This home movie starts by showing my brother Alistair playing the guitar, when he visited me in Oslo, Norway, around 1980, when I was living at Stølsvegen 18.
It then shows a Scottish piper in Karl Johan Gate – the main central street in Oslo. Comically, he doesn’t seem to be a very skilled player! The next shot is a black street singer, showing my brother, and a friend, Hans Klægstad, in the background. The Royal Palace is also in the background.
The singer seems to have questionable skills, but is not short of blonde female admirers; but of course, he is also quite good.
The next clip shows me and my brother at the apartment in Stølsvegen.
The next clip is some scene from a disco or club.
The next clip shows my brother at the ferry terminal getting ready to return to England.
Another clip shows my brother at a historical site in central Oslo.
Another clip shows Alistair and my girlfriend Merete – Alistair talks about the world cup – so this is probably 1978.
The next clip shows Merete when we visited Gavin and Sue, who were staying in Alistair’s house in Dunston, Sunderland.
The next clip is from a horse race track. My brother, Alistair, was an obsessive gambler, and often visited race tracks. Perhaps this is in Newcastle, I’m not sure.
Amusingly, my brother appears almost like some kind of Hollywood recluse star, wearing a heavy dark coat, and Stetson hat. If nothing else – my brother was certainly a ‘character’ with his full beard and white hat!
The next clip shows the street in Dunston, Sunderland, where Alistair lived. The great irony here is that Alistair was born in Sunderland, and supported the Sunderland soccer team – but of course, although he was born there, my parents were only there for a short time. My mother had decided that four of her sons were ‘middle class’. But she had relegated Alistair to the working class – which, ironically, was the class she was brought up in, in Govan, Glasgow. In other words, returning to his roots in Sunderland was perhaps an act of opposition to his mother?
I think my father disliked this prejudice of my mother against my brother. So I think he was instrumental in ensuring that Alistair followed an educational path – so he became an electrician. After all, my father and grandfather were electricians – but with the aim of becoming engineers. My mother’s mother was from peasant stock, and didn’t even have English as her mother tongue! My mother’s father was no more than a barman. So, it is quite ironic that she held prejudices against skilled working men and her own son.