Not sure what I am using this blog for except that it's a way of talking about my life in the music business which started many years ago when I was sixteen. I lived in Eastbourne at the time and would commute every day to London and home again in the evening such was my love of pop music as it was called at the time. All for the princely sum of £6 per week two of which would be handed over to my mum and £1 a week for the season ticket so I had three left for myself but believe me in the 1950's that seemed like a lot of money and I can remember very quickly buying clothes (my other love at the time) and even going on an Italian holiday to the Riviera and Rome where I saw the famous Pope John in a public audience at his summer residence. To be honest I felt quite rich after my school days. I should mention that I left school early and did not take my GCE's at the time incurring the wrath and disdain of my headmaster at the Grammar School
I started out as an office boy "chasing progress" on the printing of album covers, or long players as they were called then. The good thing about this job was that it got me around the Decca building to get approvals from various label managers and within 6 months I was offered three jobs and took the one for London Records as Assistant Label Manager. Not bad at all as this was the hippest label in England at the time having artists like Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers and all of the Phil Spector artists. I was in heaven and got a lot of free test pressings and singles all of which were bought last year by Kevin Patrick mentioned in a previous blog. It was a very happy time even though all the travel was quite tiring. Had to be up at around 5.30am and did not get home until 8.45pm at the earliest and a lot later in the winter months when the line froze over. The whole point is that I loved the music so much that it was well worth it and it was the very beginning of what was to become a very interesting journey.
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