Musical Pearls
JUICE Live and Kicking Album
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Reyrolle Days
Recorded in February 1971 at Newcastle Mayfair Ballroom with the fantastic Family. This was a really special night for us. Family had been our favourite band since the release of their Music in a Doll's House album way back in 1968. It was a real privilege for us to meet and appear alongside such a highly respected group of musicians. As far as we were concerned, they were simply the best band around at the time, but somehow they never managed to achieve the success they deserved.
Reyrolle Days was a swipe at the apprenticeship system in place in Britain in those days. We had all just served our time as engineering apprentices and it had left its mark. 'Serving time' is analogous to being in prison and that's exactly how it felt for us, spending the best years of our young lives cooped up in a factory with thousands of other disenchanted workers.
We were all so young
Not turned seventeen
When we started on those
Reyrolle days
Bound till twenty one
And we’d not be free
Spent those precious years
In a shallow place
But I was just a kid
How could I ever know
What might lie in store
Along the way?
Much too immature to ever realise
I’d come to hunger for those
Reyrolle days
They stole the dreams from you
Took the best of times
As we stumbled through those
Reyrolle days.
Taught us what to do
Tried to change our minds
From a dazzling view
To an empty space
But we were shining lights
We were young at heart
Not yet ready for those factory ways
So we spread our wings
And we flew apart
Never more to live those
Reyrolle days
I’m much older now
and so wide awake
As I look back on those
Reyrolle days
I’ve won through somehow
From some bad mistakes
And the tears have dried
Upon my face
And though at last it seems
That what I have is real
All my hopes were lost without a trace
But I still have dreams
And I long to feel
The way I felt back in those
Reyrolle days
The Best Of Times. The Worst Of Times.
When kids in Northern England left school in the 1960's they were herded like cattle into the apprenticeship system and made to work for a pittance in the many factories, shipyards and coalmines. This was intended to address the skills shortage in the heavy industrial areas which were the backbone of the British economy at the time. No consideration was given to any particular talents you might have or if you were suited to this type of work. If you weren't able to adapt, it was purgatory. A prison sentence. Imagine spending the best days of your life like this. Ironically, after a few years the British government had systematically closed down these industries and there was no longer a need for the skills that people had sacrificed so much to acquire. They were now surplus to requirements and forced onto the dole. Many of us have bittersweet memories when we look back on those wasted years that changed our lives forever.
Reyrolle Days
Copyright (c) Steve Nielson
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