Friday, January 16, 2009

The Guitar on the Roundabout

By John Charles

When I was a youngster back in the turbulent 60,s, like most of my peers I used to hang out in the various coffee bars that were around town, and I would feed the juke box which always stood in the corner.

There were no actual rules laid down, but it was just accepted that everyone who was in the coffee bar would take at least one session of feeding the juke box, and thereby let everyone know what type of music they were into.

I am not sure how much coffee I drank, we really only went there because of the juke box. When the evening ended I would make my way home and then spend the next hour or so listening to Radio Luxemburg.

I wonder if any of you can remember Radio Luxemburg, the much loved radio station.

There were a lot of radio stations around in the 1960s, and many of them were stationed in offshore ships. I cant remember any of the names of those stations or ships now, but if any reader can remember then please let me know.

Radio Luxemburg was one of my favourite stations, but I cannot recall whether or not this was based on a ship, or on land. Can anyone recall this?

It was while I was listening to the music from these radio stations that my love of the guitar first came to fruition. The sound just seemed right to me.

However it was not until something unusual happened that I thought about learning to play for myself.

If you have ever driven in the UK you will know that from time to time you come across a roundabout, something which is designed to ease the flow of traffic without actually stopping it. These roundabouts are like a large circle in the road, and they often have grass in the middle for appearance sake.

This unusual thing happened to me when I was out one day, passing one of these roundabouts, and there right in the middle was a friend of mine sitting down on the grass and happily strumming on his guitar.

Every motorist that went round the roundabout could not help but see my friend. He had created a sort of stage on the roundabout effect.

It was not long before I had joined him, and so there were now two people in the middle of the roundabout, one playing, and one listening.

And that wish eventually turned into reality because after that event I saved up all the pennies I could until I was able to buy my own guitar.

Over the past number of years I have played in all types of venues, big and small, some ordinary, some very exciting, but I have never forgot my time spent on that roundabout.

Now I spend my time teaching others how to play the guitar, and how to find their own roundabout to sit on.

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