In the summer of 1970 my dad helped me get a part-time job on the British Rail cross-channel boats that plied their trade between Dover to Calais and Boulogne. A condition for employment was that I had to join the Seaman’s Union (no jokes please) and above is the photograph taken that fateful day. Many years later one of my daughters worked on a film called ‘The Informer’ and crew members were asked to supply photographs of relatives or friends suitable to be used in the background on a wanted poster. She offered them this image which apparently attracted a lot of attention along the lines of “Is that really your dad? You poor sod” / “Jesus wept, who the f*ck is that?” etc etc. In the end I didn’t make the cut but there’s always a next time.
Here are some of the warped individuals I worked with on the “Lord Warden” ferry, including a certain individual who posed for a photograph in which he hung a sausage from his open flies as a joke. Only upon developing the film did I realise it wasn’t a sausage. Honest your honour.
I go into quite a lot of detail in the book about the Film and TV course I attended at Ravensbourne College of Art & Design so I won’t repeat myself here other than to show you some of the images that, unlike me, have survived the ravages of time. That’s my school friend Terry in the top photo. The equipment you see was donated to the college by the BBC, equipment bought and paid for with money extorted from the public via the TV license so I have to thank the tax payer twice, once for the ex-BBC stuff and again for the grant.
After five days at college it would be back to the usual weekend hobby of getting smashed on Olde English Cider, failing miserably to pull, and then recovering by Monday morning in time to catch the 6:30 train up to Bromley. By 1970, however, there was another item to add to the list, that of attempting to avoid being duffed over by the rampant crowds of skinheads known as the Inky gang that ran riot in Margate. You might think I exaggerate both here and in the book but the articles above are just the tip of the iceberg when it came to their presence in Margate in the late 60s.
I have another article from the “Isle of Thanet Gazette” headed “The Sad Decline of Margate” in which a frequent visitor decries the deterioration of the town, choosing to spend his holiday in Bournemouth instead. Margate did have its advantage’s sometimes though, as you can see from the image of the lovely lady above. She was part of a Radio One road show that visited the town that summer. Shy old me asked beautiful young her if I might take a photo and to my complete surprise not only didn’t she call the police, she actually posed for me.
Jimmy Saville was furious.
On a sadder note, the Beatles broke up in April of 1970. The end of an era and a miserable day for all concerned. No one ever heard from them again. I, however, recently purchased a vinyl copy of the “No. 1” album because I still really like their music.
My ongoing love affair with vinyl still knew no bounds and in 1970 I bought what would become my all-time favourite Beach Boys album, “Sunflower”. The version you see here featured their last Capitol single “Cottonfields”. It was a big hit in the UK although it didn’t make it on the track listing of the version released in America, but of course you knew that already. Look closely at the inner sleeve image and you can see it’s signed by Brian Wilson who autographed it for me in October of 1999. Now there’s a story, which I’ll save for another time.
I am anticipating delivery of a vinyl box set of four records very soon featuring “Sunflower” and the follow-up album “Surf’s Up”. Over fifty years later and I’m still listening to the Beatles and the Beach Boys, music I cherished as a teenager. Now that’s what I call dedication to the cause. Or derangement. I’ll let you make up your own mind on that one.
Join me in a couple of weeks for my take on some of the films and TV shows from 1970.
Steve Mayhew 