Radiogram Days

Back in the 1970s, when I was allegedly growing up, my parents owned a radiogram. A vast piece of wooden furniture that dominated our small living room it housed our combined record player and radio tuner, with in-built speakers and a handy little slot to store your vinyl - it was our all-in-one audio entertainment centre.

There nestled the very few records my family deemed fit to invest in. Some of these I inherited and still treasure, the ones that reflected my Dad's love of Jazz / big band music of the 1930s and 40s, so there were albums by Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Hot Club de France featuring the great Django Rheinhardt and Stefan Grapelli.

For these musical foundations I remain grateful and yet some less vaunted musical artefacts found their way into that small collection of vinyl that remain as more distant and rather less welcome memories. The 1970s ushered in a catastrophic loss of taste for many people of my parents generation that was, amongst many travesties, responsible for the SingalongaMax phenomenon, and the bizarre series of Hammond Organ plays pop albums that were suddenly appearing... 

These all found their way in to my parents exclusive record collection. 

Looking at the covers of these strange albums they appear to herald a powerful attraction to the unique sound within of the "Happy" Hammond, apparently absent in that of the Farfisa and Bontempi. The Hammond inducing a surprisingly wide range of emotional response from the negligently dressed young women depicted - blank indifference to physical rapture (or perhaps it's just the bloke in the orange budgie smugglers achieving that response). 

The one album in the collection I contributed at this stage (early 1970s) was this gem of an album I received as a Christmas present that has probably had as worrisome effect on my dance technique and dress sense as on my musical tastes ... Ladies and Genteleman I give you the first vinyl album I ever owned ... Top of The Tots Pop Party - Pop Hits for Today's Kids indeed. This album featured pedestrian cover versions of what I suppose we'd call Bubblegum Pop. Novelty records became so ubiquitous in these years they actually ceased to be a novelty and became the tragic post-Beatles norm. 

Talking of whom, subsequent Christmases garnered these albums which represented my true musical induction, that even a later adherence to Punk and New Wave could not extinguish ....

Left to my own devices these were the first sprinkling of albums that found their way into that radiogram slot in '72, '73 before a hiatus where music in the mid-70s rather passed me by until 1977, year zero, and the Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers and The Jam re-awakened my interest, but that's another story….

Reminder of my first stage appearance - miming to School's Out at end of term show …happy days

Come on, how can you not love the Quo?

Slade were the Beatles of the 70s in my book

One of the best live albums - featuring exquisitely timed belch from Noddy

Off the back of getting the Red and Blue albums - had to buy this with my own pocket money - this one not his greatest musical moment it's the true but the one that followed - Band On The Run really was, and still stands up to the test of time today,  Macca I salute you.

It Takes A Village

Another Friday, another blog, 3 in a row now perhaps this is a thing... slight cheat this week in that the pics were taken earlier this week when the sun was a-shining.  Location this time The Railway Village, the very heart of Swindon in every sense really given that this area is the location of the railway workers' cottages built in the 19th century to house the influx of workers needed for the new Great Western Railway works. The houses are built largely of Bath stone, thought to have been excavated from the cutting of the Box tunnel.

Park House, adjacent to GWR Park

GWR were big on notices...

I start my walk in Faringdon Road park, the vast open space that borders the Railway Village this used to be the location for the annual GWR Children's Fete a very big deal in the Swindon social calendar in the days when the term "inside" meant you worked for the railways not that you were detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. 

Faringdon Road Park

This gives an indication of how dominant the Railways were in Swindon, if you didn't work there you knew someone who did, most likely a relation.

St.Mark's Church

Just over the road from the park stands St. Mark's church, keeping spiritual watch over the main railway line and the inhabitants of the Village. This is a very grand Church, venerated by Sir John Betjeman, who opened the church centenary garden party fete celebration in 1945.

Water Tower

Heading East along Bristol Street, towards the Railway Station, on the left is the original works Water Tower, now listed and due for renovation as part of the development of a new Technical College on this site due to open Autumn 2014.

Mechanics Institute

Heading further on is the blot on the landscape that should be anything but - the increasingly derelict Mechanics Institute. Plans for its redevelopment and restoration as some kind of community resource, reflective of its original purpose, have been scuppered so many times over the last 20 - 30 years. I am not holding my breath over the likelihood of success for the latest developments in this continuing local sob story ...

Taking a right-turn a quick look at some of the pubs in these parts - a reminder of the days when a street corner wasn't a street corner without a pub or a shop to finish it off ... The Bakers Arms, The Cricketer's both still going but the next stop on my journey has to be the rather wonderful Glue Pot, as fine a real ale pub as you are likely to find in these parts, which appears in the local CAMRA Pub guide.

The Glue Pot

The Cricketers

Bakers Arms

"The backs"

The old Railway Museum, Emlyn Square

After some welcome hop-based sustenance a few steps on to Emlyn Square and the building that has seen many uses over the years, originally a chapel, then the first Railway Musuem (before STEAM Museum) and now a youth centre known as The Platform.  

Glancing down the alleyways between the terraces, though I do of course support recycling, it is a bit of a pity about the wheelie bins, these alleyways between the terraced cottages would be very evocative of days of yore otherwise. 

We should be grateful though, the Railway Village, in an unusual piece of post-war vision from Swindon council, was renovated in the 1970s preserving, rather brilliantly, a very important part of our local railway heritage. Andy Partridge, of XTC fame, filmed a very entertaining piece on this area as part of a local TV documentary in the early 80s. It was part of a series shown in the West TV region check it out here .. .Andy Partridge - Our Swindon

Over the road from the old Railway Museum is the Central Community Centre, once the Medical Fund Hospital. The GWR workers paid into a medical fund that was used to provide them with health services that would have been the envy of many other factory workers of the times - this was decades before the National Health Services was established in 1948, the Swindon scheme providing something of a model for the establishment of  the NHS. I remember hearing the term "on the club" when I was a lad, another Railways term in origination I think, which meant someone was off sick, and therefore claiming sickness benefit from the medical fund - the "club".  I could be wrong on this, but that's my memory of the use of the term.

Medical Fund Hospital

Milton Road Health Hydro

With a final glance across the road at the Milton Road Baths and Health Centre, now Health Hydro time to move back into 21st century Swindon.

A Walk In The Lawns

Feeding ducks in the park, and wishing you were far away...

I've been averaging a blog a year up until now and here we are with a second in two weeks. What's going on? I'll put it down to the unseasonably mild weather coupled with the opportunity offered by another free Friday morning to take a stroll - soaking up the sunshine, kicking the leaves and looking up and around again at the canvas nature and humankind has provided us with over the years in dear old Swindon.

Old is the right word as today the warm autumn sunshine drew me to Old Town and a walk around the grounds of the once grand Lawns estate, once Swindon's very own Downton Abbey, home of the Goddard family, lords of the manor until Major Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, who died in 1927, neglected certain important issues, notably his own, and failed to continue to family line.  When his widow left the property a few years later it fell into disrepair, was briefly occupied by British and American military during the Second World War. 

Sunken Garden

Swindon being Swindon this particular property was then neglected to the point of no return (familiar story?) and demolished in the early 1950s leaving us with just a few tantalising architectural hints of just what a jewel in Old Town's crown this could have been.

Gazebo, Lawns Estate

Holy Rood Church

These days the Lawns is a much needed public open space in the heart of Old Town, the footpaths, trees and lakes and grounds of the old estate punctuated with the architectural reminders of its rather grand past.

In the old days they used to refer to the lofty position (geographically and socially) of the Goddard Estate  as "Nob Hill", the latter day social commentator who obliterated this information board with his or her 'tag' seems intent on maintaining the validity of that sobriquet, albeit for slightly different reasons.

A less welcome modern day "punctuation" grabs my attention as I glance at the resplendent trees - there amongst the autumnal shades of the turning leaves - a small plastic bag hanging from a branch catches the light - a shimmering and small reminder of the unerring ability of humans to bugger up the natural environment.

Looking towards High St, Old Town

As I walk back to the High Street I notice the mock tudor exterior of the Hermitage Nursing Home. This relatively new building stands near the same spot as the original Hermitage a much grander and more interesting building that (here we go again) was left to decay to the point where demolition became the (allegedly) only viable solution - the new building no doubt serves its noble purpose very well but architecturally it is a very faint echo of yet another architectural gem Swindon could ill afford to lose that somehow it did - same as it ever was -









only one thing to do now head off into the New Old Town - there's a chocoberry juice with my name on it waiting for me at The Core ... 

A Swindon Walk About

I try to stand up for Swindon in the face of the frequent put-downs as the nation's favourite comedy town - the instantly understood short-hand reference of stand-up comedians across the land for all that is ordinary, naff and culture-free.

Truth is Swindon is not a cultural desert, and never has been in my experience. I've always found plenty of things to do in Swindon over the years, usually, it has to be said, on the small to medium scale lacking as it still does a large concert hall venue or large theatre, with the Wyvern capacity only around 700.

Swindon gets a bad press much of it undeserved, and yet ... and yet... today I went to Whalebridge practice for my annual 'flu jab, and unusually was able to get this done with no queuing. I had an unexpected hour of parking to use up so decided to walk around the town centre for a while trying to look with a visitor's eye at the early evidence appearing on the horizon of some of the much delayed re-development of the town centre. I have to say as I started out it was not a particularly inspiring walk.

Starting out from the Whalebridge area and the new Kimmerfields development - initially dubbed Union Square in the original master plan for the long-term re-development of Swindon - the original idea being for this part of town to be a pedestrian-friendly urban space now sadly sidelined and replaced by the predictable temple to the motor-car with a brand-spanking new multi-storey car park.  The whole area around this part of town is rather dispiriting to walk around - bland blocks of concrete, glass and featureless brickwork, no discernible originality of design, or indeed purpose -  could be flats, could be office blocks, could be a warehouse - who knows - no redbrick dreams to be woven here sadly. Actually too bland to be deemed ugly, the best that can be said is it is no worse than that we have come to expect from the architects and planners who seem to have held sway in Swindon for many post-war decades now. I am pretty sure it is this ugly urban exterior particularly in the centre of town that has served Swindon and it's population so badly over the years. It is reflected in the lost and neglected architectural gems we have suffered over the years, the Hermitage, The Baptist Tabernacle, The Locarno and The Mechanics Institute. A sad architectural litany displaying a lack of civic leadership over many years,  a lack of pride in our history, a lack of respect for past, present and future generations of Swindonians, a rather tragic failure to understand the importance to our well-being of the urban environment we all share.


As I head on through the under-pass to the Parade past the proliferating coffee shops and boarded-up shop fronts it seems we've given up shopping to drink coffee instead. This could be any town in the UK of course, and this in many ways has been Swindon's claim to fame over the years, particularly amongst social scientists - Swindon has often been seen as the quintessentially average English town, in terms of demographics and economy. Though this used to be the case it is maybe not so true over recent years with Swindon salaries on average now being amongst the lowest in the country. The economic downturn following the financial crisis of 2007-8 and the resulting recession hit plans for a number of re-development projects just as plans were about to be turned into reality. Finally though here we are late  in 2013 and some of the plans are starting to move from drawing board to reality.

The white frame of the new Regent Circus development is now taking shape and will eventually house a new 7-screen cinema, restaurants and supermarket and will probably be crucial to the much needed re-generation of the town centre and the night-time economy. It should hopefully help to transform the centre of Town which for too long in the evenings has been a no-go zone for families and those unwilling to negotiate the vomit and vehemence emerging from the binge-drinking outlets that previously dominated the bottom end of town.

Before heading back down Princes Street a detour into Theatre Square and a little example and reminder of the hidden beauty of Swindon - the artsite studios that reflect the community-led culture that is really Swindon's best-kept secret. There is a very vibrant artistic community in Swindon much of the best things community-led or the result of the driving passion of a few committed individuals. Swindon Bluegate Poets, Swindon Festival of Literature, Swindon Film Society Festival, Old Town Jazz festival, the annual original musical extravaganza that is the Swindon Shuffle being just a few examples. With many active visual artists, musicians, writers and poets in Swindon things are looking up in many ways - and just up the hill Old Town has been thriving over recent years with new start up businesses, new bars, cafes, food halls etc. Hopefully the re-development now starting in the "New" town will see similar regeneration there.  In the meantime Swindon and Swindonians will continue to create their own art, their own music, their own poetry - a little away from the limelight perhaps, in a corner away from the bright lights, beneath the headlines, in spite of the jokes, the real Swindon will continue to show it's true beauty.

Will Hutton at Swindon Literature Festival May 14 2012

Will Hutton - Why We Need A Fair Society,  Swindon Arts Centre, Monday 14th May 2012 (Swindon Festival of Literature)

"The Next 100 days could be the most important in a generation" states Will Hutton at the beginning of his talk highlighting themes from his latest book "Them and Us - Changing Britain - Why We Need A Fair Society".

As Greece teeters on the brink of leaving the Euro, and the newly elected President Hollande of France meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel with arguments of austerity vs growth to the forefront, it is becoming increasingly clear that the decisions being taken over the next few weeks will shape the destinies of us all for years to come.

With the global economy in a state of flux as the echoes of the credit crunch and global financial crash of 2008 continue to reverberate, in the British context Hutton proclaims the end of Toryism. There is scorn for the right wing of the Conservative Party in particular whom Hutton derides as plain wrong and nasty with it. However, Hutton offers cold comfort for traditionalists on the Left in Britain who still see a future for old style state socialism.

For Hutton the way forward lies in a new construct of "good capitalism" that recognises the co-dependency of the state and the entrepreneurial spirit needed to enable the development of an economy and society that is a match for the unfathomable challenges that will be presented to us by the incredible rate of technological advances coming in the 21st century and beyond.

It is an unsettling, and yet at the same time exhilarating, picture of our possible future that Hutton paints.  He holds out hope for a future that balances risks and rewards in a way that we can all see as just, that encourages and exploits innovation to deliver a fairer and more effective economic system.

Sex on The Moon, by Ben Ezrich

I have just reviewed a book called "Sex on The Moon" by Ben Ezrich for Linear Reflections a reviews ezine based in Canada. Ezrich also wrote the Accidental Billionaires book that was made into the film The Social Network. This reviewing thing is still fairly new to me but I am enjoying it and grateful to Naomi at Linear for giving me the opportunity to review the book. You can check it out and navigate to other Linear Reflections reviews from here...
Linear Reflections.

The Story of England (Michael Wood)

In May 2011 I attended a Swindon Festival of Literature event featuring historian Michael Wood talking about his book and BBC TV Series which sought to tell the Story of England through detailed study of one particular place - the village of Kibworth, Leicestershire. The Autumn 2011 edition of Albion Magazine includes my review of this and the book. Check the links page and take a wander over there and take a look - it's a very interesting and wide-ranging magazine, brilliantly edited by Isabel Taylor, that brings a liberal perspective to various explorations into English identity and culture.