Christmas Edition

This year was special and one way in which it is is this Christmas had a very little side to it cos really christmas is for children and being LB I remain one.

One crazy thing was my sister in law came on over and both my new teddy and I were singing and making actions to along to that great rockin' number Wombling Merry Christmas by the Wombles as it was on the local radio station as she arrived! 
This didn't phaze her partner either.

One thing I missed for long time was a tradition of boxes containing a selection of candy usually chocolate children always have presented to them and this year a selection box put in an appearance.

As well we had annuals and this year I had the Beano annual a comic I grew up with remaining a barrel full of childlike fun I could sit on the floor and read. I like Dennis the Menace having belonged to his fan club as a boy and the Bash Street Kids.

As well I had this years Dandy annual that features most of my favourites such as Korky the cat and Desperate Dan

It's a routine I just love.

I do love classical music and I had two new recordings by the Takacs Quartet of Haydn's String Quartets Op 71  & 74.

They are strongly regarded by The Sunday Times and The Strad magazine.

After going out to eat with my folks, I watched Ratatouille on the tv which was fun as for some reason I'd missed seeing it at the local cinema and made a note to get the dvd as anything that funny could help on either rainy days or when I'm not well.

Hallo there. I'm Theodore the IInd I am. I came into Christopher's life today this magical day called Christmas to add a bit of sparkle into his life as he just loves teddies bears and was missing the original Theodore.

Pausing for Christmas

Well depending where you live you may have not only your own outdoor Christmas trees but trees that are for everyone.

This tree is ours - a joint venture between the local Council and the wider community here - that was put up and illuminated a few days ago ready for Carolling by. 
I just love singing carols which remains a big boyhood memory for me.
It may be a small thing but it makes people feel happy which is great.

The next few days will be busy, visiting Aunts, getting the Christmas cards posted and presents swapped.

I don't know for sure but the may not be a blog update until Christmas day at the earliest so
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Teasing and Bullying: Some thoughts

Sometimes I feel like talking about more important questions and today I'm talking about teasing and bullying.

Sometimes it can be hard for people especially children to tell when someone is said to be teasing or when it it is they are being bullied. This can in some situations lead to a "Zero tolerance" approach being adopted but that of itself doesn't make it any easier to judge what's what and may not be so effective anyway in teaching people the control we need in our social relationships.

For instance sometimes what we call teasing acts a glue linking us together in much the same way as gossip can help in understand what really is going on.

Personally I see nothing wrong with playful teasing where everyone is in on the joke. But when someone feels humiliated by attacks on their appearance, beliefs and inadequacies, then it's little consolation that the person who is doing the teasing was "only kidding".Having some judgment about who is really being hurt, as opposed to benefiting and maturing by the process is a must.

It's true when something changes in character, by degree, it does become difficult to ascertain precisely when the critical point occurs. 

On the continuum from 'affectionate teasing' to hateful verbal abuse, mistakes will be made however making things so restrictive in what we may say does reduce depth of our exchanges as well as adding an awkwardness to anything less than entirely affectionate.

For most people from around the age of 10 onward we learn to read more into what people are saying and doing reading faces, tone of voice, posture and so on so we can tell if what they are saying is meant to come over as a joke between us or if they are being deliberately mean.

Actually the absence of this is very visible in forums where great mythunderstandings can easily form! 

Mean certainly has to be dealt with as either parents, teachers or even forum moderators to make sure they understand what they are doing is hurting and maybe make some restitution .

Equally some need to be encouraged to stand up for themselves like the person who frequently get their 'worms' wrong and find others laugh at them for it or picked on because of their background both things we may not be able to change (and when it comes to colour why should any of us?)

It's all about balance I feel.

Christmas recollections

While arrangements around Christmas including writing that all important letter to Father Christmas to get to the North Pole continue one thing I remember about Christmas were the trips up to my Nan and Grandad's around that time as they were fitted in with shopping being just a few miles away.

I'd spend time with him helping out with the gardening or going with him to get plants while on other occasions he'd swing me on the garden swing at the top end of the garden terrifying Mum as my co-ordination is pretty lousy as I'd enjoy it in my t shirt and shorts.

It was there our family parties with cousins were held not least one just after Boxing Day for which we'd be scrubbed up protesting in the way as boys we just do about the very idea of being scrubbed up and having to dress tidily as we played Kerplunk, Battlestations and the like together while the grown ups watch Darts from Jollies night club just on the south side of our city region or snooker.

Another thing I loved around then was Shari Lewis's Lamb Chop sock puppet show that was shown on national television at the time as I loved puppetry, practising with old grey socks we'd worn out.

Winters Past

We're entering Winter, the start very much of the cold season where some grown ups would push extra thick layers at you not least when like me you are a disabled boy and thought by some to be more vulnerable to the cold.

At the time I was little old fashioned having a liking for Duffle Coats usually grey or green as my last one was with big fat fasteners and a hood for school but to be honest I never got that cold.

Actually I often went out in shorts and long socks back then, never feeling cold at all even if it had been snowing watching the other boys sledding down the bank.

Autumn

The Autumn is a magical time of carpets made of orangy red leaves that look all the better for natural sunlight so I like to walk about this time of year, taking photo's enjoying it before the Winter comes in.

Walking along the path that lead to my school whose building has been repurposed since with its tall trees brings back lost of golden memories.

Malory Towers

This week I'm looking at a series of books that I didn't own but who did borrow from girls in my class because they were engaging to read.

I've been re-reading Malory Towers, the classic story of a all girls high school on the coast of Cornwall, South-west England directly overlooking the sea as written by Enid Blyton.

I bought a set of the original six volumes recently with the front cover of the slip case using this illustration the girls arriving at school. 

The current editions use some ghastly cheap computer generated images of girls while this 2004 set is more classy.

So far in I've just finished the Fifth volume.

Her books were a big part of my childhood that I loved mainly for their sense of innocent adventure, well observed characters and moral tales interwoven into the narrative.

With Malory Towers we see the world of this  boarding school which is a Castle like building with four wings, mainly through the eyes of Darrell, a first year boarder aged 12 getting to grips with induction procedures, new school rules, making new friends who as the series progresses we learn all about, their strong points and well their failings and learning to take on more responsibilities for themselves.

Each wing has inter-house competitions and for some sports their are coveted matches with other schools, the values of giving your all for your team and team mates, honour and being a gracious winner are write right through.

In the plot line we have escapades, ill thought out actions like going missing to perform and becoming so ill we can't sing, playing tricks on teachers and even some serious stuff like poison-pen letters not to mention theft.

For some such stories were (possible are even) a fantasy -a school life in childhood never experienced but preferable to the one they had - but to me much of this was very much like the reality apart from the poison-pen letter bits.

Strangely enough I did play tricks on people back then!

You could say it was really a guide cluing me in to what I was to experience making the transition from day school easier. 

I hope to re-read a few more of Enid Blyton's novels from this era next year.

Teenbeat III - Toto

This weeks Teenbeat  edition may well be the last one this side of  Christmas features part of a trend thought the last few years in Europe at least of offering older albums in special low price packs.

To me Steve Lukather, Jeff Poraco and Bobby Kimball were not just in demand LA based session players gracing many albums in the seventies through the eighties - just check the notes on your albums from that era for the extras!  - but the core of a talent group going under the name of Toto who released many albums but to which with the exception of 1982's IV with it's clutch of hit singles like Africa and Rosanna don't register on the general public's index of sings they know.

Tot's music is perhaps best characterized by strong arrangements involving horns, keyboards and other instruments as well as fairly thoughtful lyrics in a sound which does also rock 

Their first album shows promise with Child's Anthem and Hold The Line which as I recall was a 45 but the first side is lacking a bit of something, the second - you can tell I was brought up in the lp era - is a strong set.

The next album in the pack is 1979's Hydra which has more of uniform concept showing the potential of rock to be musically challenging in the title track especially and is the home to '99' a Favourite of mine.

1981's Turn Back I feel got lost in a clutch of splendid releases that year although it contained Goodbye Eleanor a fast paced rocker and is a very strong album.

The pack does include IV which was huge seller and a good album but one I felt was a bit too mellow and almost too polished while it's follow up Isolation from 1984 has more of a rock feel with songs like Carmen, Holyanna and Stranger In Town the video of which is etched in my memory.

If you've ever been curious about Toto or just wish to explore some classy music this set is a cheap way to do it.

Presents from my boyhood

This week as we are heading towards Christmas, I'm looking back at presents from my boyhood past.

At the time there were at least here in the UK quite a number of shows on the television featuring Magicians who invited members of the public to take part in their acts and these shows really held my attention.

It was just so super exciting to see something disappear and then by magic reappear at the waving of a wand or a chant so my folks bought me a magic set with a wand, hat and a few other things to try these tricks out.

It was something a bit like this one but in white background box going by memory.

I also had something quite useful as I have dyspraxia  which makes trying to write neatly something of a pain and that was a basic Child's Typewriter with a small frame, limited to A5 or maybe going as far as A4 paper.

I used that to write short stories, thank you letters, lists and labels for school projects on.

This dear reader was well before the personal computer was widely available with word processing programs like Word Star came about never mind MS Word so you really didn't have too many choices!

We didn't have the spell checker back then so you had to use a little erasure and overtype this  being before even Tippex correction fluid became widely available for budding typists.

Mine was a Petite a bit like the one below which I kept until high school when I got a grown up manual typewriter.

It wasn't the only one that came to mind.

The great thing about Junior Scrabble the word based games is there are two ways of playing.Younger players can begin with the exciting, ‘Words and Pictures’, a game expressly created to help with the recognition and formation of complex words. 

Once someone has mastered that there's ‘Rainbow Scrabble’, which is the more challenging version intended for younger players of age seven and upwards. 

The scoring system is identical to the ‘grown-up’ version, yet far easier to use and keep track of. 

In a clever move both games are also conveniently located on each side of the board, making it easy to swap from ‘Words and Pictures’ to ‘Rainbow Scrabble’.

Teenbeat II - Chic and Linda Ronstadt

Continuing with our second music with a past connection series, Teenbeat we look at two high profile artists during the era one of the highlights during the year at our high school was the School Disco which we were lucky in that we had a proper dj set up and mc spinning the discs  some of which we supplied from our own modest collections.

One the most in demand request for discs was from the group Chic which I had a decent set of 45's at the time to which we danced to loving funk and Soul music at the time.
This takes me to a recent 2cd set issued by Music Club a budget UK label called Chic Magnifique which I purchased.

This disc has 37 recordings by them including  all the hits we loved such as Le Freak, My Forbidden Lover, Good Times, Hangin' as as well as a few tracks from the 1992 Chic-ism comeback album .
It comes with excellent notes that reveal just how many of these tracks have been sampled by today's R&B/Rap acts and reminds me so much of those 'Good Times'.

Also up on the deck but for different reasons is a disc by the noted singer-songwriter Linda Ronstadt except that for me at least this was amongst the stuff we heard on FM radio back especially at weekends and evenings in the dorm then so frequent that although many of her hits from that period are burnt into my brain I never bought any albums by her then or afterward.

Born in 1946 in Tucson, AZ, Linda's career started in 1967 with the Stone Ponies which is represented on this disc by Different Drum but then she went solo recording for Capitol having a huge hit with You're No Good and Asylum/Warner with a swathe of hits throughout the 70's such as Blue Bayou, It's so Easy and Hurt So Good. 

Later on she explored jazz-pop with Nelson Riddle and Mexican folk which is also covered on this set with such tracks as What's New but inevitable it's the 70's material you come back to and has the lion's share of generously packed discs.

An artist who plows a musical furrow for a while and moves on is hard to compile and at times it's almost as if you've put Linda's songs on shuffle but outside of shorter less value themed collections it's hard to see what else the compilers of this set could do. 

It's certainly better value from both volumes of her Greatest Hits sets.

Narrow boats II

Early in the history of this blog I took some pictures in 2008 that got messed up with a blo update and an issue with a memory stick losing its memory but I found versions that could be cleaned up a little I felt like publishing.

The first is of a Narrowboat decorated for a Festival that passed along the Trent and Mersey canal here with flowers and plants the second taken during the summer when we have a lot of boat people pass by and use our stores.

The first picture shows on it on the right a group of boys and girls from my very own Junior School this century out on a class visit to see and no doubt draw and write about their experiences.

The second is of a narrowboat moored up.

Canalside view

This week, while working on some pictures for next week's entry I went out while I wasn't too good to the local canal for a bit of fresh air and photography.

As you can see he's in the process of mooring up the boat about to tie it around that round thing to the left so it doesn't start floating off which is near the houses originally built for people who worked on the canal going between The Potteries, Northwich and Ellesmere Port.

You can also see how much better the camera is.

Record Collecting

When I first started record collecting the way in which you built collections up differed a good deal from what it is today.

For instance all but the most smallest of towns had actual record shops who held a certain level of stock including all the current releases and could order up any 'back catalogue' items ( titles still available new but not the biggest sellers), for you.

In addition there were mail order outfits which you usually subscribed to a years catalogue and update list which you used to fill out a order form making sure you made clear what to do if any items wasn't available and enclosing a money order or cheque.

Two examples I can remember in the UK were Cob Records and Adrian's in Essex that had massive catalogues covering titles from the UK and all over the world many of which in the smaller towns you'd never see.

One smaller outfit based in Telford, Shropshire was Oldies Unlimited who tended to specialize more in 45's (or singles to Brits) and one thing they quite a few of was special packages of so many singles by named artists that were a very cheap way of establishing your collection.

Recently I received a similar style pack in the mail from eil.com who aren't generally the cheapest place for stuff although they have monthly promotions that help in the same vein.
This was a pack of five singles for the UK market by the female rock singer Belinda Carlisle all mint unplayed copies in their original picture sleeves for just over £10

The titles included were Leave A Light On, La Luna and Summer Rain from her Runaway Horses album, Little Black Book from the Live Your Life, Be Free album and finally Big Scary Animal from belindacarlislereal which came out in 1993 when vinyl singles sales started falling.

I liked her music an awful lot but bought albums on cd mainly back then so I was glad to get this set cheaply.

This is the cover of Big Scary Animal as issued in Europe in 1993:

The Galaxy Railways

THE GALAXY RAILWAYS

 "The Galaxy railways" is an adventure series set in as the title suggest on the Galaxy Railways, linking all the galaxies together by railroad with a team of crack railway security people, the SDF, whose job it is to keep them safe for terrorists and the like.

Surprisingly this title has never been issued in the UK but can be bought from UK Amazon as well as Amazon.com and as I've always loved things about railways as adventure stories or actual journeys from boyhood this'll do fine.

Funimation in the States has a budget line called S.A.V.E for older titles so for those whose dvd player will do Region 1 discs you can save a bit too while building a collection and that series included this title

Kansas remasters

Following from my liking for structurally simple uncomplicated songs about romance I slowly graduated toward more complex music such as that by Kansas ( I couldn't really get into four sided concept albums) but the majority of their albums I had were on tape so I was mighty glad to get this cd set recently.

Beginning in the 70s from their hometown of Topeka, Kansas, the group produced a wild mix of rock anthems, introspective ballads, and loose jams on their studio albums.

Many of you have heard of "Carry On Wayward Son" on Classic Rock radio stations which was a smash hit for the group back in '76. Well that's from an album called Leftoverture that happens to part of this extremely cheap 5 cd set."Dust in the Wind" (off the featured '77's Point of Know Return album) is hardly indicative of the full-bodied, keyboard-and-violin-fueled anthems that grace most of their albums.

The albums included are:-

Kansas (S/T)

Song For America

Masque

Leftoverture

Point of Know Return

The discs are the Sony Legacy remasters from the 2000's that happen to sound extremely good to my ears coming with bonus live tracks too in card lp style covers.

I have the US 1996 re-master of Monolith from 1979 featuring the hit People of the South Wind as well Audio-Vision which had the hit Hold On.

I first bought Drastic Measures as a lp record in August 1983 shortly after its US release and following a selling off period in the late 80's while I was trying to build up my cd collection, I have been without a copy!

This was a pity as it was a enjoyable album the Prog rockers when John Elefante joined the band taking lead vocals.

It came out briefly on cd in 1996 and I bought a copy although it is long period out of print (England's Rock Candy re-issued this title a few months ago but that not as good sounding)

The song Mainstream takes a pot shot at the label people who stifle artistic development and Fight Fire With fire is a up tempo rocker.

YouTube - Kansas - Fight Fire with Fire

I also got the matching 1996 Legacy cd of  Vinyl Confessions the 1982 album with the hits Play The Game Tonight and Play On both of which shared as did most of tracks the bands strongly felt Christian beliefs.

My boarding school life

 Encountering and talk with someone for a few week rather got me to think abit about writing something about my boarding school life although my own pictures seem to have disappeared over the years.

So you wanna know about boarding school?

Well I went when I was 11 and 1/2 and it probably as as well as there were lots of problems at home revolving around Dad that were affecting me emotionally.

As much as I'd love to say I went to this gorgeous old building with orchard and that, it was actually a very modern boarding school on the edge of a small town and as close we got to an orchard was a field with wild poppies growing in it.

The school was what you call co-ed taking both girls and boys in it.

I quite liked it because it gave me security, a host of friends and more of a chance to be myself because for once I was in the right place at the right time.

When you mention boarding schools people tend to weigh in with opinions from either 'my Island horror story' or 'the very making of me' but oddly enough I think the best portrayal is in fiction specifically Enid Blyton's Malory Tower or St Clares series that you might possible of read before those who had it in for Enid removed her books from libraries in England tossed in with the boyish wit of Jennings of which I read a lot at the time.

Her portrayal is very similar to my experience in that it's a multifaceted thing because you are part of a social unit who live and breathe together for all of the time so everything is that much bigger.The good and the not so good.

If you live away from people as I did it's a great thing because you have a ready made supply of playmates available from daybreak to sunset from different backgrounds plus my family had issues amongst themselves (they still do sadly) so it provided a bit of an escape from them.

I suppose the first thing to say when I arrived was there were more boys so when the first morning had began it obvious the head boy had rather more to 'take care of' trying to settle in so standing very nervously by the wall, the Head Girl puts her arm through mine and says "I'm Jo and I'll take care of you".

This leads to the biggest tear stain heart to heart ever as I explain what stuff is like at home and why I really hate how I looked to the point of hurting myself deliberately (we'd call it "self harming" today) all with a vocabulary of a nine year old as my English wasn't terribly good then. She doesn't really understand it all but says she'll help me which is good enough.

By a stroke of luck while the individual Dorms are gender separated, they alternate along one long corridor so you could see them about and talk in the common room or in the grounds.

By a bit of persuasion I was able to get to play netball and rounders with the girls as I wasn't much good at rugby or cricket and swimming was mixed.

In my school, the  Dorms for us held about 3 or four to one room in which  which you can put up some of your own things such as posters, action man figures and you could have your own tv and tape player.

In the evenings the Subbuteo table was out and all us boys would be around it going hell for leather to make our teams players win which was little different from the recess football matches we'd start and inevitably send the ball on to the flat roof to the consternation of our headmaster.

If you wished although in the common room where you could read watch tv and have drinks before getting dressed for bed and lights out. No talking ever after lights out!!

Generally we could play in our dorm, the hall, outdoors in good weather under supervision, in in our common room although that's where we'd listen to music mainly in and sometimes we could arrange activities such as cubs or school would take us out to places like the movies or the theatre especially when we were older.

The other side of being in a boarding school was you had to accept this space had rules and you had staff who would see you looked after yourself when it personal appearance and hygiene because that was their responsibility.

We also wore uniform outside class grey skirts for girls or trousers or at a push depending on the staff shorts for boys like me with grey or red jumpers and white tops -nothing really fancy (I'd of loved a blazer!) which I didn't mind cos at least nobody was able to be nasty about clothes you had.

The first thing you learned in your first term as that the 'social ground rules' were different, so If anyone said anything catty regarding another it would last well beyond communal mealtimes and 'broadcasting' your thoughts willy nilly or making wild accusations was a very silly thing to do cos the group would be upset for ages and you couldn't escape it.

You'd pretty much have to apologize to the person and the group and take whatever sanction they'd apply so we all could move on and you could be spanked by the staff during the day and for certain things outside school hours.

In hindsight that was the best training for using the internet ever ('Everything seen cannot be unseen') as well as being very useful in large organizations dealing with group issues.

So you see my school experience was actually pretty good not because of some big idict from above but just from being flexible and showing compassion.

Blue Peter in the 70's

 There's a fair chance some of you may well remember having these annuals during your childhood as keen viewers of the BBC TV Blue Peter program. 

It may surprise you to know I also have a number that are co-related to the period I was (officially) a child having not just information about what was shown during that 12 month period, but also on the news of the day such as with this edition information about the US space carrier, Skylab and some good illustrated bits about British History.

I was and remain an avid fan of this show from watching for myself around 1970 with my brothers aquiring some of their annuals as they outgrow them and having my own still.

It all helps to jog my memory back to the year and what mattered to me as a child during it such as the arts and crafts which at all the schools I attended we did.

Feature on that edition John Noakes a Northern English presenter during the show up to June 1978 with Shep, the Border collie to the left of him.

K-On!

I was very fortunate to get the this recently released DVD of this acclaimed series that had only been show in Japan in 2009 that I had watched via streaming.

K-On!'s story revolves around four Japanese high school girls who join their school's light music club to try to save it from being abolished. 

However, there are the only members of the club, and at first Yui Hirasawa has no experience of playing or reading music. 

Eventually, she learns how to be an excellent player of the guitar. The rest of the club helps her to buy a guitar, and they perform at the school festival. As well a cd of music from the series was issued to great success in Japan.

Main Characters:

Yui Hirasawa -Pictured above,A first year high school student, she plays a Les Gibson Heritage Cherry Sunburst electric guitar as well as being a vocalist for the group. 

Although when recruited she felt it was easy as she'd be playing the castanets but the group feels different! She is said to have perfect pitch but is known to forget lyrics in mid flow a symptom of her inability to concentrate on more than one thing at once!

Ritsu Tainaka: Drummer of the group and President of the Light Music club
Mio Akiyama: Shy left handed Bass Guitarist who while being a 'straight A's student can't handle macabre story telling. She is a friend of Ritsu.

Tsumugi Kotobuki: Keyboard player. a wealthy girl with a gentle and sweet personality she had been taking piano lessons from age 4 and won many piano contests.

Azusa Nakano: Guitarist. In same year and class as Ui, she is a self-proclaimed novice guitarist who has been playing the guitar since she was in the fourth grade. Her parents are working in a jazz band.Personality wise she's not comfortable with the socializing and cosplay aspects of the light music club.

James Taylor

Way back in time in my early boyhood there was guy I didn't know much about but to which I heard this record 'You've Got A Friend' which I think was the first 45 I ever bought myself and so begun a love affair with some of his singles.

Because it was the early 70's I had no albums by him and so many decades after the event, I'm building up a small collection of his albums for the first time on cd a number of which are from labels specializing in higher than average sound quality.

James was born in Boston, M.A. on March 12th 1948 moving to The South in his childhood, learning to Cello and the guitar by 1960.

In 1967 following episodes of depression he moved to London, England making contact with Peter Asher the A&R man of Apple records - the company founded by no less than The Beatles - and was signed on the strengths of his demonstration recordings. Whilst there he wrote Caroline on my mind and released an album James Taylor on Apple which was remastered in 2010.

In October 1969 He signed a new contract with Warner Brothers and with help from Songstress Carole King released the album Sweet Baby James in February 1970 with the hits single 'Fire and Rain'.

This album is held to be a masterpiece of folk rock winning many wards over the years.

In April 1971 he issued Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon that featured the single by him I first heard with backing vocals by Joni Mitchell that went top ten even in England.My current copy  is the Audio Fidelity high quality version in April 2012 although I did have the stock European issue from the 1980's

The concept album One Man Dog was issued in November 1972 with the lead off single Don't let Me Be Lonely Tonight' but this only reached #18 on the US charts which was a sign the album wasn't selling well.

Much the same followed Walking Man issued June 1974 which only sold 300,000 copies in the States with the title track issued on 45 missing the hot 100. These first four Warner albums are out on Audio Fidelity as is Gorilla his 1975 album issued in 2013, however another label Mobile Fidelity (Mofi) of Chicago Ill. are tackling the later ones such as the acclaimed 'comeback' album JT from 1977 album, Flag and Dad Loves His Work from 1981.

Infant and Junior Education

This week I am writing a little about my Infant and Junior school education.

The first school I went to was in a Country district in a really old building Victorian no doubt set up when the powers that be decided we all needed a bit of an education  with formally separate girls and boys  doors that we had to line up by at the start of day, during recesses and depart through in the afternoons.

It was made from brick, had outdoor toilets and a big playground that we'd mark out for football, trees for playing games plus a field for games.

Classrooms would no doubt shock some today and have others calling for their retention as they were locked very much in the era of the building, with one for each year group.

At the front of each classroom near a window stood a old big wooden desk where you teacher sat with a clear view of the entire class and half a view to the classroom door where the Head Teacher would look through from time to time which was a pretty powerful incentive to be good.

The rest of the room had shelves for reference type books for our year as we didn't have a proper school library then but the biggest difference compared with schools shortly after I left was with the seating arrangements.

The classroom had rows of separate wooden desks (like the picture above) with lids that lifted up to get your exercise books out, a compartment for your writing equipment and an inkwell. 

Yes really an inkwell cos in Juniors you were expected to write in cursive writing in ink, refilling your pen as you went along.

I think ours were made from polished and varnished pine as were the chairs.

You had a fixed table position in alternating girl, boy fashion which I suppose was really to encourage us boys to pay attention but in my case lead to much whispering!

We also were taught written and spoken French from a very early age which is very useful.

Anyone not paying attention would be called out and if you persisted then you'd be punished in class or sent to the Head Teacher returning with a red face and a sore behind.

Although I had the odd bullying issues there, I liked the school a lot not least for what seemed like endless games of rounders but I transferred to another school building  so I had to learn all about where everything was all over again!

This new school was well brand spanking new with bigger grounds and a library so I had to learn the Dewey classification system and how to book out books I wanted to read and it also had its own kitchen which my old school didn't have (they bought in meals to warm up and serve in a community hall instead).

The first major difference was we didn't have form classrooms, but area - they called them Home Bays - that we'd start out from moving to different parts of the building for science for instance and that this school was open plan. I think part of idea was to encourage to go do stuff for ourselves and earn the respect for being able to do it without as was the case at my first school being stood over all day.

They had these half hexagonal tables that we did work on that were supposed to help with group work but we just kept giggling between ourselves most of time, especially when like my friend and I we'd forgotten our PE kit so we were meant to be doing extra class work with another teacher popping in to keep an eye on us!!!

The noise at times was problem so much so that everyone had to reminded to talk quietly and the younger ones got screens put in to keep their screaming out of our ears as we struggled with long division (and I still do)!

We did a lot of music, recorder groups, plus playing with triangles, Xylophones, drums, glockenspiels and so on as either performances or in all school year assemblies. The assemblies at my first school were much instructions, worship and public admonishment sessions all in one.

Usually in the late mornings our year teacher would do a storytime for us reading books like Emil and the Detectives aloud and we'd talk about the adventures as a group work.
It was a good school but I felt it lacked some structure that could lead some astray as much it was nice to feel trusted going about your independent learning.

The Bay City Rollers and I

Sometimes I talk about things that almost sum up an era for me and the period 1974 through 1977 has this one.

I had this craze for a pop group that was more than just a liking, it was a obsession at the time where I had to have, watch and generally speaking experience everything connected with them taking chunks of my time and dare I say it, my allowance.

It also had a certain social cache helping me make friends as we exchange gossip, played their records and worked on our scrapbooks together during the day and in the Dorm.

The Rollers at London Heathrow airport back in'75.

Talking about my love for their music was the ice breaker at my high school which was a boarding school

Now the thing is I've still got those records the very ones I had back then when I had my very first stereo phonograph that also had a built in AM radio to hear the pop shows featuring singles chart countdowns on Tuesdays and the new records played by the DJ's.

This is the massive selling cover of the Four Season's song Bye Bye Baby that was released on February 28 1975 and had a six week run at the #1 slot.

Although compared to my current stereo that phonograph was primitive and the record deck played the discs with a bit more playing force than you'd use today, those discs by the Bay City Rollers play extremely well which I suppose has something to do with the care I took of them back then.

I got today a new to me copy of original hit single from late 1973 called Saturday Night in a picture sleeve that was made in what was West Germany.

In North America a re-recorded version was issued in late 1975 and this became the no.1 hit  in the States in January 1976 this featured on later copies of the Dedication lp from 1976.

The version I got didn't have Leslie on Vocals which the version on the UK Rollin' and North American self titled album did but the original vocalist Nobby Clarke together with it's UK b side Hey! C.B.

Here's the cover:

Here's the 1976 and 1977 Annuals from the UK I had back then that needless to say got read from cover to cover hundreds of times including at school.

They had a TV show that started on Tuesday April 22nd 1975 called Shang-A-Lang that featured other artists and had a bit about looking after bikes and cars that I watched on our new colour telly straight after Junior school.

Another vivid recollection of that time was tuning in at 10 am on New Years Day 1976  to the The Bay City Rollers' 1976 New Year's Day Special which lasted for two hours.

Here Eric Faulkner, Les McKeown, Stuart 'Woody' Wood, Alan Longmuir, Derek Longmuir and their Manager, Tam Paton presented exclusively for Radio 1 their own show, including all their hits, their new LP Wouldn't You Like It which featured the 1975 summer smash Give A Little Love and their own choice of records, with David Hamilton in the chair.

I taped the show on cassette but that recording is no longer with me.

The April 1976 single that reach the #4 position, Love Me Like I Love You was a song we sang along to on the school bus on trips.