1978-1980: I throw in the towel
I honestly thought, at the end of the sixties, that 'heavy rock' was not going to see the decade out. How wrong I was!
Through most of the seventies, I pursued an eclectic (if unpaid) musical preoccupation.. When it came to finally throwing the towel in, it was a fairly traumatic experience. An abject admission of failure - I’d observed my earlier assertion that rock wouldn’t last dry up and blow away unheeded , and seen my friends from college days ascend the slopes of Mount Olympus - almost single-handedly giving heavy rock continued significance and cultural relevance as they did so.
401 ½ Studios
…and I wasn’t sure what I should turn to. Clearly, since I was a trained Graphic Designer, that’s where the road lay, and my first foray into what would prove to be my career path was as a display illustrator - working for Michael Haynes, the ex-display director of Jaegers (The Best in The World) from his workshops at 4011/2 Studios, in Wandsworth, South London.
I was engaged in painting extremely large and simplified illustrations on perspex for the chain of Mecca Bookmakers that proliferated in London during the decade. To be honest, it was less than stimulating, but it did give me a start in appreciating materials, especially as the workshops furnished studio space to a whole spectrum of young artisans and artists in different disciplines; many of whom became good friends.
Byron woz ‘ere
After about a year of this, a good friend of my wife tipped me off about a job as an Art & Drama technician at the Roehampton Institute on the fringes of Richmond Park.
I went for interview. It turned out to be a Teacher Training College housed in Lord Byron’s old pad, Manresa House, a neo-classical Paladian Villa built in 1760.
I didn’t need any persuading to sign up, and from then for the next few years I spent a great time getting to know materials, techniques and processes which would set me up for what was coming next
I was the technical assistant to the painting, printmaking, textiles, and drama departments and it was, effectively, a second college course; one that I was being paid to undertake. I learned so much there that my next paradigm shift would see me possessing a whole raft of skills that I never expected; they turned out to be just what I needed for the next step…..