BOB WHO?

A WORK colleague shocked me the other day during a discussion on our musical preferences.  He had managed to reach the age of 23 without ever having heard of Bob Dylan.  As I said, I was genuinely shocked that he had never heard of one of popular music’s most prominent icons.

 
Naturally, I did what I could to educate my young friend with a CD of some of the maestro’s greatest hits.  Dylan is coming to Belfast soon.  He is due to play at a sell-out gig in the grounds of Stormont.  Tickets, though, are like gold dust.  Good luck to those of you who have tickets.  Have a great night out.  I’m only sorry that I can’t be there with you.

 
What prompted the Dylan discussion was the arrival at the Wizard Ads office of two review books by Andrew Weir.  One looks at his ‘never-ending tour’ and another discusses the meaning of his lyrics. In this Kerr’s Corner, I will concentrate on the first book.

 
Razor’s Edge is an account of Dylan’s comeback after his career took a dive in the early eighties.  Bob had undergone a conversion to Christianity in 1979 and released a couple of albums reflecting his new-found faith.  These had not sold particularly well.  Bob then made a disastrous appearance at the Live Aid concert in  1985.  He had to turn things around.  This started with an American ‘Farm Aid’ concert later that same year.  Dylan was back and the ‘never-ending tour’ began.  He still plays some 100 gigs a year.

This book will delight any Dylan devotee.  The author was the editor of a Dylan fanzine who brings to fruit years of knowledge on this incomparable artist.  My colleague would know more than he probably wants to know if he read this book.   It’s a mine of indispensable information for the devoted Bobcat.  Razor’s Edge is published by Helter Skelter at £20.00 (ISBN 1 900924 13 7). 

UP THE SHANKILL

ON A RECENT trip to St George’s Market I picked up a nice second-hand edition of Up the Shankill by Paul Hamilton.    There are some fascinating stories about the area and a lot of old photographs.  It looks at the world of work, the Orange Shankill, Shankill shops and trades, local pubs and churches, sport and recreation and the hard life of children and women in the early days of the twentieth century.  This book was published in 1979 so even the ‘present day’ photos show amazing changes in the Road over the past twenty-five years.  Who now remembers the Golden Crust bakery shop beside the Chambers newsagency?

 
In the 1960s and the early seventies, I used to visit the Shankill Road every Saturday in the company of my mother.  In fact, I was about twelve before I realised that there were other parts of Belfast.  We caught the blue bus in Rathcoole and travelled into Smithfield bus station where we would go out into Winetavern Street and turn left up North Street, along Peter’s Hill and on up to the Shankill Road itself.

 The first landmark I recall was the Peter’s Hill Public Baths at the corner of Peter’s Hill and the Old Lodge Road. This had a long green railing which ran down to a small café booth at the point of the two roads.  I believe that it was run by the Irish Temperance League.  There are two photos of this long-gone institution. One shows a pipe band leading an Orange procession past the baths.  This must have been taken around fifty years or so ago.  It certainly must be at least forty years since a pipe band took part in an Orange parade on the Shankill.  Does anyone know differently?

Unlike today’s wasteland, the road from Peter’s Hill to the Agnes Street corner was lined with shops and pubs.  At that time I rarely went above Agnes Street.  There was a big Ulster Bank branch on the corner where the Women’s Centre stands today.  The Co-op had a small supermarket just a few doors along Agnes Street.  Coca-Cola had a bottling plant in Rumford Street.

Talking about the Shankill, I have been asked by Linda L, who currently lives in Renfrewshire, about a primary school in the Hammer area.  Linda remembers attending a little school in the mid-fifties, but she doesn’t remember its name.  Apparently it stood somewhere in a wee side street between Downing Street and Agnes Street.  Can anyone out there remember anything about this school?  If so, drop us a line at kerrscorner@ulsteronline.org.uk