PAUL WRIGHT

 

 

 

I was born in Bedfordshire in August, 1950 I know you find that hard to believe looking at me now, and raised in a village living there for 25 years.

In the 1960's I knew that I wanted to be a drummer and luckily my father bought me a drum kit in about 1963,I practised like mad and the same of all kids of that era found myself in a group with other like minded souls and we formed our first group.

Mainly we were practising all of the material that was being played on the offshore station's,with a fair percentage of our musical set coming in the shape of instrumentals. (Shadows, Ventures, Dakotas, Surfaris etc).

From an early age I also started to get hooked on cars,the very first car that I had at 17 was an Austin mini cooper (not the modern BMW ones of today).

[What about the Bubble-Car then, Paul?]   You can see it in gallery four. !!

More about the Bubble car later,(control your curiosity),my father had to adapt the front seat of the mini so that I could fit my drum cases in,so for several years I had some great times in that car.The bubble car idea came from an old neighbour of ours who had this red Trojan 400 bubble car,he couldn't drive to save his life and was always a source of amusement(I know you shouldn't mock the afflicted),so this picture of this bloke called Fred Mitchell stuck in my quaint mind.Since then I have had too many cars to mention,the usual array of Ford's & Vauxhall's which turned out to be unreliable,so from about 1993 I have driven foreign cars,this is something that would have filled me with horror while we had a British car industry.But now I will stick with the so called foreign stuff.

My radio listening came in the usual way of our evening fix of Radio Luxembourg and the couple of hours that the  BBC dished up with Alan Freeman.(surely one of the all time radio greats).!I used to tune into those stations from behind the Iron curtain,they played some good music mingled in with proper gander rubbish,it was all part of the dx'ing sort of thing I suppose.

Luckily in 1964 I discovered offshore radio and I suppose my life was never the same again,we were spoilt for choice between Radio Caroline & Radio London(& a few others that we could pick up with a bit of background noise),the fab 40 used on Big L was slicker and I suppose was my all time favourite station on the good old 266 metre's, it was during this period that I would record the station's output on a reel to reel tape recorder and then practise drumming to the latest fab 40 tracks,(it must have been hell living next door me),mind you it is probably the same now.!

I have always dis-liked Radio one and thought it was an insult to our intelligence after enjoying the offshore stations giving us the stuff we wanted,and not some rubbish dished up governed by needle time and strict regulations.!!This has never been proper radio & was absolute dross.

When the offshore stations were hit on August 14th 1967,Caroline stayed out in the North Sea for a few more difficult years,when they too closed I latched on to Radio North Sea International,which was the only station ever to be jammed by the British government.Later on I was privileged to work with one of the DJ's from Radio North Sea International and he would fill me in on all of the goings on aboard the "Mebo 2"  which was their watery wireless home.Sadly he is now passed away but I will always remember & be thankful that I knew and loved Howard Rose. RIP mate.

Over the years the groups came & went as they tend to do,(it is rather like having a 4 or 5 way marriage at times and things sometimes just break through the stress of it all).!To top it all the variety of music that we were playing varied enormously and the venues for that matter,from local village halls to cinemas & Military bases.

You get to the stage when the urge to go out on wet & windy nights,travelling long distances until unearthly hours at some seedy places wears a bit thin.So if someone said you can play drums once a month and not have to travel I would say maybe yes,but the chances are pretty slim.But looking back on it I am glad that was able to do my thing as they say.As Edith Piaf once said "No regrets".(I know she sang it in French).!!

So the ideal way to get the music of your youth across is to play it on the radio these days, the audience seem to still have the keeness for it,so that is ok by me.

The shows are normally planned about 1-2 weeks in advance and results in my having to change the running order on several occasions,but this all part of the fun of it.I normally finalise it on a Saturday afternoon.

I am married to Claire who does well to put up with my awkward ways and odd behaviour from time to time,we live on the edge of town right next to the country.

We had 5 cats, 2 of which were Persians and these tend to be very demanding and want feeding constantly, if I ever get re-incarnated I want to come back as a cat that goes to a good home,sdaly the favourite Persian called Monty has passed away,I do miss that old boy he was a cracker.So now we are down to 4 tigers & I sit here in the conservatory writing this, one is haunting for grub in the kitchen.

Having suffered a heart attack 3 years ago I suppose waking up on a sunny morning is a good thing,and it goes to show that they do not always happen to someone else.Now just over 3 years later I take each day as it comes and mostly life is pretty good to me compared to some peoples lot.

Whenever possible I do get over to Harborough to have a look around the shops,the good thing about Market Harborough as a town it is a model sort of a place where the shops tend to have an oldie worldy feel about them.In this day and age it seems so unusual & you can enjoy the larger national chains stores nestling alongside "Mr Bun the Baker" so to speak,(sorry to lapse into the past again,it was the only card game that I ever mastered).!!Until the price of petrol went up,I used to make it down to my favourite coastal town in Suffolk called Southwold,lots of people have never heard of the place,you may recall the beer that is brewed down there called Adnams,I think they do a bitter called Broadside.In lots of ways the two towns of Harborough & Southwold are similar with there Olde world charm,no pier in Leicestershire though.I used to love sitting in the restaurant on Southwold pier in the winter eating a meal of good old fish & chips,watching the rain belt down on the windows,and listening to the waves crashing in & seeing the lighthouse flash its warning out to sea.(Sadly this will all end in 2010 when they switch it off,is nothing sacred anymore).??Have also been known to enjoy a trip or 3 to Germany over the years,once considered moving over there,but things have changed and it looks now as if I will draw my pension in Blighty.Hope this as filled in some of the spaces for yours truly,I am never far away.I am what I am and I don't think I will ever change now,Paul.