Music or Engineering, no contest!

Specialising in village hall dances this intrepid trio brought music of an enthusiastic but dubious quality to all corners of Worcestershire. The bandleader, Ted Styler, a huge man dressed in a full length leather coat, leather gauntlets, flying helmet and goggles sat at the handlebars of his motorbike like a WW1 fighter pilot while Taffy who was far from keen on this mode of transport, sat on the pillion seat with his saxophone strapped to his back grimly clinging on to him. Although the band took up most of my time I still appeared with Brian Holland's concert party and was becoming quite well known in the Redditch area competing in 'talent contests' etc., generally I got second prize to a Colin Stowe who eventually became a dancer in London My repertoire included impressions of Maurice Chevalier in top hat and tails singing  'Louise', Jimmy Durante and a camped up version of Marlene Dietrich's 'Falling in love again'. As far as my day job was concerned, I plodded on and if a conflict arose between night school classes and band engagements needless to say there was no contest.

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