Barnsbury Boy - Paul Kenealy: Susan, the Mid-teen Years
Susan Kenealy nee Tunstall
When the sixties began I was 12. I was interested in two things, sport and music. Girls did not even register a blip on the radar screen. I played football for the Boys Brigade, went to church youth club, played trumpet in the school brass band and had just started learning to play guitar. I listened to records, and tried to copy the chords and riffs that the stars played. There were no girls at school, none at BB, and anyway I had a sister, so I didn’t like girls. The youth club was at my Mothers church, Wesley’s Chapel in City Road. There were a couple of girls there around my age, one was a girl called Ann who lived near me, the other was called Janet, who was the younger sister of a school friend of my sister’s. After youth club which was on a Tuesday or Wednesday we would sometimes go to a coffee bar. Most of the others at the club were older than me, but they soon got me interested in current affairs, politics etc. We would discuss current affairs over a long drawn out cup of coffee. In those days I took my coffee white and sweet. I wasn’t really that interested in politics at first, but I was learning the skills of talking to other people, especially girls.
Occasionally we would go to the flat of one of the youth club members for a Saturday night. This was all a bit ‘churchy’. No praying or anything like that, but all very tame. We would play records, Miles Davies, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck, all leaders of the new ‘cool’ jazz. We would watch ‘That Was the Week That Was’ on the TV. A new radical groundbreaking satirical TV program fronted by David Frost, with the likes of Willie Rushton, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. This was right up my street. Humour and poking fun at the politicians. The very foundations of the Private Eye magazine, which started publication in 1961. I met a girl who went to Barnsbury Girls School with my cousin Barbara. Her name was Denise and lived just off the Hornsey Road. I met her at a dance in the Holloway Road scout hut. Yes I had great taste even in those days. Anyway the band playing there was an outfit from my school. They were all older than me, in the year above. The lead singer was George Bean, yes it was George Bean and the Runners. The guitarist was Ray Baldwin, who was a quite good. He later changed his name to Ray Russell, and now writes music for BBC television series,and plays with the John Barry orchestra. James Bond and all that stuff. The Bass player was Johnny Godfrey who also played trumpet in the school band and went on to join Mungo Jerry’s band. Anyway, Denise being a friend of my cousin, plus the fact that I knew the band made it easy for me. It was autumn 1962, I was 15 and I’d Pulled. (at last)
I went out with Denise two or three times. Once to Regents park where we fed the ducks and rowed a boat. Once again to the Saturday night scout dance, and then she took me to meet her grandparents. Why, I have no idea, but that was that, I didn’t even visit my own grandparents, so I certainly didn’t want to visit hers.This was at about the same time as I had first met John Walker. I was visiting John two or three times a week, as well as going to Paul McKenna’s house in Seven Sisters Road to practice. In fact I saw more of John than I did of Jerome or Griff. John had a sister Catherine, and she had a friend from school called Siobhan or Delores or some such Irish name who would often be at the Walkers flat whenever I visited. Cath and she went to a Catholic girl’s school in Stamford Hill. John, didn’t get on that well with his sister, but I liked his sister’s friend. We went out a couple of times, probably to the pictures or somewhere, but not in the back row. She was a good Catholic girl.
She lived in a small flat near the Archway with her mum and dad. Anyhow, one evening I went round to hers after school. Neither John nor Cath were there and nor were her mum and dad. Anyway, she persuaded me that as she was going to be a hairdresser when she left school that she would like to cut my hair. As an up and coming rock ‘n’ roll guitarist I was quite proud of my long hair. Somehow I allowed myself to be persuaded, and cut it she did. Half way through this tonsorial disaster, her mum came in from work. As we were sitting at the kitchen table, her mum was not best pleased. And when I went into the bathroom to wash my face, I looked in the mirror and I wasn’t pleased either. I had to wait till Saturday to go to my usual barbers in Blackstock Road to have the disaster rectified. I think I had a crew cut.
It was in March 1963 that I met Susan. Griff Lewis, Jerome Want-Sibley, Billy Pitt-Jones and I went to the Shelbourne Girls School dance on a Friday night. I suppose these things were always on Fridays, because the teachers had to supervise them and they didn’t want to give up their Saturdays. Shelbourne School was just off Seven Sisters Road at Nags Head, not far from Barnsbury. Although ours was boys only and their’s was girls only, I guess the teachers from both schools encouraged us to socialise, so that we would all have a little experience with the opposite sex before leaving school and going out into the big wide world.
I had been playing hockey that day. I played in goal for the hockey team because Bill Hunt, the Islington Schools goalkeeper happened to be in my year, and kept me out of the school football team. So the PE teacher Mr Richards persuaded me that if I wanted to represent the school, then I could play in goal for the hockey team. Anyway, I played that day, and received a blow from a hockey stick which broke the big toe on my left foot. Coming back to school from Hackney Marshes on the coach I couldn’t get my left shoe on, so one of the other boys helped me to hop up to the Royal Northern Hospital where my foot was bandaged and I was given a large canvas shoe to wear. Un-deterred I went to the Shelbourne dance with one Italian black winkle picker on my right foot, and one NHS issue canvas over shoe on the other.
Now Griff had the hots for a girl called Janet Scott. I have to admit she was very nice. She was tall and slim with long blond hair. All through the evening we boys kept to ourselves, and probably talked about football, or motor scooters, or anything really to not have to think about talking to girls. I don’t remember much about the evening, except that the music was provided via a standard issue London County Council gramophone, with the records being played by a standard issue LCC teacher. As we left the school hall, at about nine o’clock Griff made his move. Our usual haunt on a Friday was the Wimpy bar at Nag’s head, so Griff invited Janet and her friend to join us for a frothy coffee. Janet’s Friend was Susan Tunstall.
We all sat and chatted over our coffees and burgers. Bill decided to go home as he could see the numbers were all wrong. So when we all finally got up to go, Griff asked Janet if he could walk her home. I guess Janet was keen on Griff because she said yes. Janet lived near to Griff just off Blackstock Road, and Susan lived along Seven Sisters Road at Finsbury Park. As I lived in the same direction, and Jerome in the opposite direction at the Angel, I got to walk Susan home. I don’t think I even asked her, I just tagged along with Griff. We left Griff and Janet at Finsbury Park, they walked down Blackstock Road, and I walked Susan along Seven Sisters to where she lived.
We said goodnight in her front garden. She said her mum would be waiting up for her, so she just let me kiss her once and then I turned to go. I just got down the garden path when I turned and asked if I could see her again. Surprisingly she said yes, so we arranged to meet up the following night. I said we could go to the scout dance in Holloway Road, after all this was my domain by now. I knew the band, and liked the music they played. That was settled then, we would meet there. No way said Susan, you come here to pick me up. I guess she thought I’d stand her up. As if! Walking the fifteen minutes walk down Queens Drive, Somerfield Road, Finsbury Park Road, Riversdale Road and then into Highbury Quadrant, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I thought I’d just found another girl who might be around for a few weeks then get fed up with me, or I with her. I was looking forward to seeing her again the next night, but little did I know that I would look forward to seeing her every day for the rest of her life, or think about her every day for the rest of mine.
When the sixties began I was 12. I was interested in two things, sport and music. Girls did not even register a blip on the radar screen. I played football for the Boys Brigade, went to church youth club, played trumpet in the school brass band and had just started learning to play guitar. I listened to records, and tried to copy the chords and riffs that the stars played. There were no girls at school, none at BB, and anyway I had a sister, so I didn’t like girls. The youth club was at my Mothers church, Wesley’s Chapel in City Road. There were a couple of girls there around my age, one was a girl called Ann who lived near me, the other was called Janet, who was the younger sister of a school friend of my sister’s. After youth club which was on a Tuesday or Wednesday we would sometimes go to a coffee bar. Most of the others at the club were older than me, but they soon got me interested in current affairs, politics etc. We would discuss current affairs over a long drawn out cup of coffee. In those days I took my coffee white and sweet. I wasn’t really that interested in politics at first, but I was learning the skills of talking to other people, especially girls.
Occasionally we would go to the flat of one of the youth club members for a Saturday night. This was all a bit ‘churchy’. No praying or anything like that, but all very tame. We would play records, Miles Davies, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck, all leaders of the new ‘cool’ jazz. We would watch ‘That Was the Week That Was’ on the TV. A new radical groundbreaking satirical TV program fronted by David Frost, with the likes of Willie Rushton, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. This was right up my street. Humour and poking fun at the politicians. The very foundations of the Private Eye magazine, which started publication in 1961. I met a girl who went to Barnsbury Girls School with my cousin Barbara. Her name was Denise and lived just off the Hornsey Road. I met her at a dance in the Holloway Road scout hut. Yes I had great taste even in those days. Anyway the band playing there was an outfit from my school. They were all older than me, in the year above. The lead singer was George Bean, yes it was George Bean and the Runners. The guitarist was Ray Baldwin, who was a quite good. He later changed his name to Ray Russell, and now writes music for BBC television series,and plays with the John Barry orchestra. James Bond and all that stuff. The Bass player was Johnny Godfrey who also played trumpet in the school band and went on to join Mungo Jerry’s band. Anyway, Denise being a friend of my cousin, plus the fact that I knew the band made it easy for me. It was autumn 1962, I was 15 and I’d Pulled. (at last)
I went out with Denise two or three times. Once to Regents park where we fed the ducks and rowed a boat. Once again to the Saturday night scout dance, and then she took me to meet her grandparents. Why, I have no idea, but that was that, I didn’t even visit my own grandparents, so I certainly didn’t want to visit hers.This was at about the same time as I had first met John Walker. I was visiting John two or three times a week, as well as going to Paul McKenna’s house in Seven Sisters Road to practice. In fact I saw more of John than I did of Jerome or Griff. John had a sister Catherine, and she had a friend from school called Siobhan or Delores or some such Irish name who would often be at the Walkers flat whenever I visited. Cath and she went to a Catholic girl’s school in Stamford Hill. John, didn’t get on that well with his sister, but I liked his sister’s friend. We went out a couple of times, probably to the pictures or somewhere, but not in the back row. She was a good Catholic girl.
She lived in a small flat near the Archway with her mum and dad. Anyhow, one evening I went round to hers after school. Neither John nor Cath were there and nor were her mum and dad. Anyway, she persuaded me that as she was going to be a hairdresser when she left school that she would like to cut my hair. As an up and coming rock ‘n’ roll guitarist I was quite proud of my long hair. Somehow I allowed myself to be persuaded, and cut it she did. Half way through this tonsorial disaster, her mum came in from work. As we were sitting at the kitchen table, her mum was not best pleased. And when I went into the bathroom to wash my face, I looked in the mirror and I wasn’t pleased either. I had to wait till Saturday to go to my usual barbers in Blackstock Road to have the disaster rectified. I think I had a crew cut.
It was in March 1963 that I met Susan. Griff Lewis, Jerome Want-Sibley, Billy Pitt-Jones and I went to the Shelbourne Girls School dance on a Friday night. I suppose these things were always on Fridays, because the teachers had to supervise them and they didn’t want to give up their Saturdays. Shelbourne School was just off Seven Sisters Road at Nags Head, not far from Barnsbury. Although ours was boys only and their’s was girls only, I guess the teachers from both schools encouraged us to socialise, so that we would all have a little experience with the opposite sex before leaving school and going out into the big wide world.
I had been playing hockey that day. I played in goal for the hockey team because Bill Hunt, the Islington Schools goalkeeper happened to be in my year, and kept me out of the school football team. So the PE teacher Mr Richards persuaded me that if I wanted to represent the school, then I could play in goal for the hockey team. Anyway, I played that day, and received a blow from a hockey stick which broke the big toe on my left foot. Coming back to school from Hackney Marshes on the coach I couldn’t get my left shoe on, so one of the other boys helped me to hop up to the Royal Northern Hospital where my foot was bandaged and I was given a large canvas shoe to wear. Un-deterred I went to the Shelbourne dance with one Italian black winkle picker on my right foot, and one NHS issue canvas over shoe on the other.
Now Griff had the hots for a girl called Janet Scott. I have to admit she was very nice. She was tall and slim with long blond hair. All through the evening we boys kept to ourselves, and probably talked about football, or motor scooters, or anything really to not have to think about talking to girls. I don’t remember much about the evening, except that the music was provided via a standard issue London County Council gramophone, with the records being played by a standard issue LCC teacher. As we left the school hall, at about nine o’clock Griff made his move. Our usual haunt on a Friday was the Wimpy bar at Nag’s head, so Griff invited Janet and her friend to join us for a frothy coffee. Janet’s Friend was Susan Tunstall.
We all sat and chatted over our coffees and burgers. Bill decided to go home as he could see the numbers were all wrong. So when we all finally got up to go, Griff asked Janet if he could walk her home. I guess Janet was keen on Griff because she said yes. Janet lived near to Griff just off Blackstock Road, and Susan lived along Seven Sisters Road at Finsbury Park. As I lived in the same direction, and Jerome in the opposite direction at the Angel, I got to walk Susan home. I don’t think I even asked her, I just tagged along with Griff. We left Griff and Janet at Finsbury Park, they walked down Blackstock Road, and I walked Susan along Seven Sisters to where she lived.
We said goodnight in her front garden. She said her mum would be waiting up for her, so she just let me kiss her once and then I turned to go. I just got down the garden path when I turned and asked if I could see her again. Surprisingly she said yes, so we arranged to meet up the following night. I said we could go to the scout dance in Holloway Road, after all this was my domain by now. I knew the band, and liked the music they played. That was settled then, we would meet there. No way said Susan, you come here to pick me up. I guess she thought I’d stand her up. As if! Walking the fifteen minutes walk down Queens Drive, Somerfield Road, Finsbury Park Road, Riversdale Road and then into Highbury Quadrant, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I thought I’d just found another girl who might be around for a few weeks then get fed up with me, or I with her. I was looking forward to seeing her again the next night, but little did I know that I would look forward to seeing her every day for the rest of her life, or think about her every day for the rest of mine.