The Georgia Boys

I wonder how many people remember the Georgia Boys who used to tour the pubs and clubs of Plymouth in the 1970s?

A friend has just started learning the guitar and it reminded me of when I was a boy and I took guitar lessons with Pete Martin who was one half of the Georgia Boys. The duo were regularly on Westward Television and Pete, being Canadian, did all the voice-overs on local tv adverts and also on Plymouth Sound when they required an American- sounding accent. Pete looked totally the part as a country singer, from his country and western shirts, his slicked backed black hair and his Canadian drawl. Outside his house in Peverell, he had a huge Cadillac which was covered with adverts for the Georgia Boy's many gigs. Pete taught me all the basic chords for the guitar and would sing country tunes for me. I was amazed when I managed to change from an 'A' to an 'E' chord but, even then, it seemed like I would never get the hang of it!

The last time I saw the Georgia Boys was in 1975 when Westward Television had an open day and they were making a guest appearance, that evening, on Westward Diary.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of Pete or the Georgia Boys but here's one of me from the time, complete with my £12 guitar from Woolworth's!

I love our crazy wallpaper! The photo must have been taken in about 1974.

Oh, and by the way, I never did get the hang of playing it!

Speedway programmes from the past

Kevin Glynn recently kindly sent me three Speedway programmes from the 1930s. They make fascinating reading.
The first programme is from the 'Central Park Road Races' which took place on the Bank Holiday (August 1st) of 1938.
The adverts make interesting reading and include long-forgotten businesses such as Oswald Neilson's grocery shop in Ebrington Street, Pike's Motor Cycles of Union Street and the Three Towns Dairy who sent cream by post and had cafes at Union Street, Westwell Street, Tavistock Road and Mutley Plain. There are also adverts for recognisable businesses such as Ford which were sold by Reeds Ltd in Cobourg Street. A new Ford Eight was £120, a Ford Ten was £145 and a Ford V-8 was £280. Vospers is mentioned in the programme but, back then, the name wasn't associated with car dealerships. They were, at the time, radio dealers and had premises in Russell Street. It's strange to think how much would change in the forthcoming years with the outbreak of war and many of these premises were probably obliterated in the blitz of 1941.
The second programme dates from Sunday May 13th, 1953 and features the 'Dartmoor Scramble' and the prize was the 200 Guinea 'Patchquick' Trophy. The race took place between Hayford and Buckfastleigh. There's an advert for Pike's on the back of the programme so they must have made it through the war although their premises are now at Alphington Street. They're billed as, 'the Leading Motor Cycle Dealers in the West of England.'
The third programme comes from September 1956 and features the 'Clearbrook Scramble'. An advert appears for Pike's again, this time at Millbay Road. They now have much competition and there are also adverts for many other motor cycle dealers.
It's amazing that these programmes are over 50 years old (one is 74 years old) and cover the year before the war until a time when Plymouth was still being rebuilt. They're certainly an incredible record of a hugely popular sport.

Jousting on the Hoe

I was interested to see Roy Westlake's photo of jousting on the Hoe in this week's 'Looking Back' column in the Herald.
The article requested that anybody with information about the event and date to get in touch.

I was there on the day and took many photos and borrowed my dad's cine camera (I was 16 at the time) and made a short film which is on YouTube and is shown below.


 

The year was 1978 and, as you can see, the lighthouse was still painted white. I think that the show lasted all day and was either in May or June. It started off with the jousting event and then there was a break before the characters from Planet of the Apes did a show, much to the delight of the kids. I filmed that too and the movie is here:

 

There were lots of other events going on during the day and there were celebrities there as well. The only one that I can remember though is Carolyn Jones, who played Sharon Metcalfe in Crossroads from December 1977.
Both the jousters and the apes used the old Hoe Theatre as their dressing room. They all posed for many photos but unfortunately, I've lost them over the years (I certainly wished I'd kept them!).

Shown here are a couple of screen captures of the Apes' performance.

I've been contacted by Planet of the Apes enthusiasts in the past and apparently this is the only surviving film of the many live shows that took place all over the world in the 1970s.

It's interesting to watch the movies almost 34 years later, not just for the events but also for the fashions of the day!

Tamerton Foliot in the 1960s

This photo of Tamerton Foliot, probably taken in the early 1960s, really reminds me of my childhood. When I was a kid, we'd wander everywhere and one of the places we'd end up would be the small village of Tamerton Foliot. A friend in my street seemed to know the whole area although we'd both just moved in at the same time in 1968. We'd take the road past Ernesettle Woods and up through Milford Lane in Whitleigh heading towards the village. In those days, there was no housing estates such as Badgers Wood or Holly Park and much of the area was farmland. It wasn't unusual to wake up in the morning to discover a cow asleep in your garden. It's hard to imagine now!
Following the narrow lane down towards the village, there appeared to be only one house, 'Casa Silva' which had a big 'Private' sign on its driveway. We never dared to venture up there. On the left were just open fields where Holly Park stands today and the farmer's milk churns, full of milk, would be placed beside the roadway, waiting to be picked up. Today, the road is quite busy but back then, I never remember a car passing us.
Once in the village, we would always head to the corner shop (now gone) where we'd buy sweets and bubble gum cards with our pocket money which was made up of large pre-decimal pennies and threepenny bits. We'd always get a gobstopper and suck it on the way back, taking it out every so often to see if it had changed colour!
It's probably not the sort of thing kids get up to nowadays but back then it seemed like a big adventure. Once we were back home, we were soon out again, climbing trees, building dens or shooing cows out of our gardens.
Things have certainly changed over the years!