They say no man is an island, but I am starting to wonder if since the Coronavirus Pandemic more and more people seem to think they can get by on their own. I sort of understand the change in our behaviour. Technology has completely changed the way we interact with friends colleagues family and complete strangers.
I still remember the day we had a telephone installed in our house in Brynhyfryd. Up until then any important phone calls meant my parents going to a local telephone kiosk. To be fair there seemed to be lots of them around in the early 1960’s but having to rush out and maybe queue to use the phone whilst desperately making sure you had enough change certainly wasn’t the easiest way to stay connected.
Telegram from Elton on my first day in the studio Oct 1973.
Of course the postal service was pretty good in those days with 2 deliveries a day. In three days you could send and receive a reply to a postal enquiry. We also had a telegram service whereby you could send a message which cost you per word and got there as soon as the telegram man could get to your doorstep. Having had parents who had lived through the war, telegrams always carried an air of fear because it had so often been used in those dark days to bring sad news of the loss of a loved one.
Even when we had our own family telephone it wasn’t plain sailing. We had a party line with Mr and Mrs Walker next door. What that meant was if they were making a call and we picked up the receiver in our house you could hear them talking. There was always that difficult decision of how long to wait until you tried again as you didn’t want to look as if you were hassling them.
I always wonder what would have happened if Elton John had tried to ring the house back in 1973 and Mrs Walker had been chatting to her friends at the same time…would he have rung back again…how different my life might have been.
The other problem was the cost. Local calls were fairly reasonable but national calls and especially international calls could cause a family rift. With itemised billing it was easy for the person who paid the bill to see how much each number had cost and with a bit of detective work who was to blame in the family. Being cost conscious meant we found ways to work around it too.
Most families used the ‘3 rings’ system to announce an arrival at a train station or a plea to be picked up from a pre-arranged event. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about this is how it worked. I would tell my parents that the train I was catching should be in at 10.30pm. On arrival I would ring the house and allow the phone to ring 3 times to let them know that I have arrived. That way we hadn’t had to put any money in the slot.
What all this meant was we had to be organised and make arrangements to meet people somewhere specific at a certain time. Having said that for most of my childhood and teenage years my parents probably had absolutely no idea where I was during school holidays and late summer evenings. They might send us out with some money for the phone box if we got stuck somewhere but the truth was if we wanted to talk to our friends we had to go and meet them, and our parents understood that.
Another thing, in those days we didn’t have to always make arrangements to meet because every week we had lots of regular routines where we met everyone anyway. Monday was Boys Brigade, Tuesday Band of Hope in Manselton Congregational Church, Wednesday Band of Hope in our Gospel Hall, Thursday was home for Top of the Pops, Friday Youth Group, Saturday school football in the morning, Colts football in the afternoon and Sunday was 4 visits to Church.
Over time the costs of phone calls reduced, and we used them more freely, but it would be sometime before the mobile device would free us from the wires and making plans in advance.
The sound of dial up internet.
As well as mobile phones I remember the start of email. I was working in a studio in London and the producer had his laptop hooked up to a telephone line. Every hour that unmistakable sound of the computer trying to connect via a phone line would disturb our session and we would all gather around the computer to see if he had any new messages. He would only do this once an hour as he still had to pay for the costs of the telephone call to connect to the internet.
How life has changed with no limits broadband and everyone carrying a mobile phone. But with all this social media were we more social back then?
Being a part of a group or tribe gave us meaning and order to our lives. For me it was church and football. For others it was their social club, or choir or amateur dramatic group. So many of our community ties owed their strength to communal singing, sport, politics or drama.
COVID put an end to so many things and maybe broke some of those habitual ties that brought us together on a regular basis. So many organisations have struggled. Taking church services online was a good idea when the Lockdowns came but many people got out of the habit of going to church and haven’t returned.
One of our strongest community activities in this region is Amateur Dramatics. For over 60 years groups like Cockett Amateur Operatic Society, Abbey Players and Swansea Amateur Operatic Society have put on productions that involved hundreds of cast members, stage hands, musicians and committee members. Looking back at the scale and diversity of past productions it really does take your breath away.
Of course that all came to a dramatic full stop in 2020. People still met online and tried their best to keep the societies going but it was a difficult and worrying time and many thought this might be the end of Amateur Dramatics in Swansea.
But let me tell you ‘Am Dram’ is alive and kicking in Swansea and 3 of the largest and long standing companies are coming together next year for quite a spectacular production to mark the 40th Anniversary of the musical ‘Les Miserables’.
Across the country 11 companies were chosen by Cameron Mackintosh to stage their own productions of ‘Les Mis’ entitled ‘Let The People Sing’.
Here in Swansea Abbey Players are working in collaboration with Cockett Amateurs and Swansea Amateurs to mount this massive production at the Swansea Grand Theatre next July. The companies will have the support and guidance of the West End creative team to bring to the stage their own vision of this legendary show.
The producers will have to bring together a massive cast, ensemble and choir for what will be one of the biggest productions ever staged at the Grand and you could be involved. Open auditions will be held, and the registration process is now open to all. The closing date to complete the forms are 30th November. https://form.jotform.com/242693530362355
Tickets are also now on sale and I know that the producers will be hoping to work with local businesses as they plan this original vision of a timeless classic. https://www.swanseagrand.co.uk/LesMiserables
So maybe use your phone or computer to complete the registration or maybe to book your tickets but why not get involved. You never know who you might meet, and your life may never be the same again.