Pete's Autobiography - Twenty-One through Twenty-Eight

Twenty-One

1959 a blank...playing guitar, restringing mandolin banjos, spending a few summer weeks, sans Jimpy at the Isle Of Man...Entwistle and others move on to Alf Maynard's jazz band...Since Alf played banjo, no part for Pete...delivered newspapers to make enough for guitar...bought Czech guitar from father for £3...Chris Sherwin takes Pete to first X Certificate film, 'Peeping Tom'...gets Pete two paper routes...Pete sleeps late, gets fired, Chris gets mad, starts sneering at Pete...go to see Acker Bilk...Pete tells Chris he can play banjo just as well.

Twenty-Two

1959-1960 looking after Paul Townshend...parents spend a lot of time at the local pub...brother Simon born at home October 1960...Chris' sneering leads Pete to challenge him to a fight...Pete hits him over the head with his school bag...Chris: 'You knew I had concussion,'...Pete didn't know...Chris tells schoolmates Pete is a coward and a liar...John Entwistle one of few who didn't join in...Pete starts hanging around with bad crowd...gets pinched while near similarly dressed vandals...names names to police...spends his time alone, miserable, practicing his guitar.

Twenty-Three

Spring term concluded...extra money from another paper route and baby sitting, buys first amplifier...practice with John who made his own bass...Denny yells 'Turn that bloody row down!'...Pete yells 'Fuck off!' and smashes amp against wall...'And yet I felt very calm'...John smiling.

Twenty-Four

John joins Shadows cover band started by Pete Wilson...invite Pete to play with them...drummer Mick Brown has tape recorder. records Pete playing 'Man of Mystery' on the Czech guitar...part-time art student, taking introductory lessons at Ealing Art College during last term at Acton County in 1961...make money working in Miscellanea, parents' junk shop...moving furniture makes Pete 'very strong and wiry'...Alf Maynard's Dixieland Band plays at Acton County but Alf is not a student and cannot attend...Pete steps in on banjo and shows he has progressed in musical ability past his peers...Pete feels a part of school for the first time.

Twenty-Five

Noticed by Roger Daltrey who had been expelled for smoking but still hung out at school to speak to his cronies...has exotic white electric guitar...Roger swaggers up to Pete during his last term at Acton, says John Entwistle recommended him and asks him to join his band...Roger heard Elvis and learned 'that there was no future in conforming anymore'...large numbers of Baby Boom meant this generation could get away with not conforming...honour through warfare impossible because of The Bomb.

Twenty-Six

Did OK in GCE examinations...one good teacher made Pete excel in Technical Draughtsmanship...rest of teachers 'tired, dissolute and sometimes brutal men'...Start Art School Autumn 1961...could barely listen to teacher for looking at beautiful Mod girl in class...rather keen on becoming a sculptor...before drawing skills had thought of being a journalist...thought of connecting visual arts and music in some way...trendiest were fashion, photography and graphic design departments...first year Foundation Course to strip students of preconceptions about art...old guard teachers tweedy and rather old...new guard young, denim-clad, bohemian...Draw A Line classes...old guard insist on precise, uniform line...new guard appalled by such conformity...sculptor Brian Wall cuts finger with penknife, draws line in blood.

Twenty-Seven

Equally stimulated by art school, The Detours...formerly shy and awkward, now life 'had suddenly come good'...musical taste more balanced than other students...impressed by new wave of rock 'n' roll but not overcome...Elvis OK but no Sinatra...meets girl that likes Ella Fitzgerald and also seems to like him...attend lunchtime clubs to listen to bebop jazz, Dixieland, orchestral music and opera...revives ability to create 'alpha-state music in my head'...early exposure to 'Third Programme' on BBC brings acquaintance of best of classical music...at ten, sees Disney's "Fantasia" at least ten times...multi-channel sound presentation of that film inspires Pete to become 'student and advocate of recording technology'...enhanced music inspires alcoholic-like thirst for music; a 'dreamlike sound from the ether'...new musical technology with spiritual or mind-bending potential investigated 'deeply and ruthlessly'.

Twenty-Eight

Falls in love with Mod girl but too immature to do anything about it...tells her he plays jazz guitar...actually only with pop bands that use jazz to drive the audience out...she is keen to hear him play...she has tiff with boyfriend, invites Pete to kiss her; he doesn't know what to do...she takes up with another boy; Pete shooed away by boy...Pete later realizes he would have become suicidal if he'd become involved with her and lost her...circa February 1962 John says Pete can audition for The Detours...on arrival runs into crying girl leaving... 'you can tell him from me it’s either me or that bloody guitar of his'...expects Roger to go running after her when told...'Sod her' Roger's reaction...Roger nicknamed 'Perce' because he lived on Percy Road, Hammersmith...moves to Bedford Park, Chiswick near Dot and Horry...John lived with separated-from-husband mother Queenie in Avenue Road within steps of Roger's house...first show with Detours at hall next to Chiswick Swimming Baths...replaces Reg Bowen who becomes road manager...Roger cannot play guitar first gig; cut fingers at day job as sheet metal worker...at one show learns The Twist...first dance that didn't need girl to perform...drummer Harry Wilson did arrangements...Harry's father's van takes them to gigs...Pete plays single-pickup Harmony solid-body Stratocruiser...Roger spray-paints it red...do Shadows-style coordinated moves on stage; John good at it, Roger bad...play wedding parties, company balls, birthdays and pubs...receive £50 tip from bride's father; think about buying own van...Detours Roger's band but Colin Dawson singer...lots of fights break out but Roger protects Pete...play 'utterly naff' songs but Pete has yet to become cynical...everyone in band drinks heavily...have parties where people pretend to be drunk so they can snog with girls...Pete uncomfortable around 'bossy' working class women...stands aloof from snogging.