the-vanguards.co.uk

Don’t start me off. I am still spitting blood about this.

I’ll write something when I’ve calmed down a bit, and can hopefully be a bit more rational.

We are in the latter stages of finishing a version of the Brian Hyland hit ‘Sealed With A Kiss’, which I hope will be ready for our Brighouse gig on June 28th. The harmony is really interesting, and will be quite a challenge to produce live.

I am also playing with a version of the Dave Clark Five hit ‘Glad All Over’, which I think should prove quie a success. Talk about a potential instant ‘floor filler’! This one was Pete’s idea.

I am now trying to work with Steinberg’s Virtual Guitarist 2, to help with some nice, tight rhytm guitar parts. It seems a powerfull piece of software. It just takes time to learn how to use these things, and that is such a rare commodity these days.

I am thinking seriously of installing video cameras in my school car, if only to show some of my friends the sort of things we have to put up with on a daily basis.

It has been said by many that there is no incentive for people to drive to a high standard once they have passed a driving test. For my part, I am not surprised that newly qualified drivers soon forget much of what they have been taught, after all, look at the examples they are presented with by experienced drivers!

Let’s just look at today. We have been overtaken on the left twice today. Once at a roundabout, where we avoided driving on an area with block paving (put there to enable buses etc to turn left safely) by a woman in a Saab, who, presumably didn’t see our left turn indicator, and pulled up right alongside us, and later when, on my advice, the pupil changed lanes in plenty of time to avoid cars parked on the left (2-lane dual carriageway, 30mph speed limit) and was rewarded by the car 3 vehicles back cutting up the inside and forcing his way in front just before reaching the first parked car. What a great example to set before a leraner! ‘Look, this is how it’s really done!’

And, you know, these are not young drivers behaving like this. Both the above would be described as middle aged. Shame on you!

I am also amused by the number of company vehicles that are drived either inconsideratley, dagerously, or downright illegally whilst proudly displaying their company colours. Presumably their employers condone such behaviour!

Just in case you think this might just apply to sole traders or small companied, some of the more extreme examples I have recently experienced include BT, Bolton At Home (local authority housing) and Virgin Media.

What a great voice Scott Mackenzie has (had? - does he still have it??). Still can’t decide whether to attempt this in the original key of G or transpose it down to F.

This is how I spend my evenings, you know!

The ‘big ‘L’ on the roof has two distinctly different effects. For the most part, it creates a little zone, or ‘bubble’ around the car while most other motorists give us the time and space needed by the novice driver.

The other effect, unfortunately, is to make a few drivers feel that they can take extreme liberties, often bordering on dangerous, with us. Who in their right mind, for example, would overtake a learner on approach to a red traffic light, pulling in at the last second and forcing the learner to brake to avoid a collision? Not you, of course, but it happens to us nearly every day!

We get people who are apparently completely surprised that a learner may not build up speed as quickly as someone who has been driving for years, and delight in thundering up behind us and sitting about a foot behind the rear bumper, expecting that such behaviour will somehow influence the learner.

Let me put you straight on that one. It doesn’t work!

We also get people turning right across our path in a manner that they wouldn’t dream of doing if the car were not displaying ‘L’ plates. Why do they do this? Do they think that the learner is better at stopping quickly that a trained driver?? We had an idiot taxi driver the other day (green Toyota, didn’t get the reg I’m afraid, too busy calming down my pupil), who caused us to perform an emergency stop on Deane Road.

Actually, we both stopped the car! (The pupil and I, simultaneously).

Just a word to the wise at this point. There is no guarantee that, just because the car has an ‘L’ on the roof, it is fitted with dual controls. You could, quite literally, be taking your life in your hands should you be tempted to pull a stunt like that in front of a learner driver.

I’ll keep you all posted of other such examples of silliness as we go along.

This could run and run..

Both Pete and I have experienced at first hand the rampant ageism that exists in the UK these days. Both of us were ‘dispensed with’ by our last employers, whilst coincidentally being the oldest members of our respective teams. Both of us have found it virtually impossible to be considered seriously for any meaningful employment, despite our skills and considerable experience, and both of us are having to fight to make a living and keep our families going at a time when we should be thinking about taking things a little more easy.

I’m afraid that I now belive that this system of ours has simply decided to spit us out and discard us completely. I get quite angry when I think of all the lengths I have gone to over the years to keep my skill set up to date and ‘go the extra mile’ in order to prove my worth. I have worked myself to the verge of ill health on more than one occasion, but have wound up with nothing to show for it, not even a pension.

I am sure that there are thousands and thousands out there just like us. We are perhaps luckier than some, in that we have our musical skills to help us earn some money. Many are not so fortunate.

I will try and keep a running commentary on the sort of things that happen on a day to day basis that sometimes make me feel I come from another planet!

In April 2006, I began the process of training to become a Driving Instructor. I finally qualified on February 4th this year (2008). Now I can say with confidence that nobody is going to make me redundant ever again!