By Norbet ‘Nodge’ Carnegie
Paris, August 1962. I wonder who took the photograph – a copy of which was kindly sent to me by Paul Morris (hero). This was the back room of a restaurant on the Champs Élysées. We had onion soup, chicken (legs: Paul’s wonderful technique: “It’s how the French eat them!”) and chips, a dessert, and Camembert AND red wine.
Shown on our table (front right) are me (basking – the noble profile! – in my new name of “Nodgers”), John Heaviside, Paul Morris, and John Tierney from Upper V 2. Some other faces are familiar and a couple prompt names (for example, Martin O’Reilly, on front left table, facing the camera) but I can’t be sure.
From my own not-particularly-fair hand or One reason I came close to failing ‘O’ Level Art. Stephen Barratt saved me and others from that ignominy by talking us into seeing sense, at least for a couple of terms. This effort dates from spring 1963: a ham-fisted appreciation of The Beatles and contemporaries, who were “new” to most of my group of friends. The Medlockbeats was a fantasy we decided could be the Mancunian equivalent of the Merseybeat groups, to be followed (we hoped) by The Irkbeats, The Chorlton-Brook-Beats, and The Irwell Beats. The caricature (right) of a pal, Barry Mulgrew, from Warrington. Barry was one of the few (Denis Byrne being another) who had not only heard of The Beatles but had seen them on stage. (Many groups at that time did small venues and church halls in their early days. The Hollies, for example, were lauded for fulfilling such engagements and contracts long after they started having hit records.)
The 1999 reunion group . . . plus time-traveller (knobbly knees and all) from autumn 1958.