The first ever “Tube” disco poster- 1977

A  “Heat” disco” membership card -2006

Be Set Free featuring Ross Gill and the Mustard Seed Soul Band

As I said in my last blog I loved teaching PE at Crofton School.
I also loved organising holidays for Crofton pupils such as Football and Basketball Tours of the Channel Islands and Basketball and site seeing tours of America. We had four USA trips, staying for a week with families in Washington, Boston and Cooperstown (New York State) then travelling down to Florida by plane or Greyhound to stay in Motels and visit Disney World, Universal studios etc.
There were also Skiing holidays and, for many years, Pony Trekking in the Beacon Beacons. It was on a Pony Trekking trip that I was given the idea of “The Tube” disco. I was chatting to some girls as we were trekking and I was reminiscing on the clubs that I used to go to when I was their age. The girls told me that they had nothing like that in Stubbington and that gave me the idea of organising a disco for the youth of the area.
I went with a group of pupils checking out potential venues. Hammond Hall was one but I felt that was too small. We had pretty much given up finding somewhere when one of the pupils said “There’s the gym at the Crofton Community Centre but that’s too big and it’s got large windows which let all the light in during the summer.” However I thought it worth a look and when I saw it I immediately thought “This is it- this is the place” and “The Tube” was born.
I still bump into people that reckon “The Tube” was the best club/disco they have ever been to- and I have to say the atmosphere was amazing- people would be queuing for ages to get in. I modelled it on the club that I had gone to as a teenager – The Birdcage in Portsmouth (see blog of Feb 6th) I called it “The Tube” after tube socks (sox) that basketball players wore- socks without a heel – in fact the original title was “Tube Entertainments Present a Dance/Disco”. I know there was a TV programme called “The Tube” but we had the name first- should have sued the BBC or was it ITV for copyright!!
The film Saturday Nite Fever (1977) was out and I “borrowed” the famous poster featuring John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney for our “Tube” posters (I am still holding my breath in case Paramount Pictures sue me) The first 50 girls got free entrance and then there was a free Coke for the next 50 people. “The Tube” was targeted at 14- 18 year olds but some older people came from all over the area. Not exactly sure of the fire regulations but I know we interpreted them rather loosely- one night when we had a guest Radio One D J, Peter Powell there were at least 600 crammed in.
In the summer it took me and my trusty pupil helpers all morning to black out the large triangular windows and also the sky lights. All next morning was spent cleaning up and clearing coke bottles and cans (well some were coke!!) which had been left around the village -obviously by outsiders! My dad made extra staging on which people would dance – loads of different dance crazes came and went out of fashion – the one I most remember was “Wrecking” in which all the lads would form a huge mass of bodies and then appear to fight each other-often they were.
I remember one favourite song with the crowd was The Special’s “Free Nelson Mandela” ( although not many at the time realised what the song was about) I also remember the first “Wham” song “Young Guns” in which George Michael and Andrew Ridgley had taken Top of the Pops by storm dancing bare foot. Other classics that come to mind are “Ring My Bell” “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now”, “You Spin Me Right Round”“ “Don’t Leave Me This way” and “Pick up the Pieces” Also Shalamar’s “Night to Remember “ in which Jeffrey Daniel, the lead singer did the “moonwalk” and that was before Billy Jean and Michael Jackson!
There were occasional fights and when there was I was always worried that people would be too scared to come back, but in fact they came back (especially the girls ) twice the numbers. Julian Rees , Nigel Royale, Mark David, Mark James, The JB Monster Roadshow, The Triple T Roadshow and Martin Lee were some of the Roadshows we had every three weeks. Such great times so why did it finish? It was the great storm of 1987 that destroyed the building. We actually had a disco the day after the storm and the next day when I came to clear up, the building was surrounded with red tape from the Council – “Warning Building in Danger of Collapse” So thankfully it would appear that we narrowly avoided what would have been a catastrophic disaster. I waited nearly two years for the new Sportshall to be built before starting the “Tube” again but the acoustics were worse than Waterloo Station and so it died a death.
Later I thought of restarting it elsewhere and we spent some time going to the Thorngate Halls in Gosport- now that was hard work- we transported pupils from Stubb by bus but the buses got pelted with stones and bricks by the Gosport locals and in the end the coach company refused to take us.
Again a rethink before moving to Hammond Hall and also the Stubb Scout Hut but both were too small so we moved to Titchfield Community Centre under the new name of “The Heat” borrowed from the US basketball team Miami Heat. That proved a winner but pupils were openly drinking alcohol on the way to Titchfield from Stubb and after there was a clash between Stubb and Titchfield Belfield the Police told me “The Heat” had to stop. I persuaded them to let us continue with the proviso that “The Heat” became a membership club with membership dependant on pupils being brought to Titchfield with parents and responsible adults. The plan worked and “The Heat” became a huge success on a par with “The Tube” until I went part time at Crofton and no longer had my finger “on the pulse.” But as with “The Tube” we had some fantastic nights with “The Heat”- those who went I am sure will always remember the tune that finished every evening “The Great Escape” I also especially liked it when everyone danced in formation as in “La Macarena” “ Saturday Nite” “ Blame it on the Boogie” “5-6 7 8” and “ Cha cha Glide.”

What about my own music? Well not much at all was happening – I was pretty up with chart music and loved to join the DJs for the last hour giving them my suggestions for “Dance floor fillers.” Usually pure cheese and oldies like “Walking on Sunshine” “Love Shack” and even “Making Your Mind Up.” I must have driven poor Lloyd James our resident Heat DJ mad.
In the next couple of blogs I’ll tell you how the music I had written did take on a new lease of life and I even wrote a Eurovision Song Contest entry- honest! In the meantime here is a song “Be Set Free” from Mustard Seed Songs’ forthcoming musical Risen! This is the original version produced and sung by ex -Crofton student Ross Gill.

Just out of the loft- first song with Grundig TK24

“Because of Your Grace” featuring Harun Kotch

After I left King Alfred’s College as a fully -fledged PE teacher I wasn’t sure if I really needed to actually go into teaching to earn money as I had this other career bubbling under – that of song writer!
I was convinced that a top star or his/her agent would pay a fortune for “If Love Had Never Died.” or “Affection” or All My Loving” or other songs I had written (made up) such as “We shouldn’t Be Apart” and “Today’s The Day.” Trouble was I could not really go into the office of a recording producer like Cat Stevens had famously once done and just sing “I Love My Dog.” First because I could not sing and second because I did not look as cool as Mr Stevens.
What to do? Well fortunately I discovered that my Grundig TK24 open reel tape recorder had a microphone. I also remembered a kind music student at King Alfred’s College (female) – so I put these two good pieces of fortune together and she (sorry if you are her and are reading this because I can’t remember your name) came up with written musical scores for about five songs. I know you all believe me but just in case you don’t I have braved the cobwebs of my loft to retrieve the original written score of “If Love Had Never Died” a pic of which is attached with the Grundig TK24.
What next? Well I found a record company directory from The New Musical Express and sent off photo copies of the scores to numerous said companies ( I think photo copiers had been invented by then but if not they would have been duplicated by Gestetner en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestetner‎‎ or Roneo www.memidex.com/roneo+duplicator‎
So there I was just waiting for the offers to roll in, just working hard on how I was going to spend my millions and what I was going to do with my now redundant teaching qualification. Then the letters came in- each with different words but the same message – not “Yes please we would love Shirley Bassey to sing your fabulous song If Love had Never Died”” or “Barbara Streisand has just told Burt Bacharach to get lost as she has just found a far superior song writer” – no the letters were basically “thanks but no thanks”. Shattered dreams – hopes in tatters – did the record industry not realise what they were missing- perhaps I had sent the songs to the wrong companies – but could 97 companies be wrong?!
Nothing else for it then but to teach!
And that is what I did – first at Whitchurch Secondary (now Testbourne) and then I saw an advertisement for a brand new school in Stubbington – Crofton School. I applied and despite the Head – Mr Boulton at first hating me I got the job because I was in with the PE Inspectors after going on lot of PE courses at Calshot Activity Centre and buying them a few drinks. And what a brilliant move going to Crofton turned out to be!
Mr Boulton did not like me at first because he regarded me as a bit of a “Jack the Lad” bit of a “Del Boy” – looking to do deals even during my job interview- (tried to sell him a second hand minibus cheap! ) However I organised a sponsored stone pick to raise money for the school, not just the PE department – that was the brain wave. The school field could not be used because it was full of flints (the school had just opened on the Marks Road site when I joined as Head of PE in 1975- aged about 12!) So to “kill two birds with one stone” (sorry) the sponsored stone pick raised money but also got rid of the stones. What I did not realise was that in the corner of the school field was a disused road and so people weren’t just bringing in flints they were bringing in lumps of concrete and brick. As sponsorship was by weight some students brought in a fortune – notably Nick Hutton – who apparently was accepting cheques and possibly credit cards (he was ahead of his time) when sponsors did not have enough cash to meet their apparent debts.
Mr Boulton loved this additional money that came into the School’s coffers. When I sensed that this was “the way to win his heart” I organised more fund raising schemes such as a raffle, but not with the first prize being your standard food hamper, oh no first prize was a weekend in Rome and believe it or not the winners went on the weekend that the Pope made his public address from the Vatican window. (I think I may have pretended that I’d had a word with him)
Regardless of the quality of my PE teaching (actually it was not that bad) Mr Boulton decided that he could not do without me (very astute man!) and so he gave me promotion – so much promotion that if I moved to another school I would have to take a reduction in pay- and so I never did move- I stayed and stayed – and loved it!
However I digress from the song writing. Next blog Feb 27th I’ll tell how my love for music resulted in “The Tube” and later “The Heat” discos. In the meantime I have included a song “Because of Your Grace” which is sung by Harun Kotch and produced by ex -Crofton student Ross Gill (more of him later) My old mate Darren Bovis- Coulter gave me the idea for this song and we made it up together. It’s on the Mustard Seed  album “The Season of Singing
which we produced to support a charity to shelter street children in Manila, Philippines run by two friends Craig and Elizabeth Johnson – House of the Heroes www.houseoftheheroes.org

Ken’s first attempt at singing – its not got any better!!

“For God So Loved The World” featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard

So I cannot play a musical instrument and my singing is fit only for the shower, however I’ve always loved all types of music, pop, folk, classical- as long as it has a tune- something I can sing or whistle to. When I was about seven years old living in Gillingham in Kent I remember being away from school suffering from Bronchitis. My teacher came to my house to see how I was. I told her that I enjoyed singing my own words to pop songs I had heard on the wireless (radio). I remember her saying that was a good idea- so I was encouraged. Writing this has made me think of how many other teachers, when I was at school, actively encouraged me and the answer, I am afraid, is not that many- not tall enough to play Basketball- didn’t get awarded Full Colours for my best sport, Cricket because I had one bad match (mind you it was a shocker- dropped at least 6 catches!!)
I then wondered how many pupils I’d encouraged during my PE teaching career. I do hope it was some! I remember one incident in which I may have been sort of encouraging. Matthew Sergeant (matthewsergeant.tumblr.com/‎) was a brilliant musician and indeed has now gone on to win awards for his contemporary composing. He is now a Doctor of Music and lectures at the Royal Northern College of Music and The University of Huddersfield. Matthew, however would be the first to admit that he was not that great in terms of sporting ability. One summer’s day when he was in Year 10 we were playing Softball and one lad, full to overflowing with testosterone, smacked the ball at max velocity to arms- length of Matthew’s right hand – instinctively Matthew struck out this hand into which the ball rocketed and stuck! At first everyone was in shock, first because it was an amazing catch and second because it was Matthew who had caught it. Anyway I kept that softball and at the end of term PE Prize Giving Assembly awarded it to Matthew for “outstanding achievement” or “The Champagne Moment of the Year” or something like that. The audience clapped so loudly – it was great to know how pleased they were for Matthew and that Matthew was obviously chuffed to bits.
But I digress. So I made up different lyrics to songs from the age of about 7 but I wrote my first song when I was about 14 and living in Portsmouth. Although I still had no girlfriend I still realised that to be “chucked” by a girl must hurt so I wrote the song “If Love Had Never Died” A tune had come into my head to which I wrote these words “ I sit on my bed meandering thoughts drift through my head, I gaze at a star wondering how long, wondering how far. Pain encompasses me the sickness I feel I know you agree and you realise the hurt that’s in my eyes could be blinked aside if love had never died”
When I wrote the song “ Do not let your hearts be troubled” for our new musical Risen! I used part of this “If love had never died” tune.
A little later in Portsmouth I wrote a song called “Affection” Pretty happy lyrics again (not!)- “And I look to see some warmth and love in your eyes that once held the peace of a dove, Say one word- thank you and I’ll have won, one thing I’ve not -affection.
The tune for “Affection” I used for the last part of another Risen! song “For God So Loved The World.” (see attached MP3 sung live by Lucy Stimpson- Maynard at the Kings Theatre, Southsea during a performance of the first Mustard Seed Songs musical -“His Story”) More of Lucy’s amazing talent and support later. Mr James Oliver now Head of Music at Crofton is on Cello. You can hear excerpts from songs that I have written by visiting www.mustardseedsongs.org.uk then Music Store.
So if asked how long it has taken to write Risen! I suppose I could say about 50 years!
So gradually I found I had the ability to make up songs in my head. However the trouble with not being able to sing or even play recorder (apart from “The British Grenadiers”) meant I had no way of getting the songs from my head out into the world just in case there was someone out there who might possibly want to hear. So how did the songs get from my head out for people to hear? I’ll tell you in the next blog of Feb 20th.

People often ask me what I am doing now that I’ve retired from teaching PE at Crofton. Well I have to say life is really great (it was really great teaching as well – most of the time!) I love life with my wife Caroline, I am playing lots of golf (and getting a bit better I think- have to as I have only Bowls left! I play a pretty active part in the life of Holy Rood Church, I mentor students at Crofton and I still have a job for the County monitoring lessons delivered by Coaches in Primary Schools. However my greatest passion (apart from life with Caroline of course) is writing music. I know that may come as surprise to some and even more of a shock when I say it is Christian music! And no I can’t sing (although I do a pretty good “Living on a prayer” in the shower) or play a musical instrument but music, together with sport has always been a true love of mine.
I’m Director and Trustee of a charity that Mr Mill and I formed – Mustard Seed Songs- www.mustardseedsongs.org.uk which features the songs I have written. We have produced 10 CDs and some of our songs featured on a mini CD attached to the 40th anniversary edition of a Christian publication -Every Day with Jesus of which 80, 000 copies were distributed worldwide. In addition I wrote a musical called His Story www.Hisstory.org.uk which played at venues such as the Kings Theatre, Southsea, Ferneham Hall, Fareham; and Central Hall, Westminster, London. Proceeds from these events funded young people who have taken time off from their studies to work in the Third World.
I’ve now written a second musical called “Risen!” www.Risen.org.uk the double CD of which is near completion. On Easter Sunday 2013 we staged a pilot production at Holy Rood Church, Stubbington and on Easter Sunday, April 20th 2014 we will be producing a Risen! concert – again at Holy Rood.
I had written songs before but it all really took off when I became a Christian on February 22nd 1999. Anyway I thought that you might like to share my adventure and so here is the first episode.

Musical Instruments
I was in Year 7- Year 1 it was called in those days at The Portsmouth Technical High School – now City Boys opposite the Coach and Horses pub in Hilsea. A cool guy called Ray Shulman was in my class – he played violin which did not impress me but he also played bass guitar which very much did. In fact Ray and his brothers Phil and Derek formed a band called The Roadrunners – who later became Simon Dupree and the Big Sound with a top ten hit called “Kites ” They then became a prog rock band that were really big in America “Gentle Giant” One of my claims to fame ( the others being Donald Duck impersonations and the well hard character “Ken the Ren”) is that when I was 15 years old the Police caught me on my Lambretta Li 150 scooter with Ray on the back when I had not passed my driving test. We were stopped near his house in Eastney Road opposite a club- “The Birdcage” -www.michaelcooper.org.uk/C/birdcage.htm‎. We got away with it – won’t tell you how as it was highly illegal- but having a rock superstar on the back of my scooter put my street cred rating up massively- and it certainly needed it – but again that’s another story but suffice to say Pompey Tech School was boys only and although I was pretty good at sport – I did not have a clue about girls- I was seriously shy.
So Ray inspired me to take up guitar – actually no he didn’t- I just mentioned him to name drop! I took up my first musical instrument (there have been two!) because I was asked to by the music teacher at school – Mr Wassell. Yes I played the Dolmetsch Descant Recorder (which I have just found in my loft -see attached pic) and I went to after -school lessons and nearly mastered that well known patriotic tune “The British Grenadiers.” The problem was that because I was seriously shy I needed something cool to make me successful with the fair sex. But even a fantastic rendering of this great tune on recorder could not, by any stretch, be regarded as cool – no I needed an instrument that was cool personified and so my guitar was bought. It was reddy, brown and acoustic although it looked a bit like a Gibson – in fact it could have been the original Gibson Les Paul! So I got cracking with my Bert Weedon “How to play Guitar” book and was doing rather nicely, having almost got “Good King Wenceslas” sussed. But then all of a sudden “Good King Wenceslas” didn’t sound so “good” My Gibson was out of tune! So off to the music shop in North End to buy something with which to tune it. Now in those days tuners were not the clever technological gizmos available now – no this was more like a miniature Peruvian Pan Pipe. So the idea was that you blew into one of the pipes and then tuned your guitar to that sound- what! – no way!! How can a sound like that associated with a shipping vessel in fog relate to the ping of a guitar string?? So progress in guitar finished right there and then; although if pressed I can still manage a fair to middling rendition of the first eight notes of “Good King Wenceslas”
Oh you may have wondered if I ever asked Ray Shulman if he would guest on a CD for me – no I never did – not because I thought he would regard himself as too “big a star” to be interested or because he was still cross with me for the scooter incident- no I simply didn’t think he would be interested in Christian music- you see Ray is Jewish!
So how have I managed to write something like 200 songs? Next blog on Thursday 13th I’ll start to tell you how it all began.