Looking back at 1985, 1970 and 1993
Memories from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for the week February 26 to March 3.
COUNTY pop fan Vincent MacKenzie came to the rescue of Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof when he answered a radio appeal for an acoustic guitar.
The Band Aid star had damaged his own instrument during rehearsals for a concert at the Derngate, Northampton, on February 26, 1985.
When he heard of the emergency appeal via a local radio station, 24-year-old Mr MacKenzie, of North Road, Earls Barton, raced to the theatre with his Yamaha guitar.
Mr MacKenzie and his wife Sharon were both fans of the Boomtown Rats and Mr Geldof showed his gratitude by giving them complimentary tickets for the show.
Mr MacKenzie told the ET: "The first record my wife bought me was a Boomtown Rats album in about 1978.
"I have never seen them live before, though I wanted to."
After the concert Mr Geldof met the couple backstage, thanked them for the loan of the guitar and signed their programme.
Derngate management described the evening as a huge success.
The Boomtown Rats were a so-called "new-wave" band who enjoyed success on the back of the burgeoning punk rock phenomenon in 1977. Their Top Ten hits ranged from Looking After Number One and Mary Of The Fourth Form to She's So Modern and Like Clockwork.
They topped the charts in 1978 and 1979 with Rat Trap and I Don't Like Mondays, but by the time of the Derngate show, had not enjoyed chart success since 1980, when Someone's Looking At You and Banana Republic reached number three and number four respectively.
Geldof, however, co-wrote the Band Aid single Feed The World (Let Them Know It's Christmas Time) which topped the charts in December, 1984, and organised the legendary Live Aid concert at Wembley and Philadelphia four months after the concert at Northampton.
CORBY residents were "disgusted and appalled" to receive letters offering erotic material and lists of "fun-loving people" in the post.
The literature was delivered to homes in Lincoln Way on February 26, 1970, claiming to come from a firm called Pleasure Publications giving an address in Islington, London.
Marion Barr's five-year-old daughter Helen came across the letter when collecting the post. Mrs Barr, pictured left with Sarah Robson, said: "I think that makes it more horrible. It could have been an 11 or 12-year-old who could have sent away for them."
Neighbour Sarah Robson, who had a 17-year-old daughter, said: "There are a lot of teenagers in Corby who could send for these things. This to me is just sheer filth."
The letter offered a copy of a book called Helga and Bernd for 4. It was described as "offering everything which a man and woman could experience with one another" and illustrated 100 variations of the sex act.
Another book, International Passport To Pleasure, included a list of places where readers could meet others of similar tastes. A third book carried "a private and confidential list of swinging girls and married women of mixed ages".
Mrs Robson said: "This is obscene – they obviously don't want people to go and chat."
The letter claimed the women's names were given to the firm by "a friend working for one of the mail order firms", but neither family had ever bought anything by mail order.
The ET tried to contact Pleasure Publications for comment, but it was not listed in the telephone directory.
CIVIC history was made in Corby when the town was officially granted borough status on March 1, 1993.
The change meant Corby Council got its own mayor rather than a chairman when it was just a district authority. Cllr Margaret Mawdsley, pictured right, the last chairman of the council, was subsequently invested as the first mayor.
But the switch was not without controversy, with Corby MP William Powell branding it a "waste of money". He feared the proposals for unitary authorities could mean Corby Council might not even survive for much longer.
He said the authority should have waited until the decision expected in 1994 by the Local Government Commission.
On hearing local companies had given 22,000 towards the cost of the change, he said: "It has been a ridiculous waste of money. Although Corby is anxious to become a unitary authority, it has by no means been ensured that Corby, or Kettering, Wellingborough or East Northamptonshire, will actually survive at all."
But a Corby Council spokesman vigorously defended the move, describing Mr Powell's argument as "nonsense". He said: "Local firms value highly Corby's elevation to borough status and so much so, they have pledged 22,000 to pay for the mayoral regalia and civic ceremonials attached to the event."
Mrs Mawdsley was officially invested as mayor at a special ceremony on March 2 by the county's Lord Lieutenant, John Lowther. Cllr Ray Telfer was the first deputy mayor.
Council leader Kelvin Glendenning said borough status was recognition of the district's strength of character in overcoming the effects of the steelworks closure. He said there was "a new proud dignity to Corby".
Civic leaders from Kettering, Desborough and Rothwell attended the ceremony along with representatives from Corby's twin towns of Velbert in Germany and Chatellerault in France.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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