Brace yourself!

There's a picture of me that I quite like taken by my friend Gideon Richards from a couple of years ago. I am speaking at an early Hands Off HRI Rally in Huddersfield Town Centre. Yours truly is addressing the crowd, microphones in hand with the Harold Wilson statue in the background. I have to confess however that the photo has been doctored /photoshopped. Like so many photos of me in the original a shirt flap is hanging out. Somehow or other for years and years belts haven't really worked for me. Too tight, too loose. Either shirt hanging out or the unintentional, and I'm sure unappealing, half moony that occurs from time to time. This was just an occupational hazard of being me.

A few months ago I went to a friends 50th birthday party and the dress code was 'Northern Soul'. A bit of research revealed that one way you could achieve 'the look' was by wearing braces which I duly did.  Since then I have started wearing them as standard which has been a bit of a revelation in terms of keeping my trousers up and obviously so much so that I have thought it worthy of a blogpost (my blog description does include the words 'and anything else I fancy talking about'.).

Leo Sayer - braces wearer

Its been suggested to me that braces are 'a bitTory'. I guess the thinking behind that is all those City traders in their red braces who busily mucked up the economy for us all. For me I always think of my Grandad, who was a South Yorkshire miner who on occasions wore braces.  So maybe braces are classless, maybe we can all wear them and have our own take.


Here's Madness with 'Our House' where some people are wearing braces