THE MILTON KEYNES SONG BOOK
  • Home
  • About
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  • The Song Books
    • Introduction
    • Volume 1 >
      • Section 1 >
        • 1. All Change
        • 2. The Permanent Way
        • 3. James McConnell
        • 4. Tom Worker's Song
        • 5. Who Could Want For Better?
        • 6. Letters Home
        • 7. I Want a Little More From Life
        • 8. Settling In
        • 9. What Do They Think We Are?
      • Section 2 >
        • 1. The Shrimp King
        • 2. Old Bill
        • 3. Cotton and Fluff
        • 4. Ambulance Train
        • 5. It’s Dirty It’s Dusty
        • 6. Worksong
        • 7. Orange and Blue
        • 8. On The Breadline
        • 9. Little by Little
      • Section 3 >
        • 1. Bright Battalions
        • 2. No Heroes No Cowards
        • 3. In Memoriam
        • 4. Parapet Song
        • 5. Do You Ever Think of England?
        • 6. Valley of the Shadow
        • 7. Rest and Relief
        • 8. Back Home Again
        • 9. There’s a War On
      • Section 4 >
        • 1. Stantonbury Village
        • 2. The Wolverton Refreshment Room
        • 3. Sheltered Lives
        • 4. Violet's Song
        • 5. The Bunny Run
        • 6. Stony Stratford, a Country Town
        • 7. A Few Coppers
        • 8. Smiler
        • 9. The Night the Stones Rolled into Town
    • Volume 2 >
      • Section 1 >
        • 1. Christmas Bells
        • 2. Crazy for Canals
        • 3. Denbigh Hall / Goodbye Denbigh Hall
        • 4. I Would Not Change a Thing
        • 5. Emberton
        • 6. Field Song
        • 7 & 8. Stony Stratford Songs
        • 9. Rainbow
        • 10. Sheltermore
      • Section 2 >
        • 1. The Ballad of Joey Guest
        • 2. Dad’s Song
        • 3. The Bike Song
        • 4. Here Is Jack
        • 5. Awake and Arise
        • 6. Master and Servants
        • 7. The Stockman
        • 8. When Dick Met Alma
        • 9. Safety in Numbers
        • 10. In the Event of an Air Raid
      • Section 3 >
        • 1. Captain Swing
        • 2. Honourable Frauds
        • 3 & 4. Lord Kitchener / Song of the Recruits
        • 5. The Glorious New Year
        • 6. The Slaughterhouse Carol
        • 7. An Invitation From His Majesty
        • 8. Day After Dreary Day
        • 9. Dance Round the Bonfire
        • 10. Hymn to the Future
      • Section 4 >
        • 1. The Ghost of Lady Bennet
        • 2. Song of the Bridge
        • 3. The Stony Stratford Schools Song
        • 4. A Bob a Bloody Day
        • 5. The Wolverton Whistle
        • 6. War Weapons Week
        • 7. The Forestry Song
        • 8. Rover
        • 9. Snowflake
        • 10. The Flies
  • Composers
  • Credits
  • Contact

7. I Want a Little More From Life 
by Neil Mercer and Lyn Dawes

The documentary musical play, Bigger, Brighter, Better was the story of Bletchley 1944–1966, when Londoners came to settle in the then-apparently insignificant Buckinghamshire town. The play was devised by Rib Davis and Roger Kitchen and performed at The Sanctuary, Bletchley in December 1996 - a huge, 3,500-capacity music venue in Denbigh, now the site of IKEA.  The story was told in song and drama through the words of local people’s recorded interviews and contemporary newspaper reports.
    
This song was written as if from the point of view of a Londoner yearning for a home of her own. The Blitz had destroyed more than buildings: people needed good homes for their families to grow up in, and Bletchley Urban District Council provided an answer, building thousands of council houses in the twenty years before Milton Keynes was designated. In the 1970s, the influx of settlers coming to better homes ranged throughout the new city.

We lived in two rooms on the second floor of a house in Islington, five flights of stairs down to the toilet and as the children were small they weren’t allowed to use the toilet because it wasn’t very clean and so when we moved to Bletchley they were so pleased that they’d got a toilet they could use, Linda locked herself in the first day we moved in. 
(Pam Porter, LAMK 1996)

I had a one-bedroom basement flat in London and there were four of us sleeping in one room. And I only had a kitchen, it didn’t have any bathroom, it had an outside toilet. I never dreamt of ever getting a house, living in London…
     … So this three-bedroom house was like a dream. And central heating! And fitted cupboards in the kitchen and the kids had their own bedroom! It was just wonderful. It was really brilliant. 

(Kathy Sellick, LAMK 1996)

Interview extracts and images from LAMK archive, including 1970s Fullers Slade (bottom image). The song is featured on the Living Archive Band’s album  All That’s Changed Vol 1 (LAMK): I Want A Little More From Life | The Living Archive Band (bandcamp.com)
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Picture
Kitchen on a Brixton staircase, 1972
Picture
1970s Fullers Slade
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Copyright Living Archive Milton Keynes © 2024
  • Home
  • About
  • Sources
  • The Song Books
    • Introduction
    • Volume 1 >
      • Section 1 >
        • 1. All Change
        • 2. The Permanent Way
        • 3. James McConnell
        • 4. Tom Worker's Song
        • 5. Who Could Want For Better?
        • 6. Letters Home
        • 7. I Want a Little More From Life
        • 8. Settling In
        • 9. What Do They Think We Are?
      • Section 2 >
        • 1. The Shrimp King
        • 2. Old Bill
        • 3. Cotton and Fluff
        • 4. Ambulance Train
        • 5. It’s Dirty It’s Dusty
        • 6. Worksong
        • 7. Orange and Blue
        • 8. On The Breadline
        • 9. Little by Little
      • Section 3 >
        • 1. Bright Battalions
        • 2. No Heroes No Cowards
        • 3. In Memoriam
        • 4. Parapet Song
        • 5. Do You Ever Think of England?
        • 6. Valley of the Shadow
        • 7. Rest and Relief
        • 8. Back Home Again
        • 9. There’s a War On
      • Section 4 >
        • 1. Stantonbury Village
        • 2. The Wolverton Refreshment Room
        • 3. Sheltered Lives
        • 4. Violet's Song
        • 5. The Bunny Run
        • 6. Stony Stratford, a Country Town
        • 7. A Few Coppers
        • 8. Smiler
        • 9. The Night the Stones Rolled into Town
    • Volume 2 >
      • Section 1 >
        • 1. Christmas Bells
        • 2. Crazy for Canals
        • 3. Denbigh Hall / Goodbye Denbigh Hall
        • 4. I Would Not Change a Thing
        • 5. Emberton
        • 6. Field Song
        • 7 & 8. Stony Stratford Songs
        • 9. Rainbow
        • 10. Sheltermore
      • Section 2 >
        • 1. The Ballad of Joey Guest
        • 2. Dad’s Song
        • 3. The Bike Song
        • 4. Here Is Jack
        • 5. Awake and Arise
        • 6. Master and Servants
        • 7. The Stockman
        • 8. When Dick Met Alma
        • 9. Safety in Numbers
        • 10. In the Event of an Air Raid
      • Section 3 >
        • 1. Captain Swing
        • 2. Honourable Frauds
        • 3 & 4. Lord Kitchener / Song of the Recruits
        • 5. The Glorious New Year
        • 6. The Slaughterhouse Carol
        • 7. An Invitation From His Majesty
        • 8. Day After Dreary Day
        • 9. Dance Round the Bonfire
        • 10. Hymn to the Future
      • Section 4 >
        • 1. The Ghost of Lady Bennet
        • 2. Song of the Bridge
        • 3. The Stony Stratford Schools Song
        • 4. A Bob a Bloody Day
        • 5. The Wolverton Whistle
        • 6. War Weapons Week
        • 7. The Forestry Song
        • 8. Rover
        • 9. Snowflake
        • 10. The Flies
  • Composers
  • Credits
  • Contact