John was born in Collyhurst and lived there until he was six years old. “At that time we were rehoused and went to live in Langley, on the overspill estate, like many other families at the time. Then I changed schools from St Patrick’s to Our Lady of the Assumption.”

After he left school, John went to Manchester Technical College, then on to his first job at British Aerospace. While there he passed the grade exams of the Associated Board of Music. “I had some private tuition and also went to night school. Through persistence and good luck, by 1993 I had a part-time contract teaching music in schools. Eventually, part-time became full-time as a peripatetic teacher of music. I now cover five schools, among which are Corpus Christi and St Matthews. Most children from Corpus Christi go on to St Matthews, so continuity in music lessons is achieved”.

In 1998, John was successful in staging a musical drama based on the Lineus Banks book,‘The Manchester Man’. “I got the idea to write a musical. My age and the time seemed right. I invited a couple of friends on board, Robert Wall and Mark Goggins. Robert, who is the drama teacher at St Matthews helped with dramatisation and writing, while Mark scored the music. It was based mainly around Chetham’s School and Manchester Cathedral, so the cathedral seemed the ideal venue to stage it”. We asked John how long it took from the seeds of the idea to the first performance. “It took two years from the idea to actually getting it staged. The cast and crew were very professional amateurs, invited from various amateur dramatic societies”

John has future projects planned. He aims to write more stage shows. “Writing is the easy part! After that, it becomes a nightmare, trying to get it on stage.” He recently completed another musical drama ‘Maximilian’. It is about Maximilian Kolbe and the time he spent in Auswitz concentration camp. “It tells of his selfless journey through to his inevitable martydom. I am now looking for experienced cast and crew members.” The venue has yet to be decided and John is hoping for sponsorship for this venture, to ease the strain and nightmares!

We asked about aims and ambitions yet to fulfil. “To get rich and retire early!” he joked. He then told us he has aims for the children he teaches and told us proudly,”The children of Corpus Christi have done well in their external music exams. Music is a way forward for them to achieve goals they wouldn’t normally achieve.”

We asked John Goulding what he thought was a good thing in the area. “The children of this area have a raw, untapped energy that needs channeling in the right direction”.

On what is bad in the area John said, “Unemployment. People lose track of their own self worth when faced with long-term unemployment.”