harryfielder
Sunday 13th February 2011 11:09am [Edited]
Herts UK
56 posts
We've started......
Extra, Extra, Read All About It!
Initial Outline Draft Text compiled by Clive Saunders.
The Second World War was already eight months old when, right on cue, I made my very first public appearance on April 26th 1940, the forth child to William and Constance Fielder, nee Jackson. At that time, we were living in a tiny flat in the St Pancras area of London, but shortly after my arrival, we were bombed-out, so me and my brothers and sister were evacuated to the comparative safety of the Hertfordshire countryside. Being just a baby, I don't remember very much about this time, however I can clearly recall returning to London when the war had finished in 1945. Arriving by train at Kings' Cross Station and unable to afford a bus fare, we all had to walk to our new home in Islington and I can vividly recall us all walking up the Pentonville Road, then along Upper St and Essex Road gazing up at the flags and bunting that was strung across the road and draped across all the buildings in celebration of VE Day. Home was now to be a two-up-two-down terraced house in St Philip's Way, Islington where the house consisted of a small kitchen and Mum and Dad's bedroom in the basement and two small bedrooms on the ground floor and, like the majority of this type of housing at that time, the toilet was located outside in the back yard. We were, like many families at that time, very poor and life was extremely difficult in our small, cramped house.
After my second sister, Maggie, arrived in 1948, she and my first sister, Patricia, shared one of the bedrooms leaving me and my brothers, William, David and Victor to share one bed in the other. We slept 'top-to-toe', two at one end and two at the other end, but the trouble was we all peed the bed at night. I remember one year for a birthday treat, my father asked me which end of the bed I would like to sleep. "The shallow end" I replied! Life got even harder in 1950 when Dad died, leaving Mum to struggle to make ends meet whilst trying to bring up six young children on her own.
My older sister Pat and my two older brothers left the house in the mid 50s and in 1957 the council moved Mum, me Vic and Maggie to a two roomed flat at the top of a four storey house in Packington Street just up the road..(Two roomed flat top floor with the WC in the basement shared by 10 people) ??? Our gas stove was on the top landing..??? Our bathroom was at the local bathhouse ''Tibbs'' about a five min walk away...(0r just go swimming)
In 1955, aged 15, having attended three local schools, it was time to leave. I couldn't wait because it gave me the chance at last to get myself a job and earn some much needed money to bring into the house to help my Mum. My first experience out in the big wide world was as a Telegraph Boy for the General Post Office. I hated it, so after a week or so I decided to leave and took a job as a Lift Boy in Hackney, East London. This was ok - "it had its ups and downs!" There followed spells of making Christmas crackers in 1956 and I even had a go at dyeing feathers (1957). It seems very difficult to understand in today's economic climate, but in those days, you could hand your notice in at one job in the morning and find yourself another in the afternoon. Jobs were plentiful, but all had one thing in common - they paid peanuts, however I was just pleased to be helping out at home. Finally, in 1957, I ended up at Anderson's Timber Yard in Islington, where I was employed as a Porter- Tally-Clerk. I loved this job as it gave me the chance to chat with the public every day.
It was whilst I was at the timber yard that I made my first tentative steps in the world of entertainment, when for the princely sum of fifty shillings (£2.50 today) I bought myself a second-hand Spanish guitar in a local junk shop. I had soon taught myself a few chords and with the support and encouragement of my friend Lenny Ross, we decided to try our luck in the then fledgling world of pop music. We were always listening to the latest releases by the likes of Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, and Adam Faith and decided that was what we wanted to be - pop stars! So, having learned a couple of the top skiffle tunes of the time, in particular those performed by Lonnie Donnigan, armed with our guitars and nattily dressed in matching checked shirts, cravats and jeans, we marched into the North Pole public house on The New North Road and introduced ourselves to the landlord. "Can you play those guitars?" he enquired, "Of course we can" we relied confidently. "Well, get out to the back room and see if you can liven things up a bit then" he suggested. Usually, there was an old-boy who provided the 'entertainment' by murdering the piano in the back room, so this was obviously an opportunity to make our mark. "How much are you going to pay us?" we asked, to which he replied "Two beers each - consider this an audition". So, we duly strummed and sang our way through the six skiffle songs we knew and when we had finished, sat down to enjoy our two free brown ales! As we were sitting there, feeling pleased with ourselves, the landlord came over to us and asked if we knew any more songs. "Of course we do - loads!" came our reply. Quite what we were thinking I had no idea as we had already exhausted our complete repertoire! "Well then" continued the landlord, "if you get back out there for the final hour until closing time, I'll give you free beer for the rest of the night". So up we got again and proceeded to play anything we thought we could get away with. We certainly didn't play all the right chords all the time, but as the night went on, nobody seemed to mind one bit. In fact, what I learned that night was the more drunk people got, the more they thought they could sing like Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis and the music really wasn't all that important! We had a great evening entertaining the customers and when time was finally called, me and Lenny at last sat down to a table brimmed-full of well-earned brown ales, bought for us by the landlord AND the punters! To round the night off, a collection was made for us and we received more for the one evening than I earned in a whole week back at the timber yard. It was 1958, this was Rock 'n' Roll.....and we were part of it! We added another friend later to the band as a bass player...(Derek (Spike) Milligan....( I still talk with Spike today...2010)Barry Rose was a good ballad singer and he joined us...We are also still in contact...
We continued to play around the local pubs and within a month we had invested in brand new electric guitars (bought on credit) and had even added a drummer, Peter Airs, to our little group. He used to play in the local Boy Scouts Band, As the lead guitarist and lead singer, I spent every spare moment practising the guitar and learning new songs, even coming home at lunchtimes from my job at the timber yard. Over the next eight years I was involved in many bands, playing in pubs and clubs across London, including an appearance at the famous 2Is Coffee Bar in Old Compton Street, the venue that launched Tommy Steele's career. It was during this time at one gig in South London that I met a young lady called Mary. She very quickly became the love of my life and we married in 1963, the beginning of 47 wonderful years together. My mother died in 1963 and Mary looked after me) Mary has died in 2010...(but still with me every day) God bless..xx
I now have 100s of pics on Facebook...
Aitch,
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