Harrow County School for Boys

1966-1972 Reminiscences of Peter "Mini" Vincent (E-Mail)

Part 1. My Career in the "D" Stream

I started in 1W in 1966, then followed a downward spiral - 2D, 3D, 4D, V4, V1 - where I left with just English Language 'O' Level. I cannot even blame the stage staff - I only got involved from 4D... However, I did manage to leave the school without being caned or slippered once - despite a few close shaves ...

The Name "Mini" - Richard Salter invented my nickname when I played football in Outer Quad [illegally for a 1st Former] in the same group as him and my elder brother Nick. In true HCS fashion, instead of just calling me "Peter", he invented a new name to call out before passing the ball - "Mini Vincent" - as my brother was called just "Vincent"! In later years this developed into a nickname of "Min".

Shoe on the Roof 1967 - Although I didn't manage to smash any windows playing football, I did once manage to lob my shoe onto the roof from Inner Quad (wearing shoes which Square, who predated me, would have called "ela-a-astic sided"). It took a rather acrobatic prefect to recover it. I wonder if he remembers this episode?

End of year concert Circa 1969/70 - Does anyone remember when I accompanied David Ventura and his euphonium (a small tuba) on the piano? David and Arthur Haley talked me into this... The euphonium itself has an interesting history of its own. Sometime in the mid 1960s, Jeffrey Maynard discovered a bent, mangled and blackened euphonium on the top shelf in the room at the back of the music room. Mr. Arthur Haley said that it was broken and useless - all the valves were stuck. So Jeffrey took it home, cleaned it and got it working again. He played it in various groups for the Xmas Ents, occasionally in the school orchestra, and developed a personal attachment to the thing until he gave it back on leaving school in 1969. Where is it now? Thinks... "yes here it is" says a current teacher and hands over a bent, mangled and blackened euphonium from the top shelf in the room at the back of the music room!

Memories of V1 1971-1972 - My last year at HCS was in Chris O'Donoghue's V1 form (see class photo) which were the school's academic failures (although full marks to those that got out of this pit). However, if you look closely at the photo, you will see at least two Merit ties (with the badge on a plain green background) and several Colours ties (with the single diagonal band). There are also some proudly wearing their CCF badges - Simon Goodes in particular who dedicated himself to the Navy section. Others were to get awards later in the year... So they couldn't have been all that bad?

Awards and Prizes - I was awarded the coveted Merit Award and tie for "Distinguished and Loyal Service to the Stage in Lighting" during the Diamond Jubilee Year 1971. So I did get to shake hands with the Head at assembly, which very few boys did...

My Academic Progress - although I left HCS with just a single 'O' level, I am pleased to announce that I now have a BA with 1st Class Honours degree (which I got by passing exams - not mail-order from the USA!), as well as being a Member of the British Computer Society.

Otherwise... - Some people might be surprised to learn that after leaving HCS, I was a Radio Operator in the Royal Naval Reserve, reaching the dizzy heights of LRO(G) - which qualified me to be responsible for the communications of a minor warship (minesweeper, minehunter, or patrol craft). One of my last sea trips included a voyage around Lands End in a hurricane (Force 12 to landlubbers) in one of these small, flat-bottomed, and wooden ships. My first was in 1979 on the much larger destroyer HMS Coventry D118, which was later lost in the Falklands War.

Part 2. Memories of Teaching Staff

Note: It is not my intention to be disrespectful to any of the Masters mentioned below. I will gladly correct any inaccuracies.. PV

Part 3. Memories from the Stage 1968-1971

Some Members of the Team Over the Years (Corrections appreciated)

Memoirs of a Flying Lighting Engineer 1971

I am probably most famous at the two HC schools for the swallow dive at the Girls' School while fixing up their lights which finished my lighting career at the end of 1971 - and put an end to any hopes of decent O level results. 48 hours on the danger list does focus the mind somewhat...

A couple of years ago I helped with the lighting for a school North of London. How different it was to HCS - the teachers did a Le Mans start at 4pm when the car park emptied leaving volunteers like me to provide some outside school activities for the children (I had no link with the school and was just helping a friend while stuck in digs during a long contract). However, the children weren't allowed to do anything - "Electricity is too dangerous", "Ooh that's too high up!"... The kids WERE allowed to do the operating (low voltage remote control affair) - but as they had no part of the build up they were not that interested in developing an interest in stage lighting...

So I take my hat off to Norman Tyrwhitt, Jim Maddison, and Harry Mees who had to take the can when I had my fall at the end of 1971. The HCS kids (Stage and Lights) WERE allowed to do the full business from start to finish which included high voltage (remember when you made the footlights live Tubby?) as well as aerial and rope work. We were all trained during an apprenticeship period by the older ones before being allowed to do anything serious and mine was the only accident I can remember - although nowadays I wonder why we didn't at least wear harnesses which would have left me high and dry but in one piece [100% recovered thanks]. Not to mention Harry's Beam Team (which Alistair Muir talked me into joining one Scout Show) - 20 ft up in almost pitch darkness on three beams and a small catwalk. I see on the recent photos that the beams are hidden now, so obviously the current crew aren't allowed to fly. However - the challenge was part of growing up and I did leave HCS as a young but wiser adult.

The Performance of Stage Lighting - For the benefit of modern stage lighting engineers, it really was a team effort from start to finish in those days - everyone who wanted to be could be involved right through to the performance itself. If you look at programmes from the time you will see a large lights staff - and not just for the hours of work in getting the settings prepared. We literally had to PERFORM the lighting changes just as much as the cast performed the play, as all the dimming was manual with no presets. There were 45 channels if I remember correctly, some of which could be switched 2 or 3 ways. A complex lighting change could involve:

We used to call lighting changes the "Dimmer Dance", although Richard Bunt originally coined the term on Alan Munns' antics to synchronise the lighting effects of the "Drum Break" during a particular ChrisEnts - which people watching from the audience would have had no idea was achieved manually with zero gizzmos! It might be hard to appreciate nowadays, but the four rows of dimmers on the main board went from the floor to about 4-5 ft up - so changing the dimmer settings was a hands, feet, knees affair - of course much more fun when the girls joined us!

"The Sorcerer" 1969 (see write-up) - it was decided that "John Wellington Wells" (played by Phil Barnett) was to appear coming out of the floor of the stage. Easy at the London Palladium, where they had several such "star traps" - but all HCS had was a hole in the stage (called "The Grave")! This was Gareth Jenkins' "Finest Hour" when he and his team, including the tireless Harry Mees, crafted such a trap from bits of scaffolding, ropes, and sandbags to produce the required effect - but still providing a safe platform for the remainder of the performance. I remember that the authorities which inspected it for safety being much impressed.

ChrisEnts 1970 (see programme) - Paul Lewis' first foray as a Lighting Director. I cannot remember which strike was responsible, but it was a period of power failures. Paul (and others) had arranged a standby lighting system which consisted of:

I think it was during the Friday evening performance that we lost power during a blackout (a lighting term for when the stage is in darkness and the stage hands are changing the set etc). Paul sprinted for his ropes and Alistair got the backup system running and the lights on (and caught the stagehands still on the stage changing the set if I remember correctly?). Even when Bruce Boyd ran out in front of the tabs to play his virtuoso rendering of the William Tell Overture arranged for cheeks, after saying that the power had gone off and they were figuring out what to do, the audience still thought it was part of the show! In the darkness about 15 feet off the ground, Paul was sat on a scaffolding bar at the side of the stage holding his cueing rope as the performance continued normally - I think it was only when the groups with electric guitars were unable to appear and some music with Spanish guitars had to be improvised that the audience had any idea that anything was amiss. I cannot remember if power came back on before the end (I don't think so), but still a marvellous piece of teamwork by those concerned.

Bryan Stephenson's Strobe Light - I cannot remember which production we needed a strobe (flashing) light for, but Bryan came up with an answer which involved minimal expense - a contraption which looked like a propeller powered by an electric motor which we could fit to the front of one of our spotlights. It was controlled by a train-set controller supplied by Bryan (which I recollect we managed to burn out - much to his annoyance). I wonder how long it remained in use?

Fire Drill Circa 1970 - when during a dress rehearsal Johnnie Morrell called "Fire!" in such a convincing voice that panic ensued and everyone ran for their lives! I remember the Lights Staff, self included, abandoning the lights tower which was about 12 feet off the ground. Who could forget Harry's stern lecture afterwards...

Scout Show 1969 - The "Jingle of the Jungle" in Ultra Violet (UV) light with fluorescent costumes and make-up was unforgettable, and included my classmate Robert Dando. In the same show we also had "Singing in the Rain" - with real water! I believe we had to sacrifice the use of one of our lighting battens to allow a safe haven around the water pipes.

"Duchess of Malfi" 1970 - and THE classic stage lighting effect. The power to each dimmer used a 0->10 scale so that settings could be worked out, recorded, and reproduced for the performance. However, for one scene of this particular play, Mr. Clive "Smooth" Anderson (the English master) called for a single spot to be lit at 1/4 - ie. 0.25! Can anyone beat that?

"This Darkness Suits You Well" - "Duchess of Malfi" Act IV Scene 1 1970. For some reason, in one performance it was uttered with the stage [incorrectly] brightly lit. Am I right that the following night the line was changed to "This light suits you well" - although the stage was now in the planned darkness?

"Hamlet" and "Bartered Bride" 1971 - did the school ever come close to the quality of these two events in later years?

The Lowest Form of Life? - most pupils entering HCS probably thought that a 1st Former was the lowest form of life at the school (other than perhaps a student master!). However, when I joined the Lights Staff in 1968, whilst in the 3rd Form, I found that an apprentice stage-hand was even lower. Apart from all the expected dirty jobs, like cleaning out the lighting store under the stage (was this the "Smoking Room" that someone else mentioned - before a lock was fitted?), we also had to cook the meals of our elders in the canteen when we stayed on after school for an evening performance. I recollect that Richard Salter was a particular fan of ensuring that the apprentices knew their place...

Peter Vincent HCS 1966-1972 (E-Mail)

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