My badges: the Rock years. Contains strong language!

[Please don't scroll down to the rest of this post if you are offended by swearing. Or even if you can't face having to re-assess your opinion of my character! ;-)]

Hi, hi, hi.

I love how my badge reminiscing has sent some of you in search of your own collections.

Coincidentally, this weekend I even got to see HannahBanana's full badge archive up-close-and-in-person which, unlike my whittled down few that have survived the intervening years, is beautifully framed and hung in pride of place at the top of her stairs. [I especially enjoyed her own confusion as to why her oldest badge featured a squirrel sat on a letter 'I'!].

It was a lot of fun browsing her lifetime collection and tracking many of the school trips and tourist spot she's ever been to since she was tiny and if my recent conversation with a 10 year old girl at the crop is anything to go by, badge collecting is still alive and kicking in the next generation!

If in fact you are one of those who's ended up sorting through lots of old dusty boxes in your hunt for smurfs, smiley faces or Dennis the Menace .. I apologise. But seeing as how, by the end of this post, I'll have even more to apologise for ... I'll just move on and get it over with ...

My teen years can be characterised by a love of rock bands. A love which I wasn't afraid to pin to my lapel:

As you might imagine, the lapel in question was that on a black leather jacket.

However, there was one badge which, as much as I liked it ... I didn't really wear out in public, and when I show it to you ... you'll be able to see why: It was the title of a song by Skid Row. A song which they were warned not to play by the local council when they supported Guns n Roses at Wembley Stadium in 1991 and really, what were the chances that a rock band was going to take that threat seriously? Seriously?

So, what do you think they did? Did they heed the warning, do as they were told, and refrain from playing it? Or did they see it as a gauntlet being thrown down, a challenge to their rebelliousness, and revel in defiance while whipping-up the huge crowd in the process?

Well, I can tell you, for a fact, that they did indeed play the song. I know this, because I was there.

In fact, I must be in this video somewhere as my sister and I were in the stands just ot the right of the stage!

[Please DO NOT listen to this if you are offended by swearing ... or if you are at work, unless you want to send your co-workers a very particular kind of message]:

And Dad, if you're reading this, let me reassure that had you been there with us on that day, you certainly would not have heard neither Jo nor I singing along to those lyrics with everyone else ...

Nope, not at all.

I can honestly say that [amid tens of thousands of fans loudly chanting expletives] you would not have heard one single word from us ...

[Do you think I'll get away with that?] ;-)

Jx