"The Daily Telegraph" newspaper article from 2 April 2005.
CLASS ACT: BARBARA DICKSON
The teacher who inspired Barbara Dickson.
"Sandy Saddler was my music teacher at Woodland High School in Dunfermline, Fife, in the early 1960s. He was young, about 24, which was a novelty, and he had flexible ideas about music. He wasn't just entrenched in classical music.
He had the great wisdom to tap into what children liked. Folk music was filtering here from America and it appealed because we young people thought perhaps we could change the world. Mr Saddler played folk songs that we could all sing and play. I had already taught myself to play guitar. We could all join in and we enjoyed it immensely.
The school concert was an annual fixture, which he put together. When I sang on stage, I thought: "This is good, I can do this." If you are encouraged to perform when you are young, you accept that it is a natural thing to do and you don't die of fright when you have to stand up as an adult and make a speech.
He was brilliant at getting us to come up with original suggestions for the production and making the most of what resources we had, mainly recorders, a few violins and a piano. We enjoyed working together as a team. It gives you a good outlook on life.
We're talking charisma here. He made you think you could do anything. He brought out the best in all of us. That's so brilliant about a good teacher - they make you love what they love.
When I became a professional folk singer, he and his wife sometimes came to hear me and, when I appeared on This Is Your Life, I was thrilled to greet them.
Barbara Dickson's latest album, 'Full Circle', is released by RandM records. She is on tour until May 5.
