The Today programme on BBC Radio 4 have been asking listeners today (Wednesday) for their iconic telephone box stories.
Geoff from Bristol called in to explain that when he was staying on the Isle of Wight 25 years ago, he’d been banned from playing his saxophone in his apartment, as it was a “big echoey place”.
He told the programme that one winter’s evening he came up with the idea of setting up his music and practicing in the telephone box opposite, where he could have light and shelter.
Geoff: People looked at me as if I was a bit mad
Geoff said,
“Nobody seemed to bother me. Occasionally people went by and looked at me as if I was a bit mad.
“A policeman stopped once and said, ‘I suppose it’s OK so long as you vacate the phone box if someone needs it’ and passed on his way.”
He went on to say,
“One time the telephone rang, so I picked it up and it was a journalist. He thought this was a bit of a curiosity so I made the news and it was in 1996. I was quite new to the saxophone and was not making a very good noise I am sure.”
Did you see Geoff?
Do any of our readers remember seeing the saxophonist practicing in a telephone box on the Island in the 1990s?
Or were you the journalist that spoke to him?
Although he doesn’t say where on the Island the telephone was, the discussion of iconic telephone boxes reminded us of the Grade II listed K1 box on Bembridge High Street, which we happened to take a photo of last weekend.
Update
We posted the story on the Isle of Wight Heritage social media group and Greg Rowlings came up trumps. He said,
“The musician in question practiced in the telephone box opposite Osborne Court apartments in Cowes, this due to advice given by his wife regarding the continuation of their relationship.
“He was once invited to play with a local band in the Globe Inn, where the concerns of his wife were realised. Very nice bloke though.”
Listen again
You can hear Geoff relaying his story on BBC Sounds (two hours and 56 minutes in).
Article edit
9.23am 11th Nov 2021 – Update from Greg added
Image: Saxophone player for illustrative purposes by Reno Laithienne under CC BY 2.0
