Justine (not her real name) was a student in my A-level English class. She didn't go a bundle on D.H. Lawrence ('The Rainbow') or Thackeray ('Vanity Fair'). I wondered if that was because she was Canadian, too culturally removed. Her father was on assignment in London working for some record company (EMI possibly). It did occur to me that maybe those novels were just too long for her transatlantic attention span! But she didn't much like William Blake either ('Songs of Innocence and Experience'), couldn't accept that the poet saw and conversed with angels. And as for Shakespeare...
In fact she didn't have a lot of time for English Literature, period (as she would have put it). Art was what she did have an enthusiasm for, her main subject. I think economics was the third one but I'm not sure. Her attendance and attention were sporadic at best over the course of eighteen months. She came across as a rich girl doing us a favour by filling in time in class, when what she really wanted to be doing was photographing the stars.
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| expensive camera gear |
Justine, it seemed, was fixated on becoming a rock photographer, a female Mick Rock or Anton Corbijn (two rising stars of the medium). I don't know if she'd heard of Jenny Lens who was making a name for herself in Los Angeles and New York at the same time, covering the emerging US punk scene, or Lynn Goldsmith who left Elektra Records in New York in the mid-1970s to concentrate on rock photography.
Justine derived her simple self-belief from the DIY ethos of the punk bands she photographed and though she'd tried submitting her work to the music press, it seemed the editors were less than impressed. In truth it was (and probably still is) a highly competitive field and you have to have talent. I know personally of only one female photographer from that era who managed to establish a lasting reputation in the field, and that is Penny Smith.
To move this story on, Justine's father apparently decided to break his daughter's cycle of rejections by arranging for her to be the official photographer for a newly signed band on the label he worked for. She was to go on tour with Slowly Boiling Frog, document their shows and offstage antics and shoot the cover for their debut long-player. This was, conveniently or otherwise, in the Easter holidays just months before A-level exams.
To move this story on, Justine's father apparently decided to break his daughter's cycle of rejections by arranging for her to be the official photographer for a newly signed band on the label he worked for. She was to go on tour with Slowly Boiling Frog, document their shows and offstage antics and shoot the cover for their debut long-player. This was, conveniently or otherwise, in the Easter holidays just months before A-level exams.
Hearsay is that the project didn't go well. Justine never retuned to school after Easter. I gathered from the rumour mill of her school friends that she's had some sort of breakdown, possibly involving sex and drugs, and that her father had placed her in a sanitorium in Switzerland.
As for Slowly Boiling Frog, nothing much was ever heard again. I surfed the net for any information and all I could turn up was one very poor quality unattributed photograph. I wonder if...
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| Slowly Boiling Frog |
I'm not sure why I decided to share all that with you. I hadn't given her any thought in nearly half a century. Of that class at least one went on to become an author and another appeared on the Christmas series of University Challenge a few years ago. I'd like to think we are all stars in our own nighttime.
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| the real stars |
In lieu of a new poem this week, I'm linking you to something I posted seven years ago because it contains one of my favourite poems, 'Stephanie Re-Maps The Stars'. If you've not read it before (or even if you have) please take a look. The blog is hyperlinked here and is called: Saturday Night Surveillance
Finally, as a musical bonus, a beautiful song by one of my favourite bands of that long ago era. I'd happily have this played at my funeral. It's by the fabulous Plummet Airlines and it's titled: Stars Will Shine.
Thanks as ever for reading my stuff, S ;-)
20 comments:
A touching story. I have some sympathy with the girl. I'm the first to roll my eyes at rich people trying to 'fix it' for their children. However, I do think we have such institutionalised expectations of young people, expecting them to learn hard and gain qualifications in inflexible time-windows. I don't know what the answer is, but if she wanted to be a photographer, good on her. And you're right, it is/was very competitive, but that of course means only those who throw themselves into it 100% stand even a chance of getting anywhere. I used to be more conventional in my views on all this. These days I'm far more likely to say 'go for it'. I remember being weighed down in my youth with the feeling that the grown-ups felt that if I plodded from one exam to the next and really tried hard I had the potential to become a fully-fledged mediocrity, capable of earning a salary rather than - shock, horror! - a wage.
Do what you want and learn what you need to learn when you need to learn it. And if there's one skill a formal education should give you, it's an ability and a preparedness to learn. In other words, it should teach you to learn.
It's wonderful that she chose to communicate with you later (on the subject of angels). Talking of Blake, I read this great book about him recently, 'William Blake Vs. the World', by John Higgs. It's brilliant.
Poor girl. Sometimes, as you inferred, ambition alone is not enough. And it must have been so much harder then for women to break through. I'd never heard of Plummet Airlines before (never mind Slowly Boiling Frog) but I thoroughly enjoyed your blog and the musical bonus Stars Will Shine.
My favourite Dylan album too. It's an interesting account you give. It's a tricky situation as I know from experience dealing with students who don't present with the best attitude. We always give them the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't always work out.
Interesting. Thanks foe the links. I've commented on your Saturday Night Surveillance blog. I enjoyed the Plummet Airlines track.
I've always admired teachers. Seems such a difficult job.
'I have finally seen angels' is a bit of a clue to J.
Whatever happened to Saturday nights?
I love that phrase "stars in our own nighttime". 💜
I found this distressing. What on earth were Justine's parents thinking? She must have been what, 16 or 17 years old. Absolute madness. I hope for her sake she turned out all right in the end.
An interesting account. Young people dropped out all the time in the 1960s. I'm guessing it was less of an issue a decade later and I'm sure you will have done what you could to keep Justine engaged and in the program.
A sad tale of Justine. You can't blame a girl for trying but it sounds like she didn't quite have what it takes and her parents should have known better.
Well the band photo is truly awful so if that was an indicator of her photographic prowess no wonder it all went badly!
I agree with those commentators who said Justine's parents should have known better really. Thoughtful of her to contact you after the debacle. Your teaching seemed to mean something to her then.
Maybe Justine had dyslexia or ADHD hence the attention/attendance difficulties. At least she got back to you regarding the angels and stars which was something. Hopefully things turned out well for her. I had never heard of Plummet Airlines before and the song Stars Will Shine has elements of Pink Floyd but it was enjoyable. Good blog.
Having experienced something very similar when I weas in my late teens, I can identify and sympathize with Justine. It is very difficult for someone outside the family dynamic to understand what daily life is like in the center of the storm. I imagine she did well to hold it together as much as she did and you may have meant more to her than you realized.
Our star momentarily disappeared on my recent trip to Canada on 08 April..... the posthumous 100th birthday celebration to my recently departed dear old Uncle. Keep well Steve! Cheers Doug
Plummet Airlines were a fabulous live band. I didn't realise they'd made an album.
An interesting read. Jim Marshall and Henry Diltz remain my favourite rock photographers. Have you seen their books of portraits?
I managed an English degree without ever reading Vanity Fair! This was a most interesting read - and I've posted a comment on your linked blog. Loved that poem.
Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed your blog. Sometimes we can only give people the benefit of the doubt and help them keep their options open. I remember Stephanie Re-maps the Stars, one of my favourite of your poems. I've got a print our of it in my poetry scrapbook.
Teaching English Lit in school has changed so much in the 25 years I've been doing it. It's partly a huge cultural shift. There was a time when kids had a basic background in e.g. knowledge of biblical references and key historical events. That's all gone. Very few of my students 'get' the works they study in the way we used to as students. Many of them don't read outside of set texts and even then some seem to be writing about a filmed version of a novel or play! So if you thought students in the late 1970s were challenged, you'd probably be horrified today.
What a sad tale, but what a terrible photograph. How could anyone even tell who it's of? If Justine took that, no wonder she never made the grade.
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