studioman

Mr Bishop, who you kids apparently, then, called 'Percy'!!!! was my dad, Paul Bishop. I was amused by his nickname which I hadn't heard of before! Anyway, thank you for sharing your fond memory of him! Any idea what years he was at Frecheville?

Does anyone remember Mr Bishop, teaching English, or am I mistaken about that?

I was not at Southey, but my dad Paul Bishop taught there. I remember all those names, was Miss Marshall there too? And was 'Hugh' Green actually Ernie Green (EJG) who went on to King Ted's as a Woodwork & Tech drawing teacher? If so, he was a really nice gentle, quiet bloke with a southern twang to his voice, who saw me through school and into my 39yr career as a Design Technology teacher. I know he passed away some years ago if it's the same guy, and I think it might well have been.

Yes, that was our dad! Paul Henry Bishop, PHB, first teaching at Prince Edwards, then Southey Green and Earl Marshall, and maybe somewhere else in the early days. He was a genuinely good man, a family man, and he had time for anyone, so it's nice to hear him being fondly remembered. He was born and grew up in Sheffield, went to King Teds, and joined the Navy for WWII. He had his mother's knack for English Language, German, French, Dutch, Italian and some Danish. Oh and of course Latin. In 1946/47 because of his languages, having left the Navy, he was asked to join the Allied Commission in Austria to help repatriate all the Jews and other displaced persons from the concentration camps back to their native countries. Many of the people he came across, Danish, German, and Austrian in particular, became lifelong friends, and because he loved collecting stamps, his contact group widened incredibly. Then he was an interpreter for foreign competitors at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. After that he took a short course in general teaching at Sheffield Teacher Training College, and started his next career! He was teaching at Prince Edwards when Dorothy Branch was brought into his room by the Headteacher, to be introduced to her as "This is Paul Bishop, He'll be working in the room opposite yours." They were married by the following summer. Dad then worked at Southey Green and eventually Earl Marshall School before retiring, when he developed his life-long hobby of stamp collecting into a business. For years he had been involved in running the School Library Association, the Sheffield Family History Society and the Philatelic Association, and he continued with the latter two. He was always a busy man, but would stop and talk to anyone, often making yet another 'friend for life'...I remember a Kurdish man, a pianist who'd been in Auschwitz, an American and an Iraqi who went to University in the 60's with him when he did his English degree, and so many others. He wrote to them all for years. You wouldn't believe how many Christmas cards we used to get! When he died in '93 aged 69, he left a gaping hole in our lives so it's lovely to find him mentioned on this forum. ---------- Post added 09-11-2015 at 10:13 ---------- Yes, that was our dad! Paul Henry Bishop, PHB, first teaching at Prince Edwards, then Southey Green and Earl Marshall, and maybe somewhere else in the early days. He was a genuinely good man, a family man, and he had time for anyone, so it's nice to hear him being fondly remembered. He was born and grew up in Sheffield, went to King Teds, and joined the Navy for WWII. He had his mother's knack for English Language, German, French, Dutch, Italian and some Danish. Oh and of course Latin. In 1946/47 because of his languages, having left the Navy, he was asked to join the Allied Commission in Austria to help repatriate all the Jews and other displaced persons from the concentration camps back to their native countries. Many of the people he came across, Danish, German, and Austrian in particular, became lifelong friends, and because he loved collecting stamps, his contact group widened incredibly. Then he was an interpreter for foreign competitors at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. After that he took a short course in general teaching at Sheffield Teacher Training College, and started his next career! He was teaching at Prince Edwards when Dorothy Branch was brought into his room by the Headteacher, to be introduced to her as "This is Paul Bishop, He'll be working in the room opposite yours." They were married by the following summer. Dad then worked at Southey Green and eventually Earl Marshall School before retiring, when he developed his life-long hobby of stamp collecting into a business. For years he had been involved in running the School Library Association, the Sheffield Family History Society and the Philatelic Association, and he continued with the latter two. He was always a busy man, but would stop and talk to anyone, often making yet another 'friend for life'...I remember a Kurdish man, a pianist who'd been in Auschwitz, an American and an Iraqi who went to University in the 60's with him when he did his English degree, and so many others. He wrote to them all for years. You wouldn't believe how many Christmas cards we used to get! When he died in '93 aged 69, he left a gaping hole in our lives so it's lovely to find him mentioned on this forum. ---------- Post added 09-11-2015 at 10:14 ---------- Yes, that was our dad! Paul Henry Bishop, PHB, first teaching at Prince Edwards, then Southey Green and Earl Marshall, and maybe somewhere else in the early days. He was a genuinely good man, a family man, and he had time for anyone, so it's nice to hear him being fondly remembered. He was born and grew up in Sheffield, went to King Teds, and joined the Navy for WWII. He had his mother's knack for English Language, German, French, Dutch, Italian and some Danish. Oh and of course Latin. In 1946/47 because of his languages, having left the Navy, he was asked to join the Allied Commission in Austria to help repatriate all the Jews and other displaced persons from the concentration camps back to their native countries. Many of the people he came across, Danish, German, and Austrian in particular, became lifelong friends, and because he loved collecting stamps, his contact group widened incredibly. Then he was an interpreter for foreign competitors at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. After that he took a short course in general teaching at Sheffield Teacher Training College, and started his next career! He was teaching at Prince Edwards when Dorothy Branch was brought into his room by the Headteacher, to be introduced to her as "This is Paul Bishop, He'll be working in the room opposite yours." They were married by the following summer. Dad then worked at Southey Green and eventually Earl Marshall School before retiring, when he developed his life-long hobby of stamp collecting into a business. For years he had been involved in running the School Library Association, the Sheffield Family History Society and the Philatelic Association, and he continued with the latter two. He was always a busy man, but would stop and talk to anyone, often making yet another 'friend for life'...I remember a Kurdish man, a pianist who'd been in Auschwitz, an American and an Iraqi who went to University in the 60's with him when he did his English degree, and so many others. He wrote to them all for years. You wouldn't believe how many Christmas cards we used to get! When he died in '93 aged 69, he left a gaping hole in our lives so it's lovely to find him mentioned on this forum.

Funnily enough I bought a Shure mike from him too! Can't remember his name, but I've just checked on Google Streetmap, and the shop was on Ecclesall Rd where Thompson Rd joins it, and where there is now a bar called Touch, next to Yankees restaurant. And Johnson Electrics is where Boots the Chemist is, in Berkeley Precinct, next to Tesco.

I bought a Futurama, a Galaxy, Watkins Rapier 33 and a Fenandez bass from them, along with some WEM PA gear and a Watkins Echo unit. I looked at much more than I could afford! Sometimes you'd recognise someone, or get talking to someone, in Johnson Electrics from a band....it was one of the premier places to buy guitars and amps in Sheffield in those days....before Carlsborough opened......usually from a band appearing at the City Hall...I saw one of the guys from Curved Air, a couple from Steamhammer, and a couple of guys from Cochise. I also once saw Joe Cocker and Leon Russell sitting in a van outside his mum's house in Crookes (my mate lived nearby) and Zeppelin once stayed at a hotel on Psalter Lane just off Cowlishaw Rd, near where I lived, after the City Hall gig which I'd been to in (I think) '70.

Yup, bad move indeed!

I was at King Ted's school from 65 to 72, and because I lived at Hunter's Bar, one of my routes home was down through the Botanical Gardens and out onto Ecclesall Rd just opposite Berkeley Precinct which had what was the previous Johnson Electrics shop. This one was not mediocre in any way if you were a guitarist. In 1968, at 14yrs old, I was growing up, had already seen Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd in 67, but my guitar was only a semi-acoustic, and I needed something better, when David Carr in my class, a fabulous guitarist, had recommended me to visit Johnson Electrics for my guitar and bass gear. I can remember that it was the last shop on the left just before you turned towards FineFare supermarket. The guys at Johnsons were always very welcoming. Most of the gear was out of my financial reach, but they had second hand gear and they were great at trading. AndyTaylor, my guitarist friend, and John Speight, drummer would sometimes visit Johnsons together, but I was there maybe twice a week, it was so good. On the wall were Fenders and Gibsons...and they were the genuine, not copycat ones. This is also before some cheaper Fenders started being made in Mexico and Japan. All of the Gibsons and Fenders were US built. They also sold Futurama guitars, Antorias, Hagstroms, Watkins, Vox Teardrops and Hofner Violin guitars and basses, Burns, Tokai, Aria, Framus & Fernandes and many others. They had Marshall, WEM, Sound City, Hiwatt, Acoustic (a special US brand of bass amp used by JPJ of Led Zeppelin), Ampeg (I think), HH of Cambridge, Fender, Vox, and Selmer amps, and my friend and I used to drool over Dynacord amp stacks from Germany. There were also a few places that you could trade electronics equipment, that I used in Sheffield. One was a very small shop at the bottom of the Botanical Gardens on Ecclesall Rd, very near to Johnson Electrics, run by a guy who looked a bit like the actor John Alderton, at the time. He bought, sold and fixed amps and speakers, Lineaers, Selmers, Leaks, etc., he even got me a Sound City amp for trade price plus a few quid. I was always taking stuff to him to trade, but I don't recall his name. He once sold me a very early pale blue Tygan covered Watkins Dominator valve amp/speaker combo for £28, and these are so sought after nowadays that they tend to go for around £1500-3K. He was a very nice guy. He also moved onto London Rd, again just down the road from the later Johnson Electrics, but I remember him telling me some time later that he was going to move to New Zealand, and as far as I know, he did. If you wanted parts, jack sockets, valves, etc, it was Bardwells, just off London Road a bit further along. Mr Bardwell died years ago, but some of the staff from the 70s and 80s are still at the 'new' shop. Again, very nice blokes. No Mullard valves though now. :-( Those were the days.

Johnson Electrics was a large store on the corner of London Road and Woodhead Rd, which I think is now a WASABI restaurant. This was in the 80s. However, I was at King Ted's school from 65 to 72, and because I lived at Hunter's Bar, one of my routes home was down through the Botanical Gardens and out onto Ecclesall Rd just opposite Berkeley Precinct which had what was the previous Johnson Electrics shop. This one was not mediocre in any way if you were a guitarist. In 1968, at 14yrs old, I was growing up, had already seen Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd in 67, but my guitar was only a semi-acoustic, and I needed something better, when David Carr in my class, a fabulous guitarist, had recommended me to visit Johnson Electrics for my guitar and bass gear. I can remember that it was the last shop on the left just before you turned towards FineFare supermarket. The guys at Johnsons were always very welcoming. Most of the gear was out of my financial reach, but they had second hand gear and they were great at trading. AndyTaylor, my guitarist friend, and John Speight, drummer would sometimes visit Johnsons together, but I was there maybe twice a week, it was so good. On the wall were Fenders and Gibsons...and they were the genuine, not copycat ones. This is also before some cheaper Fenders started being made in Mexico and Japan. All of the Gibsons and Fenders were US built. They also sold Futurama guitars, Antorias, Hagstroms, Watkins, Vox Teardrops and Hofner Violin guitars and basses, Burns, Tokai, Aria, Framus & Fernandes and many others. They had Marshall, WEM, Sound City, Hiwatt, Acoustic (a special US brand of bass amp used by JPJ of Led Zeppelin), Ampeg (I think), HH of Cambridge, Fender, Vox, and Selmer amps, and my friend and I used to drool over Dynacord amp stacks from Germany. There were also a few places that you could trade electronics equipment, that I used in Sheffield. One was a very small shop at the bottom of the Botanical Gardens on Ecclesall Rd, very near to Johnson Electrics, run by a guy who looked a bit like the actor John Alderton, at the time. He bought, sold and fixed amps and speakers, Lineaers, Selmers, Leaks, etc., he even got me a Sound City amp for trade price plus a few quid. I was always taking stuff to him to trade, but I don't recall his name. He once sold me a very early pale blue Tygan covered Watkins Dominator valve amp/speaker combo for £28, and these are so sought after nowadays that they tend to go for around £1500-3K. He was a very nice guy. He also moved onto London Rd, again just down the road from the later Johnson Electrics, but I remember him telling me some time later that he was going to move to New Zealand, and as far as I know, he did. If you wanted parts, jack sockets, valves, etc, it was Bardwells, just off London Road a bit further along. Mr Bardwell died years ago, but some of the staff from the 70s and 80s are still at the 'new' shop. Again, very nice blokes. No Mullard valves though now. :-( Those were the days.

I'd forgotten about Curtis's. It's lovely to remember sitting on the bench in Pecks listening to a record (maybe a whole side) and then asking to buy a 'fresh' one :-) For some reason I felt Bradleys and Wilson Peck's were the more friendly record shops. It was only when Rare & Racy opened its doors and started selling second-hand records that the world really opened up, though...I remember getting some albums by some of the old Bluesmen there, having seen them supporting British acts at the City Hall. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and others...

Bradley's was a great store, Wilson Pecks too. Most school lunchtimes I popped down to Pecks from King Ted's School from 69 to 72. I remember listening to Led Zep 1 and Ten Years After in Peck's. What an initiation! Violet May had a great selection of records, but she never seemed to smile and didn't seem to like long haired kids like me coming in. She seemed more interested in discussing her 78s with older customers. And she had a reputation for being mean, too. Cann's had a fair selection of LPs, and Boots upstairs had a wonderful range of albums, but the shop I loved best was Rare and Racy, still going today. Fantastic place! The biggest influence of my musical life? John Peel, on a Sunday night, usually followed by a trip to one of the above stores the following day.