Life In Ordsall
Teacher, Tom Burke with Harold (Allan) Clarke (centre) and Graham Nash, at Ordsall Council School. Photo courtesy of Chris Lewis.
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Thomas William Burke - Teaching The HolliesTaught at Ordsall Council School 1945-1974 Born 1912 Trinity Salford. Interviewed 1996 (T152)  Click here to listen to this extract in RealAudio format.They were both together in the same class. Graham Nash was an extrovert. Allan Clarke was quiet and efficient. Graham Nash was never nasty he would always laugh with you not at you. But he loved to be a showman, and at the Christmas we used to put a concert on, each class in the Ordsall schools. Each class would present something, and as I had the top class we presented Cinderella. And of course, Graham Nash, and I don't know who the other boy was who got the part, were the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella. Well they absolutely brought the house down in their's mothers' old clothes, ... and people just looked at them and roared. They really were smashing. But I didn't know that they had gone on to become The Hollies until one of the other teachers mentioned them, The Hollies, and I said "Oh I don't know The Hollies". They said "But you should do, you taught Graham Nash and Allan Clarke and they are in it". That was the first I knew about The Hollies. But I've not seen either of those two boys, well they will be men now, since. I only knew that Graham Nash had gone on to great things, I don't know whether Allan Clarke went with him. |