Last month I had the absolute pleasure of watching the musical legends that are The Specials, who performed brilliantly at Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange as part of their 30th Anniversary tour.

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As chance would have it, that week also marked 30 years since I got down on one knee and proposed to the infamous Mrs Smith. At least that’s what she maintains as we dined in an Aberdeen restaurant in November 1979.

Another version (and that of a few of my so-called acquaintances) is that I inadvertently dropped my wallet and dived quicker than a Liverpool striker to retrieve it.

The more cynical of my family suggested at the time that I got engaged to relieve the tedium that watching Hearts struggle in the Scottish First Division had become.

Safe in the knowledge that Mrs Smith has no interest in football and therefore doesn’t read my inane ramblings here, I must confess they have a point.

On Saturday, November 10, 1979, not only did I get engaged to the woman who has been my wife for the last 27 years, but Hearts were battling with the likes of Clydebank, Airdrieonians and Hamilton Academical for promotion to the Premier Division.

The fact that the first two clubs mentioned are now no longer with us in the professional sense tells you all you need to know about that era.

On that cold November day, Hearts drew 1-1 at New Kilbowie Stadium, Clydebank - midfielder Cammy Fraser scoring Hearts' goal.

Fraser was one of the better players in a Hearts team that struggled badly at the end of the 1970s. I recall seeing him on a train after a game at Tynecastle.

He lived in Dundee at the time and he was celebrating another goalscoring performance by consuming a can or two of lager on the train north.

Footballers have been known to have a beer or two after a game on a Saturday and it was to Fraser’s credit that when he saw my friend and me decked with Hearts scarves, he immediately offered to buy us a drink. I’m not so sure this would happen in today’s tabloid-frenzied age.

At the Edinburgh Corn Exchange last month, I was happy to relive my youth - for a couple of hours at least - as The Specials performed with such energy that if you closed your eyes you could have been forgiven for thinking it was still 1979.

I cast my mind back and, with the help of the excellent London Hearts website, recalled the team that drew with the Bankies that day 30 years ago.

Not only was Cammy Fraser there but the team included Jim Jefferies, heading towards the end of his playing career and dabbling with coaching. A young Walter Kidd played in midfield alongside a veteran who made his name with today’s opponents, Dundee United.

Bobby Robinson was a player whose best days - which included playing for Scotland - were behind him but had joined Willie Ormond’s Hearts team as they sought promotion back to the big time. However, I really felt my age when I recall a youngster called Ian Black playing for the Maroons.

Hearts had sold Eamonn Bannon to Chelsea for £200,000 at the beginning of 1979 and this gave the teenage Black his chance in the first team.

The fact that Black’s son now plays for Hearts three decades on makes me feel as if Old Father Time is pursuing me with depressing haste.

Ian Black senior was given a free transfer by Bobby Moncur, who became Hearts manager in 1980. He had a brief spell at Hibernian before heading for East Fife and Berwick Rangers.

Cammy Fraser was transferred to Dundee at the beginning of season 1980-81 for £60,000 - a not insignificant sum for Hearts at the time given they were in dire financial straits and were awaiting the arrival of Wallace Mercer on a white horse.

Fraser was equally impressive for his hometown team to the extent he signed for Rangers in 1984.

It’s also interesting to note that 30 years ago George Burley and Paul Hegarty were playing in the Scotland team that lost 3-0 to Wales in Cardiff.

We’re at the time of the year when we reflect on the 12 months gone by.

Seeing The Specials play live, watching Ian Black play for Hearts, seeing George Burley and Paul Hegarty agonise as Scotland lose 3-0 in Cardiff and my other half giving me grief over some insignificant matter - it could be 1979 all over again!