These two photos date from round about 1977/8. The first one is the GEC Social Club Pantomime Section Stage Crew, this snap was taken on-stage at the technical fit-up. (We painted all of the cloths and flats ourselves, they were about half an inch thick from thirty years of previous shows!). We went along every Monday evening from the 1st of September planning, blocking out, painting and making Props. This is the only time I have ever done genuine Am Dram but the GEC Ballroom was a 30s technical nirvana and I thoroughly enjoyed being Stage Manager for that show, Robinson Crusoe I think. (I was much less involved in subsequent years as the job and Eighteen Plus started to monopolise my time).

You can see me looking rather hairy in the back row on the right, wearing a blue Genesis T Shirt. The lad to my right with the rugby top was Graeme Foster and I shared a (very scabby) house with him in Coventry. The only other person I can place is the Guy front left in yellow -he was a lecturer in the First Year Training School Machine Shop (His Wife took the photo).

This is another young me with Colin, the Stage Manager at the Newcastle City Hall, he had just bought himself his first lighting rig, something I was do do myself ten years later when the opportunity arose. I think that was his PA system as well. I don’t actually think there was a show on, he had just set it up to try it out for size and  a Band were using it for rehearsals. The photo was taken using a Polaroid camera by Angela (Colin’s Wife and a Life Guard from the swimming Baths next door).