I met my wife, Petra in 1975 in Eindhoven and we were married a year later. Our daughters Romy and Aniek were born in 1986 and 1988. Having played hockey at Lindisfarne it was obvious that the girls were also going to play hockey which they did until the end of their high school days. Once at university, sport was no longer so important, but they both completed their studies with Romy achieving a master degree in Pedagogy at Utrecht University , before moving to London where she completed a second master study at King’s College in Child Studies. Aniek studied Art History at Utrecht University, attaining her bachelor degree before switching to do her master in Roman Antiquities at the Amsterdam VU (Vrije Universiteit). Romy now lives in London managing a home for children taken into care and Aniek, who married her Irish partner in July, now lives in Dublin.

Despite our retirement age, Petra and I still work more or less full time in our own business and have no intention of stopping any time soon. To help us maintain this attitude we both train regularly and I go to the gym most days of the week. We are also fortunate enough to have a small ‘pied à terre’ in Amsterdam, a city we have come to love with a passion and spend almost all of our weekends there. The reason that we love the town so much is because , even though it is a city with international allure, it feels like a village. It has a great open transport system which means we hardly ever touch the car when we’re there, choosing to use the trams and buses or walking. We have gone all cultural becoming ‘Friends of the Opera & Ballet’ and attend quite a few operas and ballet every year. There are also 11 art-house cinemas which also show a good selection of art-house and main stream films which enables us to take in anywhere up to 5 or 6 films a month. All of these activities are within easy walking distance should we choose to not to take the tram or bus. Of course there are numerous musea in the city as well as a wonderful zoo (Artis) and botanical garden (Hortus Botanicus) of which we have also become ‘Friends’ giving us the opportunity to go as often as we like.

After leaving Lindisfarne I went to Victoria University in Wellington to study (well, in principle) Business Administration & Law. I quickly realised that this was not a course that excited me and after 15 months I ‘dropped-out’ spending a few months living from my savings and having a glorious time.

Finally forced to seek work, I found a job with a fashion design house where the work was dull and boring, but the female models in attendance were marvellous. Still, the level of my wages (NZ$28,00 per week) were not enough to cover my costs so I found work with EMI, (then still known in NZ as HMV,) initially in the admin dept., but after 6 months moving to sales. I had found my niche and enjoyed two years covering the southern half of the North Island as a sales representative before moving to Auckland to cover the northern half of the North Island for a further year. What a fabulous three years they were, visiting retailers during the day, plugging to the local radio deejay between 5.00pm and 7.00pm before going out on the town with said deejay and any other record company sales reps who happened to be around and various assistants from the local record shops.

However, it was time to move on and see the world, so in July 1973 I set off for the UK. Having arrived in London, I called EMI and immediately found work as a salesman covering the south of England from Kent to Dorset. I worked in the UK for three years ending my time there as senior sales rep for South London and Surrey. By this time I had met my wife in the Netherlands and I was able to transfer to EMI Holland to take up a function in the International marketing department. While working there I inflicted artists such as Pussycat, George Baker and the Cats on an unsuspecting world. After having moved to Ariola (now Sony) I was then approached to join Flying Dutchman, established by my old Dutch EMI boss as a European Marketing & Promotion co-ordination company. During this time I had the good fortune to work with artists such as Phil Collins, Genesis, INXS, Def Leppard and Roger Daltry.

In 1985 I was approached to establish a new independent record company in the Netherlands for a major entertainment retailer which resulted in the creation of Disky Communications. As Managing Director, I ran the company for 17 years establishing it as one of the leading European budget (low priced CD’s) marketing companies with fifteen sales operations spread throughout Europe. In 1997 the company was acquired by EMI. I continued to run the company for five years before finally deciding to go out on my own in 2003.

Initially operating as a repertoire licensing agency for various U.S. and U.K. independent labels, Smith & Co. B.V. handled the development of their digital sales. Over the years this has more or less become our ‘raison d’être’, specialising in 3rd. party digital distribution representing over 60 clients throughout the world with approximately 200,000 tracks online. Since those early days of digital marketing we have seen the focus move away from ‘downloads’ pioneered by iTunes to streaming and finger-printing of music by the platforms such as Spotify, Apple, Deezer Google/YouTube and more recently Facebook and Instagram. Although the fees you receive per stream are very small the sheer volume of streaming and finger-printing ensures that slowly but surely, this income model will ultimately supersede the income levels achieved in the past in traditional music marketing.

My time at Lindisfarne certainly shaped my future, not so much scholastically, but certainly my character. I was an only child, and whilst I wasn’t spoilt in the traditional sense i.e. spoilt rotten, (my wife is one of 10 children and compared to me they had a 5 star existence), of course I had no competition. Getting to Lindisfarne taught me to stand up for myself and how to compete. It also quickly toughened you up. I can vividly remember moving into the “Farne” and having to get up at 6:20 to go for a run (for the first time in my life) and then having to swim at least one length of the swimming pool, (re-filled weekly with artesian water as it had no filtration system,) which was akin to swimming in liquid ice! In the winter the pool was empty and so we had to have a supervised cold shower after our run, probably against the law these days.

A hard lesson I learnt that first year was a result of bullying. After the second term I didn’t want to go back, but as far as my father was concerned this was a non-starter. He gave me what I consider was excellent advice. He told me that I had to stand up for myself and to hit any boy who gave me a hard time. Taking this to heart, I was involved in three fights in the first week of term 3 and that was that. The bullying ended and a couple of the lads I clashed with became good friends. In that sense, Lindisfarne formed me giving me confidence, determination and a large degree of self-worth.

Undoubtedly, what I enjoyed most at the school, apart from the enjoyment of hanging out with my mates 24/7, was the sport. I played cricket, indoor basketball and although I initially played rugby for the first two years, I switched to hockey for which I was much more suited, in the last three years playing for the first eleven for 2 years. Some of the highlights of those years were beating the basketball A team while still in the B team, winning the Hastings hockey competition in our grade in 1967 (If I remember correctly), but of course the greatest moment was playing in the Cuthbert House senior rugby team and beating Aidan when they had most of the first fifteen in their team, whilst Cuthbert had to bring in several hockey players to make up the numbers.

My proudest moment to date, apart from the obvious ones of having found the perfect partner and having two fabulous daughters with her, would be giving a up a seriously well paid job in order to start my own company aged 52 and making a success of it. It wasn’t easy. My wife was terrified and we almost didn’t make it, having to take out a second mortgage on the house to keep going. After two years our fortunes changed, by the end of the forth year we had paid back the second mortgage, and since then we have never looked back. The odd thing is, that even when we were at our lowest ebb, I never doubted that we would succeed. My advice to anyone starting their own company would be, that no matter how good your business plan is, be aware that it is in all probability over confident. It will in all likelihood take longer to get your product onto the market than you anticipated, sales will be less than you had hoped for and your cash resources will evaporate much faster than you thought. It is essential that you have a plan that will get you through the first two years. If you can survive this initial period, you will probably succeed and you will have learned the true meaning of ‘Cash Flow’.

I have many amusing memories of Lindisfarne, most of them in the free time you had. On one occasion, a fifth former decide to ride his bike as fast as he could along the terrace in front of the classroom block intending to make a spectacular jump at the end. Of course it ended in a phenomenal pile-up and a broken arm. On another Saturday morning someone decide to see how many boys we could get on a particularly sturdy bicycle. First the strongest boy was on the seat in order to peddle and then slowly more and more boys climbed on. Finally, the smallest third former was literally thrown onto the top and the moment had arrived. Time to move. With a push from enthusiastic onlookers the bike began to move and slowly crumpled to the ground. The bike died and everyone just fell about howling with laughter.

The most terrifying moment was in my final year when several of us prefects (not a very good example I admit) decided to skip a class and were sat in the prefects study enjoying a smoke, when the unmistakeable footfall of Rector Francis, the ‘Boss’, was heard in the corridor showing the school to prospective parents. Frozen in time we heard him getting closer and closer. No one dared even to breathe and finally he arrived outside the door. To our everlasting relief we heard him say to the parents, “This is the prefects study, but I won’t show it to you because it always such a mess!” We never did it again.

Other memories include being caned on a regular basis, totally out of order these days, but I never minded too much. There is only one occasion that I thought I was unfairly caned. It was for leaning on a friend while we were being inspected for church. I much preferred caning to fatigues which meant you couldn’t go to town on Friday after classes. Of course, the bane of our lives was the hairdresser! Remember, this was the sixties and the fashion was turning to long hair. How we dreaded the house master doing the rounds during dinner checking to see whose hair was over his collar and sending us to the hairdresser, who, as far as we were concerned, had learnt his trade in the army and shaved our scalps as if we were soldiers. How were we ever going to make an impression on girls during the holidays?

I don’t particularly remember any single meal at school. I seemed to be in a state of constant starvation and all meals were ravenously eaten and enjoyed. I do remember the strange habit of using the big breakfast teapots to warm your toast so that the butter would melt. The other lasting effect that school meals had on me was that I gave up milk and sugar in my tea. It was always such a hassle to get one or the other passed down the table, it was easier just to give them up.

I know that there are some who disliked their years at boarding school, but I have very fond memories of my time there. It taught many things that have stood me in good stead since leaving.

Apart from the comradeship and healthy living (I have never been as fit as I was at Lindisfarne) it taught me discipline, although many would say that I was extremely rebellious, determination and the realisation that you are the master of your own destiny. You don’t necessarily realise this when you leave, but as you age and look back at that time you begin to understand the lessons that were instilled. It has given me the confidence to take on new challenges and make a success of my life. It also gave me life long friendship and even though we don’t see each other very often due to the distance, old boys Phil Melchoir, Geoff Walker, Rick Whitlock, Geoff Sherning, Murray Rosser and Murray Johnstone (whom I have lost touch with) are guys whom I consider good friends to this day.

As far as giving advise to boys leaving the school; that’s simple. Follow your heart. Do what you want to do, not what others maybe expect you to do. If you’re going onto further study, make sure it’s a study that you really want to follow. If you’re not the studying kind choose a trade that appeals to you. Don’t forget that in the coming years carpentry, plumbing, being an electrician or builder are jobs which A.I. is unlikely to take over any time soon and with what you have learned at Lindisfarne you can probably develop your own successful business in time.

Finally, I can confirm that my quote in the 1968 yearbook, which I pinched from that Mad Magazine character Alfred E. Newman, “What, Me Worry?” still applies after all these years.

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Article added: Wednesday 06 November 2019