1984: Pure as the driven snow

The summer of 1984 I seemed to spend mostly at the home of a friend in London. When you're a teenager it was by far the most exciting place to be.

I stayed with this school friend while waiting for yet another trip to Bahrain, so with nothing much to look forward to there, I was busy making the most of it here. I recall it involved meeting up with other friends and going to a lot of nightclubs, specifically The Hippodrome and The Empire in Leicester Square. Why we didn't go somewhere trendier was anyone's guess, though I think it had a lot to do with my friend being a bit of a soul boy. That said, they always played Two Tribes, which remains the hardest song in the world to dance to.

When I think about this it's so ancient, that we may as well have been taking in the supper show at The Talk Of The Town. It's that long ago. Those cavernous, multi-floored clubs with their chrome trimmings and mezzanines and cocktails and Wham-haired clientele. I'm glad I was there.

Anyhoo, apart from Change Of Heart by Change and Somebody Else's Guy by Jocelyn Brown, the one song that really reminds me of this golden time in my swirly short-sleeved shirts and white basketball boots is White Lines. If I'm totally honest I had no idea what this song was actually about until someone pointed it out to me and gave the words a good listen. I was awfully naive when it came to drugs. Initially I thought it was about staying in lane while driving. The sniffing sound affects passed me by. However, I loved it, though it too is hard to dance to.

The next time we meet, we'll give it a go.