50 Years Of Service

For Christmas 1973, my Mum & Dad took the bus into Blackpool to find an affordable guitar for me. They went to Tower Music, run by Eric ‘Ez’ Dixon whose parents lived just a few doors down from us, and whose newspapers I once used to deliver. When last heard of, Ez was running a motability scooter shop in town.

I’m the third youngest of nine children, so a proper first guitar was a really big deal, and not knowing the first thing about guitars, Mum and Dad took Ez’s recommendation and spent £17 (an absolute fortune for them) on this ‘Torre’ Spanish guitar. It took me decades to suss out it was Tower Music’s own brand, commissioned by Ez. The label in the soundbox reads “Torre de Calidad”, which translates as ‘Tower of the Town”.

It was in one of those large, triangular cardboard boxes and I can remember vividly my emotions the very moment I opened it: a mix of disbelief, wonderment, and a little guilt. I knew they would have struggled to afford it. I knew that in buying my guitar they’d have wanted to provide something of similar value to my brothers and sisters. Putting it into context, my Dad did two jobs: a civil servant by day; and a pub waiter several evenings a week. Mum and Dad would see each other only rarely during the week, generally when they were counting up his evening’s tips.

This guitar symbolises everything I want for my own children and theirs. It has travelled with me to four corners of England: Norwich where I was a student; Bristol where I met their Mum; Reading where we had our first family home; Manchester where we lived for 35 years; and now here in Berwick. Yes, I know. That’s five! It would have been with me on trains, in trucks and cars, and most people who know me will have either sat next to it or seen it leaning in a corner of a room in one or more of those places. It has never had a case, but it’s surprisingly unbattered, itself a measure of the care I’ve bestowed on it over the years.

A close workmate of mine once stopped over with us in Reading. That would have been in 1985. Being a brilliant guitarist, Martin had just spent £400 on a new Spanish guitar, with which he was very pleased, but then he picked up mine. He couldn’t believe it had cost so little, and while 12 years of inflation might have increased its value to about £80, Martin still felt it played better than his own. “Blimey” I thought.

So I’m delighted to share this story with you at Christmas 2023. I don’t go big on Christmas, and absolutely detest the commercial pressure-cooker it has become for families who have little or nothing. This is a story of love, from a Mum and Dad who struggled financially with a large family. We kids never went without food, and we were always ‘well turned out’. They were both remarkable people. My sister in law June transcribed Mum’s memoirs for her and there is one sentence that, like my guitar, will always stay with me: “love is in the doing”.

That is my wish for you all this Christmas. I will now clean my guitar 🤣

Peace.

John