So I left one Alan, met another Alan, definitely not an improvement, fleeded him and went to live in Sussex Gardens London.
Called up my old boss at Lightning Records and asked if he had jobs going..
He had a vacancy as a receptionist, so it I was interested, I could start tomorrow..
Lightning Records was made up bu three producers Alan Davison, Ray Laren and someone else. it was a distribution company for small labels, especially Reggae and more.
It was halfway the seventies a great place to be and I loved working there. I met the Wailers, not very impressive with the exception of the fact that they thought they had a right to grope and touch anything they saw….
I kept away from that part of the company, I have never been a groupie and I was not starting now. I also got quite a few concert tickets with back passes, which was really exciting eventhough lots of them become world renowned stars afterward, I can honestly say that it had nothing to do with me… I was only there..
It was an interesting time, but my biggest star was Shirley Bassey, whom I still adore, half a century later, wherever I see her on the tv or the radio.
I must have driven my dad crazy while still living at home, with her records because he got me a pair of headphones, so he would not have to hear it again (and again and again and again etc)
The headphones were brilliant for me because now I could not hear my own voice while I sang along on the top of my lungs with Ms Bassey. However for my father it was sheer agony because to this date I cannot sing, never mind the hitting the high notes, so Diamonds are forever can still be sung with a word perfect text but I promise that you will prefer to hear your cat sing..
One day I heard that Ms Bassey was performing in the Royal Albert Hall, I somehow I got a ticket through my job.
But now I had to find something to wear because for going to the Royal Albert you need evening wear and I was living in house where every floor had one huge room which was filled with bunkbeds, occupied by same sex travellers from all over the world, the floor above us was male and you only met in the corridor… or in the breakfast room.
We had a Canadian girl, uncoming Journalist, a Senegalese Pilotswife who had to be taught to speak English, two American sisters and probably quite a few others but we were the “permanent..” residents.
I had, thanks to second Alan a fur wrap, god knows why & I still have it, probably used it at least three times in my life time, I had high heels on which I only would presently to walk from my closet to my bed, they have a name for that like fuck me shoes, but still no dress, and here comes sisterhood into its own…
This lovely Senegalese lady had an original native height of fashion dress, light blue long sleeves, big side slits with a loads of embroidering on it, it was made of cotton and supposed to be worn under the African sun, certainly not not somewhere in December 1977/8 in Londons freezing temperatures.
Still I had the shoulder wrap who offered a lot of glamour (ahuh..) but no warmth and high heels in which I would have had to cross the park in and climb the gates because they used to close them at night. Had I mentioned that the dress was like a tube, so you could hardly move in it?
You see although Sussex gardens is directly across from the Royal Albert it is separated by something wide called Hyde Park…
So now I had a ticket, a dress, shoes a wrap and no way to get there and all of us being dead poor no car available .. So somehow my friends and some befriended decent guys upstairs collected money together and this together with my own savings was enough to pay a taxi, up and down… well not actually because after the concert it was closed the return drive became a lot more expensive but the cabdriver left me off, he must have laughed his head off for the rest of his shift, because I must have looked quite a picture…
The girls did my hair, my make up and my non-existent nails.. I wonder how long it lasted, but I was thankful that more sophisticated hands helped me.
I think I must have looked somewhat like a hooker, like there used to be loads of them in my area only a couple of years before..
And of course just in front of me, my bosses were seated with their wives and did not even recognised me, euuh probably did and did not want to laugh in my face. I did get a cup of tea from Alan but I was soo boring and non existent that they paid and ran off..
On the positive side I had the most fantastic concert in my life, I could almost touch Ms Bassey while she flicked her dress around while standing on the most beautiful shoes with the thinnest sole I had ever seen and she was terrific!! It was worth all the effort, the money, the ridicule there which incidentally went completely over my head, never even noticed it, the jokes the next days, the repayment of all the loans I got for the taxi rides and all the favours I had to return, all worth it, I still to this day remember the sheer excitement of this concert.
Not even Bowies concert with backless could equal that !
have a great day
16/11/2021