
Ken Underwood met Dudley when they were both apprentices in the Engineering Training School at EMI Electronics in Hayes, Middx. Ken talks about his life in the early sixties:
“My time at EMI was OK but not very fulfilling, as also was mentioned by Dudley when he went to work for Jim Marshall. The reason why I went there was quite simple, my uncle Jim, who I loved and admired, was the Production Manager and had worked his way up right from a young age starting in the machine shop.”
Ken’s uncle, knowing that Ken was interested in electronics said to him: “Lad, I will get you the interview and you have to do the rest” Ken did, they accepted him and he earned a princely sum of £26/month. It was quite upsetting and embarrassing as his dad who was a bus driver at Southall garage and had been doing that for nearly 30 years, only just had the same wage per month as Ken.

The EMI Springfield Road operation did not do too much for Ken as it was specific to guided weapons which did not interest him one little bit. He left when he had an offer from Elliot McDonald G3MUV who ran the Ground Radio workshop at Pan American Airways. It was above the PanAm commissary building, beside the hanger that housed the Airborne Radio and Radar workshop where Dudley eventually worked. This is also is where Ken Bran worked previously. EMI sent Ken to Southall Technical College on the same course as Dudley but a year later, and when Ken went to work at Heathrow PanAm honoured the course. Ken was able to continue until he passed the exam.
Ken met his wife Sylv on a blind date at London Zoo, courtesy of friends Lynda and Graham who also set Dudley and Barbara up on a blind date in 65/66. Ken left PanAm to get married in 67 and moved to Harlow in Essex, working for Cossor Electronics involved with secondary Radar.
Sixty years later, Ken Underwood is still a tireless advocate for the true story of the birth of the Marshall sound.
