A tenuous link, but Vince Clarke was in the same history class as me at Basildon college of FE. I never actually spoke to him, but hey we were Basildon boys, and we were both in a band. I went on to teach and his pathway led him to international fame. However, I never had the same musical talent, so I chose the right pathway.

The Pleasers were formed by Jeffrey inmates who were always out for a laugh. I remember vaguely how it started, there was always some dead time at college when most people were in the block writing essays or playing music. This somehow developed into the students playing and singing together. Personally, I didn’t play an instrument, but I did enjoy trying to sing. Over the months students began to improve their skills. Then someone suggested starting a band and so the Pleasers were formed. With the aim to please.

One of the first things to do was to find a role for all those interested. I will not name anyone in the band, but I am sure some ex-students will recognise those taking part. It was not meant to be taken too seriously but to please people there has to be a certain amount of professionalism. We had a bass guitarist, piano player and an acoustic guitar player. We persuaded a drummer to play, and we all jumped in to sing.

Because of our limitations the tunes we picked were simple (so I was told) I can remember some but not all the tunes, that was true when singing to. If you can add to the list do so.

We were so pleased so many people turned up we decided to repeat the performance.

You should recognise the tunes from the era. Happy days.

Olivers army. Elvis Costello.

Close your eyes. The Beatles.

Whatever you want. Status Quo. (3 cords)

Cruel to be kind. Nick Lowe.

Everybody needs somebody. Blues Bros. Belushi and Aykroyd.

Dierdrie .Solo artist.

Don’t remember the set being so short.

Sorry about this picture it was a long time ago.

I have to say a lot of beer was consumed by everyone that night as you can see from the picture below.

Now the argument has to be, was it a band or Karaoke? Only you can comment just to say that I am never short of a song at parties.