Page 4 of 4

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 5:02 pm
by ZeroDeConduite
From my point of view there was absolutely no 'pop' music whatsoever (except from grecians who had 78/45 record players in their tiny day-room studies - 2 in Pe A at the time). Radio was restricted to the BBC Light programme which ran the gamut of 'Worker's Playtime' to Jimmy Young covers of Frankie Laine :-(
Any 'pop' or rock was restricted to Radio Luxembourg on a CCF Signals 19 set (49m short wave) in the undergrowth, or the jukebox in the bikers caff in Broadbridge Heath.
There was quite a lively classical underclass centred around Big School (concerts by Ivor(y) Keys at the piano etc), and in the music dept. just behind Big School at that time. Where (before my time) Sir Colin Davis etc learnt the music business beyond just being a clarinetist in the band. Corks had been long gone by the time I turned up...

From Ivor Key's bio: He was educated at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, where he was accomplished enough a pianist to performed Rachmaninov's C minor piano concerto.

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:08 am
by Richard
Going back a bit further (to the first half of the 1950s) the music situation at CH Horsham was similar to the above description.

There were occasional classical music concerts from the school orchestra, conducted by ‘Pip’ Dore (organist) and after his departure by ‘Corks.’ At concerts, in contrast to most rehearsals, the boy players were supplemented by a few masters and some masters’ wives. Also there were recitals from some visiting professional musicians (eg John Hunt, pianist and, as mentioned above, Ivor Keys, both OBs). In addition some recitals were given by CH masters, some of whom were of professional ability (Corks and David Swale organists, Ivor Maconnell, oboeist, etc). Operas were sometimes presented, but never Gilbert and Sullivan during Cork’s reign. The most elaborate and successful opera was probably Purcell’s King Arthur offered for the Quatercentenary and I remember it with much affection and awe. (As an irrelevant detail all the orchestral staff members wore 17th century costume.)

However as for pop music, there were communal radios in most dayrooms, only on during specific hours and virtually no private wirelesses, for in those pre-transistor days even so-called portable radios were very bulky and expensive. However on Saturday evenings we all listened to (or in my case were forced to listen to) Radio Luxemburg’s Top of the Pops programme, I think it was called. This, in my house, was second in popularity only to that day’s football results.

Incidentally today I discovered a Wikipedia article entitled, List of people educated at Christ's Hospital. It lacks many names that should be included. Perhaps readers can help to rectify this.

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:57 pm
by michael scuffil
ZeroDeConduite wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 5:02 pm From my point of view there was absolutely no 'pop' music whatsoever (except from grecians who had 78/45 record players in their tiny day-room studies - 2 in Pe A at the time). Radio was restricted to the BBC Light programme which ran the gamut of 'Worker's Playtime' to Jimmy Young covers of Frankie Laine :-(
Any 'pop' or rock was restricted to Radio Luxembourg on a CCF Signals 19 set (49m short wave) in the undergrowth, or the jukebox in the bikers caff in Broadbridge Heath.
There was quite a lively classical underclass centred around Big School (concerts by Ivor(y) Keys at the piano etc), and in the music dept. just behind Big School at that time. Where (before my time) Sir Colin Davis etc learnt the music business beyond just being a clarinetist in the band. Corks had been long gone by the time I turned up...

From Ivor Key's bio: He was educated at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, where he was accomplished enough a pianist to performed Rachmaninov's C minor piano concerto.
Pop records were banned from 1957 to 1961. We listened of course to Radio Luxembourg (illegally) in the dormitory. I still remember the thrill of the guitar opening to 'Move It' (Cliff Richard's first record, and his only good one). On Saturday evenings we could listen in the dayroom. The up-and-coming DJ was a guy called Gus Goodwin (d. 2013). Of course Radio Luxembourg was notorious for fading just at the wrong moment. Unfortunately the late 50s and early 60s were a dull time for pop music. The first wave (Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis etc.) had gone quiet, and the Beatles hadn't arrived. Things got better from about 1962 (when Jimmy Savile arrived on the scene, but that was coincidental). 'Teen and Twenty Disc Club' (TTDC). Remember?

Corks left in 1957 -- what do you mean 'long gone'?

Another CH master who could play at professional level was Alan Wilkinson, a violinist. His teaching was good enough to get my friend Andrew Porter into the National Youth Orchestra.

The crowd I hung around with included some musical aesthetes who introduced me to Shostakovich, Mahler and the Modern Jazz Quartet, among others. I still listen to the latter, sometimes.

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2019 4:14 pm
by ZeroDeConduite
michael scuffil wrote: Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:57 pm
ZeroDeConduite wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 5:02 pm Corks left in 1957 -- what do you mean 'long gone'?
I only meant that many months had elapsed between 1957 and 1960 when I decided music was missing in my education...

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:28 pm
by rockfreak
In reply to ZerodeConduite, firstly I agree with your memories of Van Praagh. He always struck me as being a bit more progressive than many of the teachers in the 50s. There was one hilarious time when we were in the lecture theatre watching VP's slides of his travels in Sarawak. Suddenly one flashed up showing the bald and gnomelike VP surrounded by beaming, topless native women. The whole place erupted into laughter and cheers. Praagh looked a bit pained and said: "Now come on boys, I know that you hardly ever see a woman, but really..." He was known for his way of trying to solicit ideas and suggestions from the science class rather than giving a straight-up lecture and got an appreciative obit in the Guardian when he died.
As to music, I must confess to having got some of my early classical appreciation from the dayroom. I was a rock 'n' roller till about age 15 but I remember going past someone's study and hearing some pleasing music coming out. Sticking my head in and enquiring what it was I was told it was Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusick. OK, not exactly cutting edge modern classical but I couldn't believe that this guy Mozart, who I merely knew as a name, could produce such tuneful, pleasing, urbane music - like a well-worked mathematical equation. After that it was Tchaikovsky's ballet music, and then onwards. A voyage of discovery.

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:51 pm
by rockfreak
Interesting point here about the demise of pop music between rock 'n' roll and the onset of the Beatles, et al. Michael mentioned Cliff Richard's 'Move It' as being his only decent one. Yes, and in about 1980 I asked him about it. I was working for the music industry paper Record Business and our editor knew Peter Gormley, Cliff's manager. He suggested that we should do a multi-page special on Cliff as the year was Cliff's 21st in showbusiness.
I went along with Barry Lazell, our charts expert, and we asked him why he had produced one of the seminal singles in British rock 'n' roll and then effectively gone soft. He said that after about three singles he went up to EMI to check his sales figures and noticed that
'Living Doll' had outsold 'Move It' by about three to one. He said: "I was no fool, even then". He knew that his audience was girls and the family audience. This was confirmed when I then went on to interview Bruce Welch of the Shadows for the feature who said that Cliff was always "career". Bruce said that it was the Shadows who were were trying to get him to do more uptempo stuff in the late 70s when punk was all pervasive, and Cliff said, well OK find me the songs. So the Shadows set about trawling Tin Pan Alley and up came numbers like 'Devil Woman' and 'Green Light' which revived his career. I would agree with Michael that that opening riff to 'Move It' is one of the best things in British rock 'n' roll, which was often otherwise something of a laughing matter. Wee Willie Harris, Dickie Pride, Johnny Gentle, and so on. Although Billy Fury seems to have retained a cult following. A friend at the time who played in backing bands in the early 60s always rated Johnny Kidd and The Pirates and Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers as musically good live acts.

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:42 pm
by Katharine
As some here know, we lived in Sarawak from 1991 to 96, Gordon Van Praagh was still remembered with affection by many we met. Does anyone know his dates there?

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 10:35 pm
by ZeroDeConduite
In his book 'A Fire To Be Kindled' which is a professional memoir, Gordon Van Praagh only mentions a first trip to Sarawak in 1960, returning 'many times since'.

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:05 pm
by Pe.A
J.R. wrote: Sat Sep 22, 2018 6:02 pm
Golfer wrote: Sat Sep 22, 2018 4:15 pm
CHAZ wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:10 am
Yes it was. Jonathan Davies went on to be Head of History at King Edward's Birmingham. His speciality was devising history re-enactment games which he has continued into retirement.
https://www.schoolstogether.org/project ... g-history/
As someone who has studied WWII in great detail, I can say that if the right military leaders had been listened too at the end of that war, we certainly would NOT be in the position we are in today
Pls expand. Sounds interesting...

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:08 pm
by Pe.A
J.R. wrote: Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:01 pm Think your keyboard '?' is stuck Tim, or maybe you've just nodded off.

Hey Ho. Matters not.

One well known private school is now still trying to hush up the 'accepted' tradition of seniors beating juniors with cricket bats.

I feel a Channel 4 documentary coming on.
Not much difference to rugby initiations at University. Forced drinking, forced nakedness, and usually forced peltings with eggs, which i have seen draw blood....

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:18 pm
by J.R.
Pe.A wrote: Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:05 pm
J.R. wrote: Sat Sep 22, 2018 6:02 pm
Golfer wrote: Sat Sep 22, 2018 4:15 pm
Yes it was. Jonathan Davies went on to be Head of History at King Edward's Birmingham. His speciality was devising history re-enactment games which he has continued into retirement.
https://www.schoolstogether.org/project ... g-history/
As someone who has studied WWII in great detail, I can say that if the right military leaders had been listened too at the end of that war, we certainly would NOT be in the position we are in today
Pls expand. Sounds interesting...
Senior Generals and Montgomery in particular, asked Churchill to push the Russians back out over the German border, because they could see what probably happen later. (And it did !!)

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:34 pm
by michael scuffil
J.R. wrote: Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:18 pm
Pe.A wrote: Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:05 pm
J.R. wrote: Sat Sep 22, 2018 6:02 pm

As someone who has studied WWII in great detail, I can say that if the right military leaders had been listened too at the end of that war, we certainly would NOT be in the position we are in today
Pls expand. Sounds interesting...
Senior Generals and Montgomery in particular, asked Churchill to push the Russians back out over the German border, because they could see what probably happen later. (And it did !!)
Whatever Montgomery et al. may have thought, there was the little matter of the Yalta Agreement. There was also the more practical concern that the Russians might have driven us back over Germany's western border and got the whole of Germany for themselves. Given how far they had pushed the Germans back already -- all the way from Stalingrad -- this was certainly on the cards.

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 7:57 pm
by Otter
jtaylor wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 5:14 pm I think I’ll leave the previous comment to stand to speak for itself, given the swear-filter blocked it out - but just to be clear this is unbecoming and not normally acceptable on this forum thank you.
I totally understand Tim's response, given how a post about his late wife and then an innocent, passing anecdote about a colleague of his who made history lessons fun, was trolled by a moderator who then clearly and baselessly implied illegal behaviour on the part of that colleague.

Unbecoming Tim's comment may be, even more so was the deliberate provocation on the part of the moderator, as was the site owner totally ignoring the moderator's behaviour at the same time as scolding the target of the online harassment. I would have expected more given the excellent standard to which this site is otherwise run.

I know this is a few months late but I can't not speak up about online bullying and trolling.

Seriously, is it now always some kind of dodgy insinuation when you say a teacher made lessons fun?

Re: Vikki Askew

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 7:05 pm
by Pe.A
Otter wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2019 7:57 pm
jtaylor wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 5:14 pm I think I’ll leave the previous comment to stand to speak for itself, given the swear-filter blocked it out - but just to be clear this is unbecoming and not normally acceptable on this forum thank you.
I totally understand Tim's response, given how a post about his late wife and then an innocent, passing anecdote about a colleague of his who made history lessons fun, was trolled by a moderator who then clearly and baselessly implied illegal behaviour on the part of that colleague.

Unbecoming Tim's comment may be, even more so was the deliberate provocation on the part of the moderator, as was the site owner totally ignoring the moderator's behaviour at the same time as scolding the target of the online harassment. I would have expected more given the excellent standard to which this site is otherwise run.

I know this is a few months late but I can't not speak up about online bullying and trolling.

Seriously, is it now always some kind of dodgy insinuation when you say a teacher made lessons fun?
Upon re reading, it was phrased in quite a peculiar way, to say the least...

i think a certain eccentricity in teachers should be mandatory...