My interest in Audio took the nature turn into tape recording. There was a local man selling the Ferrograph. He came to the farm and gave me a demonstration. I was very impressed but the price range was beyond my budget.
Looking around the market I settled on making my own unit using a Truvox MkIII deck with the necessary preamp unit which I purchased at age 17 from Lasky’s in Tottenham Court Road. The combination did not work properly and I even got a shock from the preamp. Thinking that the deck was at fault I took the combination to the Truvox factory in Harrow.
The Truvox people demonstrated that their deck was perfect and that the problem was in the preamp supplied by Lasky’s. With their own, Type “C” Truvox preamp there was no hum, no electirc shock and the sonic quality was excellent (for that time). So back to Lasky’s where they exchanged their preamp plus a little money for the Truvox Type “C”. This combination proved quite robust and when I was sent to FARELF on the Empire Fowey (first British Troopship to go around the Cape since the Second World War), I was asked to provide the music programme for the ship from my tapes during the four week sailing.
Years later I used the same units in the ambitious sound system that Maurice and I installed in Club Tropicana – the first Cha-Cha Venue in the UK which Freddie Irani opened in Greek Street (Soho). Freddie was a fascinating character. With his brother he had opened the 2 I’s Coffee Bar at 57 Old Compton Street where he had acts performing in the basement. This is where Tommy Steele became famous with his “Rock with the Cavemen” number.