Charlie grew up in a pre-fab home on the Pilgrims Way estate in southern
Kingsbury, a fact he confirmed to me when I contacted him (at his rather
different estate in Devon) when I was helping Brent Archives with its “Pre-fabs
Project” in 2011.
Charlie went to school at Fryent Juniors in Church Lane, then on to the
newly-opened Tylers Croft Boys Secondary School (now the Lower School for
Kingsbury High School) on the north side of Roe Green Park. The school has a
reminder of his time there, as a skilled student artist, who at 15 went on to
progress his studies at Harrow Art School. A trip to London Zoo was the
inspiration for Charlie’s painting on tiles, which still hangs on a wall in the
school.
The small Brent Museum and Archives display at Kingsbury Library also
includes photographs of the Rolling Stones when they performed a concert at the
Kilburn State cinema in November 1963. So, if you want to pay your respects to
the “Wembley Whammer” (Mick Jagger’s nickname for Charlie), or are just
interested in this piece of our local musical history, Kingsbury Library is the
place to visit!
Charlie Watts lived in a prefab in Pilgrims Way, on the edge of Fryent Country Park, and local legend says his mother bundled him off to fields behind the estate to practise on his drums. The prefabs were demolished to make way for the present estate on which I live so there is no obvious house for a blue plaque - but one is richly reserved. Philip Grant has written about Charlie's Wembley connections HERE.
The bronze bust of Charlies Watts
Meanwhile Brent Council has received a bust of Charlie and is looking for a suitable home:
Charlie Watts mega-fans presented
a bronze bust of the late Rolling Stones drummer to Brent Council on Friday 1
July.Stones icon Charlie Watts grew up
in Wembley and was fondly known as the “Wembley Whammer”. After he passed away
in August 2021, fans thought it fitting to honour him in his hometown.
Sculpted by artist Sissy Piana,
the bust was donated to Brent Council at a small ceremony attended by The Mayor
of Brent, former Mayor of Brent Lia Colacicco, Founder of the Rolling Stones
fansite SHIDOBEE with STONESDOUG, Doug Potash and organiser and commissioner of
the artwork, Richard Jozefiak.
Cllr Abdi Aden, Mayor of Brent said:
We are delighted to be entrusted
with this wonderful sculpture that pays homage to iconic drummer Charlie Watts.
Rolling Stones fans across the world, have worked tirelessly to pay their
respects and we at Brent Council are pleased to play our part in honouring his
legacy.
The Rolling Stones have strong
roots in Brent, with Watts growing up in Wembley and the Rolling Stones
performing in Wembley as far back as 1982. This bronze bust acts as another
addition to the deep cultural impact the band has had in Brent as well as the
rich musical history of our borough.
Founder of Rolling Stone fansite
SHIDOBEE with STONESDOUG, Doug Potash sad:
With Charlie Watts gone, many of
our members wanted to find a way that we could honour him. I was approached by
SHIDOOB Richard Jozefiak with an idea; he had contacted sculptor Sissy Piana
about creating a bronze bust of Charlie and proposed that we raise the funds
and find the proper place for it to be displayed.
When I announced this, donations
immediately poured in and everyone was thrilled that they were part of having
this bust of the Wembley Whammer created and given a place for it to be
honoured thanks to the Brent Council.
Discussion are underway about
where to display the bronze bust.
Philip Grant has provided the photograph below to accompany his comment on this blog post.
Charlies Watts playing with the Jo Jones Seven in the late 1950s
This is the second and final part of Philip Grant's Guest Post on the Macari music shop. The first part can be read HERE.
Welcome back to this
concluding part of an Ealing Road music shop’s story. In Part 1 we met two
Alans, a vocalist and a guitar player, who started a skiffle group with school
friends, and regularly visited Macari’s Musical Exchange. We join them again as
a “beat” group in the early 1960s.
A Musical
Exchange advert from the 1960s. (Image
from the internet, courtesy of Tony Royden)
Alan Hayward and the Haymakers usually practised
at Lyon Park School, and mainly performed at a club based there. One day, while
rehearsing at the school, a teenage drummer called Keith Moon came to hear
them. He showed them what he could do on his drums, and managed to move
the drum kit as far as the door while drumming! The group was not impressed with
him (nor he with them).
The young Keith Moon, from Chaplin Road, was a
hyperactive boy, who joined the local Sea Cadets aged 12, and learned to play
the bugle. On his way home from Alperton Secondary Modern School, he often used
to go into Macari’s Musical Exchange, at one time learning to play the trumpet.
Glo Macari used to see him in the shop, and he
must have been quite an attractive teenager. She used to go with her cousin to
a nearby greengrocers (probably Smith’s Fruiterers at 40 Ealing Road) to buy a
couple of pounds of potatoes, just to see him sweeping up at the back! Keith then
decided that drums would be his instrument, and Glo remembers him buying some
drum sticks from her grandfather. He was allowed to play on drums in the shop,
and took lessons from a local professional drummer, Carlo Little.
[In the early 1960s Carlo was a member of The
Savages, the backing group for Sudbury “singer” and performer Screaming Lord
Sutch (if you’ve ever heard a recording of his one minor hit record, “Jack the
Ripper”, you will know why I have put “singer” in inverted commas!). Carlo
Little was a well-respected musician, and even played a few times for the
“Rolling Stones” in 1962, when another Wembley drummer, Charlie Watts,
was not available because he was still employed as a commercial artist.]
An Macari's advert from the 1960s.
(Image from the internet, courtesy of Tony Royden)
Keith Moon
left school at Easter 1961, not quite 15 years old, and got a job. His earnings
helped him to buy his own Ludwig drum kit. By the end of 1962 he had joined a
semi-professional group, The Beachcombers. They all had day jobs, but played in
the evenings and at weekends. In April 1964 he went to the Railway Hotel,
Wealdstone, to hear a group called The Who playing. They needed a replacement drummer,
and Keith grabbed his opportunity. The rest, as they say, is history!
Keith Moon drumming with The Who.
(Image from the internet)
You can hear The Who singing “My Generation”,
and see Keith in action on the drums, here:
Gary was another young Wembley musician who
often visited the shop. He remembers Rosa’s husband, Derek, being the manager
there at the time, and that Grandpa Macari would sit in the shop with his
accordion. He sometimes played along with customers, and Gary once joined him
on guitar as he played “Under the Bridges of Paris”. Gary recalls seeing Keith
Moon practicing there, and being told to calm down in case he damaged the drum
kit. One of the instruments Gary bought in the shop was a second-hand Fender Stratocaster,
for about £60 – this iconic guitar would cost a lot more now!
A 1957 Fender
Stratocaster guitar. (Image from the
internet)
Gary worked as a courier, and the shop would
call him if a customer needed help getting purchases home, such as large
amplifiers. He remembers that the Macari’s bought the shop next door (46a, on
the corner, which Rosa ran as Derosa Ladies Wear), and them making a recording
studio behind the shop. He helped with the work on this, sticking dozens of old
egg boxes to the walls as soundproofing.
Glo Macari told us the recording studio was in
a room at the back that her grandfather had originally used for giving
accordion lessons. It had three booths, and wires going up through the ceiling
to a control room in the flat above. There was a two-track machine that
recorded the music and songs straight onto demo discs. Groups would send these
discs to local agents, to get bookings for gigs, or even sometimes to record
companies, in hope of something bigger!
By the early 1960s, Glo’s father Joe and Uncle
Larry were working at Musical Exchange branches at Denmark Street and Charing
Cross Road during the day, and playing some evenings in hotels or for wedding
receptions. She began going along with them as a singer, and made some demo
discs in the Wembley studio herself. In the Spring of 1965, still aged 14 and a
pupil at St Gregory’s R.C. School in Kenton, she got a recording contract.
Glo Macari
singing for some friends in the shop, March 1965. (“Wembley News” photo, courtesy of Glo!)
This photograph of Glo Macari, singing in the
Ealing Road shop, appeared in the “Wembley News”, with a story about her
contract, and her musical family. Her first single, released on the Piccadilly
label, was “He knows I love him too much”, written by Carole King and Gerry
Goffin, and recorded with the Ivor Raymond Orchestra. You can listen to Glo
Macari singing this song here:
Glo’s records never made it into the “Top
Twenty”, but she went on to be a successful songwriter and musical arranger.
Some of the songs she wrote were recorded by 1970s groups such as Smokie and
Racey.
Record label for
Glo Macari’s song “Boy Oh Boy”, a 1979 single by Racey. (Image from the internet)
Not all of the musicians helped by Macari’s
Musical Exchange in Ealing Road could be recording artists or become rock and
roll legends (or experience the problems that came with a “superstar”
lifestyle). Most just played for fun, for their friends and contemporaries, or
might have made a small amount from playing at dances in youth clubs, church
halls or pubs. But playing a guitar, in a group, you were part of the beat
music scene that made such a difference to popular music, in this country and
beyond, from the 1960s onwards.
Alan
Hayward and the Haymakers, playing at Lyon Park School c.1964.
L-R: Alan Clarke, Roger Horsborough, John Hammond, Alan Hayward and Pete Scott.
(Photograph courtesy of Alan and Barbara Clarke)
Alan Hayward and the Haymakers had a small
popular local following. This picture of them, playing in a classroom at Lyon
Park School, was taken by a Wembley Observer photographer in 1964. Around that
time, they were allowed to play several songs during the interval at one of the
Saturday night ballroom dances at Wembley (later Brent) Town Hall.
One day, around 1967, Gary got a ‘phone call
from a friend who was at the shop, telling him to come down straight away with
his guitar. He arrived and joined in with a “jamming” session in the shop which
included Pete Townshend of The Who, Eric Clapton of Cream (whose drummer,
Ginger Baker, lived in Wembley Park at the time) and two members of Status Quo.
A modern picture of 46 Ealing Road, now Kenya
Jewellers. (Image from the internet)
I’m not sure when the local branch of Macari’s
Musical Exchange closed, but it was probably around 1970. By the early 1980s,
Ealing Road was becoming a centre for businesses run by families of South Asian
origin, from East African countries, where they had been made unwelcome after
independence from British colonial rule. The two combined shops at 46
Ealing Road became Kenya Jewellers, and they still are.
During it’s time in Wembley the Macari’s shop
had encouraged many young people play musical instruments, at the birth of
modern Pop Music in Britain. The business continued, with its main shop in
Charing Cross Road, before moving out of London, but is still run by
the Macari family and supplying
instruments to musicians today.
I hope you have enjoyed reading these two
articles, and listening to some music from that time. If they have brought back
any memories for you, which you would like to share, please feel free to add a
comment below!
Philip Grant
Editor's Note - These articles have provoked considerable interest along with earlier ones by Philip. HERE you can find a personal account of the enduring friendship between Ginger Baker and Charlie Watts.
A topical one-off “special” local
history article by Philip Grant.
As part of Brent’s London Borough of Culture 2020,
and “Brent Biennial”, a 9-metre high mural by the artist Dawn Mellor is due to
be unveiled in Kingsbury Road on Saturday 19 September. It will celebrate the
life of the singer George Michael, who lived and went to school in the area. Many
people may not know much about his early life, and this seems a good time to
share what I know about his Kingsbury connections. As George said himself, in a
line from a song he wrote about growing up “Round Here”: ‘So come with me, let me show you where
I've lived.’
1. Three images of work in progress on the
George Michael mural, and its location, 13 September 2020.
It was not just people from the Caribbean (“the
Windrush Generation”) who came to live and work in this country following the
British Nationality Act, 1948. Britain’s labour shortage in the post-war years
meant that anyone with the newly created status of ‘citizen of the United
Kingdom and Colonies’ could do the same. In 1953, young Kyriacos Panayiotou and his cousin left their village
in Cyprus, and came to London for a better life. He worked as a waiter in a
restaurant, and through a shared love of dancing, married Lesley in 1957. Some
people thought it was wrong for an English girl to marry a Greek Cypriot, but
love is stronger than prejudice.
2. Holmstall Parade, Edgware Road, 2019.
Kyriacos and Lesley
already had two daughters before their son, Georgios, was born at their flat in
East Finchley in June 1963. Within a year they had moved to a larger home at 3a
Holmstall Parade, above shops on the Edgware Road, close to Burnt Oak, in what
was then still the Borough of Wembley. Kyriacos Panayiotou, commonly known as
Jack Panos, worked in a Greek Restaurant in Edgware, becoming a partner in the
business. Although Holmstall Parade looks similar now to what it did in the
1960s, the Asda superstore and Capitol Way just down the road were then a
Frigidaire factory, on a site first used by the Aircraft Manufacturing Company,
“Airco”, during World War One.
3. The Redhill Drive street sign, at the corner with
Holmstall Avenue.
By 1967, the
Panayiotou family had their own semi-detached suburban home, nearby in Redhill
Drive, then part of the recently formed London Borough of Brent. No.57 was
where Georgios (or George as he would become known) lived for about ten years.
He soon had friends to play with, and his best friend was David, who lived just
up the road, and was a year older than him.
4. 57 Redhill Drive, Burnt Oak, in 2019.
When it was time for George to start school, he
went to Roe Green Infants, then the Juniors, in Princes Avenue, the same as his
sisters (and David), as that was the local state school. In those days, that
was what most children did. They probably walked to school.
Figure 5. Roe Green Infants and Junior Schools,
Princes Avenue, Kingsbury, in 2019.
Years later, George wrote in a song: ‘And I remember my, my first day at
school. And I remember trouble and thinkin' I was so cool.’ Whether this was
about his very first day at school at Roe Green, or when he went on to
secondary school, I’m not sure. You wouldn’t think this young Georgios would
get into trouble, would you? Or perhaps you would.
6. Georgios Panayiotou, at primary school
age. (Image from the internet)
Trouble or not, he must have been
quite a bright student, although having encouragement from a good creative
writing teacher at school (probably Ian Greenwood then) must have helped. Only
just eleven years old, two of his poems were included in Roe Green Junior
School’s end of year magazine in July 1974. How these came to light, shortly
after George’s death in 2016, is a story in itself. A girl who knew him at the
school had kept her school magazines. Years later, her older sister met a
former classmate, Melanie, at an awards ceremony – and Melanie was with her
brother, Georgios, better known by then as George Michael. The sisters had
never guessed that the music star was the quiet boy they knew at Roe Green
Juniors!
7. The cover of the Roe Green Junior School
magazine, July 1974. (Image from the internet)
The first of the poems, ‘The Story of
a Horse’, appears above the name Georgios Panayiotou, 4S, but the second
reveals his nickname. Whether this was one he invented for himself, or what his
friends decided to call him (because he was brainy?), Professor Whatsisname
(alias G. Panayiotou, 4S) was the author of this imaginative piece, ‘Sounds in
the Night’.
8. "Sounds in the Night" by
Professor Whatsisname, from "The Junior", July 1974. (Image from the
internet)
From junior school, George moved on to the local
secondary school in September 1974, again just as most eleven-year olds would
have done then. Kingsbury High School had become a comprehensive in 1967, when
the grammar school in Princes Avenue merged with the Tyler’s Croft Boys and
Girls secondary modern schools in Bacon Lane. The lower years of the High School
were housed in the Tyler’s Croft buildings, which had opened in 1952.
Twenty-two years before George walked through that school’s gates, the first
boys to start at the school when it opened had included a young Charlie Watts, from Fryent Junior School, who also went on to
become a famous pop musician.
9. Kingsbury High School's Tyler's Croft
buildings, beside Roe Green Park, 2019.
The photo above shows that Kingsbury
High’s Lower School is next to Roe Green Park, and there’s no doubt that George
spent some time there after school. In one verse of his song about growing up,
he sings:
‘I hear my mama call
in Kingsbury Park Just me and David and a football that glowed in
the dark Waitin' patiently to make my mark, round here.’
10. Roe Green Park, towards the school, and a wild flower
meadow that wasn't there in George's time!
Life sometimes takes an unexpected
turn, and it was not in Kingsbury that George made his mark. His father’s
restaurant business was doing well, so he decided to move upmarket. He found a
house he liked in Radlett, and around 1976 the Panayiotou family moved out of
Redhill Drive. As their new home was not quite ready, they lived above the
restaurant in Edgware for several months, before George left Kingsbury High
School, looking something like this.
11. Georgios Panayiotou in the mid-1970's. (Image
from the internet)
The move to Radlett meant changing to a new school,
Bushey Meads School, which took students from much of the western side of
Hertsmere District, just north of London. One of his new classmates was Andrew
Ridgeley, and they were soon friends. The two teenagers shared a love of pop
music, and a desire to make a that their career. The result, in 1981, was Wham!
12. Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael as the
duo, Wham!, mid-1980's. (Image from the internet)
From then on, Georgios Panayiotou would be known as
George Michael, and you can read about his musical career, his generosity and his
sometimes troubled private life, online, or by borrowing a
copy of the biography “George”, by Sean Smith, from your local Brent Library
(ref. no. 782.421 on the adult
non-fiction shelves).
Although no longer
living in Brent, George’s career brought him to Wembley on a number of
occasions. Wham! played several concerts at the Arena in 1984, and their
“Final” concert together at the Stadium in 1986, before the duo went their
separate ways. George Michael was one of the stars who performed at the 1985
Live Aid concert at Wembley, and at the 70th birthday concert for
Nelson Mandela in 1988. George’s singing of “Somebody to Love” with Queen, at
the Stadium’s Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert to raise money for AIDS research
in 1992, was highly rated, and the live recording featured on a follow-up EP.
13. George Michael, with Brian May of Queen,
at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. (Image from internet)
George Michael was a prolific songwriter, and in 2004
he recorded a song about his memories of growing up. Called “Round Here”, it
wasn’t a big hit for him, but it came from his heart and tells his story before
he became famous. There is an online video of him singing and recording the
song, with brief clips of film included that show various scenes from
Kingsbury, and London more generally. If you watch carefully, you’ll spot
glimpses of 57 Redhill Drive (at 0:05), the flats at Holmstall Parade (0:25),
Roe Green Park (1:17) and Roe Green Junior School (1:35) and Kingsbury High
[Lower] School (1:41), plus other places you’ll recognise.
14. The CD cover for "Round Here", 2004. (Image from the
internet)
George
Michael, who sadly died in 2016, aged just 53, is not the only famous person
who has lived “Round Here”, in the north of Brent, but he is fondly remembered
by many for his music and his humanity. That is why he was chosen as the
subject for a mural in Kingsbury, which celebrates his life. I hope you’ve
enjoyed finding out about his local connections.
15. Kingsbury Station signs, including for
the London Borough of Culture 2020.
Next time you come out of Kingsbury Station, turn
right, and after walking about 60 metres you will find the mural, on the end
wall of a block of shops with flats above. You can’t miss it – it is 9 metres
high!
Philip Grant.
Next weekend, we welcome a new member to the “local history in lockdown” team.
Don’t forget to join us, to discover what part of the borough her weekly series
will cover!
