A group of former colleagues on a long-since defunct weekly newspaper are set to take a trip down Memory Lane… stretching back over four decades.
It was the mid-1980s when most of the former Salford City Reporter journalists saw or even heard from each other. That will all be rectified, though, when they gather for what promises to be an emotional reunion in a few weeks. The reunion, made possible after some former reporters recently got back in touch via social media, is a chance to catch up on old times and happy memories from what is, in effect, another era, not least in the newspaper industry.
Newspaper writing, old style
When they all worked together back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, heavy, clanking typewriters were the means for churning out copy for their (still paid-for) weekly newspaper.
Ink stains from the carbon paper that we then used to type out stories were quite common. That was, of course, some years before the invention of computers and the internet. The said copy was, yes, served through a food serving hatch whereupon it was duly collected by the editor and assistant sat on the other side.
Regular daily trips to the local magistrates’ court, coroner’s inquests, and the usual diet of crime and council coverage (and “human interest” stories) were all the order of the day back then.
It all seems a far cry, as indeed it is, from the way many journalists work and undertake their tasks today.
The memories will come alive at the planned meeting
But such memories will come flooding back when the bunch from The Reporter, as it was affectionately known by staff and locals at the time, get together in a Manchester pub for their long-overdue reunion.
They include John Turner, who went on to work for the Daily Star for 15 years, former Manchester Evening News sports reporter Trevor Baxter, Sue Chalmers, formerly deputy editor at The Reporter who later went to as publicity manager at the University of Salford, and Martin Banks, who now lives and works as a freelance journalist in Belgium.
They and other former colleagues at the paper (including former editor Tony Jackson) will meet up again when Banks visits the UK on 7 May. The 65-year-old father-of-two said, “After all these years, it promises to be quite an occasion. I think I can speak for all of us in saying I am really looking forward to seeing some old mates again and reminiscing about old times, in my case, for the first time since 1984.”
Finding each other on social media made this possible
Apart from treasured memories of what Turner calls “the happiest days of my working life”, most of the gang have kept hold of some highly treasured old photos, albeit yellowing, of the years they spent together at The Reporter. After viewing one emailed to him, Turner joked: “We all looked like boy band members.”
Turner, who was based with the Star in Preston, added, “I often think about the old days in Salford… and wonder what happened to everybody. For a while in the early 90s, I worked with Graham at the Post Office press office in Manchester, but, again, have had no contact with him now for 30 years.”
He went on, “I was very surprised to hear from both Martin and Trevor after all these years but am certainly up for a reunion after all this time.”
It was Banks, Turner, and Baxter who recently came up with the idea of a meeting after reconnecting with each other via LinkedIn and Facebook.
Their thoughts were immediately taken back to a period when Tina Turner and Prince were top of the charts, the miner’s strike was still in full swing, the 1981 riots in nearby Moss Side were still a vivid memory, and Margaret Thatcher was just into her second term as PM.
A pint of bitter would set you back just 73p, the average house price was £22,500, and a Ford Cortina cost a mere £4,000.
That most famous of all years – 1984 – was when Banks last saw any of his former colleagues before moving to the Lancs Evening Post at Preston. It was the year of Band Aid and just ahead of the Wapping newspaper strike.
Yes, it was that long ago.
One of the oldest papers in the country ceased to exist
The Reporter, based at the time on Liverpool Street, Salford, was one of the oldest established papers in England with a proud history dating to the 1870s. Arguably the man most associated with the paper was its former long-serving and much-honoured (and loved) editor, Tom Bergin, whose office was curiously located in the attic accessed by a rather steep set of stairs. In 1983, 71-year-old Tom went off to enjoy a well-earned retirement in Worsley after covering the fortunes of the paper for no less than 50 years.
The paper itself sadly folded early in 1987 when The Advertiser Group took over. A tearful farewell au revoir was held at Swinton Rugby Club and everyone went their different ways, including two, Davina Reynolds and Helen Lord, to Australia. Helen, after returning to the UK, went on to work for the BBC when it was based in Oxford Road, Manchester.
The office, in effect a converted terraced house, was located in an area that has been utterly transformed in recent years and is just a stone’s throw from Manchester’s gleaming Media City. The paper was close to the then slightly infamous Regent Road, a place one would not want to venture late at night.
Today, it’s home to some rather plush apartments, selling for megabucks.
Salford was a ‘Dirty Old Town’ with a big heart
Back in the day, the song Dirty Old Town, written about Salford and made popular by The Pogues, really was not far off the mark in describing this city. The place was marked by rows of back-to-back terraces, rather ugly 1960s high-rise blocks, and a pretty nondescript shopping precinct.
One of its most famous ‘sons’, the Bard of Salford, John Cooper Clarke, once penned a poem called Evidently Chickentown which evokes the bleak, neglected council estates and former industrial towns of the North. A kind of epitaph for his home town.
Yes, if ever a town could be called the ‘poor relation’ – in this case to its far more famous neighbour Manchester – Salford was it.
But what it may have lacked in sophistication and amenities, it more than made up for with a genuine warmth and community spirit – a ‘real beating heart’ if you will – which was reflected by the very friendly locals. It was this old-fashioned working class ‘togetherness’ that The Reporter was able to tap into (and report on) for decades.
It’s also worth recalling that Salford was home to some of the finest acting talent Britain has ever produced such as the great Albert Finney and Sir Ben Kingsley, not to mention that wonderful writer, Alistair Cooke.
Talented journalists started their careers in Salford
While none of the now ageing hacks from The Reporter can remotely lay claim to such fame (or, sadly, fortune), they were talented journalists and all contributed, in their own way, to the paper’s continuing popularity among a loyal readership at the time.
John Turner was one of the longer-serving reporters at the paper, joining in 1977 and staying until 1983. He re-joined briefly in 1985 as sports editor. John is now retired and lives in Blackpool.
Trevor Baxter left the paper in 1984 and was formerly athletics correspondent at the Manchester Evening News. He is semi-retired and lives in Saddleworth.
David Lea, another ex-Reporter staffer who replaced Banks at the paper in the mid-1980s, will also be at the reunion next month. He said,
I heard about the reunion from Trevor Baxter who I’m back in touch with since returning to the North West after living and working in London for the Daily Mirror for 22 years. It is a great idea to get folk back together again after all these years and really looking forward to renewing acquaintance with those I used to work with and to meeting you for the first time.
Others hoping to catch up on old times at the reunion are reporters Graham Moore, who later left to work for the Post Office, Tom Knight, David Lea, and Chris Brierley, along with a couple of staff photographers– Colin Lyne and Mike Frisbee.
Howard Wheatcroft, who did his 6-month training course with Banks in Newcastle-upon-Tyne before starting his first job at Stockport Express (part of the same group at the time), hopes to travel up from London, where he now works, for the reunion.
Photos of the old group evoked happy memories
The photos the former journos have exchanged evoke some long-lost, very happy memories of an age when a bunch of young hacks, just fresh out of training (still trying to master the complexities of shorthand), were brought together at their first newspaper jobs and were embarking on what turned out to be some very long (and chequered) journalistic careers.
The fortunes and look of the newspaper industry have, in the passing years, been transformed beyond all recognition and, disappointingly, many such weekly newspapers have long since died a death (The Reporter being one of the first to go back in the late 1980s).
Even the area the paper once called ‘home’ – bordering Weaste and Ordsall – has been largely gentrified, including (sadly) the demolition of one favourite old drinking haunt for Turner, Baxter, and Banks.
Another of Banks’ memories is the leaving card signed by his colleagues
Apart from a couple of old photos, the only physical reminder of the Salford days for Banks is the leaving card when he left in 1984.
The passage of time plays tricks on the memory and it was Baxter who had to remind him of some of those who signed it. They include: the much-liked office cleaner Mrs Silcock; Naomi Bunting, who has, tragically, died; front office worker Rosanna Fitzgerald (who later went to work for Big Issue in Manchester); and the man who Baxter calls ‘the legendary’ Vince Miller, the father of Emmerdale star Danny. Salford-born Vince, a well-known singer and comedian from Stockport known as ‘the king of the comperes’, worked at The Reporter for a spell.
Banks, who went on to work for a long stretch in Birmingham before he left the UK in 2001, says they are still trying to track down other ex colleagues at the paper so the reunion plans are still a “work in progress”.
He said,
Tracking down some of the old colleagues after so long has not been so easy. It was possible only due to social media, a concept no one had even heard of back in the 1980s of course. But if any of our former colleagues,or anyone who knows them, happen to read this article we’d ask them to please get in touch so they can join us on 7 May for the reunion drink.
He recalled the May 1982 visit of Pope John Paul II to Heaton Park, Manchester (which he covered for the paper), as a highlight of his time there.
He added,
I personally have only fantastic and fond, fond memories of my four years in Salford. We were, in effect, just cub reporters and now, into our 60s or older, qualify as ‘old hacks’ and are either retired or coming to the end of our careers.
“But we have those great memories to cling onto and that is the important thing.
