What follows is a story of my time at the company that made Vampower amplifiers during the early seventies.  At the time I joined them I think their full title was Vampower International but have no way of proving that now.  I don’t have brilliant memory but having kept a diary for many years the entries made back then are enough to remind me of what happened.

 

My interest in Vampower amps was rekindled in 2004 when a random search on the Internet revealed that there was still some interest in a product I was involved in 33 years before.  One entry in particular caught my attention because it referred to the problem I’d worked on whilst at the factory.  I send a message to Texas Joe Valles to tell him what I knew.  Texas Joe had two Vampower amps where one of them could well have come from the factory during the period I worked there. 

 

We found similarities in our interests and struck up a friendship resulting in me visiting Texas in 2005.  It turned out that not only did one of his amps come from the factory whilst I was there but I had actually built it!  The serial number entry was DM 103 P PMC (S).  I can’t remember what all of it represented but the ‘PMC’ refers to me because those are my initials.  Also, because we used a hand etcher to engrave the entries on the steel chassis, it was in my handwriting.  That was a special moment; when we opened up the amp, flipped it over to find the serial number and I saw something last seen by me 34 years before!

 

More recently a documentary on Marc Bolan, where you could clearly see Vampower amps behind him, spurred me into sorting out the full story of my time at the company.  As I went through my days with Vampower it amazed me that such a shambles could produce amplifiers that are held in high esteem by some people.  To give an idea of what it was like I’ve included some details about everyday life in the workshop.

 

The Story

 

One day in March 1971, whilst reading through the Melody Maker looking for work, I came across an article about a company making amplifiers for groups.  What caught my attention was that the company was based in Bromley, Kent, England, my home town.  The article said this company had just been to an international exhibition and hoped to be expanding their business following a successful showing of their products.  I thought about it for a while and decided they’d need help with all this extra trade and who else could they want other than me?  I was a Post Office telecommunications trained wireman and we came highly recommended.

 

The name of the company was Vampower, a name I knew because the lead guitarist of a folk/rock band I’d drummed in for a brief period used one.  I found a number for Vampower and gave them a phone call on Friday 26 March to put my ideas to them.  My call resulted in an invitation to see them at their factory.

 

When I got there, Brian Gunn, the young manager listened whilst I explained they needed my talents for their expansion programme.  In reply he explained that it was the product they planned to increase, not the workforce.  Oops!  Having put me in my place he went on to say that by some coincidence they did happen to have a vacancy in the factory and would I like to try out for the place.  This sounded my kind of work, just like joining a band you had to pass an audition to get in.  I could relate to that.  There were three other people in the workshop and they looked okay and the work should be within my capabilities so I accepted his offer agreeing to be there the next Tuesday.

 

By the time Tuesday 30 March arrived I was very nervous about the audition.  The factory, if it could be called that, was only a few rooms on the upper level of an old building.  Being located between two parallel roads of Victorian houses (properties built between 1837 and 1901 in the Victorian era) it’s quite possible the building was originally used as stables.

 

Brian welcomed me then introduced Harry, the foreman of the workforce, who took me to my audition piece.  I was placed in the main workroom which was not very big and had work benches down each side with room for half a dozen people to work.  The audition piece was the front panel for a PA amp and required that I wire up a series of knobs for the control of volume, treble and bass.  The ordinary guitar amps had an additional control called "bite" which a nice reference to the Vampower name but this was not used on PA amps.

 

Where I had been expecting to follow a circuit diagram like the many I’d dealt with in the Post Office things appeared to be different in private industry.  I was simply given an already completed item and told to copy it as best I could.  My Post Office instructor would have been proud of the job I did.  It took me two hours and when I finished I had to show it to Dave Roffey, the designer of the amps, and general electrical genius.

 

Dave looked at it and said it was okay.  Okay!  It was a work of art!  He then pointed out the way I’d soldered wires to the components was fine for permanent work but these amps may have to be serviced or repaired making my method impractical.  Whereas I had carefully inserted the wires through the small holes provided on the components Dave wanted wires simply soldered on the side of tags making detachment easy.  He also mentioned that the normal expected time for this job was about half an hour and not the two hours I’d taken.  Despite the faults I must have made a favourable impression because I was told I could start work with them on Monday 5 April 1971.  This was to be on a casual basis with an initial wage or £17.50.

 

Starting time was at 9am but I was there at 8:45am on 5 April to be certain of arriving on time for my first day.  Brian was only just arriving when I pulled up so early starting obviously wasn't part of Vampower's ethics.  The other workers were all in on by nine.  In addition to Harry there was Bob (son of Harry), John and Graham who, like me, were the workers.  Dave, being the brains of the operation, came in later. 

 

Not having had a job for a while I found it very confusing trying to get back into a work routine and learn a new job.  To help me I was first put on the only thing I’d ever encountered in this place, PA front panels.  I managed to complete four during the day and still have time for more things.  After the front panels I had to start assembling components onto the amp chassis’s ready to be connected up later.  During this phase I found how easy it was to over tighten nuts on threads and junked a couple of components – it was a steep learning curve.  One thing with being kept busy was that the day passed very quickly.  Days had tended to drag during my previous period of unemployment.

 

My learning continued the next day with the odd blunder to keep me alert.  It seemed that wiring in the commercial world was not up to the high standards I had been used to in the Post Office.  I’d been strictly taught how to run wires between components in right angles to allow for re-attachment if there was a problem.  At Vampower everyone simply curved connecting wires leaving virtually no slack for any contingencies.

 

However it was the skills attained in my five years with the Post Office that helped my do my new job.  On Tuesday I continued chassis work and completed six.  It was then back to PA front panels, they seemed to be all the rage, although a component shortage wasn’t helping.  Rather than soldering up components I was simply attaching control knobs to the panels, which was a time consuming part of the work and making my fingers tips sore!

 

On Wednesday 7 April it was back to the PA front panels.  Apart from lack of components causing a problem there was also the fact that holes for the monitor light had been punched out to a smaller diameter than required for the current light.  Drilling them out was not the easy job it should have been since we didn’t really have the ideal equipment but I managed to sort out the best way to do it without doing too much damage.  During the afternoon we were visited by Frank Taylor who was the overall boss of the company.  He mainly worked from his offices above the South East Entertainment shop in Catford where he ran his mini-empire.  Also during the afternoon we ran out of transformers for the amps so production was really slowed down.

 

On Thursday Harry hinted that I might get to do the entire production of the newly proposed 40 watt amps.  So far Vampower had been solely concerned with making 100 watt amps, there were three in the range: Guitar/Bass, PA and a slave.  Harry’s hint sounded really good and I hoped it meant my few days work had proved I had the talent to do the job.  Unfortunately not all my fellow workers were getting positive vibes!  I was reminded that it was not only the actual work that you have to deal with but also personalities.  John, for reasons I never did discover, was convinced he was going to be sacked at the end of this week.  He wasn’t but his feeling didn’t make him great company!

 

Having started when I did I was rewarded with a short week because Friday 9 April was Good Friday and a day off.  Even better, I was to be paid for that day.  During the week I found the best part of my job was to make something out of nothing.  All my previous work had involved maintaining things that already existed.  At Vampower I had a pile of components, which had to be assembled, and at the end there was a fully working amp, well, most of the time.  It was very satisfying, if not very hard work for those first few days.

 

Work resumed on Tuesday 13 April when I was given a complete 100 watt guitar amp to build from scratch.  It was a good, if not slightly worrying, way of learning my new trade.  I’d almost finished it by the end of the day when time just flew!

 

Next morning I finished the guitar amp and was rewarded by being put back on PA front panel production.  Making the pilot light holes larger was still causing problems because the drill bit we used could ‘grab’ at the metal causing irregular shaped holes.  Not only that but sometimes it would jump a bit damaging the surroundings and write-off the complete panel.  I suggested we grind the half-inch drill to a sharper angle so it could sit further in the existing hole.  It worked, drilling was easier.  Sadly life for John wasn’t getting any easier and Dave had to take him to one side for a pep talk.

 

Although I played drums, my last job had been as a struggling professional drummer, I had got more interested in playing guitar while I’d been unemployed.  I asked and there was no objection if I brought my electric guitar into work for something to do at lunchtime.  It was a semi-acoustic Vox Lynx so didn’t need an amplifier for messing around on – a bit ironic considering I was surrounded by them!

 

Thursday 15 April saw John have a real bad day.  He was told off for disturbing the rest of us with his depressed state, not just his demeanour but also his random comment.  On the other hand I had a great day that started with me being presented with my first slave amplifier.  Even if I say so myself; I did a great job.  Well, as far as it went since a lack of component meant it was incomplete.  Then - a change from construction to repairing.  Just before I’d joined Dave had come up with some modifications on the existing guitar amps causing the ones I was making to be referred to as Mk2 amps.  After the slave amp I was given a returned Mk1 to bring up to Mk2 specifications.  Progress doesn’t stand still and Dave said we’d be working on the Mk3 Vampower 100 watt amps next week. 

 

In fact that behind that returned Mk1 is a whole saga.  Soon after I joined the company it was quite common for the 100 watt amps to be returned with their insides badly burned.  This only happened when the owners played through the amp at full volume and with the treble set to full.  Since these amplifier put out a pure 100-watt signal I hate to think how loud the guitars must have been when the amp blew.  Taking them apart revealed the same damage in all cases - the entire underside of the chassis was charred.

 

Dave soon traced this to the fact he’d insisted on very high quality transformers which worked so efficiently that with full volume and treble the power valves overloaded causing a flash of high voltage electricity across their bases.  This flash-over shorted out just about everything in range and the amp naturally ceased to function.  Having identified the problem Vampower had to recall all the amps sold so far to make the modifications.  These modifications were the insertion of a more suitable transformer and better valve bases, not very easy and quite time consuming.

 

Apart from design faults there was plainly a supply and demand problem.  In theory we were supposed to complete each amp in one session before moving to the next.  For this to happen, all the components need to be readily to hand but it didn’t happen.  For some reason Brian seemed unable to keep the supply of these components up to our demand resulting in un-finished amps lying around waiting for various different bits to be added to finish them off.

 

After the good end to the week Monday 19 April started a period if just being a worker and getting on with whatever needed doing.  The work might have been ordinary but Dave impressed me when he brought in a Gibson 335 to test out the new amp he was raving about.  I don’t know about the amp but his guitar playing certainly impressed me!

 

The component supply situation remained bad causing me to start work on six chassis on Wednesday 21 April.  They had to be stacked to wait for the parts.

 

My main work was still assembling the front panels of all amps and it was a job I didn’t really like, it was so boring!  If it wasn’t them it was putting stuff into the chassis and not soldering everything up, the bit I enjoyed.  As if someone had noticed, on Thursday 22 April Harry took me to one side and said I would be given a wage raise if I went full time with Vampower.  Not only that but also that Graham would be helping me with the front panels.  Since it was Vampower that had taken me on as casual in the first place the offer of full-time was good news and one that I immediately accepted.

 

True to his word, Harry gave me a complete amp to start building on Friday.  Also Graham had a change of job when he started doing some circuit boards that had previously only been done by Harry.  The reason for this being that Harry and Bob were going on holiday in a few weeks time so their jobs needed covering.

 

The weather turned really cold on Monday 26 April with snow in some parts of the country.  I wasn’t bothered as I finished off the amp started on Friday and got stuck into a slave amp.  As usual it was only the lack of components that stopped me finishing the slave.  Once again it was not a good day for John who got sacked from his other job in a pub.  Not only did he get sacked but also banned from the premises, I think John had some serious problems.

 

Some of John’s problems related to me and the fact I could work as fast as him and faster if I tried.  Since he was so miserable most of time with his stupid sarcastic comments I must admit to deliberately outpacing him sometimes.  I saw this as justifiable because he frequently upset Harry who was a nice guy but sadly didn’t know how to deal with John.

 

A weird Wednesday when I finished off some slave amps only to be told I had done some bad soldering on them.  Expecting more criticism I was floored when told I would be put in charge of modifying all existing amplifiers in the factory to Mk2 specifications, about twenty in total.  The modifications included removing some resistors to replace them with the new specification items and changing the jack plug arrangements – it sounded good!

 

As soon as I arrived on Thursday 29 April Brian told me to repair two amps returned from Scotland and update them to the latest specifications.  Having done that job I was then behind on my new task of upgrading all the other amps.

 

Doing the upgrading took most of Friday when I found 26 amps that needed to be done.  Brian made John and me the 100 watt Team, possibly not a good idea in view of the problems we had between us.  He also re-sited Harry so he could be surrounded by his test equipment, which he’d taken on to relieve some of the load on Dave.

 

With the weather being bright and sunny Monday 3 May was a good start to the week.  Harry spent all day learning how to test amps while Bob was assembling speaker cabinets.  On the other hand John, Graham and I had a stress-less day since there wasn’t much we could do.  We’d run out of chassis, transformers and capacitors so partial assembly was all we could hope for!

 

The situation didn’t improve much on Tuesday so I was sent out to buy some of the smaller stuff from local suppliers.  Being the only worker with his own car at work I was the obvious choice.  Some transformers were delivered to the factory but were all of the same kind and we needed two types for each amp.  This left me with 2 half finished amps, John with 3 and Graham with 1, not ideal!  One advantage of the slack period was that us workers were actually getting along quite well and having a bit of fun.  The only down thing was I thought I’d started a cold because I had an exceedingly sore throat.

 

The rest of the week dragged by hampered by the continuing lack of components resulting in a lot of time being spent on putting name plates on the amp and speaker cabinets.  Also we could also load the occasional amp into a cabinet but mainly we built a huge ‘Wall of Vamp’ out of empty speaker cabinets – because we could!  At least that took my mind off not feeling well.

 

Monday 10 May started the week much like we’d finished with not a lot going on!  Dave was still working on upgrades to his design and cruelly got me to insert a new, experimental circuit board into one of the few amps that I’d finished.  I say cruelly because it meant undoing all the work I done a short while before.  Later I was dispatched to pick up a new batch of name plates from the supplier.  On a positive side Brian told us that Vampower had got the job of running a rock and roll festival in Carlshalton, Surrey.

 

This week had started with hot weather and the heat seemed to affect some of the workforce on Tuesday.  Although it was clear he’d done the work, John denied mucking up an amp.  Then another came back that was partly my fault, which I admitted but noticed that Harry kept quiet about his involvement in the problem.  I was quite glad to be sent out twice to get bits during the day.

 

Wednesday saw the arrival of a new type of PA chassis and some circuit boards so we were able to started, and finish, some amps.  This resulted in me having two PA amps without front panels and pre-amps on Thursday.  I didn’t think it would happen but I was getting bored with this work!  Not only that I still wasn’t feeling well.

 

On Friday 14 May I came up with a partial solution to the boredom - work slower!  By the end of the day I done three and half, half finished amps and almost complete one repair.

 

The next week was another of waiting and getting bored by the lack of supplies which probably explains why I got threatened by John on Friday 21 May.  Brian had set target for us all and John reckoned I was lazy because I’d done less work than him.  I put on a spurt and overtook his production and he was not at all pleased resulting in the threat.  It wasn’t directly to me but I overheard him mention the violence when in conversation with Graham at lunchtime.  Actually the fact that Dave had come over to my bench on Thursday to test the amp I’d just built with my guitar probably didn’t help the situation.

 

The weekend break didn’t help John recover so when I said Hi to him on Monday 24 May he barely grunted a reply.  Harry had spotted there was something up but couldn’t think of anything to do to improve matters.  Meanwhile Dave was working on making a mixer for the Carlshalton festival while we still suffered a lack of components.

 

On Tuesday I was sent to Crayford to pick up some much needed front panels, which made a nice break from the workshop intrigue.  Later in the day Harry was trying to sort things out with John who was plainly close to tears.  I actually managed to get enough parts together to complete a whole guitar amp in the afternoon, neat!

 

A rumour told us on Wednesday that we were expected to get 70 amps completed by the end of July!  I managed to put 3 more towards that total but then got back to fiddling around doing whatever could be done.  One nice interlude was when Dave explained the mixer unit for the festival to me; he’d nearly got it finished.

 

Thursday 27 May the lack of components forced me to strip some capacitors from one partially built amp to completely finish another one that had only the capacitors missing - it was getting stupid!  The slackness of work caused me to start signing the amps with ever more flowery lettering.  When an amp was finished we had to etch the serial number on the chassis with a very noisy electric hand tool.  After the continued failure of the 100 watt guitar amps Brian had asked us to include our initials along with the official identifying characters.  I guess this was so any persistent offenders could be identified but in the end the fault was traced to component failure.  I started off with the best lettering I could, which wasn’t easy because the hand tool was quite unwieldy making lettering shaky at best.  Now, once I’d done the official bit, I let my imagination have its way within the confines of the hand tool and space in the chassis.  One my workmates saw what I was up to they started their own versions because it helped pass time.

 

It was also on this day that Dave demonstrated his skill with building effects pedals when he produced ‘phasing’ unit for guitar.  I’d only heard them as studio effects so having one you could use live on stage was quite amazing.

 

On Friday we had some fun when testing transformers to destruction!  After the ongoing fault had been traced to the transformers being to powerful Dave had specified one with lower output.  This had now been put into an amp to compare with and earlier one I’d made with the old unit.  It was then a case of hitting them with a blast of maximum signal from an oscilloscope to see what happened.  My amp blew up, the new one didn’t – success!  All that was needed now was a huge supply of the new transformers.  While we enjoyed ourselves there was actually a delivery of 59 speakers.  It might sound a lot, if not an odd amount, but it still wouldn’t fill our demand.

 

On Sunday 30 May I went to Roundhouse, Chalk Farm to see T Rex because I knew they were now using Vampower amps, it was the talk of the factory.  I felt I ought to support my company but unfortunately the group were better than the amps, which played up all evening.  I hid at the back and said nothing!

 

It was around this time that we had the amp that Marc Bolan used back at the factory for a check over and some modifications.  The modifications were necessary because Marc Bolan couldn't cope with the treble and bass controls being positioned differently to the amp he’d used previously.  When agreeing to use Vampower products he’d not spotted this difference and now found it was adversely affecting his playing.  When adjusting a knob believing it to be treble he found himself adjusting the bass.  Quite why he couldn't remember where the controls were on the new amp defeated me.  Of course Dave was only too pleased to accommodate Marc Bolan's every wish as long as he continued to use Vampower amps. 

 

Dave even went one step further in an attempt to help Marc Bolan manage his amp.  All the Vampowers had two channels, normal and the one with the added "bite" control.  Dave thought it would be a nice touch to put a changeover switch on the front panel of Marc's amp so that he could change from normal to the effects channel in one easy movement.  This simple modification was also beyond the capacity of Marc Bolan.  We received word that in addition to repositioning the treble and bass he also wanted two separate channels returned.  It was a pity because we all thought Dave's idea was a good one.

 

After the late May Bank Holiday we got back to work on Tuesday 1 June with the supply situation pretty much the same.  What did change was the weather.  May had not been very pleasant and in true British style it improved the day after a Bank Holiday weekend.  With June came some hot weather and because the Vampower premises weren’t very big it was very uncomfortable in the workroom.  There were only small windows and even with the doors open there was hardly any air moving through the factory.

 

On the work front I managed to complete one circuit board followed by a complete amp but then had to rob some capacitors to finish a second.  There were only a few days left to the rock and rock festival at Carlshalton and all the gear needed had not yet been finished.  The original idea had been to use slave amps to get the required volume but that didn’t look likely to happen since we didn’t have the part to complete any slaves.  Dave then decided to simply use full PA amps as slaves because we did have some of them around waiting to be shipped out.  We might have been busy but Dave found time to mention he bought a brand new Grimshaw guitar; it wasn’t a name I knew but apparently sounded great.

 

We were also short of speaker cabinets but that situation improved in the afternoon when we had a delivery of 16.  Included with the 100 watt cabinets was our first delivery of 5 and 10 watt cabinets, which was going to be a new range of small amps.

 

The Vampower workshop ran on the idea that we were all expected to help with whatever it was that needed doing at the time.  On this day any work being done at the benches stopped to deal with the delivery of amplifier and speaker cabinets.  We formed one of those human chains where stuff is passed from one person to another to bridge between delivery truck and factory.  It started off well but it was a very hot day and we got sweaty so the occasional cabinet would get dropped.  Any minor damage was dealt with later by smoothing out any wrinkles in the vinyl covering then giving the area a quick brush with black shoe polish – as good as new!

 

Wednesday was spent in a blur of panic as Brian tried to get everything organised for delivery to Carlshalton the next day!  Mostly we were assembling the speaker cabinets, work that continued the next day when the Vampower name plates were attached.  There would be no point doing a festival and not showing who had supplied the gear!

 

I got dragged away from all the chaos when Brian dispatched me to London and the Temple Club in Wardour Street in the afternoon.  Coincidently this was the last club I had played with my professional group a few months earlier.  The Temple had a Vampower setup for the DJ and an amp needed replacing (no real surprise there then!).  Having found somewhere to park and carted the amp along to the club there was apparently no one at home so it was a wasted trip!

 

I also had to get to a Post Office to get a new amp to Huddersfield on special delivery before reporting to Carlshalton to help set up the gear for the first night of the festival.  Unfortunately we didn’t get overtime otherwise I might have had a good day with my wages since I got to the festival site at 7.30 in the evening and left much later!  After all the frantic work it was very rewarding to hear that the PA sounded great.

 

Friday 4 June was the main day at the festival but before that we spent the morning building what we could on the amps as normal.  Once again I was sent to the Temple club and this time managed to gain access to do my job.  It was a bit strange being in this smelly, but atmospheric, club where I had once played in the very early morning during the afternoon.

 

Although my workmates weren’t included, Brian had given me a letter to get into the festival.  I think this was as some compensation for all the driving around I’d been doing recently.  Considering this was a rock and roll festival it’s easy to understand that my long haired hippy looks didn’t really fit in with all the old style rockers and teddy boys wandering around.  But the main thing was that the PA and guitar amps sounded good, even if the music was a bit rubbish at times!

 

After the success of the festival it was back to normal on Monday 7 June when a slow-but-sure method of production had to be adopted.  Not for any quality reasons but because we’d almost run out of bits again.  On Tuesday the lack of supplies made Brian’s statement that 70 amps had to be built in four weeks seem unlikely.  The amps he was referring to were the 100 watt guitar amps that were proving to be quite popular.  Since I’d joined Vampower production had been split between the PA, slave and guitar amps but John and I now were told the PA amps were coming to the end of their run for a while.

 

Thursday 10 June was the day John and I finished the last of the PA amps so we could then join in with a big move round to accommodate a new member of the team.  This new person had not yet been found but Brian wanted the space made available in advance.

 

Friday 11 June saw the start of Vampower 10 watt amp production.  Dave had been working on the circuits for these for quite sometime and now it was out turn to his ideas into action.  It started well but then we ran out of transformers!  Actually it was lucky we did stop because when Dave checked my circuit boards he found I’d wrongly wired the valve bases.  At least I had something to do putting them right!  To get away from the madness I was sent to Crayford to pick up 70 amp chassis and take them to the place in Woolwich where they were screen printed.  These being the starting point for the amps due in four weeks.  It was a 30 mile round trip and I was given 50p towards my fuel costs, Brian was never generous with expenses.

 

On arrival at work on Monday 14 June I was sent to Woolwich to pick up the chassis which had been printed over the weekend.  I didn’t get back until 10 when work started on the fabled 70 amps.  By the end of the day both John and I had completed one amp, which at least proved we had been re-stocked with components.

 

Work continued at a pace on Tuesday when there wasn’t much time for chat at we did our best to meet the demands.  Our best was OK but we then we ran out of front panels!  Things got worse the next day when John didn’t come into work saying he wasn’t feeling very well.  However I happened to know, from conversations with him, that it was probably something that needed sorting out on his car that was the problem.

 

John was back on Thursday looking entirely fit so I think my feelings on the matter were right.  It probably wasn’t the best day for Dave to make a point about the fact that John was always ‘borrowing’ cigarettes by giving him one with an exploding tip – a pity that I didn’t see the event!  Apart from that it was another day of frustration as less and less of the amps could be built as more and more parts ran out.

 

By Friday 18 June I’d only managed to fully complete 7 amps!  We’d even run out of wire by then, on top of the normal component and front panel shortages.  Against the mess of 100 watt amp production the 10 watt line had been moving along nicely and 10 were been dispatched and looked nice in their finished state.  So nice that I asked Brian how much it would cost me to buy one.  He said they would retail at £29 but I could have one for £20.  Not only that, but a 100 watt could be mine for £70.  It was tempting but I didn’t have that kind of money spare at the time.

 

Virtually the whole week from Monday 21 June was spent doing whatever we could with whatever stock we had left.  I was glad to be sent out a couple of times to get away from the boredom!  One of the trips was back to the Temple Club on Friday 25 June to replace a broken speaker.  I suppose it was a sign of trust that I was let loose to represent the interests of Vampower with the customers.  The trust was just about all I got since there was still only a small payment towards petrol cost in appreciation for my efforts but I wasn't really complaining.

 

Then it all started to go wrong for me!  I awoke on Monday 28 June feeling decidedly unwell but went to work anyway.  It was a wasted effort.  I was back home by lunchtime when a quick check revealed I had a temperature of over 100 degrees.  Not knowing what was wrong with me I went to my doctors but was in a complete haze and hardly knew what I was doing.  I was feeling so bad that when I saw the hugely pregnant Angela Bowie (wife of David Bowie who I vaguely knew) in the waiting room I was hardly able to hold raise a reply when she said hello.  The doctor diagnose that I had a kidney infection and recommended time off work.

 

I phoned Brian on Tuesday 29 June and told him I would have to be off work for a few days.  Instead of a reassuring reply about getting well soon Brian said he didn't know what the procedures were but he would look into whether I would get any sick pay and get back to me.  Of course when he got back to me it was to state the company had a ‘No work, no pay’ policy.

 

I saw the Doctor again on Monday 5 July and was given the all clear to return to work on Wednesday.  The weather was still good and it struck me that these few days would probably be my summer holidays since I wouldn’t get paid it I took more time off work.

 

So on Wednesday 7 July I was back to work at Vampower for the hottest weather of the year.  It was as if I’d never been away.  The place was still littered with half finished amps and there was still a shortage of components.  Surprisingly, in view of that, it had been decided to go ahead with production of the 5 watt transistor amps.  Bob had been assigned the 5 watt assembly, which was totally different to the valve amps.  The circuit boards Dave had designed weren’t printed but plain circuit boards perforated where the component wires were poked through.  These wires were then formed into whatever shape was necessary to be soldered to the next component for the circuit to work.  A bit crude, but it worked and saved the cost of getting a printed circuit board made.  Brian asked me to help out Bob who was having trouble with the job.

 

On Thursday I was helping Bob again and realised there was a better way to bend and solder the wires compared to the copy item Dave had given Bob.  I asked Dave if he’d mind if I did it my way, to my surprise he agreed to my request.  Bob immediately started doing his circuit boards the same as mine because it was a lot easier.

 

I was out of bits on Friday 9 July and sent out to buy what was required.  Whilst out I missed my lunch break but on my return Brian gave me a break during the afternoon.  With the temperatures up in the eighties I dashed over to the nearby open-air swimming pool and cooled down a bit.  When I got back at 4pm I was sent to the Temple Club again for more fault repairs.

 

My day didn't finish when I got back because T Rex were on at the Lewisham Odeon that evening and the entire workforce were expected to be there.  We’d all been given tickets for the stage door because Vampower were supplying the amps.  On this occasion T Rex were just OK but at least their Vampower amps worked well and Marc Bolan seemed to have got the hang of working them.

 

It was a busy time at Vampower with the demand for 5 and 10-watt amps getting more by the day; on 10 July I even joined Brian and Dave for a Saturday morning.  They worked on the 10 watt amps while I completed seven 5 watt amps with the exclusion of some transistors that were out of stock.

 

On Monday 12 July a small ‘5 watt’ production line had to be set up using the entire workforce to try and meet the targets.  Since work on valve amps was still almost at a standstill this was no hardship.  The weather cooled down making things a little more bearable in the workroom but it was heavy work.

 

I began to feel unwell again on Tuesday 13 July but gave no hint of it at work.  Apart from not having an appetite there were some random aches and pains in my abdomen and an overbearing tiredness all the time.  As some sort of ironic payback the pressure to get more 5-watt amps finished was unrelenting – just when I wasn’t feeling my best!  Brian was becoming boring in his insistence that we keep up with his demands; perhaps he should concentrate on getting the goods to finish the work!  Talking of which, I had to go out to central London during the day to get components.

 

On Wednesday there was a good production rate at Vampower when John was able to get on with the 100 watt range while Graham helped me get eight 5 watt units completed.  Amazing what you can do when you have a supply of components!  This continued on Thursday when I completed seven more 5 watt amps, this time helped a bit by John.  I was so tired all the time I was happy to accept any help offered.

 

By Friday 16 July nearly all the 5 watt amps that Brian wanted had been made but then he asked if I could turn out six more in that day.  This would require working flat out all day and would have been no problem had I been feeling normal but I doubted it was possible feeling as tired as I did.  Being a hero, and wanting to keep my job, I agreed to give it a try.  My big push was hampered when I had to go out for a while to collect more transformers for the 10 watt range but, with a little help from my friends, the work was done.  In fact it was not only the six but I also completed a bonus, batteries only, version for Marc Bolan.  This last one being something that Dave had agreed to do as a one-off for Marc.

 

5 watt amp production continued at a pace on Monday 19 July when Brian told us we’d put out 43 last week.  The roadie for T Rex popped in on Tuesday just minutes after we’d heard on the radio that T Rex were number one in the charts.  I spent the whole afternoon driving around doing errands for Brian and was only just able keep an urgent appointment.  My illness wasn’t going away so seeing a doctor seemed a good idea.  He had no idea what was wrong and gave me a note to go to hospital the next day for some tests. 

 

On Wednesday 21 July the tests at hospital only delayed me by an hour then I continued work on the 5 watt amps but during the day Brian gave me a ‘treat’.  He’d arranged that I should deliver the recently finished 5-watt amp, and a 10 watt, to Marc Bolan's roadie.  When I handed them over I was rather upset that no payment was made after all the trouble I had gone to in getting the 5 watt built on time. 

 

Dropping off the amp to the Marc Bolan entourage signalled the end of my involvement with them and I was back on 100 watt production on Thursday 22 July.  I had done them for a while and my tiredness coupled with pressure to turn out as many as possible saw me dropping my personal wiring standards.  I now just ran in curved wires like everyone else, it was easier but less satisfying.  In the afternoon I was out and about collecting stuff.  Back in the workshop we were all impressed with the new Mk3 front panels.  The Mk3 was going to be suitable for guitar, bass and organ and the panels looked good.

 

Brian was obviously under pressure from above because on Friday 23 July we all got a pep talk.  In simple terms he wanted more amps in less time for the same wages.  The Mk2 amps needed to be finished off within two weeks so we could move onto the Mk3.  At Vampower we all needed the work for our own reasons so we sat and took it all in and agreed to try harder.  I was feeling really ill I could have done without the reminder to work harder but still managed to complete two Mk2 100 watt amps during the day.  For some reason I noted that one of them was number 200.  I had another appointment with my doctor in the evening when he reckoned that I might possibly have glandular fever.  I didn't know what that illness was but it didn't sound nice.  The doctor’s parting shot was that I could go to work if I felt up to it.

 

Next day I didn’t feel up to anything so phoned Brian to tell him I was having health problems and probably wouldn’t be able to get to work next week.  Brian was his usual comforting self and told me I’d lose my job if I went off sick for any length of time!

 

On Monday 26 July, as suspected I did not feel well enough for work.  From what the doctor had said I knew it would be some time before I could get back to Vampower.  Of course if Brian's statement from Saturday was true I’d never go back!  When I told Brian of my continuing illness he was true to his word and held out little hope of me remaining employed by Vampower.  He did mention using a temp if I could give a return date but that was impossible for me to do since no one could say what was wrong with me let alone when I would be better.

 

So I entered a period of sick leave.  During this time I received some papers from the Tax Office about my period as a professional musician that had required me to contact them.  On Wednesday 4 August when they suggested it would be easier if I saw them in their office about my tax.  I dragged myself along and during our discussions it casually popped out that I had been sacked from Vampower.  The Tax Office was not to blame for this oversight of Vampower but still apologised for telling me in this way.  They assumed I had been kept fully aware of my employment situation.  Even though I felt really ill I drove straight over to Vampower to see Brian.  He looked embarrassed but had to say my employment cards were in the post, which confirmed that I had been sacked for being off sick.

 

On Friday 13 August there were still problems with Vampower that required a return to the Tax Office because I thought I was owed some money.  Having been told by a very nice lady what was wrong I popped into the offices of South East Entertainment, which were literally across the road from the Tax Office.  After a long explanation to the accountant, basically going over what I’d just been told in the Tax Office, he agreed there did seem to have been a mistake.

 

My visits must have shaken things up a bit because Brian phoned me on Wednesday 18 August.  He said that I would be welcome back at Vampower as soon as I could get there but then spoiled it by briefly touching on the fact that they were suffering with a lack of workforce.  The truth was more likely to be that he had been told I couldn’t be sacked for being off sick and it was better to try and get me to stay than to train someone else to replace me.  Also it may be hard to find someone who would be willing to work in those conditions of total turmoil.  To show how bad things must have been Brian even apologised over the mistake when I was, ‘led to believe I was sacked’ in other words they were really hard up for workers.  At that point I gave up because no one could tell me when I would be well enough for work.  After the way I’d been treated I didn’t really want to go back so I told Brian I was leaving – although technically I’d already been sacked!

 

And so ended my time with Vampower, I started on Monday 5 April 1971 and my last contact with the company was on Wednesday 18 August 1971.  I had worked there for four months during which time I spent most of the first two months either repairing or manufacturing the 100 watt valve guitar amps.  From June most of my work revolved around production of the 5 watt transistor practice amps but I still had to dive in wherever necessary.  A very interesting period of my life, if only I hadn’t been ill for some of it!  My illness was never explained but thought to be a viral infection that cleared up after another couple of months.

 

Peter M Cooper