One of the first things that my brother did for me in a meaningful way was to take me to Wimbledon Town Hall and to The Royal Festival Hall to see The Chris Barber Jazz Band, live. This set the tone for me once I started work and had some money. I was also fortunate that my best friend loved jazz as I did and, although he was 16 months younger than me and thus still at school, was keen to join me in my trips.
The visits started to 100 Oxford Street - Jazzshows as it was known then. This was a famous jazz club in Oxford Street in central London. Now, think about it. We were 16 and 14 so what did we do every Saturday night, plus any other night that we could - meet at St. Leonard's Church in Streatham, get on a 159 bus to Oxford Circus and then a 3/4 mile walk down Oxford Street - on our own. Try that nowadays!
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Who did we see? Not Chris Barner, funnily enough - his band only seemed to do big concerts. The list we saw included Acker Bilk, Mick Mulligan - with George Melly, Terry Lightfoot, Alex Welsh very occasionally and, best of all, The Mike Daniels Delta Jazz Band - oh how we loved Mike Daniels - especially when they played with two trumpets and two trombones on Maryland, My Maryland. I can't find Mike Daniels playing this but here is the Chris Barber version:
A lot of what were called 'beatniks' used to go and do some very strange leapy type of dance to the music but Roger and I were there for the sounds. As I used to say - there is nothing like sitting on the edge of the band stand with the drips from Acker's clarinet coming down your neck!
There were two big extras that used to happen. Sometimes they would get a guest band in. Three I remember particularly:
The Back O'Town Syncopators from Manchester. I saw them live when I was in Manchester - at the Three Coins Jazz Club - where - in Fountain Street of course. They were great because they had two banjos - remember I was playing the banjo at this time.
Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band over from Norway - I had some records of theirs so that was a great evening.
Best of all and rarely to be beaten was the visit by The Dutch Swing College. What a night! In fact when the DSC came to Ipswich some years ago I reminded them of that night. Of course, there is no one in the band now who was there but still I made my point. Funnily enough, they didn't show a lot of interest. I suppose that every old buffer like me tells them of such occasions. Mind you - a half hearted Wow would have been nice.
The other extra that we always enjoyed was when someone else dropped in to join in. I am sure that this happened quite often but there are only two particular people I remember - Long John Baldry, who was a top class blues singer at the time. He used to drop in quite regularly and sing a few songs with the band.
The other particular regular 'dropper in' was Beryl Brydon who was a huge woman that specialised in the sort of raunchy jazz songs that Bessie Smith used to do. She often had her washboard along so it got very noisy.
I did go to a few other clubs but not seriously. I had a few good nights at Ken Collyer's Club just off the Charing Cross Road but he was a bit to strictly New Orleans for me.
Eventually girls and things put a stop to such gallivanting and we moved on a bit with our music - well I did anyway. By now I was with the girl of my dreams (I hope she is reading this) and going to Jazz Clubs with Roger wasn't really on the agenda. Also, I was heavily into Rhythm and Blues so it was the Marquee club for me on a Wednesday night - oh and of course I dragged her along!
The Marquee was originally in Oxford, just over the road from Jazz Shows but it moved to Wardour Street when the cinema above wanted the basement for another cinema.
Our evenings started by listening to Alex Korner's Blues Incorporated who were the biggest exponent of Rhythm and Blues in the UK. Eventually, they got too big for the club and off they went. However, their Harmonica player - Cyril Davis, broke away and formed his own band to fill the slot now empty. The new band - The All Stars included Long John Baldry as singer and Dick Heckstall-Smith on Saxophone.
The All Stars with Long John Baldy Singing
These were great evenings. However, we arrived one evening to be told that Cyril Davies had died and a band from Richmond - The Rolling Stones would play. We didn't know these and were unsure if they were any good! The permanent slot was taken over by a young group called The Yardbirds - including Eric Clapton. We had some great nights but it became obvious that the love of R&B wasn't a joint love so we found other things to do.
The other big live event in my life came on the Saturday night before my first date with Valerie. I went to the Royal Festival Hall, on my own, to a memorable concert given by Count Basie. If you only hear the UK National Anthem played once, then this is the band to play it!
During the period before Valerie (BV in biblical terms) I also went to a couple of memorable plays at The Mermaid Theatre. Both were written by Spike Milligan. The Bed Sitting Room was immortalised in a film and "The Royal Commission Review was memorable for having The Temperance Seven included - they were very big in jazz at that time. There were 9 in The Temperance Seven as they were "always one over the eight". For those not aware, that was a sixties euphemism for being drunk. A fitting end to the episode:
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Tuesday 18 October 2011
Listening to music was a big thing!
It all started when I realised that I could play my brother's records when he was at work. This was around 11 - 13 years old. However, all my brother had was what we call Traditional / Revivalist Jazz - what our US friends call Dixieland. This pile was interesting because it contained some stuff that will all have heard of and some stuff that is very unusual. Here is what I can remember:
Chris Barber
The Firehouse Five Plus Two
Sharkey's Southern Comforts
Lou Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band
Bob Scobey with Clancy Hayes
The Cell Block Seven
There was also a record of limericks - sung - clean ones as well but I can't find any trace of that anywhere.
Anyway, I never stood a chance of liking anything else so my life was set on Trad Jazz. The next event was to get friendly with Pete Tolhurst at school. I went home with him one day and he played me an Acker Bilk record - well that was me done!
The first thing I bought when I left school and started work was a Record Player. I made sure that I bought the best I could find for sound - I had to compromise on the deck but I was to replace that fairly quickly. So, even then I was into 'HiFi'. We had a great record shop up on Streatham High Road and it was there that I bought the deck and my first LP - Acker Bilk of course.
My best man, Roger Whittle, who should stand out more here than I make him, was just as keen on the music so together we would sit in my front room, modelling away, listening to Acker.
Acker's Paramount Jazz Band always, at that time, appeared in waistcoats and bowler hats. Same as me except for the bowler, of course.
Acker was quickly followed by some of the originals - I had a 10" LP of The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and 12" records by some of the more suspect Trad bands such as Bob Wallace - who would try to sing - but had a permanent sore throat so sounded gravelly all the time - oh and did try to stay in tune.
Well, what do you think. Love seeing 'Fluff' so young.
At the same time as I was buying into Jazz, I was also becoming aware of the popular music scene. This was 1961 just as I was leaving school and I was mostly recording the pop stuff onto our home tape recorder. With a mother that worked for Philips, is was relatively cheap to have one of these as we got a staff discount. Dad was busy recording all of the '30s dance bands and I was recording all of the pop and the jazz. The pop was mostly coming from Radio Luxembourg and the Jazz from the BBC.
The pop stuff I remember are things like 'Sea of Heartbreaks', Bob Lumen's 'Let's think about living', 'Save the last dance for me' by the Drifters and other such items. However, it was still jazz that held me and I was mostly recording Alex Welsh at the time. Funnily enough, I never got to see his band live.
With Roger's able assistance, we built up quite a large library of Jazz on record and on tape. However, two memorable things happened. We were very keen on The Dutch Swing College and when they brought out their Souza march LP with the Band of the Royal Dutch Marines, we were ecstatic. The big one for me though was a Count Basie LP. Now, I have never gone for Modern Jazz and am no fan of screaming saxes so quite what made me buy this LP is a bit of a mystery. The one in question, which set me off on the road to Basie was 'Sinatra Sings and Basie Swings'. We were already fans of Bobby Darin - especially Lazy River and Mac The Knife, so Sinatra singing with Basie was fantastic. This led onto me buying 'The Atomic Mr. Basie'. I am still listening to all of this 50 years later!
Lots of Jazz and Basie followed. However, in the middle of the '60's, I got more and more interested in Rhythm and Blues which involved me blowing a blues harp (small harmonica) along with many of the tracks. This desire to play along resulted in a particular purchase, which was done purely for the harmonica accompaniment - 'Love Me Do' by the Beatles. So I was there at the beginning - something that happened twice later.
The trend for R&B stayed with me for a good while - I bought some early Rolling Stones but they soon left me behind. I was also into Howling Wolf - 'Smokestack Lightning' still gets me. I still have a CD of Howling Wolf recorded in the UK with lots of known stars playing in the band.
Lots of information on the CD here
Between this point and getting married was a bit of a desert - I had better - or more interesting things on my mind - and my music became less of an issue, except that I used to make Valerie listen when we were at my house - and she famously put up with some of my interest - but more of that later.
Chris Barber
The Firehouse Five Plus Two
Sharkey's Southern Comforts
Lou Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band
Bob Scobey with Clancy Hayes
The Cell Block Seven
There was also a record of limericks - sung - clean ones as well but I can't find any trace of that anywhere.
Anyway, I never stood a chance of liking anything else so my life was set on Trad Jazz. The next event was to get friendly with Pete Tolhurst at school. I went home with him one day and he played me an Acker Bilk record - well that was me done!
The first thing I bought when I left school and started work was a Record Player. I made sure that I bought the best I could find for sound - I had to compromise on the deck but I was to replace that fairly quickly. So, even then I was into 'HiFi'. We had a great record shop up on Streatham High Road and it was there that I bought the deck and my first LP - Acker Bilk of course.
My best man, Roger Whittle, who should stand out more here than I make him, was just as keen on the music so together we would sit in my front room, modelling away, listening to Acker.
Acker's Paramount Jazz Band always, at that time, appeared in waistcoats and bowler hats. Same as me except for the bowler, of course.
Acker was quickly followed by some of the originals - I had a 10" LP of The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and 12" records by some of the more suspect Trad bands such as Bob Wallace - who would try to sing - but had a permanent sore throat so sounded gravelly all the time - oh and did try to stay in tune.
Well, what do you think. Love seeing 'Fluff' so young.
At the same time as I was buying into Jazz, I was also becoming aware of the popular music scene. This was 1961 just as I was leaving school and I was mostly recording the pop stuff onto our home tape recorder. With a mother that worked for Philips, is was relatively cheap to have one of these as we got a staff discount. Dad was busy recording all of the '30s dance bands and I was recording all of the pop and the jazz. The pop was mostly coming from Radio Luxembourg and the Jazz from the BBC.
The pop stuff I remember are things like 'Sea of Heartbreaks', Bob Lumen's 'Let's think about living', 'Save the last dance for me' by the Drifters and other such items. However, it was still jazz that held me and I was mostly recording Alex Welsh at the time. Funnily enough, I never got to see his band live.
With Roger's able assistance, we built up quite a large library of Jazz on record and on tape. However, two memorable things happened. We were very keen on The Dutch Swing College and when they brought out their Souza march LP with the Band of the Royal Dutch Marines, we were ecstatic. The big one for me though was a Count Basie LP. Now, I have never gone for Modern Jazz and am no fan of screaming saxes so quite what made me buy this LP is a bit of a mystery. The one in question, which set me off on the road to Basie was 'Sinatra Sings and Basie Swings'. We were already fans of Bobby Darin - especially Lazy River and Mac The Knife, so Sinatra singing with Basie was fantastic. This led onto me buying 'The Atomic Mr. Basie'. I am still listening to all of this 50 years later!
Lots of Jazz and Basie followed. However, in the middle of the '60's, I got more and more interested in Rhythm and Blues which involved me blowing a blues harp (small harmonica) along with many of the tracks. This desire to play along resulted in a particular purchase, which was done purely for the harmonica accompaniment - 'Love Me Do' by the Beatles. So I was there at the beginning - something that happened twice later.
The trend for R&B stayed with me for a good while - I bought some early Rolling Stones but they soon left me behind. I was also into Howling Wolf - 'Smokestack Lightning' still gets me. I still have a CD of Howling Wolf recorded in the UK with lots of known stars playing in the band.
Lots of information on the CD here
Between this point and getting married was a bit of a desert - I had better - or more interesting things on my mind - and my music became less of an issue, except that I used to make Valerie listen when we were at my house - and she famously put up with some of my interest - but more of that later.
Friday 14 October 2011
Music in the early '60s
My interest in music was both from the listening and the playing. I had better deal with the playing first I think.
Playing Instruments
I covered earlier my short stint at the flute. It taught me the basic fingering for most wind instruments but I never really took to it. Sometime around the age of 14 I went down to Ally's Owl Shop just next door to Streatham Bus Garage and bought myself a 2nd hand guitar. I think I mentioned earlier that the next thing I did was go up to The Swing Shop at St. Leonard's Church in the middle of Streatham and buy Bert Weedon's 'Play The Guitar in a Day' book.
We had a piano in the front room although no-one in the family could play but along with it was a book of traditional songs. Between picking out the tunes on the piano and plucking away, I got some tunes and chords out of the guitar. Although I don't have much of a voice, I began to really enjoy sitting in the front room and strumming chords and picking out tunes. I took a great interest in American Folk Music - especially when I found a book on American Railroad songs. I still have a fondness for 'The Little Red Caboose Behind The Train" and will play it properly on the concertina sometime.
Underlying my interest in music was a lifelong appreciation of 'Traditional Jazz' so I slowly moved towards getting a Banjo. As ever in my life I knew what I wanted but didn't quite make it - fingering on a tenor banjo is quite difficult - a tenor is what you hear in most Trad Jazz Bands - so I plumped for a 5 string - which is a folk instrument. A tenor has four strings - a 5-String has four strings and a drone string which stops halfway down the finger board. It would still be possible to play Trad Jazz but the other options were broader. I started to listen to Pete Seeger and finally bought his 10" LP on "How To Play The 5 String Banjo" - HA!!!! It should have been called "Let me show you how I play the 5-string banjo - you won't come close!". Still I tried, and as mentioned, took it to camp and played successfully for the camp fires. There was a memorable Scout Gang Show where us Senior Scouts put on a personal Act - Me Playing the Banjo, Roger playing the Drums and the others playing the Kazoo. I can't remember the whole sketch but it included "Close the door, they're coming in the window" and the theme tune to "Sunday Night At The London Palladium" Sadly, I can't find the closing credits but this is the opening of one show.
Two other instruments got into the act before I got married - an electric guitar, which I played through my tape recorder using it as an amplifier and a tenor saxophone. I have no idea why I went to the electric guitar because - apart from The Shadows - I had little interest in pop music by then. The saxaphone was one of my usual half assed ideas - what I really wanted was a soprano sax because of the way it was played on The Firehouse Five recordings but couldn't find one on the day I went looking down the Charing Cross Road - so what did I do - wait until I could find one - NO! I bought an Alto! I did play this for a while but because I had no real love of anything other than Traditional (New Orleans - Dixieland) Jazz it sort of faded and I finally sold it.
One big thing for me during the mid-'60s was Rhythm and Blues and I/we was/were very regular attendees at The Marquee. Having messed about with a Harmonica when I was in Junior School, I picked up on the Blues Harp and got really into the wa wa sound of bent blues notes. To my shame, when I was given a harp in later years, for some reason I was scared to pick it up in case I couldn't play it. Given that the form of a harmonica is that same as the concertina and I can play that quite well, I am not sure why I didn't give it a go. I will come back to one result of my playing the blues later in this piece.
I pretty much stopped playing a musical instrument once we were married - nothing to do with that but I just didn't seem to want to. Then a few years later, Valerie bought me a really nice guitar from Harrods for Christmas and I got back into it - but I am getting ahead of myself.
As my next piece about recorded music is likely to be very long, I have split this topic into two parts.
Playing Instruments
I covered earlier my short stint at the flute. It taught me the basic fingering for most wind instruments but I never really took to it. Sometime around the age of 14 I went down to Ally's Owl Shop just next door to Streatham Bus Garage and bought myself a 2nd hand guitar. I think I mentioned earlier that the next thing I did was go up to The Swing Shop at St. Leonard's Church in the middle of Streatham and buy Bert Weedon's 'Play The Guitar in a Day' book.
We had a piano in the front room although no-one in the family could play but along with it was a book of traditional songs. Between picking out the tunes on the piano and plucking away, I got some tunes and chords out of the guitar. Although I don't have much of a voice, I began to really enjoy sitting in the front room and strumming chords and picking out tunes. I took a great interest in American Folk Music - especially when I found a book on American Railroad songs. I still have a fondness for 'The Little Red Caboose Behind The Train" and will play it properly on the concertina sometime.
Underlying my interest in music was a lifelong appreciation of 'Traditional Jazz' so I slowly moved towards getting a Banjo. As ever in my life I knew what I wanted but didn't quite make it - fingering on a tenor banjo is quite difficult - a tenor is what you hear in most Trad Jazz Bands - so I plumped for a 5 string - which is a folk instrument. A tenor has four strings - a 5-String has four strings and a drone string which stops halfway down the finger board. It would still be possible to play Trad Jazz but the other options were broader. I started to listen to Pete Seeger and finally bought his 10" LP on "How To Play The 5 String Banjo" - HA!!!! It should have been called "Let me show you how I play the 5-string banjo - you won't come close!". Still I tried, and as mentioned, took it to camp and played successfully for the camp fires. There was a memorable Scout Gang Show where us Senior Scouts put on a personal Act - Me Playing the Banjo, Roger playing the Drums and the others playing the Kazoo. I can't remember the whole sketch but it included "Close the door, they're coming in the window" and the theme tune to "Sunday Night At The London Palladium" Sadly, I can't find the closing credits but this is the opening of one show.
Two other instruments got into the act before I got married - an electric guitar, which I played through my tape recorder using it as an amplifier and a tenor saxophone. I have no idea why I went to the electric guitar because - apart from The Shadows - I had little interest in pop music by then. The saxaphone was one of my usual half assed ideas - what I really wanted was a soprano sax because of the way it was played on The Firehouse Five recordings but couldn't find one on the day I went looking down the Charing Cross Road - so what did I do - wait until I could find one - NO! I bought an Alto! I did play this for a while but because I had no real love of anything other than Traditional (New Orleans - Dixieland) Jazz it sort of faded and I finally sold it.
One big thing for me during the mid-'60s was Rhythm and Blues and I/we was/were very regular attendees at The Marquee. Having messed about with a Harmonica when I was in Junior School, I picked up on the Blues Harp and got really into the wa wa sound of bent blues notes. To my shame, when I was given a harp in later years, for some reason I was scared to pick it up in case I couldn't play it. Given that the form of a harmonica is that same as the concertina and I can play that quite well, I am not sure why I didn't give it a go. I will come back to one result of my playing the blues later in this piece.
I pretty much stopped playing a musical instrument once we were married - nothing to do with that but I just didn't seem to want to. Then a few years later, Valerie bought me a really nice guitar from Harrods for Christmas and I got back into it - but I am getting ahead of myself.
As my next piece about recorded music is likely to be very long, I have split this topic into two parts.
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Personal Things - Scouts
I am not a joiner but Scouts was different. It was aircraft and friends that loved aircraft - nobody poking fun because you made models and the challenge of looking after 5 boys younger than you. This is what I got out of being a Patrol Leader in the 31st Streatham Air Scouts.
Because of our RAF Recognition, we had a lot of support from the RAF - including when we went to camp we were always able to visit the local RAF Station. Not only that but, courtesy of the London Assistant Commissioner for Air Scouts, as much flying as we could manage.
Scouts was on a Friday night and involved a bus from the top of my road up to Streatham and then mile long walk down to the end of Sunnyhill Road. In all the time that I was involved in the troop, we used Sunnyhill School. They managed to obtain not only a large wooden building but also land to put it on just around the corner from the school in Harborough Road. I have gone looking on Street View but there appears to be a new block of houses on the site so I have no idea where they have gone. They are still in existence but I can't track down where their HQ is - sad.
OK - so - the best memories.
Summer Camp at Andover.
I must have been at work by now as we went as the Senior Scout patrol - The Guy Gibsons. We made a decision that we would not be involved in the camping competition which always ran during the camp with a patrol getting the award for the best run unit for camping standards, best food, etc. This decision was made because we felt that it was a bit beneath us to get involved with 'the kids'. However, by the Wednesday, we were so irritated by not being involved that we opted in. Needless to say, having given 'the kids' a 4 day head start - we won the competition! That's how to treat them - shamed grin!!
There were two visits arranged during the week. One was to the Army Air Corps Headquarters at Middle Wallop. They had a brilliant museum of Army Air Corp aircraft and I was so besotted that I decided there and then that I would apply to join up to fly helicopters. I subsequently found out that you had to join the Army and once in there for two years. you could take the induction test for a pilot. If you failed, then it was back to your unit! This did not appeal so I decided that the Fleet Air Arm as a 'copter pilot was for me. It had to be like this as, by now, I was wearing glasses for some activities, which was OK for a helicopter pilot but would fail you for other flying.
The second trip was to RAF Andover for a tour. Us older scouts got offered a trip to Oxford in an old Avro Anson communications aircraft. We naturally jumped at the chance. What they didn't explain was that they weren't coming back! Once at Oxford, they had to work out what to do with us. They had another Anson going to Bristol so off we went there! Again, no idea how were were to get back to Andover. Amazingly, when we got to Bristol, we were told that there was an Anson going to Andover but in 2 hours so we sat around - oh dear, what a trial - sitting on an airfield for 2 hours! So we eventually got back. What a great time we had.
This was the camp that I took my banjo to play at the camp fires. I gave no thought to damp nights and skin vellum on the banjo as a sounding board. The damp made it very loose so I had great fun playing whilst trying to ensure that the bridge didn't fall out!
Summer Camp at Broadstone Warren
Broadstone Warren is in Sussex near to Forest Row. I don't remember too much about the camp - but two things stick in my mind:
1. We were going out for the day and we ordered in some pies for the lunch pack. When they arrived they were off so we had to do something else. Being by now a bit short of food for the day, we made a great pile of tomato sauce sandwiches. Ian Cacutt ate some of the pies, insisting that they were fine. Guess how he spent the next 24 hours! Not much sleep going on there - grin.
The trip was to where I don't know but think it was to The Bluebell Railway at Uckfield. I know that we (the senior scouts) ended up standing around in Forest Row for some reason. This was the time when a hit tune from 'Most Happy Fella' was on every body's lips. Finding us 'standing on the corner', we knew exactly the song we should sing. Not a good advert for Scouting but great fun for middle-teenagers.
Flying
Mr. Scott-Chard was an ex-RAF bomber pilot and currently was a pilot for BOAC and also happened to be the Assistant Commissioner for London Air Scouts. He arranged to meet us at Biggin Hill airfield (of Battle of Britain fame) on one Sunday morning for what became a regular trip. The RAF gave us use of some woodland on the airfield so that we could camp.
So this is how it went: Bus to Streatham; walk down to Streatham Station to meet Roger and the rest; get on a 130 bus to New Addington; get off at the end of the line; hike the few miles across the valley from New Addington to Biggin Hill - with rucksacks on our back carrying everything for the weekend - tents, cooking utensils, sleeping bags, food, etc. Set up camp and have all day Saturday to watch the flying or to do stupid things like experimenting with cooking nettles! Scott-Chard would arrive on Sunday morning and that's when we got the big hit. Three of us would get in a Percival proctor or Prentice - if you were lucky you got in the front seat.
We were such regulars that when they opened a new control tower at Biggin Hill, we were chosen to be the Guard of Honour! The other benifet was that, when we came to take our Air Navigator badge, which required plotting a route for an aircraft, we were able to do it and then fly the aircraft along our plot - fantastic. Steve Brown and I were the lucky ones for this trip. On the Friday afternoon, we were cycling through Tooting - I have no idea why we were off school and what we were both doing in Tooting - I had a great funny idea - why don't I slam my brakes on and give Steve a fright. He didn't see the funny side as the broke his arm - and with a flying trip for his Air Navigator badge that weekend. None the less he made it and we both passed.
John Sillett
John was an icon to me and I still talk about him. He came along to the Scouts one Friday evening in his 'funny' ordinary Scout uniform - khaki shirt and a funny khaki scout scarf tied up in a knot - never seen that done before but that is how the 3rd Streatham Hill did things. He had come along to help out running the show. He proved to be a very knowledgeable guy - only a couple of years older than me but at time, this seemed like an age. He was a great lad and knew scouting inside out. Didn't know a lot about aircraft but you couldn't have everything. He left school and joined Lloyds Bank and I followed into banking later as you now know. He surprised us one day by telling us that he was leaving the bank as he had been accepted by The Royal Navy for pilot training. At the time he was riding a Vincent motorbike - Vincents were old 1,000cc hand built bikes and we could only look in awe.
So, off he went and we didn't expect to see him back. Now it is funny how you can suddenly go off people - he turned up one Friday night and we asked him how he had got here as wasn't he at some far off RAF station under training. Oh yes, he said, I am stationed near Swansea in Wales but I have my own personal Hawker Hunter T7 which I have flown down to Manston in Kent, where I keep my motor bike and I have ridden up from there - funny how liking can turn to hatred in an instant! - Grin.
and had been involved in the tracking of oil tankers into the Mozambique port of Beira.
He told me that there were eight in his training group at Dartmouth and he though that four would be lucky to survive the seven year stint because of the hugely fragile nature of Fleet Air Arm aircraft at that time and that I should reconsider my plans. He recounted an event that happened to him. I will first recount how I remember it and then add what I found out recently.
John's Crash
Gannets are/were strange aircraft in that they look like a single engined aircraft but actually have two Mamba engine side by side driving two propellers through a double shaft. John was one of the few to have a complete engine failure on landing. I originally understood that his aircraft had crashed just short of HMS Eagle, his carrier, and had flipped upside down due to the presence of a huge radome under the body of the aircraft. My memory sais that he was the first to get out of such a circumstance. However, now with the Internet as a tool, I have found out that he did crash off Singapore but climbed out onto one wing with his crewman on the other and both were OK. So I now know the truth.
Last Memories
As usual, I was the oldest in the troop so when 18 came along I left the Senior Scouts and moved back to helping with the troop. Once again, I had to wait for the others to catch up. Once we had a few 18 year olds we started a Rover Crew - again with me as the Rover Mate. I can't remember much of this time except for one occasion when we did an all night stint over one weekend supporting the troop on a night hike. They were off for the night and we were to provide soup half way through. This entailed us sitting around until about 1am - cooking soup - and then transporting it out to the woods - these were some way down in Surrey but I can't remember which woods they used. Having delivered the soup, we were at a loose end so someone suggested that we go to Brighton - the nearest seaside town to where we were. This trip resulted in two encounters with the Surrey police!
Once we arrived in Brighton we thought we would have a walk around - 2.30am - good idea? Maybe not. We walked along the sea front and then headed inland to walk through the shopping area. We did notice that a police car cruised past us on a few occasions but being Air Scouts in lawful pursuit of their business, we never assumed that it was us that they were watching. We weren't wearing our berets at this time so we missed the fact that there were no visible signs of our status. Eventually, they stopped us and on seeing that we all had sheath knives, were a bit taken aback - we then disclosed that we were Scouts on a night event and everyone calmed down.
Once our trip around Brighton became tedious, we all got back in the car and started out for home. We had got to Gatwick Airport when we were flagged down by a police car - this was becoming a habit. They were merely checking on what a car full of four lads was doing out at this time of night and approached very warily. Once again, on finding out that we were Scouts, they were relaxed and off we went again, finally to get home and bed after a great time out.
Final Days in the Scouts - For Now
Once again my age threw me out of the group - once I was 21 I could no longer be a Rover - so I took up as an Assistant Scout Master - they call them Scout Leaders nowadays. I took out a warrant and spent last year or so of my time as a single lad in Streatham working with the troop as a warranted leader. In the April of the next year, I got married and moved away so my connection with the Scouts was broken for some 13 years
Because of our RAF Recognition, we had a lot of support from the RAF - including when we went to camp we were always able to visit the local RAF Station. Not only that but, courtesy of the London Assistant Commissioner for Air Scouts, as much flying as we could manage.
Scouts was on a Friday night and involved a bus from the top of my road up to Streatham and then mile long walk down to the end of Sunnyhill Road. In all the time that I was involved in the troop, we used Sunnyhill School. They managed to obtain not only a large wooden building but also land to put it on just around the corner from the school in Harborough Road. I have gone looking on Street View but there appears to be a new block of houses on the site so I have no idea where they have gone. They are still in existence but I can't track down where their HQ is - sad.
OK - so - the best memories.
Summer Camp at Andover.
I must have been at work by now as we went as the Senior Scout patrol - The Guy Gibsons. We made a decision that we would not be involved in the camping competition which always ran during the camp with a patrol getting the award for the best run unit for camping standards, best food, etc. This decision was made because we felt that it was a bit beneath us to get involved with 'the kids'. However, by the Wednesday, we were so irritated by not being involved that we opted in. Needless to say, having given 'the kids' a 4 day head start - we won the competition! That's how to treat them - shamed grin!!
There were two visits arranged during the week. One was to the Army Air Corps Headquarters at Middle Wallop. They had a brilliant museum of Army Air Corp aircraft and I was so besotted that I decided there and then that I would apply to join up to fly helicopters. I subsequently found out that you had to join the Army and once in there for two years. you could take the induction test for a pilot. If you failed, then it was back to your unit! This did not appeal so I decided that the Fleet Air Arm as a 'copter pilot was for me. It had to be like this as, by now, I was wearing glasses for some activities, which was OK for a helicopter pilot but would fail you for other flying.
The second trip was to RAF Andover for a tour. Us older scouts got offered a trip to Oxford in an old Avro Anson communications aircraft. We naturally jumped at the chance. What they didn't explain was that they weren't coming back! Once at Oxford, they had to work out what to do with us. They had another Anson going to Bristol so off we went there! Again, no idea how were were to get back to Andover. Amazingly, when we got to Bristol, we were told that there was an Anson going to Andover but in 2 hours so we sat around - oh dear, what a trial - sitting on an airfield for 2 hours! So we eventually got back. What a great time we had.
This was the camp that I took my banjo to play at the camp fires. I gave no thought to damp nights and skin vellum on the banjo as a sounding board. The damp made it very loose so I had great fun playing whilst trying to ensure that the bridge didn't fall out!
Summer Camp at Broadstone Warren
Broadstone Warren is in Sussex near to Forest Row. I don't remember too much about the camp - but two things stick in my mind:
1. We were going out for the day and we ordered in some pies for the lunch pack. When they arrived they were off so we had to do something else. Being by now a bit short of food for the day, we made a great pile of tomato sauce sandwiches. Ian Cacutt ate some of the pies, insisting that they were fine. Guess how he spent the next 24 hours! Not much sleep going on there - grin.
The trip was to where I don't know but think it was to The Bluebell Railway at Uckfield. I know that we (the senior scouts) ended up standing around in Forest Row for some reason. This was the time when a hit tune from 'Most Happy Fella' was on every body's lips. Finding us 'standing on the corner', we knew exactly the song we should sing. Not a good advert for Scouting but great fun for middle-teenagers.
Flying
Mr. Scott-Chard was an ex-RAF bomber pilot and currently was a pilot for BOAC and also happened to be the Assistant Commissioner for London Air Scouts. He arranged to meet us at Biggin Hill airfield (of Battle of Britain fame) on one Sunday morning for what became a regular trip. The RAF gave us use of some woodland on the airfield so that we could camp.
So this is how it went: Bus to Streatham; walk down to Streatham Station to meet Roger and the rest; get on a 130 bus to New Addington; get off at the end of the line; hike the few miles across the valley from New Addington to Biggin Hill - with rucksacks on our back carrying everything for the weekend - tents, cooking utensils, sleeping bags, food, etc. Set up camp and have all day Saturday to watch the flying or to do stupid things like experimenting with cooking nettles! Scott-Chard would arrive on Sunday morning and that's when we got the big hit. Three of us would get in a Percival proctor or Prentice - if you were lucky you got in the front seat.
A Percival Prentice
Once there we would fly all over south London or as close as the ATC would allow us. I remember once being bawled out by Heathrow control when I was flying and drifted to far north into the London ATC area. NO wonder school work didn't seem important when we had this to do. Comes the late afternoon, we reversed the trip and hiked back.We were such regulars that when they opened a new control tower at Biggin Hill, we were chosen to be the Guard of Honour! The other benifet was that, when we came to take our Air Navigator badge, which required plotting a route for an aircraft, we were able to do it and then fly the aircraft along our plot - fantastic. Steve Brown and I were the lucky ones for this trip. On the Friday afternoon, we were cycling through Tooting - I have no idea why we were off school and what we were both doing in Tooting - I had a great funny idea - why don't I slam my brakes on and give Steve a fright. He didn't see the funny side as the broke his arm - and with a flying trip for his Air Navigator badge that weekend. None the less he made it and we both passed.
John Sillett
John was an icon to me and I still talk about him. He came along to the Scouts one Friday evening in his 'funny' ordinary Scout uniform - khaki shirt and a funny khaki scout scarf tied up in a knot - never seen that done before but that is how the 3rd Streatham Hill did things. He had come along to help out running the show. He proved to be a very knowledgeable guy - only a couple of years older than me but at time, this seemed like an age. He was a great lad and knew scouting inside out. Didn't know a lot about aircraft but you couldn't have everything. He left school and joined Lloyds Bank and I followed into banking later as you now know. He surprised us one day by telling us that he was leaving the bank as he had been accepted by The Royal Navy for pilot training. At the time he was riding a Vincent motorbike - Vincents were old 1,000cc hand built bikes and we could only look in awe.
So, off he went and we didn't expect to see him back. Now it is funny how you can suddenly go off people - he turned up one Friday night and we asked him how he had got here as wasn't he at some far off RAF station under training. Oh yes, he said, I am stationed near Swansea in Wales but I have my own personal Hawker Hunter T7 which I have flown down to Manston in Kent, where I keep my motor bike and I have ridden up from there - funny how liking can turn to hatred in an instant! - Grin.
A Navy Hunter T7
The last visit I remember changed my life because I had, at that time still an ambition to be a jet pilot and was determined to try for the Fleet Air Arm myself - looking back I would have been astounded if I had been accepted but there we go. I was talking to him about this and he gave me some advice. He was a pilot of a Fairey Gannet AEW3 search aircraftHe told me that there were eight in his training group at Dartmouth and he though that four would be lucky to survive the seven year stint because of the hugely fragile nature of Fleet Air Arm aircraft at that time and that I should reconsider my plans. He recounted an event that happened to him. I will first recount how I remember it and then add what I found out recently.
John's Crash
Gannets are/were strange aircraft in that they look like a single engined aircraft but actually have two Mamba engine side by side driving two propellers through a double shaft. John was one of the few to have a complete engine failure on landing. I originally understood that his aircraft had crashed just short of HMS Eagle, his carrier, and had flipped upside down due to the presence of a huge radome under the body of the aircraft. My memory sais that he was the first to get out of such a circumstance. However, now with the Internet as a tool, I have found out that he did crash off Singapore but climbed out onto one wing with his crewman on the other and both were OK. So I now know the truth.
Last Memories
As usual, I was the oldest in the troop so when 18 came along I left the Senior Scouts and moved back to helping with the troop. Once again, I had to wait for the others to catch up. Once we had a few 18 year olds we started a Rover Crew - again with me as the Rover Mate. I can't remember much of this time except for one occasion when we did an all night stint over one weekend supporting the troop on a night hike. They were off for the night and we were to provide soup half way through. This entailed us sitting around until about 1am - cooking soup - and then transporting it out to the woods - these were some way down in Surrey but I can't remember which woods they used. Having delivered the soup, we were at a loose end so someone suggested that we go to Brighton - the nearest seaside town to where we were. This trip resulted in two encounters with the Surrey police!
Once we arrived in Brighton we thought we would have a walk around - 2.30am - good idea? Maybe not. We walked along the sea front and then headed inland to walk through the shopping area. We did notice that a police car cruised past us on a few occasions but being Air Scouts in lawful pursuit of their business, we never assumed that it was us that they were watching. We weren't wearing our berets at this time so we missed the fact that there were no visible signs of our status. Eventually, they stopped us and on seeing that we all had sheath knives, were a bit taken aback - we then disclosed that we were Scouts on a night event and everyone calmed down.
Once our trip around Brighton became tedious, we all got back in the car and started out for home. We had got to Gatwick Airport when we were flagged down by a police car - this was becoming a habit. They were merely checking on what a car full of four lads was doing out at this time of night and approached very warily. Once again, on finding out that we were Scouts, they were relaxed and off we went again, finally to get home and bed after a great time out.
Final Days in the Scouts - For Now
Once again my age threw me out of the group - once I was 21 I could no longer be a Rover - so I took up as an Assistant Scout Master - they call them Scout Leaders nowadays. I took out a warrant and spent last year or so of my time as a single lad in Streatham working with the troop as a warranted leader. In the April of the next year, I got married and moved away so my connection with the Scouts was broken for some 13 years
Monday 10 October 2011
Personal Things – up to 22nd April 1967
This section is going to be a bit different because much of the timelines are lost in the dim past – well dim to me anyway. So what I am going to do is cover the main events without too much regard for how they all tied together. 22nd April 1967 is the magic date because that is when I married Valerie. Hence this section will cover the 6 years between leaving school and that happy event but I will do it in manageable chunks
Basically, on a private basis, my life falls into a few categories:
- Scouts
- Music - playing, listening and live stuff
- Humour
- Hobbies
- Girls (gulp)
I will cover each for the whole period so that it doesn’t get confusing. You may not be able to tie everything together but that doesn’t really matter – in any case I am not sure that I can tie it all in anyway.
Punishment Batallion
That's how the Foreign Department was known in The District Bank. Once consigned to this, you rarely ever got out. I was, once again, off the mainstream of banking but looking forward to learning something new.
Aside - The Kevin Bacon Index
It has been proved that you can connect every film actor with Kevin Bacon in 6 steps:
Here is an example, using Elvis Presley:
Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit (1969) with Edward Asner
Edward Asner was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon
Therefore Asner has a Bacon number of 1, and Presley (who never appeared in a film with Bacon himself) has a Bacon number of 2.
The full details can be obtained from Wikipeadia.
This idea has been extended to express anyone's relationship with another by their steps of separation. As you will see, soon, I have a separation with the high and mighty of this world of just 2!
What was the Foreign Department?
In Head Office, Manchester, there was the bank's main Foreign Department. There was a smaller one in London on the 2nd floor of 75 Cornhill, just one floor down from where my career started. There was a dividing line where branches in the south of England sent their foreign work to London whilst the rest went to Manchester. However, there were some areas where London reigned supreme because of its location in the middle of the City.
The department was managed by a Mr. John Battersby, who was reputed to have fought across Europe during the closing stages of the war. He had the management of 7 main areas of activity:
1.Cashiers - managed all of the foreign currency and travellers cheques for the branches
2.Outward Bills – processed outward bills of exchange*
3.Transfers – processed outward and inward cash transfers
4.Letters of Credit – issued letters of credit (LC) for exporters and managed inward LC processing.
5.Inward Bills – processed incoming bills of exchange*
6.Exchange Control - 1st line decision making on legality of currency purchases and liaison with the BofE over borderline or difficult cases. Exchange Controls were lifted by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1978 - removing the jobs of hundreds of City clerks and managers at a stroke!
7.Foreign Exchange Dealers – provided an interface between the bank's demands for foreign exchange and the international markets.
* Bills of Exchange. To make payment for an import easier and to provide finance for international trade, companies would issue a bill of exchange that was payable within a set period, normally 60 or 90 days. The bill would then be accepted payable by a bank and could then be sold on the money markets to raise the finance. This was useful for exports, for instance, as you could sell the goods and on the strength of a bill drawn by the purchaser, you could raise your money for the goods sooner rather than waiting for the goods to arrive in the overseas country. Needless to say, you didn't get the full face value of the bill because you were effectively borrowing money. What a bank would do is buy the bill 'at a discount'. This discount was related to the cost of borrowing but would vary according to the size of the bill and the quality of the accepting bank. Clear? Thought not.
I Start in International Banking
I turned up in September of 1965 and was placed on the Outward Bills desk. This was managed by two strange gentlemen who had been doing the same job for years but made it palatable by constant banter. The manager was Claude (can't remember his surname) and his number 2 was Major Selwood – ex Indian Army, and couldn't you tell! Great fun to work with. I was tasked with taking over from the clerk on the desk who's job was to process the outward bills by collating all of the shipping documents, confirming their completeness and then stamping the name of the receiving bank on the back. Very boring and similar in scope to what I was doing some time before, one floor up in the Credit Clearing dept.
Now we get to the Bacon Index. The person that I took over from was one John Major – eventually to be Prime Minister of the UK. Hence, I have a separation index of 2 with Mrs. Thatcher, Gorbachev, Reagan – and so on. Impressive – well maybe not.
The reason that I could put up with this was that my current 'girl friend' - to be my eventual partner for life, worked one floor up in the cheque clearing department. Over the following 5 months I dutifully worked away at stamping the backs of bills of exchange. The job was so exciting that I can remember nothing more about it than that.
One of the things that I was till very keen on in my private life was Scouting and I found out that one of the guys that worked in that closed office over the way – the Dealing Room – was an active Scoutmaster. I started spending part of my lunch hour in there talking to him about Scouting and all that we were both doing in our outside lives.
Now the dealing room was unlike any other office in the bank. It had a central table that held 3 units of lights and buttons, five office telephones (where all the other departments on had a single phone), a large 'electronic calculator' on a turntable and a direct door into the Assistant Manager's office. As a young, enthusiastic chap, I started to enquire quite what this was all about and was very excited to hear how large financial transactions took place in this room, the like of which I hadn't imagined.
At the Wimbledon branch, we were a very small part of the bank but had a single customer that was borrowing ￡1,000,000. Now this was in a time when you could buy a nice 3 bedroomed house for around ￡4,500, so this was a huge amount. I was standing in a room where transactions of this size took place routinely and were actioned by the younger person as well as the manager.
Barry Halliwell, for that was the name of the younger person (younger – in banking terms that meant under 35!) was a northerner and was making plans to be married and move back north. This mean that there would be a vacancy in the room. I couldn't even dream. I was 20 years old and they had never had a dealer under 28 before so I would have been way down the list. There was much speculation as to who the next dealer was to be, because they always recruited internally and went by seniority. To everyone's amazement, and to the total horror of those who considered themselves in direct line for the job, they gave it to me. On asking why, my competitors were told that they had shown no interest in the job but that I had spent every lunchtime in there learning what I could without any prospects!
Five months of boredom was to be followed by 20 years of roller coaster times that could be called anything but boring!
Aside - The Kevin Bacon Index
It has been proved that you can connect every film actor with Kevin Bacon in 6 steps:
Here is an example, using Elvis Presley:
Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit (1969) with Edward Asner
Edward Asner was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon
Therefore Asner has a Bacon number of 1, and Presley (who never appeared in a film with Bacon himself) has a Bacon number of 2.
The full details can be obtained from Wikipeadia.
This idea has been extended to express anyone's relationship with another by their steps of separation. As you will see, soon, I have a separation with the high and mighty of this world of just 2!
What was the Foreign Department?
In Head Office, Manchester, there was the bank's main Foreign Department. There was a smaller one in London on the 2nd floor of 75 Cornhill, just one floor down from where my career started. There was a dividing line where branches in the south of England sent their foreign work to London whilst the rest went to Manchester. However, there were some areas where London reigned supreme because of its location in the middle of the City.
The department was managed by a Mr. John Battersby, who was reputed to have fought across Europe during the closing stages of the war. He had the management of 7 main areas of activity:
1.Cashiers - managed all of the foreign currency and travellers cheques for the branches
2.Outward Bills – processed outward bills of exchange*
3.Transfers – processed outward and inward cash transfers
4.Letters of Credit – issued letters of credit (LC) for exporters and managed inward LC processing.
5.Inward Bills – processed incoming bills of exchange*
6.Exchange Control - 1st line decision making on legality of currency purchases and liaison with the BofE over borderline or difficult cases. Exchange Controls were lifted by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1978 - removing the jobs of hundreds of City clerks and managers at a stroke!
7.Foreign Exchange Dealers – provided an interface between the bank's demands for foreign exchange and the international markets.
* Bills of Exchange. To make payment for an import easier and to provide finance for international trade, companies would issue a bill of exchange that was payable within a set period, normally 60 or 90 days. The bill would then be accepted payable by a bank and could then be sold on the money markets to raise the finance. This was useful for exports, for instance, as you could sell the goods and on the strength of a bill drawn by the purchaser, you could raise your money for the goods sooner rather than waiting for the goods to arrive in the overseas country. Needless to say, you didn't get the full face value of the bill because you were effectively borrowing money. What a bank would do is buy the bill 'at a discount'. This discount was related to the cost of borrowing but would vary according to the size of the bill and the quality of the accepting bank. Clear? Thought not.
I Start in International Banking
I turned up in September of 1965 and was placed on the Outward Bills desk. This was managed by two strange gentlemen who had been doing the same job for years but made it palatable by constant banter. The manager was Claude (can't remember his surname) and his number 2 was Major Selwood – ex Indian Army, and couldn't you tell! Great fun to work with. I was tasked with taking over from the clerk on the desk who's job was to process the outward bills by collating all of the shipping documents, confirming their completeness and then stamping the name of the receiving bank on the back. Very boring and similar in scope to what I was doing some time before, one floor up in the Credit Clearing dept.
Now we get to the Bacon Index. The person that I took over from was one John Major – eventually to be Prime Minister of the UK. Hence, I have a separation index of 2 with Mrs. Thatcher, Gorbachev, Reagan – and so on. Impressive – well maybe not.
The reason that I could put up with this was that my current 'girl friend' - to be my eventual partner for life, worked one floor up in the cheque clearing department. Over the following 5 months I dutifully worked away at stamping the backs of bills of exchange. The job was so exciting that I can remember nothing more about it than that.
One of the things that I was till very keen on in my private life was Scouting and I found out that one of the guys that worked in that closed office over the way – the Dealing Room – was an active Scoutmaster. I started spending part of my lunch hour in there talking to him about Scouting and all that we were both doing in our outside lives.
Now the dealing room was unlike any other office in the bank. It had a central table that held 3 units of lights and buttons, five office telephones (where all the other departments on had a single phone), a large 'electronic calculator' on a turntable and a direct door into the Assistant Manager's office. As a young, enthusiastic chap, I started to enquire quite what this was all about and was very excited to hear how large financial transactions took place in this room, the like of which I hadn't imagined.
At the Wimbledon branch, we were a very small part of the bank but had a single customer that was borrowing ￡1,000,000. Now this was in a time when you could buy a nice 3 bedroomed house for around ￡4,500, so this was a huge amount. I was standing in a room where transactions of this size took place routinely and were actioned by the younger person as well as the manager.
Barry Halliwell, for that was the name of the younger person (younger – in banking terms that meant under 35!) was a northerner and was making plans to be married and move back north. This mean that there would be a vacancy in the room. I couldn't even dream. I was 20 years old and they had never had a dealer under 28 before so I would have been way down the list. There was much speculation as to who the next dealer was to be, because they always recruited internally and went by seniority. To everyone's amazement, and to the total horror of those who considered themselves in direct line for the job, they gave it to me. On asking why, my competitors were told that they had shown no interest in the job but that I had spent every lunchtime in there learning what I could without any prospects!
Five months of boredom was to be followed by 20 years of roller coaster times that could be called anything but boring!
Back to the Bank
It was obvious that the new job - although I got cheap records (Mullards were part of the Philips group so I could get Philips and Fontana records in the factory shop) - was never going to go anywhere and if I had anything, it was ambition - so I had to think again.
Having recently left the District Bank, I felt that it would be sensible to apply elsewhere, so back I went to Williams Deacons Bank. Having been given an interview at their Burchin Lane office - 2 minutes from my old employer, I called in to see my old colleagues. On explaining why I was in town, Mr Cato, my old boss, said 'why don't you come back here'. I went and spoke to the General Manager and they offered me my old job back.
Two days later, of course, I got a job offer from Williams Deacons, which - for the second time in my life - I turned down. Mind you, this time, I had made it clear to the District Bank that I didn't want to work in a head office department, so they gave me a post of junior clerk in their Wimbledon branch.
Now this was a very satisfactory result because Wimbledon was only a few miles away and I had easy access by bus. I duly presented myself to the branch which stood on Wimbledon Bridge. It was a small branch with only 5 staff including me but this meant that I could get involved in much more of the branch activity than would have been the case in a larger one. I was taking over from the manager's favourite (John Oates) who was moving on to 'better things'. They sent me on a course to Manchester for basic back office training.
This was at the time of the big effort to electrify the west coast main line on British Railways so travelling to Manchester on a Sunday was an awful journey due to works on the line.
I found branch back office work about as tedious as head office processes so I was a bit disillusioned but having made one mess of my career, I wasn't about to make a second. After a few months the manager decided that I should become the 3rd cashier after Colin Terry (the assistant manager of the branch) and Joyce Cann - the manager's secretary. Off I went to Manchester on another course. I found cashiering much more fun as there was always a new face to talk to. I found that I had an ability for remembering names and prided myself on being able to use a person's name on the 2nd time I served them.
These were the days when women got special favours and one of those that we maintained was that we always gave new notes to female customers - they were never to be sullied by having to take used notes. This has gone by the board, not just because of feminism but also because of the dearth of new notes in the present day. A new note is a thing to be mentioned nowadays whilst it used to be quite regular.
One thing that has changed is bank security. The branch had an open counter - so security screens in those days - so contact with customers was relatively more intimate than now. The story that always shocks me when I think about it is that of the 'used note' run every Tuesday afternoon. Because of the availability of new notes, we used to retire old notes regularly. This involved sending them back to head office. We did this by registered letter on a Tuesday afternoon. Every Tuesday afternoon, I would put together a parcel of all the old notes. Wrap it in crisp white wrapping paper, tie it up with string and, using sealing wax, impress the bank seal on the string. Then at precisely 2.30pm, Mr. Terry and I would walk down to the post office and send the parcel. If ever there was an open invitation to rob us of a substantial amount of cash this must have been it. We didn't take any precautions - we just ambled down the road. In terms of security, we were under strict instructions to never interfere if either we or the bank was to be robbed. Cause no fuss, hand over the money. That way, we would be safe and the bank was insured.
After some eighteen months, a major event happened in my life and it all came from a stupid joke I cracked. In those days, the branch would calculate interest and charges on a twice yearly basis. Because it was a manual process, it took a good amount of time and involved a lot of late night working. Charges were applied by the manager looking at each account and assessing the management charge. We would then take each account and calculate the turnover charge and any overdraft interest. This needed checking so you can image the effort. One evening at around 8.30 during this process, I said to Mr. Terry 'I will be glad when we are finished with this'. His reply of 'You can say that again' prompted me to say 'I will be glad when we are finished with this'. At this point he screamed at me and told me that I must take the job more seriously and that he was unhappy with my 'attitude'. My response the next day was to ask the manager if I could get a transfer because if I was not liked by the assistant manager then life would be difficult. After a few days, he called me in and explained that he had tried to get me a good position elsewhere but all that was available - he was very sorry about this - was the Foreign Department in the London Office.
At that time, because it was seen as a dead end, the Foreign department was regarded as the home for lost souls. In a bank where only about 200 of the staff was involved in foreign work, getting long experience there doomed you to staying as the experience was not transferable to domestic banking. So, yet again - off I went!
Leaving Banking - but not for too long
For some time I had been developing an interest in computers and had read
many books on their operation and programming - this was of course the time
of the huge mainframe with the programming capacity of a present day washing
machine. I was getting very bored with this head office lark and was talking
to one of my cousins one day about the problem. He worked for a company
called Mullards - then a global producer of electronic valves and
transistors. He suggested that they might have a vacancy for a trainee in
their computer department so off I went for an interview. I got stuck with
the classic bait and switch technique as in 'we can't offer you job in the
computer department yet but if you join us, we will try and transfer you
later'. So, having resigned from the bank in late October 1962, off I went
to Mullards, who were in Beddington - a short bus ride from home.
This new job was frankly a con. I was placed in the Costing department as a
junior clerk and was being trained to calculate the cost of producing
transistors on a monthly basis. There were so many exceptions and special
calculations and they were only done once a month that it would have taken
me years to grasp the intricacies. I was also reliably informed that the
computer department only ever employed trained people so there was little
likelihood of me getting a transfer. All of a sudden, a job in a bank looked
like a very good idea again.
Credit Clearing
Now this was a big step for a young lad because the Credit Clearing
department comprised, at the point I joined, of two men and about 25 girls!
As a shy retiring lad who had only ever had one girlfriend, this was
intimidating in the extreme. However, it was a move up so I appreciated the
opportunity. The concept of the Clearing System is explained in my appendix
so I will cover the general things here.
My job was to do the running about and the basic book-keeping. This meant
recording in the daily journal how much money in credit transfers (CTs) was
sent out to the other clearing banks and then trying to reconcile the amount
that we received from them. Each Bank presented listings with the CTs they
sent on. These listings were supposed to have been tallied twice and be
accurate - we wished! The incoming CTs had to be sorted into our branches
for onward transmission that evening. Because there wasn't time in the day
to re-tally these, we would sort them and then send an un-listed bundle to
each branch. The idea was that the branch then listed the items they
received and sent us back that listing. Can you image how this could
possibly work in terms of a fully reconciled cash amount on any one day!
Needless to say, we had a team who were permanently stuck under microfiche
projectors, trying to find discrepancies which ran to quite large amounts on
some days. There was, obviously, a threshold below which we didn't bother
going - so much for balancing the books.
One of the favourite mistakes, and one that we became adept at finding what
was called a reversal. Standard mechanical calculators - well with a bit of
electricity to make them quicker - were used for all listings and what were
found were the commonest mistakes were typing 42 for 24, for example. This
gave an error of 18. When we saw an error like this - the cry went up -'A
Reversal' and we went looking for the transposition of the two digits.
All in all it was fairly tedious and I began to wonder whether banking was
for me if this is what it entailed. However, life was lightened a bit by me
starting to 'go out' with one Barbara Dingle - one of the girls in the
department. This became fairly serious in that it lasted for over a year but
did finally fizzle out, fortuitously as it turned out. There were two other
men in the department - Mr Cato was the manager and his assistant was Garry
Owen - a very nice Welsh lad who was extremely patient in teaching me the
job. The third person on the control team was Ivy. I have forgotten her
surname but remember that she lived in Billericay - a place that I hadn't
heard of then, but was destined to know better some years later. As an
aside, Barbara lived in a place called Stratford. Now I always thought that
Stratford was in Warwickshire and was where Shakespeare came from. However,
it turned out that Stratford was in East London - a place that I had never
ventured into being a good South London boy.
I do remember that Garry had a touch of Tuberculosis and spent some time in
hospital recovering. We clubbed together and bought him a pile of 12" long
playing records. When he returned to work, he gave me one of those records -
George Shearing - On the Sunny Side of The Strip. I took it home to be told
that Dad worked with George Shearing's brother. Yes, blind George Shearing
came from South London and had a brother who worked as a bus driver out of
Streatham Bus Garage - now there a piece of trivia.
Aside 2 - Clearing and Non-Clearing Banks
So what do these expressions mean (or more likely meant) in Banking.
In the 60s there were 11 what were called Clearing Banks. A Clearing Bank is a bank in the UK that has an account with The Bank Of England (BofE). If you think about it, you can only hold your money in some sort of bank and you can only pay someone, who banks with a different bank, with a cheque that their bank will accept. Well, transactions between banks are no different. If Lloyds Bank wants to pay Barclays some money, they give them a cheque (albeit called a Banker's Payment). Who would Lloyds Bank's cheques be drawn on? To use them, they must have a bank account. This is where the Bank of England comes in. Lloyds in effect, issues a cheque drawn on the BofE.
The list of Clearers at that time was as follows:
*Barclays Bank
*Midland Bank
*Westminster Bank
*National Provincial Bank (NatPro)
*Lloyds Bank
Martins Bank
District Bank (owned by NatPro)
Williams Deacons Bank
Glyn Mills and Co
Coutts & Co
Bank of England (Of Course)
Those marked * were called 'The Big 5'
Now, in the UK Clearing System at that time, 10 of the above had accounts at the BofE and thus could operate at that level. Everyone else, including large American banks etc. had no access to this process, so they had to have accounts at a Clearing Bank. Now if Chase Manhattan Bank needed to pay The Royal Bank of Canada £1,000,000 for a foreign exchange transaction, Chase would issue a banker's payment on their bank (Lloyds maybe) and RBC would pay it into their bank (Barclays).
The clearing system didn't exchange individual items through the BofE. The Clearing House in Lombard Street was the exchange for physical items. Net Balances between the banks would be agreed around 3.30p.m. and then the Clearers would make their own block settlements through the BofE.
This deadline used to create some fun and games between banks. As part of a bank's operations, it would not always have a positive balance at the end of any day. It may be in credit (long) or in debit (short) on the day. As the best position is to have a tiny credit balance (because these inter-bank accounts carried no interest) each bank would lend out any excess or borrow in any shortage. These transactions would be done on the overnight inter-bank market at negotiated rates. Most banks wouldn't know what their final balance was until very close to closing time at 3 p.m. Hence they had 30 minutes to settle their balances, deliver or receive a banker's payment and bank that before the 3.30 clearing house limit. This also means that no clearing bank will know, until 3.30, what their true position was. To straighten their books out, they would resort to the BofE who would take and lend sufficient for the clearers to balance their books. In fact, most clearers in later times would balance their own books by around 3.10 and charge penalty interest to anyone who ended up overdrawn after that.
At that time, the banks outside of the clearing system would offer current accounts etc. especially to major corporations from 'home'. So a large US corporation would bank with The First National City Bank of New York - the precursor of CitiBank - how majestic is the old name! The problem is, how do these cheques move through the system. It goes like this:
Chevron issue a cheque drawn on FNCBNY - say) to BP
BP pays it into their account at Barclays (say)
Next Day, Barclays 'walk' the cheque around to FNCBNY - in amongst all the other cheques they have.
A few hours later, the messenger from Barclays comes back and collects a banker's payment drawn on Lloyds (say).
Barclays process this through the Clearing System
Lloyds get's debited by the BofE and Barclays gets their money.
Aside 1 - Salaries in 1961
Salaries in those days sound quite silly because of the huge inflation since those times. I started work in the bank on £360 or £30 a month. Being on monthly pay immediately meant that I had to borrow from my Dad to get through the first month because of train fares and lunches etc. I also needed a suit and so on. £30 a month can be put into perspective if you consider that my Underground trip on the Northern Line from Tooting Broadway to The Bank station cost a grand £2 per month for the 7 mile train ride.
I got a small rise on my 17th birthday because, in those days, there was a salary scale in the bank that rose annually until you reached 31 and then you had to pitch for it. When I went to Mullards, it was weekly pay and mine was £7 17s 6p. Remember good old pounds, shillings and pence. That's £7 87½p in today's money.
I will have further to say on this topic - later.
I got a small rise on my 17th birthday because, in those days, there was a salary scale in the bank that rose annually until you reached 31 and then you had to pitch for it. When I went to Mullards, it was weekly pay and mine was £7 17s 6p. Remember good old pounds, shillings and pence. That's £7 87½p in today's money.
I will have further to say on this topic - later.
Off to a life in Banking
Having decided that there was no point in going back to school - given myunderlying 'dislike' of the place, I discussed with the family about going out to work. I am sure that Mum and Dad were up for this because they certainly wouldn't have easily taken on the cost of 2 more years at school and then, maybe, university. In those days there were grants to pay for taking that route but none the less I am sure that they were secretly pleased that I did wish to go to work.
So, out came the Evening News and we trawled the job ads and came up with two that seemed interesting. Both were for starting positions in banking and both required just the four O Level GCE passes that I had. However, both were for banks that I had not heard of so that required some investigation. Amongst the then current 11 clearing banks, these two were in the lower half and both had their head office in Manchester. The District Bank and Williams Deacons Bank were not too well known in the south of England but that was what was advertised so I applied. I got an interview at both banks. Both job interviews included written papers in English and Maths which fortunatelywere not a problem for me. The interview at Williams Deacons Bank was first and they offered me a job fairly promptly. District Bank followed with a job offer and ,not for the only time in my life, I turned Williams Deacons down and opted for District Bank.
To ensure that I knew what was in store, I read all the books about banking that I could get from the library and was quite excited at the idea ofjoining the staff of a bank branch in early September. I was asked to turn up at the London office of the bank in Cornhill, in the City, on that Monday in September 1961 at 9 am and, following a medical, was appointed to a position in The Walks department. This department was in that London office and was a central operation so my time in a bank branch was not to be - yet.
This is the then London Office of the District Bank - no longer a bank.
View Larger Map
The Walks department was a strange beast and had little to do with mainstream banking and everything to do with the efficient collection of funds in payment of cheques drawn upon the large number of banks in London that sat outside of the clearing system. As this is a fairly complex, if interesting, aspect of the UK banking system at that time, I will be adding an appendix to this missive which details the position of those banks and how the Non-clearing system worked.
Suffice to say for now that the department processed cheques drawn on institutions that were not part of the UK cheque clearing system. This entailed packaging up and delivering the debit items to each of those institutions in exchange for a payment that WAS drawn upon a bank in the clearing system, thus enabling us to obtain our cash. If this is not clear then read the Appendix.
The job was made more interesting because it involved being out of the bank for at least once a day and quite often twice a day which gave me as a 16 year old some freedom I didn't expect. In the early days I only got to go to the office of The Paymaster General which was in Russell Square, Holborn, but eventually I was appointed one of the two representatives on the Bank OfEngland's Walks system so I got to get out every day. Firstly, I was given a local route in the City which involved going out in the morning, returning to the bank over lunch and then going out again later. Eventually, I was given a route in the West End and, once I left in the morning, I wasn't expected back until around 3.30 or so. Most of the 'boys' in walks stayed there for 2 - 3 years before moving on, but after about 14 months, I was placed into the Credit Clearing department as the general assistant.
So, out came the Evening News and we trawled the job ads and came up with two that seemed interesting. Both were for starting positions in banking and both required just the four O Level GCE passes that I had. However, both were for banks that I had not heard of so that required some investigation. Amongst the then current 11 clearing banks, these two were in the lower half and both had their head office in Manchester. The District Bank and Williams Deacons Bank were not too well known in the south of England but that was what was advertised so I applied. I got an interview at both banks. Both job interviews included written papers in English and Maths which fortunatelywere not a problem for me. The interview at Williams Deacons Bank was first and they offered me a job fairly promptly. District Bank followed with a job offer and ,not for the only time in my life, I turned Williams Deacons down and opted for District Bank.
To ensure that I knew what was in store, I read all the books about banking that I could get from the library and was quite excited at the idea ofjoining the staff of a bank branch in early September. I was asked to turn up at the London office of the bank in Cornhill, in the City, on that Monday in September 1961 at 9 am and, following a medical, was appointed to a position in The Walks department. This department was in that London office and was a central operation so my time in a bank branch was not to be - yet.
This is the then London Office of the District Bank - no longer a bank.
View Larger Map
The Walks department was a strange beast and had little to do with mainstream banking and everything to do with the efficient collection of funds in payment of cheques drawn upon the large number of banks in London that sat outside of the clearing system. As this is a fairly complex, if interesting, aspect of the UK banking system at that time, I will be adding an appendix to this missive which details the position of those banks and how the Non-clearing system worked.
Suffice to say for now that the department processed cheques drawn on institutions that were not part of the UK cheque clearing system. This entailed packaging up and delivering the debit items to each of those institutions in exchange for a payment that WAS drawn upon a bank in the clearing system, thus enabling us to obtain our cash. If this is not clear then read the Appendix.
The job was made more interesting because it involved being out of the bank for at least once a day and quite often twice a day which gave me as a 16 year old some freedom I didn't expect. In the early days I only got to go to the office of The Paymaster General which was in Russell Square, Holborn, but eventually I was appointed one of the two representatives on the Bank OfEngland's Walks system so I got to get out every day. Firstly, I was given a local route in the City which involved going out in the morning, returning to the bank over lunch and then going out again later. Eventually, I was given a route in the West End and, once I left in the morning, I wasn't expected back until around 3.30 or so. Most of the 'boys' in walks stayed there for 2 - 3 years before moving on, but after about 14 months, I was placed into the Credit Clearing department as the general assistant.
Between School and Work
I keep harping on about how my family could afford what they did for me and I really don't have an answer. As far as I am aware, my Father never earned more than £10 a week in his life so money and my Mum only ever worked part time - in her latter life she worked in the evenings at a Mullards in Mitcham where she worked a cable cutting machine. So, when I cam home from school with a note that said 'This year the school trip is to Italy", I was amazed when Dad said that I could go.
I finished with school in the usual way after my GCE exams were over with the intention of having the summer off and then maybe going back to study A-Levels. I must say that this didn't really appeal but, as I still wanted to go into the RAF it seemed a good idea. In the meantime, I was off to Italy for two weeks.
Leaving school at 16 was something normal in 1961 and was not cause for embarrassment or shame. Most large companies had trainee schemes that assumed that you were 16 to start. Opportunities existed at Marks and Spencer, UKAEA, all the banks etc. So there was no issue with doing this. However, I did take the summer off, on the basis that it would be the last 6 week holiday I had for a large number of years.
I finished with school in the usual way after my GCE exams were over with the intention of having the summer off and then maybe going back to study A-Levels. I must say that this didn't really appeal but, as I still wanted to go into the RAF it seemed a good idea. In the meantime, I was off to Italy for two weeks.
We left Victoria station and went down to Dover for the ferry. Once across to France, we had a 'couchette' for the train journey to Florence. The journey took us through Switzerland and through the Alps so was pretty spectacular. Once in Florence, I found a couple of flaws with the whole trip. Firstly, whenever we were on an 'official' school visit, we had to wear school uniform. Now i had left school but that didn't count! Secondly, the school's idea of a holiday was churches, museums, art galleries. Well, I suppose that if you are going to Florence then you can't really expect to do anything else, really, so we just had to put up with it. During the Florence trip we visited Pisa and Sienna, then off we went to Rome. This was another train journey about which I can remember nothing. Rome was a good place. We stayed at some dreadful hostel. I remember hardboard walls and some discomfort. It was here that i was first exposed to the demon drink - me amazingly keeping to moderation - but my friends doing it too much. Our small sink in the room wasn't up to the volumes provided as an aftermath to the night out! Rome included a trip to the Vatican which I can remember vaguely.
The next hop was up the east coast of Italy to Rimini. It was here that we were finally getting a 'holiday', which meant beaches and lazing around. The journey was long as it was done by coach. One all abiding memory was a recurrence of the sink problem due to some of the boys drinking way too much the night before and the only receptacle in the coach being a large sweet tin, which, as you can imaging, wasn't something you wanted to open under any circumstances. This journey was made better by my introduction to the James Bond books - Dr. No was the book I had borrowed.
Rimini was a great place and we had a good time there. The hotel was small and comfortable. We did a trip to San Marino, which has added to my 'visited countries' count over the years. Finally, the enjoyment had to stop as we were off to Venice, Museums, etc. and back into uniform. However, Venice was really good and I have some memories of the place. We visited all the sights and went out to the glass factory on the island of Murano. I still have a small glass jar that I bought my mother as a present from there. The hotel again was a small one with canals all around so was quite interesting.
Finally it was over and we caught a train back to Calais. The last thing I remember of the holiday is arriving back at Victoria to be met by Dad. I had to ask him for some money because I had run out and had borrowed some from another boy - somehow this has been a recurring feature of my life!
The really bad news came when I got home. As I had booked this holiday early in the year, I found that the dates clashed with the annual scout camp. Roger told me, when I got back that they had a great time in Norflok and especially enjoyed the day at RAF Colteshall where they spent the whole day climbing in and out of English Electric Lightning aircraft!
Girls again - Once started at work, I had another go around with Sue Carrington as we had only drifted apart earlier - mainly, I think, due to exams on my part. Now with money in my pocket and decent clothes, I thought the time was right to try again. It's funny how you always look for 'the' one, even though you are only sixteen. Mind you, others in my family have proved that fact. Yet again, though, it only lasted a few months. I did want the girls to come with me when I listened to music and my tastes have rarely matched those of my partners. I must say that Valerie is patient rather than keen, but again, more of that to come.
I seem to remember the Sue relationship being in a bit of trouble just after seeing Elvis in G.I. Blues. To try and get it back, probably the cheesiest thing to do was to buy the sheet music to Wooden Heart and give it to her saying "this says it for me" or some crass comment like that! An expensive night out in the West End including a showing of Can Can starring Frank Sinatra in the Haymarket, was supposed to get it back on track but she dumped me the next day. It seems that the cost rankled with me more than the dumping because I can clearly remember being angry, but not unhappy. How easy it all is at 16.
Clothes became very important to me at that time, and I was egged on with this by my friend Roger. Now working in a bank, I had need of some good suits and in those days this meant 'made to measure'. There were two decent tailors in Streatham, both of which were national chains - Willoughbys and Hepworths - Hepworths because they had an Hardy Amies range which was top style. Being me, I was broke - mainly because I got into the 'I need to borrow some money, Dad because I get paid monthly and pay day isn't until the 25th'. Then you pay that back and that leaves you short for the next month, und so weiter as they say im Deutsche. So, I opened an account with both of them! £2 a month for each out of my £32 wage packet. This was the time of The Avengers on television and boy did we want to look like John Steed. This made us two of the first into Chelsea Boots and smart waistcoats - called 'weskits' over here. We were also very keen to have a flap over the top pocket of the jacket - because John Steed had that. Lastly, I had to work some Saturday mornings - these were the days of the banks opening then, although they have gone back to the idea nowadays again. However, when you worked in a bank on a Saturday, you needed to be in a Sports Coat and slacks. This meant a good quality Harris Tweed job from Hepworths with the mandatory flap over the top pocket - of course. This was all rounded off with an umbrella (or bumbershoot as I have heard it called). Quite the City gent.
What also must be remembered is that it was also important for City Gents to wear detachable collars. There was even a service provided to the bank by a company called, strangely enough, Collars. These collected your dirty collars and delivered clean ones, all in a nice brown box. However, at that time, striped shirts and button down collars were coming in. It took great courage to wear these to the bank but wear them I did. What with being told off because my hair was too long, I was somewhat at odds with the bank's normal form. I would also wear fancy waistcoats on a Saturday. I remember wearing one particularly dashing black corduroy one with white designs. I felt smart but the other 'waistcoat wearer' in the department quickly informed me that I had points on the waistcoat that were too long for nowadays. I had borrowed it from my brother who had bought it 5 years earlier so that told me! At that time, there was a small flurry of "men's" magazines. By this, I don't use the term as in modern parlance. These magazines were all about men topics and covered clothes in depth. Town magazine was the main one for me - a magazine started by Michael Heseltine before he became a politician. This magazine was the reason for me walking up and down Bond Street one evening trying to find the shop that has these fantastic calf high leather boots which I felt were a must have. I never did find that shop, as I never did manage to buy a suit from Jaeger, the clothes shop next to Hamleys toy shop in Regent Street. Oh well, i could dream
Music, Girls and other things
Not as racy as you may think (or wish).
Scouting took up much of my school life as as I said. However, in my last year at school this changed somewhat. My last year at school was dominated by a change in fashion. Up until then, you either dressed like your Dad or you were a 'Teddy Boy'. Teddy Boys looked for trouble so didn't impact on my life as spent my youth avoiding trouble. However, at the start of the sixties the youth of the UK turned to 'winklepickers' and Elvis haircuts. I was never one to break school rules so always attended in an acceptable level of uniform. I do remember that Ian White - all 6 foot odd of him - pushed the limits for all that he was worth. He had a full Elvis haircut with (as we called it) a DA at the back. DA stood for Duck's A**e because of the shape they cut the lower part of the back of your hair. He also wore striped socks and pointed shoes. He got away with this from one week to the next. Finally, I decided that I would conform to the new life. I didn't have the hair for an Elvis but I went to the family barber and he rcommended what he called a 'college boy' This was a short and smart cut which solved the problem. I then bought a pair of these winkle pickers and some socks, both red/white and black/white vertical stripes. On the Monday, dressed as recommended, I spent the whole day worried that I would be singled out by a master - any master - and punished. However, nothing happened but the stress levels were just too great so I went back to normal - for school any way.
Once I was in modern dress, I stayed there when I went out on a special evening so my toes, like every other youth, became slowly deformed. At least that's what my mother promised me would happen. At this time I also found out about girls. This happened in a very innocuous way through the Scout movement. Roger and I had taken up with helping out with the Monday night Cub Pack. There were also two Girl Guides who did the same. These two were sisters - Sue and Frederica (Freddie) Carrington. It was all just friendly and restricted to Monday nights at Cubs. However, we started to realise that they went to St. Leonards Church and walked home to Hopton Road past the Methodist Church near Streatham Station. This knowledge came about because were want to visit the coffee bar at Streatham Station on a Sunday morning to read the Sunday papers - were we pretentious at 16 or what! So, we saw them walking past. It was easy to attend the Methodist Church and nonchalantly meet them outside as we came out of Church and they walked down the hill. What could be more natural? There then followed a 3 month period until I left school where I went out with Sue whilst Roger went out with Fred. I remember these relationships being very chaste. We spent a lot of time standing around outside the girl's house. This all faded away when the school holidays came and Scouts/Cubs closed down and I planned on going to work.
Music was the next thing that comes to a teenager. I got very involved in not only listening but also in playing. However my musical tastes came from a strange direction. Being 10 years younger than my brother meant that I was exposed heavily to his choices and he chose Jazz - the revivalist type that grew in the UK during the '40s and based on the music of New Orleans. I grew up with Chris Barber playing and so quite naturally, I followed. Charlie took me to a few concerts - I remember seeing the Chris Barber band at both the Royal Festival Hall and at Wimbledon Town Hall. This interest grew during the next few years and has lasted with me until now.
I also took to playing. At around 14, I went to Ally's Owl Shop - a second-hand shop next to Streatham Bus Garage - and bought a cheap guitar. I then went up to the 'Swing Shop' at St. Leonards. The Swing Shop was run by ex-jazz musician and singer, Dave Carey and specialised in both instruments and jazz records. There I purchased a copy of Bert Weedon' s immortal 'Play in a Day' and came home. In a day I was playing the chords to Home on the Range! I spent the next 25 years messing around with musical instruments but mostly the guitar. From the guitar, I went for a banjo. Now I wanted to play Trad Jazz banjo but inadvertently bought a 5 string banjo rather than a tenor one. Still, that got me into folk music and got me up to Collett's Music shop in later times. One big change was due to the school CCF (Combined Cadet Force). As part of special interest, I signed up for a heavy weapon course - mortars, LMG and HMGs - they were going to teach us how to strip and fire the things and then give a chance to fire them. One evening in the learning process, we went to the Territorial Drill Hall at Clapham Junction where we came across their fife and drum band practicing. They offered to help us learn these instruments so for some weeks I went along every Tuesday evening to learn the fife ( a small flute).This gave me the basic fingering for the clarinet and saxophone and gave me a wider ability - not good ability, but wider.
We had the Scout Show coming up so I was pestered by the Akela (in charge of the Cubs) to join with her and play the theme tune to a popular TV program of the time - The Strange World of Gurney Slade starring Anthony Newley. However, I never thought that my flute playing was up to that so I declined.
My musical interests expanded and deepened over the coming years.
Scouting took up much of my school life as as I said. However, in my last year at school this changed somewhat. My last year at school was dominated by a change in fashion. Up until then, you either dressed like your Dad or you were a 'Teddy Boy'. Teddy Boys looked for trouble so didn't impact on my life as spent my youth avoiding trouble. However, at the start of the sixties the youth of the UK turned to 'winklepickers' and Elvis haircuts. I was never one to break school rules so always attended in an acceptable level of uniform. I do remember that Ian White - all 6 foot odd of him - pushed the limits for all that he was worth. He had a full Elvis haircut with (as we called it) a DA at the back. DA stood for Duck's A**e because of the shape they cut the lower part of the back of your hair. He also wore striped socks and pointed shoes. He got away with this from one week to the next. Finally, I decided that I would conform to the new life. I didn't have the hair for an Elvis but I went to the family barber and he rcommended what he called a 'college boy' This was a short and smart cut which solved the problem. I then bought a pair of these winkle pickers and some socks, both red/white and black/white vertical stripes. On the Monday, dressed as recommended, I spent the whole day worried that I would be singled out by a master - any master - and punished. However, nothing happened but the stress levels were just too great so I went back to normal - for school any way.
Once I was in modern dress, I stayed there when I went out on a special evening so my toes, like every other youth, became slowly deformed. At least that's what my mother promised me would happen. At this time I also found out about girls. This happened in a very innocuous way through the Scout movement. Roger and I had taken up with helping out with the Monday night Cub Pack. There were also two Girl Guides who did the same. These two were sisters - Sue and Frederica (Freddie) Carrington. It was all just friendly and restricted to Monday nights at Cubs. However, we started to realise that they went to St. Leonards Church and walked home to Hopton Road past the Methodist Church near Streatham Station. This knowledge came about because were want to visit the coffee bar at Streatham Station on a Sunday morning to read the Sunday papers - were we pretentious at 16 or what! So, we saw them walking past. It was easy to attend the Methodist Church and nonchalantly meet them outside as we came out of Church and they walked down the hill. What could be more natural? There then followed a 3 month period until I left school where I went out with Sue whilst Roger went out with Fred. I remember these relationships being very chaste. We spent a lot of time standing around outside the girl's house. This all faded away when the school holidays came and Scouts/Cubs closed down and I planned on going to work.
Music was the next thing that comes to a teenager. I got very involved in not only listening but also in playing. However my musical tastes came from a strange direction. Being 10 years younger than my brother meant that I was exposed heavily to his choices and he chose Jazz - the revivalist type that grew in the UK during the '40s and based on the music of New Orleans. I grew up with Chris Barber playing and so quite naturally, I followed. Charlie took me to a few concerts - I remember seeing the Chris Barber band at both the Royal Festival Hall and at Wimbledon Town Hall. This interest grew during the next few years and has lasted with me until now.
I also took to playing. At around 14, I went to Ally's Owl Shop - a second-hand shop next to Streatham Bus Garage - and bought a cheap guitar. I then went up to the 'Swing Shop' at St. Leonards. The Swing Shop was run by ex-jazz musician and singer, Dave Carey and specialised in both instruments and jazz records. There I purchased a copy of Bert Weedon' s immortal 'Play in a Day' and came home. In a day I was playing the chords to Home on the Range! I spent the next 25 years messing around with musical instruments but mostly the guitar. From the guitar, I went for a banjo. Now I wanted to play Trad Jazz banjo but inadvertently bought a 5 string banjo rather than a tenor one. Still, that got me into folk music and got me up to Collett's Music shop in later times. One big change was due to the school CCF (Combined Cadet Force). As part of special interest, I signed up for a heavy weapon course - mortars, LMG and HMGs - they were going to teach us how to strip and fire the things and then give a chance to fire them. One evening in the learning process, we went to the Territorial Drill Hall at Clapham Junction where we came across their fife and drum band practicing. They offered to help us learn these instruments so for some weeks I went along every Tuesday evening to learn the fife ( a small flute).This gave me the basic fingering for the clarinet and saxophone and gave me a wider ability - not good ability, but wider.
We had the Scout Show coming up so I was pestered by the Akela (in charge of the Cubs) to join with her and play the theme tune to a popular TV program of the time - The Strange World of Gurney Slade starring Anthony Newley. However, I never thought that my flute playing was up to that so I declined.
My musical interests expanded and deepened over the coming years.
Shows and Holidays
Mum and Dad were always very keen on music and quite often we would go to see some of the famous stars of the time. I particularly remember going to the London Palladium to see onny Ray and Kay Starr though I must have seem many more than that. I also have memories of pantomimes - although nothing specific remains. We did make an annual trip to Bertram Mills Circus at Olympia every Xmas and also to the Royal Tournament at Earls Court.
The one trip that looms large in my memory is a family outing to see the film of South Pacific. My main memory of the film is of Mum pulling a flask out of her bag so that we could all have a cup of tea in the interval. Typical Mum - she couldn't go very long without her tea!
Other films I remember are Frank Sinatra in The Tender Trap at the Streatham Odeon, and a war film called Albert RN. We went to see this at the Astoria, Tooting. The prisoners of war made a dummy to hide that fact that one man wasn't coming back from the wash house. I found the dummy so frightening that Dad had to bring me out of the film. I have never seen the end of it!
One of the rages of the time when I was young was the range of I-Spy books produced by the News Chronicle newspaper. These had themes - I-Spy in The Country, I-Spy Birds etc. The idea was that you tried to see every item in the book. Once the book was complete, you would send it in to 'Big Chief I-Spy' and you would get a feather for your headdress. Needless to say, it was extremely difficult to see everything in a book.
I had one really good try. I had got on quite will with I-Spy in The Street and I-Spy In The Road but my target was I-Spy London. Dad took a day's holiday and off we went. We started at The Tower of London and finished at the western end of Hyde Park. Many miles of walking and searching to find all of the things mentioned in the book. Dad suffered from what was then called 'Water on the knee' and was in severe difficulty by the time that we had finished. This was the only I-Spy book that I ever completed and so was my sole feather.
Holidays
Our annual holiday too one of two forms.1. A guest house
2. Butlins - and on one occasion another - holiday camp
Guest Houses
I don't remember too many of these. The ones I do remember were in Southsea, just close to Portsmouth and in Ryde in the Isle of Wight. The second one was more memorable because of the ferry to get there and our trip to the Needles where there was a beach that had multi-coloured sands so you bought a glass mini-lighthouse and self filled it with coloured layers of sand. Apart from that these holidays were unmemorable except that I remember that we had to get out of the guest house by a certain time and not come back until dinner time. Great on a good day but awful in the rain.Butlins
Now Dad used to talk about our holidays at both Butlins Clacton and Skegness but I have no memories of Skegness. I guess I was too young at that time. Butlins had taken over some old army camps and turned them into holiday spots. The great things about Butlins were that you didn't really have to leave the camp to have a good time, and that all your meals were provided as was a maid service in the chalets. This was a great luxury. The camps set you up in 'houses' so that there was always good competitions. These were organized not just for the children but there were many for adults as well. In those days, such simple pleasures were very appreciated, especially following the hardships of the war. If you were a regular, you always were put in the same 'house' so you had years of loyalty to look back on. We were always in 'Kent' house. One great thing was that the fun fair was always part of the deal so there was nothing to pay to go on any rides. On one memorable holiday we travelled to Clacton, not on our usual coach (or chara - short for charabanc), but in a taxi. Dad hired Cosy Cars - a well know Streaham based taxi firm, to take us and collect us. Such luxury. If I remember rightly, we travelled in a Ford Consol and felt very grand.The big excitement came when I was 15. Dad announced that were were to go to Butlins at Mosney. Mosney is in the Irish Republic. This meant a trip over the Irish Sea. Guess how we were to get there - we flew!!!! For a boy who dreamed of aircraft 24 hours a day, this was too good to be true. We flew from Heathrow to Dublin - and back - with Aer Lingus, the Irish airlines and we flew both ways in Vickers Viscount airliners. I have some photos taken from the plane to prove it. I met up with a boy called Geoff who introduced me to photography and it was there that I acquired my first camera - a Kodak Brownie. I remember a trip to Dublin for the day. I saw my first beggar on O'Connell Street.
The Other Holiday Camp
Now, quite why we went to one that was not Butlins, I don't know but would guess that we were on a budget that year. The camp was in Hayling1. The camp quality was not up to Butlins.
2. I was climbing on the chairs around the dance hall when on chair collapsed and I cut the inside of my mouth quite badly.
3. I got confirmation of my Dad's claim to know the pre-war dance bands personally. The band for the dance hall was led by Nat Gonella who was a well known 30's to 60's jazz trumpeter. The first afternoon, Dad took us in the the hall as they were rehearsing. I was all set up for some acute embarrassment. Dad walked up to Nat Gonella and as we got near, Nat turned around and said 'Charlie - how are you. I haven't seen you for years!'. My dad was right!
Special Days
I have said before how work out how Dad afforded some of the things that we did. This one is definitely one of these. On three occasions that I can remember, whilst we were on holiday, Dad took me to the local airfield for a joy ride.. This is never a cheap activity so I am pretty amazed that we could do it. I remember a couple of trips in Austers but the real memory is of a trip from Portsmouth Airport in a De Havilland Dragon Rapide. This isn't the aircraft (of course) but this is what a Dragon Rapide looks like:
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