Borstal Boy Whole Story
Converted on LSD to music
Website: www.ConvertedonLSD.com
Click on the hyperlinks to watch and listen to the music
Part 1
A We are the Trojan Horse International Record Label and here is David Clarke to tell us all about this Punk Rock Opera they call Borstal Boy.
B David tell us what this is all about ?
The story is about the life of my brother Michael and I who were criminals in the 60’s.
B Ok so why a Punk Rock Opera ?
Well I first wrote my story in Converted on LSD but I found very few people found time to read and I knew my story was worth telling. SO I thought of another means to tell.
C So why Punk Rock ?
Well we work with what we have and one of my students Mick Fisher had a band Asylum Seekers a punk Rock Band and I realized that Punk Rock is a great way to tell a real story.
D So how will this work out ?
We we have our own material but are going to use existing classic Punk covers the fit the story as we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We have all the permission for the original artist to use their material and produce our own album, which tell the whole story.
E Ok tell us the story.
Yes I will do but lets listen to our first song that set the scene.
02 I Fought the Law, By Aylum Seekers
Part 2
1 The story begins, by my appearance in the dock at Aylesbury Magistrate court on the 9th February 1971, to answer certain criminal charges. I was almost 21 years old.
2 I had confessed to the police to 24 crimes, that I had committed during a 3 year period, since leaving Dover Borstal in 1968.
3 I had been sentence to borstal training when I was 17 years old, in 1967, along with my brother who got a two year sentence in Maidstone Prison. Together we were convicted of malicious wounding, theft and carrying a fire arm without a license. One could well describe us as Angels with dirty faces.
4 My brother and I both had previous convictions. I had served a probation order for garage breaking and Michael had been to Oxford Detention Center on two occasions, and then Rochester Borstal.
5 Whilst Michael was in Rochester Borstal I was in a Rock Group playing rhythm guitar and It was then that I stole my first amplifier for my guitar from a Catholic Church, on the north Orbital Road, in Watford. I justified steeling this to my self by saying they were wrong anyway and it didn’t matter cos they were catholics.
03 I’m An Upstart Angelic Upstarts
6 It was after this that I got my first girl friend and I was in love but after 3 months she gave me the elbow. I was a Mod, and had inherited my brothers Lambretta, TV 175 scooter.
I got the sack from the band and along with Malcolm Kirkham, our former led singer, began to get in to trouble. together. I didn’t want any other girl, just used other girls for sex. We were just out for kicks.
7 When Michael was release from Borstal we teamed up together and began to get up to all sorts of trouble. We got a bubble car which made us mobile as neither of us could drive a normal car.
8 I was feeling unhappy and aggressive at the time due to the loss of my girlfriend and it was then that I first heard the song Love is Strange, a cover, by The Who. We heard them at Boreham Wood.
04 Love is Strange The Who (cover)
9 Michael too had his girl friends and like me he had blue emotions as expressed in some of these song in this story.
10 During that time I met a Christian woman Mrs Knight who said our lives were wrong and immoral she told me my life style was all wrong and sex out side of marriage was wrong, and drinking and dancing like I did was also wrong. I thought she was crazy.
11 We were arrested in our bubble car, coming back from Margate, the Bank holiday of 1967, and taken to the Kent Quarter Sessions, for trial, then sentencing. I covered up for my brother to get him of the hook, but it didn’t work and we both got sent down. The police had got reports of people being hit air gun pellets in London. Michael had borrowed a powerful Webbley 0.22 pistol and had taken pot shots at certain people as we drove through London to Margate that weekend.
12 We had been up to all sorts mischief and fun but had been stopped and got caught by the police.This of course ended us up in jail.
13 We spent our first month in Canterbury Prison, and had a good time together. We took a dislike to one of the screws who had rejected our mother who tried to see us at the prison gate.
14 We were each issued with a razor blade, to shave during wash time each morning, and on one occasion I decided to shave my head. I was sent down the bock into solitary confinement as a punishment. I believe, on reflection, that was the first of the Skin Heads and started the craze. I recall coming out of the block to get my breakfast an old convict slapping me on the head with a nob of Jam as they all laughed at my new hair cut.
15 I learnt the ropes from my bother who told me not to put myself out the first time I did circuit training as the screws timed you and the next time you had to improve. Most lads did as hard as the could and wore themselves out so the net time around they found it really difficult to improve. The screws always looked for improvement.
16 In Dover Borstal I learned the many ways of crime, and how to look after my self. I trained myself t do 100 press ups each morning. I can only do about 10 now. I also learned how to deal with bullies and on one occasion saved myself from a beating by giving a good left hook, that knocked to the ground the House bully. The screws even called me Flash Clarke and my number was 519.
17 Michael got his own back on the screw by knocking him out one day and I got news of this by the Prison grape vine, when I was in Dover Borstal.
18 When I was about 6 months into my sentence I was taken out of Dover Borstal back to Aylesbury Court and ordered to pay maintenance for a girl who had given birth to my child, whilst I was in prison. I spent the night in HMP Aylesbury YP prison. On that occasion I was made to pay 3 Shilling and 6 pence per week maintenance, out of my 4 shillings and 7 pence a week pay. That’s Old money.
19 On release from Borstal I lived off my brother and I’s reputation and was determine not to get caught again. I Got involved in all sorts of things, drugs, crime, sex , all what we thought was fun. I was determined to have all those things I need by stealing them all. This involved steeling cars, motor bikes, garage equipment, speed boat engines, tools even a garage that we erected on the Water Board Land next to my friends home in Aylesbury. Other people must have thought we were crazy as we were always on the go and needed to be up to something or other. We did anything for a laugh.
20 When Michael had almost served his time in Maidstone Prison he was released on Home leave and decided he wasn’t going back as he hated prison.
He made arrangements with an inmate for us to smuggle gold from Cyprus to the Uk, but it never came off. So Michael changed his identity and went by the name of Kenny Tindale and was on the run from prison for over a year, doing very well in his business, before he was arrested on a building site in Pitstone.
21 It was then that he got word, some one we knew was messing with his girl friend, which upset him, so he asked me to deal with the matter. On his instructions I whacked, this so called friend of ours, in the mouth and broke his teeth, one Saturday night, in retaliation. Michael missed his girl friend and wanted to get out of prison. Michael was now 20 years old and wanted to marry his girl friend but she was only 16 years old. They decided to go to Gretna Green to get married without her parents consent.
22 I was seeking to have a good time and wondered what was life all about. In spit of all my activities i was not satisfied with life, I could not understand the reason for our existence. If you have watched the film A Clock Work Orange our lives were as mad as that.
09 I’m Mad Slaughter and The Dogs
23 It was January 1970 that I had a bad experience on LSD after watching the film Easy Rider. Out of convenience we called to Mrs Knights home, as I needed help as I was experiencing the horrors on LSD. It was them that Jesus spoke to me after I had called out to God for help. He told me that my experience on LSD was nothing compared to Hell.
For the benefit of unbelievers I think I would be good now to ask Captain Kirk about the matter.
10 Where’s Captain Kirk ? Spitz Energy
24 My life was turned around that night and I turned my back on my bad ways and began to educate my self through reading.
25 During that next year I learned the many truths of the gospel and when my friend Mike West got arrested for having the stolen Color TV set that I had got for him. I confessed to the police my 24 crimes. I had done a deal with him and I swapped a 25 inch Baird Colour TV that I had stolen from an old People home in Winslow. I confessed to the police the 24 crimes. The crimes I was now to answer for, in the dock, at that magistrate court. I had loads of stolen gear, including cars, welding equipment, tools, the Builders shed and so on.
26 That year, and onwards, I read a range of Christian books and live to tell that I was not the Prison sentence, Borstal Training, Probation After Car , Psychological pressures, or any religious group, that change my life, or to move me to turn around. None of those influences had any power to save a villain like me.
27 This true story shows how a girl and brother, family and social institutions can really influence another. And that miracles do sometime take place. There is hope for the worst of people.
28 The amazing thing was that the Magistrates considered what they aught to do with me
and the chairman of the Magistrates Colonial Tetley said. my crimes had been quite the worst they had seen over such a short period of time and my evident desire to be martyr was one thing they were not going to gratify. They gave me a condition discharge, I was not fined or punished and thew whole court stood in amassment it was Head line news on the 11th February 1970.
29 In our next Opera we will continue the story telling of my brother who was later arrested and sentence to a 16 year sentence in the Philippines. He died of a sad death in that jail of Tuberculosis in 2005.
30 I am on a mission now to help and tell my story and give direction to any who feel the need.
31 The songs included in the Opera reflect the emotions and experiences that I went trough during this time. Although I missed the Punk scene, as I was not in it as it came 10 years after us. The first real before Punk song and was my favorite was.
32 Now lets Stand during our closing song God Save The Queen thanking Her Majesty for her generous hospitality during my detention.
12 God Save The Queen The Sex Pistols
Borstal Boy Musicn Mike Fisher Lyrics David Clarke
1 Taken to the court house, by the powers that be.
In answer to the charges, I had to make a plea.
Mr very guilty took them by surprise.
Having no defense set forth my demise.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty there was no hope for me.
2 Made up my portfolio, listing all my crimes,
and knew with my past history, I was doing time.
Told the court my teenage past, and recognized the bench,
there, was my silver girl a love I could not quench
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty there was no hope for me.
3 She was now a magistrate , how would all this end.
Once she was my sweetheart, loved her to the end.
The dear john that she give me , had sent me round the bend,
off into the night I drove, my life was at an end.
Sadness and heart ache cannot be conved
Night is so long when it cannot find the day
4 Far more to my story, and was intent to tell.
Stood before the court that day, told of my trip to hell.
Told them all in detail, about my life of crime
since leaving Dover Borstal, in 1969.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty there was no hope for me.
5 kicked against society, would not tow the line,
Came closer to my brother, who’d just been doing time.
Should have been my keeper, encouraged me in crime.
Juvenile Delinquents, were also friends of mine.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me.
6 A prison destination, sentenced for our crimes.
Our weeping mother saw no rhythm, to the rhymes.
Canterbury prison, a branch of HMP.
was where our mother headed thinking we’d be freed.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me
7 Four stitches to the inch we learned, workin’ on the line.
Slop out was a dirty task, and was a wast of time.
Mother was rejected. At the prison gate.
We marked the screw who did this , now he was future bait.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me
8 Her Majesties Detention, was no remedy.
Not Wormwood Scrubs, or Dover was any help to me.
A Dover Borstal Graduate, was my rise to fame.
So entered this new chapter of life’s little game.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me.
9 Heard by the grape vine, via Wormwood scrubs.
My brother whacked the screw that night, he was Ace of Clubs.
Learned to keep our cool inside, always out of line.
Flash Clarke was what they called me , my number five one nine.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me
10 Along with crafty dealings, loved my life of crime.
With careful callous planning of undetected crime.
Gleeful aspirations rode the coaster high,
Got no satisfaction with my sex, drugs or crime.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me
11 Mocked at all religion, thought that i knew best.
Stole those things i needed, thinking I was blessed.
Sudden change took place one night, took me by surprise.
An acid trip was on the cards I did’nt realise.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me
12 A striking revelation and, an epiphany.
Agonizing horrors induced by LSD.
Cried out to the lord above, to save me from the pit.
That single tab of acid, an agonizing trip.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me.
13 Light was what I needed, directions how to love.
then like a roar from Aslan, his voice lifts me above.
Rescued from my pit that night, my heart saws like a dove.
I turns my back on crime that night, to follow this new love.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me
14 Go to the book and reed, it really does foretell.
I think you’d agree with me, was rescued from my hell.
Just listen to these words of mine, judge them for your selves,
was my life worth living, on my road, to Hell ?
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me
15 The magistrates were wondering, what they should do right now,
by giving me a martyrdom would only cause, a rouw
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me.
16 My crimes had been the worst, the man had seen for years.
The drugs and other villainy had reduced my mum to tears.
To send this man to prison, who would this satisfy ?
it might be very awkward, for us to justify.
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me.
17 Weal put him to the test of time, to prove his story true.
With due consideration, we think three years will do.
A Discharge for this guilty man, was the sentence passed,
never in all history. Could this be surpassed ?
Very, very guilty there is no other plea.
Yes very, very guilty looked like three years to me.
18 The court room stood with awesome joy, and wondered what
was this. A very, very guilty man, could not imagine this.
Yes, very, very guilty there was no other plea.
This Borstal Boy, a Graduate, was now completely free.
Yes, very, very guilty there was no other plea.
This Borstal Boy, a Graduate, was now completely free.
19 It was not the prison sentence, or that Borstal, Regime,
that worked this reformation, or made this man come clean.
Some thought it was the after care, the probation service gave,
but it was soon realized, it had no power, to save.
Yes, very, very guilty there was no other plea.
This Borstal Boy, a Graduate, was now completely free.
20 Plain to see this guilty man, should be made to pay,
but let’s ask had silver girl, something more to say ?
Please open David’s little book, would like to change the lines.
May be correct the book and cancel all his crimes.
Yes, very, very guilty there was no other plea.
This Borstal Boy, a Graduate, was now completely free.
21 Now close that book the story ends, i’d like to join the crew.
Am I too late, to join the ship and sail away with you.
Yes very very guilty there was no other plea.
This Borstal Boy a Graduate was now completely free.
Yes very very guilty there was no other plea.
This Borstal Boy a Graduate was now completely free.