Welcome to the Stumpy Sanderson’s 1970s Stories page and to the world of Stumpy Sanderson – humorous podcast and live stories and songs all about growing up in 1970s Dunstable. These Stumpy Sanderson stories and songs are all about a journey: a journey back to that defining decade of the 1970s in which the main characters start out as 7-year-olds in short trousers, spend the middle years
swishing about in flares, and finish up in drainpipes as post-punk rockers at the ages of 16. It’s a journey taken by mischievous comic-reading working class boys living in the truck making town of Dunstable, bobbing and weaving through the Stalag camps of the English Comprehensive system, and taking what prankish arts they pick up there out onto the suburban streets; participating in, getting into and witnessing numerous hair-raising japes, scrapes and capers; drawn like moths to a flame to any event, occurrence, place or people with ‘mischievous potential’, and encountering various almost cartoon-like characters and adversaries along the way as they crash, bang, wallop, hurtle and skid their way through the decade. The main gang comprises: Stumpy Sanderson, Your Narrator (me, Andrew), Bendy Henderson, Puffer Patterson and Stephen Brookman, with the honorary gang members being: Smiler Morton, Gawper Allsop, Gordon ‘Sputnik’ Mahoney, Gusty Burton, Big Mo and Little Johnny Judkins. Then there are a whole collection of other allies and accomplices: Chugger Cartwright, Dribbling Peter, Billy the Shrimp, Rob the Wrench, Beaky Miller, Bats Malone, Turps Maguire, Slack Jack Arnold, Lanky Shinton, Chipolata Mick, Phil the Ferret, Toxic Kev, Chutney Barton, Shiny Giles and Mickey (The Mighty Chin) Metcalfe (don’t think I’ve missed anyone out). There are loads, but here are some for starters - the Beckford Boys (including Cro-Magnon Craig), the Keenan Gang, the Buchanan Gang (Pig Buchanan, Slug Bates and Peter the Cruel), Slugger Carson, Tin Ribs Wilson, Boaster Hawkins, Slippery Jim Colquhoun, Big Vic Moncrieffe, Old Man Macready, far too many teachers to mention, and of course, our most long standing and recurring foes, Many and Melanie Milton, otherwise known as The Milton Sisters. All stories are written and told using their original source materials, found within Stumpy Sanderson’s two time capsules. The first of these capsules was buried in 1979 and then unearthed in 2019 (this capsule was actually an old Watney’s Party Seven Can with a strange asbestos lid). The second time capsule (which was an old Courage Jackpot Bitter Party Can) was then discovered in 2023. Within both these time capsules were twenty-two stories written by Stumpy, therefore making up forty-four written accounts of some of the most extraordinary events of the badlands of the schools and streets of Dunstable in the1970s. Within each time capsule, there was also an old Memorex cassette tape of songs and tunes about growing up in the 1970s, bashed out by Stumpy on his acoustic guitar and recorded on his old Waltham cassette recorder. There are fifty-five songs in total. The stories were all written by Stumpy in the first person for me to narrate, because Stumpy was always the storywriter and I was always the storyteller. Also, I just like Stumpy, witnessed at first hand the extraordinary events which they describe. The stories are available to listen to as podcasts on all major podcast outlets, with Series 1 (the stories from the first time capsule), running from 2021 to 2022, and Series 2 (the stories from the second time capsule) starting in July 2025 and running into 2026. There are also Stumpy Sanderson’s 1970s Stories YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn pages, and more information can also be found on www.stumpysanderson.co.uk. I perform the stories and songs and other Stumpy material in live shows at theatres and venues in the UK. Hopefully, the journey of all these intrepid mischief-makers will bring you some cheer, chuckles and chortles, and you will be able to feel some of the wild spirit of what it was like to be a boy growing up during the 1970s. So, let’s then switch off that episode of Magpie, dim the lava lamps, put away the plates on which we’ve just eaten our Vesta Curries, go outside and saddle up on our Raleigh Choppers and Tomahawks, and take a ride back to the age of glam rock and punk rock, Watney’s Party Seven and Double Diamond, the Corona man and the Tupperware party plan, Hai Karate and the Great Smell Of Brut, Marathon bars and Puffa Puffa Rice, British Rail Awaydays and Freddie Laker holidays, monkey boots and One Eyed Jacks jumpers, Green Shield Stamps and the Green Cross Code, How and Hong Kong Phooey, Catweazle and Cannon. Enjoy the ride, and please remember - Beano, Whizzer & Chips, and Cor!! boys never grow up, and every generation needs a Stumpy Sanderson…
It’s groovy, folks….
