Interview
Interview of Gill Howard (JBP/BL/03) conducted on the 15th May 2024 at the Assembly Rooms, Lytham St. Annes. In the interview, Gill shares her memories of being in Blackpool as a teenager and while studying at Blackpool Technical College.
Note: The recording was edited before being transferred to the Library to remove questions and contribution from interviewer. The recording was also edited following a sensitivity review to remove identify information.
Summary
Summary of the content of the interview. Time linked to section in the transcript.
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| 00:00:00-00:00:48 | Studying preliminary art at Blackpool technical collect after leaving school. Meeting her husband at the college |
| 00:00:49-00:02:22 | Memories of visiting the Copacabana Coffee bar under the Palladium Cinema during her first year at college. The décor, the person who ran the bar, and the jukebox. |
| 00:02:23-00:03:11 | Remembering the song Jesamine by the Casuals. Trying another coffee house by the lido. Memories of the person who ran the Copacabana. |
| 00:03:12-00:03:32 | Memories of the Palladium as a child and Sunday Morning Club. |
| 00:03:33-00:04:02 | Places visited during second year when based at Rex Parade. Visiting the Coffee House, a coffee bar with the record shop. Memories of the people who owned it. |
| 00:04:03-00:05:19 | Opinion on the Talk of the Town coffee bar. Further memories of the Coffee House. Remembering only drinking coffee, not going to pubs until much older. |
| Section removed from interview | |
| 00:05:20-00:07:08 | Memories of her diary and activities before she went to college, such as youth club. How she changed from 1966-1970 in the period she kept a diary. Still in touch with friends from that period. |
| 00:07:08-00:07:51 | Further memories from diary and photograph of friends on her 15th birthday. Moves on to talk about fashions at the time, how skirts became shorter from 1968. |
| 00:07:52-00:09:39 | How fashions changes in the Sixties. Describes some of the clothes she had, mini skirts, long boots, Op Art Earrings. How she still has some of the clothes. |
| 00:09:39-00:10:29 | Describes outfit she bought on a shopping trip to Preston with her mum. Also describes the favourite outfit of her friend. |
| 00:10:29-00:11:15 | Memories of psychedelic fashions coming in. Changes of fashion going into 1970s. Interest in Flower Power and associated songs. |
| 00:11:16-00:12:16 | How fashion has changed over the 1960s. Interest in Twiggy [Lesley Lawson] and how she emulated her style. Getting a Twiggy geometric bob and putting on eye make-up to get ‘Twiggy Lashes’. |
| Section removed from interview | |
| 00:12:17-00:12:29 | Memories of the Beehive and the people who went there. |
| 00:12:29-00:13:12 | How music was a big thing and affected her life. Memories of watching Top of the Pops and recording music off the radio. Fashion catering for the needs of teenagers. |
| 00:13:12-00:13:23 | Memories of reading, especially James Bond Novels. |
| 00:13:25-00:14:21 | Memories of films at the time. Kitchen sink dramas. Going to see horror films (which she hated) with her husband. |
Transcript
00:00:00-00:00:48
When I left school in 1968, erm, I went to Blackpool Technical College and I went to do preliminary art and at the time it was in a big Victorian building on Lytham Rd opposite, erm, the Lido baths and there was only our class there, there was about, 15 of us, and actually that’s where I met my future husband. I met him there that year. Erm, so there was only us there and it was a great place. It had an attic and a cellar and we had a great group of people, and round the back, erm, in the grounds there was what would have been like an old coach House and the hairdressing department was around there and then downstairs you could do sculpture. So it was a great place for every sort of artist, sort of place.
00:00:49-00:01:32
And we used to go for, oh, midmorning break, lunch break, afternoon break, round the corner to the Palatine, not Palatine, Palladium, where the Palladium cinema was. There’s a little cafe under there called the Copacabana and that was because I’ve, I’d gone up till that time, I’d just really gone to youth club at my old school. Erm, and I stayed friends with a lot of them for a lot of that first year as well. So that was a like a crossover time between… college and school, erm, and some of the people I knew at youth club used to meet us at the coffee bar, used to come down and, erm, we sort of, mixed together quite a bit.
00:01:32-00:02:05
And like I say, that’s, I didn’t, I started there in September and, erm, I started going out with John in the December, and then all that year, we just used to go there like two or three times a day and it was a, an oldish guy who ran it. It was decorated like, erm, well, Copacabana it’s sort of, er, it was all bamboo and palm fronds and, …he made great, er, burnt toasted teacake, so I always like them burnt, I still do.
00:02:05-00:02:22
And, I don’t know what I drank, I must’ve drunk coffee, I suppose. Because, again I never like coke. So, I can’t remember what I used to drink, but it had a jukebox, and the jukebox was just amazing. And because there were so many of us, there was just music going on all the time.
00:02:23-00:03:11
Erm, I particular remember one song. I don’t know why it’s stuck in my mind. It was the Jesamine by The Casuals. When Jesamine goes, the part of me knows. Er, and I remember that one, but a lot of our class, we just, it just about fitted those who wanted to go, it just about fit us in. We did try another one down the, the road by the side of the Lido one lunchtime that that had a jukebox, I can’t remember, but it was called, but we only went there once or twice, it didn’t have the atmosphere. But, because, this this little guy, he was a bit of a character, and he made it interesting, and, we had a bit of banter with him. And remember he had, he had, erm, an old maroon, er, Citroen, I’d never seen a Citroen before because ooh it seemed really exotic, you know, French car. And he’d have it parked outside.
00:03:12-00:03:32
And, of course the Palladium was the place where I’d gone right from being a kid. Me and my brother used to walk across the fields. I used to live at Marton, used to walk across the fields when we were kids because the Saturday morning club, you know, so I was familiar with the Palladium itself. And then this, this cafe. So that was like a whole year of, of my life.
00:03:33-00:04:02
And after that first year, we went to, we, we split up, we split up as a couple. John went to Palatine Rd, where the college still is now, and I went to Rex Parade, which is where the Salvation Army is, and sometimes we used to meet up at lunchtime, but I forgotten to put, erm, on the list, there was there was, erm.. a little coffee bar we went to, again, when you have your, your morning break and your lunch break you find somewhere to go, don’t you?
00:04:02- 00:04:33
And, ah, I think it was called, …er, it was just called the, the Coffee House. It was down on Church Street, just bit further down, heading towards Devonshire Square, and it was a record shop at the front, and a little tiny little room at the back. And it was run by two gay blokes, the guy who dealed the coffees was called [name removed], I think. And then, the other guy ran the record shop at the front. So, you go through the record bit and into the back and we’d all sit round there.
00:04:33-00:05:19
Erm, quite a lot of people from the college went to The Talk of the Town, which was on Corn Street, but it got a bit of a reputation as a bit of a drug place, and we weren’t into that sort of stuff, so we didn’t wanna to go there. I think I went once to have a look round to see what it was like, but, you know, you’re either in with the in crowd or you’re not, you know, it wasn’t really my sort of thing, but we really like this little place, because it was just, just down the road and it only, you could only get about… erm 10 people, the most in it, you know. So, so that was like the second year. Erm, so those two years there, I think it was, it was, it was all coffee bars and that, we didn’t really like going to the pubs really till, …perhaps partway through that second year, but the coffee bars, it was always something that you did during your, your day at college.
Edited section
00:05:20-00:05:43
[Laughs], Well, I started my diary in 1966, when I was still at school, so I would only been 14 then. Erm, so the, the diary was very much sort of going to choir practise and, [laugh] going to church, going to guides, all the things that.., 14 year olds now it’s a different world isn’t it but, erm.
00:05:45-00:06:08
66-67, I didn’t go to college till 68. I use to go to youth club a lot. Don’t remember there being any music there, just used to play card games and…, sit about chatting. It was like a coffee, coffee bar culture but without the, the coffee bar, I suppose, you just to hang around together.
00:06:08-00:07:08
Erm, so my diary went from 1966, 67, 68, 69, 70. Well, I met John in 68, and by 70 been going out with him a couple of years, you know, so looking at, if you look on one page like on Saturday and last night, you look on one page from those sort of five years, [laugh] did quite a lot of growing up in that time [laugh]. Some very, very, you know, innocent sort of stuff, you know. Got a bit more, you know, grown up. Yeah, yeah. I’ve often look back at it, I often look back, you know, because, because it gives you such a wide span of time. You can see how things have changed over that time, and a lot of my friends have stayed the same. Erm, I wouldn’t say lot of my friends, some of my friends, have stayed the same. All the friends that I met when I started going out with John, I still know some of them. And in fact, one of my friends I’ve just been away with, and, and another friend, Sandra, I’ve known since I was at Junior School. Still see her, you know.
00:07:08-00:07:50
There’s still, Christine yeah. There’s still people that are in that diary that I still see now, which is nice. Ah, that’s a photograph of me and Sandra and Christine on my 15th birthday. So that would have been, erm, 1967 and our skirts were on our knees. In 67, I, I would have thought miniskirts would have been in by them, but they weren’t. Er, and I know that that skirt that I have on in that picture and I cut a great big chunk off. And took it up [laugh], probably only the year after. So by 1968 things had gone really short.
00:07:52-00:08:46
Of the sixties, sort of. It was a strange, at the beginning of the 60s, it was sort of bouffant hair and pointy shoes and, erm, knee length skirts. Er, when Mary Quante came in, it wasn’t all mini skirts, you know, there were sort of knee length, which you know, looking back at it, you think all the 60s, it was all, it was all mini skirts. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t till later on er, and hipsters coming in, I remember having a hipster skirt with a great big wide belt on it and white, er, [Korage?], boots. And, and what was it? The Avengers. Diana Rigg. Er, Emma peel. White [Korage?] boots. Mini skirts, Op Art. I had some Op Art earrings. I think I’ve still got one actually. [laugh] Never kept the feather, but I’ve still got, I’m terrible for hoarding stuff.
00:08:46-00:09:16
Erm… Yeah. And just the just, the like, the bouffant sort of went out and everything went sort of sleeker and the skirts got shorter, so… in the in the early 60s, I, I would have been wearing nylons, used to wear nylons. You had to wear socks until you’re in the third year and then you’re allowed to wear nylons. But, of course as the skirts got shorter, those weren’t any good. So, erm, tights came in. So you started wearing tights.
00:09:16-00:09:39
And the shoes got more, less pointy and more, er, what do they call them? Like Cuban heels and chiselled toes? Like square ended? Er, I remember me, me and my friend Sandra, er, we had some really square ended shoes we just thought with the bees knees an, and like, really chunky heels.
00:09:39-00:10:29
Erm..Oh, my mum took me to Preston, which was really exotic because we never had a car so, [laugh] we went on bus to Preston and I bought a two piece. It was orange. It was an orange coat with a high collar, very merry consulter style and a matching skirt. So the skirt was a bit long. [Geeus], the skirt came down to my knees. The coat was a bit shorter. I’m not even sure if I still got that, I might still have that. Er, [laugh]. So I had an orange coat and I bought some green er sling, sling backs which were in fashion. Green slingback shoes, and Sandra had a lime green coat and bright pink shoes. So it was very [?], I’m still like that suppose I’ve still got an orange ceiling at home. I still like orange [laugh].
00:10:29-00:11:15
Yeah, and, and of course, Oh, psychedelic came in. I remember having a psychedelic dress with really psychedelics swirly patterns on it. Yeah, it’s done. Later sixties, transitioning into the hippy style. It was it, you know, it was really quite late 60s, early 70s. Yeah, it was like balloons sort of sleeves and, a bit of the shoulders. Psychedelic. And I worked in Woolworths in the, at the weekends and I was on the store selling hippie beads, and, erm [Laugh], it was all flower power, so that was that later 60s. It was flower power and artificial flowers, put flowers in your hair and I used to write all the lyrics down to the all the… the flower power sort of songs.
00:11:16-00:12:16
So it really in in one decade how things changed so much from, like skirts down to your knees to sort of hippies and bell bottoms, you know, it was a big change in short time really. Fashion like, erm, Twiggy. I absolutely loved Twiggy, I still do. And there was a new magazine came out called Petticoat and was a girl that was always on the front cover of that. I can’t remember her name, but she was very Twiggy styled, and I cut my hair. My mum went mad. I had like a Bob, I had it cut all one side in a geometric, like that, because it was very, that was very Mary Quantish, er, but yeah, Twiggy, I love Twiggy. And I use to make my eyes in, up the same, could have an eye, like a line painted in the crease, and then she painted Twiggy lashes underneath and I could really paint those quite well, these big Twiggy lashes, but [not these days?][Laugh].
Edited section
00:12:17-00:12:29
The Beehive that was where the flash mob went, really, the ones with the, the flashy cars and the girls in the Afghan coats and all that sort of stuff [Laughter].
00:12:29-00:13:12
Yeah, erm… … well, the music, the music was a big, a big thing cause I used to go around to my friends to watch Top of the Pops and we use to record off the radio. And then we got this record player, so the music was a big thing. The fashion was a big thing because it was so out there and different and… because there, there, there haven’t been teenagers before. I mean, they started coming in the 50s, but…we really sort of had a fashion catering for us, [needs?] from the fashion.
00:13:12-00:13:23
And reading. I used to, oh through all the James Bond… stuff. Really read a lot at that time. Forever reading all the James Bond stories.
Edited Section
00:13:25-00:00:14:21
The kitchen sink drama, sort of started then with like Albert Finney and er, gritty northern dramas, erm. Er, Room at the Top. Erm er.. I’m trying to think what I was I was looking at in, in my diary. Blow Up. There’s one with. Yeah, erm, that was quite an iconic sort of one. The Buttercup Chain. That was a bit hippified. Erm, lot of black and white films that are very sort of stylish, Terrence Stamp and, erm, Laurence Harvey. Erm, Oh, what’s that one with Hywel Bennett and Hayley Mills. Erm. When I started going out with John, we had to go to the midnight horror movie. I hated them. Yeah. [Laughter].
Keywords
Places: Blackpool; Marton; Preston
Venues: Copacabana; Palladium Cinema; The Coffee house; The Talk of the Town; The Beehive.
People: Twiggy [Lesley Lawson]; Mary Quant; Diana Rigg; Emma Peel; James Bond; Albert Finney; Terrance Stamp; Laurence Harvey; Hywel Bennett; Hayley Mills
Organisations: Blackpool Technical College; The Casuals; The Petticoat; Top of the Pops; The Avengers [TV];
Subjects: education; coffee bars; music; fashion; growing up; flower power; reading; films; jukeboxes