Page 2 of 4

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 8:42 am
by michael scuffil
The guy Martin talks about was one Dr Matthews. He was a peripatetic sex-educator (I met someone from Bryanston who'd heard his talks). By the standards of the time, he was enlightened -- you have to remember that this was the 1950s, before sexual intercourse was famously invented in 1963. There was no way that AS Neill was going to be invited to perform this function.

I think you are a little hard on Seaman. He had to deal with the Brezhnevschina that had set in in Flecker's final years. I don't think he drove out Malins or Chern. Both co-existed with him for at least five years. Pat Daunt and Tim Law, other free spirits, lasted even longer, and David Jesson Dibley even came back.

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 12:48 pm
by J.R.
You must be referring to Dr Matthews, Bill, who gave three lectures in the sciece theatre during your time in the upper school after prep houses.

Maybe a bit primitive by todays standards, but I certainly learn a lot from them.

(Sorry Michael ! I've just spotted your post above at the top of this new page.)

I never had any dealings with Flecker, as C.M.E.S., was the head when I arrived.

I hardly ever, if at all spoke to him. I thought him rather aloof as he prowled the cloisters, gown flapping, hands behind his back, puffing away on his pipe. Certainly something a head-master, or any other master come to that, would not get away with at C.H. in todays times, although I have just returned to smoking a pipe after several years on cigarettes.

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:18 pm
by PeteC
John Saunders wrote:Does anyone remember Roy Terry? He tried to teach me piano and organ. As I remember he limped ,had more hair than would be acceptable in a schoolmaster on Flecker's staff but wore the finest pair of black rimmed spectacles I had seen until the advent of Hank Marvin. However he played a fine swing piano when noone was listening. During the Christmas holidays he was a rehearsal pianist on the West end shows and I had the benefit of his skills when returning for the Easter term.A great version of Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered amogst other numbers. He also wrote rude remarks on my music
and I remember in particular-"If you don't play with two hands together you might just as well plant potatoes." He also sang with the choir and was a breath of fresh air to me. Did he move to another school after a couple of years?
Yes I remember RE Terry. I had piano lessons with him all the time I was at CH (1948-56) When I first started as a prep boy he used to terrorise me (I will boil you in oil if you get that wrong again!) but over the years we became quite good mates. He married a nurse from the Sicker, and he became a good deal more benign after that, and he moved into part of the Doctor's house, by Doctor's Lake.

I don't remember the limp, but he had a lot of blond hair. Someone once told me that he had been a failed surgeon, but I don't know where that snippet came from.

I decided to resume piano lessons a few years ago, and from the progress I've been making, I now realise that he wasn't a very good piano teacher at all!

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:15 pm
by PeteC
I'm a bit surprised at the talk of bans of Jazz and Pop: during my time there (48-56), on film nights in Big School they'd play the chart singles of the time. I remember Frankie Lane stuff, and was it Guy Mitchell etc. In Peele A some guys had a wind-up gramophone and they had all sorts of stuff going on it, without any repercussions.

Film nights were frustrating: owing to the flat seating it was difficult to see past the bloke in front, and also, the projector kept breaking down.

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:16 pm
by michael scuffil
PeteC: You left just before the ban, which came in during my UF year (1957/58). I too remember playing 78s on wind-up gramophones before that.

Film nights got (technically) worse and worse after you left. I remember in about 1961 on Mod. Lang. Grecians we had to prepare for a discussion (in German) of the plot etc. of The Horse's Mouth (with Alec Guinness) for Pat Cullen. The film had been shown on Saturday and the discussion was on Monday. The project failed because the sound was so bad that no one had the first idea what was going on. Ironically, Pat Cullen was also i/c films.

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:15 pm
by J.R.
I remember that when films were shown in Big School in the winter, it was always exceptionally cold, but were were allowed to take our own personal blanket with us.

I don't think anyone had a record player in Coleridge B during my time. A lot of us had those new fangled, very 'tinny' transistor radios with an ear-piece. Very handy for listening to Radio Luxenbourg under the sheets.

When I hear "It's my Party, and I'll cry if I want To" and "Band of Gold", it still brings evocative memories flooding back !

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 9:21 pm
by sejintenej
J.R. wrote:I remember that when films were shown in Big School in the winter, it was always exceptionally cold, but were were allowed to take our own personal blanket with us.
I found the films totally boring until one night I simply (and quietly) got up and left. For that display I got four with the slipper but never went back.
J.R. wrote:I don't think anyone had a record player in Coleridge B during my time. A lot of us had those new fangled, very 'tinny' transistor radios with an ear-piece. Very handy for listening to Radio Luxenbourg under the sheets.
The #2 monitor in Col A had a record player in his study which could be heard during prep. We didn't worry but suspected that the disturbance was not appreciated by Kit.

Going back a few years to page 1 of this thread there was mention of St Louis Blues. I always found the counter-marching by the band at "Beating the Retreat" very impressive but I always had the thought of the band dancing it a la USAF Marching Band. Some of that musical genre would have been marvellous. Yes, John; I remember the band playing some of the Souza and other popular US marches.

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:35 pm
by eucsgmrc
My memories don't quite match, but that's the way memory works ...

I recall, when I'd been at school a year or so (I started in 1954) some Old Blue donated much better projection equipment - probably something retired from a Real Cinema. The quality improved and breakdowns got fewer.

I remember distinctly that we got a preview showing of The Dam Busters when the film was due for release. The book was still current at that time, so some of us had a notion of what was going on, which was just as well, because the projection and the audio were rubbish. Much of the film, as we saw it that first time, might have been a close-up of that unfortunately named dog, with the dialogue spoken by that same dog.

The alleged ban on pop music and jazz - I don't remember this having any great effect in Col A, probably because Kit didn't have much idea about music and could barely tell God save the weasel from Pop goes the Queen. There was a house radio perched on top of the dayroom lockers which was mainly tuned to the light programme and regaled us with Family Favourites and Your Hundred Best Tunes. When rock'n'roll burst out in about 1955 with Bill Haley and Rock around the clock, the British press worked itself up into a frightful tizzy, and I do vaguely recall that the school decided that we weren't to listen to such stuff. However, there was no ban on private radios, and there were one or two in the house (you could easily buy an old 1930s valve set from a junk shop) so those who chose could find a way to listen to classical music, jazz, musicals, or whatever. Kit seemed to be prepared to allow whatever his monitors deemed acceptable, on the grounds that some of those monitors knew vastly more about music than he did. When I reached the appropriate level, I was able to listen to the Third Programme in the lav end late at night.

There was also at least one record player in Col A by the time I left. I remember Ian Packington and Peter Hitchcock building a mighty hifi speaker into one end of a big old beer barrel, which made a splendid acoustic enclosure. There were several vinyl 12" LP mono discs in circulation, plus quite a few 45s of music that might have been banned by a housemaster who had a better idea of what we were listening to.

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 12:05 am
by sejintenej
eucsgmrc wrote:I remember distinctly that we got a preview showing of The Dam Busters when the film was due for release. The book was still current at that time, so some of us had a notion of what was going on, which was just as well, because the projection and the audio were rubbish. Much of the film, as we saw it that first time, might have been a close-up of that unfortunately named dog, with the dialogue spoken by that same dog.
That was arranged by Barnes Wallis who, I understand, attended the showing. I wonder what he thought of the dog :( :( ISTR a mention that it was also shown at Hertford
eucsgmrc wrote:The alleged ban on pop music and jazz - I don't remember this having any great effect in Col A, probably because Kit didn't have much idea about music and could barely tell God save the weasel from Pop goes the Queen. There was a house radio perched on top of the dayroom lockers which was mainly tuned to the light programme and regaled us with Family Favourites and Your Hundred Best Tunes. When rock'n'roll burst out in about 1955 with Bill Haley and Rock around the clock, the British press worked itself up into a frightful tizzy, and I do vaguely recall that the school decided that we weren't to listen to such stuff.
Definitely destruction of public morality and worse, the work of the devil, the country was going to the dogs ..... Was this not the time of Radio Luxembourg on 109.8?
eucsgmrc wrote:However, there was no ban on private radios, and there were one or two in the house (you could easily buy an old 1930s valve set from a junk shop) so those who chose could find a way to listen to classical music, jazz, musicals, or whatever. Kit seemed to be prepared to allow whatever his monitors deemed acceptable, on the grounds that some of those monitors knew vastly more about music than he did. .
Yes, it was the monitors who ruled and enforced (or otherwise) the rules and initially there was some dispute with seniority winning (I can't remember the names of the monitors at that time)

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:31 pm
by J.R.
sejintenej wrote:
J.R. wrote:I remember that when films were shown in Big School in the winter, it was always exceptionally cold, but were were allowed to take our own personal blanket with us.
I found the films totally boring until one night I simply (and quietly) got up and left. For that display I got four with the slipper but never went back.
J.R. wrote:I don't think anyone had a record player in Coleridge B during my time. A lot of us had those new fangled, very 'tinny' transistor radios with an ear-piece. Very handy for listening to Radio Luxenbourg under the sheets.
The #2 monitor in Col A had a record player in his study which could be heard during prep. We didn't worry but suspected that the disturbance was not appreciated by Kit.

Going back a few years to page 1 of this thread there was mention of St Louis Blues. I always found the counter-marching by the band at "Beating the Retreat" very impressive but I always had the thought of the band dancing it a la USAF Marching Band. Some of that musical genre would have been marvellous. Yes, John; I remember the band playing some of the Souza and other popular US marches.

Speaking of which. I'm sure we did a display along with them at Chichester at Police H.Q., if memory serves. (John H - HELP PLEASE),

And when we did a weeks display up at Hunstanton, there was certainly one of the U.S. military bands there. (John H - I know you did that one !)

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:52 pm
by PeteC
Well this Pop/Jazz ban has shattered some of my fond illusions. I look back on my time at CH as having been spent in a moderately liberal environment. How was it policed? What were the parameters? I mean lots of serious 20th Century music was profoundly influenced by jazz, from Debussy & Ravel onwards (and of course numerous American composers). Was Debussy's "Golliwog's Cake-Walk" allowed? (I suppose nowadays it would be more likely to fall foul of the Political Correctness people!). Amazing.

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 4:13 pm
by PeteC
Clearly the Pendulum has swung the opposite way, a few years ago they did the Channel 4 reality TV series Rock School at CH http://www.channel4.com/programmes/rock-school/ .
Gene Simmons (No I don't know much about him either) taught a class of kids to do Rock. I didn't think much to the musical content of the series, but it was a lovely trip down Memory Lane. (And don't Housey Coats look nice on girls!)

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 4:50 pm
by Martin
PeteC wrote:Well this Pop/Jazz ban has shattered some of my fond illusions. I look back on my time at CH as having been spent in a moderately liberal environment.
Clearly in different houses there were different policies concerning music. I cannot recall any ban in the 50s and Radio Luxemburg’s pop music was sometimes heard on the house dayroom radio, especially on Saturday evenings, for ‘The Top Twenty’ programme. (This was second only in popularity to that day’s football results.) This will cheer up and re-illusion PeteC in part, I hope.

Another indication that there was jazz tolerance in those days was the performance at a school concert of a choral work, ‘The Rio Grande’. This was a setting to music of the poem of that name by Edith Sitwell. The ‘music’ was scored for a (classical) orchestra and also a separate jazz band, playing together. However tolerant the authorities were then (Korks was the Director of Music), probably the most important reasons for the choice of this item, were that there were at CH some excellent jazz musicians then (they sometimes performed as ‘The Housey Hotspots’) and more importantly the composer of ‘The Rio Grande’ was Constant Lambert, an OB and the first Music Grecian.
PeteC wrote:Clearly the Pendulum has swung the opposite way, a few years ago they did the Channel 4 reality TV series Rock School at CH http://www.channel4.com/programmes/rock-school/ .
Gene Simmons (No I don't know much about him either) taught a class of kids to do Rock.

There is an existing video tape about Gene Simmons' Teaching. It may also be available in DVD form, but I cannot give any further information about it. Perhaps the BBC can supply it, for it seems to be based on the above website's Series 1.

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:01 pm
by John Saunders
PeteC wrote:Well this Pop/Jazz ban has shattered some of my fond illusions. I look back on my time at CH as having been spent in a moderately liberal environment. How was it policed? What were the parameters? I mean lots of serious 20th Century music was profoundly influenced by jazz, from Debussy & Ravel onwards (and of course numerous American composers). Was Debussy's "Golliwog's Cake-Walk" allowed? (I suppose nowadays it would be more likely to fall foul of the Political Correctness people!). Amazing.
RE Terry gave me the GWs Cakewalk to practise. I can still play the first 8 bars but with difficulty.He also presented me with some Gershwin which I found v difficult indeed- Rhapsody in Blue. So he was quite forward thinking

Re: Roy Edwin Terry

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:18 pm
by PeteC
Ah, Thank you Martin and John Saunders, you've restored my faith to a considerable extent. And of course there was the Rio Grande as well. I sang tenor in that in my last term. Gad Malins played the virtuosic piano part, didn't he. But that would have been in summer 1956.
Oh yes, and someone mentioned Pat Cullen. He did a gig with the Music Study Group (remember that?) singing folk songs with his guitar.