Quadrophenia

Back in 1964, when I was in my last year at primary school, Mods and Rockers ruled!
You had to be either a Mod or a Rocker, if you liked The Beatles you were a Mod, if you liked The Rolling Stones you were a Rocker. (Well, thats the way we saw it back at school)
You would be stopped in the street by kids that asked "Are you a Mod or a Rocker? Sometimes you had to judge whether they looked Mod or Rocker - a bit like Trick or Treat!
My Dad had a scooter - a Lambretta, and when I started secondary school Dad took me to school on my first day on his Lambretta. I can see it parked in the porch outside the coal shed and hear it's wonderful sound in my head. A woolley, smooth sound, like the Mods and their Vespas and Lambrettas!
Why am I writing this?
Last night I watched the film 'Quadrophenia' on television for the first time.
I always thought that Quadrophenia was a musical film like 'Pinball Wizard' because of the album by 'The Who' so tended to avoid it. Wow, not so...this was probably one of the best films I have seen for a while. It was filmed in 1979, but represented 'Mods' back in 1964.
A real classic!

J. Birkett

At every Radio Rally I went to you could always rely on the 'Birkett' stall! This guy sells cheap, reliable and hard to find components and in bulk as well! You could buy 'untested' semiconductors that would normally cost a fortune and they always worked. The Leicester Rally was a dream, but the biggest and best was Birkett. I would spend ages looking through the little wooden display boxes to find things that I wanted or would be useful in the future.

Capacitors, tuning capacitors, RF Transistors, minature relays, leds, pots....you name it he had it! Probably the best supplier in the country at rallies and by post. Sometimes he had some of the more unusual stuff. In the loft I have a UHF SWR bridge and Power Meter made from one bought for £2 from Birkett and UHF Relays that I used on my 23cm transverter along with the PA Transistors that cost about £3 at the time.

Above is a picture that I found of his shop in Lincoln...an Aladdin's Cave!

Korting and Decca

The Korting Colour TV (Bottom) and Decca 2230 (top)

Never thought I would see these again.

When I first started work at Telefusion the Korting was the only TV sold or rented. It was made in Germany and at the time (1970) was state of the art colour TV technology. It actually had 6 buttons on the tuner and a tint control (bottom left) They were very reliable, but a sod to repair if they did go wrong apart from the valves.

Neil (G3ZPL) bought one of these, but the screening was awful, TVI (Television Interference) was there all time when Neil was on air. Lots of memories about these wonderful machines, they were later replaced with the Decca 'Bradford' Chassis - Decca 2230.

The Decca 2230 was build in modules (panels) which would allow you to replace or repair faulty panels. Originally it was built in 1973. The chassis dropped down for easy access, I can still remember the layout of the panels and the huge smoothing block that I replaced many times, not to mention the CRT's and LOPTX's. The Decca used the Decca 30 hybrid chassis which combined valves and semiconductor technology.

Both of these Televisions had beautiful wooden cabinets, real piece of furniture!

The Keracolour

These sets use the DECCA 'BRADFORD' chassis.

The chassis sits on a wooden shelf at the bottom of the globe, the only thing that stops the chassis moving about are stikkle bricks!!, which are riveted to the chassis and screwed to the wooden shelf. I fixed one of these for a collectables dealer, it took me a long time as it was in a bad state. I found the set almost impossable to carry through doorways without crushing my fingers on the door posts, it was 27" wide in all directions!. The dealer sold it for £600.

I remember installing one one of these in Bromley Cross, Bolton. It weighed a ton and it's awkward shape made it difficult to carry, but the size was the biggest problem!

It would not go through the doors of the house, so we ended up taking the internal doors off it's hinges and the back panel of the TV. It was a real 'Heath Robinson' of a TV, but when it was set up in the front room it looked fantastic!

When I first saw it in the 'Trident' Showroom, it was the future, everyone would want one these. It never really happened, but what an innovation at the time!

Yessongs

While we are on the subject of classic groups and albums, this one is also timeless!

Its 1973 and I remember watching 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' late one night. The whole program was the group 'YES' recorded live from Earls Court (I think)

I didn't really know much about the group then, but that performance absolutely stunned me! Rick Wakeman surrounded by the most sophisticated analogue and digital equipment i've ever seen. Moog and Melotron synthesisers were state of the art then and the only other song I heard using one of these was 'Son of my father' about the same time!

'Yours is no disgrace', 'And You and I', 'Roundabout' and Rick Wakeman' s 'Six Wives of Henry the Eighth' solo was incredible at the time.

Here they are:

Rick Wakeman's Solo

Roundabout

And You and I

Your's is no disgrace

So what did I do next?

I saved up my money and bought the TRIPLE album 'Yessongs' This cost £8...a heck of a lot of money at the time. Again, I was at college and went out at dinner time into town, then upstairs at W.H. Smith's - which at the time was a great record shop. I had really given this some thought about buying the record, but finally made a decision to splash out. I then went back to college with my carrier bag containing my £8 triple album, I guarded it with my life!

Some of the lads at college were really into this kind of stuff, Dave Eire especially, he was dead impressed when I showed it off to the others!

When I tried listening to it at home on the headphones there was really too much to take in...where do I start?

When I met Kath, she also had 'Yes' in her collection as well, but not Yessongs!

As well as the tracks, the graphics are superb! You can only see this on the vinyl album to appreciate it!

This is one of those records that grows on you and become timeless! (but I still don't understand the lyrics!

Happy New Year!

Led Zeppelin

Back in the 70's two of my favourite LP's were 'Led Zeppelin II' and the one that I called 'Led Zeppelin IV'. These albums are timeless! I remember listening to 'Black Dog' and 'Rock and Roll' at a record shop on Knowsley St called 'Russells' during my tea break when I was at college. The Cafe is still around today in a basement that Kath and Jacquie often visit. I saved my money and bought it shortly after. When I met Kath she also had the same two albums in her (amazing) collection!

During dark, wet nights like tonight I enjoyed listening to Led Zeppelin sat in the corner away from the telly and next to the solid state, state of the art, audio system that I built with my headphones on! (No iPods in those days!)

Just before Christmas Led Zeppelin re-formed to do a one off concert. I bought on the day it came out 'Mothership' the latest Digitally Remastered best of Led Zeppelin...superb! Here are photos of the concert

About the same time iTunes have released the complete catalogue of LZ for download.

A visit to PC World a few weeks ago reminded me of that first encounter at 'Russells' when Led Zeppelin was playing on a PC with digital Dolby 5.1. I could hear it all over the store, but I still kept walking back and standing in front of the PC to listen to the suberb quality...trouble is...assistants kept trying to flog me a PC!

Obviously, some of the young assistants at PC World like Led Zeppelin!!

My Classroom!

This picture shows the remains of my classroom at St Andrew's School.
Looks like the area is about to be transformed as builders move in to replace the school and all it's memories, with houses. Down the road a huge building structure is taking place that will become a all singing and dancing Health Centre and mini hospital. How times are changing this year!
After Christmas St Osmund's School will be demolished changing the face of the area again...for the better I hope! Quite a year!