Hi Bernard,
Coming from Rochdale, I remember the term "cock of the school" very well!
I developed my love of singing while only a toddler , but I was inspired at primary school by a wonderful, fierce teacher called Mr. Gee. He had a nickname for every child in the school.None of the boys had the impression that singing was for softies, because Mr. Gee was quite a toughie.He would hammer on the piano as brutally as he hammered his finger onto our foreheads when telling us to think about the tone of our voice .Thus we spent our time in lessons, half scared that we would get his undivided attention for a couple of minutes (he would rib us mercilessly and we loved it) and the rest of it worried that we wouldn't!)
It was cool to sing!