Advent 15

Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career may have descended into whimsy and saccharine pop, but some of the earliest output was notable, most particularly the Wings 1973 album Band On The Run. This remains in my mind as the soundtrack of the term spent boarding at Longdon Hall, an educational experience made available to boys at King Edward's Aston which had grown out of Leonard Brandon's feeling for the plus side of the wartime evacuation to Ashby. At the behest of Birmingham City Council the Longdon experiment was ended in 1976. A great pity - it had turned round the academic performance of this noisy teenager.