OSAmag80

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 0
Old stationers and
all that Jazz
robertandjacquelinehughes@btintemet.com
18th December 2014
Dear Geraint,
Good to see you at the Annual Carol
Service which I was pleased to attend for
the first time. I had forgotten how
impressive was the Memorial Window
which had been removed from the School
and which is now situated in Hornsey
Parish Church.
Singing Carols at the service has prompted
me to drop you the previously promised
note about my own singing activities. In
October 2012 I saw an advert in a local
magazine for a new singing group, the
Clay Hill Singers, which had just started at
St Luke's Church, Hillyfields, Enfield.
The advert emphasised that the ability to
sing was not a requirement and that the
emphasis was on enjoying yourself and
having fun. Despite the, now regrettable,
fact that I only remained in the School
choir for a couple of weeks I have always
enjoyed singing and so decided to give it a
go and have been attending on a regular
basis ever since. We meet every Friday
morning when we pick up the words of the
songs we are going to sing as we arrive.
Typically we sing about 16 songs during
the 90 minutes we are there, with a short
break for an interval. Our conductor is a
charming lady called Claire whose father is
also a regular participant. His name is
David Gregory and he tells me that he was
at Stationers' from 1942-47.
David's wife is the sister of another Old
Stationer, Stuart Behn. One of the ladies
whom I regularly speak to at Clay Hill
Singers is called Lynne Lampert who in the
1970s worked at Minchenden School with
Clive Blenkinsop. She and her husband
form part of Clive's team in the pub quizzes
at the Muswell Hill pub mentioned in a
previous issue of the Old Stationer. Needless
to say she was pleased to see the photo of
Clive sitting in the staff room at Stationers'
which featured in another recent issue of
the magazine. In the new year Lynne and
her husband are going to invite my wife and
me for a meal with Clive whom I have not
seen since 1968.
Occasionally members of the Clay Hill
Singers are invited to augment the choir at
St Luke's for special events and last year
(2013) I did just that for the patronal
service which was held at St John's Church
in Clay Hill, this being in the same Parish
of Clay Hill. The service was presided over
by another Old Stationer, Stephen Platten,
then the Bishop of Wakefield. After the
service I had quite a chat with Bishop
Platten and learnt that he had been in the
same year at Stationers' as my older brother
Anthony. Furthermore I learnt that he
knew my late father during his early career
when they worked together at Shell
Chemicals.
Through the Clay Hill Singers I have also
joined another smaller group called the
North London Singers also run by the
same Claire. We meet on Tuesday
mornings and concentrate on singing just
two or three pieces of music at a time, this
time singing from sheet music. I am
pleased to say that even though it was
many years ago quite a bit of what I learnt
in Norman Rimmer's music lessons
dating from 1961-62 has been recalled by
my ageing memory, so many thanks
Norman. We have now performed in
several small concerts locally and one
such was at St James Church, Muswell
Hill last April. Not knowing the local
parking restrictions I contacted my former
classmate Stephen Jefferies for advice and
am very pleased to say that Stephen came
along to the concert, after which we
enjoyed a drink together in a local hostelry.
Should you be reading this under the light
of a "Blue Moon" and "Consider Yourself"
to have a reasonable voice then why not
come "Downtown" to St Luke's where you
can "Sing". If you do, then as you pass
through the doors I can say that "You'll
Never Walk Alone" and others there may
be amazed by "The Wonder of You".
When leaving you will certainly feel that
singing did "Bring Me Sunshine" and who
knows you might even bump into "The
Laughing Policeman" on the way out. I
would welcome you to come and join us at
St Luke's on a Friday morning. There is no
commitment to sign up long term; we just
pay a voluntary contribution of £2 per
session and everyone agrees that it is a very
enjoyable way to spend a morning. We now
have about 10-15 men and about 70-75
ladies so men are particularly welcome.
Kind regards
Rob Hughes
p.s. Happy Christmas to you!
The Bishop of Wakefield, Stephen Platten
outside St John's Church, Clay Hill.
what might have been – Magical memory
There we were, these 4 long-haired, music-loving, over-sexed
(only in our minds), Stationers' schoolboys who enjoyed hanging
out with each other. One day our leader, Bob Ritchie, with myself
Don and Ray, who did not have any surnames simply because I
have forgotten them, told us something exciting and unbelievable.
We had all been raving about our music heroes such as Buddy
Holly, Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, and Lonnie Donegan,
Chris Barber and Acker Bilk, when Bob stunned us into sudden
silence by revealing he not only had a guitar but he had a taperecorder
as well!
When we recovered ourselves we called him a lucky so and so
and kept asking him when could we all go round to his house and
look at and play with these wonderful things. So straight after
school the very next day we crowded into Bob's front room
where he showed us the guitar and tape recorder. After a lot of
trying these out we had to admit Bob was the only one who
could play a few chords on the guitar and make it sound good.
About this time a talent show called Carrell Levis Discoveries
was on stage for a few weeks at the Astoria Cinema Finsbury
Park, where anyone with some sort of talent could go and
perform a possible musical masterpiece and be "discovered"
which could lead to "greater things".
Bob decided we would have a go at this and the thought of it was
so exciting we even stopped thinking about girls for a short while
and concentrated on this possible chance of stardom! We chose
two songs. Buddy Holly's EVERYDAY and Michael Holliday's
THE STORY OF MY LIFE. After several days rehearsing and
Bob's ability to play 4 or 5 chords on the guitar, we had to admit
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