and I sat down with a cuppa to listen to it, I had a really nice realisation: I was listening to a conversation.

I know, ground-breaking stuff — but stay with me!

A conversation isn’t supposed to be edited, and a podcast listener isn’t checking over or analysing every word; they’re getting the overall sense of who you are and what you’re saying, in that moment.

And as I listened I felt the freedom that comes in that, and the aliveness and flow of people chatting, contributing, creating spontaneously.

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We talked about

-The note I left for Princess Diana in Doncaster’s Book of Condolence (it contains the phrase “safe hands of the Lord”)

-My love and adoration for 90s boyband Take That

-The moment I realised I might not marry Howard Donald (from Take That)

-Exactly where I was when Take That announced their split

In fact, here’s a clip of me talking about that very thing. Press PLAY:

And here’s a photo of me with Take That in 1994:

-I also read out a letter I wrote to Take That in 1995 — and share the story of how I managed to get a reply 28 years later

-We talked about my favourite 90s TV show, the brilliant, edgy, ground-breaking My So-Called Life

-I discussed my appreciation of John Shuttleworth, which is a little more niche but if you know, you know

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Collage-tastic

Something I haven’t shared much of here so far are the many and varied ways I decorated / graffiti-ed my diaries and notebooks, so I’m really excited about these next couple of photos.

Although this diary cover from 1996 doesn’t include a photo of John Shuttleworth (he wasn’t ever in Smash Hits or Just Seventeen, weirdly) it does a good job of showcasing some of the 90s stars I talked about on the podcast:

As does the cover of my homework planner from the same year:

Look closely and note how my friend Laura, who really loved Liam Gallagher, has set me straight about the ‘Loved by Liam’ sticker:

“I am, actually, not you,” she’s asserted with her biro (sideways down the right-hand side of the page).

And then I’ve written BIG DEAL under the sticker itself to show that I’m not even bothered about Liam anyway, actually, Laura.

Also see the words CRIM followed by INNOCENT above Jarvis Cocker — that’s referring to his very funny protest against Michael Jackson at the 1996 Brit Awards.

I’ve also written “See ya Thursday” with an arrow pointing to Jarvis: that’s because I went to see PULP live at Sheffield Arena on Thurs Feb 29th 1996. It was just a few weeks after that Brit Awards incident, in fact. I sprayed my hair green for that gig, for some reason.

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I will now rank famous men, some of whom are dead

As I mentioned last time, I’d over-prepared in terms of the diary extracts I wanted to read on It’ll Be Alright In The 90s, so I didn’t get to read any of the many, many lists I liked to write as a teen.

So here’s one for you. My Top Ten Famous Men from 1995, (I was 14) which funnily dries up before I even get to ten:

I love that Marti Pello is on there (lead singer of Wet Wet Wet). That must have been a fleeting crush; he doesn’t appear anywhere else in my diaries, I don’t think. He was lovely, though. And there’s something funny about Darren Day being last on a list that I was struggling to complete. I actually drafted out several long letters to Darren Day which I still have, basically telling him my life story. WHY THOUGH???

Moving on. For some reason, I decided I should also write a ‘list’ of my favourite dead men. But this time I knew from the start how many entries there’d be, so I accurately call the list Top Two Famous Dead Men.

I genuinely liked Nirvana, so it makes sense that Kurt is there. But I’m sure I’d only seen a bit of The Crow, so I do question my integrity for including Brandon Lee.

That’s all for this time. Thanks for being here, as always.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to It’ll Be Alright In The 90s yet, click on any of these links to get to the episode: Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or Google.

Then, if you wanna, feel free to share the podcast and/or this newsletter, and comment on socials (or message) to tell us if it stirred any memories in you. It’s always great to hear from you.

See you next time,

Teresa x