"But was music his life? If so, it was because of the man in the red dressing gown, years before, when John was eight years old." 'This coming-of- age tale follows childhood friends, John and Martin, from their youth to adulthood as they grow up in the industrial city of Porterfield, Britain, during the post-World War II eras of the 1950s and 1960s...John's "ordinary" persona is shy, intelligent, musically disposed, and exudes a serious approach...