Blasts from the Past: Modern Music Concerts

On Commemoration Day in June 1971, around 500 people squeezed into the Great Hall for the Modern Music Concert. Nine acts–comprised mainly of current pupils, former pupils and staff–entertained the crowd with a range of musical styles, some leaning more towards rock, others more a mix of folk and pop and jazz. The band names are certainly evocative of that era: Puknab, Zeitgeist, Aragorn and Gomrath were among those to take part.

I first became aware of the concert when someone, unrelated to King’s, contacted me for information. He had bought a copy of the vinyl record which captured only sections of the sets played by each of the bands and was keen to know more. Alas, I was in the dark. After searching in the archive all I discovered was that the 1971 concert was the second in the series; confirmed by a review of the first Modern Music Concert in a school magazine from 1970. I reached out to a few of those who took part and they kindly helped to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge. As one alumnus explained:

‘There were three “modern music” concerts at my time at KCS. The first was in 1970. The first concert was pretty much organised by one of the teachers, Mr Williams, who realised that lots of the boys from the fifth, upper fifth and sixth forms were forming Rock bands and it was very exciting for us to be given a chance to perform!’

The third and final concert took place in 1972. As far as I am aware, it was only the 1971 concert which was recorded. According to one of the album inserts, publicity for the concert was produced by the school’s Pentagram Press. Unfortunately, none of this material has made its way into the school archive–there are no posters, flyers or photographs. If anyone has any related memorabilia, stories to share or the original tape recordings, I would love to hear from you. As ever, I can be contacted at archive@kcs.org.uk.

Lucy Inglis | School Archivist