The 81st Entry
RAF Halton Aircraft Apprentices
Sept 1955 - July 1958

ISSUE No.12 - AUGUST 2007
81st ENTRY NEWSLETTER
Editor: Mike Stanley

Your 1950's Desert Island Discs? by Willie Keays RAF Coningsby Part I (May 59 to July 1960)

Bruce Robinson's piece in the last Joural prompted me to think of the pop music that we enjoyed, or hated, during our imprisonment at Halton 1955 to 1958. If I was cast away on a desert island and asked to recall 10 tunes from those years that meant something to me, what would I pick, and why? And what would you pick?

Here's my selection. (For a listing of 50's No 1 hits try Wikipedia's listings) For those of you on line, clicking on a blue link should take you to Youtube for a video of the piece or in some cases, to the lyrics. For those not on line, try humming the tune if you can remember it!

In late 1955 Hernando's Hideaway by the Johnston Brothers was big on the run up to Christmas. In our room, Block 5, Room 3, we had an temporary hideaway of our own thanks to an inebriated one-armed Irishman. You will recall that we were encouraged to create a seasonal display at the end of the room? Well, near to the School of Cookery was a contractor's yard. I noticed that there was a dismantled shed in the yard that would make a nice Christmas log cabin for our display. The yard was looked after by an Irish gentleman who when I called in to ask for the loan of the shed, was lying on a bed in his office with a glazed look and a half-empty bottle of whiskey beside him and a full glass in his one hand. He listened to my request and said words like 'Take what you f*****g want!' We did and erected the shed in the room and tarted it up with suitable decorations. It was just before Christmas that our Flight Commander, Flt Lt Kernahan, inspected the displays. Not long afterwards I was interviewed by a bobby from Wendover who was on the lookout for a stolen shed! Oh dear!

It may be old age but I thought my next selection was popular before Christmas '55 and not afterwards as listed by Wikepedia. It was a very suitable refrain to which to bumper the lino in our room. I'm of course referring to 16 Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

A major event in1956 was the splitting up of entries and dispersal to the three Apprentice wings. For the life of me I can't remember exactly when that was. Can anybody help?

One cannot reminisce about pop music in early 1956 without mentioning Rock Around the Clock by Bill Hailey and the Comets, known to the irreverent as Swill Hailey and his Vomits. There was great concern in high places that this startling new musical genre would corrupt young minds and lead to rioting in the aisles of the Astra. It didn't of course but it was the start of pop music directed at the young the pressure from which has never lessened. For those older in inclination, if not in years, Memories are Made of This, Dean Martin, provided quite a contrast.

It was in May '56 that No other Love Have by Ronnie Hilton hit the charts. I later had cause to remember this with tears in my eyes. (Where are you now Pamela?)

Being a stuck-up stick-in-the mud I ignored the huge effect Rock 'n Roll was having; I thought that Doris Day signing Che Sera Sera could not be bettered. Then remarkably a British female singer scored a real hit with Lay Down Your Arms with Anne Shelton taking advantage of the Suez Crisis to remind people that we had an Army, a Navy and an Air Force. Have we any equivalent hit for our boys out in Tony's Wars?

Gosh, that's six and I've not reached Christmas 1956 yet!

Early 1957 was marked by the arrival of Tommy Steele Singing the Blues. Then we had a skiffle success with Lonnie Donegan with Cumberland Gap. I liked skiffle as I thought I could be a real star on a washboard although it would have been the limit of my musical skill but Eddie Fisher's Cindy, Oh Cindy is more memorable for me.

It was in July that the King got his first No 1 in the UK charts; Elvis with All Shook Up. I remember this well as we had an Elvis impersonator in our room, Block 10 Room 2. He was Kostas Singh, 77th?, and boy, could he imitate Elvis? Not to everyone's delight I must add. Are you out there Kostas?

Christmas 1957 brought Hary Belafonte and Mary's Boy Child to give a seasonal flavour, something it still does each year.

Well that's ten but why stop now?

Our graduation year opened with Great Balls of Fire, Jerry Lee Lewis. He did not stay long on a flying visit to the UK as his child bride was though a bit too young by the press, and others.

One would need to be an ostrich with head in sand to ignore Elvis's many hits; Kostas would not let us forget anyway. His favourite stage was the barack-room table. So, passing swiftly on, I now discover that Wake Up Little Susie , Everley Brothers, does not figure in Wikepedia lists. The penny drops. The listing only show the Number 1s. So some of the tunes that may have joged my memory have not appeared.

Two further hits must be mentioned.As we approached graduation, Ma, He's Making Eyes at me! with Marie Adams and Three Tons of Joy. At the end of the song there was a chorus of 'Oh yea! Oh Yea! Oh Yea!' At our graduation dinner in Henderson Mess(?) Dave Hunt took the lead in encouraging us to get this chorus together.

Who can forget our pass-out dance with Johnny Dankworth no less? It was certainly a pass-out for me. I passed out about 23:00!

Finally, during the limbo period when many had returned to Halton after passing-out waiting for our overseas drafts to form, we listed to Pegy Lee's rendition of Fever played on the juke box in that little cafe on the road to Wendover. What was its name?

By some odd concidence many of us had reported back to Halton catching the same train from Baker Street to Wendover. Just as it pulled out, the far door of the compartment we had got into together mysteriously flew open and smashed itself to pieces against the tunnel wall. At Royal Oak Mr Plod took our names and addresses but after an interview at Halton the conclusion was that the last person to leave the compartment through that door hadn't closed it properly. We had entered through the other door. Hmmm! Nipper Fry was one of us draftees concerned.

So you see my career at Halton involved an early interview with the cops, and so in the same way it ended. Thanks Nipper!

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