Old Man Bridge’s college bop binge
By Jonathan Tomlin
Somerville students were in for surprise as infamous middle-aged partygoer ‘Old Man Bridge’ turned up to their bop.
The man, whose real name is Simon Palmer, was invited by Somerville law student Krish Neelendra to their last bop of term, which took pace on 28th April.
Palmer is well known among the student body for his frequent appearances at nightclubs. He is said to have a bod card, which allows him access to many of the student nights.
The College bop sheet advertised the guest presence as “a surprise at the bop tonight”.
Neelendra invited him during a shared meal at G&D’s. He said: “All through the conversation, like a mouse eager to get out of his house, I impatiently searched desperately for space within our discourse with which to pop the question.”
He added that time spent at the bop was “a mystery for me, him and everyone else associated with us”.
Somerville Entz rep Barney Geddes-O’Dolan commented on the reception the guest received: “Students generally extended an uneasy welcome towards him. There was obviously no open hostility, but no signs of affection either.”
He said that the Entz team did not invite Palmer, and that they have “no specific means of inviting guests as the bops are primarily intended for Somerville students and their friends”, adding that “as far as I know, no-one in Somerville considers Old Man Bridge to be a friend”.
A Somerville second year student interpreted the welcome differently. He said that “everyone else was quite excited” about the guest appearance.
He added that Palmer attempted to engage in conversations about “intellectual things like politics”, and danced “conservatively”.
Old Man Bridge has been known to attend other bops in the past.
nosferatu69
10/05/2012 at 23:31
more terrible journalism, laden with grammatical errors and factual inaccuracies from the banal publication that is the oxford student
yukireadthis
11/05/2012 at 00:01
‘Old Man Bridge has been known to attend other bops in the past. ‘ end with a bang! YOUGOGIRL!!!
Nah
11/05/2012 at 11:29
It’s not banal, it’s actually ridiculously big on scandals, and therein lies the problem. Constantly running sensationalist stories with screaming headlines, which often get some poor innocent caught in the crossfire and humiliated in the national press – JCR presidents, OUCA members/presidents, Union election candidates, sometimes just normal students, to name a few from this academic year alone.
Fucking people over is business as usual for the Oxford Student – do we really want our future journalists to follow this model of savagery, bullying and sensationalism?
Problem is...
11/05/2012 at 19:20
That “fucking people over” sells papers, very successfully (albeit that in this case it’s more about getting people to read the paper, seeing as the OxStu is free). Look at the Leveson enquiry- people love hearing about the hidden side of people’s lives, stuff that is none of their business but which they’d just luuurve to know anyway. It’s stomach churning, but yet we’re part of the problem- if we didn’t read this stuff, they wouldn’t print it, but the fact is that we DO read this stuff, and so they continue to print it. It’s a vicious circle.
It's grim up North (London)
16/05/2012 at 15:17
Yes this is a boring story, but I know enough current and former OUCA members to realize fucking them over was a service to mankind. Long live low quality, muck-raking student journalism.