More from the Land of Matchstick Men and Matchstick Cats and Dogs - Part 2
 
I hope this finds you and your Families Keeping Well and managing to stay away from the Terrible Virus. I thought we could take another trip back in time. First I had better explain that my title is a play on the actual record which was titled “Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs” recorded by Brian and Michael back in 1977 at the Pluto Studios which was in the same building as Strawberry Studios Stockport where my own band used to practise. They started out as Burke and Jerk a comedy duo; the recording took place during Sept 1977 and included the Tintwistle Brass Band from the village in Derbyshire and a choir from St Winifred’s school.
 
Many record companies were approached without success, but eventually the Pye Label took them on and look what happened, it reached the No.1 spot in April 1978 and was in the charts for 17 weeks. I guess some people are just unlucky because Brian left the duo a couple of weeks after it was released (only explained as for family reasons) and didn’t team up again with Michael until ten years later. The song of course was a tribute to L. S. Lowry from the same streets where I was brought up in Salford and who is an artist now known the world over. Many of his paintings now change hands for 100’s of thousands of pounds, I can relate to virtually every painting when I go and view them at the Lowry Centre on the Quay side in Salford. In 2002 a reception was held there to honour Lowry and yes Brian and Michael played their famous song backed by the same choir of Ladies, now in their 30’s. The Tate Gallery held a special exhibition of Lowry’s paintings in 2013 and Brian and Michael were on duty yet again at the opening, what a life changer that single record has played for them both over the past 47 years.
The Roughest Pub in Manchester
I’ll give you a flavour of some of the words in the song,
He painted Salford’s smoky tops, on cardboard boxes from the shops
And parts of Ancoats where I used to play, I’m sure he once walked down our street,
Cause he painted kids who had nowt on their feet, the clothes we wore had all seen better days
Now they said his works of art were dull, no room all around the walls are full
But Lowry didn’t care much anyway, they said he just paints cats and dogs
And Matchstalk men in boots and clogs, and Lowry said that’s just the way it is.
 
The last verse: Now Lowry’s hang upon the wall, besides the greatest of them all
Even the Mona Lisa takes a bow, to this tired old man with hair like snow
He told Northern folk it’s time to go, the fever came, and the good Lord mopped his brow.
Pub again
And he left us Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs,
He left us kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs
Now he takes his brush and he wait’s outside those pearly gates
To paint his Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs.   
 
I hope the words from that song give you some idea as to how it really was in my early years, unless you born there it may all sound strange but I’m sure you all have many memories from your own younger years. Now let’s take another journey back in time, smoky tops, yes we even have a park in Salford called Chimney Pot Park, why, because all you could see from it were chimney pots complete with coughing pigeons and sparrows.
Huddersfield
As to the clogs yes we did wear them sometimes and in later years when I started at the Port of Manchester we even wore clogs then which didn’t make it easy climbing the vertical ladders to the cranes I used to drive but that’s another story all together, the goings on at the docks, just to give you a flavour of the times there, during one very hot summer spell there were so many cans of pineapples thrown in to one of the bays from a ship being unloaded you could actually stand on top of them at water level! (just pierce the can and drink the juice)  My early time there was really enjoyable but in later years the order of the day were strikes, one day the checkers, next day the labourers, next the crane drivers and so on, one strike was called in the dry docks because the management refused to pay for the cats food. Depending what ships were docked you would see everyone in Trafford Park kicking footballs around or carrying one gallon cans of paint, the worst job was unloading Carbon Black, which was loose, the guys in the hold would have the stuff engrained in their skin for weeks, every time they had a shower it would come out again. (not good) Hard work but what a great a collection of characters who all had nick names assigned to them, “Rabbit” “OSS” (only slow and stop)  “Dodger” “Gentlemen Jim the Crane driver” no it wasn’t me, “Sam the Eagle” he was prone to falling off stacks. During that long hot summer when we were waiting for a ship, I was having forty winks on top of a stack, we used to have a string down to the floor, well one of the bosses turned up someone pulled the string, well I had no boots on and stood up straight on to a twirler, (metal wire which held tobacco cases together) it went straight through the ball of my foot, ouch! My mates got me down and whisked me off for a Tetanus injection, some good however did come from the story the Unions got the management to issue every worker with safety boots they never knew of course that I had no boots or that I had been resting my eyes.
 
I left school the year when the most school leavers ever were sent off trying to get jobs, it was caused by the return of our armed forces following the Second World War in 1946, the following year lots of babies were born, (I don’t know why). My father who was a gentle, kind, intelligent man who never had much in the way possessions tried hard to get me a job in the only thing I was good at in school, woodwork, he didn’t have any  luck even though he tried very hard so as it panned out I left school on a Friday and started work on the next Monday, in the offices of the Pendleton Co-op where my Dad worked as the foreman on one of the travelling shops. The last job I would ever have chosen having said that working there taught me great disciplines and responsibilities, the Chief Clerk was old school, he sat in a glass office overlooking all of us, if he couldn’t hear his clock ticking he was out on the floor wanting to know what was going on. I remember turning up on the Friday afternoon for an interview, I was taken into a side office by one of the senior management, probably petrified, he said write your name, address and date of birth on that sheet, that was it start on Monday at 9am. When the Beatles arrived I like many others had my hair cut and styled in a like manner, now I thought that looks cool, on arrival at the office the next morning the Chief Clerk beckoned me into his office and said go home and when your hair is put back to the way it was you can come back to work,!  I believe my father was held in such high esteem by all the workers who knew him at the Co-op I think my interview had been a mere formality. Dad was a wonderful pianist and I believe in his younger days could have gone on to belong to a concert orchestra, unfortunately he spent his early youth on his own working hard and looking after his extremely sick father. He had a really distinctive style and I wish I had some recordings of him but times were very different back then, cassettes, CD’s, MP3’s even mobile phones who could have imagined, the first mobile phone I possessed was like half the size of a house brick and you had to wave it about to get the signal saying “can you hear me now” I remember once at a Provincial Meeting in Preston all was very quiet when it went off, I didn’t panic, what did I do, I just looked round with everyone else shaking my head, whilst fumbling in my pocket to try and turn it off.
Tenerife
A quick mention of some of my musical adventures which I’m sure will bring back memories to those who have played in bands or just remember the good old days of rock n roll. I started in the long distant past when I was sixteen, I’ve played in some wonderful places and shall we say some very dodgy establishments. Before we got signed up we played lots of pubs all around the Salford and Manchester area, one in particular was in Longsight during the time we played there two stabbings took place in the car park, beer fights got going on a regular basis, I’m not saying it was rough but I recall one night when a big dog just wandered around inside before doing its number two on the carpet, it was a pile, what did they do, stood a stool over it, that’s the truth! Played in all the miners clubs around Lancashire when they existed, theatres, in the centre of a cricket pitch, in the middle of Debenhams Altrincham, Town Halls and for many years one I always looked forward to was New Year’s Eve at Holme Valley Lodge in Holmfirth which didn’t ever finish till dinnertime the next day. One of the band names was Lambas Cas, we were always asked how’d you get that name, well we were looking for a name when we spotted it on the side of a building, it should have said “Lambs Cash and Carry”  but some of the letters had fallen off. Another was “Shadoogie” named after a Shadows tune, the band were absolutely spot on playing Shadows music, even now when I listen to some of the recordings, I’m convinced it’s the Shadows playing. The compares at the clubs always had a problem announcing us, we would get Shadadoogie, Shagagoogie and sometimes they would say or whatever. The Band were top class, but it didn’t matter how well you were going down after twenty minutes the compare would be stood at the back mouthing get off, get off and waving at you. The rules were two twenty minutes spots and half an hour at the end, the punters weren’t allowed to dance until the last spot either, the reason to try and get you off ? simple they had to keep playing Bingo to raise much needed funds!    I remember once when we were practising at Strawberry Studios an agent came to watch us, he stayed about 15 minutes and gave us 20 booking dates the next day, we arrived at the first one, I think it was Golborne Miners Club, it was a large building with changing rooms under the stage and a big glass wall at the far end with snooker tables on the other side, I thought wow this is brilliant. The band used to play a couple of warm up tunes then announce me, all was going well up until the last spot it was a big stage and I remember standing in the wings thinking this is easy, one more spot get paid and off we go, I walked out they played the intro and I didn’t have a clue what the song was, I turned to the drummer who started mouthing the words to me it didn’t make any difference, they played it to the middle and ended it, which didn’t sound too bad, I thought whew I got away with that when I felt something pulling at the bottom of my trouser leg it was a little old lady, I bent down to her and she said “you forgot the words then” I said “yes but don’t tell anyone”.
 
Life on the Road Good Times,
Well that’s enough of some of my memories let’s look at some general happenings during the passing years:
Do You Remember. The Preston Bypass starting which was the first instalment of what would become the
M6 Motorway it was started in 1956 and opened by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in December 1958. It was never allocated M status in its own right, but eventually it was to become the first length of motorway in Britain.
Shadoogie
Full colour television started on the 15th November 1969, both BBC and ITV launched their full colour services. One second after midnight BBC 1 popped up with a 50 minute colour recording of a Petula Clark concert. On the 16th the press reported that there would now be 100 hours a week broadcast in colour. The Apollo 12 missions would be covered by BBC in colour and estimated that 170,000 of the viewing public would be able to watch it. BBC 2 had actually been broadcasting in colour since 1967 and began with the Wimbledon Tennis of that year. Colour arrived but viewers still couldn’t see it as 15 million homes only had black and white TV’s.
The bass player forgot to plug in for half an hour
Some interesting moments during the last 70 years:
Dan Dare appeared in the Eagle, First Cinemascope Movie was seen, Edmund Hillary conquered Everest, Queen Elizabeth was Crowned, Roger Bannister ran the 4 minute mile, James Dean was a Rebel Without Cause, We read the Guinness Book of Records, Sputnik orbited the Earth, Elvis joined the Army, The Hula Hoop was produced, South Pacific topped the Box Office, The Barbie Doll was wanted by every girl, US Radio DJ.s were caught up in Payola, John F Kennedy became US President, Sean Connery was James Bond in the first Movie Dr No, Martin Luther King came out with those immortal words “I have A Dream”, The Beatles first toured America, Roger Moore was the Saint, Harold Wilson became Prime Minister, BBC 2 was launched, Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay) become World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Bob Dylan went electric at Newport, Julie Andrews was Marie in the Sound of Music, 17 years old Twiggy became a world famous model, The first Credit Card was introduced by Barclays, Francis Chichester sailed around the world solo, the Microwave oven went on sale, First flight of the Jumbo Jet, Concorde broke the Sound Barrier, Neil Armstrong became the First Man on the Moon, John and Yoke held a Bed In, Monty Python’s First appearance on TV, Half a Million people went to Woodstock, The Beatles split up, Alan Shepard played Golf on the Moon, Britain went Decimal, Nixon Resigned over Watergate, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest, Henry Winkler played the Fonz in Happy Days, Erno Rubik invented the cube, Sony introduced the Betamax (oops and some people bought them) Christopher Reeve became Superman, The sound of Space Invaders was everywhere, Music on the move arrived in the form of Sony Walkman and finally the World asked who Shot JR.
Publicity Shot Early Days
I hope you found some of these items jolted your memories in a good way, I would like to give you something to else to think about for your own Mark / RAM Meetings:
And More
We all meet and enjoy each other’s company but what do you really know about the member who is sitting next to you or across the table from you, are they married, do they have children, what about pets or hobbies, do they still work or if retired what did they do before retiring, what do they do for holidays, do they like touring Scotland or the Lake District.
 
Why not have a chat with your Master and others in your Lodge to perhaps get a Volunteer for each meeting to stand up at the Social Board and give a short resume of himself.
On a show with Bert Weedon
The times that we have lost a Brother to only then find out during the Funeral Eulogy that they Flew Radio Controlled Aircraft, were keen model Railway Enthusiasts, had a Pony, went Canoeing, worked part time as a Volunteer at a Hospice, played the trumpet, these are just some of the things I’m sad to say which I heard at funerals I have attended I do remember many more.
Jim Marshall RIP.owner and founder of Marshall Amps founded in 1962.
      we were giving demo’s of Marshall Amps heard around the world
This is the “Friendly Happy Degree”, no one should be embarrassed at standing up for a few minutes at the Social Board and usually you will find some members who are quite eager to do it, have a think about it, I’m sure it would be a benefit to us all.
 
Some photo’s attached are just to give you a flavour of the times and some of the places we played, I’m sure you must have visited some of these pubs all those years ago in your youth (or maybe not)
Still we did have some good nights
Don’t forget to keep in touch with your family and friends who at very least are only a phone call away, were  getting through it but it’s not over yet, here’s looking forward to the Next Mark / RAM meeting to see old friends and those I have yet to meet. Mark Well.
 
Austin N Fletcher. PGStwd.  Flixton Shepherd Eastwood Mark Lodge. No. 1173