The research that has gone into this book is truly amazing. Even though I read it in very small chunks, there is just too much detail. Mainly a collection of bits and pieces from newspapers and journals. Everything that was happening in those months from June through to October 1962 is there, politically, culturally, everything. I was seventeen years old, about to start my final year at school. Sleeping in my own tiny box room in the house in Braintree in Essex. Going out early in the morning on my paper round six days a week.
All I will do in this review is to mention some of those things I found interesting. For example, I didn't know that David Bowie (or Jones as he was then) played saxophone for The Konrads, a six piece instrumental group, at Bromley Technical Schools PTA fete. See waht I mean about the detail, so much taken from publications of the day. Pieces about the Keep Britain Out (of Europe) campaign and Doctor Beeching decimating the railways. The Pilkington Report into television and the controverst when the BBC was given a second channel.
A mention about "Double Your Money" reminded me that on our visits to our grandmother as children, we watched ITV for the first time as it was banned at home. Tuesday 10th June was "Telstar" day, the first ever hazy picture via satellite of a person in the USA picked up from a giant dish at Goonhilly Downs at The Lizard in Cornwall. The Architect's Journal magazine had a photo of a model for the Gateshead Shopping Centre, later immortalised in Michael Caine's "Get Carter".
There is a lot about agriculture and what was happening in Parliament, especially the fuss about whether to join the EEC. But I preferred the stuff about what was happening at the theatre and the last Gentlemen v Players cricket match at Lords. Then out of the blue: "That afternoon in West Sussex, entries for the Rustington Flower Show were up from 206 to 543". Wow!
When we reach September, The Beatles arrive at Abbey Road Studios on the 4th to record "How do you do it", the intended A side of their first single with "Love Me Do" as the B side. here were then eight pages about what was happening in Wales. Against the serious stuff of mining and industry was set The Beatles playing at Port Sunlight. Cliff and he Shadows appear on The Billy Cotton Bandshow but were poorly received. The Sunday Times colour magazine included a discussion that featured Alun Owen, who wrote the screenplay for "A Hard Day's Night", and who was a neighbour on Napier Road in West Kensington.
Then a large section about race relations, especially in the workplace. Although the Asians brought curry to the metropolis. "We had to sell egg and chips to start with, customers took a long time to start trying curry, even having added milk to make it milder. At first they always had chips with their curry, never rice". I remember the George Wimpey canteen serving curried egg and chips. Delicious.
The programmes on television was interesting unlike notes on a number of public figures. In the last chapter we are in the first week of October. On the 5th, "Love Me Do" was released as the A side and "P S I Love You" on the B. Both were essentially McCartney songs but it was maybe a printing error that it was attributed to Lennon-McCartney instead of the other way around. I know my brother John was impressed. He played a little harmonica (the instrument featured on the record) and declared, before the rest of the world caught up, that this band would be big.
All I will do in this review is to mention some of those things I found interesting. For example, I didn't know that David Bowie (or Jones as he was then) played saxophone for The Konrads, a six piece instrumental group, at Bromley Technical Schools PTA fete. See waht I mean about the detail, so much taken from publications of the day. Pieces about the Keep Britain Out (of Europe) campaign and Doctor Beeching decimating the railways. The Pilkington Report into television and the controverst when the BBC was given a second channel.
A mention about "Double Your Money" reminded me that on our visits to our grandmother as children, we watched ITV for the first time as it was banned at home. Tuesday 10th June was "Telstar" day, the first ever hazy picture via satellite of a person in the USA picked up from a giant dish at Goonhilly Downs at The Lizard in Cornwall. The Architect's Journal magazine had a photo of a model for the Gateshead Shopping Centre, later immortalised in Michael Caine's "Get Carter".
There is a lot about agriculture and what was happening in Parliament, especially the fuss about whether to join the EEC. But I preferred the stuff about what was happening at the theatre and the last Gentlemen v Players cricket match at Lords. Then out of the blue: "That afternoon in West Sussex, entries for the Rustington Flower Show were up from 206 to 543". Wow!
When we reach September, The Beatles arrive at Abbey Road Studios on the 4th to record "How do you do it", the intended A side of their first single with "Love Me Do" as the B side. here were then eight pages about what was happening in Wales. Against the serious stuff of mining and industry was set The Beatles playing at Port Sunlight. Cliff and he Shadows appear on The Billy Cotton Bandshow but were poorly received. The Sunday Times colour magazine included a discussion that featured Alun Owen, who wrote the screenplay for "A Hard Day's Night", and who was a neighbour on Napier Road in West Kensington.
Then a large section about race relations, especially in the workplace. Although the Asians brought curry to the metropolis. "We had to sell egg and chips to start with, customers took a long time to start trying curry, even having added milk to make it milder. At first they always had chips with their curry, never rice". I remember the George Wimpey canteen serving curried egg and chips. Delicious.
The programmes on television was interesting unlike notes on a number of public figures. In the last chapter we are in the first week of October. On the 5th, "Love Me Do" was released as the A side and "P S I Love You" on the B. Both were essentially McCartney songs but it was maybe a printing error that it was attributed to Lennon-McCartney instead of the other way around. I know my brother John was impressed. He played a little harmonica (the instrument featured on the record) and declared, before the rest of the world caught up, that this band would be big.
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