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| Jim in the studio with (I think) David Weekes with his back to the camera - note the famous VCS3 in the bottom right. Another great photo from Allan Green. |
I'm not sure if Jim Dymond was a Squadron Leader! but I'm fairly sure he had been in the RAF as a pilot and had come to college subsequently. Being a decade or so older than most of us he provided intelligence & thoughtfulness to a group of youngsters who - and I'll speak only for myself here - sorely needed some of those qualities! In any event prompted by our painting tutor, Ron Smith, one of whose canvases (splendidly replete with his very avant garde cutouts) can be spied in the background, we formed the Ron Smith Group. Ron was by this time heavily into his saxophone experimentation and encouraged us in our 'freeform jazz' aspirations. So much so that when he wasn't around we set up a gig - in the lecture theatre - and produced a handbill to announce ourselves.
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| "Cruisin' with Squadron Leader Jim Dymond and his 'jets' Dave Manley, Allan Green, Jimmy Whitehead (Bomber) 'Mildly Electric' featuring Boy Scouts Night Out formerly the Ron Smith Group. a) any other moment than this in a total state of experiences - LIVE IN ANY OTHER MOMENT any phrase has time (length) but we appreciate this now - even memory. The phrase the music is only 'seen' in parts in its own moment - and realy (sic) cannot be considered outside this moment. "START AT THE BEGINNING AND END AT THE END" Sol Le Witt |
I say 'we' but I'm fairly certain this was (substantially) the work of 'Bomber' Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy had been a pupil at the legendary Moseley Road School of Art, a specialist secondary for talented kids, and was a mercurial individual with an insatiable appetite for going 'out there'. He has become a distinguished and feted composer with his alter ego JLiat and you can find out more about how this came about here. The nascent beginnings of his complex philosophical music can be detected in the musings on the handbill - or not!
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| Jimmy Whitehead (other than on the handbill never nicknamed 'Bomber'!) |
'Tall, dark, straggly haired, middle aged, ex- R.A.F. pilot Jim Dymond leads his highly trained 'Jets' - 'Bomber' Jimmy Whitehead, languid Al Green (so tired of bein' alone) and Boy Genius Dave Manley into the strange moribund darkness of new music from under the wing of 'fledgling rock saxist' Ron Smith'. Its a mark of Jim's decency that he never objected to any of the epithets and whilst Allan and myself have some decencies inflicted by a lifetime's experience to describe me as a 'boy genius' and he as 'languid' is something of a stretch!
