When Shields folk 'never had it so good'

He wrote: “As an exiled North Easterner, living in Watford, Hertfordshire, since the early seventies, I have ploughed a lone furrow when it comes to recollecting my teenage years.

“No one else seems to be on my wavelength, bar one or two others (a little older), who originally hail from the same Tyneside/Wearside region.

“The Latino is still etched on my memory.

“Though I have wined and dined in some fancy southern places, one particular visit to the Latino night club is always at the forefront of my mind whenever I hear the artiste’s name or, very infrequently, the name of the night club.

“I keep tabs on the North East and South Shields, in particular, by talking to my sister who still lives in the town.

“Being 12 years younger she would not recall the events of my teenage years.

“I look at the Gazette website and occasionally discover some linkage with those days – the early sixties.

“Several recent pieces, the La Strada and, in particular, The Latino, invited readers’ memories.

“As a result, I am sending you a piece I wrote for my own amusement about three years ago which I thought may interest others of a similar vintage.”

Having read it, I’m sure you will be as entertained by it, as I was.

Here is the first part of Kenneth’s wonderful piece.

“It is often surprising, the nature of things, that send you spinning back in time.

“Music is one of those triggers that work so effectively.

“With nothing else to do recently, I flicked through the channels and encountered a programme recalling the demise of variety entertainment, and that sparked a memory of a night that was as unforgettable as it was unexpected.

“Talking heads winced as they recollected the trauma of a bad night at Glasgow Empire or, sheer unadulterated terror of dying on your feet at the Sunderland Empire in the late forties and early fifties.

“The programme charted the transition of light entertainment from its halcyon days at the turn of the century and beyond, in days when variety performers used to travel the length and breadth of the country doing the same act, night in, and night out.

“Of course, television changed all that when, variety acts, having displayed their routines on national television were caught out if they tried to repeat the material at the local Moss Empire. Audiences weren’t that gullible any more. Wilson, Keppel and Betty, that most humorous of novelty dance acts, led the fall from grace. Acts that were no longer original became history.

“The arrival of ‘popular’ music was the exception, which proved the rule.

“How many newsreel pictures can we recall of baby-faced Beatles or Rolling Stones being mobbed in theatres by fans when appearing live to promote their latest records.

“This mass hysteria was not dimmed when the object of every teenage girl’s desire sang the reprise under the blanket from their ‘trannie’.

“The teenage pop fans’ thirst for recorded music to repeat the experience was unquenchable.

“As tastes and fans matured, pop music integrated into local cultures.

“Tribute bands, imitating the original artists, replayed the music of an aging rocker’s youth in clubs, pubs and festivals.

“Some of it was classified into ‘genres’ such as Northern Soul where venues specialised in appealing to devotees of a certain age while revisiting their youth. “Such music enabled them to relive the excitement and special memories of their formative years as though really being there.

“I too experienced this. The sixties was a magical period for me. It spelled the end of post war austerity and ushered in a vibrant freedom of expression; in behaviour, dress and music, together with greater expectations for the future.

“We were told by Harold McMillan that, ‘We’d never had it so good’. Good old Mr Wilson’s ‘White heat of technology’ was to become a reality and fuelled a musical revolution, from gramophones to MP3 players. The Internet and You Tube opened up a kaleidoscope of free music and film.

“A familiar tune can return you to the moment you first heard it, who you were with and where you were, leaving an indelible mark on the psyche.

“The opening chords becoming a touchstone to evoke memories through all of the senses.”

l There will be more of Kenneth’s memories tomorrow.