Music, Mischief and Money Too!

In the late ’60s, two young men embark on a voyage which not only takes them around the world, but starts them off up life’s incline which is, at times, steep, sometimes poignant, often amusing and frequently bizarre. They meet a disparate array of musicians, cruise the world, witness misfortune and death, have their instruments stolen, borrow a sports car, suffer a libation of Alaskan sea water, upset various policemen, see depravity at its worst and are paid for their trouble.They encounter two honest agents at the same time (imagine that), turn down the maiden voyage of the QE2 and move to Palm Springs on the toss of a coin, where Slim marries and John meets Steph.Slim flies to San Diego in a ‘colander’, they drive to Vancouver, repair their Volkswagen by the freeway, visit the Flying Scotsman in San Francisco and thumb a lift home on Oriana.

Routh played the piano from his early years and later studied music at the now Colchester Institute. He qualified as a teacher at Bretton Hall in Yorkshire and also obtained his PSV and HGV 1 licences, driving buses for Eastern National in Clacton as a holiday job.

After qualifying, he went off on the following adventures returning in ’76 from a spell in the States. He then taught music for a while but became disillusioned with the job so left and formed his own small building firm; notably, they built St. Clare’s RC Church in Framlingham.

Alongside this, he kept up his music playing for shows and performing with various bands, including his own, the “Stowe Valley Stompers”. After retiring from building, he formed yet another band “Horizon” that features the music and story of Karen Carpenter and for which he wrote the script and compiled all the musical arrangements.