Barnsley Chronicle chief reporter Jack Tolson takes a look back at what was making the headlines a quarter of a century ago...
BARKIN DUO SET TO LICK OPPOSITION
THE Barkin Brothers could be top dogs in this weekend’s music chart.
Their debut single ‘Gonna Catch You’ entered the midweek Top 40 at number 17 - and record industry pundits are expecting sales to rocket before the week’s final chart is announced on Sunday night.
In real life, the brothers aren’t brothers at all - they are student and part-time comedian Danny Oaks of Royston and nightclub DJ Shaun Scott of Worsbrough.
They recorded the track 18 months ago but a legal wrangle over a sample of pop star Lonnie Gordon’s voice used in the original mix meant it could not be released - until now.
Even before it hit the shops on Monday, the record company had recorded more than 30,000 orders.
Shaun - the DJ at Pharaoh’s - said: “Everyone is expecting this to be a massive success.
“We’ve been inundated with requests for TV and radio appearances all week.
“If sales continue, we’ll have to think about making a promotional video and then look at releasing it across Europe and the rest of the world.”
SMASHING START TO COUPLE’S BIG DAY
A JUMP couple’s wedding went with a bang when they discovered their hire car had been crashed.
The rented Rolls-Royce was on loan from Broadbent Car Hire of Penistone and the groom was waiting to be picked up.
But half an hour before he was due at the church, Richard Cutts, 28, received a call saying the car had crashed at Silkstone Cross.
The groom had to make his own way to church and another car, arranged by bridal wear shop Cupid Connections in Elsecar, was sent to the bride’s home.
She arrived at church five minutes late.
“I didn’t even know the original wedding car wasn’t coming until I noticed a Daimler outside,” said bride Natalie, 19, a hairdresser.
“We were having a big white wedding - seven bridesmaids, my dad and me were supposed to be taken in that car.”
BETTY’S EGGS-TRA OLD EASTER GIFT
THERE is no need to buy Betty Dimberline an Easter egg - she still has one from 1955.
Betty, 81, of Sheerien Close, Athersley North, has never even taken the milk chocolate egg out of its box.
The ‘Egg Lady’ - a nickname she picked up after working voluntarily on an egg stall at Barnsley Market for the last 28 years - was in hospital in the 1950s battling TB when her daughters, Peggy and Nancy, 15 and 16 at the time, bought the egg.
She was not allowed to eat it while she was in hospital, and she was not sent home until the following year.
Betty said: “I forgot all about it and didn’t know what to do with it when I found it again when we moved house in 1970, so it just got left in my cupboard.
“My grandson is now using it as part of the Easter display in his flower shop.
“I don’t know what I will do with it after that.
“It would provably not be safe to eat after all this time.”
