“You need a good education if you want to get on” was my dad’s favourite saying. I always made sure to agree with him on the surface, but to tell the truth I didn’t believe for one minute that having a degree in anything would matter if you were a rock star. Anyway, leaving all my home comforts (as well as those ‘bracing’ North East winters) behind, I set off for the bright lights of London to begin my training as a teacher, you guessed it, my future ‘proper job’.
Without going into too much detail I did manage to struggle through all that academic stuff and emerged at the other end ready to face up to whatever any number of unruly kids could throw at me… but much more importantly I’d managed to put together a college band during that time so at least my musical career (!) had not fallen by the wayside.
Note: As a point of interest we had named the band ‘Sefton Wall’, my fellow guitarist hailed from Sefton in Liverpool and Hadrian’s Wall was close to my neck of the woods back home so it seemed to be a good choice.
Eventually, leaving my bandmates behind, I stepped out into the big wild world of teaching. If I’d known what to expect I definitely would have prayed harder and longer… and had a much stiffer drink... cheers!
Keith.