I remember one night chatting with Derek Brimstone about the need he felt to write his autobiography.

He said to me something to the effect:-

Al, i've lived through some of the most momentous days of modern history - the blitz on London, the 1960's cultural revolution - been all round this country endlessly for years on end - seen all the changes, My Dad worked in the great London markets that don't exist any nore.

And I want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to know what that was like - otherwise, all they'll have is what we had, the recollections of the generals, the prime ministers, the great and the posh...

there really is a bloody great strand of English civilisation that doesn't get into the history books. And that is the working class intellectual. Or do I mean - the educated working classes. Either way - people of extraordinary vision, but trapped in lowly circumstances by the kind of society we have.

We all know about Auden and isherwood going off to America in 1939 - but what about their comrade Edward Upward, who wrote what it was like to hate the injustices of the class system and ended up getting duped by Stalin and his thugs. i remember also a friend telling me what it was like to visit Arthur Marwick's council flat and there amongst he muddy football boots and cups of tea were a whole family debating and writing endlessly - working on PHD theses.

My mother was very taken by the idea of the WEA, and we always had their publications round the house - full of essays out to give a working man a stake in the culture of the world.

This choir business is all part of that unwritten history.