The Portsmouth Music Scene |
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I suppose it makes sense to tell you a bit about myself - okay, so I would think that most of you probably aren't that interested - after all, it's the stuff in this site that brings you here, rather than me - but I've had a few questions from visitors, so I thought perhaps I should introduce myself to you properly. Firstly, they don't come much more "Portsmouth" than I do; I was born in Manor Road, back at the end of 1949, in a little flat above the rear dray entrance to the Radical Club, a few doors along from the house that is famous as having the narrowest frontage of any house in England. It was built as an afterthought, to fill in a wedge-shaped piece of ground between two runs of house, built from either end of Manor Road, and a local developer bought up the land, when my grandfather Edgar Bedford assurehim that if there was enough space to fit a front door, then he could damned well build a house on the plot! I went to school at George Street Junior Mixed and Infants - now Newbridge - and from there went on to the Northern Grammar School for Boys, back in the days before co-education at senior level (in Portsmouth, at least) and then went to the News, as a trainee journalist.
That little chapter of my life ended quite quickly, when I had a difference of opinion with an editor who everyone agreed was frankly totally mad, and then I had three and a bit years as a Civil Servant, first with the Tax Office (Collectors) and then with DHSS.
After that, having earlier flirted with the pop scene, managing two local bands, I became a full time disc jockey, resident at the local Mecca two nights a week and working the usual "mobile" circuit, before ending up as a partner in what became the Sound Barrier club, in Goldsmith Avenue.
So, for five years we ran the Portsmouth Post, which was fantastically received by its readers - probably about 60,000 of them at the peak - but which advertisers just couldn't be persuaded to support as it deserved and finally, in 2007, I had to bow to the inevitable and close it, although we do keep a small on-line version going ... after a fashion!
And now there's this site and the opportunity to make use of my two favourite attributes - my love of history and research and my "skills" and experience as a writer.
I still live in Portsmouth, in the 1897 house in Gladys Avenue that my parents bought, back in 1960 and which, a year from now, in August 2010, will have been the family "pile" for half a century. It'll be my daughter's own house one day, and my granddaughters after that, I hope, so maybe they can take it through to the century mark ...
I have one daughter, who lives with me at the moment, together with her daughter, whilst my stepdaughter and her husband bought the house next door, two summers ago - and guess who got involved in refurbishing that?!
For a short time in the late 1960's Bob was manager of the local group called 'Egypt'
Family and friends pay their respects to InterCash founder by SHEANNE MULHOLLAND The News 4th October 2012 TRIBUTES have been paid to a businessman who wrote erotic novels in his spare time. Bob Jenkins, who was well-known in Portsmouth for founding InterCash Bureau de Change, has died from prostate cancer at the age of 62. The entrepreneur set up a number of businesses in the city, including a book shop called Bookworm and a market stall, and he owned racing greyhounds. He was also a writer and, having learned his trade at The News, he went on to write and produce Ad Lib Magazine and later the Port smouth Post, as well as writing two fantasy and 10 erotic novels. His step-daughter Sarah Butcher, 43, who lives next-door to Bob's home in Gladys Avenue, North End, said: `Bob was never bored, he was always up to something and had so many projects on the go all the time. `But he was a real family man too. He Mr Jenkins's eccentric personality earned him many friends, and his daughter Charley Jenkins has been stopped in the street by people keen to pass on their condolences. Charley, 29, of Gladys Avenue, North End, said: `Dad was very popular around here, everyone knew him. `He was quick-witted and funny, and always had a joke to tell which .is why I think people liked him so much. `We'll all miss him.' Mr Jenkins' funeral is on Wednesday at Portchester Crematorium at 3pm. Everyone is welcome. helped us all out at one time or another, and gave so many of us a job. `He was the kind of person who believed anyone could do well if you gave them a chance.' Julie Fowler, 49, of Clive Road, Fratton, who worked for Mr Jenkins at InterCash for nearly 20 years, said: `He was a great boss. `No one ever leaves InterCash because he was so good, and if they do they all want to come back.'
Entrepreneur lived a life full of variety.
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