Steering in that direction too (sorry) 70/71 can’t remember which, at Wembley, Rock n Roll concert. I saw, amongst others, Bill Haley with a full compliment of comets, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Heinz, hate to say it, Gary Gliiter and the Glitterband, et al. First concert I ever attended. In a pub on Liverpool Street, met Jerry Lee, can’t remember the pub name but was an old Rockers pub, he wanted to see it, juke box full of 50’s music
Well I just had to do it. Changed the stylus in my Shure cartridge to the “78” one, dug out Little Richard “Rip it up/Ready Teddy” and played it LOUD!!! Memories!!!
I remember going to Charlton F.C. stadium to see ‘The Who’. There were mirrors set up in the four lighting towers in the corners and a green laser beam bounced all round, (early days for lasers then).
Getting back to cars I rarely listen to the ‘Bose’ system in my ND, wasted on me, I prefer to listen to mechanical noises, engine, road -----anything but Wendy going on about Christmas presents!
Saw “The Who” several times in the late '60s, early '70s. and at the '69 “Plumpton” festival, where I’d got a w/e job, Keith Moon got me to pour a couple of buckets of water over him to sober him up before they went on. Great times!
Had lunch a couple of times with Sir John Barry who’s daughter kindly produced jingles for my show on Forth Valley Broadcasting so he could hand them over in person.
His was a quiet “cockney rebel” and went around Scotland in his old beat up Landie, wax jacket, and 3 day beard so nobody could spot him.
Came about because some relo in the Infirmary was listening to my “Classic Soul” Saturday morning slot.
First hour…light classics & second hour Motown/Northern Soul.
In between, I did a " John Barry" movie theme 20 minutes in between just to add a dash of “different”. Called it “Barry’s Sandwich Spread” She heard it, John ended up hearing about it, and his daughter who at the time presented Hospital Radio in Dublin contacted me with an offer to rattle up a few jingles in Dad’s studio. It went from there.
Stuff like that does not normally happen to me.
I gave it up 14 years ago, but I’m training in March to go back now I’m retired.
Back on the retro hifi thread for a brief moment (much as I enjoy hearing the name dropping, I have resisted the temptation to add to it) the Dad one of my school friends was a vicar, and he had this truly amazing stereo set-up in the vicarage.
The amplifier was puny, merely a Leak Stereo 20 squeezing 10W per channel from short-lived and over-stressed EL84 valves, and the turntable was a Goldring Lenco belt drive.
However, the speakers were something else. Take a double frontage Victorian cottage/villa with front door in the middle, add a porch as an airlock, remove the timber stud walls either side of where the hall used to be to give a very big sitting room (almost in the golden ratio) with a massive fireplace at each end, and apply central heating. This frees up two vast sources of drafts which need to be closed off, the chimneys. Accordingly, in each fireplace was a Goodmans Axiom 80 cantilever suspension twin cone drive unit with the chimney space making ample room for the horn system.
That system was crystal clear and the bass could rattle the windows. 10W per channel was more than enough for these little 6W speakers. One of the early stereo demos of a steam train crossing the sound stage suddenly became real as the room became the station with the train going from one end to the other. And then listening to the Dave Brubeck Time Out LP with Take 5 on it, heaven.
That was my introduction to stereo, and I was hooked.
