Reminiscences, recalling fading memories which tend to become dim or lost with the passing years.
From about the mid 1950s to the late1970s were the prime zenith years of our youth, throughout those two or more decades, we had little perceptiveness of the good times we were enjoying, nor any concept of just how deceptively quickly those golden years would fly pass.
This was a transitional era of musical taste, the formerly popular and great traditional jazz bands of the early 1950s were in a state of declination, being phased out as a result of promotional publicity fuelling a rapid rise in the popularity of what became known as ‘pop’ or popular music.

The pop Groups of the 60s.
The band ‘Soundsations’ was formed after much searching to find the best musicians obtainable within the South London counties.
Mike Breslin started learning to play drums at or before the age of seven, he played side drum as a young boy invited to stand in with the London Scottish regimental pipe band when they held band practise at their London drill hall, that honour Mike remembers well his father was the pipe bands lead drummer.
When he was age twelve he became a student at the prestigious London School of Dance Music in Charing Cross Road, increasing his expertise under the guidance of the Jazz drummer Tony Kinsey.

The Soundsations
From their almost regular performances at the Woodstock came an invitation for a performance at the Napoleon Suite booked for Sunday 9th.February 1964, at London’s exclusive venue The Café Royal Regent Street. Other bookings flooding in included one from Decca Records for some private recording sessions at the Marble Arch London studio, the group’s first record, Decca F.11848 was released on Friday February 28th 1964, a 45 rpm ‘I’ve been crying’ with ‘For your Love’ on the flip side.
The recording was almost cancelled because the vocalist Denny, had a very severe head cold which can be heard in his voice on the record, despite this Decca Records decided to release the record. Later recordings were made by the group which were kept ‘in the can’ intended for future release.
Further from these very successful gig’s came many follow on diamond and mink bookings at London’s most glamorous establishments; several occasional performances at The Grosvenor House Park Lane, and at the Dorchester hotel Park Lane, and The Londoner hotel, guest membership of The Playboy Club 45 Park Lane London, The Bunny Club Girls.
‘The Establishment’ at Greek Street Soho, the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore London venue was one of many such regular London area gigs.
Several national television performances featured The Soundsations, publicised in the Midlands and national editions of the TV times, such series of programmes included were the Thursday 30th April, 1964 For Teenagers program broadcasted on Thursday’s, and the prime time National TV programme ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ and the Juke Box Jury show.

Although the Soundsations group did undertake some arranged promotional nationwide tours throughout the U.K. and to as far north as Elgin and Glasgow Scotland, the band did not actively seek publicity since they had a full on going itinerary to cater for covering central London and the outer south east London counties with numerous bookings further north to the midland and further northern counties.

Extract taken from one of many newspaper articles:
A summary extract; taken from a publication of 17th. April 1964 Bromley and Kentish Times Newspaper, reads; a well known radio compare played popular records on his programme, these included records by the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, The Searchers and The Hollies, but he commented that for the first time since he started broadcasting these pop music programmes he had received the most requests for a group other than the Beatles, which was for Denny and The Soundsations record ‘I’ve Been Crying’ and ‘For your Love’. Naturally he also played a record by The Beatles as well, and passed on a message from the Beatles which said: “thank you for putting us where we are” to his program listeners. There was also a taped message of welcome and thanks from The Hollies. The Soundsations group were broadcasted internationally twice nightly at peak times on the very popular Radio Luxemburg.
Peter Frampton was occasionally invited to stand in as a guest artist playing lead guitar with the group.

Mike Breslin. Geophysicist
Having a distinguished professional career in marine geophysics Mike served an apprenticeship training commencing in 1954 with the first American seismic oil and gas Exploration Company in England, working on the first geophysical exploration vessel mobilised for North Sea Oil exploration.
As an acknowledged marine geophysicist and Oil company representative with extensive worldwide experience of some fifty years, his accreditation exceeds that of professor of geophysics.

Prof. Mike Breslin

Buckingham Palace

By kind permission of: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

A Garden Party held in the grounds at Buckingham Palace and attended by members of the Royal Household.

Our grateful thanks to: ‘The Not Forgotten Association’ for the invitation requesting the company of myself and my wife at Buckingham Palace for afternoon tea on Wednesday 22nd. July 2009.

My wife was unduly apprehensive as to whether she aught to wear her Singapore national dress or one from her English style summer dress’ she need not have worried as many other Ladies wore their national dress. One young Japanese lady virtually stole the show by wearing her traditional Japanese kimono cultural costume.

Shortly before 2 pm the outer gate to the palace forecourt was opened, we were admitted and walked through to the main Palace entrance then into the inner courtyard from where we passed through the Palace itself and into the magnificent gardens.

Large marquees provided cover housing the caterer’s who provided a lavish selection of  sandwiches with a choice of delicious fillings, cakes of all sorts, soft drinks, strawberries and cream, appetising pastries and of course plenty of tea. Service provided by waiters and or by self service option.

This is a special annual event where you will see many of the older and some more youthful soldier’s sailors Royal Air force and Merchant navy service men and women who proudly wear Medals won for active and or combat service given, and for valour often above and beyond the call. ‘Respect’ is fully accredited to these people, and is duly acknowledged.

The Band of: The Irish Guards

The weather could not have been better, a lovely sunny summer day not too hot for comfort and with an occasional light gentle refreshing breeze.

From a separate bandstand marquee the regimental band of the Guards played a repertory of enjoyable music. The National Anthem was played to announce the arrival of Their Royal Highnesses who also appeared to be having an enjoyable social afternoon, spending most of their time engaged in conversation with their guests.

The Palace Grounds
At the upper part of the vast garden area nearer to the rear of the Palace it was a real pleasure to see two Pipe Majors, that is I assume these would be majors, dressed in full highland uniform and playing set pieces on their bagpipes, such as Scotland the Brave, Highland Laddie, and other tunes.Pipe band music set pieces are unique and have attained international appeal the tunes are distinctive having a rhythmic vitality in range and tempo, from such as the more mournful lament, through to those played in distinctive 6 over 8 beats to the bar time, marching tunes played with a lively lilt or a swagger, others are in the tempo of a highland reel or a strathspey at a strutting pace, and other tunes played in straightforward 4 over 4 beats to the bar marching time.

Of these two Pipers one was from the much favoured Gurkha regimental pipe band, judging by the other pipers plain none tartan kilt, I would guess that he was from the London Scottish Regiments pipe band.

The area of the lavishly landscaped garden is surprisingly extensive, at the furthermost part from the Palace there is a lovely lake there are walkways and secluded areas with seating where the surrounding quietness may easily make one quite forgetful that you are in the centre of London.

Regimental Band of: The Irish Guards.

Shortly before 5 pm dressed in their famous scarlet uniforms and wearing their bearskin caps the regimental band marched on to the designated parade area. They gave a stunning display of different formations whilst in marching formation playing a selection of stirring traditional military marching tunes, and the music compositions which represent the various branches of the combined armed forces, finishing with the ceremony of Beating Retreat to mark the close of day.

By 5: 30 pm. We made our way back through the Palace to the outer forecourt gates leading to the Mall.

Back to normality, our memorable afternoon was at a close.

The Differences

Medals rather than: Titles

The clearly obvious difference between these awards must be emphasised,

of the numerous awards given annually known as ‘titles’ under the entirely different ‘honours’ orchestrated system which are obtained mainly through governmental influence, such are in the majority of cases given out rather like lollipops.

The recipients often having done little or nothing which really could be regarded as creditably note worthy although there may be a small minority of exceptions, generally these titles lack credence commanding very little or no respect whatsoever.

Mike Breslin 

We hope to expand our private collection and would like to add works of art by Singaporean and Malaysian artists; for example AB Ibrahim, Hussein Ibrahim, Yong Mun Sen, Ong Kim Seng etc.,

Please email us at customerservice@fountainpenemporium.com

There’s definitely something appealing about the old and the classic fountain pens although one is not quite sure what. It may be that they seem to capture something of the charm and elegance of a bygone era.

Within the general scope of ‘rare and scarce collectables’ pens may be thought of as having an advantages in as much as they are not solely just another type of collectable item, not just for looking at or keeping in a display cabinet, they are ‘usable’  distinctive and a pleasure to own and use.

When our Fountain Pen Emporium website was launched, on the home page we comprised a brief introductory write-up in which we make reference to the fountain pen when looked at as an affordable form of modest investment.

In the light of today’s total collapse of financial institutions, how true this has proven to be.

Indeed, by comparison with investment in the stock exchange market, where somebody else takes control of your modest investment.

The humble old fountain pen has long proven to be a safer self managed type of financial investment than stocks and shares are ever likely to be.

A particularly favoured model for investment is the early Japanese Dunhill Namiki pens primarily the maki-e. The earlier the models, the more desirable.

Another favoured model of investment are the limited edition pens.

Firstly, they are lovely to own and as an added bonus, they will appreciate in value.

Little Dorrit by the renowned novelist Charles Dickens (B.1812 - D.1870)

Mr Merdle - The crooked banker

A recently televised production of Dickens story Little Dorrit equates well with recent events, history repeats itself.

The tale revolves around money and greed which parallels today’s credit crunch remarkably well.

An unscrupulous banker, equivalent of the modern day corporate fraudster is portrayed by Mr. Merdle, who’s greed and speculative fretful investment gambling finally squandered his clients money.

One of the main characters in the drama is Arthur Clennam, one of several former investors who after entrusting his fortune fell victim and faced financial ruin as a result of the banker’s greed for easy money.

In those early Victorian times the punishment for failing to pay creditors was severe;

Arthur was arrested and jailed in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison after being sentenced to remain imprisoned until such time as his debts may be cleared.

Arthur was eventually saved from total despair and financial ruin by Amy Dorrit, the loyal woman who stayed with him despite his ill fortune and Daniel Doyce his former friend and business partner.

Little has changed since those times except that unscrupulous bankers and greedy stock market jugglers now get to keep their staggeringly far greater amounts of ill-gotten wealth and go unpunished.

 They’re Mine…..all Mine!!!!

I have a friend…..No…no its not me I tell you, its a friend - a very good friend who has made a difficult and very disturbing confession to me. It would have been easy for this friend to confess that he was say an alcoholic, a gambler, or a purveyor of questionable top shelf magazines, or whatever —-but no! it is much worse than any of those afflictions—- he is compulsively addicted to fountain pen collecting.

To realise how this friends life was ruined by this collecting affliction, one needs to go back to the beginning — at least to his youth. When he was a mere child, his father gave him a few stamps to start a collection, just like any other kid might, but then he became aware of a whole range of other collectibles like bubble-gum cards, matchbox lids, and comics etc….the rot had set in.

He should have seen the writing on the wall when he started sending away for those coins and bank notes and stamps that were advertised on the back of comics —- but he was a mere boy, naive and could not see the tell - tale signs or symptoms of the collecting addiction, already he was hooked.

As this affliction further takes hold, shrouded as it is in a cloak of respectability, there are many people who see no harm in having an innocent hobby of ‘ collecting ‘ but little do they know of the underlying danger that all true fountain pen collector addicts go through.

First of all there are the lies ! My friend often told his wife that he had ‘ lost his wallet ‘, or was ‘ repaying old debts’, or even that he was saving for a ‘ rainy day’ — just to explain the ‘missing money’ that was in reality squandered on his pen collection.

This friend was always looking through collectors magazines hoping to find some ‘advice’ on investing in collectable pens, just so that he could then justify the expenses which his wife knew went towards his pen collection, and of course the items that were shown to her, were always grossly under - stated as to their true acquisition costs.

This good friend became increasingly bitter that his wife wanted to wastefully spend money on such things as clothes, food, home luxuries, and he begrudged paying bills, rather than using that valuable wealth on the greater priority matter of swelling the fountain pen collection. If you ever want to know how to survive on social security state benefit payments, just ask an addicted collector. Collectors have been keeping body and soul together on the small change from their addiction for years, whilst gaining some strange sustenance by watching their collection further grow.

Of course you can tell the really troubled collectors - they are the ones who have their collection hidden away in safe deposit boxes never setting up a display, never joining a pen collectors society or club, and never entering a competition. It’s not that they’re scared of being robbed, or have a fear of displaying an inadequate collection - its because they are afraid of being recognised as a ‘ collector ‘ and having their addiction problem displayed before one and all.

Have you noticed how most serious collectors are either independently wealthy or else are not married. The independently wealthy have a constant source of income to invest in their madness (they are able to hide their affliction behind a veil of eccentricity ) ; whilst the single man or lady has been able to determine his / her priorities early in life — fountain pen collection first, women or men second.

Unfortunately there are others who delude themselves that they could sustain a normal married relationship, with a family taking precedence over ‘ the collection ‘. But, as the years pass, they have found the desire for collectibles has overtaken any concern for domestic responsibilities, starting by ignoring social events and family outings preferring to visit dealers and going to antique and collectors fairs, continuing to falsely justify the ever increasing amount of cash spent on the collection.

As time passes by the accruing debt becomes increasingly evident but is ignored,  always with the excuse of ‘ this is rare’  or ‘ I’ve never seen a classic pen like this for sale before ‘ or ‘ it will complete the series ‘ or  ‘ at that price I can’t pass up the chance ‘ . And we still kid ourselves that if we ever needed the money badly enough we could sell it.  Sell it ! sell it! Oh No, what a relapse I feel quite dizzy and unwell.

I know that there is only one rule about collecting fountain pens, which is that who ever has the best collection when they die, is the winner. This is a well established dictum, but what has confused our friend here is how can he determine ‘ the best collection’. Over the past few months he’s been waking up from a terrifying nightmare in a state of cold sweat, unable to sleep, trying to decide whether the best collection is simply that which is the biggest one, or the one with the highest quality of content ?.

Although this friend is in rather a bad way, now with the understanding support and therapeutic guidance given by his fellow society members and pen collector colleagues, I believe he’s well on his way to achieving a full recovery. In fact recently he was summoned by the inner sanctom of the pen fraternity to appear, attending his first therapeutic meeting, there he stood before the assembled pen collector society members, and in a loud clear voice bravely made that vital open declaration ” I am afflicted with a fountain pen collecting addiction ” likely the hardest few words that he has ever spoken, for all to hear.

These counselling meetings have made him realise that there are other people likewise afflicted, indeed this is not a problem restricted to a few locally based individuals:- it is estimated that the Chinese alone have over two billion assorted types of ‘ collectors ‘ each one miserly hoarding up their own choice of collectible tems.

Whilst I feel that our friends resource is under way, and that there is greater hope for all collectors who bravely confront their problem, much further research into exposing the cause’s of this affliction, remains necessary. Dealers lists, advertisements and fairs are the opium upon which collectors thrive, with the advent of sophisticated state-of-the-art technology enabling computer printouts of your financial status, it won’t be long before the pen collectors paymaster will be able to arrange a direct debit payment addition increasing your existing overdraft limit, and crediting their own bank account with the sale made simultaneously !.

We can help

In an extensive effort to fight off this threat of financial domination, we at ‘ The Fountain Pen Emporium ‘ have formed a fighting fund which we implore all collectors to join, for a premium extra charge we will provide a pair of morocco leather lace-up collectors gloves (with these on your hands whilst at collectors fairs you can’t get into your wallet or write a cheque! And you can instantly recognise others with the same condition ).

NEXT: Genealogy - The discovery of the inherent collecting genes….

What might the subject of a fountain pen have to do with the battle fought at Pasir Panjang Ridge Singapore in 1942! … well nothing really except perhaps for a rather remarkable coincidence which brought me to the allied forces cemetery at Kranji, a  short walk from the MRT station near Woodlands district.

As I walked up to the main entrance I became more increasingly aware of the imposing ambient quietness and serene atmosphere, as though telling me that this is a most special place.

The commemorative cemetery at Kranji is immaculately kept, a virtual forest of neatly spaced headstones with lawn pathways between rows, my thoughts were “how did I get myself into this and how am I going to find the resting place of a certain English second lieutenant who was assigned to the Malay Regiment”.

I had never heard of this last ditch battle where a Malay Brigade together with a second loyal British regiment stood firm although undermanned against a fanatical onslaught of 13,000 attacking Japanese in the Last Battle of Singapore.

That is until an elderly member of the New Zealand World War Two Veterans living in Christchurch N.Z. sent me his gold plated Conway Stewart fountain pen.The outcome of this resulted in a series of on-going exchange email correspondence and a telephone conversation with the veteran soldier in New Zealand, which coincided with one of my many visits to Singapore to spend some time with my Singaporean relatives in law.

I had been uniquely privileged by his former soldier friend who survived and made his home in New Zealand to find this headstone and lay a note of remembrance with flowers in his name on his behalf.

Sure enough after some searching I eventually found this English soldiers grave headstone.

Whilst not an expert on paintings, we do have a small collection of South East Asian paintings, namely watercolours by A.B Ibrahim.

A.B Ibrahim also known as Ibrahim Abu Bakar was a pioneering watercolour artist of Malaysia alongside artists such as Yong Mun Sen.

He was a founder member of  the Society of Malay Artists, Malaya which was formed in Singapore in the 1950s. The Society exhibited their members’ paintings at the British Embassy in Singapore.

His watercolours are extremely colourful depicting the much slower paced of lifestyle in rural and coastal landscapes. Out of our small but growing collection, this is our favourite:-

South East Asia Paintings For Sale

We have only one South East Asia oil painting for sale in our store which can be seen at

http://www.fountainpenemporium.com/Cesar-Buenaventura-Oil-Painting-Market-Scene-p/cesarmarket.htm

Cesar Buenaventura is a prolific Filipino painter. Offers welcomed.