YOU DON’T STOP PLAYING BECAUSE YOU GET OLD, YOU GET OLD BECAUSE YOU STOP PLAYING

by Rod Davis (1960, Modern & Medieval Languages)

Music has always been in my blood. I was six when I started playing the piano, but it never really inspired me, and I gave up lessons when I sat my 11-plus exam. We were a musical family – my mother and father played the violin, my uncle played the fiddle and saw, and my grandfather played the concertina. When skiffle took off, I knew I needed to find my instrument. So, in 1956, I bought a banjo for £5, which was a lot of money in those days. Little did I know then where that banjo would take me over the years, from joining John Lennon’s schoolboy skiffle group The Quarrymen, to accompanying me on my Cambridge escapades, to touring with the reformed Quarrymen in the 1990s and beyond.

The road to Trinity began for me at my secondary school, Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. Our headmaster, Ernest Taylor (1928), was a history graduate from Trinity and several boys had become students there over the years. In 1957, we acquired a new Head, Bill Pobjoy, who was a Caius man, and our Spanish teacher, Keith Kerr (1954), was also from Trinity. Consequently, a trickle of Quarry Bank boys was divided between these two Colleges.

I took the scholarship exams twice, and the second time I managed to nail a minor scholarship to study Modern & Medieval Languages, my subjects being principally French and Spanish. Staying in Trinity for a whole week for the exams was an experience. In those days, in Hall there were benches affixed to the walls on each side, which meant that the only way to get out from behind the long tables was to climb on to the tabletop and walk across, taking care to avoid other students who were still finishing their meal.

At the Societies’ Fair in October 1960, I threw myself into undergraduate life, joining a whole rash, including the St Lawrence Folk Song Society, the University Bowmen, and the Classical Guitar Society. I quickly acquired a wide circle of friends, particularly from the St Lawrence, and five of us still meet to make music more than 60 years later.

I shared rooms in New Court with John Raiswell (1960), a friend from school. Learning to punt was one of our principal ambitions and much time was spent falling into the Cam, leaving a trail of personal belongings on the riverbed before the knack was properly mastered.

The river being a major feature of life in the College, regular amusement was afforded by standing on Trinity Bridge criticising the inept attempts at punting by tourists, and especially by members of the U.S. Air Force. Some of us were not above grabbing the end of a punt pole from an unfortunate who was trying to shoot the bridge, resulting in his making an undignified slide down the pole into the water and causing general hilarity along the riverbank.

Essential accoutrements for a new undergrad were a College gown and a bicycle. Undergrad gowns, known as ‘bumfreezers’, were worn for lectures and for dinner in Hall, where they came in useful to protect you from being splattered with Soupe Julienne, one of the staple delicacies on the College menu, as the sense of balance of some of the waiters was somewhat suspect. When riding to lectures on your bike, the gown would be rolled and slung over the shoulder. It was essential that the bike was as decrepit as possible, consistent with safety, as a precaution against theft.

Despite this, every month Cambridge City Police would hold an auction of bikes that had been abandoned on the streets, to make up for the ones which had actually been stolen but never recovered.

Poppy Day was also Rag Day in Cambridge, and for our contribution to Trinity’s efforts, my friend, Dick Quinnell (1960), an exponent of the sousaphone, put together a scratch jazz band which rejoiced under the name of Earthquake McGoon and his Dogpatch Seven. Spectators would throw money – and the occasional apple core – into the bell of sousaphone as we played. From time to time Dick would have to stop to empty his instrument as it would begin to play sharp. I took part on banjo, my musical career having started in earnest in 1956, when, inspired by Lonnie Donegan’s ‘Rock Island Line’, I became a member of John Lennon’s skiffle group, The Quarrymen, in which I was eventually replaced by a lad called Paul Mc something.

For Poppy Day in 1962, I found myself playing the banjo in yet another jazz band, with the intention of making a record starring the Australian miler, Herb

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF Milly Yelf (2019)

Trinity Student Experience Officer

The job title of Student Experience Officer is an intimidatingly broad one. What does it mean to be concerned with the student experience? And why does Trinity need an officer now? Being the first person to occupy this role in the College, I have spent a lot of my time reflecting on these questions as a way of determining how my role fits into the daily fabric of Trinity.

evening, with each of us in our childhood bedrooms in our own corners of our country. It goes without saying that upon returning to College in my final year, every marker of normalcy felt precious.

Elliott, Gold Medallist at the Rome Olympics, who was a student at Jesus. Some of his fellow students decided to capitalise on his fame and had written a song called ‘Running Shoes’ for him to sing –with some help, let it be said. Other Colleges were canvassed to find appropriate musicians. Trinity supplied the drummer, Syd Burnand (1959); the trumpeter, Charlie Higgins (1958 d), and me. With the rest of the band, we made a 45rpm disc at Decca Studios in London and appeared on television on the ‘Tonight’ programme.

Many years later, in 1997, my Quarrymen career took off once more as we reformed the group with the surviving original musicians from 1956. Since then, we have played over half the globe, from Cuba to Japan and most places in between. I must say that my languages have proved extremely useful during our various tours, especially for ordering the beer. In June this year we will be performing in Germany in the town of Cottbus in Brandenburg, where one of the attractions is punting on the lakes and canals of the Spreewald, so maybe my three years at Trinity were not entirely frittered away.

I came up to read English in 2019, and when I matriculated, I assumed my student experience would mimic those of my predecessors. Instead, during the pandemic, in-person social activities ceased, students went home, and supervisions took place online. Many of the quintessentially ‘Trinity’ experiences were no longer possible. Instead, student activities were adapted to a new online format. I remember quiz nights run by the Chaplain via Zoom and newsletters from the Tutorial team each week. My friendship group even made our own faux Halfway Hall on a Facebook video call one

I spend one day a week working with the Alumni Office, collaborating on initiatives to connect students with alumni, for the benefit of both. When I speak to alumni at Annual Gatherings, I am struck by the commonality of the student experience over the years: picnics by the Cam, summer walks to Grantchester, societies, formals, and May Balls. There is something wonderful in pointing at a window in New Court and recalling your second-year room, knowing that Tennyson could have done the same. It is these memories that transform a College into a community, and, for many alumni, these student experiences are as inherent to the College as the crocuses that bloom on the Backs every spring.

I began my job only a couple of months after Graduation and, in many ways, I feel that it has given me a chance to reclaim some of the experiences I might have missed during my time of remote learning. My first project was a programme of ReFresh Weeks – a packed timetable of activities taking place during week five of every term, which is a notoriously stressful work week for students. During these weeks I host a wide variety of events including guide dog fundraisers, ceramic classes, cocktail making workshops, jazz concerts in the Chapel, photography walks, watercolour and wine evenings, movie nights and ice-skating outings.

My priority is presenting a wide variety of activities so that there’s something fun for every student (often forgetting that l must also participate in every session…). For me, ReFresh Week is a great chance to meet and chat with lots of students about how they’re getting on. I meet hundreds of people in a very short space of time and these informal chats guide my next project.

One of these projects we’re really excited about is an initiative in collaboration with one of Trinity’s Chaplains, Anne Strauss, called Trinity Engage. This is a project that we hope will encourage students to volunteer with the local community by helping them to find volunteering opportunities which will fit with their passions and work within their busy schedules. It has been enlightening to speak with charities such as Reengage and Cambridge Student Community Action about the ways in which we can best support their work within the College, and I feel very fortunate to be able to dedicate time promoting these causes.

This is not to imply that volunteering isn’t already a key part of life at Trinity. When we began to develop Trinity Engage, Anne and I asked students to let us know about any volunteering they already participate in. It has been lovely to hear about the wide range of voluntary work that is already quietly taking place within the Trinity community from singing in prisons to working in soup kitchens. On 26 April, we held our first event with student volunteers (see photo) to promote and celebrate their voluntary work and in the hope that others might be inspired to incorporate volunteeing into their own life at Cambridge.

I’m glad that the post is being continued into next year. When looking back on my time at university, a large portion of it was spent wishing for a normal Trinity experience, one which was as untouched by the pandemic as possible. However, I am now very grateful for that uncertain time because it highlighted to me, and to many others, that values such as community and belonging can’t be taken for granted. While Trinity is undoubtably very beautiful, the student experience shouldn’t simply rely on the traditions that come hand in hand with the place. Instead, creating a positive experience means working with current students to make their time at College as enriching as possible. I am incredibly lucky that my first job has given me the opportunity to pursue exciting and creative work that I believe is truly important.