Escape from Colditz

• A Room at the Bottom

There was a great program on tv the other night about a engineering team recreating an WW2 escape from Colditz. Most interesting (apart from the glider building) was the interview footage with the escapees. This was shot in 2001. I was immediately taken back to the time when I worked at the Imperial war museum 24 years ago when I worked in Sound Records dept. I worked in a very small room at the bottom of the directors carpeted stairs in a sound-proofed room. My job was to re-record and archive tapes made by our resident interviewers sent to interview wars veterans from up and down the country. When I started I used to listen to the interviews usually 8 reels worth a day, by the end of the first few weeks until the end when I worked there 4.5 years later I rarely listened, i used to turn them down to a low hum. War is a difficult subject especially close-up.

• The Queen

There were two of us, me and my ancient (I thought) boss of 34, working in the department we were also audio-visual dept. a new arm of the newly re-developed war museum. I spent the first few weeks walking around the building site with a hard hat. The war museum is housed in "Bedlam" -Bethlehem hospital a Victorian mental institution it was quite spooky at night- some of the renovators wouldn't work on the night-shifts they didn't like the sounds of "the chains"- their words. Shortly after my starting work, the Queen (Elizabeth II) came to re-open the museum, this was my first museum function, I was working the PA.system for the Queen. I had stickers with queen on fader 2 and so on - yes really!.

• Jobcentre plus cynicism

 I was still in shock at getting a real job as a few weeks earlier at 20 I had been officially unemployed or "resting" as a photographic retoucher artist/musician. I had to open my first bank account, borrow some money from my boss to buy some clothes for the event, it was the first time I had been paid monthly since Id left school at 16. The man at the Deptford jobcentre wouldn't believe I had 6 O'levels, I had to argue with him to get the application form.

• My Marvellous Boss

Luckily my new boss at the museum- although he looked like an accountant with an oversized suit- was an ex-record producer that had built a recording studio in his house (may cover this in more detail at some point) I have to point out this was folk rock genre ("didnt we have a lovely time etc.".). He didn't mind my lack of formal education if i could splice tapes and work a soldering iron, which I could (I had been playing/recording with bands since I was 13).

• The interview

When I had my interview there was a panel of three people sitting along a trestle table and I sat opposite  them. (Luckily I believe I thought that this was standard interview practice- havent had an interview like that since!). I was asked the dates of the second world war and what sort of music I wrote. I failed the first question ashamed to say and replied "love songs" to the second. We were a post punk band but I didnt think that would go down well. Not sure even now, why i got the job, although the museum superintendent was also a ex-musician from quite a famous 70s band so there were a lot of musicians and artists around at the time. I am eternally grateful to these open-minded people for taking me on.

• Evening functions

I learned electronic engineering (day release) and started software programming on Amiga machines,created animations and wrote music for some of the museum AV displays. I was asked to compose something to accompany the Belsen exhibition as this was being put together at the time, I composed a piece for this, but I am eternally grateful that the then director Dr Alan Borg said there should be no soundtrack as the film is too visually powerful to show with any music or voiceover.
We were incredibly lucky as the new corporate function industry took off around this time and many organisations hired the museum in the evening. Even the Rolling stones came by one evening (my night off) - if only twitter was around then!! We did have the medical students from the Royal College one evening and I remember someone had been sick in one of the tanks, this stopped any future Uni dos.

• The Unruly & Independent

Anyway back to the original reason for the post. We had an evening function, it was a re-union for the Colditz prisoners, I couldnt do this evening for some reason (what was I thinking?). The following day I asked how it had gone."It was terrible!", my boss had complained, "we had a presentation but when it started no-one would sit down. We tried to get them to be quiet for the speeches but no-one listened. When they did sit down some of them would get up again". Well, what did they expect?...I'm glad the ex-prisoners  and serial escapees still were unruly and independent, even in their 70&80s..

• In Relentless Pursuit.

Looking at the current difficulties for young people to get into work, I hope we can always find a place for people who don't fit somehow. Looking back over 20yrs ago it would seem we were more open to risk, in the future if we keep putting hurdles in the way (financially,academically or otherwise) of some groups of people from being able to contribute to society its own potential & capability will be weaker and the outcome would be that everyone's quality of life will be diminished. The Colditz escapees were relentless in their escapes, unwilling to bow down against an oppressive regime.Watching the program I hope that ordinary people may be inspired to be as relentless in their pursuit of a possibility of bringing improvement,diversity,fairness & transparency to future societies that may suffer the threat of oppression.