Tag: Alleyn’s

Going Steady With A Girl, Her Name Is Julie, November-December 1978

A couple of recent happenings and one imminent happening at the time of writing, mid-October 2017, triggered this early romance memory and some musical connections.

The imminent thing is the pilot of a new piece on Halloween Night 2017 (I don’t think we should read anything into the date) by my old school friend, Rohan Candappa. Rohan describes his nascent piece thus:

What I’m going to perform is a show called ‘What Listening To 10,000 Love Songs Has taught Me About Love’. It’s an exploration of love, and music, and how the two intertwine. it’s also about how our lives have a soundtrack. And how the songs on that soundtrack can both contain and convey so much meaning, so much of who we are.

As it happens, a few months ago (April 2017), Rohan gave me permission to publish a written “party piece” of his here on Ogblog, which I suspect has some of the emerging themes for his performance piece. Here is a link to my cover note and link to Rohan’s (well worth a read) piece, which includes links to several of my own “party pieces” and some music links.

In one of my party pieces, describing my November 1978 party, I alluded to my progression, at that very party, from random tonsil hockey player to a somewhat steadier approach to romance.

Julie was the first person I described as my girlfriend and with whom I described myself as “going steady”. This comparatively deep and meaningful relationship lasted a full five weeks, possibly even slightly longer. So this was a really serious relationship, until it all started going awry, at the post Twelfth Night party at Alleyn’s School just before Christmas – reported on Ogblog here.

The other recent event which helped conjured up these vivid 1978 memories is more obscure. Janie and I have been listening to John Shuttleworth’s Lounge Music on Radio 4 / iPlayer. It is very silly, but Janie and I enjoy the nonsense and of course novelty/comedy music has been very much my thing since I was a youngster. I only recently discovered the fact that John Shuttleworth is the alter-ego of Graham Fellows, who first found fame as Jilted John, back in that very same autumn of 1978.

I was relentlessly teased at the time by friends who knew I was “going steady” with “a girl, her name is Julie…” with excerpts from both sides of the Jilted John record.

Now look, I must be fair on my old friends from Streatham BBYO (the youth club where Julie and I hung out in those days) and my old friends from Alleyn’s School. If one of my pals had been following, almost word for word, the trajectory of Jilted John’s hapless romances, I’d have been up there leading the teasing myself.

But the upshot is, when I look back on the soundtrack of that first steady romance of mine, the only music I can truly connect with it is that Jilted John record.

Perhaps that Jilted John record really is an “exploration of love, and music, and how the two intertwine”?

Or perhaps in my case it “contains and conveys so much meaning, so much of who I am.”

If so, oh dear.

Anyway, try both sides of the record; I must admit to enjoying hearing both again after all this time.

Parenthetically, I’m sure I can hear the riff from the 1980 classic, “Stand Down Margaret” by The Beat in “Going Steady”. Stand Down Margaret has its own place in my life’s soundtrack, a little bit later in my young life, from the University days.

Also parenthetically, Going Steady was originally the A-Side of the record…

…but the Jilted John side went down better on radio play and became the A-side. The “Julie” story is within the better known side of the record – Jilted John:

The Double Dealer by William Congreve, Olivier Theatre, 12 October 1978

What a memorable day and special event; a group of us from Alleyn’s School saw The Double Dealer at the Olivier Theatre, having earlier been given a backstage tour of the National and a few weeks before before that been given the opportunity to “workshop” some of the scenes from The Double Dealer with National Theatre understudies and assistant directors.

Yet, so many years on, I struggled to remember much detail about the day of the theatre visit itself. My diary is not much help:

Thursday: Went to Curtain Theatre – Hillel House – Olivier Theatre. Great day.

So there you have it. Great day. What else would I need to write down? After all, it was such a memorable day I would remember every intricate detail – right? Wrong.

I am writing this Ogblog piece on 12 December 2018, the morning before I shall see The Double Dealer again, for the first time in over 40 years. I might recover some more memories of this 1978 day while watching at the Orange Tree Theatre, but I doubt it. 

So I decided to “shout out” to my old school mates yesterday, hoping that some would chip in with memories of their own. That proved to be a good shout. Here’s Simon Ryan – who in fact shared lots of memories of our Lower 6th drama course – several of which will pop up in other Ogblog pieces in the fullness of time:

The trip to the National Theatre was a Thursday afternoon matinee at the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre. Dorothy Tutin had a lead role. The supporting actors from the afternoon’s main show, included Gawn Grainger and Glyn Grain (Duncan Foord and I laughed at them rather than with them, I remember).

It was most definitely part of the Drama AO level course run by Mike Lempriere.

Can’t remember the details about other schools attending.

I remember Dan O’Neill knew the guy who gave us the backstage tour and relayed to us that he needed us to give him a favourable review to help him out. (Dan O’Neill’s elder brother, Hugh and the guy who ran the Bear Pit whose name eludes me, (Stephen Fry? ) but who looked rather like a Restoration fop with long curly black hair, both worked at the NT which is why he had an inside track.

I thought that Simon meant John Fry (not Stephen). John was the Journeyman in the Bear Pit’s production Andorra with us earlier that yearand no doubt went on to further Bear Pit glories later. I didn’t recall the foppish hair…probably because Simon was thinking of Tom Fry. Robert Kelly recalls:

The Bear Pit guy was Tom Fry (not Stephen Fry) and he had a younger brother John… Tom Fry was just as you describe, I thought he was the coolest thing I had ever seen when I first saw him. In fact he may still be…

It is interesting that Simon particularly remembers Dorothy Tutin‘s role. I did remember that, but I particularly remember the production for Ralph Richardson, not least because my parents went on and on about it being such an honour for me to see Ralph Richardson perform on the stage, albeit in his dotage.

Coincidentally, I have recently come across Ralph Richardson in a different context; one of the tennis professionals at Lord’s pointed out to me the similarity between my real tennis bag and that of Sir Ralph’s as exhibited in the main reception at Lord’s: 

Sir Ralph’s kit. The legend with the exhibit reads, “…Although not a very gifted player, Sir Ralph was a devotee of real tennis…”
My kit. Mercifully, no legend provided with my exhibit. 

But I digress. My point really is…what a cast! I mean, yes I know I am about to shout, WHAT A CAST!

The Theatricalia entry, with cast and crew for this production of The Double Dealer, can be found here.

Here are just some of the names (beyond Dorothy Tutin and Ralph Richardson) from the cast list who, in my view, either were or went on to be stars of stage and screen:

  • Nicky Henson
  • Dermot Crowley
  • Judi Bowker
  • Brenda Blethyn
  • Sara Kestelman
  • Robert Stephens
  • Michael Bryant
  • Janet Whiteside

Naturally, I am unable to assess how good a production or collection of performances that really was – it was the first time I had seen a major production of anything. I was completely star struck and stage struck by the whole experience. I thought it was simply the most amazing thing I had ever seen on the stage. Frankly, at that time, it unquestionably was. I guess I would be still be thrilled by that production if I could see it now.

Here’s Jerry Moore, talking about the Drama course generally as well as his memory of that particular outing:

It was an enjoyable course and really developed my enthusiasm for the theatre. Mike [Lempriere] was an excellent teacher but I remember he didn’t like Dorothy Tutin.

Funnily enough, I remember being disappointed with Dorothy Tutin too – but perhaps I was simply absorbing what my drama teacher had said and reflecting it as my own opinion. Anyway, what did we know? Dorothy Tutin picked up an Olivier Award that year for that performance.

The other thing I have done, prior to seeing the play again in December 2018, is actually read the whole play, for the first time.

What a simple, singular, linear plot. Just hints of subplot – Lady Pliant’s intrigues (although they are all connected to the main plot) and the parenthetic dalliance between Brisk and Lady Froth – with which I had so much fun a few weeks earlier at the rehearsal rooms. But oh so simple a storyline for a play of that period.

Congreve recognises the simplicity in his (typically late 17th Century style) self-effacing dedication. To be fair, he was only 24 when he wrote this play and I think I can see signs of greater things to come.

Here is a link to the full text of the play from Project Gutenberg – free and available to all.

The music in the 1978 production was a new score by Harrison Birtwistle. I cannot find a source for that, but here is the overture from original score, by Henry Purcell:

I’d love to hear more memories and recollections, either from people who were part of our school party or indeed anyone else who remembers this production.

To echo Jerry Moore’s words, this was one of the main events that forged my lifelong enthusiasm for and love of the theatre. I realise that I was incredibly privileged to be allowed this experience and shall always be grateful for it.

Working With National Theatre Cast And Crew “Workshopping” Extracts From The Double Dealer, Curtain Theatre, 22 September 1978

A simply wonderful experience through the school, spread over two dates. In October we had a backstage tour at the National Theatre and then saw a matinee of The Double Dealer at the Olivier Theatre.

But firstly, on this September day, several of us visited the Curtain Theatre, a place the National Theatre must have been using as rehearsal space at that time, where we had the opportunity to work with understudies and assistant directors, “workshopping” some scenes from The Double Dealer.

Friday: Went to Curtain theatre (acted through restoration) Fantastic time there

That’s all the kid wrote, folks. And so far (writing more than 40 years later, 12 December 2018), my shout out to my fellow pupils has drawn a blank on this element of the experience, but has confirmed that this experience was part of a Drama AO level course several of us were taking with Michael (Mike) Lempriere.

I have a strong recollection of girls from another school (I think Mary Datchelor? or was it St Martins Girls?… no, I remember now… it was Grey Coat Hospital School) being involved on that initial workshop day. The actors/understudies, who were getting us to workshop bits of the play, were trying to get us (and to some extent succeeding in getting us) flirting in a Restoration style, mostly by telling the boys that the girls really did fancy them and vice versa. 

I was allocated the part of Brisk in a fairly short scene (a minor subplot in an otherwise fairly linear play) in which Brisk reveals his (formerly only faintly disguised) passion towards Lady Froth and finds that the physical attraction is reciprocated.

I shall attempt to replicate below the dialogue between a 16-year-old me (at that time only fairly recently acquainted with the physical pleasures of tonsil-hockey and fumbling with girls in the real world) and the actor who was helping me with my costume and preparing me / egging me on, before I tried out the scene with the mystery girl from another school.

ACTOR: Have you noticed the way she’s been looking at you all morning?

ME: No?

ACTOR: I think she must really fancy you.

ME: I don’t think so?

ACTOR: Oh yes, I really do think so. Anyway, she’s a lovely looking girl.

ME: Do you think so?

ACTOR: Oh yes, a buxom wench with a touch of the gypsy about her if I’m not at all mistaken. You should have some fun acting out this scene with her…

I mean, honestly, if the political correctness and #MeToo movements got hold of this stuff, all the institutions and individuals involved would have a lot of explaining to do.

Here is the scene I acted out with the mystery school girl, who was doubtless being egged on by her actress/dresser as much as I was. The extract below is extracted from and linked to the Project Gutenberg version of the play; a project which I commend to anyone who wants to retrieve and read out of copyright texts for free:

SCENE VI.
[To him] Lady Froth.
BRISK [Sings, walking about.]  ‘I’m sick with love,’ ha, ha, ha, ‘prithee, come cure me.  I’m sick with,’ etc.  O ye powers!  O my Lady Froth, my Lady Froth, my Lady Froth!  Heigho!  Break heart; gods, I thank you.  [Stands musing with his arms across.]
LADY FROTH.  O heavens, Mr. Brisk!  What’s the matter?
BRISK.  My Lady Froth!  Your ladyship’s most humble servant.  The matter, madam?  Nothing, madam, nothing at all, egad.  I was fallen into the most agreeable amusement in the whole province of contemplation: that’s all—(I’ll seem to conceal my passion, and that will look like respect.)  [Aside.]
LADY FROTH.  Bless me, why did you call out upon me so loud?
BRISK.  O Lord, I, madam!  I beseech your ladyship—when?
LADY FROTH.  Just now as I came in, bless me, why, don’t you know it?
BRISK.  Not I, let me perish.  But did I?  Strange!  I confess your ladyship was in my thoughts; and I was in a sort of dream that did in a manner represent a very pleasing object to my imagination, but—but did I indeed?—To see how love and murder will out.  But did I really name my Lady Froth?
LADY FROTH.  Three times aloud, as I love letters.  But did you talk of love?  O Parnassus!  Who would have thought Mr. Brisk could have been in love, ha, ha, ha.  O heavens, I thought you could have no mistress but the Nine Muses.
BRISK.  No more I have, egad, for I adore ’em all in your ladyship.  Let me perish, I don’t know whether to be splenetic, or airy upon’t; the deuce take me if I can tell whether I am glad or sorry that your ladyship has made the discovery.
LADY FROTH.  O be merry by all means.  Prince Volscius in love!  Ha, ha, ha.
BRISK.  O barbarous, to turn me into ridicule!  Yet, ha, ha, ha.  The deuce take me, I can’t help laughing myself, ha, ha, ha; yet by heavens, I have a violent passion for your ladyship, seriously.
LADY FROTH.  Seriously?  Ha, ha, ha.
BRISK.  Seriously, ha, ha, ha.  Gad I have, for all I laugh.
LADY FROTH.  Ha, ha, ha!  What d’ye think I laugh at?  Ha, ha, ha.
BRISK.  Me, egad, ha, ha.
LADY FROTH.  No, the deuce take me if I don’t laugh at myself; for hang me if I have not a violent passion for Mr. Brisk, ha, ha, ha.
BRISK.  Seriously?
LADY FROTH.  Seriously, ha, ha, ha.
BRISK.  That’s well enough; let me perish, ha, ha, ha.  O miraculous; what a happy discovery.  Ah my dear charming Lady Froth!
LADY FROTH.  Oh my adored Mr. Brisk!  [Embrace.]

It was fun and I recall rather well what the good-looking girl looked like. I also recall that she and I had a friendly conversation afterwards, got on quite well, but I think we both realised that the play was the thing and we didn’t actually fancy each other. Predictably hilarious results averted, no thanks to the mischievous National Theatre team.

In my case, it was probably as much a useful lesson for my next real world teenage wooing experience (which was becoming a more regular feature of my leisure time by that time) as it was a lesson in how to act.

Sadly, I cannot find any information online regarding the “modern” Curtain Theatre – i.e. the place that the National was using as rehearsal space in the late 1970s. Nothing to do with the Tudor/Jacobean period Curtain Theatre. Perhaps someone who knows about it will stumble across this piece and fill in some details.

One other extraordinary thing (to me) that I have discovered about this day, is when it happened. Because according to the Theatricalia entry for the National Theatre production of The Double Dealer, 22 September 1978 was the first preview night for the production.

It seems to me extraordinary that the National Theatre made so much resource available on the day of the opening night for a bunch of schoolkids from a couple of South London schools. Perhaps this was due to the connections that Alleyn’s had or perhaps that was the way of things – by opening night a lot of people had completed their role with the main cast and could move on to sub-projects such as trying to make sixteen-year-old boys and girls even friskier with each other than they would have been without help.

It really was a most memorable day and it made the subsequent experience – seeing The Double Dealer, including Nicky Henson and Brenda Blethyn act out the scene I had worked on a few week’s earlier – all the more special and thrilling. 

The Double Dealer by William Congreve, Olivier Theatre, 12 October 1978

I already had the drama bug to some extent, of course, but this was one of the main experiences that cemented my lifelong enthusiasm for and love of the theatre.

An Unusual French Lesson, Alleyn’s School, c5 June 1978

I had a strange Alleyn’s School memory flash this morning (26 April 2017) while walking between meetings.

It must have been triggered by a conversation over the weekend in which a French gentleman named Bertrand was mentioned. I started to refer to the gentleman as Plastic Bertrand, unwittingly. (Yes, I know Plastic Bertrand is Belgian).

Then the memory flash. Summer 1978. A few weeks before our French ‘O’ level.

Our French teacher, the late lamented Trevor Tindale, had clearly become aware that the song “Ça plane pour moi” by Plastic Bertrand was riding high in the pop charts.

Naturally our ‘O’ level chances would be enhanced if we understood the idioms in the lyrics of that song. Also our grades might be enhanced if we thought carefully about improving the lyrics’ dodgy grammar and Franglais.

So we spent a few minutes in class deconstructing Ça plane pour moi.

Please don’t quiz me now on all the nuances of all the words and phrases. I don’t want to shame other less able students.

But still I should in all modesty report that I’m pretty sure I still know what “wham, bam, mon chat splatch” means. I can also make a pretty good fist of translating, “you are the king of the divan”.

I’m guessing c5 June 1978, as the song didn’t reach the top 10 until the preceding (half term) week and I’m fairly sure Trevor didn’t lighten the tone of the class this way just before the ‘O’ level.

If anyone else remembers this happening, I’d love to read some comments on it.

To jog memories further, here is a video of Plastic Bertrand singing the song with the lyrics all over the screen:

 

Andorra, 23, 24 & 25 February 1978

I got involved with “proper drama” at Alleyn’s for a couple of productions. Andorra by Max Frisch was the first of them, when I was just 15.  Here are my diary extracts.

The first block, from January, shows little emotion or detail at having got a decent part in a Bear Pit production:

Friday 13 January 1978, Got a talking part in the school play – I’m the innkeeper – V pleased,

16 January 1978, should have rehearsed – cancelled,

17 January 1978, first Andorra rehearsal,

20 January 1978, rehearsed for Andorra, 23 January 1978, rehearsed for Andorra,

24 January 1978 Andorra rehearsal,

26 January 1978, rehearsed for Andorra,

27 January 1978, rehearsed for Andorra,

30 January 1978, rehearsed for Andorra,

31 January 1978, Andorra rehearsal.

Two weeks in, by the start of February, I’m a critic as well as a performer.  Didn’t I know about hubris?  I was way overconfident anyway – “perfected” is not a term I would ever use now:

Thursday 02 February 1978, rehearsed for Andorra – OK,

03 February 1978, rehearsed for Andorra – OK,

05 February 1978, first Sunday rehearsal for Andorra – not bad,

06 February 1978, rehearsed for Andorra,

07 February 1978, Andorra rehearsal – good,

09 February 1978, rehearsed for Andorra – good – seems to be OK,

10 February 1978, rehearsed in evening for Andorra,

12 February 1978 rehearsal for Andorra in afternoon – a good one,

13 February 1978, rehearsed for Andorra – not bad,

14 February 1978, scene 11 of Andorra perfected.

Matters were bound to take a turn for the worse after that and so they did:

Friday 15 February 1978, Dennis [Galvin] rushed to hospital last night with colitis – Mick Lemp [Michael Lempriere] has taken over,

16 February 1978, rehearsed for Andorra – not bad rehearsal but still looks poor,

17 February 1978, field day and rehearsal,

19 February 1978, rehearsal cancelled as Mick Lemp visits relatives in Exeter,

20 February 1978, Mick stuck in snowdrift, Dan [Shindler] in bed with flu, disaster for play,

21 February 1978, Rehearsed all day for Andorra – Mick & Dan & Den all absent,

22 February 1978, flop dress rehearsal this evening – does not look good.

But the show had to go on:

Thursday 23 February 1978, Yesterday’s flop dress rehearsal lead to an almost empty house [tonight] watching a great performance,

24 February 1978, 2nd night of Andorra – even better than last night – 3/4 house – enjoyed it,

25 February 1978, Last night of Andorra – 7/8 house – performance good – party afterwards – got drunk.

I suffered more than my fair share of embarrassment on the last two nights – written up and available by clicking here or through the link below:

Andorra Embarrassment Story, 24 February 1978

With thanks to Mike Jones, who rescued a copy of the programme, here are scans of the pages:

Andorra CoverAndorra CastAndorra Bear Pit Production TeamAndorra PreambleAndorra Acknowledgements

 

Andorra Embarrassment Story, 24 February 1978

The story of my selection, hubris, decline, fall and this production of Andorra’s resurrection can be seen by clicking here or below:

Andorra, 23, 24 & 25 February 1978

I’m pretty sure my parents came to see Andorra on the middle (Friday) night of the run. And I’m fairly sure the following dialogue (or something like it) took place on the drive home after the show.

MUM: I wasn’t very impressed by some of your school chums in the audience behind us.

ME: What happened, Mum?

MUM: Well, during the interval one of them said to his pals, “I’m looking forward to the bit where Harris has to run around the stage yelling ‘I’m not a Jew, I’m not a Jew.”  Then they were giggling.  I wasn’t going to let that pass without comment.

ME: Oh, God, Mum, what did you say to them?

MUM: I turned around and asked them why that was so funny.  One of the boys explained, “because Harris is a Jew.  But he has to run around the stage saying “I’m, not a Jew”.  Then the boys giggled some more.

ME: …and then…

MUM: I said, “I’m well aware of all that.  I’m his mother and I’ve helped him to learn his lines.  I’m just trying to understand what makes it funny.”  They went very quiet after that.

ME: Oh, Mum.  I’m going to get mercilessly teased on Monday when I get back to school.  Or worse.  Why couldn’t you just let it go?

DAD: I knew it.  I could have told you he’d be upset.

To be fair on the poor boys involved (and I do wonder who they might have been – any confessions?) it was an ironic, rather funny matter.  Indeed, with the benefit of hindsight, my casting in the role of the Innkeeper might well have been based more on my physiognomy than my stagecraft.  In any case, we cast had all had a bit of a laugh about the irony of me yelling “I’m not a Jew” during rehearsals and I saw little malice in the remarks as reported by my mum.

But to be fair on my mum, although I did get some serious ribbing on the Monday (as recorded in my diary), it was not at all to do with my mother’s intervention.  Indeed the poor boys who got my mother’s tongue-lashing were probably more embarrassed than I was about that matter.

No-one would relish a tongue lashing from my mum. Cruel spectacles and cut glass voice to go with them.

No, the ribbing I received resulted from reports of my drunkenness at the after show party on the Saturday.

As to the exact details of my ribbing-inducing party antics, I recall very little.  I do remember drinking far too much cheap party cider – a once-in-a-lifetime mistake (drinking cheap cider, not the occasional over-drinking).  I think the party was at Tiggy’s house, mostly in a rather large garage/out-house.  Or am I am confusing the Andorra party with the Twelfth Night party?…

…on reflection the Twelfth Night one, which was differently embarrassing, was held at the school, in the dining room if I recall correctly.

Twelfth Night, The Aftermath, 17 December 1978

Others who were a bit older (I was only 15-and-a-half) and a bit wiser (almost everyone else who was there) might recall the Andorra after show party better.

Still, my mother’s parental intervention was a pretty cringe-making one.

Oh mum!

The Best Part Of Breaking Up: The End Of Year Three -Term Two At Alleyn’s & The Start Of The Easter Holidays, Late March to Early April 1976

Nano Banana Pro/Google Flow, 1976 kids playing cricket on Tooting Commons

This fortnight is mostly for the completists, lovers of 1970s TV and nostalgists for teenage extra-curricula activity. Very little happened that I haven’t described before/elsewhere. If you have landed on this page without context, I have added links to articles that might explain the type of stuff I and my pals were up to.

Sunday, 21 March 1976 – distributed [paper] Shalom, great. TV – Who Do You Do, MASH, That’s Life.

Monday 22 March 1976 – all ok. TV Ask The Family, Hello Cheeky.

Tuesday, 23 March 1976 – athletics trials. TV Ellery Queen, Warship, Rock Follies.

Wednesday, 24 March 1976 – music competition. S & S test. TV Man About The House, Benny Hill, Skating, Oneupmanship.

I suspect that I was found guilty at the athletics trials and condemned attempt hard labour at a discipline that didn’t suit me. Unless this was the year that my short bursts of fast running assisted me in achieving a smidge of credibility at the long jump.

I shall write more about the house music competition when I write up Cribbs’s annus mirabilis in the music competition (more by luck than judgment) which must have been 1977 or 1978. Watch this space.

I have no idea what an S&S test might have been. If anyone out there remembers that abbreviated phrase and what it meant, let us know, please.

Thursday, 25 March 1976 – drama, good. TV World At War, When The Boat Comes In.

Friday, 26 March 1976 – broke up. Played with Stew [Stuart Harris] great. TV Yes Honestly Word Man House[?], Open All Hours.

Saturday 27 March 1976 – Stuart morning, afternoon shopping, TV Upstairs Downstairs

Sunday, 28 March 1976 – Good paper. East End shiva. TV Who Do You Do, Esther [That’s Life].

I’m not sure whose shiva [evening prayers in the week after a funeral] that might have been. I’m guessing my mother’s cousin Jackie Marcus, choir master, husband of Aida, younger brother of the virtuoso violinist, band leader (and saw player) Sid Marcus.

I told you I come from a musical family. Counts for nothing in terms of talent inheritance, I do realise.

Monday 29March 1976 – played Alan [Cooke]. TV Ask The Family.

Tuesday, 30 March 1976 – played with Stew. TV, Ellery Queen, Warship, Rock Follies.

Wednesday, 31 March 26 – Lloyd [Green]’s all day TV Man About The House, Oneupmanship.

Thursday, 1 April 1976 – Played with Stuart. TV World At War (last), When The Boat Comes In.

Friday, 2 April 1976 – Played alone ([worked on Shalom] paper), TV Wodehouse Playhouse, Patently Obvious.

Saturday 3 April 1976 – Grandma Jenny, Grand National day trade[?]. TV Stanley Baxter, Carry On Up The Jungle.

Sunday 4 April 1976 – Paper ok. TV MASH, The Guns of Navarone.

I cannot see the title of that film without thinking of the ska version of the soundtrack. We interrupt this diary piece to provide you with that track as an earworm. You can thank me afterwards.

In truth, the ska revival didn’t enter my consciousness until around 1978.

I had completely forgotten that Dimitri Tiomkin’s original soundtrack sounds more like a Shostakovich or Prokofiev soundtrack than a ska dance number. The main theme doesn’t even arrive until six minutes in:

But I digress.

Monday 5 April 1976 – West End with Grandma Jenny. TV film matinee, Ask The Family, Star Trek.

Tuesday, 6 April 1976 – played with Stuart. TV, Olympiad marathon.

Wednesday, 7 April 1976 – West End with mum, great new darts (140) TV last Man About The House, Oneupmanship, Two Ronnies Special.

Thursday, 8 April 1976, played cricket with the lads. TV Tomorrow’s World $6M Man, Are You Being Served and Burke Special.

I have previously described our rudimentary teenage attempts at cricket on the Tooting Commons.

Back When I Didn’t Know My Asif From My Sarfraz, Cricket On Tooting Bec Common, Summer 1974

Of course, back when I didn’t know my Asif from my Sarfraz, Pakistan were putting out impressive test teams that were hard to beat. 50 years later…don’t get me started…

Friday, 9 April 1976, played cricket darts, games folder. TV Goofy & Professor Von Drake, Wodehouse Playhouse, Patently Obvious.

I’ll write some more about “cricket darts” some other time. “Games folder” was probably a template for documenting cricket darts matches – I was probably planning on playing and documenting a test series of cricket darts matches or some such – I recall that I did keep records of the scores. The series was hampered in those early stages due to unsatisfactory conditions – more on “darts-gate” in the next episode.

Saturday 10 April 1976 -football on common with the lads, recording great. TV Texas Beyond River, Upstairs Downstairs.

I sense that I was probably outvoted on the Saturday, as it would always have been cricket for me, ahead of football. Unless the weather had really made the idea of cricket impractical for all of us, that too is possible. If it was the latter reason, I suspect Sunday was a muddy wash day for the local mums.

Nano Banana Pro/Google Flow, 1976 kids playing football on Tooting Commons. I loved the way I could just instruct Google flow to have the same kids playing rudimentary football rather than cricket two days later and up this came.

For Whom The Bell Tolls: Noye’s Fludde At Alleyn’s School & The Death Knell For The “Comicals” Part Of My Publishing Project, March 1976

I combined with a posse of other boys to play the handbells for music teacher Graham Caldebank’s hugely ambitious project, to perform Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde at the school.

I blame/thank Guy Bertrand for my involvement in this one. I’ll write some more about Guy Bertrand in other contexts. He was one of the more active senior school boys, whom I got to know through the school library.

Guy was the most senior of the pupil librarians and I was a keen scout for volunteering there too – because I liked hanging around in the library browsing through books and didn’t mind doing some chores to give me an excuse to be there.

Whereas Guy found an enthusiastic helper for the library, I was far more reluctant when he suggested that I participate in Noye’s Fludde. I’d had my fill of Graham Caldebank’s Benjamin Britten projects the previous year – you can read all about my dismal attempts to play the family instrument (violin) and even hear the discordant tones of my string-playing as I recorded my Psalm 150 for posterity – all in this one – click here or below:

Alleyn’s Concert “A Big Flop”, “Concert Went Well”, Trial By Jury, Battle Of Stamford Bridge…Reviewed With Evidence, Late March 1975

Returning to early 1976, Guy persuaded me:

I’m leading the handbell choir. It’ll be a laugh. Come on. Give it a go…

…or words to that effect. Persuasive chap he was, Guy. I wonder where he might be now? Someone out there in the Alleyn’s alum community should know.

Thus, suddenly, out of the blue, my diary is no longer dominated by the ups and downs of my Sunday School Newspaper project. Instead, 10 days dominated by the bells.

Wednesday, 10 March 1976 CCF, good. Bells. TV Man About The House, Eric and Ernie [Morecombe & Wise], One-upmanship.

Thursday, 11 March 1976 – drama good. Bells. TV Happy Ever After, When The Boat Comes In

Friday, 12 March 1976 – NF [Noye’s Fludde] rehearsal. TV Yes Honestly, Liver Birds, Open All Hours.

Saturday 13 March 1976 – OK. Exeat [no school]. TV Celebrity Squares, Grandma Jenny.

We Interrupt This Tale Of Noye’s Fludde & Handbells With Sorry News From My Newspaper Project

Sunday, 14 March 1976 – all not ok. Comicals out – bad, TV Now Who Are You?

Ironically, a movie named “When Eight Bells Toll” followed on LWT that evening, but I don’t record having watched it. I was probably too busy licking my publishing wounds and/or reworking the pages of Shalom to expunge the censored “comicals”.

I don’t remember who was the main instigator of the censorship – possibly the Rabbi – who might have felt, with some justification, that jazzing up 1st century history with journalise was just about OK, but riddling the “newspaper” with comedic material on such serious subject matter was beyond the pale.

I have a feeling, though, that the effective censor was Jonathan’s dad, who, as voluntary printer, put his foot down on the length of the paper, given the costs of each page of print on his spanking new office photocopying machine. As an editorial team, we had to bite the bullet and realised that it was the comicals section that needed to go.

As the whole project is lost in the mists of time, I can claim, without fear of evidenced contradiction, that my newspaper project, Shalom, would have been the Private Eye of satirical classical antiquity journalese, if only it had been allowed to flourish with a blend of serious satiricals and comicals within the same organ.

That’s not even remotely funny. Still, thanks Nano Banana Lite 2 via Google Flow.

Nearly 25 years later, my enthusiasm for writing comedy set in ancient times bore fruit with the much lauded Clean Business Cuisine – still available, 25 years after publication, from good and not-so-good outlets.

But I digress.

Let Us Return To Alleyn’s School & Noye’s Fludde

Monday, 15 March 1976 – NF [Noye’s Fludde] rehearsal. TV Ask The Family.

Tuesday 16 March 1976 – Noye’s Fludde went well, singing [?] good.

Wednesday, 17 March 1976 – Noye’s Fludde went well. (Tintinnabulation)

Thursday 18 March 1976 – drama good. TV World At War, When The Boat Comes In.

Friday, 19 March 1976 – music, good. Brilliant handbells performance by us.

Saturday, 20 March 1976 – school ok. Not a very good bell performance.

I love the extremes of my self-criticism in the diary, contrast the Friday review, “brilliant handbells performance”, with the Saturday one, “not a very good bell performance”.

Let’s allow the official critic, Trevor Tindale, to have his say on whether the production was good, bad or ugly. Here are his fine words from Scriblerus – the headline picture is also from that article.

Lovely touch, spelling his name “Tyndale” for that review. A 50-year-old pun that I have only just got when digging out the old piece. I’m sure I didn’t spot it at the time.

“But is Noye’s Fludde ‘discordant rubbish’ regardless of who performs it?”, I hear readers asking left, right, and centre. I thought we should all judge for ourselves, so I found a similar type of school performance on YouTube which, helpfully, mercifully, limits itself to the concluding three minutes.

The handbells come into their own right at the end of the show, although the editor of the following vid rather cut them off just as their final coda starts to ring out.

Personally, I do find Britten discordant and not to my taste, but whadda-I-know?

As most readers do know, YouTube “helpfully” uses AI to choose a follow-up video to keep viewers tuned in, these days. For me, after I watched the above video, it selected, for reasons I cannot really fathom…

…Oh Bondage, Up Yours! by X-Ray Spex. Now THAT’s satire.

It would be a year or more after the Alleyn’s production of Noye’s Fludde that we were all treated to the joys of X-Ray Spex, of course. Personally, if I could only take one of the recordings to the desert island with me, it would be the latter. In truth, I cannot imagine Noye’s Fludde making it to my top 8,000 on Desert Island Playlists.

I, Publisher: Schooling & Magazine Production In March 1976

Picture of Econasign stencil kit borrowed from here, where you can buy!

I referred, in my late February 1976 piece, to my first publishing experience, a chedar paper which we called Shalom. My diary for the next few weeks goes on about it a lot. Example, the first week or so of March:

Monday 1 March 1976 – all ok. TV Ask The Family, worked on Shalom.

Tuesday 2 February 1976 – rugby, good. Got Shalom going. Played bridge.

Wednesday 3 February 1976 – CCF, hard. TV film [Ride, Vaquero!], Man About The House, Dave Allen.

Thursday, 4 March 1976 – drama, good. TV World At War, When The Boat Comes In.

Friday, 5 March 1976 – music, good. TV Sale Of the Century, Liver Birds, Steptoe & Son, Open All Hours.

Saturday, 6 March 1976 – all ok, rugby. v good TV Doctor Who, New Faces, Hawaii 5-0 film [Murder Eyes Only], Upstairs Downstairs

Sunday, 7 March 1976, Shalom great. TV, Now Who Do You Do? There’s A Girl In My Soup

Monday, 8 March 1976. All OK. Got stencil. TV, Ask The Family.

That Econosign stencil kit (see headline picture) had a profound effect on my projects from then on in. Of course we used it for the Shalom paper. I used it for all of my school projects to make covers and the like. And we used it for the animated film projects that were to come hot on the heels of the “newspaper” project.

On reflection, this gift was a hand-me-down from dad, who, in turn, might well have inherited it as a hand-me-down from the family business when he started his business. Or perhaps dad actually bought it. He was the commercial artist of the family after all.

Anyway, I loved it and struggled to part with it years later when it became obvious that its purpose for me and my family was done.

Lovely to have it brought back to mind by the simple statement in my diary, “got stencil”.

Tuesday, 9 March 1976 – rugby good. TV Warship, Pro-celebrity Golf, Rock Follies.

Recovering From Sickening Alleyn’s School Rifle Experience, Black Comedy & The Soap Opera That Was My First Publishing Experience

The second half of February 1976 is punctuated in my diary by three major things, as my now adult, aging brain condenses it.

Firstly, for at least a week, which was mostly a half term holiday, I was nursing a cold which I attribute unequivocally to the miserable, freezing experience of the Gravesend rifle range the preceding Friday:

Remembrance Of Freezing On A Gravesend Rifle Range With Alleyn’s School CCF & Other Treasures, First Half Of February 1976

No ifs…butts on the rifle range, obviously, but…no buts, if I get cold and miserable, a head cold is an inevitable outcome.

Monday, 16 February 1976, Lloyd [Green – to work on Shalom magazine no doubt]. Got cold. TV Waltons.

Tuesday, 17 February 1976, Still streaming cold. TV Bob, Ellery Queen (a half), Pro-celeb golf & all day TV.

Wednesday 18 February 1976, still cold. TV, Benny Hill, Freddie Starr and all day TV.

Thursday 19th February 1976 Back to school. Still have cold. TV World At War, When The Boat Comes In, Film [The Fixer].

Friday 20 February 1976 – cold going. TV Sale Of The Century, Liver Birds, Steptoe, Open All Hours.

Secondly, I went with my parents to see the Bear Pit production at school. I say “Black Comedy” but it was actually a double-feature: The Man in the Bowler Hat by AA Milne and Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer. Here is Mrs Wright’s generous review of, as I recall it, a very enjoyable evening of light theatre.

I especially like director Tom Fry’s super-confident quote to “the press”, reported in the penultimate paragraph.

And talking of “the press”, my third obsession at that time, which started to open out as some sort of internalised soap opera in my life that spring, was a magazine project that I initiated along with Lloyd Green at chedar (Sunday School) which we named Shalom.

I am in touch with Lloyd, who has fled to Florida (presumably to avoid any risk of sedition charges arising from his published juvenilia from 1976). Characteristically, Lloyd admits that he remembers us doing this magazine thing, but also confesses to remembering almost nothing about it.

I remember that the conceit of the magazine was based on a publication we were shown at chedar, which was bible stories told in newspaper form – a book named Chronicles.

I wasn’t so interested in the biblical stuff, but was fascinated by the medieval history in the first few hundred years after Christ, starting with the destruction of the temple in AD 70. I was also keen to inject some humour into the project, thus a fair chunk of the material was quite “spoofy”, to a much greater extent than the serious-minded Chronicles – although that publication did push a few boundaries with its headlines and sensationalistic journalistic style.

This image borrowed from Amazon, where this publication can be procured.

Actually, the more I think about the Shalom project, the more I realise it had my fingerprints all over it.

Around the same time, I persuaded Mr Jenkins, who was nominally my history teacher, to let me do my history project on The Origins Of Islam, roughly up to the end of the Umayyad caliphate (c AD 750).

“Sounds fascinating, Mr Harris, why not give it a go? I remember when I was in Lhasa…”

I remember seeing these two pieces of research-type writing as complementary, although don’t think I had worked through in my mind how the dual lines of research and writing might eventually join up. Possibly just as well – and in any case neither project was destined to reach a temporal joining up – the Shalom one would have needed to run for a long time to reach the 7th century origins of Islam.

Naturally, the output of both projects was lost in my mother’s vandal-style destruction of my entire collection of juvenilia in the late 1980s. That’s also probably just as well – I can remember them as being much better pieces of writing than no doubt they were, in reality.

Anyway, for the Shalom project, resources needed marshalling. Lloyd Green was – possibly still is – a fixer. I suspect a lot of the logistics came down to him, although he, along with others (I think Andy Levinson and Jonathan Davis) also chipped in with copy. Jonathan Davies’s dad, very kindly, agreed to print the magazine for us. He had recently acquired a photocopying machine for his business and was happy to allow it to be deployed for our educationally-oriented purpose…until he worked out how many pages that would mean, how expensive photocopying was per page back then and the extent to which the magazine was a fun project as much as…or more than…an educational one. Hilariously predictable results will be reported when the sh*t hit the fan around May 1976.

You’ll just start to notice it in my February diary, but my emotional state, especially at the weekend, seems to have been almost entirely dictated by the extent to which the Shalom project was going well or not going well.

Here’s the remainder of the diary from the end of February 1976. SO much telly.

Saturday, 21 February 1976 – all OK went to library. TV, Celebrity Squares, David came [possibly David Aarons to sit].

Sunday 22 February 1976 – lots of work done. TV Now Who Do You Do? MASH.

Monday 23 February 1976 – Tests galore. TV Ask The Family, Hello Cheeky, The Waltons.

Tuesday 24 February 1976 – no games. TV Ellery Queen (X), Pro-celebrity golf my dog trials.

Wednesday 25 February 1976 CCF good. TV Goodies Rule OK? Black Comedy excellent.

Thursday, 26 February 1976 – drama, good. TV World At War, When The Boat Comes In.

Friday, 27 February 1976 – All ok. TV Sale of the Century, Yes honestly, Liver Birds, Steptoe, Open All Hours.

Saturday 28th February 1976. Celebrity Squares, OK Corral, Upstairs Downstairs.

Sunday, 29 February 1976 – Shalom great. Going to come out. TV Peter Pan, no good.