tony hancock and mrs brown's boys

Some of my Tony Hancock related books (yes -  l know l am sad!!)

I still love the old radio shows of Tony Hancock's 'Hancocks Half Hour', but found the TV versions less satisfying, because when he was on the radio, your imagination visualised a lot of the material, plus there were other characters such as Bill Kerr and Sid James that added to the charm.
However, whether it was on the radio or TV, one of the hooks to it's immense popularity, was that you felt everyone was having a laugh together, and in a way, playing themselves (which they were to a degree). Mistakes that were left in only added to the charm, a common theme with 'Mrs Brown's Boys', as that has a close nit (and often related) cast, and the mistakes and general playfulness make the TV audience and viewers at home feel as though they are in on (and part of) the joke, creating a climate where all are wanting the show to succeed.
Sadly for Hancock, he lost his way, left behind the people that helped make him successful (especially Ray Galton and Alan Simpson), and ended up committing suicide in 1968 while filming a (very poor) series in Australia. The magic, scripts and timing had left him, and l guess it all got too much for him, so he left us. There are some of the Australian shows on You Tube, but they are cringe worthy to look at, especially compared to what had gone before.
Luckily a lot of the old shows, especially the radio ones, have survived, so at least the humour can be enjoyed and rediscovered by new generations, and help pass the time for demented old bastards like myself, even if l am too young to remember the shows when they were first transmitted.
It's dated, but good humour is still good humour.
As for Mrs Brown's Boys, who knows what direction that will take. I just hope it isn't dragged on way past its sell by date, although l have a sneaking suspicion it will be, because most comedies are.




toodle pip

blues america and bad mojo

Call it serendipity, coincidence, bad mojo, or the blues guitar playing devil from the crossroads messing with my head, but just as l finished watching the BBC series 'Blues America,' which ended on the USA president Barack Obama  singing 'Sweet Home Chicago', a clip that symbolised that the blues are now everywhere, l switched off the TV, only to hear the radio in my kitchen start playing 'Sweet Home Alabama' by Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Spooky!
Maybe it's time for me to get an exorcist in, but in the meantime, here's some great footage.



Lynyrd Skynyrd on The Old Grey Whistle Test - Sweet Home Alabama



Muddy Waters at Newport - Got My Mojo Working.  People forget that a lot of the old bluesmen used to know how to entertain a crowd.  The last minute of this (from 6 m in) is pure class.



Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Didn't It Rain.  She could sing, entertain,  and play a mean guitar



Howlin Wolf - If I Were A Bird - 'Inspiration' for Primal Scream's 'Loaded'.

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roy c and mayer hawthorne

Is it just me, but after the first 25 seconds, does the Mayer Hawthorne song 'The Stars Are Out Tonight' sound like a speeded up version of Roy C's 'Shotgun Wedding', but without the pistol shots?

You know l'm right, and Roy C's lawyers - l'll accept a minor cut of the settlement for pointing out.

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a blast from the past - dr jive and city heat!!

In a strange universe far far away in the distant past, before these four gentlemen rechristened themselves 'Doctor Jive' and 'City Heat', l used to be their singer (when we were known as 'Lilac Mist')
They didn't just have terrible dress sense, they must have been tone death as well.
Take a bow, Rocker, Lammy, Moz and Snoddy (Mark Rye, Paul Lambert, Morris Patton and Steven Snodgrass).

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the daily mail get the obvious wrong (again) with the class of 92

Never trust everything you read and see in the newspapers or on TV, that's one of the many rules l have lived my life by, along with 'What would Keith Richards do?'.  Above is a fine example of why, even if it is sometimes waaaaaaay too easy to pick on The Daily Mail..
Their website had a big feature on the new DVD 'The Class of 92', which is a documentary about Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Gary and Phil Neville, and Paul Scholes, the six Manchester United players that came through the youth ranks to be a success in the first team .  They were coached by Eric Harrison, and he is quoted and acknowledged, but in the middle photograph above, despite the fact that he is wearing a tracksuit top with his initials on, he is named as Alex Ferguson.  Alex is the one in the bottom photograph when the scene is recreated, but let's face it, is a completely different person.
The error has now been amended, no doubt after numerous complaints, but If the paper can't get simple things like this right, why should you trust or believe anything else they say?  Especially with their one eyed, right winged, spittle mouthed racist agenda.  I may get things wrong and have my own, sometimes crackpot views, but l am a blithering drunken idiot, not a national newspaper, so not a lot is expected from my long suffering keyboard, whereas a lot of people believe what they read in the paper, and vote accordingly, without questioning anything too much.  Then the bleeding Tories get in, so the working class and disadvantaged get shafted yet again (but not in a good way).
Time for that long awaited revolution brothers and sisters.

toodle pip

the largeness of space

Space and the planets.
It's big.
Very big.

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good looking stars of the music world getting old

 Debbie Harry - then and now

                                                              Kate Bush - then and now

                                                               Pete Burns - then and now

Robert Smith - then and now

Everybody has to get old (unless they die early or have a painting in the attic), but some manage to do so better than others.  I'm saying nothing negative about any of the above, who were all strikingly attractive when they were younger, but the photographs prove that they are human just like the rest of us mere mortals.
As for myself?  I'm like Cattericks answer to Cliff Richard (The Peter Pan of Pop!), as l haven't aged at all over the last couple of decades.
Then again, maybe l have developed cataracts, or my mirrors are in need a good clean, as l am reliably informed by mates that l look more like Keith Richard, not Cliff.
And sadly, they mean how he looks nowadays.

toodle pip

the worlds largest wooden sculpture - zheng chunhui

The four years it has taken the Chinese artist Zheng Chunhui to sculpt this has been well spent.  It's a superb continuous work of art, all on a 40 foot log.  It is based on the Chinese painting 'Along The River During The Qingming Festival', which itself was created about 1,000 years ago (see below). Anyone who dedicates themselves to producing such an undertaking is obviously a madman, but l'm glad there are people out there prepared to take on the task.
Above pictures are from here.

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another hideous looking spider

Why on earth l scare myself by even looking at pictures of large spiders beats me.
This is one scary looking mutha, and it puts the willies up me (ooeeeerrrr!!).
Bastards.

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another death - martin sharp

And another visionary bites the dust.  Martin Sharp is probably not that well known nowadays, but back in the swinging sixties, he produced some of the most eye catching, iconic, mind blowing images of the rock and counter culture world.  The Bob Dylan 'Mr Tambourine Man' one in red has long been a personal favourite of mine.
He also co-wrote songs with Cream, helped form OZ magazine, championed Tiny Tim (somebody had to) and promoted Arthur Stace's 'Eternity' graffiti (a cause well worth getting behind).
He died today aged 71, and even though he was Australian, privately educated, and had an inheritance, l still have utmost admiration for his work, and he seemed to be a fine upstanding fellow (not that l ever met him).

toodle pip

comet ison looks like it has died

Bloody typical!!
You wait all year for a 4.5 billion year old comet to turn up, and just as you are getting all excited and preparing for some early morning spotting,  it goes and destroys itself going around the Sun, according to the latest reports from NASA (The Nasa Comet ISON Obseravtion site).
It was hoped that ISON had survived, but that seems to have been wishful thinking.
Damn!!!
I blame God.

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political power at work - meet the staff at cellular solutions

I don't know how Cellular Solutions had the nerve to put this out, as l can't believe it will be doing their image any good.
Call me cynical by all means, but I bet there have been a few office affairs over the years as well.
Abuse of power?  No way!

toodle pip

alexander dolgun's story (with patrick wilson) - an american in the gulag

Some people have had a hard life.
Alexander Dolgun came to Russia as his father got a job there before the Second World War (1933), but had difficulty returning to the USA afterwards.  Alexander then got a  job in the United States Embassy, and was living the high life, until 1948, when he was suddenly arrested and sentenced to 25 years in the Gulag (after being interrogated and tortured) on trumped up anti soviet charges.  The book is the story of his arrest and eventual release (in 1956), plus how he managed to leave Russia afterwards and return to America in 1971 (with great difficulty).
It's amazing how some people can adapt to atrocious conditions and circumstances, even if there seems to be no end to the suffering, and no rhyme or reason behind it.  Obviously a lot did not survive, and it's ridiculous what little had to be done to incur the wrath of the powers in charge, and also receive a 25 year sentence.
Oh, l nearly forgot, his parents are also questioned and tortured, and this sends his mother mad.
Not a cheerful read by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly interesting.

toodle pip

having faith in your product - testing a bullet proof vest in 1923

Now this is what l call having complete faith in your own product.  The photographs (one colourised) are from Washington, 1923, and show W.H Murphy, of the Protective Garment Corps, testing out a bullet proof vest, with the aid of the local constabulary.  Obviously it worked, but it is still going to hurt, and l think if it was me that had made it, l'd have paid somebody else to act as the target practise.
Mind you, l bet this exploit garnered a hell of a lot of publicity and sales, so he was probably hurting all the way to the nearest bank.

toodle pip

gravity - alfonso cuaron (2013)

 

 

Well, we got to go and see Alfonso Cuaron's 'Gravity' film this afternoon at Richmond Station, and it was well worth the time, effort and money.  The 3D made it seem as though you were in space with the astronauts, and the cinematography (by Emmanuel Lubezki) was outstanding, especially when the viewpoint changes from outside of a helmet to the inside.  I wasn't too keen on some aspects, as a lot of the film seemed to be an excuse to show Sandra Bullock in her grundies, but George Clooney was pretty cool, and provided an unexpected twist which certainly caught me out. I also appreciate the fact that the film clocked in at an hour and a half, which to me, is long enough for any movie, and left plenty of time to hit the pub afterwards.

Marvellous stuff.  I may even consider going to see it again, while it is still showing at the large cinema screens, and trust me, that is a rare occurrence.  

At the end, l had a flashback and commentated that it was like 'Planet of the Apes' when they first land back on Earth. It turns out l was correct, as the lake is the same one (Lake Powell).  Maybe my brain hasn't completely given up on me yet (although it's only a matter of time). 

toodle pip

napoleon's death mask

My best mate's parents were from St Helena, the place that Napoleon was exiled to (after he had already escaped from Elba), and the place where he died.
Until just recently, l was unaware that a death mask was made of him, but here it is.
I don't know about anybody else, but he looks like nothing l imagined him to be like, although you do get a real sense of how he must have appeared at the time.
Bringing history to life - the gory way!

toodle pip

slyde alive at darlington forum

A top night in Darlington yesterday with Stevie T (kitten), watching Slyde Alive at The Forum.
It was good to catch up in the pub beforehand, and (of course) nonsense was talked by both of us (no change there).
The Forum was packed, and the band were a lot better than we had hoped for, with the singer sounding just like Noddy Holder, and from a distance, in the dark, with our fading eyesight trying to peer through the dry ice, actually resembled him. Top hat with mirrors? cloth cap? tartan trousers? whiskers? stripey socks and platform boots?.  Yes siree, all present and correct.  The rest of the band looked bugger all like the other members, and the Dave Hill of the band had certainly let himself go, but the sound (boosted by an extra guitarist) was spot on, and if you closed your eyes, it could have been Slade themselves, although l was a bit disappointed there was no fiddling during 'Coz I Luv You' by their version of Jimmy Lea (the one semi attractive member). That didn't stop everyone getting down and getting with it, clapping their hands and stamping their feet, which created a great atmosphere, even if some older blokes had their tops off (not us), and there was nearly some fighting (with one lad being escorted out).  Tension hung in the air (also not us), but it all worked out fine, and of course, they finished with 'Merry Xmas Everybody', augmented with Santa hats and fake snow.
I was already in such a good mood prior to the show, l even handed in a five pound note l found at the bar in the Greyhound pub, which they put in their 'charity' box.
I must be losing my marbles (or diluting my scouse genes).
The above video is not from the Darlington gig, and looks a lot more sedate, but it gives you an idea of what it was like.

toodle pip

the manchester united sun socercards

 

 

I've mentioned the Sun Soccercards before, because of their grotesque portrayal of the rather magnificent Willie Morgan (on the wing).
Now l am not in any way paranoid,imagining that the artist (or The Sun newspaper) had it in for the Manchester United players, as there were plenty of unflattering portraits amongst the series, but take a gander at a selection of some of the United players above.  Jimmy Rimmer looks like one of the undead, and Gorden McQueen looks like he is going to explode.  Compared to them, Denis Law (the King) and Willie Morgan didn't fare too badly. I could paint better pictures by dipping my hair in a paint pot and randomly flicking it at a canvas while blindfolded and hung upside down naked (don't ask me how l know).
That to me, screams that somebody had an agenda, and if not, why on earth did they think that kids (who the cards were aimed at) would love to own them?
Apart from me of course, but then again, l'm an idiot horder.

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