Keele In The Late 60s/Early 70s

Malcolm Clarke’s article on the first sit-in at Keele prompted me to reminisce about subsequent events in the era of ‘noise, nudity and arson’ as he puts it. There was a real generational shift between 1968 and 1970.   I arrived at Keele in October 1968, just after that sit-in in which my elder brotherhad been an intellectual eminence grise.  He left as I came: between us we straddle two very different eras of student life and youth culture in general.  The generation before 1968 were steeped in CND, jazz and duffel coats.  My generation were steeped in drugs, sex and rock and roll.  We were the ‘My g-g-generation’ of the Who.

1969-70 was the hottest year as I recall although the only thing I can remember about sitting-in in the Senior Common Room was the very uncomfortable chaise longue on which I spent the night.  Although the ‘drugs problem’ was grossly exaggerated, there was a fair amount of acid floating around at that time and it genuinely was mind-expanding.  Drugs weren’t just a hedonistic buzz  - there was an entire counter-culture woven around them.  Of course, we were all young and naive etc., but many of us still have our intellectual, cultural and spiritual roots in that era.  I think the noise Malcolm refers to might have included the day someone set up their stereo in the first floor windows of one of the Horwood quads (E and F block, I think).  With perfect irony,  Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were repeatedly intoning ‘It can’t happen here’.  This was also the year of  the nude sunbathers, most of whom I knew quite well but when asked who they were, I find that my poor memory for names has conveniently come to their rescue.    Wasn’t it the day of one of Princess Margaret’s visits?  They made the front page of The Sun (especially that pretty girl who looked like a ’60s model   - surprise, surprise) and their punishment was to be kicked off campus for the remainder of their time at Keele.  I wasn’t actually there at the time: I’d ‘freaked out’, as we used to say, some months earlier and was recuperating in Dundee before retaking P1. 

I remember the arson too - actually a couple of petrol bombs in milk bottles.  It was a shame that some of the more angry and personally troubled people involved got carried away like that.  Even then, I could see that this wasn’t right.  It’s an object lesson in how protest can easily tip over into destructiveness.

I think it was a year or so later that Keele introduced ID cards which became a further source of protest.  A brazier was set up outside the Registry and about half a dozen of us came and duly consigned our cards to the flames.  It’s a sign of the times that there was a picture of the event on the front page of  The Guardian the following day.

What I can’t remember is the particular action of the Keele authorities that led to what I still think of as the best graffiti of all time.  One morning some wag had written across the entire side wall of the Students Union building (the one that faces the library) in large red letters: ‘WHAT A SUPER PLACE TO RIGHT SOMETHING OUTRAGEOUS’.  Maybe the red paint was left over from the can someone poured into the Registrar’s letter box?  Anyway, it was a darned sight more witty.