It is very hard trying to recollect events and incidents that took place over fifty years ago. However, remembering the hit music of the day has been a great help during the fifties and sixties period. Especial as music turned out to be my first love and favourite pastime. Fortunately, I had the help of a brief personal diary to assist me through the Borneo years. For the rest I have had to rely on my memory and the help of close friends.
Music is “Total Recall”, was something I was told during my three-year stay in New Zealand, by a fellow guitarist cum bass player Paul Defane. How true his words have turned out to be. Because whenever I hear an old record being played, I can usually remember where I was at the time it was released, or who I was going with or some other incident that is connected to the tune. Although I must add that it is mainly with the music from the fifties through to the mid to late seventies. Why not from the seventies, well maybe it was my age or that I did not want to follow the Punk music of the day. Or maybe I do not want to be reminded of those later times, which I do struggle to recollect. Anyway, I will go along with Paul's wise words that music is “Total Recall" because it seems to work for me. It is for this reason that I chose the title of this autobiography to be known as “Almost Total Recall”.
Before putting pen to paper, I had to spend a long time wondering how I was going to attack this mammoth task. It was during this time that I suddenly realised that there are certain people who have left their mark on me. By that, I mean they had a big influence on my live and the direction that it would take.
Firstly, there was Tootsie Lawrence who lived at the top of Poplar Hill. We had attended the same school together and I knew him during our times of play. However it was while he was home on leave from the Royal Marine Commando’s, after an active service tour of duty in Aden. When I met him in a local pub and he then successfully advised me, or should I say talked me into joining the Royal Marines. Service life has played a large part of my life, even when I returned to Civilian Street, I followed and supported anything that was military. My decision to join turned out to be a decision that I never regretted and upon hearing of his passing during Christmas 2002, I felt cheated that I had not seen him one more time before he died. The last time we chatted was way back in the late seventies.
The second person to have played a major role in my life was Ray Callahan, even though we were only together for about eighteen months. Ray was the person who first introduced and later successfully taught me how to play the bass guitar. To this day I still play the very same, or at least my variation of the riffs that he painstakingly taught me way back in the sixties. It is only with hindsight that I have been able to appreciate just how musical and talented Ray really was. A few years ago, I read a book called “Play like Elvis” by Mo Foster. In it Mo describes how most of the so called up and coming Rock n Roll musicians of the early to middle sixties, tried to improve their playing abilities and instruments. It was while reading this book that I suddenly became aware of the fact that we fell into the very same category. Because we had formed a band known as the “Forbidden Fruit” and had played our brand of Rock n Roll music. In our own little way, we were also learning, improvising and pushing the music horizons of our day forward. If you think about it, music today would not be where it is, if it had not been for people like us advancing it one step at a time. After all Elvis had only been around singing and playing since 1956, and in those days, there were no bass guitars. They came later and Jet Harris (who played with Cliff Richard and the Shadows) is credited with being the very first person in the UK to play one to a live audience. While a couple of years later Shirley Douglas is credited with being the first female to play one. Shirley used to play with the Chas McDevitt Skiffle group and helped start the bass player bandwagon rolling forward, by bring out a book on how to play the new musical discovery known as the bass guitar. Both Jet and Shirley acquired their new instruments from the USA in the late fifties. Jet had been a very successful double bass jazz player up until then and had changed over, unlike most of the guys of his day. Who had all subscribed to the notion that the bass guitar was just a novelty and that it would not be around in a couple of years time. This meant that a complete new breed of player had to take up the challenge and learn to play the bass guitar. They had to learn and invent ways of playing the instrument, as it handles, plays and sounds totally different to the double bass, a process that is still going on to this day. Therefore, with all this in mind when Ray first started teaching me, he had to have had an incredible ear for music. I guess he must have copied what he’d heard on the radio and records, but I’m sure he had the ability to take the Bass guitar forward by inventing his very own riffs and runs. He also taught himself to play keyboard and lead guitar and later taught David Bridges how to play Rhythm guitar. Not to mention the assistance he gave Ben Wright with most of his drumming problems, as he carefully dissected each record that we tried to copy. Ray must have been a very talented and highly skilled guy and underestimated by many of that era. Today I find it quite awe inspiring and amazing that I was also part of the music revolution that has become known as the swinging sixties. I often wonder what the “Forbidden Fruit” would have sounded like as a band today, if we were still making music together.
A little later, as my style of playing developed I combined what Ray had taught me, along with the style of John McVie of “Fleetwood Mac” fame. I call it the McVie/Callahan style. I met John McVie at the Manor ball room in Ipswich on the 13.10.68. How could I ever forget that date. He gave me a lot of help with my playing and I copied many of his techniques. Having played those styles for well over thirty-five years, it has long since gone out of vogue. Therefore, it’s quite pleasing when the younger generation of musicians approach me and to ask how I achieve the sound and style that I play. For a time I had thought that I was a bit of a dinosaur and that the youngsters were in fact making fun of me. Until that is the day, I was asked to attend a music workshop in Brisbane to demonstrate to younger musicians how I achieved my sound and style.
David Cook played a large part in making possible my love of flying. I first met David in early 1973, when I turned up at his house quite unannounced, asking him to teach me how to fly a Hang Glider that I had just purchased. With out hesitation David took me under his wing, passing on a vast amount of his flying expertise. He not only taught me how to fly, but he instilled in me that thirst to win and to come first at every opportunity. He flew a different style of Microlight to the one I had purchased, what is known as a three-axis control machine. In my opinion it was far superior in its performance to that which I flew, namely a weight shift controlled Microlight. Its lack of performance did not stop me from advancing to the pinnacle of its performance, more to the point it helped me push my envelope to its maximum, in a fruitless effort to beat David at every opportunity. While David was recording not only English Records, but in many cases World records. I still managed to notch up an English distance Record, along with countless firsts, at several new flying sites in the UK that I was lucky enough to visit first.
Peter Bowden from Felixstowe is a person I admire greatly, I wish that I had his philosophy on life. I learnt a great deal about life from Peter during our Hang Glider years together and I thank him very much for being one of the people, who changed my life for the better and the direction I was following. There is not much more I would like to add to that other than Peter would know what I’m talking about. See even after all those years I’m still too embarrassed to talk about it. Thanks Peter for your friendship and understanding.
Paul Whittley is another friend who has left his mark on my life. During the early days of the Norfolk Hang Gliding Club, Paul attracted the nick-name of the Bionic baby, because of his flying style and very young looks. A few members went as far as to call him reckless in his flying style and possibly I was one of them. However, I never did hear of him having an accident and strongly believe that his flying style actually helped improve the flying of most club members. He experimented at different sites with different take off styles and positions. During an evening club meeting in Norwich we had a lecture about first aid and what to do if one of us were to crash. We all went through the moves that even included mouth to mouth resuscitation. About 6 months later the club was experimenting with a new winch launch system. After a couple of successful launches, it was my turn. So I climbed into a harness and picked up the glider ready to be launched. For some reason it did not feel right and so I declined the launch. Another flyer Ken took my turn and unfortunately it all went horribly wrong when the glider suddenly locked under pressure and side slipped with great force and a loud bang into the ground, from about two hundred feet. A dozen guys including myself ran over to help him. However, after seeing him crumpled up on the ground and unconscious we all stood around not knowing what to do next. Paul who had not attended the first aid meeting pushed his way though us and took full control of the situation. I strongly believe that Paul saved the Kens life that day. His body was badly broken up and he had also sustained some brain damage. However, after a year in hospital, where he was patched up and re-educated using the other side of his brain he returned to his old job as a school teacher in Norwich. I believe that on that day most club members changed their opinion of Paul and they actually went to him for help and information concerning their flying problems. What’s more, I can never remember Paul ever talking about the incident, let alone claiming that he had saved Kens life, no he just quietly got on with his life as if nothing had happened. Thanks Paul to me you are one of the real true silent heroes of this world.
As a foot note about this incident, while I was to take my turn in flying Emily had stayed in the car on the road behind a rather large hedge. She had always thought it was dangerous and did not want to see me fly. However, the force of the glider hitting the ground was so loud that she heard it. The next thing she knew was Mike Pulford jumping in to the car telling her to drive him to the nearest phone box as quickly as possible. This she did at break neck speed, all the time thinking it was me who had crashed. Mike being too shocked to say anything didn’t even mention who had crashed.
Then there is Hans Van Oyen, Hans is the guy I credit for helping me sing backup harmonies with the band. When it should have been Ray Callahan many years earlier, if only I had listened to him, for it was Ray who always insisted that I learn to sing while I learnt to play the Bass Guitar. Unfortunately I did not take his advice at that time, although I now wish I had. I met Hans when I was recruited to play for the band “Cross-Cut” in Brisbane Australia. I liked his style of singing and found him to be a very easy person to sing a long to. I was lucky in that our voices mixed and blended in with each other, as if we were brothers. Hans was always patient while he nurtured me along. It was made easy by the fact that by this time I did actually want to learn. As time went on, I started to enjoy the singing and found it easier and easier, to such a point that I was able to ad-lib along on my own. I now consider the worlds my oyster and its up to me where I let it take me.
I can count my true friends on the fingers of both hands, however I place Ben Wrights name at the top of my list. We befriended each other out side of the Richard Garrett’s bottom factory gate in Leiston, way back on the 16th January 1966, while waiting to start a new job together. A relationship that is still going strong to this day, even though we are miles apart. We hit it off right from day one, we had the same interests, liked the same music and had the very same sense of humour, we were just compatible in every way. During the dark days of my marriage break up, he was one of the only friends who stood by me, even though I would suspect that he caught the roth of a few of his friends in doing so. I think one of the saddest days for us both was when we said our goodbyes, as I was about to fly out to a new life in New Zealand. He turned up at my house with red puffy eyes and a couple of tears on his cheeks and I must admit that it placed a large lump in the back of my throat. Ben thanks for always being there and we will see each other one more time, God willing.
For good clean fun and very happy times, I have to thank Snowy, Mel, Sharpy and David, who were all members of our small private Hang Gliding club. Most weekends when the weather and winds were in the right direction we would travel the back roads of England and Wales looking for sites to fly and a crazy time was had by all. I’ll never forget that orange coloured v/w van that we all spent so many hours in, whether driving around the country or sitting out the bad weather at one of the numerous flying sites we visited.. Thanks guys I doubt we will ever all meet up again, but at least I have the memories.
Now a word from my sponsor Emily my wife. Having spent nearly forty years together, its only fair to say that she has played a very large part in the shaping of my life and to the directions we have taken. She swept me off my feet way back in 1967 as she still does to this day. As I get older, I find that I rely on her even more now, for her help and guidance. I pray that we will see our days out together, still enjoying the love and kindness we found at our first meeting.
Of course, I cannot go any further with out mentioning my Parents, after all both played a very big part in my up bringing. Their guidance steered me towards the final direction that my life took me. We were not a very religious family, but I still say that the Ten Commandments are not a bad guide to follow, something I try to adhere to.
To these people, I am very grateful that they steered me in the direction that I finally followed.
However, on a low note I have to add that it has been levelled at me that I have not mentioned a great deal about my close family in this Autobiography. I must admit that the criticism is correct. I’ve been a little bit selfish most of my life in trying to obtain my gaols, of earning big money with employment and getting to the top in my chosen hobbies of music and flying. All have taken me away from my family for long periods of time. I have always worked long distances away from home, even though with some of the jobs I came home at night. In most cases I was so tired I just went straight to bed, rather than spend quality time with the family. While at weekends I played guitar with pop groups or chased the prevailing winds to participate in the sport of Hang Gliding.
As this book is about what I got up to during the past 60 years, yes there is not to much about my close family, but then I was never there and unfortunately I missed them growing up It was not until we were in New Zealand and I went to watch Mark my son play a game of football that it suddenly dawned on me. But by then it was too late. Unfortunately you can never have those years back to re-live as a good parent should. However, I have been honest to acknowledge my faults in this book and hope that in some way I can repay the family while I still have a few years left.
None of us are perfect in this world, its all part of growing up and to how we play the hand that is dealt us. While most respond in total different ways, there are always those around who do not like what others have done. So we can all criticise each other in one way or another, but I would say to those of you out there, don’t throw stones in a glass house. Every single one of us has skeletons in the cupboard that we do not want other people reading about. Where as I have lain all mine down in print for the world to see and criticise. Maybe my critics would have liked me to call the book “Almost Total Self Criticism”.