I worked on the Saturday morning show for two years while I completed my 'A' Levels, by the end of which I was virtually co-presenting the show... although it'd take another year or so to get my name on the schedule. I still wasn't getting paid, but then I was only in the building for three hours a week.
However, it was reaching the point now where I had to answer that crucial question above. Many of my friends had applied for university, yet although I was on track for good 'A' Level grades (I ended up with 2 Bs, a C and an E... in Art... so I guess that ruled out drawing comics for a living) I was adamant I didn't want to follow them. It was the old story: if you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have come to recognise the fatal character flaw I had as a teenager... I never wanted to do what everybody else was doing. Partly that was because I thought I was destined for bigger things, things I didn't need Higher Education for (after all, Steve Wright still hadn't replied to my demo tape... and my debut novel would surely be in bookshops by the middle of the 90s) and partly, if I'm brutally honest, it was parochial fear. Upping sticks from the safe, comfy, loving and supportive home my parents had always provided me felt too risky. I wasn't the most independent of teenagers, and certainly not rebellious in the traditional sense. I didn't believe I was born to run... I was born to stay where I was.
The 6th form careers adviser despaired of me. He'd have happily helped me fill out my UCAS form, but all I wanted to do was carry on working in radio. (And tinker with the writing on the side.) Of course, there wasn't actually a job going at the station where I worked... but yes, they could probably find me some more voluntary work during the week, and if I was around and available, paid opportunities would surely follow suit...
So when I finished my 'A' Levels in the summer of 1990, I walked away from my uni-bound friends... and those who were already applying for "proper" jobs... and went off to pursue my "hobby" 24/7. Surely, something spectacular would come of that... I was, after all (as most teenagers believe) destined for greatness...
#23 Echo & The Bunnymen - What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?
I realise some of these radio songs are becoming less about radio and more about my life story, but in an infinite number of posts, I'm sure I'll still have time to get to all the great radio songs I haven't yet featured. And there really was no more apt track to post than this one today...
If I knew now what I knew then
I'd wonder how not wonder when
There's something going wrong again
With me and mine
It's only ever what it seems
Memories and might have beens
Heaven's scent: the smell of dreams
We'll never find
Tell me... tell me... tell me...
Do you ask your students "what are you going to do with your life"?
ReplyDeleteThe best answer I've had thus far is:
Delete"I don't need GCSE English because I'm going to Canada to test computer games, choose my own hours, and ski when I'm not 'working'."
You taught Michael Gove?????????
DeleteNobody taught Michael Gove.
DeleteYou've got me thinking youg man.......bear with me please!
ReplyDeleteI was sort of destined for uni from a very early age - it was the dream of my folks, and my mum in particular. I was the first ever in the family - and there were loads of cousins in my family!
Turns out, and I only found out years later, than an uncle - and my mum's only younger sibling, was set for uni only to get someone pregnant and have to do the honourable thing. In addition to marriage, he had to go get a job.
I too was happy at home as a teenager, and never had any intention of going to a uni that would have involved me moving out - as such Years 1 and 2 became an extension of school, but with a better social life.
But what if I had grown up somehere other than a big city, miles from any uni? Would I have been so comfortable and accepting of my 'destiny'?
That's one for pondering over a pint....must look for a gig in Hebden Bridge in 2018 and give you loads of advance notice.
JC
I'm here to make you all ponder the deeper, existential questions.
DeleteI"ll try to keep my diary free, JC.