WHO REMEMBERS? The UK Nostalgia Podcast
Join "amateur" historians Andrew and Liam (thrice bronze medalists in 'The South Yorkshire Rememberers Chalice') as they travel back in time like Nicholas Lyndhurst in Goodnight Sweetheart and try to remember things from the past.
Do you remember Woolworths? Do you remember when Marathons changed their name to Snickers? Do you remember Del Boy falling through the bar? If so then come and remember with us. If not then stick around and we will probably remember it for you. You literally can't lose so why not hit the play button as hard as Paul Sykes hit that shark?
WHO REMEMBERS? The UK Nostalgia Podcast
Who Remembers........Life Before The Nokia 3310?
Remember when a night out depended on timing, chance, and a fixed plan scribbled on the back of a coaster? We rewind to life before the Nokia 3310 and map the messy, human rhythms of a world that ran on landlines, meeting points, and trust. No group chats, no pins dropped—just the thrill of finding your mates in the right corner of a packed club, the drama of slamming a handset to end an argument, and the strange peace of not knowing the football score until you bought a paper the next morning.
We unpack why the 3310 felt like a cultural turning point: the indestructible shell, the ring tones you’d assign to mates, and Snake as a shared obsession. From there, we explore what came before and what got lost along the way: how parents acted as gatekeepers on house calls, how costs and call windows kept conversations tight, and how the lack of instant updates made us more present and more patient. Stories of missed connections, phone-box pranks with 141, and address books layered with crossed-out numbers paint a picture of social life built on effort, memory, and serendipity.
There’s tenderness in the tech, too. Pre-camera phones meant precious photos and forgotten moments; today’s constant recording offers proof, but sometimes at the price of presence. We talk safety, emergencies, and maps, without pretending the past was better—just different. By revisiting the chaos and charm of the pre-mobile years, we ask what connection really means: is it reach, or attention? And what might we reclaim, even now, from those slower, softer days?
If you enjoyed this trip down the pre-3310 lane, follow the show, share it with a friend who knew every corner of the club, and leave us a review telling us your best no-mobiles story.
Hello, and welcome to Who Remembers the UK Nostalgia Podcast? And in this week's episode, we are asking Who Rembers Live before the Nokia Thirty-three Tan?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so it uh it's not a literal question, is it? There's a there's a little bit of uh what's the word? It's uh Well we're talking basically before you want to. But before mobile mobile.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so we're not talking smartphones. We're talking, you know, smartphones is a different I think that's like classes of the internet.
SPEAKER_00:But but there might be a bit of a big like dom jolly car car phones and like massive big mouth. We're talking, who remembers before people had a mobile phone in their life? Most of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think the dishes on that, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, I think the Nokia 3310, I don't know a single person our age who didn't have one of these phones. So for me, these were the birth of widespread mobile phone usage. Do you agree?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I didn't actually have one. This this was released 2000. And this whole drink out. I I thought I was sort of I mean, as insane as it is to think. And obviously, the pi people had had pages before and stuff. I I remember thinking, eh, I don't know if they'll catch on. So I I waited and got Philips was my first one.
SPEAKER_01:Um I didn't have a smartphone.
SPEAKER_00:Because everyone had already sort of swapped numbers and stuff, and I was late to the party then.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't have a smartphone for ages, but I did have a knock here. But before we get started, we've got a really, really quick history on mobile phones. In n uh it was 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerste um did a he invented a pocket-sized folding telephone that we would what we'd now call a mobile phone. Um but the Motorola DYNA.
SPEAKER_00:What are you talking about? What what 1917?
SPEAKER_02:That was the first that was the first what you class as a mobile phone, yeah. Obviously it weren't widespread. I don't know. I've only I've just I've just read it off off Wikipedia. I'm not I'm not I'm not a historian.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but a mobile phone is wireless by application. That there is no network then.
SPEAKER_02:A pocket size folding telephone. Just a small phone then. But we would now know as a mobile phone. That I've I'm reading.
SPEAKER_00:You're not wired.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, we're not yeah, alright. Well, anyway, forget that.
SPEAKER_00:1917, imagine that in World War One.
SPEAKER_02:Right, no, no, they did use them in World War One. In World War II, they used them. Hang on, right. Mobile phones, World War II, right? We're getting off. We've we're starting now. Hang on. Mobile phones, World War II, Argos has come up. Don't know why. World War II, mobile.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's 1917.
SPEAKER_02:I'm just gonna get onto Argos and all of myself, uh mobile phones. Oh, they were classed as field telephones, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But they were wired.
SPEAKER_02:Anyway, I'm reading this off Wikipedia. Stop shooting the messenger. But forget that. The Motorola D1I Type 8000X in 1983 became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. Do you agree with that? You happy with that?
SPEAKER_00:It's strange, isn't it? And there's like 70 years between the two.
SPEAKER_01:But that th they were those big fuck off ones. Yeah, they're the ones that I'm big. This is what they white one channel. Were they all white? Were they all white? Or white?
SPEAKER_00:No, they would there were the big do you remember the Don Jolly? Yeah, I mean the cinema, like they were all black. Massive big phone.
SPEAKER_02:Those white ones remind me so much. If whenever I think of that, and it might just be me, those big white phones. No, it reminds me of Joey from Bread. Do you know it's a big leather? Yeah, yeah. He used to think he were really but he would give him one as a character because he was supposed to be cool. And I think I think those big mobiles in the 80s were almost like a status symbol. That's why Delboy had one, in it, because it were like Bonjour, do you know like we big mobile, it's really important. Normal people didn't have them though. I mean, I don't think your mum and dad would have had them. My mum and dad certainly didn't have them. Certainly not, no. Er people in the school in the 90s, I don't think we had I didn't have a phone, did you? Mobile?
SPEAKER_00:No, this is what I'm saying. So I I remember probably yeah. What would it be? It would be yeah. I think it was around about our 18th birthday, so it would have been like 99, would it have been? 98, 99, when people first started having like as in school kids started having mobile phones. That's sort of what I'm thinking.
SPEAKER_02:It were the f the first September, the year 2000, was when what we've called what we've titled this episode, the Nokia 3310, um was the first one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, which is when they became really common. But yeah, you could get mobile phones before then, I think they were just a bit bulkier and a bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so this were I think this was the first one that I remember being widespread. And I think if if I said to you it's it's mad now. Think how many different phone designs they've been. Everyone knows our age group, yeah, 3310, the Nokia 3310.
SPEAKER_00:You could run over it with a steamroller, you could drop an atomic bomb on it, and stuff didn't somebody find one in a river after 30 years or something.
SPEAKER_02:Well, but yeah, a man found his Nokia 3310 22 years after losing it, and it still had one bar of battery in it.
SPEAKER_00:Can that be true? But yeah, I can kind of believe it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they are indestructible, renowned for being indestructible. Uh, but I I remember the map the the biggest thing for me when I got one of these, or I think it might be my first mobile list, is giving your mates you know personalised ringtones. It had about like 30 ring tones on it, if you remember. Uh, but obviously the most famous one is what you mentioned earlier, the Trigger Rapper TV one. Diddle, I can't do it off. It's really hard to do a mobile phone ring tone. But you know, you know the diddling did a link. Hello! Marge rubbish. Yeah, places. Yeah, I know what you mean, yeah. And obviously Snake, uh, very famous like was also.
SPEAKER_00:Well, actually, yeah, and I'm even thinking like this is live remembering from me now. You could purchase additional ringtones, couldn't you? So you could you could buy ringtones for certain things.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's the nostalgia nerd on on YouTube. Um, really good uh website. It basically does like technology stuff, really good YouTube channel. Far um yeah, far bigger than us. But he's got a video which is 20 minutes long and it's literally just in going through every single ringtone. And I watched it all. That's one that that's that's how much into the nostalgia game I am. I watched all the ringtones and thought, oh yeah, I do remember that. Yeah, and you used to be able to send messages with a sound. Do you remember that? So I'd send you like in the morning, like if I were off work, get up and go to work for eight hours with a like a fanfare sound, you know what I mean? Vaguely, yeah, vaguely. Very vaguely.
SPEAKER_00:Like I say, I was a little bit late to the party. I think we've established I wasn't not the coolest kid in in in school.
SPEAKER_02:So getting your pants stripped off last week, and yeah, and all, yeah. Anyway, but that's not why we're here, is it Lim? We're talking about before the Nokia 3310. So before mobile phones and how much has changed.
SPEAKER_00:This is an analogy for life. This is before you could get hold of anybody on the spot. What was life like?
SPEAKER_02:And what's the first thing that I if I said to you, like before mobile phones, come on, Liam, hit me. Boom.
SPEAKER_00:I suppose the biggest thing, and we talked about this, was was and you've sent me a list of stuff. I I'm not sticking to it, but I think this is on your list.
SPEAKER_02:These are just things like these are me remembering things and thinking after the stuff.
SPEAKER_00:The biggest thing to me, so I started work at Sainsbury's at 16, you started work not long after.
SPEAKER_02:But I don't know why I say it like that. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:It was a bit after fact. I remember sort of like Christmas nights out or somebody's birthday night or whatever it was. You'd have to have a pre-planned route. So you kind of everybody'd be talking in the week about you're coming out on Saturday, yeah, yeah. What's the plan? Right, we're gonna meet uh I don't know, we're gonna meet at Yates uh uh I'm gonna say it wouldn't have been spoonsers back then, there were no spoonsers. Uh we're gonna move on to uh varsity for eight nipper crossroads to uh half eight to uh whatever that one was. But yeah, and you'd be saying and you'd have to be there, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because if you couldn't come out, if you if you were working till eight, I'd have to say, like, oh meet where you're gonna be about twelve. Where are you gonna be about yeah, about ten past eight, and then I'll be in public, oh fucking hell it's half eight, we're supposed to be meeting Liam in bloody Cavendish, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, and that that I mean I think it was a golden era to be honest, and and obviously a generation before us had it had exactly the same thing, but because we saw the we were the changing of the guard, weren't we?
SPEAKER_02:We saw the whole of the moon, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But we saw how simple things became to just message people saying, Where are you? That it it I remember so fondly those days of like uh we've seen time, lads. We're gonna have to down these because uh um Eggie's gonna be coming out in half an hour and he's he's yeah, he's got us down for being in uh I can't think. So many a time.
SPEAKER_02:I our mate Brendan, who's really, really, really renowned for being late, still to this day, probably not as bad these days, but well, maybe it is yeah. But before mobile phones, you were a fucking absolute nightmare. Because obviously you wouldn't know if someone had cancelled as well. So I'd say, right, do you want to meet in the Woodseats Palace at um eight o'clock?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, no more than test, weren't it? Because everyone else would sort of move on and we'd say, Oh, we're gonna have to wait for Brendan, and they'd say Yeah, but you've been waiting an hour and a half four to five minutes ago, and he knows where we are, and we said, uh, we're just gonna have to hold on. That he'd never come in and say, Oh, cheers for waiting, guys. Come in.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, I didn't give a shit. And we always waited. But the another thing is as well on nights out, is if you lost your mates, that's right, you're not you're not you're not finding them again. You're never finding them.
SPEAKER_00:This is where you you could you could play games. So do you remember once we went out and we uh we both liked the same girl, she liked both of us, and he completely stitched me up by by playing the no mobile phones game. I fell out with him for for ages about this. So we went into a bar in town as a group and it was really busy. Oh yeah, yeah, do you remember? Yeah, I do remember this. Me and Brennan said, uh, it's it's not quite as busy as crossroads. Do you want to nip across the road and get a Guinness? So I went across the road. Sorry, no, we'd been in this bar for a bit, and everyone was sort of winding down. We said, Oh, we'll nip across and get a Guinness before we move on. So I went across, ordered him a Guinness, he said, I'm gonna toilet. I stood at the bar for about 20 minutes thinking, Where is he gone? He's been gone for ages. Fit finishing my Guinness, sat with his, didn't want to go because didn't know what had happened to him, didn't know whether going on. So I waited and waited and waited, no sign of him. Ended up leaving, going back across to the bar where everyone else had been. Everyone had gone by that time. Brennan had gone back to that group of people and said, Oh yeah, Liam's gonna meet us at the next bar. I had no idea where the next bar was. He claims he told me where they were going next. So that was my night over about four to eight, done.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I because I was out, I think I went to Lebanon on my own and had quite a good night.
SPEAKER_02:But it's mad that like in a nightclub, you'd lose your friends or whatever it'd be, and that were it. Or even like I remember going to festivals, music festivals before mobile phones, and well, you had to have meeting points, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, I'll have to meet you there. I mean, you know, you don't get the best signal now at festivals, but then that were it, you know what I mean? If you'd not made if you'd not made arrangement, it was so much more planning that needed to be liked as well.
SPEAKER_00:Do you know like I was thinking about this earlier when I think about the episode? What it kind of created is these areas of clubs where groups would go. So I knew if I went into Republic, my sort of schoolmates had sort of tend to head to a certain place, and then I knew if I wanted to go up and see sort of you the Woodseats group, Udlaw, I sort of knew Udlaw would be upstairs, so I could go and find Ulot up there. So people had their own sort of little corners of the club that you'd you'd get to know where I'll I'll go and see if they're in tonight, and you go to a certain area, it's all gone. Mobile phones have killed all that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but that I don't know if that's good or bad. I don't know if I so I mean this is a really good one actually of like whether it's good or bad or not, is you knew nothing about what were going on anywhere else in the world. So wherever you were at that moment, say you were in a cinema watching a film or whatever, I know you've got your phones off in cinemas now. Anything could have been going on, like in the outside world, and you would have no idea because no one can get in touch with you, no one can text you, no one can say do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:Unless you could get home and put a TV or a radio on, or the next day you read the newspaper, which is another thing I think mobile phones have killed. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you had no idea. What you you were in your own little world.
SPEAKER_02:And I think I remember we went on holiday, me and you. We went to Tenerife or one of those places, I can't remember which one it was, maybe Grand Canaria. And we were out, no mobile phones around and all that sort of stuff. Because remember, I got lost and I kept saying to the taxi driver, I am up high.
SPEAKER_00:My hotel is up high, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I couldn't I didn't know where the hell I were, and I ended ended up yeah, anyway. I ended up staying out basically all night because I couldn't get in touch with anyone to find out where we were. But that's all I was gonna say. The point is, I remember like us going out, no mobile phones, and uh Chef United were playing that night, and I had to get a paper the next day to find out. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I remember you saying, Oh, I'm gonna have to get a paper to see how they got on.
SPEAKER_01:Imagine that now, that's mad.
SPEAKER_02:You have no idea, like how and I don't know if that's a good thing that you'd forget about it because now, maybe not just with Sheffield United, but all of us were on his phone or texting people, or be even before the internet, okay, even before smartphones, I could be on a night out with you and just text, I don't know, or what's score or whatever, or do you know what I mean? What whatever's going on, or even back at home, is everything alright at home? Imagine having no idea. I I don't know if I'd like that now, but I don't I think I might I think it's pure complete freedom though, as well, at the same time. And I do think that might be a good thing. That whatever you're doing at that moment, you are fully engaged in that because there is no distractions. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:I I I mean overall, I suppose you would have to say it's it's positive that we've got this sort of little pocket computer that can tell you everything. That's it's got maps, it's got a translator, that it makes the world so much more accessible, but at the same time it makes you so much less significant in the world that you're you're just part of this massive global thing that and you you're such a small part. Whereas before you you were kind of the star of your own little show, weren't you? It was kind of like the Truman show, like you you were your your own little character, and it didn't really matter what was going on around you. You could only see what you could see, like you know, you could play a computer game, and I think people are more in the world. It was kind of like that. That that was your little bubble.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, even now, where I I watch stuff on on TV or even listen to music and stuff like that, you're always going to be distracted. Whether it but uh like I say, this is pre-smartphone. I think, oh text leave, have you seen that? Oh, yeah, yeah. Before that, you were look you had there were nothing else going on, you know what I mean? You had whatever you were experiencing at that moment, that was it, that was your world. There could have been a fucking terrorist attack round the corner from where you were, and you wouldn't know about it.
SPEAKER_00:But you probably would have to be loud, but yeah, yeah, but but as well, I think I mean, luckily we're we're sparkling conversationists, but I think it's probably killed it for some people because you'd kind of save up your your conversation for the week, like a mushroom. I'll tell you what, I'm not mushroom until everyone. Yeah, but now it's like something's happened straight on a group chart, straight away. Seeing this, yeah, seeing it, yeah, everyone's seeing it, right? Next, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you'll meet up and sit in silence. Like I say, we we don't.
SPEAKER_02:We uh not us, we've always got stuff to say, yeah. But other lesser people lesser conversationalists, yeah. What is it? Reeves and mortimer and another one. Reeves and mortimer on one more. Uh uh, it's it's like when you do you know when you see couples uh who have been like married for 40 years and you sat in a pub and sat there sat next. I once watched one, me and me and Brendan again actually. We were we were stayed for about three hours just watching this couple not say a word to each other, not in like because they were angry, they they were just we could change this episode to who remembers Brendan, couldn't we? But yeah, they were just like sat across from each other, like uh and then you're not going, shall we get another? But I do think like these things like obviously but what I'm saying is is that that is what life's almost like now because you've said everything. Because I've already messaged these people about oh you seat game yesterday, or have you heard that album or whatever? So you get there and you go, Oh yeah, what do you think of the album? Oh yeah, like I said, it were good, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They've seen it all before. It is that, it is that sat in a pub table. Has anybody seen we've seen it all before?
SPEAKER_02:And I do think that is genuinely sad. That sort of there's a divine comedy song called The Lost Thought of Conversation, which is like sort of trying to bring back that rather than just talking about things over text, and it's on about let's talk tactics with pepper pots and matchsticks and do you know what I mean? Yeah, you don't really do that anymore. Like and that was a thing.
SPEAKER_00:A lot of conversations now are oh, did you see that video that he did? Yeah, we're good though, innit? Whereas, like you say before, someone would be saying, No, hold on, hold on, hold on, pass me that look. No, I'm not saying that, I'm saying, imagine this is gigs, this is gigs, this this source source pot here. Source pot, this source pot.
SPEAKER_02:Source pot, this source pot. Is it we're a bit of a saucy man though, weren't it? That sounds of it, in fairness. So yeah, it's all about four of us would be there, and you'd say, Oh, you'll never guess what happened yesterday. What? And three of us would know about it, and one wouldn't. And you'd get that enjoyment of seeing them hear that story for the first time. Tell them what happened, and then but now you just text you fire a text off saying, guess what he's done? Blah blah blah. Do you know what I mean? It's like sad. That what isn't sad though, Liam, one thing I do think mobiles have improved. Before mobile, I mean, may maybe people had two phones, but one phone for every house is crazy now. Imagine like every house having one phone. It's like I'd have to ring your mum and say, Hi, is Liam there, please? Just to ask you something like, Did you see Burgerac earlier? No. Ah, good. Alright, then see you in a bit. Bye. Yeah. Or like if you there was zero privacy. So if you've got a girlfriend or anything like that, or even if you wanted to talk to your mates about something that you didn't want your mum, you couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00:This is what I was saying to you earlier, is like obviously I I was not a cool youngster, but as I started to become a bit more cooler, I used to hate like girls would phone the house and I'd be sat at the bottom of the stairs. My mum and dad, like pretty much in the room, like there wasn't like a glass door that was pointless. And I and I said, Oh, yeah, yeah, it was good to see you the other night. Yep, yep. Like so like painfully embarrassing, like yeah, just yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember kids are today, like sat having a chat in front of your family, like yeah, I had a good night, yep.
SPEAKER_02:And used to think that they uh I've had this before with girls of Fonda, and because your mum and dad sat there or whatever, you used to pretend they must they thought you were off with them because you'd be you don't want to say, Yeah, do you have a good night?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, very good. Yeah, it's alright, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, we're alright, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And then you say who were that could do, could do, could do, could do.
SPEAKER_02:And then you mumble, who were that? Uh Nigel. Do you know what I mean? It's just just Nigel. Alright, fair enough. I also think you you'll know this more than me. This is something I found interesting, or or th think might be interesting. I knew people's parents much more than I imagine your kids know friends' parents now, because your kids can just text someone and say, Do you want to meet outside at six or whatever they're doing? Yeah, yeah. Whereas I I'd have to come, you know, there's always small talk, weren't it? But I know what you mean. But I think your mum's had a good perception, I think, as well. Where like you'd I don't know, you'd say you'd phone someone up, and but someone have phone me up and say, Can speak to Andrew. And if it sounded a bit of a date, I'm gonna go don't like him. Who's that? Don't like him. Do you know what I mean? You you've got more sort of that you as a parent, you've got more so you you know more about your own kids if you've got to be.
SPEAKER_00:Your mum is incredibly judgmental based on what I've sent instead.
SPEAKER_02:Don't say it's Andrew there. Oh, I'll tell you what, I don't like him. Who's that?
SPEAKER_01:Who's he? No, but you know, I know like uh not really well, but you just have to sort of be polite, like hello.
SPEAKER_02:I know your dad, for instance, which is probably uh purely because obviously I spent a few nights at your house and stuff, but uh on phones and stuff, or while you're waiting for you, he'd say, Oh, we think United then or do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:I think he's pro perhaps in later years, but I think the first few times he found my dad, I kinda I can't imagine he'd say anything other than hello, yeah. He's leave him there, I'll get him.
SPEAKER_02:I can't imagine that at all. He's literally Irish. The only time you've not done an Irish accent is for your Irish dad. I'll look, I'll just get him. Yeah, I suppose no, just just kind of like very You're gonna sound like PTK when he does his mum though. Like, ah, who is it?
SPEAKER_00:Not even Irish Not even Irish, not even Irish.
SPEAKER_02:Uh they were a mixed bunch of our thought when you used to phone parents' houses up, so I'll not say his name, so he's he's sadly no longer with us, but you were alright, Dick. Um used to phone him up, and it'd say, like, is he so-and-so in, and he'd say, Nope, he's not in, and put phone down because he can't be out. Do you know what I mean? Really like angry because he didn't want you using his phone. He was sick of your phone in his phone, because obviously you don't want to listen to his son talking shit to me for a and that was another thing with phone balls. I'm not gonna tell you who that was because I've got uh yeah, probably no.
SPEAKER_00:I I don't think I would have phoned him, would I? Is it someone you would have phoned?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you wouldn't have phoned. But yeah, every time you know you mean used to like nerve wracking, a bit like when you phone, I don't know, a bit like I don't know, like phoning up, I don't know, if you got a job interview on the phone or something. I'd be like going, oh god, but I hope it's not him, I hope it's his mum. Oh phone, hello, is he there? Nope. Another thing, we talked about this earlier. When someone put the phone down on you, it were more dramatic because you got the it were brilliant, yeah, mid-argument.
SPEAKER_00:What each one of you had the power, you could only use it once, but you kind of wielded that huge amount of power to slam the phone down at any moment, didn't you?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that was so dramatic as well. Like that was proper. I don't know, I don't know, it's more now. If if for instance, now if we were arguing and you went dead, especially with our shit out both our mobile phones are, I'd just be going, Hello, hello, you still there, Liam? Are you still there? But if you went, I'd be thinking, Oh my god, he's literally slammed the phone down on me. You don't get that now, you don't get that entertainment.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and there were no like signal problems with her. Once you'd once you connected, you were fine. When like now we're like it you'll be blabbering away for a bit, and and I'll say hello, hello, and you'll say, When did you lose me?
SPEAKER_02:And I'll say, Oh, it was I think it was when you started ranting about but that's the thing as well, though, you couldn't spend hours on a phone because obviously they cost money.
SPEAKER_00:After six, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, after six o'clock, yeah. And you couldn't obviously got internet as well.
SPEAKER_00:Do you remember?
SPEAKER_02:Remember, you had to wait in it for broadband six post six pm, it were fine. But you couldn't won't function.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, quick fire memories, uh you had to remember people's numbers or have a little sort of diary next to the phone. I think you made a note of that, but Oh yeah, address books. But what the best thing about that? Let me see if I still I haven't researched this. I don't know if this is either yours or someone else. Did it finish 693?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, that is mine. Yeah. Eight oh, you were it? 8839623, that were mine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know weirdly? I can remember two numbers, my name's, because she's still got it, and our mate Russell Paul Jones or something like there's the only two numbers that I can remember. I remember loads, but uh But you used to have a handwritten best thing about this is you used to have handwritten address books with about four because obviously every time you moved house, you'd have to your landline had changed. So you'd have to have 400 different numbers for everyone. And if you hadn't scribbled them out, I'll put new like you remember the Us number in.
SPEAKER_00:Which one is it? There's four numbers down here. There's five numbers here, they moved out six times. Which one is it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that you say, I'll I'll try this one. Hello, is Barbara there, please? No, no, she don't live there anymore.
SPEAKER_00:Why is it still in blue? Why didn't you tell me new ones in blue?
SPEAKER_01:It's just the right number, yeah. That's what I mean though.
SPEAKER_02:That that was true. Like, I I've still got an address book like downstairs. I don't know why. And um, but like there's there'd be numbers in it, and they'd be like four, and I want why don't they scribble them out? I'd be going, oh shit, I've not spoken to this person for a while. Can't remember who is it? Like what oh god, disaster.
SPEAKER_00:Well, do you remember as like again? Like, I I think I've done enough of sort of playing R1 cooler was that I'm allowed to play the cool card a little bit. Oh, you know, you used to get it.
SPEAKER_02:You're trying to turn it, aren't you? After a couple of weeks ago, when you were saying you're uncool after the closer. This is your this is your time to shout.
SPEAKER_00:This is my my homemate.
SPEAKER_02:This is like when you become a mean girl.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, but like it used to get in regularly with like sort of girls' numbers scribbled on my arms or my hand or whatever, like all like badly written. Like, how ridiculous is that?
SPEAKER_02:Well, this looks a bit of a cliche. The people used to get numbers like from girls or or men, like vice versa, and they'd lose her, maybe like a like a love story. Do you know what I mean? Like, oh yeah, I need to find that guy's number or whatever.
SPEAKER_00:Smudged, what number were that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, what number were that? Is that a six or an eight? Especially me with dyspraxia, I can't like I'm right. It's probably why I never pulled, wrote it wrong and then dialed it wrong. You had no chance, did you? No chance, it chanced phone, yeah, because you you fucking she couldn't tell your two from your threes. That's why. But the little thing as well, though, on the house phone thing is you couldn't spend hours on the phone because obviously it costs money. Like amount of times my dad would say, Hey, it says you've been on for 35 minutes, yeah, with it all one four seven three, do you know what I mean? Or whatever number it'd be. So you'd have to meet people man to man. So if I were talking to you or woman to woman, uh, or man to woman, whatever you were doing. So if I spoke to you and my dad would go, Come on now, what's going on here? So I just want to meet like in 10 minutes or whatever, if you live close or whatever. Yeah, obviously, you don't get that face-to-face thing anymore.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, all right, yeah, I'll see you there. Brilliant. Bygone era. I mean, I I don't know, kind of what whether we want to keep this one short and sweet.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know what well I've got a few more things, and I think the big one is only a couple more, but no camera phones. So you had to, I mean, this is very this is the I mean that's almost an episode in itself. Who remembers having to get your pictures developed? Obviously, that is a PTK thing as well, like quality control, quality quality control here, because if you took a shit picture, they'd like they won't they won't print them as well, would they? You know, if you want to watch a sticker on it, who does it think you'd yeah, quality control it's a good idea. You take your picture I take the picture I could take um you see it now as well, where especially like I don't know, like someone will say, Oh, can you take a picture of us? And then like you'll take it, and then you'll they'll look at it and go, Oh, can you just take it again? You can't you couldn't do that then. Do you know what I mean? You had the one shot and you were out because you had a proper camera.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, if it didn't work, you'd missed your moment.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and it not not everything we documented where it is now. Like, I mean, I don't take photos at all, even when I go abroad and stuff like that. I'm not I don't take photos, but I do think it's sad. I know, yeah. I don't know. It's up here, innit? I'm pointing to my head, it's up here. That's where my photo is. It's photographs myself, don't you? In my brain, yeah. Um, but I think what is sad and good, and we're talking to Dead Bat actually about this last week, and we're talking about he's got no photos of him and his dad at Bramal Lane, uh football thing, which is really sad, and I am to be honest. And but now you've got you could have him in the back. I mean me and my dad. So I've got no pictures of my dad.
SPEAKER_00:So I'm doing still there, so get some pictures with him.
SPEAKER_02:He's not gonna matches anymore. I'm not he's not just gonna come to Bramal Lane, so I can get a picture with him.
SPEAKER_00:Imagine that like trying to like he puts a wig on, you sort of like turn up the youngest, try and get some pictures.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I've got nothing like that, but that is good and sad because but it is bad now that you've seen me. I mean, the last uh there's a there's a uh photo that goes around our friendship group of me uh really pissed after we lost to Aston Villa 5-0, I think. I think we're 5-0 down at half time, and I'll left the pull left the ground early and got pissed and it's me with my head in my hands. That's a good thing that you've got to say one with you with your shirt off. Oh no, I I have got one with my shirt off as well.
SPEAKER_00:You circulate that most weeks, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's that's I I like that. That that's the good side of you know camera phones. But the that is the bad I'm not really bothered about it, but you can get people in a render states, can't you? And it's a little bit like sort of I don't know, having that sort of photographic evidence all the time. Do do we want to?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean if you want to get serious about it, like it it's horrific these days that people having heart attacks or getting stabbed or getting beaten. People just standing around filming it. It's a it's a mental part of society that. Whereas back in our day, you had to you have to get involved, didn't you?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you had to yeah. I mean, can you imagine like sort of some of the big disasters like Hillsby disaster and stuff like that? There would be people, and this is awful, it's I mean we're sort of going off a big thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this is no humour in this, there would be people filming it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:YouTubers and stuff like that, they'd be filming it. I think didn't he get done that fog done? For filming something happening. I can't remember what happened, and he got done for filming it rather than because it's all content and you are gonna get millions of views from it.
SPEAKER_01:It's fucking outrageous.
SPEAKER_00:But again, it's all that sort of thing of like you you sort of you just a very small part of the world rather than Mm. Your own world and well that's another thing.
SPEAKER_02:Obviously, you you told me this story privately. I don't think we've mentioned it on here where your dad did go to the Hillsborough disaster, didn't he? Like that game.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was in the It was in the forest then, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. But you were saying like you hadn't you obviously heard oh this big disaster at Hillsborough.
SPEAKER_00:And because there were no phones, he couldn't phone you and say it's a nice my mum being a bit worried, but sort of trying not to act worried. But like something had obviously gone on. And yeah, I I remember we were in town, my grandma was up from Colby and my dad sort of decided on the day, do you know what? I'm gonna go see if I can get a ticket. He went in the forest end, and yeah, I remember something going on and not know I remember my dad coming back and my mum sort of being really relieved, and my dad sort of saying, I can't I can't kind of believe what what I've seen, and then he was putting a radio on to try and figure out what was going on and what had happened.
SPEAKER_02:And my dad actually were at the United gate, he talks a lot of shit, my dad, but he's got a bad memory at least, so that's where I probably get it from. But he said that obviously he had no idea that there were anything were happening at Hillsborough. United were at home that day.
SPEAKER_00:So they were with both oh yeah, because of course it wasn't. Yeah, because it's FA Cup. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, it's FA Cup. And he said they were tanner at the end saying there's been basically a you know disaster at Aillsborough. I didn't probably didn't say disaster or whatever, but he didn't realise how big it were until he got in. Imagine that just nowadays it'd be going like wildfire on your phone, wouldn't it? Oh my god, they've had to abandon oh my god, everyone in crowd would be talking about it and especially then.
SPEAKER_00:Even in modern eras, you remember when we were in Bramalane about what seven years ago, and a guy on his phone match finished, and he phoned either his missus or his mate to say, I've Wednesday got on. And from the it took us about 12 minutes, I'm guessing, to get all the way down the sort of down the corp and go out. Yeah, and all the way he was going, ha ha ha, yeah, yeah. How Wednesday got on? Yeah, yeah, no, it was all right, yeah. Have Wednesday got on, yeah. Yeah, good yeah. Have Wednesday got on. I've Wednesday.
SPEAKER_02:Honestly, I'm not exaggerating, he must have asked at least 20 times.
SPEAKER_00:Probably more than yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So how's Wednesday gone on then? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They were a bit as we left ground when he was on.
SPEAKER_01:How's Wednesday gone on? I didn't even want to tell him I've no idea how Wednesday got on that day, but I don't know why they didn't want to tell you so much. Yeah, uh's Wednesday gone on all the way home.
SPEAKER_02:But oh god, yeah. So obviously, like with things like that, that is a good thing to your phones, emergencies. Obviously, you break down and stuff, you fucked it. That's another thing as well. Uh that's a that is a positive.
SPEAKER_00:But maps, I think maps is a good thing.
SPEAKER_02:You can figure out where you're going a lot easier. But I don't think you had a map on a Nokia, did you? Is that more of a smartphone? No, you're right, you're right.
SPEAKER_00:I'm blurring to smartphones, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But obviously you have phone boxes as well, but you needed money for phone boxes, and I know now no one really carries cash, unless you've got a chapel St. Lennon's where it's cash only, innit? In most places.
SPEAKER_00:Uh but if you didn't have a tempee or whatever you needed, then my grandma for ages didn't have a landline. So when we stayed at hers, we used to have to arrange a time to walk up to phone box and phone my mum and dad. Which again is there'll be people uh believe it or not, there are people out there older than us, and they'll be saying, Well, yeah, but some we didn't even have that. We just used to have to write a letter.
SPEAKER_02:And I remember doing prank calls from phone boxes, never did it from my own house, never did it from mates' houses because we thought we couldn't be traced, which I suppose we couldn't. So you could I mean it's a bit sinister actually, sending like death threats to people from phone boxes and stuff like that. But yeah, we used to phone in for like uh uh Meadowhead School, another one with Brendan, actually, who remembers Brendan? We found Meadowhead School up and said that uh you've ordered 4,000 pizzas or something, and they've just let you know they are being delivered, and she actually fell for it, like that the whoever were on the other line, because what we haven't ordered them because I know they are coming down as well.
SPEAKER_00:I used to love so you say we didn't found people's houses, but we did use to do this from your house. But I think we realised if you said put 141 before it 141 were a game changer for prank calls, yeah. But do you remember? I I still to this day used to find it so funny. We used to phone in six for the same person every single yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, you were never on sick, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Every Saturday night about one o'clock, phone off different person and say, Oh, I'm really ill, I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it in tomorrow. It was always in, like, I wonder what they thought.
SPEAKER_02:Uh have you remember when I'm eight phoned Sangers up and said, Uh, where's my interview? I've had a good CV, I've sent it in, and they didn't know what you were talking about.
SPEAKER_00:You're going, Yeah, you didn't know it were a good CV.
SPEAKER_02:I knew it were good. I'm Amen, it was slow in his words, you know. And then again, obviously trying to be professional on the other end, they were like taking him seriously, I don't know what your CV my name is Joe. Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00:I know my CV was the best.
SPEAKER_02:Because he put 141 in, we were absolutely fine about it. Uh, and another good thing I think about it is when you finish work, work was finished, weren't it? Because no one could get in touch with you. Because uh they might have found your landline, but you could always just say, believe it, it'll be worthless. Yeah, if you don't answer it, they can't do anything.
SPEAKER_00:Best time for just saying, oh, if anyone phones, I'm not in. And there would there was no way they could prove you were or you weren't.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You could always just say, Oh, sorry, I never got that message. Whereas now they know you've seen the missed call, it's up to you whether you respond to it or not.
SPEAKER_02:And there's weird things like that. I mean, if you pull a sicki or something like that, and uh you you nowadays, like someone this has happened at work, not for me, but someone has like that has has been genuinely ill, and because their green thing came up on fate, Messenger, that they were they got they didn't get hammered for it, but like the one of the managers at the time was saying this was a while ago, saying, We can't be that ill because I saw your uh green. Yeah, because you're a messenger. That's what but yeah, absolutely incredible, absolutely incredible. Right. Have you got anything more to add, Liam? Or we uh it's nice short and sweet thing about the uh pre-mobile.
SPEAKER_00:I think we could sort of blur into other things. I think I think let's let's leave that as a short and sweet pre-Nokia. We we may some of the stuff we've touched on there may become a self-sufficient, self-aware episode, but I think for not quite like that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think we can definitely do pre-internet. By the way, someone did ask for this episode, then it's a Nokia, but they did say about phones. I can't remember who it was. So I've written written all these things down about episodes about what people have asked for, and not actually put who's asked for them. So I always have to search and then yeah, yeah, you see, yeah. So he's gonna sent us a text, but yeah, thank you for that, Liam. Um next up, I think we've got special guests actually for the next episode, I believe.
SPEAKER_00:So just um stop forward referencing. We don't we don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it might not happen, man it. So yeah, we don't know what's coming next. We don't know what's coming next. But thank you for that, Liam. I'm trying to do Nokia theme. I should end with Nokia theme.
SPEAKER_00:If I'll that's that's fucking that's Blue Peter, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Oh. No, that's not no, no, no, no, no. Dicka-ding-ding-ding-dick-a ding-ding. Dicka-ding. Dicka-ding. I don't know. Thank you for listening to Who Remembers. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us at WhorremembersPod at outlook.com. If you are a right wing fascist, you can find us on Twitter at Who Remembers Pod. Or if you're a wokener, you can find us on Blue Sky at WhoRemembers Pod. Once again, thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time for more remembering.