It didn’t take long for a photo of a very New Romantic Tim Farron and his two band-mates to appear on the internet. Within hours of Jonathan Calder revealing the name of our leadership hopeful’s band this morning, he was sent a photo, from around about 1987, of a teenage Tim Farron in his band, Fred the Girl, previously known as The Voyeurs until they realised what exactly that meant.
I have spent many fruitless hours trawling You Tube to see if I could find some footage. I suspect if it’s there, it’s unlisted so nobody will be able to search for it.
You have to see the photo for yourself to see how new romantic and moody our Tim looked. Jennie Rigg reckoned that she’d seen his hat before.
I knew I'd seen that hat somewhere before @timfarron O:-) pic.twitter.com/rLXwITiNt7
— Jennie Rigg (@miss_s_b) May 30, 2015
I’d thought it was more like Glee Club MC Gareth Epps’ hat and made that point on Twitter. Then I discovered that Jennie had got there before me:
OMG THE HAT!!! He's wearing the hat Epps-style!
♡♡♡
Baby @timfarron in his band! https://t.co/D4QfwZedxe
— Jennie Rigg (@miss_s_b) May 30, 2015
The one bit of originality I can bring to the table is that I asked Tim if he was still friends with his bandmates. Quite often you are not still friends at 45 with the people you spent all your time with at 18. They are, though.
@caronmlindsay @TheWeeYin96 @Gigantasaur we are all still friends
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) May 30, 2015
So,there is always the possibility that the band could be reunited at a future Glee Club. Then there’s the chance of a charity single. They could be the Billy Bragg of the liberal world. The opportunities are endless.
If you’re a new member wondering what on earth the Glee Club is, I should explain that it’s the last night of conference rude and raucous singalong. People either love it or hate it. I think it’s fantastic, but then I’ve always been a fan of pure trash. It has to be experienced at least once in your life.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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16 Comments
“The voyeurs until they realised what it meant”
*dies laughing*
OMG so adorable
This puts the Lamb campaign on the back foot; obviously he will have to come up with pictorial evidence of what he was doing at the age of 17 (in 1974=5) to match Tim’s advantage here.
Perhaps Norman was fronting a punk quartet?
Did I ever tell you about the band I was briefly in…….?
Here are a few more pieces for Caron’s puzzle.
I don’t know who’s responsible for the music here, but the photo album is worth looking at:
I don’t think they look hard enough myself. The only reason for wearing a hat in those days was to look like The Clash, but there is really no comparison: http://s120.photobucket.com/user/tbarkeratl/media/TheClash.jpg.html
Point of fact: New Romanticism was a 1979-1983 phenomenon.
@Geoffrey Payne the Clash were old hat in 1987. A far bigger similarity to Boy George but even that was oldnews. Jason Donnovan. Was more on the money.
http://www.retroland.com/culture-club/
Oh, very good, David! Thanks for that.
That hat was around long before any of the bands mentioned above —
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Spaniard_in_the_Works
@John Tilley nope not heard of him.
And, for those of us who took the other side of the Beatles’Stones divide:
http://i12.tinypic.com/2rmmlo5.jpg
Boomers. Please let us enjoy our 80s nostalgia in peace without implying that 60s music was the best ever.
TCO@
Sixties music was the best. Feel so sorry for those who had to grow up listening to the sort of stuff Farron tried to emulate.
@PB Brown. No it wasn’t. Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep?
Certainly got my vote for leadership now!
HQ or FE please update the website, the leadership election is over.