Pin-up girls ..

Loving all this stuff on TV lately about Debbie Harry and Kate Bush. I never could decide which of them I fancied more! In the flat I shared with my Dad I had a poster of Debbie on the front room wall and a poster of Kate on the door (The one where she was in the shiny blue leotard. Phwoar!) I know my Dad would have been much happier if they were pictures of Tammy Wynette and Billy-Jo Spears but I beat him to it and, as far as I remember, Country and Western posters weren't a very big seller in sunny 1978!..

It was whilst I was looking for a shot I took of the 'Debbie' poster that I came across this old picture of a girl in our office called Karen. That's all I can remember - just Karen. Before I got my first job on a newspaper I worked in the Progress Office of Gardner Diesels in Eccles, and Karen sat directly in front of me working as a typist. She must have been 19 or 20 when I was 17 so, to me, she was the absolute height of sophistication and the pin-up fantasy of practically every bloke in the factory! How envious they all must have been when I asked her if she'd let me take some photographs of her, and it must have taken the timorous young O'Neill an age to come up with a classic pose like this one! Still, it was all about learning my trade, and growing the confidence that has stood me in good stead from that day to this. I wonder what Karen's been doing these past 37 years!..