I am going to do my very best to finish writing this book and have it published by the end of the the month so I can move on into three new projects.
I have made a start on CHAPTER FOUR - New City Sounds, here's the next next bit..........
"But Mr Marshall what am I going to do with a double decker bus ?"
"First of all call me Jim, Mr Marshall makes me feel old. Secondly the bus will help you turn the volume of New City Sounds up to eleven."
It was Jim Marshall who have not only every pop music singer the means to play their music with his unique range of amplifiers but also the one who coined the Phrase turn it up to eleven. All levels on all Marshal amplifiers went and still do go from zero up to eleven. But what was I going to do with a double decker bus ? For goodness sake !
"I'll kit it out," Mr Marshall - I mean Jim said. "You can then take it round the schools and all other places you can think of as The Double Decker Disco.
"I am not keen on driving," I tried to explain, "it's never been my thing and I am certain I could never drive a double decker bus."
Jim smiled sympathetically. "I will provide the driver !"
The head of Marshall Amplification whose kit was manufactured in the new city and exported all round the world to be used by every pop band worthy of the name may say Call me Jim but even the wife of Leon School's headmaster called him Mister Bradshaw.
"We have a disco every Tuesday evening for the lower school," Mr Bradshaw said. "I hire a local mobile disco. Come along next Tuesday."
"Yes, I may well just do that."
Our eyes met and silently Mr Bradshaw changed my words to Yes I will do that. I would be going to Leon School's lower school disco next Tuesday evening.
Jim Marshall had all of the controls on his amplifiers capable of being turned from zero to eleven but when it came to his life and business eleven was the lowest setting. I never could keep up with that man. The Disco Double Decker would be ready the week after my visit to Leon's Lower School Disco.
"College is good," Larna said and not for the first time. "I am going to enjoy being a teacher."
"I don't know why Geoffrey and I need to go to school," Billy said. "How is school going to help us become rock and roll stars ?"
"He was right."
"Paul McCartney passed his A Levels," Larna smiled.
"We are going to be bigger than The Beatles."
"Of course you are."
"Did Tchaikovsky pass his A Levels to write The Nutcracker ?" Little Lilly said.
Billy then added, "We may even be overtake Uncle Elvis."
Every week without fail Uncle Elvis wrote to his nephews and niece who looked forward to the air mail enveloped dropping through the letterbox. He did not write to me every week but when his letter sharing his thinking of retiring arrived I was shocked.
"I find," he explained that energy is a problem these days and I have put on a bit too much weight to swing the hips the way I used to."
My role at New City Sounds was different to what I had been used to in the other radio stations. I was seldom in the studio, not much in the office but out and about.
That Leon School Disco was fun, actually it was great fun. Mr Bradshaw, the headmaster, didn't actually dance but he did take take part. When the last track was played,I remember it was something from Showaddywaddy, when the lights in the lower school hall came on Mr Bradshaw was the first to grab a broom and sweep up. How many headmasters would do that today ?
Two weeks later I returned to the disco with the bus, now formally christened Double Decker Disco from which we did an outside broadcast. That was fun for us all.
The audience area for New City Sounds was strange, even peculiar. A small town in the South, three small towns in the North which merged into one. Between everything but fields, farms, sheep and cows in between. The developers were busy putting in roads around which would be built housing and factory estates. The sheep appeared to like the music we played on New City Sounds but the cows were not great fans.
One of those Northern towns was the railway town of Wolverton. In those days The Royal Train was kept there. Does The Royal Family have its own train today ? I don't know.
My two sons had named their pop duo The Robo Brothers. I planned to take the Disco Double Decker to Wolverton, park it up and play New City Sounds out into the small town square. The Robo Brothers insisted they be given a live spot. Who was I to argue ? Larna and Little Lilly came along to give their support, Larna was due to do a teaching practice at a local secondary school.
There was a small night club above the shops in Bletchley, that was the southernmost town in the New City. It was small and little more than a pub with music. I could not drive Double Decker Disco up the stairs to the first floor.
It was a pub that called the station, I was in the office when the call came in. The pub,of course, did not dial my number but Gordon its manager did.
To be continued.................
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