As part of RPM, 15 oral testimony interviews were conducted with local people who shared their memories of the US Army Base, Decca Records and the live music venues across Kingston. We’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who contributed interviews, memories, artefacts, and insights that have helped bring the borough’s musical history to life. You can hear their stories below.
Ken Howe is a local resident and historian. Raised next door to Bushy Park, his parents made friends with an American family on the base in peacetime, leading Ken to make several visits there. In our Kingston RPM interview, Ken spoke about his astonishment at the life of luxury the troops would lead on the base, the general societal impact of its presence in the borough, as well as his perspectives on Kingston’s music scene more broadly.
Bryan Adams first came to Kingston in the 1950s to study architecture at Kingston Art School, while later in life relatives of his would come to be part of the ‘GI Bride’ phenomenon of British women marrying their American sweethearts. As well as discussing his own involvement in Kingston’s live music culture and popular trends overall, Bryan relays to us the impact of American Forces Network radio on his own personal tastes, remaining a huge jazz aficionado today, and American troops selling their records to local businesses as they left the country.
Download the PDF transcript here
Carolyn Smyth and her family were among those who found themselves a post-war home in the reappropriated barracks on Bushy Park’s Chestnut Avenue. Her father had served in the war, and the family moved to the former Camp Griffiss site while Carolyn was still a baby. In this in-depth interview, Carolyn paints a picture of childhood life on the former base, while also recounting her own personal passion for singing and music that developed in her early years.
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Heather Spear is the daughter of Canadian wartime officer George Spear and his wife Jean, a ‘war bride’ from Kingston (pictured below). Jean was one of thousands of women who met North American sweethearts in the UK during the war, and who travelled in great numbers across the Atlantic to start a new life in the US and Canada. Heather – whose parents remarkably passed away within hours of each other in 2017 – spoke to Kingston RPM about their shared love of music, how they would frequent social dances in the area, and how Jean went onto become a community leader of Canadian war brides.
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Cathleen Alexander worked as a signals officer in a variety of locations during the war, ultimately becoming part of the British minority that were stationed at Bushy Park. She relayed to Kingston RPM tea dances at the Bentalls department store in Kingston, dance evenings at Covent Garden Theatre especially laid on for the services, and the general interaction between US and UK officers. In the full interview Cathleen’s great-nephew, Duncan Barrett, also contributes, rounding off the interview by discussing his book, The Girls Who Went to War, which focuses on the ‘GI Brides’ phenomenon of British women sailing the Atlantic to start new lives in the US.
Ethel Oakley began working at the Decca Records processing plant at New Malden in 1965. She and her husband Richard – a ‘pressman’ – left Decca in 1980 when the factory closed. She spoke to Kingston RPM about day to day life at the plant.
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John Barnes held a variety of jobs with Decca, working on and off at the New Malden site from the age of 15 in 1950 through to the plant’s closure 40 years later. Furthermore John is a huge aficionado of the blues, and recalls passionately when the rhythm and blues sensation – led by Decca’s Rolling Stones – hit the UK. In this interview John relates to Kingston RPM the nature of working conditions on the factory floor, the physical process behind pressing a record, and what it meant to grow up during the rock revolution.
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Rosalind Lee joined Decca Records in 1976 as an assistant to the classical promotion manager. She spoke to Kingston RPM about about how the company operated out of its headquarters on the Albert Embankment, including dealings with senior management, the nature of her role monitoring press coverage of Decca, and its ultimate acquisition by Polygram.
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Stan Goodall shared with Kingston RPM the deep insight gained of Decca Records from working for the company for 45 years, spanning 1949-1994. Stan witnessed huge technological and musical developments over this time period in his various roles, from cutting records to being a studio engineer who travelled the world. He is pictured here meeting Decca CEO Edward Lewis.
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Marcell Stellman worked for Decca Records as an international marketing manager at the ‘disoderly family’ that was Decca, held together by the leadership of CEO Sir Edward Lewis. He spoke with Kingston RPM alongside former colleague David Stark and wife Jean Stellman.
Top Topham is a founding member of Kingston’s The Yardbirds, one of the early innovators of rhythm and blues based rock. Alumni of Hollyfield School in Surbiton, Top’s band would not only be a hugely influential success in their own right, but were also the launchpad for the likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Eager to share with Kingston RPM how he and his peers changed the face of popular music across the globe, Top spared no detail as he recounted his and Kingston’s important place in musical history.
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Chris Arthur reluctantly began organising school dances in his teens as part of his role in the Students’ Union, which later evolved into a general penchant for organising trad jazz concerts in the Kingston area. Whether Ken Collier or Humphrey Lyttelton, Chris and his student peers attracted some of UK jazz’s biggest names to the larger concert venues, while later successes at the Bun Shop in Surbiton – after some quieter nights at the Fighting Cocks – saw youngsters queuing around the block to get in.
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Margaret and Robin Willes were regulars on Kingston’s live music scene in the 1950s and 1960s, meeting at the Toby Jug in Tolworth in 1963. Highlights of their gigging life include Robin playing in a skiffle group with his schoolmate and future Led Zeppelin member Jimmy Page, catching Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac at the Toby Jug, and meeting a certain Simon and Garfunkel at Epsom Folk Club. Over an hour, Margaret and Robin recalled all aspects of Kingston’s enormously exciting live music at the scene, from the Folk Barge to major cinema concerts, as well as reflecting on societal changes overall.
Download the PDF transcript here
Alan Greenwood moved to Kingston with his parents in the 1960s at the age of 18, where he got a job working in the record department of the Bentalls store. Kingston RPM was eager to tap into the insight Alan was able to offer into the record industry and how it connected to the Kingston locality, including running through how a record might find its way from production to sale via distributor. Meanwhile Alan also had a host of stories related to the various venues in town, including his experiences of managing a band who formed at the Cellar Club in Kingston, as well as insights into society at the time and popular music’s role within it.
Download the PDF transcript here
Chris Trengove was born in the Kingston borough and played in a number of bands as a musical revolution took hold in the town and in UK society more widely, ultimately teaming up with Top Topham in R&B outfit Lester Square and the GTs. In this RPM interview Chris is able to pinpoint various key milestones in the musical narrative of the time – from the advent of rock n roll through to the shift to psychedelia via the Rolling Stones led R&B sound – as well as recalling the TV shows, cinematic films, and radio shows that helped to inspire this deep impact upon popular culture. All of this is placed in the context of Kingston upon Thames, home to many a significant venue in the region, including the Cellar Club at which Chris was fortunate enough to play.
Warning: this interview contains mild language and references to recreational drug use