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John Wallace

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It started in 1960. Hi world here I am, a clean file ready to be up loaded with all the cool stuff that was happing in that decade. I feel lucky to have been bought up in an era of feel good, people willing to express themselves though all the art forms, but for me the mental springboard was the music I was hearing though radio. The JY Prog (Jimmy Young's) mid morning program, Tony Blackburn's early morning fest, are the ones that spring to mine. You would be listening to artists like Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, The Who, James Brown, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Freddy & The Dreamers, The Kinks, Doris Day, Ken Dodd, The Goons, I Think you get the message, all fresh tracks by artists of the day, I'm in heaven! Ok, I'm lying in bed suffering from trips like Chickenpox, Mumps, chest infections etc, over a period of 5 years or so; I wasn't a lazy bum all my life! But there I was pumping my ears with all this incredible music. I think I was 14 years old when being driven back by dad from a summer holiday in West Runton Norfolk, where we have a cottage, that I heard the beautiful sound of Lester Young playing Tenor sax through the radio. I remember telling dad that this was the sound I'd love to make. Soon I was the proud owner of a tenor sax! A 'Power Tone' made in Slovakia. During the year ahead sounding like Lester Young was seaming like a bridge too far, never been a patient bloke, but I continued my listening education, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Rudy Popinilli, Flip Phillips. Time lapsed until the school group emerged, I forget what we called ourselves but we played stuff like, " The Wonderer, 20 Flight Rock, Sweet Little Sixteen, Blueberry Hill " you get the idea. Anyway I was given the role of front man, lead singer and sax, probably cause no one else could sing and that's not saying much! This was fun, a great way of picking up female admires and totally forgetting what school was for! The band lasted about two years and took me to the age of sixteen, my final year at King Alfred's, Golders Green. Afterwards I teamed up with certain members of the school band, one of these guys being a chap called Julian Bass, son of Alfie Bass, 'lovely British comedy film actor'.

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