Tag: STOIC

VP Overseas Student Committee: 1979

I chose this interview because it’s the earliest STOIC recording that discusses overseas students. David Ghani was the presenter of this particular item, and he was talking to Kumar Singarji, who was then the Vice-President of the Overseas Students Committee. This interview is from the Lunchbreak series and is also one of the first in colour, recorded on 6 June 1979. We had to be creative when recording this because we still only had one colour camera, so we shot it in a single-camera style, similar to how films are shot.

Colin Grimshaw May 2025

Freshers’ Fair: 1982

Two years before today’s video was made, STOIC was still operating in black and white. So, it’s a pleasure to release this 1982 video in colour. Lawrence Windley went around Freshers’ Fair and spoke to a few people taking part. And we once again meet Tim Bell from City and Guilds, who appeared in a previous video all about Pedal Cars. Some of the freshers do look a little dazed, I must say. Maybe the afternoon was a little too early for them, or perhaps the cheap beer was kicking in?

Colin Grimshaw April 2025

Sailing Club: 1986

Another gem from the archives of STOIC’s News-Break programme. This time we go back to Spring 1986 when they went on location to report on the Imperial College Sailing Club. This is the only time that the Sailing Club was featured in the archive. I am pleased to see that the club is still going strong (unlike STOIC) and can be found on the Union website and also on their own Facebook page.

I’ve done my usual troll through the archive issues of Felix and the earliest item about the club can be found in issue number 62 from May 1954. The report tells us that the Sailing Club won the University of London Championship for the fourth year in a run! It also tells us an intriguing story about having to buy a lorry to transport the boats when they went to Ireland. You can read that Felix report in full if you go to the issue which is linked up above.

Colin Grimshaw January 2025

Silwood Park unseen footage: 1981

Back in 2010 I posted a blog about Silwood Park and I included the small joint documentary that we made between STOIC and the TV Studio. In a recent batch of tapes being digitised I found a short promotional clip for the documentary that Tracy Dudley (Poole) had made; the clip was in an edition of News-Break on 29 April 1981 . The interesting thing about this clip is that there are shots that were not used in the final edited version that’s linked up above.

So, let’s go back some 43 years to see that short footage, unseen until now.

 

Colin Grimshaw December 2024

STOIC on BBC Radio London: 1974

From my personal archive I’ve dug up yet another piece of college history. Way back in 1974 the then Chairman of STOIC Mark Caldwell (photo right) and myself, were interviewed on BBC Radio London. You may wonder what the connection is between STOIC and BBC Radio London. Well, the very first Chairman of STOIC was Andy Finney who just happened to also be heavily involved in radio. From student TV to local (and also national) radio, Andy had a very full career in many areas of broadcasting. But on this occasion, he remembered his connection with Imperial and getting STOIC off of the ground in 1970 and wanted more people to hear about it.

On 4 November 1974 Mark and I went up to the then HQ of BBC Radio London in Hanover Square. Although we did video record the interview it’s still stuck on one of the Ampex One Inch videotapes that we’re still hoping will be funded to be transferred into digital. However, I do still have the audio recording as it was broadcast live and that’s what you can hear today. Andy mentions “TOPIC” which was the very first regular news programme made by STOIC. Its name changed to Lunchbreak and finally to News-Break.

So, going back 50 years, here is Andy Finney speaking with us both, live on BBC Radio London.

Colin Grimshaw 4 November 2024

FELIX Editorship Drama: 1979

 

Just before the start of the 1979 Autumn term there was major controversy over who the editor of Felix (the student newspaper) should have been. John Shuttleworth was duly elected editor of Felix for 1979-1980 but was denied the sabbatical post because he had failed to meet the required academic standards of his current year of study. It ultimately ended up in the High Court after solicitors took action, and issued letters on John Shuttleworth’s behalf. In the end, Colin Palmer who had come second in the election race was appointed as acting Felix editor. When the new election for editor was run, he then won this to become the full-time sabbatical editor for that academic year.

Naturally STOIC were keen to follow all of this up and on 3 October 1979, Colin Palmer came into the studio to talk to Paul Johnson about the whole saga and what was to happen next.

Colin Grimshaw July 2024

ICU Hustings – Video Promos: 1978

Today’s clip is rather fun because it’s part of a series that were made for candidates to promote themselves in the forthcoming student elections. These were shown leading right up to the day of elections and this particular video was from Lunchbreak on 2 March 1978. This was not a pre-recorded programme but rather it was put out live from both the TV Studio and also from the Great Hall during the actual hustings. We won’t be seeing the hustings today, although we do have them on videotape in the archive. Chris Drage was on presenters duty for this programme and if you listen carefully you’ll hear me on continuity at the very start over the STOIC logo caption.

Colin Grimshaw July 2024

RCSU Mascot Raid: 1978

For the first edition of Lunchbreak in January 1978, James Sinclair had something exciting to talk about with the then recent (late 1977) RCSU raid on QMC’s (Queen Mary College) Leopard mascot (Mary the Leopardess). In the studio he spoke with Pete Maltbeck (President of RCSU) about what had happened. STOIC were also quick off the mark with some location footage of the mascot being removed from the RCSU office to an unknown location. Sadly, once again, this is during a time period of missing copies of Felix (1977-1978) so I can’t get any further information on the outcome of the raid.

Unusually, this was a live edition of the programme and I suspect that this was because term had only just started. One amusing thing is that just after James Sinclair starts talking you can hear the old college bells strike 1pm, the approximate time of the transmission.

Colin Grimshaw June 2024

90 down & more to go!

Well, I’ve now worked my way through 90 videotapes that have been digitised. That’s 90 more occasions where I might find something very interesting or have something of historical significance to Imperial College. As you might well know, I’m doing all of this from home since I retired early, some 13 years ago. It can, at times, be a long process to capture content from even just a single videotape. Sticky-shed, as previously discussed, can make it impossible to play a tape back without heat treatment. But once completed (which can take a full day) a videotape might yield some interesting discoveries. Also, as discussed many times, the archive of STOIC is providing some incredible material with both interviews and also their coverage of college events. A recent discovery being that very short clip of Nobel Prize winner Abdus Salam in the Great Hall. I have also discovered a fascinating interview with previous College Secretary John Smith talking about his time as Governor of the Gilbert Islands. I’ll add this new video to my previous blog about him.

During the final few transfers, I found a very early clip of Pallab Ghosh who was standing for Felix Editor. My previous blog post included his 1981 interview about Wells Soc, but that was shot in black and white. This 1983 interview is in colour and is about him standing for Felix editor (which he became), it includes his election speech during the Hustings. He is now Science Correspondent for BBC News.

Simon Singh was elected as RCS President back in March 1983. He came into the TV Studio along with the rest of the executive and we now have those interviews digitised. He has gone on to be an author of many books and has presented several science TV programmes, so maybe his visits to our TV Studio helped him along that route. He was awarded an MBE in 2003.

 

Colin Grimshaw May 2024