Special Collections & Archives: Snapshots from the Archives

Snapshot of Froebel past: Memories of a Summer Ball, 1979

Froebel's Grove House and grounds today, little changed since this account was written.

As the lovely, stately lawns and lakes of the Froebel campus glimmer in the June sunshine, we share this snapshot of the College’s past. This memory is not, in fact, taken from our own archives, but from the personal collection of a current member of staff, who by coincidence attended a summer ball here in June 1979. The staff member, who has worked at Roehampton on and off since 2010, writes: 

This is an edited extract from my 1979 diary, the year I turned eighteen.  My best friend Michele and I were friends with a London “pub rock” band, because some of them had been teachers at our secondary school in Barnes, and we followed them everywhere we could. My parents didn’t approve of me going to pubs and rarely let me go out with Michele, and never after midnight, so we had to be quite creative in our efforts to smuggle me to gigs under false pretences.  On this occasion, the band were playing at the summer ball at Froebel College in Roehampton, just up the road from where we lived. It was an all-nighter and I knew my parents would never allow me to stay out late, so we hatched a plan for me to stay over at Michele’s that night. They gave me permission, on the condition that we called in at my house on the way to hers, to prove we were actually coming home before we turned into pumpkins. But help was at hand… 

The band were very kind to us, and often gave us a lift home after gigs. So we asked Dave the drummer if he would do us the favour of driving us to my house at midnight, after the band had finished playing, then back to the party. And he did! 

Here’s my (abridged!) account of that night.

I never would have imagined back then, studying for my A levels at Richmond upon Thames College, that 40+ years later I would be working on the same campus, attending meetings and giving talks in the same grand rooms and grounds described in my teenage diary! 

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“Went straight from work [my Saturday job at the local library] to Michele’s with all my stuff, got ready quite quickly and we both set off in high spirits, really looking forward to it. We were quite early so decided to walk there, it isn’t far, and only took us about three-quarters of an hour. As we were going in the Froebel’s Gate the band’s van passed us, [they] saw us and grinned but didn’t stop. We saw them disappear up the driveway of this vast establishment, the first building inside the gates looked like the posh do, it was milling with people in evening suits and you could almost hear the sherry glasses. We were pretty sure that wouldn’t be where they were but [singer and sax player] Randy’s car was parked there! It’s certainly his kind of thing. Anyway we followed vaguely the direction the van had taken but with no success so went back to the posh place and asked the man on the door where to go for [the band] and they gave us the directions. It certainly is a huge place. We soon found them all unloading gear in a small car park. We got a surprise on going in and finding a vast and beautiful green lawn stretching away to a picturesque lake with an island and several ducks. It was lovely! Quite a place, the grounds were simply enormous it seemed, woods and lawns, patios with statues, this lake it was beautiful. We found the others sitting up here in a smallish annexe type room with doors opening onto this lawn, no stage, they would play at one end of this room, and a bloke was setting up his disco equipment in the corner. There was a bar at the other end, the band had a tray of free cans of beer, three of which Michele and I consumed! And a couple of little rooms leading off from where they were playing, one of which had a pool table and the food. We got a can of beer each, determined to get drunk, shocking! And went to join the others who were by now out on the lawn. 

Today's views from Grove House terrace to the lake, much as they would have looked in 1979

Michele and I are agreed that (apart from their actual music) that was the best part of the whole evening. It had been a nice day and was now a pleasantly sweet warm evening, still daylight, more like an afternoon. We were still sitting on the grass with [various band members and their girlfriends] and everyone talking casually and surveying the beautiful scene. It was just a lovely feeling. Dave and Roy [Drummer and bass player] were mucking about throwing beer over each other and getting up to plenty of their usual mad hilarious antics. Dave went for a walk right round that part of the garden, round the lake and back. We were just chatting to them and laughing with them, happy and relaxed, exchanging bits of news. We all wandered down to the lake at one point to see the ducks. Randy eventually turned up having been living it up in the posh place for a while – more his kind of thing! He was dressed in his silly coat tails and tight black trousers with stripes and of course his bowler. 

After a while of this they got the news that they should have started at 7:30 -  I don’t know what the time was by now but they were still waiting for an audience! There were hardly any people there, just a few dotted about but they soon made a move to start anyway. Most people were sitting in the chairs at the back of the room but we found it quite nice to stand in front of a wall which jutted out about halfway up the room which was quite close to the band but hidden from most of the other people. Michele and I had each had about a pint of lager by now and I was slowly but surely on the way with a vodka and lemonade. 

[There follows a detailed description of the band’s first set, all the songs they played and their antics and banter on stage and rapport with the audience, including ourselves. Their set included a diverse range of cover versions, from the trad jazz of Count Basie to the jazz funk of Herbie Hancock and Billy Cobham; country rock and blues from Nick Lowe, JJ Cale,  and BB King; and some of their own compositions].  

Anyway, that, as far as I can remember was the first half. And they weren’t due to come on again for nearly 2 hours! It was great. I know the DJ liked it as I was talking to him at the bar at one point and he said he really liked the band so I told him about Saturdays at the Kensington. I didn’t realise he was the DJ till later when I saw him do the records! 

It was still light outside, the atmosphere was lovely, so happy. Michele and I had both made it to being drunk by now well and truly. The disco then started to fill in until they came back; he was a guy from the Regency Grey disco or something and quite good as he didn’t play all disco crap e.g. he played some of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, he was very loud though, louder than the band I think! 

We spent some of the break outside with the others. The loos were just round the corner, very nice ones too, as was a little classroom they used as a dressing room where they left some of their stuff. When I came out of the loos and walked down to the lawn, Basil and Briggsy [guitarist] and co were standing in a group laughing at something which on turning round I saw to be Dave and Roy mucking about at the window of the dressing room pretending to be obscene! Roy was exposing his bare chest and they looked really funny, Briggsy called out [to us] “don’t look!”  

There was certainly no shortage of things to do, I’ve never been anywhere like that before. Girls were handing out programmes of what was going on where and it was fantastic, you could just wander up any corridor and find something happening. There were several bars, at least two discos, about four live bands, a pub pianist, a string quartet, a steel band, just about everything, it was incredible. People were milling about everywhere and it seemed  wherever we went we met a member of [the band]! Anyway at first I spent quite a while watching them play pool, longing for a go but I don’t know the game, only snooker. … Michele was out in the disco having a great time dancing. 

I would have loved to have a frame but was too worried about making an utter fool of myself if I did, being drunk, so instead I disappeared towards the end of it. Randy [singer] said he was going to find the string quartet as he heard they were good so I went with him. Found them in a little room playing to an appreciative audience including Steve [violinist] and [girlfriend] sitting at the front! I stayed by the door and could only see the pianist, the violinist (a sweet looking old man), and a bit of the cellist. They did sound lovely. I felt a tap on my shoulder and was surprised when it turned out to be Dave [drummer], even he liked them! But I didn’t stay long, I left when he did to see something else. We passed the pub pianist playing in a crowded little room with a bar, it was a simply amazing event. We went back to the disco where most of the others were. The disco was going really well, Michele was really enjoying herself, we didn’t need to stick together we could just wander around and never got lost. She’d been to see the other band who were playing in another room, the main band apparently but that’s a matter of opinion. Quite a well-known group actually, the Sinceros, but I missed them I’m afraid. The room we were in was packed by now so we knew it was going to be even better later. Sometime after ten I think they got the band together again for the second set. When the DJ played his last song before they took over again he made a special mention of “the girl in the pink pants who’s been dancing away amazingly by the speaker over there” - that was Michele! Quite right too, she had. 

 And the second set was fantastic, everyone getting gradually more pissed like us. We stood right at the front of the crowd of happy dancing people right in front of the band practically mingling with them as there was no platform or anything. They recommenced with [Crusaders’ instrumental] Put It Where You Want It, I was glad to find I could just stand and move without looking conspicuous for not dancing. The band were having a great time really mucking about. They had everyone rocking away to [Chuck Berry’s] Nadine.  [The rest of the second set comprised more musical variety, including reggae, gypsy jazz, rock’n’roll, Neil Young, Joan Armatrading - and even the vaudeville novelty song Nobody Loves a Fairy when she’s Forty] …which was a great success … [Neil Young’s] Dance was wonderful, got to Stephen’s [fiddle] solo and Michele and I started doing the country dance, it was great fun! Especially when Geoff [piano] joined on Michele’s end and we were throwing our legs in the air having a great time as his brilliant solo went on and speeded up in the middle and the last verse was twice the speed again! It was fantastic. Their last number as usual was Dancer’s Dilemma, brilliant but unwelcome of course, the DJ thanked them saying they were really the best [band] he’d ever seen but meaning it in the best sense as he really liked them. They got a great reception especially from us we loved it so much. So that was their bit over, but not the night for many hours yet!  

The disco continued when the band came off about 11-ish; I wasn’t dancing I was holding people’s cardigans, until Dave grabbed me, chucked the cardigans away and started dancing with me! We were all having a great time. I came back and stood by the bar where another nice young chap asked me to dance! I told him I couldn’t but he persuaded me so I had a go and it was fun. He was quite a good dancer. I didn’t dance for long though, I can’t.

I felt awful about dragging Dave away when as usual he was the heart and soul and having a great time but at about 12 they had to start packing their gear away, anyway we helped a bit. Steve was out there and I was telling him all about this problem of getting home and he was very concerned! He understood the difficulty that by the time Dave had his drums packed it might be too late! Anyway they loaded up the van and drove it out to make room for the other band’s van, who were due to go on at 2 o’clock. I was getting very very worried; Dave had his drums done by 12.30 and I carried a couple out and decided to hope for the best. The last thing I wanted to do was hurry him when he was being so good about it all, a real brick. It looked as if it would be okay. So Michele and I helped him pack it all in and just before we went we were having a great laugh with him and Roy. So off we drove directing Dave and got to Barnes in a few minutes, stopping outside my door at quarter to one. [My brother] answered soon joined by Dad so I just pointed out the car and Michele standing by and said we were just on our way home as planned! They said okay and I got back in, so so grateful to Dave! He understood the problem as well though.

Then it was straight back to Froebel for the rest of a night of fun adventure and living it up! Well almost. When we got back we each gave Dave a big kiss for his favour, he was marvellous. I think he went to look for the steel band then, something else I missed. We found a few of the others in the bar where the pub pianist had been. Ross was buying a round and got us each half a lager. Just as welcome, I’d found a pound note just outside the door! As I spent exactly £1 on drinks this was very handy, in effect I hadn’t spent anything at all! We had a laugh there for a while and then went wandering and found another disco in a bigger room than the other. We were both dancing this time and I actually found myself enjoying it. For almost the first time I really let myself go and danced the best I could, it was great fun. The other band’s stuff was still up there, the Sinceros I think, and the guy I danced with earlier was in there and winked when he saw me! Randy wandered in after while dancing with a drink in his hand which he shortly dropped smashing the glass, he bought another one. We spent quite a while in there then went back to the other disco which was still going, the other band was setting up their gear taking ages over it. We found most of [the band and our friends] in there. Finally at about 2 o’clock this funk group started playing, no tunes yet, nothing as sophisticated as that, at least they were all playing tunes but all different ones! Tuning up I suppose. Then this group finally did play something which petered out halfway through, they just ground to a halt. We cheered like mad it was great fun. Then the DJ announced that that band wouldn’t actually be starting till 3 o’clock after all. I don’t know what it was all about but they got off anyway after just half a song! 

 We were all hanging out having a great laugh as the disco commenced again. A Lena Lovich song came on and Stephen was saying how much he hated her, her voice really drove him mad etc. They had rather a problem with money, the college wanted to pay them by cheque which none of them could afford, as it were, I hope they got it sorted out.

 This other group finally did come on at about three, a funk group I don’t know their name; we were quite tired by now especially Michele having been dancing all evening! This group were good at their thing I suppose but frankly we hardly noticed them coming on because it sounded exactly the same as the disco! I found them very boring. 

 Nothing much was happening now – that is there were still things going on but we didn’t feel up to much. At about 3:30 Linda came and said they were all off and Ross was offering to take us too, which was really nice of them so we accepted, we’d been intending to walk back and our feet were aching so much, we were really grateful. It had been a fantastic night, possibly a once-in-a-lifetime occasion but I hope not! It was so unusual, so completely different, just terrific. So off we all went to Ross’ car, me with Michele on my lap in the back (It’s a lovely car). There was some poor girl lying in the drive in fits of tears, some kind of hysteria I suppose, we went to help but she had some friends with her.

 We had our last look at the beautiful darkened grounds, the lights and music, the people still dancing, the memories of a marvellous night and drove off with the roof of the car open for a cool breeze. We directed for Ross, and Michele and I climbed out in Station Road and said goodbye and thanks as they drove off. We got to bed at about 4 o’clock and the dawn promised a beautiful day as we fell asleep to the sound of birds welcoming it; still, to me, the most beautiful music in the world.  

What a night!”

Grove House and grounds today