This year was the beginning of many financial changes. My regular girl-friend  was now Carole Helps, she lived at Ashley Road, Bathford. I had met her at the Bath Assembly Rooms Telecom dance. We took the Rover to london with  a glove compartment full of bundles of cash to buy equipment & tapes.  We travelled in my latest aquisitiion , a Grey Rover 2000 SC saloon , not a brand new one , but new to me and a few years old.  It certainly out-performed anything I had driven before.  Very smart , certainnly a "bird puller".

 

We arrived in London early in the morning weather was dry at least , could not have a deno of the kit (should have heard the alarm bells), but never mind , load it in the boot nad we'll be on our way.  The pile of cash in the dash had shrunk a tad and I was not quite as happy as I should have been on the way home with Carole.  Get the machines indoors and have a shufty.

 

"A Fool and his money" was a phrase offered to me a lot at the time after I had received my accident compenjsation , shame I took little notice in my naievity of youth.  A few phone calls to Levers Rich in London gave me the bad news ...the machine I bought was an F.M. Recorder and would need new record / playback amps to get it worknig properly!! .. "s**t" ..a few months wages later and the bits came to make it all good again.  I learnt the hard way on that one !!

 

Radiospares chap fell in love with me when I placed my first order for the components for the mixing desk I was to build for the Studio. Even with with my new wealth, in those days it would be the price of a new house to buy.  So , with determination and luck a project was started to build one from scratch using second hand meters and switches etc, where possible.  It was a mammoth project looking back on it , and it took the best part of a year , and a lot of trial and error , sleepless nights, spilled hot enamel paint on a new wooden floor. Singed eyebrows from a VERY hot oven when applying the light green top coat for the console panels ( 48 panels ).

 

So , this was the time to convert the old shop windows in the Studio into small dispays for the multitude of household goods we used to sell. With the windows soundproofed with timber and foam sheeting (looked like yellow egg boxes) , the walls were coated with tar and the yellow foams sheets made it quite "dead" achoustically.  The wiring was going in for the guitar and microphone feeds into the control room , speaker cabinet mounts either side of the window over-looking the Studio. All took considerable time and effort to create a good impression for our "Paying Guest" musicians.

 

There was the problem with the roof , letting in water when it really poured dow , but not much came down the walls downstairs ( yet ). This situation was to change after the following winter. Malcolm had tried his best with the new design of roof material being used at the time for schools and housing.  It was a new product made from compressed straw into panels 2" thick and a standard 8ft x 4ft size , went together quite fast but required a good felt coating with grit (which Malocolm did not do.)  So we were destined to suffer with this part of the building refurbishment.

 

Godd progress was being made with the walls in the lounge , the new "Crittal" windows were in and painted.  Mauve venetian blinds on the lounge windows , what with a new tongue and groove wood floor it started to look quite up-market compared with the old low ceiling room that were there before the fire.  Jean James ( Malcolm's wife ) had moved to Bristol by this time because so much building work was goiing on. So , it was a "Bachelour pad" and I was on my own most of the time. Malcolm stayed at Timsbury rather than go with his wife and child every night.

 

This state of affairs meant that nights out in Bath were quite frequent , girls would accompany Malcolm to the flat all hours of the night.  I used to sleep on the bed-settee in the lounge which had the toilet / bathroom off it ( albeit not finished yet ).  One night I was fast asleep , the light went on and this amply proportioned 16 year old walks past my bed en-route for the toilet.. Me annoyed at being woken at 3.29 a.m. was not impressed with Hilary Crammond (who the amply proportioned parts belonged to.)

 

Hilary was to become a regular visitor and Carole and I went to Weymouth with her and Malcolm on the boat , and we posed just off the beach (as you do !) in the not too hot onshore breeze.  Hilary had more insulation than Carole , but we didn't spend long on deck.  We used to visit the "Keel Club" at Bathampton anf the "Wagon & Horses" pub at Batheaston with Mike Pippard (dad owned nurseries) who was going out with Janice ( Carole's sister ).  It was quite a busy place with the "Norris's" brothers , Keith , Barry , Graham as regulars and it made the nights pass quickly.

 

I was keeping busy with the design and construction of the mixing console at this time, experimenting with various circuits nad trying to bring them all together into some form of order t end up with a product of high quality on a budget.  I went of to London again to buy samples of recording tape from various suppliers as mail order was in it's infancy then , it was easier to actually do the travelling as I had the time to do it.  What made it annoying on several occasions was that aquaintainces of the time wanted to come , and more annoying they would see a bargain and expect me to lend them the money to buy it ! .This invariably meant another trip to get what I wanted..  Friends eh ?

 

Looking back on 1970 it was a very fast moving and exciting time in my life , I never thought that it could get any better with all the new things going on around me.  I was learning so much about people , electronics and business.

 

Was 1971 to be better .....or worse ?

 

                                                       

Use Browser "Back" Button to return to previous page  - to 1970s