PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The Interns Story and The Rikki Alan Trio
With pubs on every corner, there was never a shortage of musical talent here in the old terraced streets of Pillgwenlly. In fact music was never far from the ears whether you wanted to hear it or not. On Sunday mornings at 10 .00 am The Salvation Army band made it’s way through the myriad of terraced streets, striking up the stirring anthems of the Salvationist for all to enjoy (or not). Taking up a position on the junction between the streets the sweet refrains of Onward Christian Soldiers wafted through the air.
As the streets reclaimed their equilibrium and the faint smell of the Sunday Roast met the nostrils, a distant trombone or squeaky trumpet would make its weekly appearance . Normally in the back addition bedroom, well away from the Sunday morning family.. A banjo and a drum kit would vie with an imitation Les Paul guitar, bought and paid for from the local emporium of Junky James. Junky as he was known was a second hand dealer who terrified anyone who dared enter his shop with a view to purchase. Hidden in the gloom , behind a mountain of old shoes, demob suits and clapped out clockwork train sets, he would spread fear into the population from within by screaming at the prospective buyer “What are you after son ?”
A cacophony of noise attempted the songs of the day. Rock and Roll , Skiffle and Swing. Then it was Elvis, the Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis. All the while moving slowly towards the swinging sixties , with all that had to offer the budding performers of deepest Pill.
Yet beneath the underlying melee of sound, there was a raw talent immerging which would for a time bring names such as Decca, Hamburg, and Rock & Roll to the lips of the community.
Continued NEXT PAGE
National Service and Alan is on Clarinet with the South Wales Borderers Band, parading through the streets of Brecon
Pictured Above, Some early family pictures of the boys in Baldwin Street With Nana Fitz, May & Elsie, The boys on stage at Lovells (Newport) and with singer Peggy Leclare at the Newport 1955 Carnival.
