I remember that - that was well out of order and for the school to ALLOW him to basically opt out for a year with no replacement was, quite frankly, taking the piss.  At the time I was only into listening to music 'cos I didn't like picking up an instrument and not immediately sounding like Mark King, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon etc!  Wish I'd messed around with bass and keyboards back then...

 

My nephew's learning the euphonium - I tried getting ANYTHING out of it and gave up!  Too much :MILD: I guess...

Analog synths RULE!  We had a Jupiter 7 at the aforementioned school that needed "tuning up" when cold; I remember Void, the best band at our school, trying to play Relax on it during a gig (must have been 1985, the night the whole of the South West got caught in a blizzard so the next day we were snowed in over the weekend at the school!) and the damn synth just wouldn't stay in tune.  I remember the guy (but forget his name!) frantically trying to keep the damn thing in key by using the twiddle pot on the back!  He he he...

They did a BLINDING version of dIRE sTRAITS' "The man's so strong" that night though - never forgot that either - seeing the snow starting to come down outside and by the end of the gig, having to stomp through it to get anywhere!