Just at the right time when Howard couldn’t afford to pay the rent on his apartment, along comes a once in a lifetime break.

It all began with a conversation with Decca Records.
The conversation between Decca and Howard went something like this “Can we hire (rent) the Leslie Speaker which connects to a guitar from you for four days and would you deliver it to our studios?” Howard agreed on a price including delivery and pickup. By the way, this was for the Moody Blues who had recently signed to Decca Records.

Although Howard had never rented any kit out prior to this, he did need some income and that was the end of the conversation but the next conversation with Decca Records was to be the beginning of a huge turnaround in Howard’s future. How come?

Well, Howard got another call from the lady at Decca Records (Jackie?) whom he had received the initial phone call from, and she asked Howard if he also had several other musical instruments that she needed for the Moody Blues next recording session.

Howard believes if he had not responded in the way he did, he would have missed one of the biggest opportunities of his life. Howard simply said to this young woman “give me a list of all the kit you need for the Moody Blues and I will get back to you very soon”.

Before Howard shares the amazing things that were to change his life, he first wants to explain some of the backgrounds as to what the situation was and what they were facing.

Howard had started to become interested in learning about God for the first time in his life and he could see that seeking success at any price was the way forward as he recalled hearing certain scriptures read out in assembly time at school like “The Meek Will Inherit The Earth”, and Howard had come to a conclusion that only the strong could become wealthy and rise to a strong position in life and not the meek and mild people as they only get trodden on and abused by the stronger and more forceful in this world.

Howard soon changed his mind as he read more of the scriptures for himself as he could see his attitude was wrong and he changed his mind to the point where he said to God “I want to do things your way and I will learn to be content with less and bide my time Lord”.

At the same time all this was going on with reading the Bible and talking to Decca Records who were wanting to rent more kit from Howard and at the same time, his landlord of the apartment where his wife and new-born child were living was demanding the rent and Howard was explaining to the landlord that he was no longer in employment, but he had some money coming soon from Decca Records.
This was not enough to satisfy his landlord as he did not believe what Howard was saying about money coming due to him from Decca Records and his landlord gave him an ultimatum; “If you don’t pay the rent by next week then you have to leave the apartment”.

The next week came, and Howard still had no money to pay the rent, therefore Howard and his family moved out of the apartment and moved into a friend’s apartment with a view of renovating a dilapidated basement under his friend’s ground floor flat. Apparently, no one had lived in the basement for several decades and had needed new electrics, and heating, Also the ceilings had collapsed. It also needed a new kitchen and bathroom. It was estimated that the work would take months to do everything, and the big question was how much was it going to cost?

Howard was of the mindset that this basement will take a very long time to renovate and will need a lot of money to do so. But with his new mindset, he was at peace about taking one step at a time.

Now, the next phone call with the lady at Decca Records was to be crucial. Howard and his family had moved out of their rental as the landlord demanded and the good thing was that Howard was able to supply all the musical equipment that the Moody Blues required for their recording sessions at Decca Records.

This was to be the beginning of one of the most lucrative ventures of Howard’s life. The Conders prospered very much over the next few years until the beginning of the oil crisis in the early’70s.

After building a good relationship with Decca Records eventually, Howard asked them why did Decca give all their business for supplying rental equipment to him and not to have done what they did in the past and that was to rent from the various music shops in central London?

The answer to Howard’s question was simply that Decca was able to rely totally on Howard’s ability to always provide what they wanted and on time whereas in the past Decca would book the musical kit from various musical retail shops and then send a taxi to pick the items up and the shops would have sold the kit and the recording artists would be stuck without the kit and the recording sessions would not be able to go ahead whereas Howard was always reliable and never let them down.

What Howard had established was a most reliable service in a most professional way. A little anecdote worth sharing; On one occasion when Howard received a call in the middle of the night from the Moody Blues who were recording needed a new set of guitar strings (these midnight recording sessions were the norm in those days) and Howard said “No problems” and he took a set over to the Decca Studios and because Howard was only 21 yrs. old and looked much younger than that, he never declared that he was the boss of Conder Enterprises but only the driver so when one of the Moody Blues said to Howard “Please say thank you to Mr Conder” Howard replied, “I certainly will do that sir”.

Howard supplied most of the kit for the Moody Blues recordings from Bass Flute, Mellotrons, Martin six and twelves string guitars which were very special editions worth hundreds of thousands of pounds today. Howard lifted all these heavy items including Hammond B and C 3’s all on his own.

His wife Annette used to take all the phone calls and the orders and Howard would deliver them to the recording studios which included many of the top recording artists of that period. This was mostly all stored and conducted from their renovated once dilapidated basement apartment which was choc-o-block with the musical kit.

Howard’s accountants during this prosperous time were also Mark Bolan’s T Rex accountants who used to say to Howard “You would fall into a barrel of Sh-t and come out smelling of Roses”. In other words, no matter what Howard would put his hand to would prosper.

That worked in the late sixties and into the early seventies but didn’t work for him in the 20th Century for he found that people had changed to being very jealous of successful people like Howard and due to the onset of online social media comments about him or anyone who succeeds, sadly brings the worst out of some people. I think Jealousy is a fitting word to use.

By the time Howard was 23 yrs. old he opened the Howard Conder Music Centre at 8 Eden Street Kingston upon Thames in Surrey which was to be the next adventure for Howard.

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