THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON JANUARY 13TH 1979 AT 13 WHITEHEAD STREET, RAWTENSTALL. THE INFORMANT IS JOHN GREENWOOD, FORMER MANAGER AT SPRING VALE MILL. THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
Now then John we'll carry on again with .. now, you mentioned having grace after meals, did you have grace before meals as well?
R- No. No we didn't have grace before, always after.
How about prayers at home?
R- No. Father wasn't a religious person at all, if anything he was the opposite, so there were no such things as .. we had to say our prayers when we went to bed, you see, we always had to say our prayers. Me mother was religious but we always said our prayers when we went to bed. But like there were no like family prayers or family readings or that kind of thing, no.
When you had a birthday was it different from any other day?
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R- No, not at all. Well, the thing was that you got a card, probably. You see, I mean there were times when cards were out, there wasn't the money for them. But as we got more affluent again, when the money was there you got a card, you see. But you didn't get birthday presents of any dimension at all.
How about birthday cake, or a special meal? No?
R- Oh no. No that was out. In point of fact I never had one. Because when I was 21 me mother said to me “Now you can have a party, or you can have a watch” and I chose the watch.
How about Christmas, how did the family spend Christmas?
R- Well, you always spent it together, particularly as children. I mean you used to look forward to Christmas. And I can see it now, we all used to get a long stocking, a black stocking. And when they could afford it you used to get an apple, an orange and a sixpence and they if there was enough money you got a box of dates, one or two toffees and then of course you got your toys. Again, if [there was money]
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If you did get a toy John, obviously it wouldn't be on the stamp of some of the amazing toys that are made nowadays of plastic.
R- Oh no.
Would there be a lot of locally made toys about?
R- Well, I wouldn't say a lot of locally made toys, but I mean the thing is that the younger children say would get a rag doll and for the lads, what, happen an engine, you know, made out of wood. But I used to like books, I used to like books, and of course like I've mentioned previously, when we were young we used to depend a lot on the chapel. The chapel used to have a service, and they still do every year, where they, what they call a gift service where those with more affluence bring the toys that they've done with, and then they were distributed to the poor. Well we were the poor and we used to get things, because I know like my mother used
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to, they used to come when they thought we were in bed. And my mother used to put them away and hide them until Christmas morning. Like the girls, I can remember now one getting a cradle, a little wooden cradle you know, with two rockers on and as I say rag dolls or pot dolls. I can't really think what I got in the main, I really can't think what I got particularly.
One of the things that strikes me about children's toys nowadays, especially boys, I don't know, I don’t think girls have changed so much but boys, there seems to be an awful lot of warlike toys. You know, guns and action me and this that and the other.
R - Oh yes. Yes.
Was there that sort of thing in those days?
R- No. Well, let me say this, you used to make a, you'd get a gun, it was simply made of wood with no trigger and no moving parts if you had a gun. I mean you used to use your imagination many a time with say a broken brush handle you know. But no, there wasn't the same sophistication that the... Oh today, I mean, what my grandson got for Christmas is nobody’s business as far as this [is concerned]. Mind you, his father being a joiner made him a fort you know with the doors that open so that the cavalry can rush through and then the doors go back again with the balustrade round you know where the fellows can pop over the top, and he made a jail house, and a court house and a stable for the horses, you know. But no, I never got, we never had things like that no.
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How about New Year, was that regarded as a holiday or not?
R- Oh no. In point of fact it's only up to the, after the second world war, and a long time after that. I think it's within this last 20 years that we have never worked on New Year's day.
It was the same with us in weaving, New Year's Day.
R - We always worked New Years day.
Yes. How about, one thing I can remember when I was a lad in Stockport, this was during the war and just after, but before the war was it the practice for them to sound the mill hooters at midnight on New Year's Eve.
R- Not so much the mill hooters, but the church bell rang as soon as it was twelve o'clock.
Yes, and how about the railway locos?
R- Oh well, there was no shed or anything like that here. [Motive power shed] And I mean the thing is that usually the last train had gone before twelve o'clock.
I see, aye.
R- Aye, from round here.
I can remember in Stockport, there was the big shed [locomotive] by the Mersey and I can remember that at midnight all the sirens and the hooters used to go off. Aye, even during the war.
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R- In point of fact I’ve seen more New Years Eve in bed than I have on my feet. Because of this fact, that you were working New Years Day and that was that.
Probably the best way to do it John. How about Easter? Was Easter regarded as a holiday?
R- Oh yes, aye, particularly Good Friday. Good Friday was a real solemn occasion. And we were always kind of brought up to believe that the crucifixion happened about three o'clock in the afternoon, and particularly a solemn time. Like if you went to the chapel to a service, there were solemn hymns and that kind of thing. Good Friday was more strictly observed than Sunday.
When did they walk round here John?
R- Well, they didn't have a fixed multiple walking day. Different churches used to walk on different occasions. For instance, the Roman Catholics always walked on the first Sunday in May, that was their day. Now the non-conformists, well after the war, I'm just trying to think now, the first world war, the chapel where I went to always had…
Which was?
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R- Methodist.
Yes. What was the name of it John?
R- Longholme. They always had one walking day in the year, and I think it was the first Sunday in June. Because it was always a very special occasion. The thing is, when I was in my teens I used to detest walking day because our chapel had two big banners and they always had a set of banner carriers. They always walked in white flannels, that was a white shirt and white flannel pants and white pumps. And there were two banners, one was known as the red banner, and one was the blue banner and
of course they wore sashes appropriately. Now I was never asked to help either in banner carrying, because for one thing they were like the elite of the chapel who always did these things and then the only time I was asked, of course I had no white flannels and no white shirt, we couldn't afford them so I had to turn it down. So, we
started a scout troop in, what would it be, 1932, and of course the thing is I was what, about 23 then, and I was invited to go along with the lads here as assistant scout mastery you know, learning which I did. And I used to go and walk with the scholars then.
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Mind you, mother kind of insisted that you walked, you know, it was a procession of witness, this is what she said “It's a procession of witness it's not a spectacle” And of course you had to walk. I was very conscious of this, not being absorbed into the little cliques of the elite but that doesn’t stop me going to chapel, I go to chapel every Sunday.
Why do you think that was John? Was it a question of finance or of social standing?
R- It was definitely a question of finance, because let me say this just in me own defence up to a point, I won a scholarship, I passed to go to the Grammar School but we couldn’t afford it. Me father was ill and of course you had to sign to the effect that you had to go to school while you were 16, you see. Which meant that although you got so many terms free, the last two years you had to pay, from 14 to 16 you had to
pay to go to school, and you had to sign to this effect. Well of course my mother couldn’t commit herself to pay them for two years fees because she'd be losing two years' wages you see and so I had to turn it down. Well, this is another thing that gave me a little bit of an inferiority complex. Like as I say, we were poor. And you got those going to the chapel who accepted you, but at the same time there was a big division in the people who attended the chapel, which I'm very, very pleased to say today doesn't appertain.
Would you say John that the same thing, I mean to your knowledge, would the same be true of say the Church of England and the Catholics?
R- Oh yes, but not so much. The Catholics were a different entity altogether in as much as it was a mortal sin not to go to church. Now to us, whilst we were instructed in sin, of what we should do and what we shouldn't do, it wasn't rammed down our throats as much as what theirs was. But even there of course they had their [divisions] those who were close to the priests, and that kind of thing. And for instance, at our place, I can remember not going to church, to chapel for a week or two while my mother could afford to buy me some new shoes, because we'd only had clogs. So that I didn't go for a week or two, but as soon I got some shoes I had to go, because I wouldn't go in me clogs. You might say it was a form of poor snobbery really, but 1 wouldn't go in me clogs.
No, very understandable John.
R- Because, well I mean it made you so inferior. Just let me give you another instance. There was one chappie who I've never forgotten, he was what they call a class leader and he used to have a class of lads, a chappie called Jimmy Warburton, one of the saints who were unsung and passed on. But I could tell you a little tale about him it night be of interest but this is just to emphasise
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the difference in social standing. He was a genuine chap, genuine Christian and he was going in for a local preacher, and the thing was that the circuit consisted of a large number of chapels then and he was told that when he came, if he got to preach at Longholme which was the chapel of the district you know, he'd have to preach a different type of sermon to what he would if he went to one of the little outlying chapels in different parts of the valley. So Jim up and told them, he said “I have only one thing to preach and that's the gospel and if that's your attitude I’ll not be a preacher” And he wasn’t. But anyway that's by the way, he took an interest in lads, and he had this class, a Bible class, and we used to go to the school as it was every Thursday night. And it was coming holidays so he said to the lads “Now then, the thing is I want you all to write an essay on your holiday and there'll be a prize for the best essay” Well of course they all wrote their essays. Well we never went away and during that particular period of the holidays we had a cloudburst and the river overflowed its banks and it flooded the house and we had a real to do. And I wrote about this and he got an independent chappie to assess the essays, and I've never forgotten the chappie’s remarks. And I didn't win the prize, but he said this boy appears not to have had a holiday, he's been so engrossed in the affairs of what was going on around him that one couldn't say he’d actually had a holiday but he wrote a fairly glowing report. So what Jim did, he looked up some old books, boys books, and he gave them to me. What I'm trying to point out in this is to emphasise the degree of poverty under which we lived. You seep because me mother - me father had died of course - and there was my mother with four children working in a cotton mill and this was how we were. So that at the chapel, many a time you had no penny for the collection so when they came and put the box under your nose and you had none you know it was very, very embarrassing. Very, very embarrassing. And when you had a penny you were the cat's whiskers in as much as when they came with the box you….
Made sure it clinked when it went in!!
R- That's right. Let them know that you've put your penny in.
Aye, that's right.
R- Oh aye, I missed many a good do through not having any money.
Well there you are, we've survived John.
R- Oh I've enjoyed life aye.
In the home, move away from chapel a little bit now, in the home had you any musical instruments?
R- Oh no. The first musical instrument we had, if you can it a musical instrument, was an old gramophone and we bought that second hand of somebody that was getting another. That was when you had 12 inch records, you put a fresh needle in for every record. But no, we weren't musical. Well I’m not saying we weren't musical,
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it was just a case if, you know I always think that if there's something there, like that piano there you see. I mean if it's there you'll have a tinkle you see even though you can't play but it stimulates an interest. Well if there's nothing to stimulate your interest of course you don’t, you don't follow that bent do you, even though you might have talent.
That's it, aye. How about singing John?
R- Ah! One’s taking part in the Sunday school you know. I mean there used to be a lot of concerts and that kind of thing, one’s taking part in an operetta as they used to call it, this was the children you know. And there was one woman who was training us and they selected us for parts and one had to sing a solo, all the children. She just turned round to me and she says “You can't sing” took the part off me and gave me a speaking part. So ...
That was the end of your singing career.
R- That's right aye.
How about singing at home? Did you ever have a sing song at home?
R- Oh no. Well, let's say this, we used to sing in our way. I mean I still do it, I mean many a time if I'm in the bathroom I’ll be having a song to myself.
Oh, marvellous place the bathroom for it John, marvellous place, the acoustics are always, it always sounds better in the bathroom, that's where I do my singing.
R- Well this is it. I mean, the thing is that I sing to me own satisfaction.
That's it, aye.
R- But I had always had a longing to be able to sing tenor. Well you can't sing tenor with a bass voice. But I was interested in singing. As much as you know these oratorios and that kind of thing that they used to give around the valley, and there used to be a lot of it. And in point of fact I once tried to join Goodshaw Band when they were after young players. But again it wasn't what you knew, it were who you knew, and I never got in. No.
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And did the family have a regular newspaper?
R- No.
Magazine?
R- We used to get the local papers you know, the Free Press.
That's it the Rossendale Free Press, yes?
R- Aye, the Rossendale Free Press. But we never had a daily.
Were that once a week? Yes, once a week, the Free Press.
R- If me father, let me say this, me father had, whenever there was any racing, he used to get the One O'clock, you know, it was the racing paper and it used to come out every day. It were the Mid-day Chronicle, better known as the One O'clock. It was purely given over to racing, me father used to read that but that ...
How about your mother, did your mother ever have any [magazine] either a woman’s book or religious book?
R- Oh aye. My mother always bought the War Cry and Young Soldier, that’s the Salvation Army papers. And occasionally she used to buy the Red Letter, that's been going a long time.
Aye. Yes it has hasn't it, yes. Did you ever come across any of Arthur Mee’s publications, or is that later ...
R- Oh yes. That was going, there was Arthur Mee’s Children's Encyclopaedia ...
Yes and then there was the Children's Newspaper as well.
R- Oh, there were the Children's Newspaper, I used to buy that occasionally.
When would that be John, when did it start? I can remember getting that during the war you know, during the second world war.
R- Oh I can’t just tell you when it started out, it was going ever since I can remember was the Children's Newspaper because this chappie that I used to take papers for, you know, and I started when I was eight, he was very good, he'd let me have a look at them in the shop and then put them back for sale. Because I used to look at all t'comics. Oh he was very good, and the Children's Newspaper of course was very widely used for illustration at day school. And particularly at Sunday schools. Now that chappie I mentioned, Jimmy Warburton, he always used to get the Children's Newspaper, and he got loads and loads of
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lessons out of the Children’s Newspapers and very interesting they were too. Yes. Arthur Mee and then of course he had the Children's Encyclopaedia and every so often it’d come out in fortnightly parts you know and then you got them bound to build up. But I never bought any of them, we never had any of them no.
Did any of the family belong to a library?
R- Oh aye. Well, I belonged to the library, I was going to say nearly as far back as 1 could remembers but I wouldn't say so, from being about seven or eight I was a member of the library. I was a prolific reader in the sense that I'd get a library book one day and read it at night and take it back the day after because the librarian many a time said “You haven't read that book, take it back again.” when you have gone back the day after for another. But oh aye, and I used to like adventure stories.
Who did you read?
R- Percy F Westerman.
That's it.
R- And what's the other fellow? R M Ballantyne, Jules Verne, oh was there a chappie called Masterman?
Now wait a minute. There was a book called Masterman Ready wasn’t there?
R – Marryat.
Marryat, Captain Marryat, Masterman Ready, that's it.
R- Aye, Masterman Ready, Marryat.
That’s it, yes.
R - I used to like those kind of things, and then of course I used to be interested in, in books on, you know, various topics.
Aye. Was Percy Westerman going before the second world war? I used to read him during the war.
R - Oh yes aye. Well, his tales were of the first world war.
Aye, of course they were. Yes, now, wait a minute, there was the peg leg, the captain with one leg wasn't there. Aye.
R- And Harding, there was one Harding, a Captain Harding in one of his books. But his tales were about the first world war. And then of course I used to like Rudyard Kipling, aye.
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What library? There’d be the Municipal Library, of course. Apart from the library was there a library at say the Mechanic’s Institute or anything like that? Were there other libraries that you could use?
R- No. No there wasn't a Mechanics Institute at all in Rawtenstall. There was one in Bacup, but there wasn't one here. And of course the school books were very stereotyped. Because when I was in the upper standards at school we used to get a lot of these classics, Tales from the Iliad and Homer and oh ..
Yes. Which of course was a reflection on the way the masters themselves had been trained.
R- Well, this was it, but they were not up my street at all.
Were there any other books in the house, besides library books?
R- Well, the Bible. I used to read that, I'd read anything.
Sauce bottle labels?
R- Aye, Daddy's sauce aye.
I think I could still recite the French on the side of the H P Sauce bottle.
R- Oh well, I never went so far as to learn that!
Aye. No I often laugh at that. People'll say do you speak… like I did French at school, I say oh yes, I learned my French off the side of the HP Sauce bottles. Aye. Was there anyone in the family who didn't read or write?
R - Oh no. No, we were all taught to read and write, and then again the thing is that we used to ...
Your mother and father as well?
R- Oh yes. My father wasn't a very good scholar, he wasn't a very good scholar in as much as, if there were any letters to be written my mother always did them. But he had a rather prodigious memory in as much as he’d start taking bags of coal out
to Mrs so and so who'd pay him there and Mrs so and so you know, and all through the day. And then at night he used to have to go to the office, to what they called the reckoning up you see and it was very rare that he was out you know, in his money and he could remember who'd paid him right from starting in the morning up to, aye.
Yes, that's interesting that. What did your mother do in her spare time in the house, if she had any spare time. Obviously she wouldn't have so much but what she did have.
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R- Now that's rather a difficult one because the amount of spare time was very limited. I mean she used to be patching and mending and, you know, darning stockings, and it was a job that took hours of any spare time that she had. No, I wouldn’t know that she'd any special skills like embroidery or anything like that. I mean there used to be a lot of what they call camping. In other words if she'd a few minutes to spare she'd go into one of the neighbours and they'd have a chat or sometimes one of the neighbour’s would come into your house. There used to be a lot of that whereas there's none of that now, not in this day and age. I mean, the people next door haven't been in this house I don't think, for seven or eight years yet they are only next door. This lady at this side comes in, but she doesn't come in camping you see but like we have a very close liaison in as much as she has my key if the gasman comes or the electric man comes and she'll come and tell me. But as for coming and sitting in, well in those days they used to come in and I know many a time my mother's put the kettle on and made a brew you see, a pot of tea, and they've sat nattering and gossiping. Because there used to be a lot of personal rivalry among the neighbours, in as much as you'd be going into this house for a period and then you’d have a bit of a, a few words probably over the kids mainly and then you wouldn't go in that house but you'd go in another house and somebody else would come into your house that hadn't been in for a while you know. And there used to be a lot of that where there's none of that now, no. But she never had a lot of spare time in as much as like she'd go out to the Women's Institute, or occasionally I can remember my father used to take her to the theatre. But very occasionally, like theatre you know were phew, to my mother it was just not on. Unless there was something very special.
Yes. How about your father in his spare time?
R- Oh well, all his spare time was spent in the Club or the pub.
Which club did he go to?
R- He went to what were called Greenfield, Greenfield Working Men's Club. Aye, he used to spend, oh well every day, seven days a week, at night have his tea, get washed and shaved, off to the Club. And of course we never really knew what time he came in, in as much as we were always in bed. But either that or the pub.
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What time did you. get up in the morning John?
R- What time did ... ?
You get up.
R- Well, the fact of starting taking papers when I was eight, I used to get up at six o'clock. But before that time we used to get up about, well it worked this way, that mother used to go to work for six o’clock, then they had half an hour break at eight o'clock, you see where they used to come home and give us our breakfast. And then she'd to be back [at work] for half past eight. So that the thing was that me eldest sister would get us up you know so that we were ready, and washed and dressed for eight o'clock when my mother came in to give us our breakfast.
So your mother’d have to be up at shortly after five o'clock.
R- Oh aye, I mean, well it's on record isn't it, the very fact that when she used to carry us out when we were infants. I mean and she used to start work at six o’clock, take us to this woman who's looked after us, and catch a tram at half past five to be at work for six o'clock.
Those were the days, John.
R- Yes, aye.
The good old days as they call them. What time did you go to bed, the children, what time did you usually go to bed at night?
R- Oh well, at the very beginning about half past six. And of course as you got older it gradually increased but even up to being ten or eleven, nine o'clock. And when you started work of course you could stop up until about ten or so and this was it. But again, like in me teens I took up a bit of physical culture and I always believed and I still do, in a minimum of eight hours. You see so having to be up at six o'clock you know to go for the papers which I did do up to being 19. I used to make a point of being in bed reasonably early. Oh it was an event for me if I was up at midnight, Oh aye.
What time did your parents go to bed?
R- Well, really that's something I can't say, but I should imagine if my mother was waiting for me father coming in, it would always be 11. Because you know how they get at these clubs and .. aye.
Did you have any pets?
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R- Cat.
Cat.
R- It wasn't so much as a pet as it were to keep the mice down., Aye.
One of the workers. Did your father smoke?
R- Oh yes. In point of fact he wasn't allowed to go into the first world war at the beginning because he had a smoker's heart, whatever that was and he used to smoke thick black twist.
Briar or a clay?
R- Corncob.
Corncob?
R- Aye they used to be very popular did those corncobs. He used to have a Briar like for a Sunday pipe because you know the old corncob it was as black as night, you know, with the nicotine, with his black twist. Aye, he used to be a dab hand, you know how they used to do in those days when you had an open coal fire, and one could send a spit out to the coal fire.
Did anybody else in the family smoke?
R- No. My mother never smoked, I never smoked, my sister's never smoked.
Your sister's never smoked. Apart from your father obviously. We know that your father used to have bet on the horses every now and again. Did anybody else in the family ever have a bet?
R- No, we never had the money you see.
Aye, that's it.
R- I mean, father kept us poor, like I've said. I mean, I’m not belittling the chappie, he worked to bring us up but at the same time, we could have had a lot more of this world's goods and comfort.
Aye, that's it. Can you remember when the family had its first radio?
R- Oh yes. And I can remember the very first time I ever heard a radio. The first time we had a radio we bought it second hand and you used to have accumulators then, you used to have to take them to be charged. There used to be a shop in Bank Street where they charged this. You took your battery in and they charged it up and then you used to have… But first of all we got battery set where you used to buy big solid batteries and you used to have to have two, a high tension and a low tension, you see and that's it. You used to have an aerial trailing round the attic.
And when did you first hear the radio? You know, when did you hear the first wireless?
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R- The first wireless I heard was when I was 14 and it was a spinner who had it. I worked on machines preparing what they call bobbins for the spinners. And this spinner, he invited two of us, we were what they called condenser tenters, and we used to tend these machines and make these great big bobbins and the spinner used to put them on his mule and spin them you see. And it were one spinner, he said if you come up to our house you can listen to a wireless. Like we used to work for him and we got on the tram at Rawtenstall and we went. He lived in Crawshawbooth and we went up and it was, I can see it now. It was like an oak box with a lid on and the speaker was a horn similar to the type that there were on gramophones but it stood on a little stand like that, a black one. And the thing is he said “Well, you picked a night when there isn't much on.” But at the same time he turned this on and this music was coming out you know without having to wind the old handle or put a fresh needle in for the record, for the gramophone. And we thought it was marvellous. And this chappie started talking about the news and this kind of thing and then he said we'll see if there's anything on the other channel, so he lifted the speaker off the lid, lifted the lid up and switched it off by the way, and took a coil out and put another coil in. And this is what he did, he'd two coils. But this was it. And then of course his wife had made a potato pie supper, that was the highlight of the evening and some currant cake, and of course we came down on the tram about 10 o'clock. And that was the first time that I heard a wireless and it seemed marvellous to hear these voices and this music coming out ...
Yes, that's it.
R- Continuously you see, continuously.
Yes. So when did you, when did the family first get theirs?
R- Oh well, it was sometime after that. And I can't just tell you the circumstances in which we got it. I can't just tell you, but I know we had a set. Aye, only our first set had a box speaker separate from the set you know, on a wire, and that was it. And then we got a built in set, one like kind of pear shaped, a pear shaped style of set. And then of course, from that yes, we built up till we got a modern one as it was.
What sort of impact would you say that wireless made on your lives?
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R- Well, it made a tremendous impact in as much as it was a new innovation and not only that, it gave you a wider spectrum of entertainment and also current affairs you see because you used to get talks on about this thing and that thing and the point is that you gradually built up an association with the people who were doing this. Like this is where the kind of household names came into being. For instance Stuart Hibbert you know, he was an announcer, I mean he comes straight to my mind. Stuart Hibbert. And there were other people, and you kind of built up a link with their voices and the stuff they were telling.
On the whole would you say it was a good influence, wireless?
R- Well, I'd say yes and no. I mean there, you know you could go into a real debate about it in as much as immediately wireless came, I wean I'm not one of those people who can read and listen to the wireless, I've either got to do the one or the other. So that whilst the wireless was on I couldn't read so of course the number of books I read went down.
So in other words one form of communication ousted another.
R- That's true, that's true. But at the same time, as 1 say, the wireless gave you a wider spectrum of affairs. You know, I mean you had different entertainment. For instance I mean, I can remember laughing me sides sore at Tommy Handley and I.T.M.A. This was the 1930's you see.
So would you say that on the whole it was probably a good thing even though it cut down on your reading.
R- Oh yes, oh yes, in as much as like when you got the news you see, you get well, even like it is now, you got today's paper is today's news, but you got today's news today. And then when they started describing the football matches you know. For instance the Cup Final, well you got both the atmosphere I mean they, they had some very good commentators you know who could describe the atmosphere, and you could hear the football match going on or the cricket match. Or, on the other hand, the symphony concert if you wanted to listen to it. Which was something that you'd never heard before. For instance I mean I have always been interested in dance music you see, well I mean...
And there was a great deal of dance music on in the old days of radio.
R- Oh yes, particularly late at night but I never used to stop up to listen to it. But I mean you got Roy Fox and his signature tune, Whispering, you got Lou Praeger and Lou Stone, Joe Loss and Ambrose, and then you got Henry Hall, and Sidney Lipton .. You see what I mean, I can quote them straight off the reel. Showing the interest I took in dance music you see?
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That's it, yes. Now, just going forward from that, compare that with the advent of television. Would you say that television made as big an impact again as radio did?
R- Oh yes, more so, more so. Because the thing is with television, you've got to concentrate all your faculties on television, whereas when dance music was playing you could use it as background you know. While you were doing your chores. You know they brought this in during the second world war in the mills you see, to lift the monotony.
Music while you work.
R- Music while you work to lift the monotony. And I might tell you, that it's something that people used to listen and want to hear because you see it relieved the monotony and I do think it went a fair way towards refreshing people's minds. Because I mean, particularly when you got a good one on, there was one chappie used to come on and his harmonica band, I've forgotten his first name but when he was on everyone used to listen to that.
SCG/26 August 2003
6,604 words.