NEGS/Abbeydale Boys Grammar

[pigiron]

Hello! At an age when I should know better I've decided to dispense some pearls of wisdom as and when the occasion arises. By chance I happened to come across a quite lengthy thread on the above subject but I'm damned if I can find it again. Please assist as I was a pupil 1954/59 and may have some input.

Greetings from Cape Town.

[Steve_H]

I know this is a long shot, but are there any ex-teachers here who taught at Abbeydale Boys’ GS in 1967? I am trying to find a piece of music that was performed at the school concert in that year.

[abbeyedges]

I started at ABGS in 1966. The music teacher I think was called Mr Higgins. I can just recall a trainee teacher (sure it was music) by the name of Mr Sissons.

[Steve_H]

Yes, Dave Higgins taught music. Eddy Hewison was Senior Music Master. I don’t remember Mr Sissons. I was in the military band, the brass group, the choir and the jazz band (Johnny Holmes’ Dixieland Syncopators) in that concert.

But I’m more interested in a piece sung by the staff choir. It was called Closing Time, and is about chucking out time in a pub!

[abbeyedges]

I cannot help you Steve with regard to the piece of music. I have it in my mind that Mr Hewison was a Biology teacher. Or was that Hewitt?

 

Are there any names of teachers that you can recall being in the Staff choir? Was Keith Dowsell (KD)?

[Steve_H]

I’m fairly sure Keith Dowswell would have been in the staff choir as he taught music as well as PE. John Mayo, Johnny Mann possibly. I’m trying to visualise the choir. Julian Drake was a good singer, so he would have been in it.

 

Do you know of any ABGS teachers who are still living and contactable?

[fatrajah]

I left ABGS in 1965. The music teachers were Mr Cookson & Botticelli (never Knew his real name)!

[abbeyedges]

The last I heard KD was involved / employed by the Yorkshire Union of Golf Clubs based on George Street Wakefield.

[Steve_H]

I left ABGS in 1965. The music teachers were Mr Cookson & Botticelli (never Knew his real name)!

Botticelli was Eddy Hewison. Because he had a fat bum and was a musician so might have played the cello (but he played the Eb euphonium), and people thought it was funny.

[John Holmes]

oI am John Holmes, leader drummer and founder of "Johnny Holmes's Dixieland Syncopators". We were listed in the programme as the "school jazz band". We played "Basin Street Blues" and "Midnight in Moscow". Can't recall the other players named but We had trumpet, clarinet, piano, banjo and me. The banjo player and I played every Friday at The Grapes on Tripett Lane. Anybody interested in Grapes jazz drop me line and I'll send you a piece.

We thought we were cool as <removed>, and I suppose, we were 52 years ago.

Edited January 15, 2019 by nikki-red