After leaving school at age 16 I spent a couple of years filling in before being one of the last men to be called up for National Service. During this period before Nation Service, I worked on our farm and for Mr Moss at White Cloud Farm, Tring. Mr Moss’s son Stirling was a budding race driver and his Alta-Cooper was prepared in workshops at the farm. Here I was the dog’s body and cleaned parts and looked on as Stirling’s German mechanic did all the important stuff. In the evenings I earned extra money as a second projectionist at the local Regal Cinema in Tring (now demolished).
Then to into the Army, and a few years serving in the UK and FARELF (Malaya/Singapore). This was me ‘camping it up’ outside a mini-temple next to our HQ block (Fort Canning) in Singapore.
Upon leaving the Army I got a position with the leading Hi-Fi Company in London (Imhofs) as a salesman. While working at Imhofs I was approached by Freddy Irani, owner of the 2 “I’s” Coffee Bar at 57 Old Compton Street (where many new “Stars” performed in the basement, one being Tommy Steele doing Rock with the Cavemen).
Freddie wanted to open London’s first Cha Cha Cha Venue, Club Tropicana. To fit it out (Imhofs did not do this kind of work) I left Imhofs and started my own business (Audiorama Ltd). At that tme one of the most popular Cha Cha Cha hits was “Wheels Cha Cha Cha” written by Norman Petty (P) who I was to meet about 20 years later. After a while the Cha Cha Cha craze faded and Freddy asked me to convert the sound systems in both his Clubs (Tropicana in Greek Street and Freddie’s Club in Frith Street) to be suitable for strip shows. From this experience I learnt that most of the young ladies who stripped in London came from France and was told that those who stripped in Paris came from the UK.
A couple of years later whilst on a holiday in Switzerland I saw the Revox Tape Recorder and after several months of toing and frowing I obtained the UK Distributorship. My success with Revox in the UK caused Revox to offer me the rights for the US and Canadian markets and in 1968 I went ahead and set up offices on Long Island, in North Hollywood and in Montreal.
The Revox business brought me into contact with a number of new, recording related, activities as well as music. One was data recording via a professor at Cambridge University who had modified one of our machines for recording seismic values. This occured at a time when I was looking at accounting systems for my UK, US and Canadian operations. Intrigued with what he had done I employed a programmer to write an accounting system for our company to run on similar equipment. Peter Osbourne completed this task in about a year and it worked well.
Armed with this ability I contacted Ed Roberts in Albuquerque, NM (1975) whose Company (MITS) was the first entity to put the new Intel 8080 chip into what was to become the world’s first personal computer, the Altair 880. My Revox conversion gave his new PC massive storage potential. At that time he had Bill Gates and Steve Allen and three others writing extended Basic to make his Altair 880 easier to program. They all shared one room in the same Motel where I had a room to myself! Microsoft was first incorporated in Albuquerque during that period. this can be viewed on Wikipedia under Altair 8800.
Around this time I became friends with Norman Petty. Norman had bought a couple of Revox machines for his studio in Clovis, New Mexico. On one occasion when he came to New York he called me and I went into the city to meet with him for dinner. I was astonished to learn that it was in his back room in Clovis, where he had built a small studio, that Buddy Holly came over from the next town, Lubbock, Texas, to do some recording. Norman already had a success with a number of his own songs one of which made it in the UK, being “Wheels, Cha Cha Cha”. Then, together with Buddy Holly, he wrote many successes including “Maybe Baby” “That’ll be the Day””Raining in my Heart” “Peggie Sue” “Everyday” and many more.
Another of my Revox-related contacts was Ray Dolby. He wanted the Revox Company to fit his noise-reduction circuits into the Revox Tape recorder which they eventually did. There is an interesting parallel here between Willi Studer, the maker of Revox and Studer machines and Walter Owen Bentley, the engineer who founded Bentley Motors. Studer could not see why people needed to reduce noise through circuits. He preferred to raise the tape speed. Bentley could not see why people needed to get more power through superchargers (Blowers), in his mind just add more cylinders, hence the 8-litre Bentleys.
One day in the 60’s I received a call from Jerry Cassidy (P).
“We’re the Bond People” he announced, “Do you do the Revox Tape Recorder?” he inquired.
I confirmed that and Eon Productions ordered a new Revox. I took it personally to their offices in South Audley Street and met Jerry, who turned out to be the right hand man of Cubby Broccolli. Although Eon Pproductions (his partner in EON was Harry Saltzman) had bought most of the Ian Fleming Bond scripts, Cubby had acquired the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang script personally. He wanted a Revox to play the tape of the title song which had just arrived from the United States.
I had many more meetings with Cubby, advised on his own sound system at 47 Park Street, Mayfair, and later at his house in Beverley Hills which had been the former home of the deposed Dominican Dictator, Trajill. By this time Ray Dolby and I had became good friends, so when Cubby wanted to improved the sound in cinemas I put him in touch with Ray and years later the Dolby sound cinema system became a reality. Whether my involvement had anything to do with that I don’t know.
By 1972 I had seen the potential for Disco in the US so keeping my interest in Audio I started manufacturing suitable equipment for that market at our Long Island facility. and added Entertainment Lighting. In 1980 I moved my US Base from Long Island to a Right-to-Work State to avoid being Unionised in New York. I chose Alabama.
During my time in Alabama I was invited to join and head up the International Section of the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce, and became a member of the Private Industry Council. Later I helped found The North Alabama International Trade Association and was its first President. I was invited onto the main board of the regional DEC (Divisional Export Councils). There are a number of DEC’s in America, each covering a group of States which are affiliated with, and a virtual arm of, the US State Department.
During this time I went to Russia and started a business in Moscow. It was the first employment agency in that city. I used my experience in the recruitment business (I had helped my ex-wife start an Employment Agency in Huntsville Alabama in the late 1980’s) so I used the software that I had written to match skills to requirements in that industry to find suitable applicants for the many Western companies wanting to get into the Russian market.
My subsequent lectures for meetings of the DEC featured “doing business with the Russians” brought me into contact with Robert Kreible via a friend of his, Olly Delchamps from Mobile who attended one of my talks. At that time Robert Kreible was the President of the Heritage Foundation headquartered in Washington. Kreible had been a research chemist at GE and with his father bought out from GE the product that he had developed, and together they set up Loctite Corporation, now a Fortune 500 Company. At that time my Agency in Moscow was handling recuitment for the UN (UNPROFOR?) for people to run tasks in the Balkans. In that connection I had to visit the controlling employment agency in Washington so I used the visit to meet with Dr Kreible. He listened to what I was doing in Russia where he was trying to establish a number of “Democratisation Centers”. We had a fascinating meeting and co-operated where beneficial thereafter.
There were many other Russian-related activities including working with a division of General Motors to establish an LSU (Logistical Support Unit) in connection with the implementation of SALT II.
Another project was the research for suitable engines to power the of high winds on buildings for the Idaho National Energy Laboratory. that also included arranging visists to the Kusnetsov Engine plant in Samara. Their MK-12 engine powered the Russian”Bear” Bomber that could fly higher, faster and further that any other turbprop, then or since.
Another project was the research for suitable engines to power the of high winds on buildings for the Idaho National Energy Laboratory. that also included arranging visists to the Kusnetsov Engine plant in Samara. Their MK-12 engine powered the Russian”Bear” Bomber that could fly higher, faster and further that any other turbprop, then or since.
Buying Leofric in 1995 was as a result of seeing that Russia needed small buildings. At that time there was no “private enterprise” in Russia and Leofric Building Systems had the technology to help fast-track that activity. Unfortunately my Russian business was stolen from me by my then Russian manager, Vladimir Soloviev and the small building business in Russia never materialised. I looked at the possibility of starting the sectional concret building business in Poland and or Albania, and visited both of those countries, but decided that there were not enough people in those countries that I knew who could be trusted, following my Russian experience. Pity BP didn’t know that
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Soloviev went on to become a leading Russian TV presenter as can be viewed on U-Tube (https://youtu.be/9MHqpyN6iAk). He is well-connected with many politially involved Russians including Putin, as you will observe.
So today I still have a reduced-size UK and US involvement due to the fact that none of my sons are currently active in the enterprises and I have had to come back on board to steer the businesses through these difficult economic times.
There is much more but I will try not to be too boring.Today I get pleasure from designing things. The “Arch Module”in Leofric’s Range of Garden Buildings is my creation. After all the Arch was man’s first construction invention and gave its name to architecture. I have just finished making a machine to mold complete roof sections for small buildings thereby avoiding joints/leaks. Next will be a green or grey and clear roof double-function building to fulfill what I perceive to be a new market, where the lady of the house can grow vegetables on a roof that slopes almost to the ground while the man of the house enjoys natural working light from a clear roof to the rear.
Our latest building range, Modena, now being introduced uses LeoWood, a fusion of 62% pulverised wood and 34% pulverised plastic bottles.
That’s one good use for them!