How To Be A 1960s London Taxi Driver part 2 - chats with my Dad about the knowledge and driving a black cab

Here's the second part of the video I shot with my Dad about becoming a London black taxi driver in the 1960's...

Partly for posterity, part legacy, part oral history, part for my kids and family and part stark reminder of my own career mortality.

It felt great finally sitting down with a camera and hearing about things I'd never asked him about:

Hating having to learn the suburbs,
What happens when you finally get the Green Badge after 18 months,
How do you get a London taxi in the 1960s "on the flat"
Getting the meters changed with fares and "bingo cards"
The dreaded annual Overhaul where your cab can fail for anything
How the taxi radio circuits started in Kings Cross
And what was his hubcap syndicate all about?

(feel free to turn the speed up and whack the subtitles on...)

How to be 1960s London Taxi Driver Part 2 | Chats with my Dad oral history



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TRANSCRIPT:

So you started the knowledge and then you had some appearances at 28 days?
Yes.

And then you got the points that you needed to bring it down to what every 14 days?
Yes and usually had two appearances of that and what did they do - once you've passed that, they give you your “rec”.

But then you do the suburbs afterwards?
Yes and a couple of appearances, you know, can't think of it, I hated it...
Like Camden Town going to Barnet or something like that

Yeah. And you had to know all the street names in...
Well roughly yeah, it was a lot big big names you know like Marble Arch to Edgware - well
that was Edgware Road - and then about two other roads and then that was it, you were there.
And you used to call them rhubarbs - or did I imagine that?
No, that's what they call the Hampstead Garden Suburbs.
Hampstead - Garden - Suburb but they used to call that rhubarbs.

But then what happened was it was there one appearance where you knew it was the last one or did they just suddenly turn around and say you've done it
Yes.

So you knew there'd be like one more.
And you knew you'd done it.

And if you blew that one you know there'd be another one - you'd come back in a fortnight's time
Then what happens do they just give you like a piece of paper then, or...

I think you've got to pay half a crown for your badge or something um pay for the postage for them to send it to you!
And that's when you get the green badge?
Yes.

No but I've lost - I lost two of them My first one was 12857 that's the one they gave me.
You can still remember it?
Yeah.
Well it's just such an ordeal you go through.
You'd see some fellas when you first went there, they've got nice suits on nice polished shoes... but after 18 months your suit was polished at the elbows you could see your shoes worn down and the frayed shirt.
Cos you've got no money

So you had to dress up for the appearance and--
You still do.

If you lost it ever you got to go to a police station and fill out a form.
And then they gave you another sort of form just in case you got stopped by the police

And then once you, once you got your green badge how, how does the taxi work, back then, did you have to buy it rent it or?
It was called “on the flat" and you had it for a week
I can't remember how much, about 13 pound for the week and you put your own diesel in or you could have it on what they call "on the clock" on those meters that you do a percentage you know you give the owner 70% no, 60% you kept 40% and all your tips but usually the cab went out again on the end of the day or end of the night when you finished.
Either you call half on the flat, you could share it with somebody but that more or less everybody went on the on the full flat - why they call it that I don't know - then you could keep it, use it as your own - for your own use as well which is quite handy yeah and --

where was that in town somewhere?
Yeah it was off of West End Lane - in a garage there.

It's 2 houses now!
Yeah, a luxury block.

But back then it was mechanical meters?
Yeah yeah, and when they put fares up they'd have to - you'd have to drive in wouldn't you - you'd have to physically...
And have a new meter and sometimes you had to wait for the cab to go to Overhaul because they just couldn't alter all these mechanical meters at once.

Yeah, there used to be like a...
I remember there used to be like a thing in the back that explained the fares, but there was another thing for when the fares went up that would convert what's on the meter with the new...
Oh yeah we used to call them bingo cards And they'd cause more ructions than anything!

People-- Because you'd have to explain that the fare on the meter isn't-
Yes because it's on this big place here...
and the more intelligent the people were less ones that they couldn't work it out
yeah yeah funny.

yeah that was the other thing that I remembered the the Overhauls - they sounded just as stressful as the as the knowledge - because every year it's not like an MOT, it's like a proper they go through everything don't they - on the taxi.

Yes, you've got to have it steam cleaned... first... and then just everything needed doing

because they could fail you on silly stuff?
Yeah, if the cigarette thing was full up.
Another thing I used to get in a state with with your Mum - the state I used to get in because it meant you know if your cab had failed, it'd mean another couple of days off of work.
Sometimes a good thing sometimes it's a bad thing
yeah I thought it was a good thing because it's a bit like your body if something's not slightly right you let it go it gets worse and worse.

I remember you had the hubcaps - you had a hubcap syndicate
[LAUGH] where you was it you and three mates each owned a brand new hubcap so when one of you went for overhaul...
yeah we have those had yeah we put all the new hubcaps on it looked nice
One garage at the end of the street - a taxi fleet - he had bumpers - overhaul bumpers - he used to take the bumpers off the taxi and put these new ones on, and take it up - when it came back, he'd put the old bumpers on again.
So you were on the flat for a bit - which is like renting a taxi and then what stage could you buy one?
Well it was - when I'd got the money.
Mine was about nine months - the things they had on the flat in those days, they were just clapped out - it was horrible to drive - and you know if you take it in the garage, and get it back for a service - the steering wheel used to be all greasy... the seats used to - the driver seat used to be greasy...
But with your own one you know you take a bit of pride in it

So how did that feel when you got your first cab then?
Petrified.
Again because you'd just laid out £1250 and you're driving around and -- but after a week, you was whizzing around like anything

Where'd you get them from - was there like one place that you'd get them from?
Yes - off the Wandsworth Bridge Road.
There was a garage there.

It was only place you could get them yeah
I found, I had a manual to start with and then the gearbox was so hard - you needed to have a divers boot on to change gear.
Get it in gear - 'course they had the monopoly, they couldn't care less!

And was that LUU52P?
No, it was AGP343G.

And what model was it?
What were they called back then?
FX4.
An FX4?
Yes.

And then when when you passed - how did the radio circuits work?
Because could you drive a cab without being on a circuit.
Oh yes.
When I first started, that was you know a self-indulgence.
You know, if you wanted to be, but I wanted to be on the radio because people you know the minicabs were coming in, and people wanted to pick you up on your door - they didn't want to stand in the street in the rain and- women complaining about their hair...

And you had - so you had - what 4 radio circuits in London there was Lords...
No, there was two.

Oh two?
To start with.
When I was there.
It was just 2 people who had a row with each other, on one circuit and one went one way and the other went the other way...

So there was just one radio circuit?
Yes, it started at Levy's you know that big garage at the end of York Way (N1) it was started there.

Which end of York Way?
As you're just coming from Kings- Euston Road on the right there's a big big place there
I mean yeah I used to call it dieseling up, you know every two
nights you know fill up with diesel I remember, it's like a courtyard it's now

all shops and coffee shops
yeah yeah but it used to be like this cobbled mews,
and you'd go in to get your DERV... your diesel... and you'd give the fella who filled it up
a couple of bob and he checked your water and your battery

But they had a radio circuit there - you know a radio--
Yes.
Because he had some premises there where you went downstairs, and I think this fella Levy
had been to America and seen it and tried to start it up at... there.

But then someone else - I can't remember names of the fellas - took it over and moved up Pentonville Road and started it there.

So then and was that going before you became a driver you know there was already a radio
circuit yeah yeah
and then so then they split yes
but before your time yeah

and one was called Mountview and one was called Lords
Yes - that's because that was the phone number right that's the name of the exchange, in
London yeah

So where was Mountview based?
Right at the top of Highgate Hill in one of those flats there.

And Lords was in Pentonville Road.
Right, so when you phone up for a cab you'd either phone that number or your number - Lords
- and and then so then when did you join Lords?


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El Bimbo - The Music From The Blue Oyster Bar (in Police Academy) and where it all came from

At school, my mate Rob and I would hilariously break into this tune, any excuse, any given moment.

If you don't know the bit from Police Academy, it's okay, I won't explain it here.

And because it was 100 years ago, it was impossible to get a recording of it anywhere.

Now it's one of the tunes I've spent way to long tracking down where it's come from
(the others include Go West, and Take On Me) - they've got surprising versions behind them.

So here's my little shrine to "El Bimbo".

First, feast your eyes on this! Bimbo Jet from 1974



But in the movie credits, the tune is "Written by Claude Ganem and Performed by Jean-Marc Dompierre and his Orchestra"

I can't find any Jean-Marc Dompierre videos, so here's Paul Mauriat — El Bimbo



And here it is in German - Marion Rung - El Bimbo (Hitparade 1975)



But all of this might be a little unfair -- there's controversy online over whether this guy wrote the thing - the Afghan performer Ahmad Zahir. (It all depends if you believe the date of his album "Lylee" is 1971 or 1977...) Either way...

Tanha Shodam Tanha



Sing along now!

Tanha shodam tanha
Asooda az ghawgha shodam
Az bas ke khordam khoon-e dil
Chun ghoncha az ham shodam
Baaz ast dar-haye qafaz – ay morgh-e dil parwaz kon – gulha ke een gulzar raa
Man aashiq tanhayee am – khod mahram-e raaz-e khodam – ba naghma pardazan bego

Translation:
I'm left alone, alone
(literally: I became alone, alone)
I'm left relieved of any chaos
(literally: I got/became relieved from all this riot)
So much i took this pain that
(literally: so much I drank my heart's blood that
(it's a kind of a proverb in middle east speakers for expressing being in pain or bearing the pain like: khon-e dil/khon-e jigar))
I started to develop like a flower bud
(literally: I blossomed like a newborn flower (a red flower from the blood been drunk))

The cage is open, Fly O bird of my heart
(imagination)(literally: the cage doors are open--o bird of my heart fly (imagination))
There are lots of flowers in this flower field (rose garden)
but I'm in love with my privacy
(literally: the flower field is full of flower - I love the privacy)
I'm confidant to my own secrets, Go tell musicians
(literally: myself am confidant to my own secrets, discuss with musicians or tell the musicians)


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Hawley Infants School, Buck Street, Camden Town is moving...

And I was there in the late seventies.

Front row, in the middle of that picture - that was my first ever day at school.

Someone got in touch after my Gospel Oak post last month and told me it's moving to make way for a new Camden Town Underground Station
(brilliant article about the history of that on London Reconnections here).

But it's brought back loads of memories:

I'm going to pass these on, but putting them here so my own kids - who are the same age now as I was - can get an idea of what Infant School was like.

Also, someone googling Hawley Infants School, Buck Street, Camden Town might end up here...

I remember...

In that first reception class, pictured above, Mum delighted telling us how she picked me up and the teacher looked grim. I'd painted a very special large new stuffed donkey that had been brought back from Spain, completely purple.



Raymond did a trick on me.
You were only allowed one plastic beaker of water at lunchtime.
(Today's Infant School water bottles mock all parents from the Seventies).
Raymond said "I bet you cant drink it faster than me"
I gulped mine down.
"Haha". He revealed his cup still full.
"I made you drink all your water..."

Also at lunchtime, in the main hall, Mrs Rose made me eat my rice pudding, and I was sick.
Literally sick on the floor.
I never forgot Mrs Rose.



This is my swimming certificate.
I remember the light blue ILEA bus that took us to the Kentish Town Swimming Baths, and "drunk Bill" who was one of the swimming guards/teachers (ahh.. See also - I Survived the 1970's, where's my medal?).
And spotted only recently that The Mayor of Camden did not sign it.



I asked the current Mayor if I could swim 10 yards in front of her to get it signed on twitter, but guess she is very busy with Mayor of Camden business.




By the way, we used to travel there by Inner London Education Authority bus which looked like these.


William Beverley was in my class, and told me about "Santa" at age 6.



St. Patricks Day 1976 - Friday 26 March 1976 - article in the Camden Journal (before it was the New Journal) I'm second row back from the front, on the right 3rd in, like my own son in school photos, facing completely the wrong way.



I really remember a long conversation between the Music teacher bearded man and Miss Hammond about what they were going to teach us to sing to Mrs Laoutaris for her leaving (to be succeeded by Miss Hammond as Headmistress) - he really wanted us to sing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" but Miss Hammond thought that would be too difficult to get us to learn in time.

And I remember a story from Miss Hammond's class - about TickyTickyTempo-No-Sah-Rembo, Charry-Barry-Ruchie-Pip-Perry-Pembo.
Man, decades on, how is that still in my head.



Playground stuff:
I used to play "CHiPs" on the concrete slope with my friends in 1979.

There was a toilet block in the playground, with a defunct steel box on the wall that my friends and I pretended dispensed bananas.
It was all the entertainment, or playground equipment, we needed.

The playground frame was blue.
With concrete underneath.
See also, Living in Lulworth




Queen's Silver Jubilee 1977
All the parents brought food for the party table in the playground, and Raymond's mum brought some Marmalade on bread.



We were supposed to get a Jubilee coin, but got a plastic mirror with red ribbon with a British Flag sticker on the back, and were told "the Bank had run out of coins". (Reading that article at the top, I'm not sure maybe they could afford it).



(One of the "Great British mirrors")

There were a few times that I kissed Sarah Goff behind the bins that used to be next to where the nice new gates are now (just over my shoulder - the gap has been bricked up to stop that kind of thing now).




My best friend Michael Holland left in the middle year. It really hit me, and thought about it way too much afterwards.
It only came back now when my own 6 year-old son's best friend Teddy left his Infant school too.

Headmistress stuff:
Mrs Laoutaris tried telling my sister and I that it was wrong that Dad didn't take us into the school gate. We used to get out and walk in ourselves. We said, "it's okay, he trusts us".
(The 1970s were safe, right?)

I'm not sure it was Mrs. Laoutaris, but a lady spent a whole assembly explaining why it was important that Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1978.
The whole assembly.



Mrs. Laoutaris always played Fingals Cave at the start of every assembly on the record player in the school hall. It was a noble effort - but I really hate hearing that song now, and remember staring at the record sleeve, propped up on the record player which had a picture of some sea foam.


I had a really happy time there, but there was one thing that terrified me.
We watched TV programmes like "Look and Read" in the room at the end of the hall.



I remember - really vividly the black and white swirling countdown, with spooky sinister music.
By accident (looking for ILEA bus pictures) I tracked it down - it was a special ILEA TV channel and used before every programme played on the channel.

It's at the start of this video...


I remember using the orange folders with cards to put together sentences.

And I remember us all walking down to the bottom of Camden High Street once a week to the Library, near Mornington Crescent, for story time.


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Being cool to the really cool older kids in Gospel Oak Primary school. Orchestra. 1981.

(I can name every kid in my class. I cheat, with a copy of the school concert programme, but I can still name them. I won't in case they want their privacy... but I know they were in my class.)

I remember really clearly being in thrall to some kids two years above me in Gospel Oak Primary School.

They were so cool because they were the Saxophone section of Mr. Hays School Orchestra.

(Richard Hays is uber-famous to the kids of NW3 - there used to be a facebook fan page dedicated to stories about him on Facebook, and he deserves a post in his own right. One day.)

In breaks, the three of them - in my head it was William Palin (son of the comedy god and national treasure), Demitri Doganis (the BAFTA award winning documentary filmmaker) and Alex Garland (Oscar award-winning novellist who wrote The Beach and 28 Days Later etc etc, but was better known to me then as Theo's big brother).

I'm sure I've got these names wrong - but those three were definitely in my school in the year above, and hung out with each other, and were really really cool.


(This is where it happened - only photo I could find of the hall was from this flooring company.
Funny thing is it's the exact angle I remember staring from as a kid).



They would play "that" tune from Geno by Dexy's Midnight Runners.

In the next little break that came up, I mustered up the courage to have a go at it on my clarinet. (I only started the clarinet so I could get up to a Saxophone, which I never did. Maybe my parents just told me that because they couldn't afford it).

Anyway, having worked out the tune under my breath to get the notes right, I let rip and blasted it out. And the three of them did a double-take... then... made approving noises and - William, in my head - said "Look at him - he can play Geno!" and they all gave me that older mentor nod of "hang in there kid!".

I was in seventh heaven in the second year.
Is it on - or in - 7th Heaven?
Either way, I felt cool.

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Frank Butcher explains a steadicam

Added this to "The best steadicam shot in the world ever" post:

Mike Reid hosting the Southern Television kids show Runaround, explaining how a steadicam works...



Link to the video here - love how to illustrate it they use a clip from... The Omen

Here's the full Best Steadicam Shot In The World Ever post:

Fave TV #2 The Best Steadicam Shot In The World Ever

27 seconds of GOLD. From Eurovision 2009.




...and this is how Karsten Jacobsen did it:

Crash a handlebar-less segway into the stage while holding your steadicam...

but just remember to keep on running...




UPDATE -- 27 Dec 2011

This is what happens when it goes wrong... (via @fieldproducer)





UPDATE -- 27 Aug 2012

DIY Steadicam - Flying Camera Support

Garret Brown's original Steadicam® is an icon that revolutionized filmmaking. Being the first and the best, it naturally and justifiably commands a premium price. It is for this reason that homemade DIY Flying Camera Supports have been around since at least 1977, just one short year after Mr. Brown's invention.

Full top 100 fave TV clips list here

#3 This is how I answer the phone - Fave TV: Some Mothers Do Ave Em -->

<-- #1 Fave TV: Control Rooms and production galleries

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Top 10 Upsides Of Recovering From A Boris Bike Crash - DAD LESSONS FOR MY KIDS

Originally posted this last year. So for the 1 year anniversary...

DAD LESSONS FOR MY KIDS
- Top 10 Upsides Of Recovering From A Boris Bike Crash -



10
Face looks like a themed Google logo. Changes by the day.

9
Being known to a handful of healthcare professionals affectionately as ‘that bloke who had the Boris Bike crash’.

8
Talking like Louis Spence.



7
Chunks falling off face like an maxillofacial advent calendar. Festive.

6
Patronising kids in the supermarket who stare to ‘always wear a bike helmet’, like some kind of deranged 1950s superhero.

5
Looking like a vagrant whose stuff never gets touched. Also festive.



4
Hours spent concussed equals hours not spent hearing about Eurozone crisis.

3
Drinking through a straw makes 2 year old son feel superior.

2
Finally being able to look my hero Erik Estrada in the eye.
We both know what this is like.


1
Looking like a Hitler cat.
Or the bloke from Sparks.
Or Blakey from On The Buses.





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The Classified Ad Break - DAD LESSONS FOR MY KIDS

These are my Dad Lessons For My Kids - to browse at their leisure.
And then ignore.

- The Classified Ad Break -

Life in 2012:
We have a thing called Local Papers, which have a section called The Classified Ads.

Here's a Classified Ad Break...



(...from a show I made with John Gordillo called The Recommended Daily Allowance - full series here.).

Here are some of the ads, with more added.



PORTALOO plus melamine crockery, very cheap.



Furniture for sale. £95 Per item.



IN BOX. good condition. £10.



Grave for sale. Offers.



Drop side cot with mattress. Easy erection and storage for grandparents visitors.



I'M SELLING a Sanyo TV. Or 3.



Language course.



Writing Desk.
For
w r i t i n g.
(VIA @Caroline_Gold THANKS!)



Large stocks of Sellotape. it has hundreds of uses.



Lady required to groom and look after horses. In return for riding.



Very comfy sofa for £30. No... wait, £40, YES £40.



PAPER CLIPS. (got anything like this in your local rag?)



Ahhhh. Never been worn wedding dress.


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Setting the clock on a Lamona oven - UNDERSTANDING YOUR BRITISH DAD #BRITISHDAD

- Setting the clock on a Lamona oven -



Here’s how to change the clock on a Lamona oven.

Hold down the first two buttons on the left,

then keep holding those 2 buttons down while you use the + or - buttons to set the time.

Here's my badly shot video!



It's not funny and by the time you see this, it’s probably not much use to you either.

But at least I know where I can find the answer now.


I get at least 10 hits per day from people searching for this.
You must all have Howdens Kitchens.

Also - don't think the Lamona oven works until the clock has been set...

Leave me a comment if it helped!
Click here or on comments below - THANKS

-- this is an old post now, so I have to approve each comment, which sometimes takes a while--- sorry about that - it looks like your comment didn't get through.
I do get all your comments though, and I do approve them, just didn't want you to think they're being ignored.

By the way, I blog here most days, all about - being a British Dad. (there's no manual for that, either).

How I got my first job

How all this got started.



Claire. ‏@Clurrr93
what does it take to be apart of the media industry? i'm currently studying film, radio and television studies at uni! :)

@neilmossey
hello-I did drama deg so had no chance! Sent out 85 letters for work exp and got about 40 rejections. The best reply was from...

..the one job I really wanted (Danny Baker show pilot) + became runner for series. Whats the lesson? Send out loads? Hold out...

..for the thing you most want? I dunno. Do both I guess! Upside: itll always need keen entry lev help but never advertise.

I actually looked forward to the rejection letters each morning-its a numbers game. Good luck -keep me posted on how you get on!

So ‏@Clurrr93. Yes. This could be you too.





@prodnose
Ah Neil - just 18 months ago that photo and look at us both...


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PS think this might be a clip of Danny from 1969
http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1969/09/12/FS120969100/?s=deptford+school+food+poisoning&st=0&pn=1

Do you have your own lookalike? -- Update

Got some great replies to the "Who is YOUR lookalike" post


‏@obi1kanobi
brad pitt

@MrF1978
this will be me in ten years time.... http://i.wp.pl/a/f/film/033/52/75/0257552.jpg
(daniel stern..he was in home alone and city slickers)

@MikeRayment
I'm told I look like French midfielder Samir Nasri: http://pic.twitter.com/oUlUWee1

‏@ringo147
@NeilMossey Nah you look more like http://pic.twitter.com/qJTT6KZz




@1980kilgor
My famous lookalike was Tom Selleck when I was much younger (according to my sisters). I never saw it, tho.

‏@LisaHoctor
mine's Mick Hucknall

‏@kilgor
More like Colonel Sanders


Updated the post "Do You Have A Famous Lookalike? This is mine..." here.

Do you have a famous lookalike? This is mine... Fulham footballer Andy Johnson neilmossey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/meet-m…

— Neil Mossey (@NeilMossey) June 10, 2012

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This is the BBC. (All-Time Fave TV #8)

Love a bit of archive, me.

This is the ultimate bit of anorak.

This Is The BBC.





This is one (#8) of my 100 all-time Favourite TV clips - CLICK HERE for the full list.

<-- #7 When ITV Regions Ruled The World (The ITV Region Start Up Theme Tune)

#9 clip might appear here -->



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Top 10 Upsides Of Recovering From A Boris Bike Crash

Top 10 Upsides Of Recovering From A Boris Bike Crash

10
Face looks like a themed Google logo. Changes by the day.

9
Being known to a handful of healthcare professionals affectionately as ‘that bloke who had the Boris Bike crash’.

8
Talking like Louis Spence.

7
Chunks falling off face like an maxillofacial advent calendar. Festive.

6
Patronising kids in the supermarket who stare to ‘always wear a bike helmet’, like some kind of deranged 1950s superhero.

5
Looking like a vagrant whose stuff never gets touched. Also festive.

4
Hours spent concussed equals hours not spent hearing about Eurozone crisis.

3
Drinking through a straw makes 2 year old son feel superior.

2
Finally being able to look my hero Erik Estrada in the eye. We know what this is like.

1
Looking like a Hitler cat. Or the bloke from Sparks. Or Blakey from On The Buses.





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