In terms of a musical career, Jake Thackray was a late starter. Born in 1938, he was educated at the Roman Catholic St. Michael's College before graduating from Durham University as an English teacher. He worked for almost four years in France, teaching English in Lille, Brittany, and the Pyrenees -- he also spent six months working in Algeria, a stint that somewhat unfortunately coincided with the height of that country's struggle to escape its colonial overlords. Back in Lille, Thackray had his first poems published in a local magazine, then returned to Leeds in 1964. There, his talent for writing short, religiously-themed songs established his lessons as among the most bizarre on the entire curriculum. Under Thackray's tutelage, the class would adapt these songs for musicals, and his own first recordings were tapes of the ensuing performances. By 1967, eight of these pieces had been preserved, including a Christmas show.