The Stage in the Middle of the Road

When I was a youngster back in the turbulent 60,s, like most of my peers I used to hang out in the various coffee bars that were around town, and I would feed the juke box which always stood in the corner.

There were no actual rules laid down, but it was just accepted that everyone who was in the coffee bar would take at least one session of feeding the juke box, and thereby let everyone know what type of music they were into.

I used to spend a few hours in the coffee bar (I dread to think how much coffee I drank) and then I would make my way home and straightaway tune in to Radio Luxemburg.

I wonder if any of you can remember Radio Luxemburg, the much loved radio station.

We were lucky in so far as having quite a number of radio stations beaming their programs to us night and day, and many of these radio stations being found on ships which lay somewhere offshore. I just can’t remember any of their names so if anyone can help me with this it would be appreciated.

I also cannot recall now whether Radio Luxemburg was a ship, or whether it was based on land, in Luxemburg. Again, if anybody can enlighten me it would be appreciated.

It was while I was listening to the music from these radio stations that my love of the guitar first came to fruition. The sound just seemed right to me.

However it was not until something unusual happened that I thought about learning to play for myself.

Those of you familiar with the road system in the U.K., will know that we have many roundabouts on our roads. These are designed to aid the flow of traffic, without stopping it as happens with traffic lights. They are literally a large circle placed at the junction of two roads, and they often have a small area of grass in the middle just to improve the appearance.

This unusual thing happened to me when I was out one day, passing one of these roundabouts, and there right in the middle was a friend of mine sitting down on the grass and happily strumming on his guitar.

All the cars that went past could not help but notice him, it was such an unusual sight right there in the middle of a roundabout. It was a bit like being on stage, in the middle of the road!

I went over and joined him on his ‘stage’, and quietly wished that I had a guitar to play.

And that wish eventually turned into reality because after that event I saved up all the pennies I could until I was able to buy my own guitar.

Over the years I have played in many bands, and have made music all around the world, but I have never forgotten that roundabout experience.

And I enjoy having the opportunity to show other people how to get started on the guitar and so have their own roundabout experience.