The Living Years - 1952
I was born on 9th October, 1952, and was just over one month old when the New Musical Express published the first UK singles chart.
Of course this meant nothing to me at the time but over the years music has gained in importance for me, reflecting good and bad times. So one month after being born the first ever British number one was Al Martino’s Here In My Heart – a piece of music I have become accustomed to over the past few years as I have begun to delve into the history of pop music and in particular the music of the 1950s.
Martino stayed top of the charts for the remainder of the year, making his hearty ballad a hugely successful platter. The first 45 rpm singles were released as far back as March, 1949, by RCA Victor. My early memories, however, were growing up with a gramophone that played 78 rpm discs which smashed if you dropped them. Before playing each disc you had to manually wind it up and also regularly change the needle. This monstrosity of a player was kept in the greenhouse of our home in Hellesdon, a suburb of Norwich. I remember there were a number of discs by rock n roll king Little Richard – probably Tutti Frutti (released 1955) and Good Golly Miss Molly (released 1958). I have no idea where they came from but they were in a collection that included Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstances Marches. My grandmother genuinely believed that playing these discs by this “evil man” would ruin the gramophone.
Under two months after my birth, Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap started its run in London. The play actually made its debut on 6th October – three days before I came into the world – at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal. It subsequently visited the New Theatre, Oxford; The Opera House, Manchester; The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool; The Theatre Royal, Newcastle; The Grand Theatre, Leeds; and the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, before opening in London at the Ambassadors Theatre on Tuesday 25th November. In the cast were Richard Attenborough, Sheila Sim, Martin Miller, Jessica Spencer, Aubrey Dexter, Mignon O’Doherty, Allan McClelland and John Paul.
Sixty seven years later the Mousetrap is still going strong after transferring to the St Martin’s Theatre in 1974. I have never seen the production but, over the years, have read numerous Agatha Christie mysteries.
Two months after my birth, London was hit by what, in my youth, became colloquially known as “pea soupers –“ fogs on a massive scale caused by haze being intensified by smoke and other atmospheric pollutants. It is believed that around 4,000 died as a direct result of the smog.
On a happier note, December 12th saw the introduction to British television of the Flower Pot Men – Bill and Ben. Strange little beings who lived in flower pots between their friend “Little Weed” and spoke unintelligible gibberish (a bit like modern day politicians).
Apparently their mangled version of the English language was known as Oddle Poddle and included words like ickle-kickle (icicle) and flobabdob which nobody seemed to understand the meaning of. At the end of each edition they would say “Baba pickle weed” to Little Weed to which the subject of their farewell would give out a long strangled and high pitched “weeeeeeeeeed.”
I should imagine programmes like this put back my learning the English language by many years, similar to the problems suffered today with young kids who watch Teletubbies or In The Night Garden.
My early years were regulated by Watch With Mother on a grainy black and white television. You could work out what day of the week it was from these programmes. Mondays were Picture Book from 1955, Tuesdays were Andy Pandy from 1950, Wednesdays were The Flower Pot Men from 1952, Thursdays was Rag, Tag and Bobtail from 1953 and Fridays was the Woodentops from 1955 and that featured the biggest spotty dog in all the world.
So what else passed me by in my first few months alive? Well the Queen made her first televised speech to the Commonwealth, not surprisingly on December 25th.
Books that I would later read and which were published in 1952 included Richard Gordon’s Doctor in the House and C. S Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia saga.
Comedian Mel Smith was born seven weeks after me on 3rd December and Clive Anderson came into the world on 10th December and taught the British public how not to conduct an interview with his hesitant and stuttering style that ended with the Bee Gees walking out on him.
So much for 1952. I was now ready for my first full year of life in 1953.
I was born on 9th October, 1952, and was just over one month old when the New Musical Express published the first UK singles chart.
Of course this meant nothing to me at the time but over the years music has gained in importance for me, reflecting good and bad times. So one month after being born the first ever British number one was Al Martino’s Here In My Heart – a piece of music I have become accustomed to over the past few years as I have begun to delve into the history of pop music and in particular the music of the 1950s.
Martino stayed top of the charts for the remainder of the year, making his hearty ballad a hugely successful platter. The first 45 rpm singles were released as far back as March, 1949, by RCA Victor. My early memories, however, were growing up with a gramophone that played 78 rpm discs which smashed if you dropped them. Before playing each disc you had to manually wind it up and also regularly change the needle. This monstrosity of a player was kept in the greenhouse of our home in Hellesdon, a suburb of Norwich. I remember there were a number of discs by rock n roll king Little Richard – probably Tutti Frutti (released 1955) and Good Golly Miss Molly (released 1958). I have no idea where they came from but they were in a collection that included Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstances Marches. My grandmother genuinely believed that playing these discs by this “evil man” would ruin the gramophone.
Under two months after my birth, Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap started its run in London. The play actually made its debut on 6th October – three days before I came into the world – at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal. It subsequently visited the New Theatre, Oxford; The Opera House, Manchester; The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool; The Theatre Royal, Newcastle; The Grand Theatre, Leeds; and the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, before opening in London at the Ambassadors Theatre on Tuesday 25th November. In the cast were Richard Attenborough, Sheila Sim, Martin Miller, Jessica Spencer, Aubrey Dexter, Mignon O’Doherty, Allan McClelland and John Paul.
Sixty seven years later the Mousetrap is still going strong after transferring to the St Martin’s Theatre in 1974. I have never seen the production but, over the years, have read numerous Agatha Christie mysteries.
Two months after my birth, London was hit by what, in my youth, became colloquially known as “pea soupers –“ fogs on a massive scale caused by haze being intensified by smoke and other atmospheric pollutants. It is believed that around 4,000 died as a direct result of the smog.
On a happier note, December 12th saw the introduction to British television of the Flower Pot Men – Bill and Ben. Strange little beings who lived in flower pots between their friend “Little Weed” and spoke unintelligible gibberish (a bit like modern day politicians).
Apparently their mangled version of the English language was known as Oddle Poddle and included words like ickle-kickle (icicle) and flobabdob which nobody seemed to understand the meaning of. At the end of each edition they would say “Baba pickle weed” to Little Weed to which the subject of their farewell would give out a long strangled and high pitched “weeeeeeeeeed.”
I should imagine programmes like this put back my learning the English language by many years, similar to the problems suffered today with young kids who watch Teletubbies or In The Night Garden.
My early years were regulated by Watch With Mother on a grainy black and white television. You could work out what day of the week it was from these programmes. Mondays were Picture Book from 1955, Tuesdays were Andy Pandy from 1950, Wednesdays were The Flower Pot Men from 1952, Thursdays was Rag, Tag and Bobtail from 1953 and Fridays was the Woodentops from 1955 and that featured the biggest spotty dog in all the world.
So what else passed me by in my first few months alive? Well the Queen made her first televised speech to the Commonwealth, not surprisingly on December 25th.
Books that I would later read and which were published in 1952 included Richard Gordon’s Doctor in the House and C. S Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia saga.
Comedian Mel Smith was born seven weeks after me on 3rd December and Clive Anderson came into the world on 10th December and taught the British public how not to conduct an interview with his hesitant and stuttering style that ended with the Bee Gees walking out on him.
So much for 1952. I was now ready for my first full year of life in 1953.