1. One of the 45rpm ‘Hit-singles’ from 1973 that will always remind me of my time at Mayfield Boy’s school, is “Honaloochie Boogie” by Ian Hunter & “Mott The Hoople”, one of Britain’s biggest bands at that time.
   The chorus & main riffs hooked me (!), so I began asking around the playground as to who sung it… (only to find it was also very popular with many others in my year ~ incidentally, it reached No.12 in the U.K.charts, quite respectable back then).
   During my time at Mayfield they had several more hits with “All The Way From Memphis” (reached No.10), “Roll Away The Stone” (No.8), “The Golden Age of Rock n’ Roll” (No.16), but arguably their most famous single was before all of these, from 1972 called “All The Young Dudes” (reached No.3), which had been written for them by David Bowie.
   Incidentally, a few years later, Bowie’s guitar-player Mick Ronson, joined Mott The Hoople on a full time basis (after inventing & recording several of Bowie’s & Rock’s most famous ever guitar riffs, such as “The Jean Genie”, “Life On Mars” & “Rebel Rebel”.
   (BTW, I was a fan of Mott & Mick Ronson, but never David Bowie !)
   Another Mayfield-era GREAT single from that stable was the 1975 Hunter/Ronson hit “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” ~ I had several lads in my school asking to buy that single from me in 1976 (the year after), but declined each & every time…(the guitar solo is blistering, how could I ever, eh ?).
   Mott The Hoople were at one time Britain’s biggest grossing ‘Live’ band (mid-seventies) & on several tours they had a regular ‘support’ act known as ‘Queen’ (Mercury/May).
   When Mott’s main guitar player (Mick Ralphs, who was there before Ronson) left the band, he formed another superb Rock/Blues band with Paul Rodgers (ex Free = songwriter/singer of “All Right Now”).
   They were known as “Bad Company” & were hugely successful on both sides of the Atlantic ~ I bought many of their (fine) albums (33rpm) whilst I was still a Mayfield Boys school pupil & in fact, from my 14th birthday till this present day, I still sincerely believe that Paul Rodgers both was & is the finest & best ever lead-singer/vocalist on planet Earth !!!!!!
   (no mean feat !)
   As a die-hard Rock/Blues fan, I later unknowingly bought a U.S.A Fender Stratocaster with a direct link to the aforementioned Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople), but that’s another story for another time.

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