Also by Alan Johnson
This Boy
Please, Mister Postman
The Long and Winding Road
My mother Lily (second from right) and father Steve next to her at the wedding of one of her sisters, Auntie Jean (third from left), to Uncle George (in uniform) in 1946.
Linda and me dancing.
My teachers at Bevington Primary School. Miss Woofenden, who taught us music, is second from the right, next to the slightly detached headmaster, Mr Gemmill.
. Lonnie Donegan in full skiffle mode in front of a rather more intimate audience than when I saw him at the Chiswick Empire.
Me and Colin James. As can be seen, I had a penchant for matelot shirts and we both favoured the folded-arms stance. While it wasnt posed that way, the black-and-white image just happens to have a photo of the Stones and a Beatles album cover in the background.
. Chuck Berry doing the duck walk he performed when I saw him at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1964.
Dereck Tapper, a child of the Windrush generation, was with me at infant, primary and grammar school. This 1970 press photo records his appearance in what was then the startling innovation of a mixed-race production of Romeo and Juliet at a teacher-training college in Exeter.
Bert Weedons Play in a Day instruction manual, which should have been prosecuted under the Trades Description Act.
. Denmark Street aka Tin Pan Alley with Margo and the Marvettes, perhaps on their way to record at Regent Sound, where the Area made its demo disc.
The Sloane School photo with (far right to left, sitting on the ground) John Williams, Andrew Wiltshire and me trying to look cool and disinterested. Dereck Tapper is five rows directly behind me with eyes averted from the camera. Mr Carlen is the first teacher seated on the left with hands on knees, and my other favourite, Mr Pallai, is six places to the right of him, in the light suit.
Anthony Jacksons in East Sheen, at around the time I worked there in the sixties. It has since been replaced by Johnsons Shoes.
One of the cards that Danny had printed for our beat group.
My Hfner Verithin guitar, with Venetian double cutaways, mother-of-pearl inlay on the head and neck, black scratchboard and Bigsby tremolo unit.
. The Beatles: the Fab Four played All You Need Is Love in front of a global television audience of 400 million in 1967.
Judy and me on our wedding day, posing in front of somebody elses beribboned car.
Celebrating our wedding at a Hammersmith pub. From left to right: me, Judy, Andrew, Albert Cox, Ann and Carole Cox. My sister was the photographer.
David Bowies facial lightning flash on the cover of Aladdin Sane was quickly copied by his fans.
A family jam session in the seventies. Left to right: Jamie, Natalie, me and Emma. Note the painted white walls of our Britwell home and my Eko twelve-string guitar.
. Kate Bush: a brilliant artist who could never be accused of being too prolific.
. Elvis Costello: the artist Ive seen perform everywhere from the London Palladium to Sands Leisure Centre in Carlisle.
. This is not a new supergroup, just the line-up for an edition of The Andrew Marr Show in May 2014, hosted by Nick Robinson and featuring me (and my Hfner guitar), Theresa May (when she was home secretary) and the band Noah and the Whale.
In My Life
A Music Memoir
Alan Johnson
TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS
6163 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
www.penguin.co.uk
Transworld is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Bantam Press
an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright Alan Johnson 2018
Cover images Getty Images
Cover Design: Stephen Mulcahey/TW
Alan Johnson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.