{"id":496,"date":"2020-07-30T12:23:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/176.32.230.50\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/?page_id=496"},"modified":"2020-07-30T13:52:35","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T12:52:35","slug":"david-riddle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/?page_id=496","title":{"rendered":"David Riddle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAVID RIDDLE \u2013 The Poster Years<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a member of the Goldsmiths\u2019 College \u2018Class\u2019 of 1966-1970. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1966-1969 I initially studied for a BSc General degree in Botany and Zoology (Chemistry to Part I). For at least the first year of that time, Goldsmiths\u2019 was classified as an \u2018External\u2019 College of the University. All theory examinations were sat at Alexandra Palace, Wood Green, with practicals being held, usually as 6-hour continuous events, at the University of London\u2019s Central Laboratories in Russell Square. By 1969, my Finals year, Goldsmiths\u2019 had become a full \u2018Internal\u2019 College and theory exams were held in the College\u2019s Great Hall with only science practical exams being conducted off-site because the College\u2019s own laboratories in the Whitehead Building were considered inadequate for official examinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1969-1970 I was a Post-Graduate Teachers Certificate (PGTC) student. At the same time I had been elected as Social Secretary of the Student\u2019s Union \u2013 only the President had a sabbatical year back in those days. Teaching practice was at Shooter\u2019s Hill Grammar School, later to become Eaglesfield School when the ILEA introduced comprehensive schools four years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from in my First Year I was heavily involved with the Student\u2019s Union on the \u2018Events\u2019 side of things both technically with lighting and sound as well as a being a support DJ to Neil Brittain. I was jointly involved in building a couple of twin-turntable discotheque units made from very basic domestic Garrard SP25 Mk3 turntables mounted in a wooden plinth unit, and a couple of potentiometers to mix the feeds from the two decks. This was connected to a 100 watt amplifier obtained from Catford-based South East London Entertainments, and two home-made chipboard speaker cabinets covered with black leather-cloth bought from Deptford Market, each containing 4 x 15\u2033 Tannoy speakers. This \u2018big set\u2019 was for regular College use, but we also built a second set with 2 x 15\u2033 Tannoys each as a \u2018mobile\u2019 system that just about fitted in to my Ford Anglia 105e! This was hired out to the Halls of Residence for \u00a310 a night or so plus a \u00a31.50 DJ fee. The Halls all ran their own \u2018Informal\u2019 events every term together with an annual \u2018Formal\u2019. Since there were about a dozen Halls at that time, this kept all the kit, and us, fairly busy! This was all on top of a weekly College Disco held in the Small Hall, alias today\u2019s Curzon Cinema, which often hosted live bands as well, as well as being the secondary venue for the major College events centred on the Great Hall. Publicity for these events, some 30 years before most people became aware of the Internet, was based around printed posters. As Social Secretary I was involved with commissioning publicity for Goldsmiths\u2019 own events and was also in receipt of material promoting events at other Colleges in London and Universities elsewhere. I decided to hang on to these as attractive artworks and was fortunate enough to be able to exhibit them some 50 years later in April 2019 at an event run by the College called \u2018Golddream \u2013 50 Years On\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back on the range of bands that played Goldsmiths\u2019 in those days, it is truly amazing how many are familiar names even today, and how it was possible that the \u2018College Circuit\u2019 as it was known at that time, permitted the booking of top acts by even relatively small Colleges. It was very rare to pay more than \u00a31,000 for a chart-topping act, so an audience of 1000 or so (fire regulations at the time were 850 in the Great Hall) plus another 500 or so between the S.U. Bar (now Loafers Caf\u00e9) and the Small Hall (fire regs of 150!!) where all S.U. Events were held in those days, usually between 9pm and 2pm or later, could meet all costs with tickets of only \u00a31 or so. Realistically I suppose, \u00a31 was actually quite a lot of money then, as was \u00a31,000 for a top band, but 2.5p (6 pence in old money) or even 5p (a shilling) as it was later increased to, much to the disgust from the punters, for just a Disco was considered excellent value. This raised at least \u00a315-\u00a320 a week which was enough to pay two DJs \u00a31.50 each with the rest going towards records and equipment maintenance. Small Hall bands were typically about \u00a315 a night with the ticket price going up a bit on those occasions. On one occasion when that \u00a315 band failed to show up, and a stand-in called The Alby arrived instead, all the way from Plymouth, sporting a little man standing on one leg playing the flute, later to be known as Jethro Tull, the significance may become clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think my poster collection actually probably started before the stint as Social Secretary. Posters for events at other Colleges were always arriving in the post and were rarely put up on the notice boards, if only because that would detract from Goldsmiths\u2019 own range of Hall and College events. To these were added copies of the College event posters that were often designed by fellow students and then screen-printed by the Art School as it was known then. The collection is generally something of a homage to that art, with the vast majority produced by that means. They are, therefore, in relatively good condition, the more so since they have spent the past forty years inside an architect\u2019s drawing table that Sandy Evans, another of the Union\u2019s technical support staff, made as part of his Design Education course. He very kindly gave it to me for \u2018safe keeping\u2019 when he had no means to get it back home to Wales when he left College. The collection has never been exhibited since I have never considered it to be of particular interest to anyone else, but following the creation of a movie file of the 230 or so items for the 2008 Reunion of that \u2018Class\u2019 of 66-70, there has been a lot of interest in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original video presentation of the individual posters left something to be desired since it was created from relatively low-resolution digital photographs of the posters blue-tacked to an office wall, but it nevertheless gave a flavour of the variety of poster styles. Additionally I had also acquired a number of album inserts, promotional posters and photographs as well as a unique signed \u2018Compliments\u2019 slip from London\u2019s Norman Jackson Entertainment Agency that were used to hire bands. This item was to confirm the replacement booking of Georgie Fame for the 1969 Fresher\u2019s Ball that was originally to have featured The Who. It also included a signed copy of his photograph. Two others of particular significance are a photo of Slade in the guise of their original incarnation, Ambrose Slade, and several of the U.S. West Coast band, Love, who I booked at Goldsmiths\u2019 for their only UK. College gig. They are all part of my overall collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also have a few signed 12\u201d record albums including items by Love, The Liverpool Scene and Muddy Waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

David Riddle<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVID RIDDLE \u2013 The Poster Years I was a member of the Goldsmiths\u2019 College \u2018Class\u2019 of 1966-1970.  From 1966-1969 I initially studied for a BSc General degree in Botany and Zoology (Chemistry to Part I). For at least the first …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/496"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/496\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidbracherbooks.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}