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We moved to Higher Broughton, Salford, on Wednesday 19 April 1950 and a week later, once the Easter hols were over, I started at Salford Grammar School. Although I did not know it immediately, that was when my aspirations to a career in music really started to take off. For the first time my school timetable included ‘proper’ music lessons – one double period per week. The teacher was a Mr Taylor. I see from my diaries that his nickname was ‘Tink’ – presumably because he tinkled the ivories for the hymns at the morning assembly. Every Friday immediately after morning assembly he used to give the whole school a short recital of up to 10 minutes. I remember him as a really good pianist. Most of the boys found the recitals very boring but at least they put off the start of lessons for a few more minutes. I, and a few other music fans, found the recitals most enjoyable and Mr Taylor quickly cottoned on to my interest.For the first time, with proper classroom instruction, my musical knowledge improved by leaps and bounds. Mr Taylor retired on 26th July 1951 and I was quite distraught. He gave his final Friday morning recital (Chopin's Revolutionary Etude) in front of the entire school and there were tears in his eyes at the end – and probably in mine. He had been so good to me and so encouraging that I could not imagine Taylor's replacement could be as good as he was. But I was wrong!
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