Podcast appearances and mentions of George Formby

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a two-episode look at the song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, and the intertwining careers of Joe Boyd, Sandy Denny, and Richard Thompson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-one-minute bonus episode available, on Judy Collins’ version of this song. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by editing, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Erratum For about an hour this was uploaded with the wrong Elton John clip in place of “Saturday Sun”. This has now been fixed. Resources Because of the increasing problems with Mixcloud’s restrictions, I have decided to start sharing streaming playlists of the songs used in episodes instead of Mixcloud ones. This Tunemymusic link will let you listen to the playlist I created on your streaming platform of choice — however please note that not all the songs excerpted are currently available on streaming. The songs missing from the Tidal version are “Shanten Bells” by the Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” by A.L. Lloyd, two by Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, three by Elton John & Linda Peters, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow” by Sandy Denny and “You Never Know” by Charlie Drake, but the other fifty-nine are there. Other songs may be missing from other services. The main books I used on Fairport Convention as a whole were Patrick Humphries' Meet On The Ledge, Clinton Heylin's What We Did Instead of Holidays, and Kevan Furbank's Fairport Convention on Track. Rob Young's Electric Eden is the most important book on the British folk-rock movement. Information on Richard Thompson comes from Patrick Humphries' Richard Thompson: Strange Affair and Thompson's own autobiography Beeswing.  Information on Sandy Denny comes from Clinton Heylin's No More Sad Refrains and Mick Houghton's I've Always Kept a Unicorn. I also used Joe Boyd's autobiography White Bicycles and Chris Blackwell's The Islander.  And this three-CD set is the best introduction to Fairport's music currently in print. Transcript Before we begin, this episode contains reference to alcohol and cocaine abuse and medical neglect leading to death. It also starts with some discussion of the fatal car accident that ended last episode. There’s also some mention of child neglect and spousal violence. If that’s likely to upset you, you might want to skip this episode or read the transcript. One of the inspirations for this podcast when I started it back in 2018 was a project by Richard Thompson, which appears (like many things in Thompson’s life) to have started out of sheer bloody-mindedness. In 1999 Playboy magazine asked various people to list their “songs of the Millennium”, and most of them, understanding the brief, chose a handful of songs from the latter half of the twentieth century. But Thompson determined that he was going to list his favourite songs *of the millennium*. He didn’t quite manage that, but he did cover seven hundred and forty years, and when Playboy chose not to publish it, he decided to turn it into a touring show, in which he covered all his favourite songs from “Sumer Is Icumen In” from 1260: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Sumer is Icumen In”] Through numerous traditional folk songs, union songs like “Blackleg Miner”, pieces by early-modern composers, Victorian and Edwardian music hall songs, and songs by the Beatles, the Ink Spots, the Kinks, and the Who, all the way to “Oops! I Did It Again”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Oops! I Did it Again”] And to finish the show, and to show how all this music actually ties together, he would play what he described as a “medieval tune from Brittany”, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”] We have said many times in this podcast that there is no first anything, but there’s a reason that Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention’s third album of 1969, and the album other than Unhalfbricking on which their reputation largely rests, was advertised with the slogan “The first (literally) British folk rock album ever”. Folk-rock, as the term had come to be known, and as it is still usually used today, had very little to do with traditional folk music. Rather, the records of bands like The Byrds or Simon and Garfunkel were essentially taking the sounds of British beat groups of the early sixties, particularly the Searchers, and applying those sounds to material by contemporary singer-songwriters. People like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan had come up through folk clubs, and their songs were called folk music because of that, but they weren’t what folk music had meant up to that point — songs that had been collected after being handed down through the folk process, changed by each individual singer, with no single identifiable author. They were authored songs by very idiosyncratic writers. But over their last few albums, Fairport Convention had done one or two tracks per album that weren’t like that, that were instead recordings of traditional folk songs, but arranged with rock instrumentation. They were not necessarily the first band to try traditional folk music with electric instruments — around the same time that Fairport started experimenting with the idea, so did an Irish band named Sweeney’s Men, who brought in a young electric guitarist named Henry McCullough briefly. But they do seem to have been the first to have fully embraced the idea. They had done so to an extent with “A Sailor’s Life” on Unhalfbricking, but now they were going to go much further: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves” (from about 4:30)] There had been some doubt as to whether Fairport Convention would even continue to exist — by the time Unhalfbricking, their second album of the year, was released, they had been through the terrible car accident that had killed Martin Lamble, the band’s drummer, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson’s girlfriend. Most of the rest of the band had been seriously injured, and they had made a conscious decision not to discuss the future of the band until they were all out of hospital. Ashley Hutchings was hospitalised the longest, and Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, and Sandy Denny, the other three surviving members of the band, flew over to LA with their producer and manager, Joe Boyd, to recuperate there and get to know the American music scene. When they came back, the group all met up in the flat belonging to Denny’s boyfriend Trevor Lucas, and decided that they were going to continue the band. They made a few decisions then — they needed a new drummer, and as well as a drummer they wanted to get in Dave Swarbrick. Swarbrick had played violin on several tracks on Unhalfbricking as a session player, and they had all been thrilled to work with him. Swarbrick was one of the most experienced musicians on the British folk circuit. He had started out in the fifties playing guitar with Beryl Marriott’s Ceilidh Band before switching to fiddle, and in 1963, long before Fairport had formed, he had already appeared on TV with the Ian Campbell Folk Group, led by Ian Campbell, the father of Ali and Robin Campbell, later of UB40: [Excerpt: The Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Shanten Bells (medley on Hullaballoo!)”] He’d sung with Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd: [Excerpt: A.L. Lloyd, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” ] And he’d formed his hugely successful duo with Martin Carthy, releasing records like “Byker Hill” which are often considered among the best British folk music of all time: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, “Byker Hill”] By the time Fairport had invited him to play on Unhalfbricking, Swarbrick had already performed on twenty albums as a core band member, plus dozens more EPs, singles, and odd tracks on compilations. They had no reason to think they could actually get him to join their band. But they had three advantages. The first was that Swarbrick was sick of the traditional folk scene at the time, saying later “I didn’t like seven-eighths of the people involved in it, and it was extremely opportune to leave. I was suddenly presented with the possibilities of exploring the dramatic content of the songs to the full.” The second was that he was hugely excited to be playing with Richard Thompson, who was one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation, and Martin Carthy remembers him raving about Thompson after their initial sessions. (Carthy himself was and is no slouch on the guitar of course, and there was even talk of getting him to join the band at this point, though they decided against it — much to the relief of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol, who is a perfectly fine player himself but didn’t want to be outclassed by *two* of the best guitarists in Britain at the same time). And the third was that Joe Boyd told him that Fairport were doing so well — they had a single just about to hit the charts with “Si Tu Dois Partir” — that he would only have to play a dozen gigs with Fairport in order to retire. As it turned out, Swarbrick would play with the group for a decade, and would never retire — I saw him on his last tour in 2015, only eight months before he died. The drummer the group picked was also a far more experienced musician than any of the rest, though in a very different genre. Dave Mattacks had no knowledge at all of the kind of music they played, having previously been a player in dance bands. When asked by Hutchings if he wanted to join the band, Mattacks’ response was “I don’t know anything about the music. I don’t understand it… I can’t tell one tune from another, they all sound the same… but if you want me to join the group, fine, because I really like it. I’m enjoying myself musically.” Mattacks brought a new level of professionalism to the band, thanks to his different background. Nicol said of him later “He was dilligent, clean, used to taking three white shirts to a gig… The application he could bring to his playing was amazing. With us, you only played well when you were feeling well.” This distinction applied to his playing as well. Nicol would later describe the difference between Mattacks’ drumming and Lamble’s by saying “Martin’s strength was as an imaginative drummer. DM came in with a strongly developed sense of rhythm, through keeping a big band of drunken saxophone players in order. A great time-keeper.” With this new line-up and a new sense of purpose, the group did as many of their contemporaries were doing and “got their heads together in the country”. Joe Boyd rented the group a mansion, Farley House, in Farley Chamberlayne, Hampshire, and they stayed there together for three months. At the start, the group seem to have thought that they were going to make another record like Unhalfbricking, with some originals, some songs by American songwriters, and a few traditional songs. Even after their stay in Farley Chamberlayne, in fact, they recorded a few of the American songs they’d rehearsed at the start of the process, Richard Farina’s “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood” and Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn’s “Ballad of Easy Rider”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Ballad of Easy Rider”] Indeed, the whole idea of “getting our heads together in the country” (as the cliche quickly became in the late sixties as half of the bands in Britain went through much the same kind of process as Fairport were doing — but usually for reasons more to do with drug burnout or trend following than recovering from serious life-changing trauma) seems to have been inspired by Bob Dylan and the Band getting together in Big Pink. But very quickly they decided to follow the lead of Ashley Hutchings, who had had something of a Damascene conversion to the cause of traditional English folk music. They were listening mostly to Music From Big Pink by the Band, and to the first album by Sweeney’s Men: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “The Handsome Cabin Boy”] And they decided that they were going to make something that was as English as those records were North American and Irish (though in the event there were also a few Scottish songs included on the record). Hutchings in particular was becoming something of a scholar of traditional music, regularly visiting Cecil Sharp House and having long conversations with A.L. Lloyd, discovering versions of different traditional songs he’d never encountered before. This was both amusing and bemusing Sandy Denny, who had joined a rock group in part to get away from traditional music; but she was comfortable singing the material, and knew a lot of it and could make a lot of suggestions herself. Swarbrick obviously knew the repertoire intimately, and Nicol was amenable, while Mattacks was utterly clueless about the folk tradition at this point but knew this was the music he wanted to make. Thompson knew very little about traditional music, and of all the band members except Denny he was the one who has shown the least interest in the genre in his subsequent career — but as we heard at the beginning, showing the least interest in the genre is a relative thing, and while Thompson was not hugely familiar with the genre, he *was* able to work with it, and was also more than capable of writing songs that fit in with the genre. Of the eleven songs on the album, which was titled Liege and Lief (which means, roughly, Lord and Loyalty), there were no cover versions of singer-songwriters. Eight were traditional songs, and three were originals, all written in the style of traditional songs. The album opened with “Come All Ye”, an introduction written by Denny and Hutchings (the only time the two would ever write together): [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Come All Ye”] The other two originals were songs where Thompson had written new lyrics to traditional melodies. On “Crazy Man Michael”, Swarbrick had said to Thompson that the tune to which he had set his new words was weaker than the lyrics, to which Thompson had replied that if Swarbrick felt that way he should feel free to write a new melody. He did, and it became the first of the small number of Thompson/Swarbrick collaborations: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Crazy Man Michael”] Thompson and Swarbrick would become a brief songwriting team, but as much as anything else it was down to proximity — the two respected each other as musicians, but never got on very well. In 1981 Swarbrick would say “Richard and I never got on in the early days of FC… we thought we did, but we never did. We composed some bloody good songs together, but it was purely on a basis of “you write that and I’ll write this, and we’ll put it together.” But we never sat down and had real good chats.” The third original on the album, and by far the most affecting, is another song where Thompson put lyrics to a traditional tune. In this case he thought he was putting the lyrics to the tune of “Willie O'Winsbury”, but he was basing it on a recording by Sweeney’s Men. The problem was that Sweeney’s Men had accidentally sung the lyrics of “Willie O'Winsbury'” to the tune of a totally different song, “Fause Foodrage”: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “Willie O’Winsbury”] Thompson took that melody, and set to it lyrics about loss and separation. Thompson has never been one to discuss the meanings of his lyrics in any great detail, and in the case of this one has said “I really don't know what it means. This song came out of a dream, and I pretty much wrote it as I dreamt it (it was the sixties), and didn't spend very long analyzing it. So interpret as you wish – or replace with your own lines.” But in the context of the traffic accident that had killed his tailor girlfriend and a bandmate, and injured most of his other bandmates, the lyrics about lonely travellers, the winding road, bruised and beaten sons, saying goodbye, and never cutting cloth, seem fairly self-explanatory: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Farewell, Farewell”] The rest of the album, though, was taken up by traditional tunes. There was a long medley of four different fiddle reels; a version of “Reynardine” (a song about a seductive man — or is he a fox? Or perhaps both — which had been recorded by Swarbrick and Carthy on their most recent album); a 19th century song about a deserter saved from the firing squad by Prince Albert; and a long take on “Tam Lin”, one of the most famous pieces in the Scottish folk music canon, a song that has been adapted in different ways by everyone from the experimental noise band Current 93 to the dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah to the comics writer Grant Morrison: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Tam Lin”] And “Matty Groves”, a song about a man killing his cheating wife and her lover, which actually has a surprisingly similar story to that of “1921” from another great concept album from that year, the Who’s Tommy. “Matty Groves” became an excuse for long solos and shows of instrumental virtuosity: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves”] The album was recorded in September 1969, after their return from their break in the country and a triumphal performance at the Royal Festival Hall, headlining over fellow Witchseason artists John and Beverly Martyn and Nick Drake. It became a classic of the traditional folk genre — arguably *the* classic of the traditional folk genre. In 2007 BBC Radio 2’s Folk Music Awards gave it an award for most influential folk album of all time, and while such things are hard to measure, I doubt there’s anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of British folk and folk-rock music who would not at least consider that a reasonable claim. But once again, by the time the album came out in November, the band had changed lineups yet again. There was a fundamental split in the band – on one side were Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, whose stance was, roughly, that Liege and Lief was a great experiment and a fun thing to do once, but really the band had two first-rate songwriters in themselves, and that they should be concentrating on their own new material, not doing these old songs, good as they were. They wanted to take the form of the traditional songs and use that form for new material — they wanted to make British folk-rock, but with the emphasis on the rock side of things. Hutchings, on the other hand, was equally sure that he wanted to make traditional music and go further down the rabbit hole of antiquity. With the zeal of the convert he had gone in a couple of years from being the leader of a band who were labelled “the British Jefferson Airplane” to becoming a serious scholar of traditional folk music. Denny was tired of touring, as well — she wanted to spend more time at home with Trevor Lucas, who was sleeping with other women when she was away and making her insecure. When the time came for the group to go on a tour of Denmark, Denny decided she couldn’t make it, and Hutchings was jubilant — he decided he was going to get A.L. Lloyd into the band in her place and become a *real* folk group. Then Denny reconsidered, and Hutchings was crushed. He realised that while he had always been the leader, he wasn’t going to be able to lead the band any further in the traditionalist direction, and quit the group — but not before he was delegated by the other band members to fire Denny. Until the publication of Richard Thompson’s autobiography in 2022, every book on the group or its members said that Denny quit the band again, which was presumably a polite fiction that the band agreed, but according to Thompson “Before we flew home, we decided to fire Sandy. I don't remember who asked her to leave – it was probably Ashley, who usually did the dirty work. She was reportedly shocked that we would take that step. She may have been fragile beneath the confident facade, but she still knew her worth.” Thompson goes on to explain that the reasons for kicking her out were that “I suppose we felt that in her mind she had already left” and that “We were probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, though there wasn't a name for it back then.” They had considered inviting Trevor Lucas to join the band to make Denny more comfortable, but came to the (probably correct) conclusion that while he was someone they got on well with personally, he would be another big ego in a band that already had several, and that being around Denny and Lucas’ volatile relationship would, in Thompson’s phrasing, “have not always given one a feeling of peace and stability.” Hutchings originally decided he was going to join Sweeney’s Men, but that group were falling apart, and their first rehearsal with Hutchings would also be their last as a group, with only Hutchings and guitarist and mandolin player Terry Woods left in the band. They added Woods’ wife Gay, and another couple, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, and formed a group called Steeleye Span, a name given them by Martin Carthy. That group, like Fairport, went to “get their heads together in the country” for three months and recorded an album of electric versions of traditional songs, Hark the Village Wait, on which Mattacks and another drummer, Gerry Conway, guested as Steeleye Span didn’t at the time have their own drummer: [Excerpt: Steeleye Span, “Blackleg Miner”] Steeleye Span would go on to have a moderately successful chart career in the seventies, but by that time most of the original lineup, including Hutchings, had left — Hutchings stayed with them for a few albums, then went on to form the first of a series of bands, all called the Albion Band or variations on that name, which continue to this day. And this is something that needs to be pointed out at this point — it is impossible to follow every single individual in this narrative as they move between bands. There is enough material in the history of the British folk-rock scene that someone could do a 500 Songs-style podcast just on that, and every time someone left Fairport, or Steeleye Span, or the Albion Band, or Matthews’ Southern Comfort, or any of the other bands we have mentioned or will mention, they would go off and form another band which would then fission, and some of its members would often join one of those other bands. There was a point in the mid-1970s where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport Convention while Fairport Convention had none. So just in order to keep the narrative anything like wieldy, I’m going to keep the narrative concentrated on the two figures from Fairport — Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson — whose work outside the group has had the most influence on the wider world of rock music more broadly, and only deal with the other members when, as they often did, their careers intersected with those two. That doesn’t mean the other members are not themselves hugely important musicians, just that their importance has been primarily to the folk side of the folk-rock genre, and so somewhat outside the scope of this podcast. While Hutchings decided to form a band that would allow him to go deeper and deeper into traditional folk music, Sandy Denny’s next venture was rather different. For a long time she had been writing far more songs than she had ever played for her bandmates, like “Nothing More”, a song that many have suggested is about Thompson: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Nothing More”] When Joe Boyd heard that Denny was leaving Fairport Convention, he was at first elated. Fairport’s records were being distributed by A&M in the US at that point, but Island Records was in the process of opening up a new US subsidiary which would then release all future Fairport product — *but*, as far as A&M were concerned, Sandy Denny *was* Fairport Convention. They were only interested in her. Boyd, on the other hand, loved Denny’s work intensely, but from his point of view *Richard Thompson* was Fairport Convention. If he could get Denny signed directly to A&M as a solo artist before Island started its US operations, Witchseason could get a huge advance on her first solo record, while Fairport could continue making records for Island — he’d have two lucrative acts, on different labels. Boyd went over and spoke to A&M and got an agreement in principle that they would give Denny a forty-thousand-dollar advance on her first solo album — twice what they were paying for Fairport albums. The problem was that Denny didn’t want to be a solo act. She wanted to be the lead singer of a band. She gave many reasons for this — the one she gave to many journalists was that she had seen a Judy Collins show and been impressed, but noticed that Collins’ band were definitely a “backing group”, and as she put it “But that's all they were – a backing group. I suddenly thought, If you're playing together on a stage you might as well be TOGETHER.” Most other people in her life, though, say that the main reason for her wanting to be in a band was her desire to be with her boyfriend, Trevor Lucas. Partly this was due to a genuine desire to spend more time with someone with whom she was very much in love, partly it was a fear that he would cheat on her if she was away from him for long periods of time, and part of it seems to have been Lucas’ dislike of being *too* overshadowed by his talented girlfriend — he didn’t mind acknowledging that she was a major talent, but he wanted to be thought of as at least a minor one. So instead of going solo, Denny formed Fotheringay, named after the song she had written for Fairport. This new band consisted at first of Denny on vocals and occasional piano, Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Lucas’ old Eclection bandmate Gerry Conway on drums. For a lead guitarist, they asked Richard Thompson who the best guitarist in Britain was, and he told them Albert Lee. Lee in turn brought in bass player Pat Donaldson, but this lineup of the band barely survived a fortnight. Lee *was* arguably the best guitarist in Britain, certainly a reasonable candidate if you could ever have a singular best (as indeed was Thompson himself), but he was the best *country* guitarist in Britain, and his style simply didn’t fit with Fotheringay’s folk-influenced songs. He was replaced by American guitarist Jerry Donahue, who was not anything like as proficient as Lee, but who was still very good, and fit the band’s style much better. The new group rehearsed together for a few weeks, did a quick tour, and then went into the recording studio to record their debut, self-titled, album. Joe Boyd produced the album, but admitted himself that he only paid attention to those songs he considered worthwhile — the album contained one song by Lucas, “The Ballad of Ned Kelly”, and two cover versions of American singer-songwriter material with Lucas singing lead. But everyone knew that the songs that actually *mattered* were Sandy Denny’s, and Boyd was far more interested in them, particularly the songs “The Sea” and “The Pond and the Stream”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “The Pond and the Stream”] Fotheringay almost immediately hit financial problems, though. While other Witchseason acts were used to touring on the cheap, all packed together in the back of a Transit van with inexpensive equipment, Trevor Lucas had ambitions of being a rock star and wanted to put together a touring production to match, with expensive transport and equipment, including a speaker system that got nicknamed “Stonehenge” — but at the same time, Denny was unhappy being on the road, and didn’t play many gigs. As well as the band itself, the Fotheringay album also featured backing vocals from a couple of other people, including Denny’s friend Linda Peters. Peters was another singer from the folk clubs, and a good one, though less well-known than Denny — at this point she had only released a couple of singles, and those singles seemed to have been as much as anything else released as a novelty. The first of those, a version of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” had been released as by “Paul McNeill and Linda Peters”: [Excerpt: Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”] But their second single, a version of John D. Loudermilk’s “You’re Taking My Bag”, was released on the tiny Page One label, owned by Larry Page, and was released under the name “Paul and Linda”, clearly with the intent of confusing particularly gullible members of the record-buying public into thinking this was the McCartneys: [Excerpt: Paul and Linda, “You’re Taking My Bag”] Peters was though more financially successful than almost anyone else in this story, as she was making a great deal of money as a session singer. She actually did another session involving most of Fotheringay around this time. Witchseason had a number of excellent songwriters on its roster, and had had some success getting covers by people like Judy Collins, but Joe Boyd thought that they might possibly do better at getting cover versions if they were performed in less idiosyncratic arrangements. Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway went into the studio to record backing tracks, and vocals were added by Peters and another session singer, who according to some sources also provided piano. They cut songs by Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “You Get Brighter”] Ed Carter, formerly of The New Nadir but by this time firmly ensconced in the Beach Boys’ touring band where he would remain for the next quarter-century: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “I Don’t Mind”] John and Beverly Martyn, and Nick Drake: [Excerpt: Elton John, “Saturday Sun”] There are different lineups of musicians credited for those sessions in different sources, but I tend to believe that it’s mostly Fotheringay for the simple reason that Donahue says it was him, Donaldson and Conway who talked Lucas and Denny into the mistake that destroyed Fotheringay because of these sessions. Fotheringay were in financial trouble already, spending far more money than they were bringing in, but their album made the top twenty and they were getting respect both from critics and from the public — in September, Sandy Denny was voted best British female singer by the readers of Melody Maker in their annual poll, which led to shocked headlines in the tabloids about how this “unknown” could have beaten such big names as Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. Only a couple of weeks after that, they were due to headline at the Albert Hall. It should have been a triumph. But Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway had asked that singing pianist to be their support act. As Donahue said later “That was a terrible miscast. It was our fault. He asked if [he] could do it. Actually Pat, Gerry and I had to talk Sandy and Trevor into [it]… We'd done these demos and the way he was playing – he was a wonderful piano player – he was sensitive enough. We knew very little about his stage-show. We thought he'd be a really good opener for us.” Unfortunately, Elton John was rather *too* good. As Donahue continued “we had no idea what he had in mind, that he was going to do the most incredible rock & roll show ever. He pretty much blew us off the stage before we even got on the stage.” To make matters worse, Fotheringay’s set, which was mostly comprised of new material, was underrehearsed and sloppy, and from that point on no matter what they did people were counting the hours until the band split up. They struggled along for a while though, and started working on a second record, with Boyd again producing, though as Boyd later said “I probably shouldn't have been producing the record. My lack of respect for the group was clear, and couldn't have helped the atmosphere. We'd put out a record that had sold disappointingly, A&M was unhappy. Sandy's tracks on the first record are among the best things she ever did – the rest of it, who cares? And the artwork, Trevor's sister, was terrible. It would have been one thing if I'd been unhappy with it and it sold, and the group was working all the time, making money, but that wasn't the case … I knew what Sandy was capable of, and it was very upsetting to me.” The record would not be released for thirty-eight years: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Wild Mountain Thyme”] Witchseason was going badly into debt. Given all the fissioning of bands that we’ve already been talking about, Boyd had been stretched thin — he produced sixteen albums in 1970, and almost all of them lost money for the company. And he was getting more and more disillusioned with the people he was producing. He loved Beverly Martyn’s work, but had little time for her abusive husband John, who was dominating her recording and life more and more and would soon become a solo artist while making her stay at home (and stealing her ideas without giving her songwriting credit). The Incredible String Band were great, but they had recently converted to Scientology, which Boyd found annoying, and while he was working with all sorts of exciting artists like Vashti Bunyan and Nico, he was finding himself less and less important to the artists he mentored. Fairport Convention were a good example of this. After Denny and Hutchings had left the group, they’d decided to carry on as an electric folk group, performing an equal mix of originals by the Swarbrick and Thompson songwriting team and arrangements of traditional songs. The group were now far enough away from the “British Jefferson Airplane” label that they decided they didn’t need a female vocalist — and more realistically, while they’d been able to replace Judy Dyble, nobody was going to replace Sandy Denny. Though it’s rather surprising when one considers Thompson’s subsequent career that nobody seems to have thought of bringing in Denny’s friend Linda Peters, who was dating Joe Boyd at the time (as Denny had been before she met Lucas) as Denny’s replacement. Instead, they decided that Swarbrick and Thompson were going to share the vocals between them. They did, though, need a bass player to replace Hutchings. Swarbrick wanted to bring in Dave Pegg, with whom he had played in the Ian Campbell Folk Group, but the other band members initially thought the idea was a bad one. At the time, while they respected Swarbrick as a musician, they didn’t think he fully understood rock and roll yet, and they thought the idea of getting in a folkie who had played double bass rather than an electric rock bassist ridiculous. But they auditioned him to mollify Swarbrick, and found that he was exactly what they needed. As Joe Boyd later said “All those bass lines were great, Ashley invented them all, but he never could play them that well. He thought of them, but he was technically not a terrific bass player. He was a very inventive, melodic, bass player, but not a very powerful one technically. But having had the part explained to him once, Pegg was playing it better than Ashley had ever played it… In some rock bands, I think, ultimately, the bands that sound great, you can generally trace it to the bass player… it was at that point they became a great band, when they had Pegg.” The new lineup of Fairport decided to move in together, and found a former pub called the Angel, into which all the band members moved, along with their partners and children (Thompson was the only one who was single at this point) and their roadies. The group lived together quite happily, and one gets the impression that this was the period when they were most comfortable with each other, even though by this point they were a disparate group with disparate tastes, in music as in everything else. Several people have said that the only music all the band members could agree they liked at this point was the first two albums by The Band. With the departure of Hutchings from the band, Swarbrick and Thompson, as the strongest personalities and soloists, became in effect the joint leaders of the group, and they became collaborators as songwriters, trying to write new songs that were inspired by traditional music. Thompson described the process as “let’s take one line of this reel and slow it down and move it up a minor third and see what that does to it; let’s take one line of this ballad and make a whole song out of it. Chopping up the tradition to find new things to do… like a collage.” Generally speaking, Swarbrick and Thompson would sit by the fire and Swarbrick would play a melody he’d been working on, the two would work on it for a while, and Thompson would then go away and write the lyrics. This is how the two came up with songs like the nine-minute “Sloth”, a highlight of the next album, Full House, and one that would remain in Fairport’s live set for much of their career: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth”] “Sloth” was titled that way because Thompson and Swarbrick were working on two tunes, a slow one and a fast one, and they jokingly named them “Sloth” and “Fasth”, but the latter got renamed to “Walk Awhile”, while “Sloth” kept its working title. But by this point, Boyd and Thompson were having a lot of conflict in the studio. Boyd was never the most technical of producers — he was one of those producers whose job is to gently guide the artists in the studio and create a space for the music to flourish, rather than the Joe Meek type with an intimate technical knowledge of the studio — and as the artists he was working with gained confidence in their own work they felt they had less and less need of him. During the making of the Full House album, Thompson and Boyd, according to Boyd, clashed on everything — every time Boyd thought Thompson had done a good solo, Thompson would say to erase it and let him have another go, while every time Boyd thought Thompson could do better, Thompson would say that was the take to keep. One of their biggest clashes was over Thompson’s song “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”, which was originally intended for release on the album, and is included in current reissues of it: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”] Thompson had written that song inspired by what he thought was the unjust treatment of Alex Bramham, the driver in Fairport’s fatal car crash, by the courts — Bramham had been given a prison sentence of a few months for dangerous driving, while the group members thought he had not been at fault. Boyd thought it was one of the best things recorded for the album, but Thompson wasn’t happy with his vocal — there was one note at the top of the melody that he couldn’t quite hit — and insisted it be kept off the record, even though that meant it would be a shorter album than normal. He did this at such a late stage that early copies of the album actually had the title printed on the sleeve, but then blacked out. He now says in his autobiography “I could have persevered, double-tracked the voice, warmed up for longer – anything. It was a good track, and the record was lacking without it. When the album was re-released, the track was restored with a more confident vocal, and it has stayed there ever since.” During the sessions for Full House the group also recorded one non-album single, Thompson and Swarbrick’s “Now Be Thankful”: [Excerpt, Fairport Convention, “Now Be Thankful”] The B-side to that was a medley of two traditional tunes plus a Swarbrick original, but was given the deliberately ridiculous title “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”] The B. McKenzie in the title was a reference to the comic-strip character Barry McKenzie, a stereotype drunk Australian created for Private Eye magazine by the comedian Barry Humphries (later to become better known for his Dame Edna Everage character) but the title was chosen for one reason only — to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the song with the longest title. Which they did, though they were later displaced by the industrial band Test Dept, and their song “Long Live British Democracy Which Flourishes and Is Constantly Perfected Under the Immaculate Guidance of the Great, Honourable, Generous and Correct Margaret Hilda Thatcher. She Is the Blue Sky in the Hearts of All Nations. Our People Pay Homage and Bow in Deep Respect and Gratitude to Her. The Milk of Human Kindness”. Full House got excellent reviews in the music press, with Rolling Stone saying “The music shows that England has finally gotten her own equivalent to The Band… By calling Fairport an English equivalent of the Band, I meant that they have soaked up enough of the tradition of their countryfolk that it begins to show all over, while they maintain their roots in rock.” Off the back of this, the group went on their first US tour, culminating in a series of shows at the Troubadour in LA, on the same bill as Rick Nelson, which were recorded and later released as a live album: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth (live)”] The Troubadour was one of the hippest venues at the time, and over their residency there the group got seen by many celebrities, some of whom joined them on stage. The first was Linda Ronstadt, who initially demurred, saying she didn’t know any of their songs. On being told they knew all of hers, she joined in with a rendition of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”. Thompson was later asked to join Ronstadt’s backing band, who would go on to become the Eagles, but he said later of this offer “I would have hated it. I’d have hated being on the road with four or five miserable Americans — they always seem miserable. And if you see them now, they still look miserable on stage — like they don’t want to be there and they don’t like each other.” The group were also joined on stage at the Troubadour on one memorable night by some former bandmates of Pegg’s. Before joining the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Pegg had played around the Birmingham beat scene, and had been in bands with John Bonham and Robert Plant, who turned up to the Troubadour with their Led Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page (reports differ on whether the fourth member of Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, also came along). They all got up on stage together and jammed on songs like “Hey Joe”, “Louie Louie”, and various old Elvis tunes. The show was recorded, and the tapes are apparently still in the possession of Joe Boyd, who has said he refuses to release them in case he is murdered by the ghost of Peter Grant. According to Thompson, that night ended in a three-way drinking contest between Pegg, Bonham, and Janis Joplin, and it’s testament to how strong the drinking culture is around Fairport and the British folk scene in general that Pegg outdrank both of them. According to Thompson, Bonham was found naked by a swimming pool two days later, having missed two gigs. For all their hard rock image, Led Zeppelin were admirers of a lot of the British folk and folk-rock scene, and a few months later Sandy Denny would become the only outside vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin record when she duetted with Plant on “The Battle of Evermore” on the group’s fourth album: [Excerpt: Led Zeppelin, “The Battle of Evermore”] Denny would never actually get paid for her appearance on one of the best-selling albums of all time. That was, incidentally, not the only session that Denny was involved in around this time — she also sang on the soundtrack to a soft porn film titled Swedish Fly Girls, whose soundtrack was produced by Manfred Mann: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow?”] Shortly after Fairport’s trip to America, Joe Boyd decided he was giving up on Witchseason. The company was now losing money, and he was finding himself having to produce work for more and more acts as the various bands fissioned. The only ones he really cared about were Richard Thompson, who he was finding it more and more difficult to work with, Nick Drake, who wanted to do his next album with just an acoustic guitar anyway, Sandy Denny, who he felt was wasting her talents in Fotheringay, and Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band, who was more distant since his conversion to Scientology. Boyd did make some attempts to keep the company going. On a trip to Sweden, he negotiated an agreement with the manager and publisher of a Swedish band whose songs he’d found intriguing, the Hep Stars. Boyd was going to publish their songs in the UK, and in return that publisher, Stig Anderson, would get the rights to Witchseason’s catalogue in Scandinavia — a straight swap, with no money changing hands. But before Boyd could get round to signing the paperwork, he got a better offer from Mo Ostin of Warners — Ostin wanted Boyd to come over to LA and head up Warners’ new film music department. Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records and moved to LA with his fiancee Linda Peters, spending the next few years working on music for films like Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange, as well as making his own documentary about Jimi Hendrix, and thus missed out on getting the UK publishing rights for ABBA, and all the income that would have brought him, for no money. And it was that decision that led to the breakup of Fotheringay. Just before Christmas 1970, Fotheringay were having a difficult session, recording the track “John the Gun”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “John the Gun”] Boyd got frustrated and kicked everyone out of the session, and went for a meal and several drinks with Denny. He kept insisting that she should dump the band and just go solo, and then something happened that the two of them would always describe differently. She asked him if he would continue to produce her records if she went solo, and he said he would. According to Boyd’s recollection of the events, he meant that he would fly back from California at some point to produce her records. According to Denny, he told her that if she went solo he would stay in Britain and not take the job in LA. This miscommunication was only discovered after Denny told the rest of Fotheringay after the Christmas break that she was splitting the band. Jerry Donahue has described that as the worst moment of his life, and Denny felt very guilty about breaking up a band with some of her closest friends in — and then when Boyd went over to the US anyway she felt a profound betrayal. Two days before Fotheringay’s final concert, in January 1971, Sandy Denny signed a solo deal with Island records, but her first solo album would not end up produced by Joe Boyd. Instead, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens was co-produced by Denny, John Wood — the engineer who had worked with Boyd on pretty much everything he’d produced, and Richard Thompson, who had just quit Fairport Convention, though he continued living with them at the Angel, at least until a truck crashed into the building in February 1971, destroying its entire front wall and forcing them to relocate. The songs chosen for The North Star Grassman and the Ravens reflected the kind of choices Denny would make on her future albums, and her eclectic taste in music. There was, of course, the obligatory Dylan cover, and the traditional folk ballad “Blackwaterside”, but there was also a cover version of Brenda Lee’s “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”] Most of the album, though, was made up of originals about various people in Denny’s life, like “Next Time Around”, about her ex-boyfriend Jackson C Frank: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Next Time Around”] The album made the top forty in the UK — Denny’s only solo album to do so — and led to her once again winning the “best female singer” award in Melody Maker’s readers’ poll that year — the male singer award was won by Rod Stewart. Both Stewart and Denny appeared the next year on the London Symphony Orchestra’s all-star version of The Who’s Tommy, which had originally been intended as a vehicle for Stewart before Roger Daltrey got involved. Stewart’s role was reduced to a single song, “Pinball Wizard”, while Denny sang on “It’s a Boy”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “It’s a Boy”] While Fotheringay had split up, all the band members play on The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Guitarists Donahue and Lucas only play on a couple of the tracks, with Richard Thompson playing most of the guitar on the record. But Fotheringay’s rhythm section of Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway play on almost every track. Another musician on the album, Ian Whiteman, would possibly have a profound effect on the future direction of Richard Thompson’s career and life. Whiteman was the former keyboard player for the mod band The Action, having joined them just before they became the blues-rock band Mighty Baby. But Mighty Baby had split up when all of the band except the lead singer had converted to Islam. Richard Thompson was on his own spiritual journey at this point, and became a Sufi – the same branch of Islam as Whiteman – soon after the session, though Thompson has said that his conversion was independent of Whiteman’s. The two did become very close and work together a lot in the mid-seventies though. Thompson had supposedly left Fairport because he was writing material that wasn’t suited to the band, but he spent more than a year after quitting the group working on sessions rather than doing anything with his own material, and these sessions tended to involve the same core group of musicians. One of the more unusual was a folk-rock supergroup called The Bunch, put together by Trevor Lucas. Richard Branson had recently bought a recording studio, and wanted a band to test it out before opening it up for commercial customers, so with this free studio time Lucas decided to record a set of fifties rock and roll covers. He gathered together Thompson, Denny, Whiteman, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Pat Donaldson, Gerry Conway, pianist Tony Cox, the horn section that would later form the core of the Average White Band, and Linda Peters, who had now split up with Joe Boyd and returned to the UK, and who had started dating Thompson. They recorded an album of covers of songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Otis and others: [Excerpt: The Bunch, “Willie and the Hand Jive”] The early seventies was a hugely productive time for this group of musicians, as they all continued playing on each other’s projects. One notable album was No Roses by Shirley Collins, which featured Thompson, Mattacks, Whiteman, Simon Nicol, Lal and Mike Waterson, and Ashley Hutchings, who was at that point married to Collins, as well as some more unusual musicians like the free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill: [Excerpt: Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band, “Claudy Banks”] Collins was at the time the most respected female singer in British traditional music, and already had a substantial career including a series of important records made with her sister Dolly, work with guitarists like Davey Graham, and time spent in the 1950s collecting folk songs in the Southern US with her then partner Alan Lomax – according to Collins she did much of the actual work, but Lomax only mentioned her in a single sentence in his book on this work. Some of the same group of musicians went on to work on an album of traditional Morris dancing tunes, titled Morris On, credited to “Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield”, with Collins singing lead on two tracks: [Excerpt: Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield with Shirley Collins, “The Willow Tree”] Thompson thought that that album was the best of the various side projects he was involved in at the time, comparing it favourably to Rock On, which he thought was rather slight, saying later “Conceptually, Fairport, Ashley and myself and Sandy were developing a more fragile style of music that nobody else was particularly interested in, a British Folk Rock idea that had a logical development to it, although we all presented it our own way. Morris On was rather more true to what we were doing. Rock On was rather a retro step. I'm not sure it was lasting enough as a record but Sandy did sing really well on the Buddy Holly songs.” Hutchings used the musicians on No Roses and Morris On as the basis for his band the Albion Band, which continues to this day. Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks both quit Fairport to join the Albion Band, though Mattacks soon returned. Nicol would not return to Fairport for several years, though, and for a long period in the mid-seventies Fairport Convention had no original members. Unfortunately, while Collins was involved in the Albion Band early on, she and Hutchings ended up divorcing, and the stress from the divorce led to Collins developing spasmodic dysphonia, a stress-related illness which makes it impossible for the sufferer to sing. She did eventually regain her vocal ability, but between 1978 and 2016 she was unable to perform at all, and lost decades of her career. Richard Thompson occasionally performed with the Albion Band early on, but he was getting stretched a little thin with all these sessions. Linda Peters said later of him “When I came back from America, he was working in Sandy’s band, and doing sessions by the score. Always with Pat Donaldson and Dave Mattacks. Richard would turn up with his guitar, one day he went along to do a session with one of those folkie lady singers — and there were Pat and DM. They all cracked. Richard smashed his amp and said “Right! No more sessions!” In 1972 he got round to releasing his first solo album, Henry the Human Fly, which featured guest appearances by Linda Peters and Sandy Denny among others: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away”] Unfortunately, while that album has later become regarded as one of the classics of its genre, at the time it was absolutely slated by the music press. The review in Melody Maker, for example, read in part “Some of Richard Thompson’s ideas sound great – which is really the saving grace of this album, because most of the music doesn’t. The tragedy is that Thompson’s “British rock music” is such an unconvincing concoction… Even the songs that do integrate rock and traditional styles of electric guitar rhythms and accordion and fiddle decoration – and also include explicit, meaningful lyrics are marred by bottle-up vocals, uninspiring guitar phrases and a general lack of conviction in performance.” Henry the Human Fly was released in the US by Warners, who had a reciprocal licensing deal with Island (and for whom Joe Boyd was working at the time, which may have had something to do with that) but according to Thompson it became the lowest-selling record that Warners ever put out (though I’ve also seen that claim made about Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, another album that has later been rediscovered). Thompson was hugely depressed by this reaction, and blamed his own singing. Happily, though, by this point he and Linda had become a couple — they would marry in 1972 — and they started playing folk clubs as a duo, or sometimes in a trio with Simon Nicol. Thompson was also playing with Sandy Denny’s backing band at this point, and played on every track on her second solo album, Sandy. This album was meant to be her big commercial breakthrough, with a glamorous cover photo by David Bailey, and with a more American sound, including steel guitar by Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers (whose overdubs were supervised in LA by Joe Boyd): [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Tomorrow is a Long Time”] The album was given a big marketing push by Island, and “Listen, Listen” was made single of the week on the Radio 1 Breakfast show: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Listen, Listen”] But it did even worse than the previous album, sending her into something of a depression. Linda Thompson (as the former Linda Peters now was) said of this period “After the Sandy album, it got her down that her popularity didn't suddenly increase in leaps and bounds, and that was the start of her really fretting about the way her career was going. Things only escalated after that. People like me or Martin Carthy or Norma Waterson would think, ‘What are you on about? This is folk music.'” After Sandy’s release, Denny realised she could no longer afford to tour with a band, and so went back to performing just acoustically or on piano. The only new music to be released by either of these ex-members of Fairport Convention in 1973 was, oddly, on an album by the band they were no longer members of. After Thompson had left Fairport, the group had managed to release two whole albums with the same lineup — Swarbrick, Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks. But then Nicol and Mattacks had both quit the band to join the Albion Band with their former bandmate Ashley Hutchings, leading to a situation where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport plus their longtime drummer while Fairport Convention itself had no original members and was down to just Swarbrick and Pegg. Needing to fulfil their contracts, they then recruited three former members of Fotheringay — Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, Donahue on lead guitar, and Conway on drums. Conway was only a session player at the time, and Mattacks soon returned to the band, but Lucas and Donahue became full-time members. This new lineup of Fairport Convention released two albums in 1973, widely regarded as the group’s most inconsistent records, and on the title track of the first, “Rosie”, Richard Thompson guested on guitar, with Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Rosie”] Neither Sandy Denny nor Richard Thompson released a record themselves in 1973, but in neither case was this through the artists’ choice. The record industry was changing in the early 1970s, as we’ll see in later episodes, and was less inclined to throw good money after bad in the pursuit of art. Island Records prided itself on being a home for great artists, but it was still a business, and needed to make money. We’ll talk about the OPEC oil crisis and its effect on the music industry much more when the podcast gets to 1973, but in brief, the production of oil by the US peaked in 1970 and started to decrease, leading to them importing more and more oil from the Middle East. As a result of this, oil prices rose slowly between 1971 and 1973, then very quickly towards the end of 1973 as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict that year. As vinyl is made of oil, suddenly producing records became much more expensive, and in this period a lot of labels decided not to release already-completed albums, until what they hoped would be a brief period of shortages passed. Both Denny and Thompson recorded albums at this point that got put to one side by Island. In the case of Thompson, it was the first album by Richard and Linda as a duo, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Today, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and as one of the two masterpieces that bookended Richard and Linda’s career as a duo and their marriage. But when they recorded the album, full of Richard’s dark songs, it was the opposite of commercial. Even a song that’s more or less a boy-girl song, like “Has He Got a Friend for Me?” has lyrics like “He wouldn’t notice me passing by/I could be in the gutter, or dangling down from a tree” [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “Has He got a Friend For Me?”] While something like “The Calvary Cross” is oblique and haunted, and seems to cast a pall over the entire album: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “The Calvary Cross”] The album itself had been cheap to make — it had been recorded in only a week, with Thompson bringing in musicians he knew well and had worked with a lot previously to cut the tracks as-live in only a handful of takes — but Island didn’t think it was worth releasing. The record stayed on the shelf for nearly a year after recording, until Island got a new head of A&R, Richard Williams. Williams said of the album’s release “Muff Winwood had been doing A&R, but he was more interested in production… I had a conversation with Muff as soon as I got there, and he said there are a few hangovers, some outstanding problems. And one of them was Richard Thompson. He said there’s this album we gave him the money to make — which was I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — and nobody’s very interested in it. Henry the Human Fly had been a bit of a commercial disappointment, and although Island was altruistic and independent and known for only recording good stuff, success was important… Either a record had to do well or somebody had to believe in it a lot. And it seemed as if neither of those things were true at that point of Richard.” Williams, though, was hugely impressed when he listened to the album. He compared Richard Thompson’s guitar playing to John Coltrane’s sax, and called Thompson “the folk poet of the rainy streets”, but also said “Linda brightened it, made it more commercial. and I thought that “Bright Lights” itself seemed a really commercial song.” The rest of the management at Island got caught up in Williams’ enthusiasm, and even decided to release the title track as a single: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Neither single nor album charted — indeed it would not be until 1991 that Richard Thompson would make a record that made the top forty in the UK — but the album got enough critical respect that Richard and Linda released two albums the year after. The first of these, Hokey Pokey, is a much more upbeat record than their previous one — Richard Thompson has called it “quite a music-hall influenced record” and cited the influence of George Formby and Harry Lauder. For once, the claim of music hall influence is audible in the music. Usually when a British musician is claimed to have a music ha

1 - Oh Why, Oh Why - Dan Grisson with Jimmy Lunceford and his Orchestra – 19392 - Warum lächelst du, Mona Lisa - Willi Forst mit Odeon-Kunstler Orchester - 19313 - Just Because You're You, That's Why I Love You - McMurray's California Thumpers – 19224 - Why Am I So Romantic? - Wally Edwards and his Orchestra - 19305 - Warum muss man denn immer verliebt sein - Greta Keller – 19366 - Because I'm Lonesome - Ralph Haines with the Imperial Dance Orchestra – 19307 - Why Did You Lie to Me - Light Crust Doughboys - 19418 - Why Do I Lie to Myself About You - Fats Waller and his Rhythm – 19369 - Por Que Eres Asi - Martha Triana10 - Why, Dear? - Joseph C Smith and his Orchestra – 192111 - Why Was I Born - Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra - 193912 - Why Should I Care - Jimmie Davis with Charles Mitchell and his Texans – 193913 - Dont Ask Me Why - Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra - 193114 - I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones - Willie Bryant and his Orchestra – 193615 - Why Did I Get Married - Cal Carson - 193116 - Why Don't Women Like Me? - George Formby – 1927

Would you be able to last 5 minutes? Let me explain shortly!Welcome to The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X Podcast! Our very own Dominic Byrne had the daunting task of facing a stand-up night at the Comedy Store called King Gong! You'll hear his full set, and what the team thought of it, but remember, you can't spell comedy without Dom! We also speak to the compere of the night, Jarred Christmas, who gave Dom the offer of a lifetime!It really was a revolving door of guests this week! We catch up with Sir Bob Geldof about the new Band Aid remix to celebrate forty years of ‘Do They Know It's Christmas'! We loved chatting to the brains behind Taskmaster, Alex Horne! He came by to talk about his new book An Absolute Casserole: The Taskmaster Compendium. Listen to check if Chris made a few George Formby jokes when good friend of the show Jake Bugg popped into Radio X headquarters to chat with the team. If that isn't enough for you bunch of content hungry so-and-so's, we also had:A Pot Noodle taste testA surprising Kate Nash updateA wet accident in the studioEnjoy!The Chris Moyles Show on Radio XWeekdays 6:30am - 10am

Two hours of soulful grooves from our man in France! Classics from Gladys Knight & The Pips, Tommy Tucker and Teddy Pendergrass; rare ones from The Stingers, Sylvia and The Soul Vendors plus the regular three Northern Soul Stonkers back to back and of course we celebrate the heavenly birthday of George Formby!! For more info and tracklisting, visit :https://thefaceradio.com/groovy-soulTune into new broadcasts of Groovy Soul, LIVE, Sundays 12 - 2 PM EST / 5 - 7 PM GMT.https://thefaceradio.com/archives/groovy-soul//Dig this show? Please consider supporting The Face Radio: http://support.thefaceradio.com Support The Face Radio with PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/thefaceradio. Join the family at https://plus.acast.com/s/thefaceradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Owen Blackhurst, Seb White, James Bird and Tommy Stewart talk the UEFA Champions League final, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Glasgow, Star Wars, Seb's C-3PO energy, Noel Gallagher's Poznań rejection, match-day hangovers, Oasis, John Lennon on GB News and the red meat diet, Olivia Rodrigo, ‘A Day in the Life' by Sir Matt Busby in the style of George Formby, Give Meat a Chance, Eric Cantona at Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, the Square Ball Fanzine, Howard Wilkinson, Trevor Francis, Gordon Strachan, pre-Premier League title races, Denis Irwin, Chris Whyte on a stag do, Owen getting chased by bouncers and bosses, Teletext transfer news, Tommy's “Tintin” tattoo, tearful goodbyes, shin pads, sock tape, Tetley's sponsor boards, Ken Loach, XG, XP, Zidane's kick-ups, playing instead of watching, weaklings, dead legs, broken fingers, Battleships Monthly, being “papped”, Knight of the Round Heads, pink noise, falling asleep to podcasts, Ghostface Killah, James' dad's cricket team, fielding in a deckchair, Jimmy Anderson, Welsh Chapel Dream, the Paris Olympics Committee, Strictly Come Dancing, and somehow so much more.Get the latest issue of MUNDIAL Mag hereFollow MUNDIAL on Twitter - @mundialmagFollow MUNDIAL on Instagram - @mundialmag Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

#solarstorms #bernardhill David Brunt’s magnificent #doctorwho book #Babyreindeer #Martha, the surprising George Formby/#elonmusk connection, #clarksonsfarm and the terrifying spectre-cals ghosts get up to when you’re out.

This week I chat with the awesome British musician, Marc Gallagher about:Memorising songs easily - he has over 700 learnt off by heart!His numerous collabsPerfect Pitch - how he found out he had it, how he puts it to good use, and why it's a blessing and a curseHow many different instruments he playsAttending GNUF as a teenage sound engineer and stealing the show at an open mic setBeing proud to be an openly bi musician, and how that effects his musicMinorities in the ukulele world, and trying to eradicate hate speech in musicReceiving negativity for being open about his sexuality Starting the ukulele at 11 to learn the Crazy Frog theme!Why he'd rather play Led Zeppelin than George FormbyWriting and recording his own music - and his nightmare debut performance at a school talent showAnd much, much more!If you have any thoughts, comments or guest suggestions for the show please send me a message to UkeTeacher@GrabYourUke.com---Ukulele Tales is sponsored by Kala Brand Music! For a 10% discount on anything on the Kala website, just click on my special link!---Check out my Patreon page to help support the podcast and get access to lots of backstage info and bonus material!LINKS:Kala Brand Music: https://kalabrand.com/uketeacher for a 10% discount on any Kala products.Marc Gallagher:Website: https://www.marcgallaghermusic.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcgallaghermusicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcgallaghermusicUkulele Tales:Website: http://www.UkuleleTales.comInstagram: https://www.Instagram.com/UkuleleTalesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUkuleleTeacher Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The chat hitting the fan this episode (11) - Overly pedantic MOT testers, cyber flashing, Lenny Henry, Comic Relief and the other charity shows, some alternative and suspiciously AI sounding lyrics for the podcast theme tune, some more celebrity podcast name ideas, Greg talks about getting bored of his own voiceovers and finally making a start on a screenplay, movie spin offs, the movies 'Robot Dreams', 'Kill The Irishman' and 'The River', this year's Glastonbury headliners, Johnny makes a racial faux pas, an interview with Lenny Henry, new songs from George Formby, getting showered and changed with other men at the swimming pool, a new song about visiying Scotland, Rylan Clark and Judge Rinder, how to talk about mental health (literally), the podcast 'Nothing rhymes with purple', nicknames for Jim Broadbent and a whole lot more!

Tom Service explores the world of the Ukulele, from the Hawaiian Royal Court of King Kalakaua to Blackpool Pier with George Formby, the Royal Albert Hall where hundreds of ukulele players performed Beethoven's Ode to Joy at the 2009 BBC Proms, and into thousands of classrooms where it's now the most widely taught instrument in British primary schools. With Hawaiian born ukulele virtuoso and composer Taimane Gardner.Producer: Ruth Thomson

En esta nueva entrega matinal de Melodías Pizarras podremos escuchar "Wunga Bunga Boo" una canción de George Formby que haría las delicias de Il Cavaliere y seguro que de todos los pizarrist@s más jaraneros. Pero es que además, para que no decaiga, tendremos un no parar de boogie, rhythm and blues, western swing, blues, country yodel, conga, calypso, hot jazz, mambo y guaracha. A partir de las ocho de la mañana del sábado en la sintonía de Radio 3. Escuchar audio

Mel Byron and the team bring you drama, fear and some classic tunes. Stars featured this episode include Vincent Price, Margaret Lockwood and George Formby. Everyone's favourite scarecrow, Worzel gummidge joins us too, as he makes his debut on Talking Pictures TV.

#471 Summer Smash. The 2023 Gareth Jones On Speed Summer Music Compilation. Gareth tells the stories behind songs from the archive that have been revisited, remastered & remixed. Plus "A Car Called Enterprise" a brand new tune from GZ Top.

Welcome back... This week the guys are refreshed from a fortnight off to tell you tales of exploding shower curtains, USB's in supposedly "classic cars", George Formby joining NWA, Steam nicking your money, self driving cars trying to kill you on a Scottish cliff edge, speedboats that go so fast they blow your lips over the back of your head and a London bus tour guide who clearly had other things on her mind when she recorded her voice over. Then after some feedback for Arrival its on to this weeks movie.  A rather prophetic tale of the possible heat death of the Earth, idiotic members of the public and how bloody awful journalists are made nearly 62 years ago. The Val Guest SF disaster film The Day The Earth Caught Fire  

Toby does Arctic Monkeys like George Formby but Chelsey and Nick don't rate his beatbox.

Sizzling hot topics patted back and forth across the ping-pong net of conversation this week include …… the republishing of Giles Smith's Lost In Music, one of the funniest books ever written about our real life relationship with pop stars, records and being in bands. Giles – and Nick Hornby – kick-started a whole new literary vogue. … has Cate Blanchett won Glastonbury? … why do we update book jackets but never change a record cover? … how the Stones' Steel Wheels tour changed the gig economy. … the Stackwaddy game: song titles - George Formby or Frank Zappa? … how gigs became a status symbol and tickets a statement purchase. ... did a record sleeve ever put you off buying the album? … what are YOU going to do with your vinyl collection? Original new “estate plans” considered. … amusing things said by George Melly (and who was Mucky Alice?). … Recession? What recession? 650,000 people bought arena/stadium tickets in London last weekend. Plus Toe Fat, Blind Faith, “the Larynx on Legs”, author Giles Smith and birthday guests Blaine Allen and Richard Lewis.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sizzling hot topics patted back and forth across the ping-pong net of conversation this week include …… the republishing of Giles Smith's Lost In Music, one of the funniest books ever written about our real life relationship with pop stars, records and being in bands. Giles – and Nick Hornby – kick-started a whole new literary vogue. … has Cate Blanchett won Glastonbury? … why do we update book jackets but never change a record cover? … how the Stones' Steel Wheels tour changed the gig economy. … the Stackwaddy game: song titles - George Formby or Frank Zappa? … how gigs became a status symbol and tickets a statement purchase. ... did a record sleeve ever put you off buying the album? … what are YOU going to do with your vinyl collection? Original new “estate plans” considered. … amusing things said by George Melly (and who was Mucky Alice?). … Recession? What recession? 650,000 people bought arena/stadium tickets in London last weekend. Plus Toe Fat, Blind Faith, “the Larynx on Legs”, author Giles Smith and birthday guests Blaine Allen and Richard Lewis.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sizzling hot topics patted back and forth across the ping-pong net of conversation this week include …… the republishing of Giles Smith's Lost In Music, one of the funniest books ever written about our real life relationship with pop stars, records and being in bands. Giles – and Nick Hornby – kick-started a whole new literary vogue. … has Cate Blanchett won Glastonbury? … why do we update book jackets but never change a record cover? … how the Stones' Steel Wheels tour changed the gig economy. … the Stackwaddy game: song titles - George Formby or Frank Zappa? … how gigs became a status symbol and tickets a statement purchase. ... did a record sleeve ever put you off buying the album? … what are YOU going to do with your vinyl collection? Original new “estate plans” considered. … amusing things said by George Melly (and who was Mucky Alice?). … Recession? What recession? 650,000 people bought arena/stadium tickets in London last weekend. Plus Toe Fat, Blind Faith, “the Larynx on Legs”, author Giles Smith and birthday guests Blaine Allen and Richard Lewis.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, James Holland talks to legendary music journalist, David Hepworth about the popular songs and singers of the wartime years, and particularly those recorded at the world's most famous recording studio, Abbey Road. From Al Bowlly and Noel Coward, to Gracie Fields, George Formby and Glenn Miller, they also discuss the magic of a recorded song and how wartime inventions changed the music industry forever.A Goalhanger Films ProductionProduced byExec Producer: Tony PastorTwitter: #WeHaveWays @WeHaveWaysPodWebsite: wehavewayspod.comEmail: wehavewayspodcast@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vince Esquire has played guitar and ukulele with the Allman Brothers, Willie Nelson, G Love and Adam Sandler - as well as being an excellent musician in his own right. We talk about his rock influences - including how the Eddie Vedder ukulele album changed things for him. We also talk about his band Kanekoa, their new album Songs from the Great Disruption, and all the collabs they did for it, including one with Jake Shimabukuro. We also talk about playing Hot Cross Buns on the recorder!There's also a great ukulele story from listener Nick Witherow who tells us all about the limited edition signed George Formby banjolele that his father left him - and whether or not it would be a good idea to get it fixed.Ukulele Tales is sponsored by Kala Brand Music! For a 10% discount on anything on the Kala website, just click on my special link!If you want to support the podcast, please share it with your ukulele friends and communities. You can also help fund it by signing up to my Patreon where you'll get additional content, occasional bonus mini episodes and the chance to ask questions to future guests.LINKS:Kala Brand Music: https://kalabrand.com/uketeacher for a 10% discount on any Kala products.Vince Esquire:Official Website: https://vinceesquire.com/Kanekoa Official Website: https://kanekoa.live/Ukulele Tales:Patreon: https://www.Patreon.com/UkeTeacherTwitter: https://www.Twitter.com/UkeTeacherInstagram: https://www.Instagram.com/UkuleleTalesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUkuleleTeacher Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No Buses? No bother, because have we got the episode for you. Join Nick and Dan for their look back at the penultimate track of the first AM era, and it's the turn of a lovelorn track with George Formby vibes. Yes, it's not quite an episode in twenty-four but it's close enough, and it's all here - Japanese fans, a shameless ripoff/homage and that classic Turneresque switching of perspectives. Don't forget to like, follow and review on whatever you use to listen, it massively helps us out with the algorithms, whatever that means. Don't Believe The Hype is written and produced by Nick Lee and Dan Holt. Sign up to our Patreon here: https://patreon.com/arcticpodcast Find all our links here: https://linktr.ee/arcticmonkeyspodcast Get in touch with the show at arcticmonkeyspodcast@gmail.com Royalty-free music courtesy of https://lesfm.net/

This is the second episode of 2023 and we are on the third week of January. Two known musicians have passed away and, I bet, many unknown great musicians too. Time, as an abstract concept and, at the same time, is also a continuum of events that will keep occurring on all living entities. We may say that time is infinite, but we could not say the same of our existence. Therefore, is it time a tangible notion to keep track of our existence? Or, as a McTaggart once said, there is no such thing as time. You may ask why I bring the topic of time, because with my guest we travel to different times and discuss the wonderful era of Tin Pan Alley to nowadays technology and how much influence it has in our life. The first song you listened is Empty Kettle and last one is Media Luna. I hope you could enjoy both songs and Christopher entire repertoire. Christopher Davis-Shannon is not only a ukelele performer, but he is Ukelele’s Preacher. His video attest to my opinion. As his website states: His books include technique studies ranging from baroque campanella to adaption of clawhammer banjo, as well as rhythmic studies on George Formby. Therefore, you will be listening to a musician whose passion for this wonderful instrument is infinite and is not shaped in a straight line but in one line with different branches that will take you on different spins throughout this conversation. You can follow Christopher on the following website and social media platforms: https://www.thetinman.co/ https://www.patreon.com/cdavisshannon Twitter: @cdavisshannon Instagram: @cdavisshannon YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Banjoleletinman The music included in this episode are protected under US Copyright Act and its arrangements/ownership/proprietorship belongs to Christopher Davis Shannon. Any unauthorized used will be subject to prosecution as per 17 USC §1101 et seq. Copyright © 2022 Music in 2Flavors/Música en 2Sabores®. All rights reserved. The content of this episode is protected under US Copyright Act and under International Copyright, and Trademark Law. These statutes protect the audio, video, still image, logos, designs, graphics and any other mean where this podcast is broadcasted. Any reproduction, either digital, streaming, analog recording, video recording, tape recording or on any form of reproduction created in the future, of this episode and/or music, either partially or fully, it is forbidden without the previous authorization of their owners/proprietors/authors/creators/producers. IT IS FORBIDDEN AND PROHIBITED THE REPRODUCITON OF ALL OR PARTS OF THIS AUDIO ON ANY FORMAT. Violators will be prosecuted under USA Law. Music in 2Flavors/Música en 2Sabores® logo is a registered trademark. All use, replica, reproduction or use of the words and/or logo, in any form, format, is forbidden without proprietor’s authorization. Any misuse, use of similar brands that could create confusion or dilution is considered trademark infringement. These causes of action are not exclusionary of other causes of action that could arise from State or any other Federal Law such as: passing off; contributory passing off; reverse passing off; misappropriation; as well as any other cause of action, such as torts, that originates from violator’s action. Furthermore, make sure to leave your comments at any of your favorite platforms or on my website, and let me know what you think of this episode. Also, if you happen to use iTunes or Apple Podcast, please leave a review and as many stars as you like. The more stars and reviews I get, there could be a likelihood that more people get interested in my content This music podcast is made out of pure love and in appreciation to all of those people that care and are huge supporters of our music scene. Please remember to follow me on my different platforms. Twitter : M2fM2s Instagram : Music2Flavors Website : www.musicin2flavors.com Patreon : www.patreon.com/m2fm2s Ko-fi: : https://ko-fi.com/m2fm2s You are more than welcome to do a one time or more than one-month donation to keep this music project on-going and possible. If you cannot afford a financial support, please share it in your favorite social media and tagged me. I would appreciate it and in return give you a shout-out on all my platforms and on the next episode.

Two Harrys to start us off. Parry- Trust and Parry and James with Memphis Blues. Henry Allen and his Orchestra- Dinah Lou. Allen was one of the major trumpeters of the Swing era and played with King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins and Louis Armstrong. Count Basie and his Kansas City seven- Lester Leaps in. Lester Young being the Lester. The group released six versions of the song between 1939- 1948. Sidney Bechet and his New Orleans Feetwarmers- Stormy Jones, Mugsy Spanier and his Ragtime Band- That Da, Da Strain. Robert Earl- If you love me. A popular tenor in the 1950s. His son, also Robert Earl ,is the founder of Planet Holywood restaurants. Orcestration is by Wally Stott. Musical director of Philips Records at the time.  Stott was an arranger, composer and conductor. Worked with Shirley Bassey, Noel Coward, Dusty Springfield and Scott Walker, amongst others. As well as composing Film and T.V scores- from Watership Down to the music for the TV series Dallas. In 1970 Stott undertook gender reassignment surgery and lived the rest of her life as Angela Morely. She went on to have highly succesful career in the US. Amazing story and life. Perfect for Forgotten Songs. The luck of the Irish next, Jack Daly- When the poppies bloom again. He ran out of luck I'm afraid. Could only take about a minute of his warbling! Much beter is- Sydney MacEwan and She moved through the fair. MacEwan was an ordained priest born in Glasgow in 1908. He started his recording career in 1934 and work extensively on the BBC. He did many world tours. Very popular in his day.  A favourite from George Formby- In a little Wigan Garden. We finish with the very dark Miss Otis regrets from Jay Wilbur and Elizabethan Serenade, from the Ron Goodwin Orchestra. Goodwin was a profilific film composer- Where Eagles Dare, 633 Squadron and the theme to the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple film. Later used in 'Kill Bill'.

On Sunday April 18th 1943 four boys head off on a boys-own adventure into Hagley Woods. A day of poaching birds eggs soon turned macabre, however - with the discovery of a skull in an elm tree. In this Halloween Tale we discuss a few of the possibilities around the poor Jane Doe, known to history simply as ‘Bella'.      Sources this week - Oh boy… I wrote this as a blog post years ago, after a YouTube video on the tale caught my eye. I thought that video was a Rob Gavagan episode, but if so he's since taken it down. Next most likely YouTuber? The remarkable Cayleigh Elise - not that you could confuse the two YouTubers, but they were my go to's at the time for True Crime. A few years back Cayleigh found the weight of her own content became too much for her - and scrapped her entire channel. This Unexplained Mysteries episode is also a likely source.  This led me to several newspaper articles, like this one in The Independent, which is paywalled. This fantastic piece in the Birmingham Mail is a source, and well worth a read …. And several others, lost to my inattentiveness.  This Crimereads article is, I'm 99% sure a source. As was 100% this article in The History Press.  Josef Jacobs dot info is well worth checking out, not just for info on Jacobs, Jack Mossop and Clara Bauerle, but so much else besides with WW2 espionage leanings.    The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content. I'm currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. November 1 I'm dropping a short tale on The Hammersmith Ghost.       Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements.        Music, writing, narration, mixing NORMALLY all yours truly. In this episode, however, I use my own quick takes on Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade (Miller + Mitchell Parish) Bless ‘Em All (First performed by George Formby, probably written by Fred Godfrey and Robert Kewley) And the WW2 drinking song Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major (Art Noel and Don Pelosi)… I had planned to throw together a version of Lili Marlene, and White Cliffs of Dover… but I ran out of time… The rest of the music is all mine.  For more information on Simone click here. 

A couple of cheery and cheeky wartime songs. George Formby with Ukelele Man. Not nearly enough ukelele playing on it quite frankly. Next Dave Willis with ARP( Air raid patrol.) More commonly known as My Wee Gas Mask. Probably the best known Scottish song from WW2. Joe Corrie was a Fife coal miner, poet and playright. His style was naturalistic and his subject matter the working class. He was pretty much ignored by the Scottish theatre establishment of the time. Here we have The shilling a week man. A humerous tale of money owed, performed in broad Scots. Humerous it maybe but for many life was 'hand to mouth' and the shilling a week man was a fact of life.  Bunny Berigan's blues boys with Chicken and Waffles and then he plays trumpet on Gold diggers of 1933 with The bell boys of Broadway. Two from the magnificent Mildred Bailey with her orchestra- St Louis Blues and with her Oxford Greys- Arkanas Blues. Great vocals from her. We split those two tracks with Charlie Barnet and Wandering blues, vocals by Mary Ann McCall. Ring dem bells from The Harlem Footwarmers(1929.) They also performed under 25 aliases and members included Duke Ellington and Cottie Williams. Johnny Dodds and his orch- Red onion blues. His brother 'Baby' Dodds is on drums. Bit of Boogie from Will Brady's six Texan hot dogs- Basin Street boogie(1941) Not the best condition but Taft Jordon and his mob play Devil in the moon. Taft only made two records with own group but played with the best, from Ella to Ellington. His trumpet can be heard on Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain. Quite an acolade to be asked to play trumpet with Miles! E.C Kirkeby Wallace bandleader, songwriter, vocalist and manager. He looked after Fats Waller. He also started the Californian Ramblers while working at Columbia. Benny Goodman with Blues in the night, vocals by Peggy Lee. Early peggy. She certainly hits some uncharactistic high notes toward the end. We finish with Freddy Gardner and his Swing Orch. The self composed 10am Blues from 1939. A great track from this forgotten British saxphonist, who died young at 39. Its an Indian pressing on the Rex label. 

We open with Maurice Rocco- Rocco's Booogie Woogie and Tonky blues. An Australian Pressing on Decca, 1940. Never released in Britain. Rocco played piano standing up. Way before Jerry lee Lewis. Succesful during the 40s his star began to wane in the 1950s. A great shame, as what a performer and composer he was. He was murdered in Thailand in 1976. Big Joe Turner(vocals) and Pete Johnson(piano)- Roll 'em Pete and Going away blues. Roll 'em Pete is regarded as one of the most important precursor songs to Rock and Roll.  Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis,  Pete Johnson and Joe Turner-  Cafe Society Rag. Meade Lux lewis- Whistling Blues. Wingie Carpenter, Trumpter, singer and bandleader- Put me back in the alley. Vocals by Mae Hopkins. Who was mae Hopkins? Nothing about her on the internet, other than cutting four sides for Decca with Mozelle France in 1940. Sam Price and his Texan Bluesicians- How 'bout that mess. Pianist who performed  in numerous bands right up until the 1980s. Throughout the 1960s and 70s he was a civil rights campaigner and activist. An amazing man. Vic Filmer and his Murray Club Band- If you can't sing whistle(1931). Excellent advice in my case. Nice quality track on the Piccadilly label. Been waiting for a Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson and his West Indian Dance Band record to turn up for a while. Here we have Seventeen Candles and Last time I will fall in love. Johnson was an important figure in the history of black British music. Originally from British Guyana his West Indian band brought a real flavour of US style band music to Britain. Johnson was sadly killed in a bombing raid in 1941, he was playing at The Cafe Paris in London. Members of the band joined other British groups and influenced British jazz for years to come. Yorke Desouza, Dave Wilkins and Joe Deniz worked extensively with F.S favourite Harry Parry. We have a wee flavour of George Formby Senior from 1920. This is on an Ariel Grand Records disc. He died the year after this recording, aged 46. He was a huge music hall and recording star at the begining of the 20th century. Elements of his act may well have inspired Chaplin's tramp. His upbringing was incredibly harsh and impoverished. A strong contrast to the height of his career when he was earning £350 a week(£40k in 2022). He was reluctant to allow his son into show business and sent him away for jockey training. Didn't stop young George though. He went on to become an even greater star. We finish with Buddy's Blues from Buddy Featherstonehaugh and his Radio Rhythm Club and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Yeah I know he's hardly forgotten but when do you hear him played directly from a 78 record?       

This episode is part of Pledge Week 2022. Every day this week, I'll be posting old Patreon bonus episodes of the podcast which will have this short intro. These are short, ten- to twenty-minute bonus podcasts which get posted to Patreon for my paying backers every time I post a new main episode -- there are well over a hundred of these in the archive now. If you like the sound of these episodes, then go to patreon.com/andrewhickey and subscribe for as little as a dollar a month or ten dollars a year to get access to all those bonus episodes, plus new ones as they appear. Click below for the transcript Transcript Today's backer-only episode is an extra-long one -- it runs about as long as some of the shorter main episodes -- but it also might end up containing material that gets repeated in the main podcast at some point, because a lot of British rock and pop music gets called, often very incorrectly, music-hall, and so the subject of the music halls is one that may well have to be explained in a future episode. But today we're going to look at one of the very few pop hits of the sixties that is incontrovertibly based in the music-hall tradition -- Herman's Hermits singing "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am": [Excerpt: Herman's Hermits, "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am"] The term "music hall" is one that has been widely misused over the years. People talk about it as being a genre of music, when it's anything but. Rather, the music hall -- which is the British equivalent of the American vaudeville -- was the most popular form of entertainment, first under that name and then under the name "variety", for more than a century, only losing its popularity when TV and rock-and-roll between them destroyed the market for it. Even then, TV variety shows rooted in the music hall continued, explicitly until the 1980s, with The Good Old Days, and implicitly until the mid-1990s. As you might imagine, for a form of entertainment that lasted over a hundred years, there's no such thing as "music-hall music" as a singular thing, any more than there exists a "radio music" or a "television music". Many music-hall acts were non-musical performers -- comedians, magicians, acrobats, and so forth -- but among those who did perform music, there were all sorts of different styles included, from folk song to light opera, to ragtime, and especially minstrel songs -- the songs of Stephen Foster were among the very first transatlantic hits. We obviously don't have any records from the first few decades of the music hall, but we do have sheet music, and we know that the first big British hit song was "Champagne Charlie", originally performed by George Leybourne, and here performed by Derek B Scott, a professor of critical musicology at the university of Leeds: [Excerpt: Derek B. Scott, "Champagne Charlie"] If you've ever heard the phrase "the Devil has all the best tunes", that song is why. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, set new lyrics to it and made it into a hymn, and when asked why, he replied "Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?" The phrase had been used earlier, but it was Booth who popularised it. "Champagne Charlie" also has rather morbid associations, because it was sung by the crowd at the last public execution in Britain, so it often gets used in horror and mystery films set in Victorian London, so chances are if you recognised the song it's because you've heard it in a film about Jack the Ripper or Jekyll and Hyde. But the music hall, like all popular entertainment, demanded a whole stream of new material. The British Tin Pan Alley publishers and songwriters who wrote much of the early British rock and roll we've looked at started out in music hall, and almost every British popular song up until the rise of jazz, and most after that until the fifties, was performed in the music halls. We do have recordings from the later part of the music-hall era, of course, and they show what a wide variety of music was performed there, from pitch-black comedy songs like "Murders", by George Grossmith, the son of the co-writer of Diary of a Nobody: [Excerpt: George Grossmith, "Murders"] To sing-along numbers like "Waiting at the Church" by Vesta Victoria: [Excerpt: Vesta Victoria, "Waiting at the Church"] And one of the most-recorded music-hall performers, Harry Champion, a London performer who sang very wordy songs, at a fast tempo, usually with a hornpipe rhythm and often about food, like "A Little Bit of Cucumber" or his most famous song "Boiled Beef and Carrots": [Excerpt: Harry Champion, "Boiled Beef and Carrots"] But one that wasn't about food, and was taken a bit slower than his normal patter style, was "I'm Henry the VIII I Am": [Excerpt: Harry Champion, "I'm Henry VIII, I Am"] (Incidentally, the song as written on the sheet music has "Henery" rather than "Henry", and most people sing it "Enery", but the actual record by Champion uses "Henry" on the label, as does the Hermits' version, so that's what I'm going with). Fifty years after Champion, the song was recorded by Joe Brown. We've talked about Brown before in the main podcast, but for those of you who don't remember, he's one of the best British rock and roll musicians of the fifties, and still performing today, and he has a real love of pre-war pop songs, and he would perform them regularly with his band, the Bruvvers. Those of you who've heard the Beatles performing "Sheikh of Araby" on their Decca audition, they're copying Brown's version of that song -- George Harrison was a big fan of Brown. Brown's version of "I'm Henry the Eighth I Am" gave it a rock and roll beat, and dropped the verse, leaving only the refrain: [Excerpt: Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, "I'm Henry the Eighth I Am"] Enter Herman's Hermits, four years later. In 1964, Herman's Hermits, a beat group from Manchester led by singer Peter Noone, had signed with Mickie Most and had a UK number one with "I'm Into Something Good", a Goffin and King song originally written for Earl-Jean of the Cookies: [Excerpt: Herman's Hermits, "I'm Into Something Good"] That would be their only UK number one, though they'd have several more top ten hits over here. It only made number thirteen in the US, but their second US single (not released as a single over here), "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat", went to number two in the States. From that point on, the group's career would diverge enormously between the US and the UK -- half their US hits were never released as singles in the UK, and vice versa. Several records, like their cover version of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World", were released in both countries, but in general they went in two very different directions. In the UK they tended to release fairly normal beat-group records like "No Milk Today", written by Graham Gouldman, who was also writing hits for the Yardbirds and the Hollies: [Excerpt: Herman's Hermits, "No Milk Today"] That only charted in the US when it was later released as a B-side. Meanwhile, in the US, they pursued a very different strategy. Since the "British Invasion" was a thing, and so many British bands were doing well in the States partly because of the sheer novelty of them being British, Herman's Hermits based their career on appealing to American Anglophiles. This next statement might be a little controversial, even offensive to some listeners, so I apologise, but it's the truth. There is a large contingent of people in America who genuinely believe that they love Britain and British things, but who have no actual idea what British culture is actually like. They like a version of Britain that has been constructed entirely from pop-culture aimed at an American market, and have a staggeringly skewed vision of what Britain is actually like, one that is at best misguided and at worst made up of extremely offensive stereotypes. People who think they know all about the UK because they've spent a week going round a handful of tourist traps in central London and they've watched every David Tennant episode of Doctor Who. (Please note that I am not, here, engaging in reflex anti-Americanism, as so many British people do on this topic, because I know very well that there is an equally wrong kind of British person who worships a fictional America which has nothing to do with the real country -- as any American who has come over to the UK and seen cans of hot dog sausages in brine with "American style" and an American flag on the label will shudderingly attest. Fetishising of a country not one's own exists in every culture, and about every culture, whether it's American weebs who think they know about Japan or British Communists who were insistent that the Soviet Union under Stalin was a utopia). For their US-only singles, most of which were massive hits, Herman's Hermits played directly to that audience. The group's first single in this style was "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter", written by the actor Trevor Peacock, now best known for playing Jim in The Vicar of Dibley, but at the time best known as a songwriter for groups like the Vernons Girls and  for writing linking material for Six-Five Special and Oh Boy! That song was written for a TV play and originally performed by the actor Tom Courtenay: [Excerpt: Tom Courtenay, "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter"] The Hermits copied Courtenay's record closely, down to Noone imitating Courtenay's vocals: [Excerpt: Herman's Hermits, "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter"] That became their first US number one, and the group went all-in on appealing to that particular market. Noone started singing, not in the pseudo-American style that, say, Mick Jagger sings in (and early-sixties Jagger is a perfect example of the British equivalent of those American Anglophiles, loving but not understanding Black America), and not in his own Manchester accent, but in a faked Cockney accent, doing what is essentially a bad impersonation of Anthony Newley. (Davy Jones, who like Noone was a Mancunian who had started his career in the Manchester-set soap opera Coronation Street, was also doing the same thing at the time, in his performances as the Artful Dodger in the Broadway version of Oliver! -- we'll talk more about Jones in future episodes of the main podcast, but he, like Noone, was someone who was taking aim at this market.) Noone's faked accent varied a lot, sometimes from syllable to syllable, and on records like "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" and the Hermits' version of the old George Formby song "Leaning on a Lamp Post" he sounds far more Northern than on other songs -- fitting into a continuum of Lancashire novelty performers that stretched at least from Formby's father, George Formby senior, all the way to Frank Sidebottom. But on the Hermits' version of "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am", Noone is definitely trying to sound as London as he can, and he and the group copy Joe Brown's arrangement: [Excerpt: Herman's Hermits, "I'm Henry the Eighth I Am"] That also became an American number one, and Herman's Hermits had truly found their niche. They spent the next three years making an odd mixture of catchy pop songs by writers like Graham Gouldman or PF Sloan, which became UK hits, and the very different type of music typified by "I'm Henry the Eighth I Am". Eventually, though, musical styles changed, and the group stopped having hits in either country. Peter Noone left the group in 1971, and they made some unsuccessful records without him before going on to the nostalgia circuit. Noone's solo career started relatively successfully, with a version of David Bowie's "Oh! You Pretty Things", backed by Bowie and the Spiders From Mars: [Excerpt: Peter Noone, "Oh! You Pretty Things"] That made the top twenty in the UK, but Noone had no further solo success. These days, there are two touring versions of Herman's Hermits -- in the US, Noone has toured as "Herman's Hermits featuring Peter Noone", with no other original members, since the 1980s. Drummer Barry Whitwham and lead guitarist Derek Leckenby kept the group going in the rest of the world until Leckenby's death in 1994 -- since then Whitwham has toured as Herman's Hermits without any other original members. Herman's Hermits may not have the respect that some of their peers had, but they had incredible commercial success at their height, made some catchy pop records, and became the first English group to realise there was a specific audience of Anglophiles in the US that they could market to. Without that, much of the subsequent history of music might have been very different.

George Formby (born James Lawler Booth; 4 October 1875 – 8 February 1921) was an English comedian and singer in musical theatre, known as one of the greatest music hall performers of the early 20th century. His comedy played upon Lancashire stereotypes, and he was popular around Britain. His nickname, "The Wigan Nightingale", was coined because of the way he would use his bronchial cough as a comedic device in his act. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Formby_Sr License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0;

Helen and Bill disappear down the great internet rabbit hole of famous Shirleys to discover a treasure trove of fascinating facts about Shirley MacLaine, Temple, and Bassey, via Big Daddy, George Formby and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.Related Links:Shirley MacLaine meets Fidel Castro.https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/photos/shirley-maclaine-years-46804747/image-46808414Shirley Temple's mother always gave her 56 curls, not 55, not 57.https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2014-feb-12-la-et-mn-shirley-temple-life-fun-facts-20140211-story.html#:~:text=Temple's%20mother%20styled%20her%20daughter's,kept%20my%20head%20on%20straight.%E2%80%9DThe Partridge Family opening theme, starring Shirley Jones and her real life step son, David Cassidyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOiKa51ll-kBig Daddy vs Giant Haystacks, Clash of the Titanshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sDBd6-SGo4Shirley Bassey performs Burn My Candle, considered too saucy for the BBC who banned ithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epIdxoo4QcIBowie's Space Oddity set to pictures of Apollo 11's moon landinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GVYwyWYpkUGeorge Formby performs My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock, too euphemistic for the BBC who banned ithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KQ6Wmbi5igThe Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band iconic cover https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/whos-who-on-the-beatles-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-album-cover/Trailer for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Writer, Tennesse Williams purportedly hated the movie versionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzogcorjLOI Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Which sounds transport you home? Lemn is joined by BAFTA award-winning writer, actor, comedian and creator of the BBC's Alma's Not Normal, Sophie Willan, to ask this question. Together, they listen to stand-out recordings from the British Library Sound Archive (see credits below) to investigate what home means to us. From Sophie's thoughts on Lancashire phrases disappearing, to her memories of growing up in the care system, to a forgotten love of George Formby, the archive inspires a fascinating conversation. This episode includes historical interviews that express the language and opinions of people recorded at that time.    Recordings in the episode in order of appearance:  A selection of phrases from the British Library's The Evolving English WordBank. This is a collection of words and phrases, contributed by visitors to the Library's Evolving English exhibition in 2010/11 who were asked to submit a word or phrase they felt was somehow ‘special' in their variety of English.    1 - Barmpot - someone who's very silly (Glasgow)   British Library shelfmark: C1442/1118  2 - Get the messages - to go shopping (Northern Ireland, County Down)   British Library shelfmark: C1442/05498   3 - As wick as a flea - as bright as a button (Oldham, Lancashire) and Dead Hook - a villain (Oldham, Lancashire)   British Library shelfmark: C1442/6017    A conversation about adoption between Swazi and her youngest son Khushbir. The recording was made as part of the Listening Project for the BBC in 2017 © BBC.   British Library shelfmark: C1500/1394/01    An interview with Joe Baxter speaking in 1992 about Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne and the area's redevelopment in the 1970s with the construction of the Byker Wall.  This was recorded by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums and was digitised as part of the Unlocking our Sound Heritage project.   British Library shelfmark: UTWAM011/3     Sally Poole remembering her childhood in Kent as captured by the BBC in 1999 © BBC, recorded as part of the Millennium Memory Bank. British Library shelfmark: C900/07623    A conversation recorded in 1978 between two women, Maureen and Pam, shortly after moving into high rise council houses in London. This interview is from a radio series created by the Inner London Education Authority and the BBC. It was found in the London Metropolitan Archives and was digitised as part of the Unlocking our Sound Heritage project.   British Library shelfmark: ULMA005/13    Ilkley Moor baht'at recorded by the BBC in 1940  British Library shelfmark: C604/111 C1-9 

"Arthur Askey did it. George Formby did it. Aristotle did it." Mike Peters and Dan Morfitt look upon the Adrian Chiles phenomenon, break down YouTubers and American Exceptionalism again and ask, "Is Heroin Horse?". They look at French foreign policy so you don't have to. #PODCAST #TOPCONTENTPOD #SATIRE #MIKEPETERS #DANMORFITT #PARIS #LIVERPOOL #DEPPHEARD #HILLSBOROUGH #TARBUCK #UVALDE #SKYNEWS #YOUTUBERS #INFLUENCERS #THEDAYTODAY #WOMENONLYGUNS #ADRIANCHILES #JOHNROBINS #CRICKET #STRANGERTHINGS4 *ATopContentProduction.COM - TCP*

From Hitchcock to George Formby, stained glass to Rachel Whiteread, Cindy Sherman to Rembrandt. A new exhibition called Reframed: The Woman in the Window is the starting point for today's conversation about windows covering everything from voyeurism and vandalism to stained glass and modernism. Shahidha Bari is joined by film scholar Adam Scovell, art curator Dr Jennifer Sliwka, architectural critic Hugh Pearman and stained glass expert Jasmine Allen. Reframed: The Woman in the Window runs at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London from 4th May to 4th September 2022 Jasmine Allen is Director of The Stained Glass Museum, Ely Producer: Torquil MacLeod

It's Episode One Hundred and Seventy Eight of the podcast all about life in football's National League, brought to you by two Torquay United fans - comedian Charlie Baker and talkSPORT's John Cadigan. This week features a Woking v Torquay report (NATP), a George Formby tribute, and Grimsby fan and comedian Lloyd Griffith drops by!

Are you all seated comfortable, too square on your botty? Then Love That Album can begin. Welcome to episode 155 of Love That Album podcast. As the 1960s rolled on, popular music evolved....and yet some of it looked back for inspiration. In the late 60s, the pop songs that had propelled the early British Invasion bands had moved on to make way for heavier sounds of psychedelia and blues based rock. The mod bands that had started out as purely “maximum R&B” were exploring different avenues while still maintaining some connections to their roots. In 1968, The Small Faces had been through their share of grief with crooked management, contracts that did not favour them, and money woes. (Sadly, Steve Marriott's own future was set for a lot more grief). They wrote and recorded what many believe was their masterpiece, “Ogden's Nut Gone Flake”. Side 1 was a collection of hard rock, psychedelia, and old world British music-hall inspired tunes. Side 2 was a concept piece – a story about Happiness Stan who searches for the “missing” half of the moon. The story is narrated by Professor of Gobbledegook, Stanley Unwin. Oh yes, oh yes..... I'm joined by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Ian Kitney (Overnight Jones, Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union) to contemplate the moon, lavatories, raising one's “oars”, the drumming of Kenny Jones, whether Marriott was mocking the state of contemporary British music, putting holes in one's snare drum, and what happens when George Formby is cleaning “winders”. It was a thrill to have Ian on the show – not only as a musician I've long admired, but also as a wonderful conversation partner about music we love. I also want to give a shout out to author Alan Pattinson who has written a series of wonderful books about so many musicians and bands from the “classic” rock era. I bought his book on The Small Faces to get a feel for their history, and I'd recommend anything he'd write. You can get Ian's albums from his Bandcamp site at https://iankitney.bandcamp.com/ including his latest called BGM – a wonderful collection of songs crossing over a number of styles over the history of pop. You can read Alan's writings at http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/ which features links to his multiple e-books about the histories and discographies of many bands you love. Download this episode of LTA from wherever you prefer getting your podcasts. Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows. You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum If you'd consider writing an iTunes review I'd be immensely grateful. However, it'd be even better if you told a friend about the podcast and Pantheon – at a barbecue, over coffee, on social media….whatever way you choose, consider me grateful. Proudly Pantheon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you all seated comfortable, too square on your botty? Then Love That Album can begin.Welcome to episode 155 of Love That Album podcast.As the 1960s rolled on, popular music evolved....and yet some of it looked back for inspiration. In the late 60s, the pop songs that had propelled the early British Invasion bands had moved on to make way for heavier sounds of psychedelia and blues based rock. The mod bands that had started out as purely “maximum R&B” were exploring different avenues while still maintaining some connections to their roots.In 1968, The Small Faces had been through their share of grief with crooked management, contracts that did not favour them, and money woes. (Sadly, Steve Marriott's own future was set for a lot more grief). They wrote and recorded what many believe was their masterpiece, “Ogden's Nut Gone Flake”. Side 1 was a collection of hard rock, psychedelia, and old world British music-hall inspired tunes. Side 2 was a concept piece – a story about Happiness Stan who searches for the “missing” half of the moon. The story is narrated by Professor of Gobbledegook, Stanley Unwin. Oh yes, oh yes.....I'm joined by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Ian Kitney (Overnight Jones, Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union) to contemplate the moon, lavatories, raising one's “oars”, the drumming of Kenny Jones, whether Marriott was mocking the state of contemporary British music, putting holes in one's snare drum, and what happens when George Formby is cleaning “winders”. It was a thrill to have Ian on the show – not only as a musician I've long admired, but also as a wonderful conversation partner about music we love.I also want to give a shout out to author Alan Pattinson who has written a series of wonderful books about so many musicians and bands from the “classic” rock era. I bought his book on The Small Faces to get a feel for their history, and I'd recommend anything he'd write.You can get Ian's albums from his Bandcamp site at https://iankitney.bandcamp.com/ including his latest called BGM – a wonderful collection of songs crossing over a number of styles over the history of pop.You can read Alan's writings at http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/ which features links to his multiple e-books about the histories and discographies of many bands you love.Download this episode of LTA from wherever you prefer getting your podcasts.Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows.You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbumIf you'd consider writing an iTunes review I'd be immensely grateful. However, it'd be even better if you told a friend about the podcast and Pantheon – at a barbecue, over coffee, on social media….whatever way you choose, consider me grateful.Proudly Pantheon.

Are you all seated comfortable, too square on your botty? Then Love That Album can begin. Welcome to episode 155 of Love That Album podcast. As the 1960s rolled on, popular music evolved....and yet some of it looked back for inspiration. In the late 60s, the pop songs that had propelled the early British Invasion bands had moved on to make way for heavier sounds of psychedelia and blues based rock. The mod bands that had started out as purely “maximum R&B” were exploring different avenues while still maintaining some connections to their roots. In 1968, The Small Faces had been through their share of grief with crooked management, contracts that did not favour them, and money woes. (Sadly, Steve Marriott's own future was set for a lot more grief). They wrote and recorded what many believe was their masterpiece, “Ogden's Nut Gone Flake”. Side 1 was a collection of hard rock, psychedelia, and old world British music-hall inspired tunes. Side 2 was a concept piece – a story about Happiness Stan who searches for the “missing” half of the moon. The story is narrated by Professor of Gobbledegook, Stanley Unwin. Oh yes, oh yes..... I'm joined by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Ian Kitney (Overnight Jones, Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union) to contemplate the moon, lavatories, raising one's “oars”, the drumming of Kenny Jones, whether Marriott was mocking the state of contemporary British music, putting holes in one's snare drum, and what happens when George Formby is cleaning “winders”. It was a thrill to have Ian on the show – not only as a musician I've long admired, but also as a wonderful conversation partner about music we love. I also want to give a shout out to author Alan Pattinson who has written a series of wonderful books about so many musicians and bands from the “classic” rock era. I bought his book on The Small Faces to get a feel for their history, and I'd recommend anything he'd write. You can get Ian's albums from his Bandcamp site at https://iankitney.bandcamp.com/ including his latest called BGM – a wonderful collection of songs crossing over a number of styles over the history of pop. You can read Alan's writings at http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/ which features links to his multiple e-books about the histories and discographies of many bands you love. Download this episode of LTA from wherever you prefer getting your podcasts. Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows. You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum If you'd consider writing an iTunes review I'd be immensely grateful. However, it'd be even better if you told a friend about the podcast and Pantheon – at a barbecue, over coffee, on social media….whatever way you choose, consider me grateful. Proudly Pantheon.

Are you all seated comfortable, too square on your botty? Then Love That Album can begin.Welcome to episode 155 of Love That Album podcast.As the 1960s rolled on, popular music evolved....and yet some of it looked back for inspiration. In the late 60s, the pop songs that had propelled the early British Invasion bands had moved on to make way for heavier sounds of psychedelia and blues based rock. The mod bands that had started out as purely “maximum R&B” were exploring different avenues while still maintaining some connections to their roots.In 1968, The Small Faces had been through their share of grief with crooked management, contracts that did not favour them, and money woes. (Sadly, Steve Marriott's own future was set for a lot more grief). They wrote and recorded what many believe was their masterpiece, “Ogden's Nut Gone Flake”. Side 1 was a collection of hard rock, psychedelia, and old world British music-hall inspired tunes. Side 2 was a concept piece – a story about Happiness Stan who searches for the “missing” half of the moon. The story is narrated by Professor of Gobbledegook, Stanley Unwin. Oh yes, oh yes.....I'm joined by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Ian Kitney (Overnight Jones, Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union) to contemplate the moon, lavatories, raising one's “oars”, the drumming of Kenny Jones, whether Marriott was mocking the state of contemporary British music, putting holes in one's snare drum, and what happens when George Formby is cleaning “winders”. It was a thrill to have Ian on the show – not only as a musician I've long admired, but also as a wonderful conversation partner about music we love.I also want to give a shout out to author Alan Pattinson who has written a series of wonderful books about so many musicians and bands from the “classic” rock era. I bought his book on The Small Faces to get a feel for their history, and I'd recommend anything he'd write.You can get Ian's albums from his Bandcamp site at https://iankitney.bandcamp.com/ including his latest called BGM – a wonderful collection of songs crossing over a number of styles over the history of pop.You can read Alan's writings at http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/ which features links to his multiple e-books about the histories and discographies of many bands you love.Download this episode of LTA from wherever you prefer getting your podcasts.Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows.You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbumIf you'd consider writing an iTunes review I'd be immensely grateful. However, it'd be even better if you told a friend about the podcast and Pantheon – at a barbecue, over coffee, on social media….whatever way you choose, consider me grateful.Proudly Pantheon.

A repost of our first visit with Martin Quibell from 2019.     More ukuleles and banjoleles than you can shake a stick at!     Remember, The ukulele is a type of lute class that is quickly becoming the primary choice of instrument for musicians everywhere.

We get to talk to ex-BBC broadcaster, cancer survivor and author, CJ Grace, on how she came up with the six-part plan of surviving a divorce. She shared her personal story on how she learned of her (ex) husband's infidelity, how she dealt with it, including dealing with the mistress, and how she gained peace of it all.  Follow CJ Grace on: Clubhouse: Overcoming Infidelity and CJ Grace Instagram: @cjgraceauthor Website: www.cjauthor.com Buy her book on Amazon   Zestie survey: I'd like to know you better! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6CVL2QD   Join the zesty community on: Instagram: instagram.com/gleefultalkshow Facebook: fb.com/gleefultalkshow Visit us: www.gleefultalkshow.com Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAq4xOTu7iiaRfPT3t1Nl0Q Ways to support Gleeful Talkshow: Share to your friends Share on social media Leave a rating on podcasting platforms and Facebook page Buy Glee a cup of coffee or two! https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=ANQENUPWKT9JS   This episode is recorded via Riverside.FM.   Transcript:   if you ain't getting fed at home, you're going to go for a t The best revenge is to get past the need for it.   Hey Zesties. Welcome to the Gleeful Talk Showwhere we share zesty stories to cultivate the happiness and hero. Within in this episode, we are, we're going to talk about surviving the aftermath of infidelities, such as how to stop feeling like hell forgiveness and moving on. We are joined ex-BBC broadcaster, cancer, survivor and author of adulterers wife. How to thrive whether you stay or not. Please welcome CJ grace. Hi, CJ. Welcome to the show.  Hi glee. Thank you so much for inviting me today. Thank you for being in the show. And you've written this book. Adulterers wife, how to thrive, whether to stay or not. So, how did this book came about? So could you tell us a background of your, story? Well, you know, in some ways I was living a charmed life. I had a great job with the BBC meeting celebrities and politicians, and I felt like I had my finger on the pulse of current affairs. Then I got a transfer to work for China radio international in Beijing, which was really an exciting assignment to get. I was a journalist advisor there. And in Beijing, I met an American guy and we had a fairytale falling in love. And if you fast forward, 25 years later, best wedding anniversary ever, we spent it in Hawaii. I thought that we were closer than ever before. And little did I know that just two years later, both my marriage and my health would be in tatters because he was carrying on an affair with a woman that was half his age, whom he refused to give him. And I was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time I carried that BLCA gene, similar to what Angelina Jolie has and soar is a death sentence if she didn't deal with it. So it was a terrifying, double whammy that hit me at that point. And one of the ways I got through it was by, I didn't want to be a victim. I wanted to keep my sense of humor because I was brought up on one too hyphen, but I also did a lot of writing. And the book came out of that. The first book, adulterous wife, how to thrive with you, stay or not. And I also am completing a second book based on my cancer and infidelity experiences called Hotel Chemo: My Wild Ride Through Breast Cancer and Infidelity. So the adulterous wife book did come out of personal experience, but I interviewed a lot of women some men too because there are so many. Things that you just don't hear about and what I hated about how people dealt with adultery and, and all the sites you see on, the web. So much of it was vitriol, it was people blaming and getting angry and all these revenge strategies. And that just wasn't for me, I knew in my heart that the best revenge would be to get past the need for it. Whether I stayed with my husband or I moved on revenge was just not the way I wanted to go. And that was the main theme of the book that the best revenge is to get past the need for it. And ways to just get off that horrible, emotional roller coaster that infidelity throws you in. It was such a roller coaster indeed, with a health issue and then the infidelity. So just flashback on when you discovered the infidelity. So what narratives that pop into your mind when you found out? And of course this will not be an overnight overcoming of the situation. So how did you go through about it Yeah. I mean, I found out about it initially from a text on, my husband's phone. I was transferring data from one, older phone to a new phone when a text came in. Oh dear. And the, the whole point was that my ex. He's now my ex cause we've got divorced. He was not willing to give this woman up. He just was not willing. And in fact, once I found out he actually offered me a part time wife position, if you can imagine, you know, I'd be, he said to me, well, you know, I'd be perfectly happy to spending two or three days a week with her. So the week with you, and I'm perfectly capable of loving two women at once. And to be amazingly, I actually can. I did that proposal for a few months and the original subtitle of my book was not adulterous wife, how to thrive, whether you stay or not. It was adulterous wife, how to thrive if you choose to stay, stay. Because there are a lot of women who do stay with people who have been unfaithful. But it's much more likely to be successful in those cases, if the husband or the wife, if the wife has been unfaithful is willing to give up the girlfriend or the philandering or whatever it is. It's a very difficult road. If you stay with somebody who is going to continue. Philandering or continue having a relationship with somebody else because if that's not what you've agreed to at the beginning, if you haven't agreed to an open relationship right from the start it's not an open relationship. It's being forced on you. It's not consensual and it will not make you happy. But I, I actually thought about how to navigate around. For a few months, because you know, you don't want your relationship to collapse. You don't want your whole life, your home, you know, your, everything that you've believed is, stable to just fall apart. So I did even think about it, but once I got the cancer, it was so. Glaring, the obvious that a part-time husband would not do it was just no good at all. I did not want to be treated like a doormat or anything like that. I needed to forgive him, I needed to forgive him and the girlfriend and I needed to try it. Maintain a neutral relationship with both of them. But I certainly, wasn't going to be able to have this part-time marriage position that just wasn't wasn't going to work. Not at all. Yes, exactly. the thing is in effect it was going to be. well, she could provide the passion and I could get the taxes done. Yeah. I don't think so. No, no, no, no, no. As what you've mentioned. You didn't sign up for it in the first instance. But it's good that you were able to overcome it after, several months, because it would be difficult to come out of this problem. If you stayed, I feel. Yeah. and, you have to, we work on various techniques to get out of that emotional hole. And I, did come up with a six part plan of how to do it. It wasn't that I just had an idea, oh yes, I need a six point plan and I'll be fine. It just evolved. There were six things that I did not necessarily in, a particular order that were key to getting over this setback and also getting over the emotional roller coaster that getting cancer put me into. So the, the first thing I did was to find confidants and mentors who had my best interests at heart, and these were people I could vent to. I could sort of process the emotions with some people might. Paying a counselor to, to go through this stuff. I didn't have to do that because I had friends who were actually good at counseling and they were giving me good advice. They had my best interests at heart. They really cared about what happened to me. And those were people I could call up and go on and on and on and on. And they. go nuts and draw away from me. These were people who were really very good friends and very good confidants and I've found it very useful having men as well as women. as confidants because you get a very different impression talking to a guy about something like infidelity than you do from a, woman. And this also ties in with my second thing that I did, which was to rebuild my community of friends. I wanted to get back to connecting with my old friends and make new ones because one big problem. And I think it's true of a lot of women is that you lose a lot of the friends you have prior to marriage. And most of the people in my social circle. When I was married were either friends of my husbands or they were connected with a joint business that we'd built up. And of course, if you're having marital problems that last and you're going to do, if you're trying to stay professional is vent to the people you're working with. That just doesn't work. So I couldn't really confide in any of those people. And then the third thing, which was really important too, especially with my Monte Python. Loving background was laughter therapy. I needed to do things that made me laugh. I didn't want to watch any depressing dramas. I watched a lot of comedies and you know, even being a BBC news journalist, I gave up watching the news because it's so depressing. When you think about it, all the news is bad news. I didn't need that. I needed. That brought me up that made me laugh rather than made me feel depressed. I did not want to feel depressed. The full thing that I did, which is really important too, sort of loving my body and trying to become more beautiful in myself. Not that I was going to ever become a supermodel or anything like that, but, you know, diet, exercise, sleep, making sure that those things were. Taken care of cause it's really easy to sort of let yourself go and really not, look after yourself. Well, when you're going through a rough patch and one of the big things that I found made a, difference to my mood was outdoor exercise. And if there was one thing, I would recommend anybody going through any kind of adversity, feeling down, feeling depressed. If you can go outside in nature for 15 minutes a day. It is huge. It makes a huge difference to your mood. Nice. If you can do it with a friend, but just being in nature outside, moving your body makes a big difference. As far as banishing the blues. And I found that that was a key part of feeling better. Despite these. Obstacles of the cancer and infidelity. And then the fifth thing was to try to find my passion and become more of a hedonist because I found that I had made very little time at all to do things I enjoyed. I was very much nose to the grindstone in my marriage. Taking care of the business. I'd raise the kids ministering to my husband and I just didn't make time for anything I enjoyed. And I had to go back to think about what I loved, what really made my heart sing for me. It was writing. Writing was one of those things and even meeting kindred spirits and all kinds of stuff. For some people, it might be playing a musical instrument for others. It might be. Volunteering for a cause that they really believe in those kinds of things are really good. And if you are doing things you enjoy that involve other people, then you're also increasing your circle of friends and you're making your own friends again, people who hopefully are kindred spirits. So it's a really good thing to do that too. And then the final thing I did, number six on my list which actually was the most difficult. Was to try to become more mindful, more fully engaged in what was right there in front of my nose, because it's so easy to start, churning the past. If only I had done that, if I had made a different decision, then it might've been different. and maybe this happened because of this thing that I did. And, if only he hadn't done that all of that. In the past it's gone. And then you start worrying about the future, how is it going to turn out? Where am I going to live? What are we going to do? How am I going to feel I'm going to, you know, and that doesn't help either because the future doesn't exist either. It's just in your imagination. All you have is the now. And so the best thing to do is to try to work at becoming fully engaged in what's right in front of your nose, because you can have. Beautiful things happening in front of you, wonderful sunset or lovely people. And if you're in a crappy mood, worrying about what's happened in the past, you're not going to notice it it's as if it doesn't exist. So it's so important to do that. you've mentioned very good points and actually I am quite curious what comedy show you, watch during that time? Well obviously Monte Python. And there's a I'd like sci-fi and there was a British sci-fi comedy show called Red Dwarf. I don't know if you ever got that in Australia. I liked it because it's so incompetent. One of the main guys is sort of a, a lazy. So not particularly confident guy. And the other one is, incompetent, but also extremely arrogant. There's the two main characters in that show. And I loved it because it was just quite cleverly written and really you know, making fun of, pretty much everything. So, so those were two things I liked. I also really liked I think it was a New Zealand production it's a mockumentary, What We Do In The Shadows. it's a fake documentary about vampires living together in a house in New Zealand and how they interesting how they manage. But it's very, very funny. And, and I, enjoyed that. So, so there were a number of different things that, I like. I liked and that I listened to. I remember one of the things that I turned down was going to see a movie called Wild with Reese Witherspoon. And that's about her overcoming depression as she does a hike down the Pacific coast trail in America. And it's supposedly a fantastic film, but it's about somebody dealing with depression, not what I needed. Absolutely not. and I do you like the British humor more than anything else. So I was sort of going back to some of my old favorites. Some of them are only available on sort of old YouTube clips actually, but, those were the things I really liked. And I found sci-fi too, because if it's especially tongue in cheek, sci-fi films, like guardians of the galaxy that made me laugh The only thing I didn't like about that first film was the scene where the main character's mother is dying of cancer in the hospital. And there she was chemo, bald just as I was chemo, bald, and I could have done without that scene. But apart from that, I really enjoyed the movie. And so when you. were recovering from all of this, you were based in Hawaii at that point in time in California. I was because I sort of bounced between California and Hawaii. So I'm I still spend time in both states. But currently. As we're recording this, I'm in Hawaii, which is certainly a nice place to be. I can't complain because I was just thinking whether, what would be your advice in this day and age that, when people are depressed and people are remotely away from families and friends, then how would they be able to cope in, case they have.  Similar kind of situation. Yeah. Well, in the age of COVID and lockdowns absolutely. And the six part plan that I mentioned does work well for that. But it is also very important to connect. So even though. A zoom conversation is nowhere near as good as, as seeing something in the flesh and being able to hug them and really interact. it's a pale reflection of really seeing somebody face to face, but it is. At least better than nothing. And it is an interaction that's live. That's why, for example, I I've just recently got involved in clubhouse. I have a clubhouse club overcoming infidelity. And for me, I found that it was eye opening and it was a lovely experience to meet new people and have real live conversations with them. So I think there are things that you can do that. Expand your social circle. Even if you can't go out of your house and see people face to face. And I do believe clubhouse is a good thing to try and now it's it was invite only when it started, but it's no longer invite only. So I would recommend that there's so many rooms going on. You can start your own club. You can. Just focus on stuff you're interested in and you do end up finding kindred spirits, people who are interested in what you are interested in, and then you end up in conversations with them, which is lovely. it's a great idea. So I was impressed by it. I'm not particularly keen on social media generally, but clubhouse is a great way to communicate and to meet new people and to talk to I mean, you've always got the telephone and you've got zoom, but if you want to meet new people, that is one way to do it. And I think one of the things that has been so difficult for people with COVID is that you can spend the whole day when you're not even talking to anyone. You're living on your own. In the old days you would have gone out and done this and done that and met this person and met that person and had dinner parties and all of those things, which are not available for some folks, depending on what the lockdown situations are in their location. But you can communicate. Yeah. Through zoom, you can communicate through clubhouse, which as I said is a great way to meet new people. and the telephone for those people who really aren't happy about the internet. I think it's important to make sure you connect with maybe at least one person every year. and just talk and just chat and talk about how you feel and also, you know, make sure you do the other things, eating well, exercising, going outdoors maintaining your circle of friendships and using the time maybe to follow a passion and create and be and feel artistic for some people. It might be. Some kind of art project. Some people might want to write you know, everybody has had some thing that they've always wanted to do and they've never had the time to do it. Well, actually now is the time that you can do that. Doesn't mean that you're going to write a best-selling book and make a fortune, but you certainly can get your creative juices flowing and get things done. So I think you just have to flip it and try and look for the upside in a really very dark. Kind of situation. you can't as they say in Britain, you can't put lipstick on a pig. It isn't a great situation to be going through COVID and there are a lot of varying views as to, what's going on. What's good. What's bad. That's kind of. Irrelevant. You still have to find a way to make whatever life you have now, palatable and enjoyable. And so I would say yes, connect as much as you can through the internet, through the telephone to not feel that you're on your own. I think it's critical, absolutely critical to do that because otherwise you can get yourself in a deep dark hole and that's, definitely not the best way to, to get through the pandemic. and just going back again on the cheating thing. So were there like subtle signs of cheating and why do you think people cheat? I think there are often signs, but generally we don't want to see them. I know. And it's such a common story that the cheated upon person is the last one to know about it. Everybody else seems to know except except them. And I was probably in that situation too. And th there are so many reasons why infidelity happens. I think One of the most common right now is longevity because the longer people live, the more opportunity they have for infidelity and the new ed drugs that have a fairly recent invention mean that men can have You know, they can bonk until he kicked the bucket. Basically they can keep going until they die. And that didn't used to be the case. So that increases the amount of possibilities for infidelity. And then you have another rather sad situation where celebate marriage is really common, especially in long-term relationships. And, you could say, well, if you ain't getting fed at home, you're going to go for a t akeout. Just to be semi crude about it. But, you know, in my case that, that wasn't the story. I think that my, my husband came up with a quote. He said, well, if you're not monogamous by nature, monogamy is a prison. Okay, well, that was his thing, but it wasn't what we agreed on at the beginning and it wasn't what I wanted. And so there are people that are more monogamous than others and often it's the men that are more interested in straying than the women. I think that's the sort of environmental it's really the way that. Men and women are programmed, you know, biology, you can't in a way, get away from that. But it doesn't mean that it's great to have to deal with it. And nobody really wants to deal with it. And in fact, there's so much hypocrisy around infidelity because often somebody can go around and be unfaithful. And then when their partners are unfaithful, they're absolutely furious. And that you don't want to put up with it. So. it's a really strange kind of situation. And I think that there are many, many reasons why people do commit adultery or on, or they're unfaithful. Sometimes it's just a one-off thing. Something happens sometimes it's somebody just finally meets a soul. Well, and realizes that their husband or wife wasn't a soulmate. And sometimes it's meaningless and sometimes it's not, sometimes it will affect the marriage and affect the person's views on, on their partner. And sometimes it doesn't generally speaking. If the cheating person is willing to give up the mistress and genuinely wants to stay in the relationship. And if the other person. Wants to stay in the relationship and is genuinely able to forgive the person that's cheated, which is not an easy road, but it is doable. Sometimes you can find that the marriage is actually better than it was before. And I do know people that have, have weathered through it and they've actually done better. And the marriage is of a great other people, they stay together, but if say the wife has been cheated upon. Can't rebuild trust and just, can't really forgive that person. That's cheated. They're always looking over their shoulder. They don't want the person who's cheated to ever be out of their sight or do anything on their own. Then you can end up with a purgatory situation rather than a real marriage. So I think there's so many ways that this thing can play out and there's no one size fits all answer to why infidelity happens and how you. Deal with it. But after the emotional upheaval has dissipated a bit and you're more on an even keel. Usually at least this is the way I felt, you know, in your gut, whether you really want to continue it or not, whether this person is somebody you really want to spend the rest of your life with it or not. Because sometimes an affair is as much a symptom as a cause of a breakup of a relationship. Sometimes it's saying that this is not really the best relationship for either of you, because if it were, maybe he, or she would not have gone off with somebody else, so, I have some personal experience and that was not in my marriage, but just a, you know, like a boyfriend, girlfriend relationship, in the end, like I was happy that it kind of ended, you know, like, as you mentioned that you, you will realize or sometimes even that you realized, but you just wait for something to slip up like your, your gut was really right. Hi, there is se and joining the conversation, please, don't forget to subscribe and rate this podcast on apple podcasts, Spotify, pod chaser, or wherever you listen to your pods. You can also follow the show on Instagram and YouTube where I share it. And highlights of the episode. If you want me to stay caffeinated, you may also buy me a coffee or two, just head down to the episode notes to find out how now that to the regular program Right. And do you know the irony? Yeah, it is. I'm actually grateful to my ex-husband and his girlfriend for doing whatever they did, because I'm so much happier on my own than I was in the marriage. And I feel so much more complete. As a person. And that was the whole point of that six part plan, because the aim was to become a more complete creative, joyful human being. And that's exactly what happened. It doesn't happen overnight, but it's, that is what happened. And I hear that from a lot of other people, you know, that actually it was horrible to go through it. I would hate to go through it again, but I'm really glad it happened because I'm, I'm in a, so much better place than I was then and I'm not talking about when I found out about the infidelity I'm talking about actually during the marriage, you know, I'm happier than I was. And I, and you see a lot of flaws that were in a marriage or a relationship, but you only see them once you're out of it from the outside. I didn't really see them when I was in the relationship. Yes. So when you mentioned about about staying, so do you think that if you stay in a relationship that's already forgiveness, so does forgiveness always mean that it's a second chance?  Forgiveness is really important because otherwise you're going to get stuck in a revenge blame cycle. And I think whether you stay or not, forgiveness is important because revenge eats into you and it prevents you moving on. it just doesn't serve you. it's like sort of hitting yourself. You think you're hitting somebody else on the head with a mallet. You're hitting yourself on the head with a mallet when you're putting all your effort into revenge strategies, however bad that person has been, it's sort of better to just put all that life energy into moving on. Even, you know, moving on within that relationship, as well as moving on outside the relationship, if you do choose to leave obviously if somebody has been pretty bad and unpleasant and abusive in particular, then you absolutely would want to try to get out of that relationship. And I have to say glee in the research I did, I felt so Thankful that I had the husband I had, because some of the stories I heard from other women and what they had been through my story was a walk in the park compared to some of what I'd heard really, and truly, I mean, tragic, horrible stories of how. People have been treated by generally, I was talking to cheated upon women whose husbands were the ones that were unfaithful. But that's another reason to be grateful because your circumstances could always be so much worse. And that really, I just took that lesson home from talking to a lot of others. And it was a blessing in disguise and, sometimes when you talk to other people and know their circumstances, you're in, you feel that your story wasn't that as bad as others. So you feel a bit. Oh my God. I mean, I don't know if you really want to hear some of the horror, horror stories that I heard, but if you would like to share then you know, one of the absolute worst, I think was a woman I spoke to whose husband was he betrayed her by molesting their own daughter. And knowing that not only that for a long while he managed, he was denying it and he got the wife committed to a mental institution and it took her some time to get out and to sort of free herself from the whole situation. I had a hard time. Thinking of anything worse. I mean, I'm sure somebody has got an even worse story than that, but that was so horrific. And again, it made me really grateful that I only went through what I went through. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. I couldn't even imagine that some, someone could do that to the daughter and like the wife putting in a mental institution, it's like maybe the husband should be put in the mental institution. Absolutely. Absolutely. But I think, you know, maybe how to a position of power or wherever he was, and that was horrifying. so I'm curious as well that, when people discover the infidelity, what is your advice on how to deal with the other woman? Because most of the time, the other woman is much more like stronger and feeling more having ownership of the husband or something for some reason, Well, I don't know, again, it's a gray area and I have a section in my adulterous wife, how to thrive, whether you stay or not to have a section called The mistress villain or victim, and often she's neither, but you never know what story she's been told by your husband? I think one of the most outrageous stories I heard from somebody was that they got a call. From some woman that they've never heard of. And the woman said, oh, you sound awfully healthy. And it's so turned out that this woman was her husband's mistress or had had an affair with the, with the husband. And the husband had told this woman that his wife had terminal cancer was bedridden and she had been a terrible evil alcoholic. And yeah. The goodness of his heart, he was still taking care of her and he desperately needed the TLC from this woman to take care of it. So I mean, there you go. Yeah. That's an interesting story from a husband to to a mistress. So you just don't know. And the, the bottom line is the mistress did not get into that marriage vow with you. The husband did. And Often it's easy for people to just put all the blame on the, mistress, this hapless husband, you know, he was dragged out of the, completely against his will dragged out of the marriage by this evil hoppy of a woman, taking him away from, from the wife and everything is her fault. Not necessarily. I mean, it takes two to have an affair. and you just never know what the dynamic is. And yes, there are common stories where sometimes the mistress does want the marriage to break up because she feels that if that happens, then she's got the shot at having the man to her. And that's why often it's the mistress who goes to the wife and tells her that her husband is having an affair. And there was a very strong ulterior motive there going on clearly. so yeah, my view was I wanted to try to cultivate a neutral attitude as much as possible to the mistress particularly. If it's a circumstance where, where the, the husband is likely to be leaving and, and living with her and whatever it is, however long or short that relationship might be with the woman that was the mistress. it's the same reason why I always wanted to be able to have a fairly neutral cordial ish relationship with my, husband, my ex, because I didn't want to be in a circumstance where I couldn't even talk to him on the phone. You know so many of these expensive acrimonious divorces happen because the two partners are not even willing to talk to each other on the phone about basic stuff and they have to go through their lawyers. I'm sure the lawyers love that they make tons of money on that, on those kinds of things. There's often animosity between say the wife and the mistress. I don't think that my husband's girlfriend fiance now is particularly keen on me, but if we need to talk, we can talk. And you know, that's just the way it is, but we don't particular, it's not like we're bosom buddies, but I just think that for the same reason I don't like the idea of having a vengeful blaming attitude towards your partner. I think it's the same story with the mistress. And often for instance, if somebody wants to stay with their partner, who's cheated, they. Wanting to put all the blame on the mistress, because then they can get their head around staying with the with the husband. If it's the husband that's been cheating because oh, no, it wasn't really his fault. It was all her fault. Yeah. Rationalizing that your actions of staying and then putting the blame on the mistress. Yeah, and I do caution against, the angry wife going to call out the mistress and behaving in a very emotional way towards her. Because once you've done that, you can't take it back. once you end up running yourself on your emotions, once you do these things and having sort of weird behavior of, because you're feeling so crap about the whole situation you can't take it back. And my view was whatever I wanted to do, whatever. Decision. I needed to make whatever behavior I felt like, whatever action I felt I wanted to take I didn't want to make snap decisions based on my emotions. what I had to do was actually stop, breathe. And think is this going to serve my own long-term best interests, whatever I did, is this going to serve my own long-term best interests. That's really important because it's so easy to run off on your own emotions. Make a complete ass of yourself and then, the mistress can say, oh, I really understood why you left her. She's crazy harpy. You know, why would you want to be with her? You know, because anybody in that mood, when they first found out is going to maybe feel inside a bit like a crazy harpy doesn't mean they are a crazy harpy, but you really want to try to take the high ground. And you will thank yourself in the future for doing it. vengeful angry behavior, screaming and shouting type of behavior. Never makes you feel good. in the long run never makes you feel good. Doesn't make you feel good about yourself. So it's the best thing to do is to try to. Keep your emotions under wraps, especially when you're dealing with the mistress with with the other woman. And I think it is, in some cases people don't have anything to do with them at all, which is fine. But in, in other cases, it's necessary because If the marriage breaks up, then your former wife or husband will, may well be having a, a long-term relationship with that person. And you have to navigate around that. So I would take the high ground. That's what I would always try to do. very good advice. And even though it's very hard, when you you're in that situation, but it's, it's very insightful. And, what advice could you give your past self if there is during that time. I think I've dealt with it more or less. Okay. I I think I could have tried to dissipate those emotions a little bit more quickly. it took me a while to. get my head around this six part plan. It didn't come out overnight. And maybe if somebody had presented me with it at the beginning if somebody else had written my book and given it to me, maybe I would have actually got through it faster. I'm sure I would've got through it faster because it took some time. It took time to work out. These. Ways to navigate through a difficult situation. I was lucky I had some good friends and good mentors that I could lean on during this period. But certainly yeah, I had to work it out for myself and it's always good. If you can have a leg up and, learn from somebody else's experiences. Yes, but I believe as well that it was a process and since it was a process and it's learned through experience, I think it's much more impactful. And that's why you're able to impart these learnings to your readers of the book. That's right. And I do have a free PDF that I put together called overcoming infidelity tools to team the roller coaster of negative emotions. And that contains some of the exercises that I did to dissipate those negative emotions. And I also have in there a wonderful exercise. On mindfulness using chocolate. Cause I am a chocoholic. I have to admit that. And it's an exercise I've found. I'd love to say I invented it, but I found it's used No school children in Britain use it. So if kids can use it I'm sure we can to, to become more mindful, to become more focused on the present moment, they use that in schools. And so I included it in that PDF. And I also put together a little video, a short nine minute video on how to do it. So you can follow along with a wrapped piece of chocolate, if you like. And that's all available on a page on my website, and you can access that page by going to CJAuthor.com. CJAuthor.com. that Was useful stuff going through that type of practice, different practices to learn how to become more mindful to get off that rollercoaster really important. Cause you do. Land on it when infidelity happens. no way of avoiding it. It's always going to hit you in the gut and create a whole load of emotions that you would rather not be going through. Awesome. Thank you so much for. For all your insights and sharing your experiences. I'm sure our Zesties would really benefit from it. And before we wrap things up, CJ, I have some few fun questions for you. Are you ready? Oh, I'm ready. Yes. All right. So if you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be and why? Eat chocolate now it'll make you happy. That just came out of my head, you know, but eat it mindfully, use my exercise and enjoy it. Yes, you might. You might do my exercise and eating chocolate will never be the same again. It'll be a whole new.  Three songs on my playlist. I love Phil Collins. That's all is a good one, because it's a sort of, screw that I'm just going to move on. That's all, you know I think it's called that's all, but it's one of my favorites. And I also like Melody Gardot I'm trying to remember which track I like the best from her. Your Heart is as Black as Night whenever I hear that, it actually reminds me of my boyfriend in London actually, who sadly we've because of COVID we've been separated, but so be it, but it's a wonderful song, Melody Gardot Your Heart is as Black as Night. I think that's the title. But I know it's the first line of the song, and then you want something else. Let's see a third song. Oh, you know, there's another one that it's going to be a very weird one that nobody else will have chosen. They may have chosen the actual, the song itself, but not the way it's played. It's Fragile by Sting, which I think is a beautiful, beautiful song. But there is a ukulele player who has done an amazing version of it. And his name is Jake Shimabukuro from Hawaii. if you're an older person from England, you might think of George Formby when you think of the ukulele, which is not great, very nasal singer and, and, and sort of, tinkly not tinny sound from the ukulele, but Jake Shimabukuro is in fact, the Eric Clapton Of the ukulele. So CJ, where can our Zesties find you? Yes. Well, I have a website first of all you know, I go into more detail about that six part program in that comedy self-help book, Adulterer's Wife: How to Thrive Whether to Stay or Not. And that mini ebook that I mentioned overcoming infidelity. Tools to tame the roller coaster of negative emotions that is available. If you go to my website, my website is actually called AdulterersWife.com and I hate to say it the, but it is a terrible, terrible name for a website because nobody can spell it. And what's even worse is there is a believe a porn site that's spelled similarly to it. So my solution to that was to get a different URL, to go straight to the page where I have my. Free PDF the tools to attain the rollercoaster of negative emotions. And that is CJAuthor.com. Much easier to remember. I also have an Instagram account and that is @CJGraceAuthor is my Instagram. And I am on clubhouse CJ, grace for clubhouse, and I have an overcoming infidelity club on clubhouse that you can also join. So you know, one thing that I would want to say to people is that, you know, There is hope after dealing with adversity like infidelity and breast cancer. And in some ways I'm living proof of that. So if anybody listening to this is feeling lousy right now, you really don't have to put up with it. Just imagine how much better your life could be in six months time or a year. And please do go to my website because I do have tools for you on the overcoming infidelity ebook, the free ebook, you can follow along doing that chocolate mindfulness exercise, and you can also get my book, adulterous wife, how to thrive, whether you stay or not. And those will go into much more detail about how to get off that horrible . Horrible rollercoaster of negative emotions. So that's, that's it. So CJ author.com. And you can always Google CJ, grace, and you'll find all the various articles I've written for places like thrive global and HuffPost and. Places like that. Thank you so much CJ for your time and sharing your insights on how to thrive in dealing with infidelity. Thank you. Hey Zesties. What do you think of this episode? I'd be very happy to hear from you. You may send your feedback to gleeful talk show@gmail.com or rate on the podcasting platform of your choice, comment, or tag us on gleeful talk show, social media. See ya.

Andy Eastwood is a huge name in the world of variety and he's still a young man. He made an impact in the World of Ukulele and Banjo playing and more. With over 300 tours dates with the late and great Sir Ken Dodd and hundreds more with Duggie Chapman, they knew they were on to a great talent with Andy and knew their audiences were guaranteed entertaining.Andy is not only a brother water rat but we have been on the same bills for over 15 years. He is a great personality, a fabulous performer and great theatre Producer of his own variety tours too.Andy tells me of his backstage conversations with Sir Ken Dodd who graced him with advice in his early years and shaped his act and comedy within it so you can imagine how polished he is. When The Scientist of Comedy gives you advice on comedy you take it in and use it. Frank Skinner is a great player of the Uke thanks to Andy Eastwood, he is a great teacher too and we will learn a lot of variety today when I talk on eyes and teeth the water rats to Andy Eastwood.

The Wang, Wang Blues- Teresa Brewer, Take me in your arms- Les Paul and Mary Ford, The Duke's idea and Skyliner- Charlie Barnet-, Keep your seats please- George Formby, I never knew heaven could speak- Bob Crosby, vocals Marion Mann, Effie Atherton-Dennis the Menace, Jimmie Rodgers- Away out on the mountain, Harry Torrani- The watermill yodel, Claude Hopkins- Ain't misbehaving, Fats Waller- Vipers rag, Albert Ammons- Boogie woogie stomp, Hobo Jack Taylor- The bum's rush, Wingie Malone-South with the boarder, Johnny Rae- What's the use, Frankie Laine- High Noon.

Mark Steel performs for the residents of Wigan. He's talking about entering pie-eating competitions, living under floorboards, and the radicalism of George Formby. During his visit to the Greater Manchester town, he investigates the rich tapestry of remarkable events and people. Series in which the comedian visits towns across the UK and creates a stand-up show for the locals. Written by Mark Steel with additional material by Pete Sinclair. Producer: Sam Bryant First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2012.

Song titles and included lines and phrases are often the starting point for popular fiction  and in this episode I'm going to be exploring the connections between stories, poetry and song lyrics. And have you thought by using a song title for a ‘prompt', you would never be lost getting the creative juices flowing! There's a song I demoed for Dorset poet John Hobbs entitled ‘In 2 Today' and  I'll be reading article I wrote on Bob Dylan inspired by a Bridgend U3A Writer's Group prompt and another story, inspired by a real golden oldie, George Formby's ‘With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock', my entry from Bridgend Writers Circle's Railton Competition back in 2016, followed by Bridie Banwell's monologue entitled 'The Gallery'.I'll close with an extract from a song I wrote which is all about the experience my dog Busby had when performing for Britain's' Got Talent. 

Today I have a chat to Christopher Davis-Shannon, a Philadelphia-based musician who grew up in a very musical family.  He discovered ukulele a few years back and fell in love with it, and he now plays some fantastic music, much of it influenced by early 20th century players such as Roy Smeck and George Formby.  Enjoy! To find out more about Christopher’s music, teaching, and his new book “The George Formby Handbook”, go to his website thetinman.co. Some show-related links below: Roy Smeck Campanella Sam Muir Choan Galvez Paul Mansell Django Reinhardt George Formby Cliff Edwards Art Fowler Wunderkammer instruments by Liam Kirby Original style ukuleles – Nunes and Dias Gene Austin Bing Crosby Prat Instruments "Checking In" podcast Chris’ Jazz Cafe Songs played on the show: Bluebird (Christopher Davis-Shannon) Smile (Charlie Chaplin, 1936) Go to the Ukulele Is The New Black YouTube channel for a playlist to hear these songs as well as other content relating to the episode Ukulele is the New Black is produced by me, Meredith Harper.  I wrote the theme tune and I performed it with Janine Chandler, Jim Croft, Jasmine Fellows, Paul Marsh, Sandra Shaw and Chris Williams.  Seb Carraro does the graphic design. Thanks to my $10 and over Patreon supporters for helping me to make this podcast: Ukulele Legend: Linda Dodwell Ukulele Champions: Debbie Hoad, Maja Zweck & Christopher Boatwright The music played in this episode is licenced under a Podcasts (Featured Music) agreement with APRA AMCOS.

Brian Harvey’s jacket potato nightmare and the connection between pickling and George Formby. (Rec: 23/8/20)Join the Iron Filings Society: https://www.patreon.com/topflighttimemachine See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

George Formby- When I'm cleaning windows, Oi- Flanagan and Allen, actually that turns into Underneath the arches. Their most famous song. Roy Fox, vocals Buddy Clark The treasure of Sierra Madre. This is the theme song from the Humprey Bogart film. Bob Crosby and Marion Mann with Never knew Heaven could speak and Speak to me of love. Jimmie Rodgers- Everyone's doing it in Hawaii and Frankie and Johnny. The magnicent Sophie Tucker with Life begins at forty and Nellie Lutcher with Hurry on down. Both delightfully naughty. Jack Hylton, Hoagy Carmichael, George Wettling, Hutch and Italian Samba from Tino Vailati. Johnny Duncan with The last train to San fernado. We finish with a uncharacteristically slow and moody number from Mugsy Spanier- Lonesome Road. One of my favourites from the 100s of records I've played on Forgotten Songs.

Richard Thompson joins us this week for a very special talk about the making of his new memoir, Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975. The book chronicles the first chapter of RT's music career - including his time in the Fairport Convention, playing with Sandy Denny and his first solo albums - and is a must-read for fans of the famed singer-songwriter. During our chat, we talk about the times Jimi Hendrix sat in with the Fairport Convention, how the group unearthed all those old British folk songs, his relationship with Sandy Denny and how he gleaned at least part of his right hand technique from banjo-ukulele great George Formby. We also hear about Thompson's future recording projects, his Lowden guitars, and a lot more.  This episode is sponsored by Caddis, Mono Cases, Folkway Music and Retrofret Vintage Guitars. Use the discount code FRETBOARD15OFF to save 15 dollars off your Caddis order. Subscribe to the Fretboard Journal magazine here. Our new, 47th issue features James Taylor, Jim Olson, Ben Harper, John Monteleone, Bahamas, Flip Scipio, luthier David Wren and much more. Read about it here. 

In 1978 a hoaxer from Wearside led the police searching for a notorious serial killer on a wild goose chase. Actual wild geese would have done a better job of catching him. Seriously, the guy literally fell out of the sky and landed on the police at one point and it still took them 18 years to catch him.This is the story of the notorious hoaxer Wearside Jack, a story involving séances, beer mat caricatures, a huge pot of stew, a bath falling through the ceiling and an alarming ice cream van.As 1978 isn't in the eighties or nineties, the gang also takes a trip back to 2006, when the story briefly involved John. Gareth plays Finders Keepers badly. Claire imagines life as a mermaid. John gets gaslit by Aldi. Julian Assange is mistaken for a gerbil.This episode was recorded in the aftermath of the murder of Sarah Everard and includes an uncharacteristic outbreak of sincerity and seriousness. Less important digressions in this episode include slavery, Gunnersarus, people dressed as statues, George Formby being a low-key badass, Tony Blackburn's interest in suicide and how George Michael loves Joy Division so much he can't remember any of their songs. What have you been scared of completely unnecessarily? Like Gareth worrying about drinking too much tea, Claire being scared stiff by the Honey Monster or John being terrified by the opening credits of Casualty. Let us know at  everyonediesinsunderland@gmail.com, on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and InstagramCraig Charles' virtual reality gameshow was called CyberZone apparently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLj-xibrpoM This is Stewart Lee on Richard Littlejohn - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmsV1TuESrc This is Stewart Lee on Richard Hammond - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRrTMhAO4ac During recording John talked about the Japanese term Mono Non Aware. This didn't make the cut, but you should totally check out friend of the show Bex's poscast Getting Emotional, which did an entire show about it https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/mono-no-aware-with-sonoko-ishii/id1553108837?i=1000510449364  Don't watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRXDo8fgEQ8 Easter egg: Can you spot the moment Gareth does a rude hand gesture? Let us know if you do! 

This week we once again take a trip back in time as we fill in some gaps in our cinema knowledge by catching up with the year's nominees for Best Picture at the 56th annual Academy Awards in 1984 visit the dystopian hell-scape that was 1984 to fill in some gaps in our cinema knowledge Mr. Orwell would tell you it was a dystopian hell-scape ruled over by a ruthless regime intent on stripping the populace of it's very identify, but it was also the year that welcomed a bouncing baby Sinead into the world and Terms of Endearment seemed to endear itself to the Academy, while The Right Stuff pushed the envelope and Tender Mercies had some hard words about how life can chew you up and spit you out.

Guests: Andy Andrews, Aldrine Guerrero Hosts: Stuart Yoshida, Doug Brown It's our Kama'aina episode with Hawaii residents Andy Andrews and Aldrine Guerrero joining me and my co-host, Doug Brown, to talk about ukulele thankfulness, maintaining your ukulele, the state of the ukulele in Hawaii, Craig and Sarah's new gig with the Ukulele Festival Hawaii, and WAIT FOR IT... an original song about Loco Moco and the Tip Top Cafe performed by Aldrine, but you gotta stay till the end... and it's all coming up next... on the OokTown Podcast. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ooktown Make a donation: https://donorbox.org/info-ooktown-com-ooktown-podcast-donations Shoutouts: - Sarah Maisel and Craig Chee: congrats on your new role on the Oahu Ukulele Festival! - Gerald Ross: we'll get you on the show soon! - Ben from Ukulele Roadtrips: for checking with Doug Links: - Oahu Ukulele Festival Hawaii: https://www.ukulelefestivalhawaii.org/en/oahu/ - Craig and Sarah: http://craigandsarah.com/ - Andy Andrews: https://www.facebook.com/ukeandy - Ukulele Underground: https://ukuleleunderground.com/ - Jake Shimabukuro Halloween Concert: https://jakeshimabukuro.com/blog/2020/10/12/jake-shimabukuro-spoo-ukulele-halloween-concert/ - The Simpsons Season 30, ep. 3 (Bob's Burgers theme performed by Aldrine): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_or_the_Highway_to_Heaven - Hotel Transylvania (song performed by Aldrine): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Transylvania - Loco Moco: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loco_moco - Poke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poke_(Hawaiian_dish) - Planet Waves string winder: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Waves-PW-LMN-Lemon-Oil/dp/B000BNSYHW - Willy Nelson's guitar (Trigger): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_(guitar) - Luthier doing maintenance on Trigger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhQuJTc5yFY - String cleaner and lubricant: https://www.amazon.co.uk/GHS-Guitar-String-Cleaner-Lubricant/dp/B0002D0CQC - April Fools - OokStringz iPhone app: https://vimeo.com/90626390 - Aldrine's Aquila signature strings: https://www.amazon.com/Aquila-Aldrine-Guererro-Signature-Ukulele/dp/B074QPNPQP - Roy Sakuma Ukulele Studios (Hawaii Ukulele Festival): https://www.roysakuma.net/ukulelefestival/ - Gabby Pahinui: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabby_Pahinui - Music for Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFnvp6QugJo - George Formby: https://www.georgeformby.co.uk/ - Uke Lesson 100 – Seasons of Love (from RENT): https://ukuleleunderground.com/2016/04/uke-lesson-100-seasons-of-love-from-rent/ - Ukulele Underground: https://ukuleleunderground.com/sign-up/ - Ukulele Underground Aloha Friday Jam: https://ukuleleunderground.com/courses/aloha-friday-jam/ - Tip Top Cafe: https://www.tiptop-motel.com/

Some old favourites and an episode not without a few double entendres. That cheeky fellow George Formby starts us off in his little Wigan garden. I don't think its all about plants and insects though. Fats Waller extolls the virtues of rump steak.  Tennessee Ernie Ford sings 'kiss me big!' We get all cynical with Marlene Dietrich and Rosemary and 'Too old to cut the mustard' and two magnificent tracks from Eartha Kitt. Lonnie Donegan gives a fine vocal performance in 'Love is strange.' The Kendrick brothers and pals, aka Bob Skyles and his Skyrockets sing 'Lets play love' and Teresa Brewer 'Wang , Wang blues'. Marvellous. The antidote to soppy love songs completes the show '  Love song in 32 bars.' A short but sweet one.. or is it bitter in parts?

John Reith, the famously uptight director of the BBC in the 1930's, took it upon himself to be the upholder of Britain's morality as director of the nation's airwaves. As we heard in the Lancashire episode from earlier, Lancastrian actor, comedian and musician George Formby often fell afoul of the BBC's standards under Reith with his cheeky and playful lyrics. In time, the often unreasonable principles to which mostly harmless creative content was held, has come to be referred to as Reithianism. So, what does the defender of British decency sound like? In this outtake from the show, talking about Reith's reaction to Formby's hit The Window Cleaner, I took a stab in the dark at what the redeemer of rectitude might sound like, ultimately failing miserably. As a quick Google search went on to show, this is really what John Reith sounded like. An attempt was made! Follow the Yellow Brit Road live on air every Sunday from 8 to 9 PM on cfrc.ca! Get in touch with the show through email or Twitter, whether you have feedback, criticism, song requests. or are a musician wanting to get your music on air, email yellowbritroad@gmail.com or tweet the show @YellowBritCFRC.

In today’s episode I have a chat to Lloyd, aka Lloyd and His Ukes, who talks about ukulele acquisition syndrome, Christmas performances in Germany, and how George Formby featured in his tertiary studies.  He also plays a couple of fantastic songs which I am sure you will enjoy! Some show-related links below: Ware Ukulele Group George Formby Ortego double neck ukulele Kala Travel Ukulele Ware Wülfrath Wookey Hole Caves Songs played on the show: One Day (Lloyd) Desperado (Glenn Frey & Don Henley, 1973) Go to the Ukulele Is The New Black YouTube channel for a playlist to hear these songs as well as other content relating to the episode Ukulele is the New Black is produced by Meredith Harper, who also wrote the theme tune. The theme tune was performed by Meredith Harper, Jasmine Fellows, Geoff Skellams, Jim Croft, Chris Williams, Paul Marsh and Sandra Shaw.  Seb Carraro does the graphic design. If you enjoy this podcast please give it a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or wherever you listen to your podcasts - and tell your friends!  Thanks to my $10 and over Patreon supporters for helping me to make this podcast: Ukulele Legend: Linda Dodwell Ukulele Champions: Debbie Hoad & Maja Zweck The music played in this episode is licenced under a Podcasts (Featured Music) agreement with APRA AMCOS.

This week, we followed the Yellow Brit Road all the way up to the north of England, to the county of Lancashire. Between old music, local dialect, accent, culture (and chips) and poetry, this was possibly the most fun show I've ever done, and I hope you enjoy it too! The artists played this week were Lancashire folk bands The Houghton Weavers, Oldham Tinkers, Lancastrian actor, comedian and musician George Formby, Lancaster based 90's feminist punk band Angelica (whose lead singer Holly Ross now plays in psychedelic punk duo The Lovely Eggs), and new bands TV Face, and Ivy from Preston. The dialect poem read on the show was Eawr Sarah's Getten A Chap, by Sam Fitton. The Oldham Tinkers set the poem to music, which can be heard here. This week's Masala Chai artist was Young Guv, the pop rock project of singer-guitarist Ben Cook, better known as lead vocalist for Canadian hardcore bands No Warning and F*cked Up. His song Cold In The Summer can be heard here. This week's (mostly complete) playlist can be found here. Catch the Yellow Brit Road live on radio or cfrc.ca every Sunday from 8 to 9 PM. Have feedback, suggestions, requests or want to submit your music? Email the show at yellowbritroad@gmail.com or tweet @YellowBritCFRC.

I know what I said last time. This, however, is going to be the only episode this week because it's a quadruple episode!!!!!! It covers WWI in film from the New Zealand and Australian perspective. Now I need a lie-down! Music:- "Run, Rabbit, Run", Flanagan & Allen; "I Did What I Could With My Gas Mask", George Formby; "Painting The Clouds With Sunshine", Jack Hilton; "We'll Meet Again", Vera Lynn.

Uur 1 1. Summer wind – Frank Sinatra 2. So many others – Liesbeth List & Rod McKuen 3. Morna – Luz Casal & Buika 4. Zonder liefde ben je nergens – Zijlstra & Lydia van Dam 5. Right now – Mel Tormé 6. Mr. Alzheimer – Boxin’ The Vox 7. Mensen zijn gemaakt van dun papier – Jonas Winterland 8. No song without you – Honne 9. Je suis un voyou – Georges Brassens 10. Friends like evergreens – Lianne La Havas 11. Highway to the sun- Ray LaMontagne 12. Singin’ in the rain – Jamie Cullum 13. Eiland in de reagen – Rowwen Heze 14. Chykh pykh – Amsterdam Klezmer Band 15. Mon truc en plumes – Ziz Jeanmaire 16. Polka dots and moon beams – Johnny Meijer Uur 2 1. Cajun moon - JJ Cale 2. When I’m cleaning windows – George Formby 3. Comme au cinema – Clou 4. Kvraagetaan – Fixkes 5. After the goldrush – Trio (Harris Parton Ronstadt) 6. Only the people that love – Rufus Wainwright 7. Balancé – Sara Tavares 8. Evelyntje – Jan Henk de Groot 9. Lazy – Marilyn Monroe 10. Let’s face the music and dance – GRANT 11. Green lights & blue skies – Gregory Page & Jason Mraz 12. Voor ik vergeet – Spinvis 13. Happy feet – Paolo Conte 14. Tripping – Amsterdam Klezmer Band

In between a doorbell interruption and some background cameos from next door's dog and what sounds like dinner being made, Adam and Leanne chat about their highlights and rants of the week, their new listeners across the pond, film reviews and Adam's jokes. This week they are joined by Winston Churchill, George Formby and Tommy Cooper impersonator, Derek Herbert. You can find us on social media - www.facebook.com/keepcalmandbookus, www.instagram.com/keepcalmandbookus or www.instagram.com/rosyapples Our website, www.keepcalmandbookus.co.uk Or if you have any suggestions, questions or joke themes, email us at keepcalmbookus@gmail.com Or look out for our messages area on Anchor - www.anchor.fm/keepcalmandbookus (Messages can remain anonymous if you want) You can find more information on Derek Herbert at www.churchill-lookalike.co.uk, www.georgeformbytribute.co.uk or www.tommycoopertributeact.co.uk or for booking enquiries call Derek on +44 7802 805701

Uur 1 1. What a difference a day makes – Dinah Washington 2. Damals wollt’ Ich erwachsen sein – Udo Jurgens 3. Bloesem in de bomen – Leoni Jansen 4. If the stars were mine – Melody Gardot 5. If not for you – Bob Dylan 6. Houd moed – Britta Maria 7. Zamba gris – Marta Topferova 8. Look for the good – Jasom Mraz 9. Be – Neil Diamond 10. Girl you’ll be a woman soon – Flying Pickets 11. How will I know – Yael Naim 12. Diep in mijn hart – Gerard Cox & Joke Bruijs 13. Count your blessings and smile – George Formby 14. Mississippi – Cactus Blossoms Uur 2 1. Simple things – Carole King 2. The best things in life are free – Les Paul & Mary Ford 3. Blijf binnen – De Meisjes van Mareysen 4. Puisque vous partez en voyage – Francoise Hardy & Jacques Dutronc 5. The land of evermore – Martyn Joseph 6. A little soon to say – Jackson Browne 7. Fragile & Jesse Cook & Holly Cole 8. Ruimtevaarder – Kommil Foo 9. Count your blessings (instead of sheep) – Diana Krall 10. A couple of swells – Fred Astaire & Judy Garland 11. Cantando de alegria – Alex Cuba 12. Always look on the bright side of life – Monty Python 13. Opzij – Lais 14. Hora – Bebe Serban

The Fab Four have reunited this week for the first time in a while and it's a packed episode as we discuss breaking news as Hooded Ram withdraws its TT tent application. Jess tells us about the soaring prices of flights on and off the island since the demise of Flybe. Sam gets his teeth into Manx food and Andy talks pro cycling.   Plus Katie talks witches and we look back to 1935 when a certain George Formby visited the island as he prepared to film his hit TT film No Limit.

Quite few British artists this time round. Billy Cotton celebrates The Festival of Britain in 1951. Jazz from long servicing musicians George Chisholm and Joe Daniels. George Formby sings In his little Wigan garden. No doubt its riddled with double entendre. Three unusual acts Phyllis Robins sings a real piece of Northern English social history, 'In my little bottom drawer.' All about gathering stuff together for your wedding. Phyllis was known as The sheffield Bombshell. Impressionist Florence Desmond does Jimmy Durante in her Hollywood Party. John Henry and Blossom(pictured) were a popular double in the 1920s and 30s. Made people laugh but theirs is a sorry tale. There's more of course, including Western Swing

Can You Hear Me, Mother? Fear not dear listener....this isn't a review of anything by George Formby! Our intrepid bunch of erstwhile improvisors are reviewing the latest episode of Series 12 - Can You Hear Me? Can they possibly stay on topic this week? Will Sue fall asleep again? Will Darren say any naughty words? Will Robin finish her delivery route in time to join in the fun? Will Randy be able to get a word in edgeways? Will Miles be able to edit it in time? Will Scarlet was one of Robin Hood's men! & just who is Mandip Gip? It's not our normal improv thing, so we need you, our dear listeners to hit us up on social media and tell us your opinion as well. This episode will of course contain spoilers.....& swearing!

The writer and poet Michael Rosen joins Aasmah Mir and Suzy Klein. He shares his discoveries of a lost family found, the importance of play, and tells us how to eat a bagel. Back by popular demand: the cook Julia Georgallis, gives advice on ‘How to eat your Christmas tree’. Incurable romantic, William Cash, explains why he has a treasure trove of more than a thousand love letters, archived in a pig shed, and how restoring his family home helped him deal with heartbreak. Inspired by her experience of suddenly losing her mother, who ‘took her precious memories with her’, Bryher Scudamore set up an online template – autodotbiography. She describes how inheriting a wallet containing letters written by her great-grandfather, led to discovering surprising stories of his life just after the American Civil War. And Frank Skinner shares his Inheritance Tracks - Winter Wonderland, performed by Dean Martin and George Formby singing Why Women Don’t Like Me. Producer: Louise Corley Editor: Eleanor Garland

Guests: Phil Doleman, Heidi Swedberg and Daniel Ward Hosts: Stuart Yoshida, Doug Brown We welcome back our friends Phil Doleman, Heidi Swedberg, and Daniel Ward for a holiday-Christmas themed exploration of mentors and mentoring, ukulele in the UK, the way cool and hopeful London Ukulele Project, and the annual Whamageddon game. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ooktown Subscribe on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ooktown-the-ukulele-podcast/id436722774 YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRWKuVjsJKQUHYXaXXfmGtA/ Shoutouts: • Patrons:  o Robert Sawyer  o Mandi Harkett - ukulele player, part of Opera-lele  o Mary Agnes Krell - GNUF  o George Anzivino  o Jessica Sammis  o Caroline Francklyn  • Steve - Podcast listener - thanks for your note! Feedback always appreciated. Links: • Phil Doleman - Old time, good time music: https://www.phildoleman.co.uk/ • Heidi Swedberg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Swedberg • LCM Exams | Ukulele Graded exams - University of West London: https://lcme.uwl.ac.uk/exams/guitar-ukulele/ukulele • London Ukulele Project: https://londonukuleleproject.co.uk/ • Heidi Swedberg - Ukulele Magazine: http://www.ukulelemag.com/?s=swedberg • GNUF - A Grand Northern Ukulele Festival: https://northernuke.com/ • How to Find Your Bliss: Joseph Campbell: https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/04/09/find-your-bliss-joseph-campbell-power-of-myth/ • Appreciating the legacy of George Formby: http://www.georgeformby.co.uk/ • U3A - University of the Third Age: https://www.u3a.org.uk/ • Koaloha Opio Concert Ukulele Package: https://www.theukulelesite.com/koaloha-opio-concert-ukulele-package.html • 2019 Ken Timms Ukulele Style 0: https://shop.gryphonstrings.com/products/2019-soprano-ken-timms-ukulele-style-0-57226 • Daniel Ward: https://danielward.net/shopping/pre_order_tis_the_season_for_ukulele/ • CDs | Phil Doleman: https://www.phildoleman.co.uk/cds • Doug Brown and the Denver Ukulele Community: https://den-uke.com/ Recorded on December 15, 2019.

The second transatlantic episode of "When They Was Fab".     Guest Martin Quibell joins me as we discuss Victorian Music Hall, Pantomime,  George Formby and various pre-1950's combinations of music, comedy and stage craft.     George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney each have expressed their appreciation for the form.      Indeed, "Free as a Bird" closes with a music hall character, and the secret backwards message from John Lennon is actually one of George Formby's catchphrases!

Year 6 talk about WW1 and WW2, The Blitz, tips for surviving assessment and their sporting activities at Lyndhurst: iceskating trips, athletic competitions and hockey. They share the books they've been reading and converse in French. Music from this week includes: The White Cliffs of Dover by Chelsea Pensioners The Great Escape: Theme tune by Dominik Hauser Totality by Arash Amirzadeh The Yabba by Battles Skating by Vince Guaraldi Trio International Athletics by Keith Mansfield Skating in Central Park by Bill Evans & Jim Hall Actually by Rozi Plain Imagine Me in the Maginot Line by George Formby

This week we go way back to a time when British film stars talked with provincial accents and played tiny guitars. That's right, George Formby is in the house. Join us for...I Didn't Do It   To contact the show email show@isawthatyearsago.com   You can also support us via Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/istya

The music starts at 4:27.George Formby's famous banjo song. Summer tells about how she learned this song from an old British friend who actually went to George Formby's concerts live in London.

What links pre-war picker George Formby and Wagner, US rock duo The White Stripes and Bruckner, crooning legend Barry Manilow and Chopin? The surprising answer is that they've all shared tunes. Is that because, after 1,000 years of written music, there are no tunes left? What are the essential ingredients of a great tune and how difficult is it to write one? Tom Service seeks answers with the help of maths man Marcus du Sautoy and composer Jessica Curry. David Papp (producer)

In this month’s mammoth compendium of treasures, Adam will be guiding you through reviews, a sea of special guests, some fabulous musical treats, a guide to what’s coming up on Talking Pictures TV AND a very special chat with Talking Pictures founder, Sarah Cronin-Stanley! We’ve got special appearances from Laurel & Hardy, Ingrid Bergman, Sid James, Cliff Richard, Laurence Olivier, George Formby, Will Hay, Joan Fontaine, Edward Woodward, Alfred Hitchcock, Nigel Bruce, Bill Owen and many, many more! It’s our pleasure to extend a very warm welcome to the UK’s Number 1 TV & Film Podcast! To sign up as a supporter of this show simply CLICK HERE and sign up. It only takes a moment, and you’ll be doing your part to spread the word about Talking Pictures TV!

In this month’s mammoth compendium of treasures, Adam will be guiding you through reviews, a sea of special guests, some fabulous musical treats, a guide to what’s coming up on Talking Pictures TV AND a very special chat with Talking Pictures founder, Sarah Cronin-Stanley!We’ve got special appearances from Laurel & Hardy, Ingrid Bergman, Sid James, Cliff Richard, Laurence Olivier, George Formby, Will Hay, Joan Fontaine, Edward Woodward, Alfred Hitchcock, Nigel Bruce, Bill Owen and many, many more!It’s our pleasure to extend a very warm welcome to the UK’s Number 1 TV & Film Podcast!To sign up as a supporter of this show simply CLICK HERE and sign up. It only takes a moment, and you’ll be doing your part to spread the word about Talking Pictures TV!

.I was beginning to wonder what Bradley Walsh does in his spare time...then I realised he doesn't have any....because he is NEVER off the television......last Saturday for example....3.30 The Chase with Bradley Walsh....8.oo The London Studios with contributions from various celebs including....you guessed it...Bradley Walsh....9.00 Bradley Walsh presents a programme on puppets......not forgetting Doctor Who and Law and Order and The Palladium....oh yes and he has a feature coming where he travels abroad with his son.....not forgetting East Enders..............it's not that I dislike the bloke........but it would be nice to have a different face on the tele FOR A CHANGE......Kathryn Ryan is another....she is virtually on every quiz panel....and I've yet to find out what she actually does....I think she is a comedienne......I'll take her word for that. 2.Radio Merseyside (your favourite station) has not renewed Billy Butler's contract for the coming year.....this has caused outrage on Facebook......Billy is now 76 and has been on the station for 47 years and was told in no uncertain terms that he was out.....the public response has been overwhelming....despite the fact he was only on two afternoons each week.....apparently the powers that be are looking to attract a younger audience....obviously not realising that youngsters don't listen to the radio nowadays.....I think one of the problems is that the present hierarchy are from Manchester and don't get scouse humour....thus they scrubbed Billy's "Hold Your Plums" feature which was popular all over the world.....however....knowing Billy he will sort something out.....I think the BBC owes him a bit more than a swift goodbye....but that's the way it goes in the entertainment business. 3.I was interested in a TV interview with The Searchers......or the two original ones....John McNally and Frank Allen (the bass player that took over from Tony Jackson back in the day) are retiring.....but it was obvious McNally wanted to carry on (...as "The Searcher"?)......Frank said he had had enough of road repairs and diversion signs which added hours on to the travelling......or could it be he couldn't face one more rendition of Needles and Pinsa........I can see his point.....I packed in playing professionally a bout five years ago because I was sick of it after 50 odd years....some carry on for the ego trip....hence the shades and cowboy hats etc. which is fine but not for me....I keep my hand in by jamming once a week for our fundraising organisation (The Cheshire Cats) which I enjoy but have no desire to go back on the road......it's a young world out there....let 'em get on with it. 4.HMV are going under apparently.......when will the high street realise that you have to move with the times.....I've said it for years...the music biz has had it....the glory days and the champagne breakfasts are over.....it's all about the internet these days and PRICE.....the general public are not interested in loyalty they want things as cheap as they can get them.........and with modern technology you can make a record in your bedroom and put it on YouTube where it goes world wide....so who needs Abbey Road or the radio play?....and it's difficult getting publicity on television.....unless they can fit you in around Bradley Walsh. 5.The song this week is a little tribute to Billy Butler.....I was asked to write this for him and Wally Scott back in the day.....it was designed as a theme tune for his popular programme "Hold Your Plums" which was a quiz game featuring a one arm bandit...hence the rather double entendre title......I don't think the beeb used it....obviously not P.C......can't imagine why.....when I hear it now I suppose some folk might be "easily offended"....as if I could care less....it's a shame George Formby isn't still around....he would have taken it to the top of the charts.

.I was beginning to wonder what Bradley Walsh does in his spare time...then I realised he doesn't have any....because he is NEVER off the television......last Saturday for example....3.30 The Chase with Bradley Walsh....8.oo The London Studios with contributions from various celebs including....you guessed it...Bradley Walsh....9.00 Bradley Walsh presents a programme on puppets......not forgetting Doctor Who and Law and Order and The Palladium....oh yes and he has a feature coming where he travels abroad with his son.....not forgetting East Enders..............it's not that I dislike the bloke........but it would be nice to have a different face on the tele FOR A CHANGE......Kathryn Ryan is another....she is virtually on every quiz panel....and I've yet to find out what she actually does....I think she is a comedienne......I'll take her word for that. 2.Radio Merseyside (your favourite station) has not renewed Billy Butler's contract for the coming year.....this has caused outrage on Facebook......Billy is now 76 and has been on the station for 47 years and was told in no uncertain terms that he was out.....the public response has been overwhelming....despite the fact he was only on two afternoons each week.....apparently the powers that be are looking to attract a younger audience....obviously not realising that youngsters don't listen to the radio nowadays.....I think one of the problems is that the present hierarchy are from Manchester and don't get scouse humour....thus they scrubbed Billy's "Hold Your Plums" feature which was popular all over the world.....however....knowing Billy he will sort something out.....I think the BBC owes him a bit more than a swift goodbye....but that's the way it goes in the entertainment business. 3.I was interested in a TV interview with The Searchers......or the two original ones....John McNally and Frank Allen (the bass player that took over from Tony Jackson back in the day) are retiring.....but it was obvious McNally wanted to carry on (...as "The Searcher"?)......Frank said he had had enough of road repairs and diversion signs which added hours on to the travelling......or could it be he couldn't face one more rendition of Needles and Pinsa........I can see his point.....I packed in playing professionally a bout five years ago because I was sick of it after 50 odd years....some carry on for the ego trip....hence the shades and cowboy hats etc. which is fine but not for me....I keep my hand in by jamming once a week for our fundraising organisation (The Cheshire Cats) which I enjoy but have no desire to go back on the road......it's a young world out there....let 'em get on with it. 4.HMV are going under apparently.......when will the high street realise that you have to move with the times.....I've said it for years...the music biz has had it....the glory days and the champagne breakfasts are over.....it's all about the internet these days and PRICE.....the general public are not interested in loyalty they want things as cheap as they can get them.........and with modern technology you can make a record in your bedroom and put it on YouTube where it goes world wide....so who needs Abbey Road or the radio play?....and it's difficult getting publicity on television.....unless they can fit you in around Bradley Walsh. 5.The song this week is a little tribute to Billy Butler.....I was asked to write this for him and Wally Scott back in the day.....it was designed as a theme tune for his popular programme "Hold Your Plums" which was a quiz game featuring a one arm bandit...hence the rather double entendre title......I don't think the beeb used it....obviously not P.C......can't imagine why.....when I hear it now I suppose some folk might be "easily offended"....as if I could care less....it's a shame George Formby isn't still around....he would have taken it to the top of the charts.

In this episode of Modiphius Calling, Godfather of Call of Cthulhu Sandy Petersen talks to us about Cthulhu Wars Miniatures game. Jeff Combos of Exile Studio talks Hollow Earth Expedition and Space 1889. John Houlihan, writer of The Trellborg Monstrosities and Karim Thielgaard, actor & musician (and partly to blame for Chris's journey to Achtung! Cthulhu). Eldritch Ukelele player Reuben Saunders presents Lovecraftian music suitable for fans of Erich Zann and George Formby. Running time for this episode is 60 minutes. Running Order: 00:38 - Welcome, John Houlihan on Trellborg and his latest writing projects 06:36 - What’s on Your Table? 08:35 - Mobile Gaming 14:52 - Feature: The Eldritch Ukelele Music of Reuben Saunders 34:43 - Interview: Jeff Combos, Exile Game Studio 42:06 - News From Modiphius 45:18 - Interview: Sandy Petersen, Green Eye Games 54:57 - Catchup With Karim, Goodbye! Music courtesy of Reuben Sanders, Joshua John O'Connor and Bob Spelled Backwards  

Some interesting remakes of british novelty songs from George Formby, an interesting take on Jimi Hendrix, and a radio song that's just interesting.....you can get a feel for what this week's show is like? Yeah we summed it up in one word...

Some interesting remakes of british novelty songs from George Formby, an interesting take on Jimi Hendrix, and a radio song that's just interesting.....you can get a feel for what this week's show is like? Yeah we summed it up in one word...

Good Evening, hello and welcome to our regular Wednesday night get together, where we share a few laughs, comments and different tastes in music all of which make for a pleasant social gathering, of which everyone is welcome. Wether you like the hits of George Formby, Four Tops or the Elgins we are here to try and satisfy. Please stop by, Join in and influence tonights playlist.

Timothy Spall discusses his new film Stanley, A Man of Variety, in which he plays every character on screen. It follows Stanley, the only inmate in a failing insane asylum, as he wrestles with the voices in his head which take the form of classic comedy stars such as George Formby and Noël Coward.30 years ago today, a concert to celebrate the 70th birthday of Nelson Mandela was staged at London's Wembley Stadium and broadcast to an audience of 600 million around the world. It was at this event that Tracy Chapman, a 24-year-old singer-songwriter from Cleveland, Ohio, first came to worldwide attention as she stepped in last minute and played a selection of songs from her new album. The album, with its hit singles including Fast Car and Baby Can I Hold You Tonight, went on to sell over 20 million copies worldwide and propelled Tracy Chapman to global fame. Music critic Jacqueline Springer reminisces about that watershed moment in musical history.Writer Lissa Evans talks about her latest novel, Old Baggage, which follows a firebrand suffragette yearning for her militant past. Lissa discusses her popular children's book Wed Wabbit and seeing her novel Their Finest Hour and a Half made into a successful film starring Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy.An extraordinary photograph of the G7 summit showing the German Chancellor surrounded by other world leaders confronting a petulant, defiant looking Donald Trump has been shared widely online and been likened to a Caravaggio painting. Art critic, Richard Cork, gives his reaction. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Hannah Robins.

This episode contains tennis balls, robot slippers, life rules and George Formby. Enjoy! Hear Johnny on Radio X every weekday at 4pm across the UK on digital radio, 104.9 FM in London, 97.7 FM in Manchester, on your mobile or via www.radiox.co.uk

Shellac Stack No. 115 does the raccoon — and lots more besides! From Zimbabwe to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, we've got records this week by Wingy Manone, Benny Strong, Fred Rich, Grace Hayes, Hazel Scott, Elmo Tanner, the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms Band, George Formby, and many more.

Welcome to episode 4 of The Tea Party Podcast, in which we discuss what can only be described as The Steve Harrison issue. If you don't know Steve Harrison, or how he was catapulted to fame in 1991, this podcast is for you. Just make sure you're not eating as you listen. It's not all Steve Harrison (although as you'll hear, much of it is), because for the first time, we have a special guest. It's Phil Robinson, who regales us with tales from his life supporting County, including Moonbird's damp trip to Wigan, how helping a fellow-fan in distress can sometimes backfire, and early-hours post game boozing between fans and players back in Stockport following the League Cup win at Sunderland. We also talk about John Peel (yes, that one) and his appreciation of TTP, and George Formby helps us out with the Friends of the Podcast. Yes.

A star-studded playlist on the all ‪‎ukulele‬ radio show.

Every month STARBURST Magazine proudly presents the official podcast of the famous TV Zone column. Hosted by STARBURST veteran Paul Mount, and his partner in crime - Scott Holmes. Join them on their monthly odyssey through the worlds of cult television, and cult entertainment...

In this, the OAK Anniversary episode, we'll hear music from George Formby and Doris Day, PLUS... A chat with Secret History Of Hollywood researcher, Brook Darnell... Who The Hell Is That Hollywood Legend has even the great Orson Welles stumped... It's the Christmas season, so get those greetings in for the Festive Special... Listeners have been in touch with all kinds of messages, including a cinema that needs rescuing and a serial killer's head! Plus, reviews of two movies featuring a very early Audrey Hepburn, 1951's 'One Wild Oat, and 1952's 'Secret People'... Radio entertainment this week is very unorthodox...

"Now I go podcasting-ing to earn an honest bob, for a nosy parker it's an interesting job..." No one could have predicted that when we decided to tackle video game spin offs we would end up all humming along to George Formby, but we did. That's the mystery of life I suppose. It's Reece's fault.

PODCAST: 06 Aug 2017     01 Billy The Kid – Ry Cooder – Into The Purple Valley 02 Reynardine – An Tua – Six Of One 5 Of The Other 03 Boston City – Pilgrims Way – Red Diesel 04 Maho Snaps/Tay In The Bog/The Maid In The Meadow – Mick Conneely and David Munnelly – ‘Tis What It Is 05 New Brighton Girl – Reg Meuross – Faraway People 06 Bay Of Biscay –  Finest Kind – For Honour & For Gain 07 Boston Burglar – Williamson Palmer Dando Williamson Just Like The Ivy & Other Favourite Songs 08 Wild Colonial Boy – Margaret Barry – The Essential Guide To Folk 09 The Streets Of Forbes – Lumiere – Lumiere  10 New Delhi Train – Terry Allen – Lubbock On Everything 11 Traveling Light – The Deighton Family – Acoustic Music For Most Occasions 12 Congress Reel/ Fisherman’s Island/ Return To Milltown – Wild Asparagus – Best Of Wild Asparagus 13 Bonny Lass Of Fyvie –  Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys – Pretty Peggy 14 The World Turned Upside Down – North Sea Gas – Rolling Home 15 Lizzie Loved A Highwayman – Reg Meuross – Dragonfly 16 Turpin Hero – Ewan MacColl – Chorus From The Gallows 17 Gallant Dick Turpin  – George Formby – We’re Listening To George Formby, Vol. 10 

In this week's show... A new radio star has been born! (literally... I have proof!) Who knew that boys toys could be for girls, too? Someone's been visiting another podcast to talk about stuff. See if you can guess who...? Who The Hell Is That Hollywood Legend will be over in a flash, so get your answers ready! The Question Pot throws up all sorts of queries! There's music from Cliff Edwards, Judy Garland, and the one and only Mr. George Formby! PLUS reviews of two movies starring the inimitable Mr. Cary Grant. One is perhaps the romantic movie ever made (and reviewed in the most shamelessly romantic way possible), and the other features our hero as courtesan to a teenage girl (although it's not as weird as it sounds...) It's all here as we embark upon Episode 77 of Attaboy Clarence! Radio entertainment this week comes courtesy of the Lux Radio Theatre.

Actor Michael Sheen explores the history of Port Talbot's Plaza Cinema. A beautiful art-deco building , first opening in 1940, the Plaza was the heart of cinema entertainment for the people of Port Talbot for decades - a place where Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins watched everyone from George Formby to Bogart and Cagney and where, growing up in Port Talbot in the 1970s and 80s, Michael Sheen had his early encounters with the film industry in which he would thrive. But as well as charting the onward march of the multiplex which lead to the Plaza's eventual demise, and talking to the last projectionist and cinema manager who fought so hard to make it viable, Michael Sheen explores the importance of places like the Plaza to towns and communities all over the UK. Is it possible to turn it around, find a new use or even see crowds return to the elegant interior, or is the Plaza now only a monument to a past life , rich in nostalgia but which can no longer provide what a modern community needs ? Michael also hears from two other Plaza goers and children of Port Talbot - Rob Brydon and the Opera Singer Rebecca Evans. Producers: Joanne Cayford and Tom Alban Photographs: Copyright John Crerar.

Cavebabble hits the road for an Americana tour along Route 66 in Missouri. Odd stops include Stubby Stonehenge, the Vacuum Cleaner Museum and Factory, the world's 2nd largest rocking chair, a bit of history in Crawford County, the classic Wagon Wheel Motel, a night at the 19 Drive-in, and the Uranus Fudge Factory. Thanks to the town of Cuba, MO, and the surrounding area. Human stories are everywhere if we just take the time to listen. In case you're curious, this is the song list: The Missouri Anthem by DJ Rockettehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF92y8d7jY0&t=78s Take a Trip by The Sheepdogshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCWiuFh7_rI Stonehenge by Spinal Taphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acx4KYBS12c Stonehenge by Ylvis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbyzgeee2mg Vacuum Cleaner Song by Future Idiotshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPVK0iPs78 Rockin Chair by Gwen McCraehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSRXuKa5PIs Museum Song from Barnumhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h782_Ne2XiQ Polish Caprice by Grażyna Bacewicz performed by Anna Orlik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZLNndwv5-g Behind the Wheel/Route 66 Megamix by Depeche Mode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkB4COqwcW4 Wagon Wheel Motel by Missouri Homegrownhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2vJ8af7mUo Drive-In Movie by The Strings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki5LsW247CQ Friends by Elton John https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17u9mxdvQEo   When I’m Cleaning Windows by George Formby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfmAeijj5cM My Canoe by Baby TVhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epyT7E4MvVg Toilet Time is Fun by YBM Kinder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0K7niFDXk The Uranus Song by RyanStorm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSoaBgG1e7k I’ve Got a Thing about Seeing My Grandson Grow Old by Cat Stevens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WMrhzKrIDk

We've a bit of relationship advice in this week's podcast. If you want to show your nineties wife how much you love her, not faking your own suicide is a much better way of going about it than fixing a cupboard and preparing her a weird fish platter. It's advice that Gary doesn't want to listen to, though, and he's hell bent on setting up permanent residence in 1941, even though he hasn't done the necessary research of what that might entail. Spoiler alert: Lots and lots of George Formby, and a good deal more air raid related casualty than a Cricklewood native is generally used to. And no widgets.

File today's show under comedy.

Dollop 248 – From George Formby to George Galloway Via Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theorists.

Dollop 16 – George Formby Parody.

The song this week is a song is from a Christmas musical I wrote for Radio City in the 80’s…..this is the demo the cast worked from…..the kids in the play sang the song and the play was broadcast on Christmas day two years on the trot….it was also nominated for a Sony Award….the cast included Johnny Kennedy…Paul Damian…the late Joe Butler…Carl Chase… and others. The song also recorded by Penny Page and Googi on vinyl….the play went on to be performed by a lot of schools…all good stuff. ….A friend of mine told me her son and daughter in law went to Rome on their honeymoon….while they were at the train station he went to sort out the tickets and left her with the cases…she felt water dripping on her head so she looked up…when she looked down the cases had gone…passports the lot …. obviously some moron with a water pistol…. I saw her again this week and she told me the same couple were in Paris over last weekend…with their baby…talk about unlucky….it’s nice to see the support we are giving to the French during these terrible times…it’s hard to believe it all. ………I enjoyed the podcast you sent me with your Albert Lee interview….he is a great guitarist but as he says there are so many different styles so it’s impossible to be the best “overall” guitarist…Albert is a guitarists guitarist enjoyed mainly by those who know what to listen for….(the average audience don’t know the difference between Segovia and George Formby)…and his “first” instrument is the piano….so imagine how good he is on that…..to play with the likes of these guys is very special but as I’ve always said you have Vegas… or the local pub…same pressures different venue. But what is nice is the respect you get from these guys…because they don’t need to feed their egos….they understand the game. On the subject of musicians….Alexander Armstrong (from the “Pointless” quiz programme) has decided that he is one….he keeps appearing on TV going on about how he is a trained musician but decided to take up comedy in his 20’s…Hmm…plays a bit of piano which is O.K. then sings…which makes you realise why he took up comedy. And of course it has to be all the “swing” standards that only the Rat Pack do properly…it’s pretty bad…BUT his album has got into the charts which proves you can kid most of the people most of the time…but he wont make much as he doesn’t write the stuff…then we have Peter Andre with his “swing” album…same stuff…and he’s even worse….but no doubt the sheep who phone in their votes for “Strictly” will buy it….give us a break guys…give us something ORIGINAL !!

The song this week is a song is from a Christmas musical I wrote for Radio City in the 80’s…..this is the demo the cast worked from…..the kids in the play sang the song and the play was broadcast on Christmas day two years on the trot….it was also nominated for a Sony Award….the cast included Johnny Kennedy…Paul Damian…the late Joe Butler…Carl Chase… and others. The song also recorded by Penny Page and Googi on vinyl….the play went on to be performed by a lot of schools…all good stuff. ….A friend of mine told me her son and daughter in law went to Rome on their honeymoon….while they were at the train station he went to sort out the tickets and left her with the cases…she felt water dripping on her head so she looked up…when she looked down the cases had gone…passports the lot …. obviously some moron with a water pistol…. I saw her again this week and she told me the same couple were in Paris over last weekend…with their baby…talk about unlucky….it’s nice to see the support we are giving to the French during these terrible times…it’s hard to believe it all. ………I enjoyed the podcast you sent me with your Albert Lee interview….he is a great guitarist but as he says there are so many different styles so it’s impossible to be the best “overall” guitarist…Albert is a guitarists guitarist enjoyed mainly by those who know what to listen for….(the average audience don’t know the difference between Segovia and George Formby)…and his “first” instrument is the piano….so imagine how good he is on that…..to play with the likes of these guys is very special but as I’ve always said you have Vegas… or the local pub…same pressures different venue. But what is nice is the respect you get from these guys…because they don’t need to feed their egos….they understand the game. On the subject of musicians….Alexander Armstrong (from the “Pointless” quiz programme) has decided that he is one….he keeps appearing on TV going on about how he is a trained musician but decided to take up comedy in his 20’s…Hmm…plays a bit of piano which is O.K. then sings…which makes you realise why he took up comedy. And of course it has to be all the “swing” standards that only the Rat Pack do properly…it’s pretty bad…BUT his album has got into the charts which proves you can kid most of the people most of the time…but he wont make much as he doesn’t write the stuff…then we have Peter Andre with his “swing” album…same stuff…and he’s even worse….but no doubt the sheep who phone in their votes for “Strictly” will buy it….give us a break guys…give us something ORIGINAL !!

PODCAST: 27 Sep 2015  01 Diggin’ My Potatoes - Lonnie Donegan - This Record Is Not To Be Broadcast 02 Cold Blow and The Rainy Night - Planxty - Cold Blow and The Rainy Night 03 Eggs In Her Basket  - Susan McKeown - Sweet Liberty 04 While Cruising Round Yarmouth - Ewan MacColl and A L Lloyd - Blow Boys Blow 05 Yarmouth Town - Nic Jones - Nic Jones Unearthed 06 The End Of My Old Cigar - Roy Hudd - Those Music Hall Days 07 The Trooper’s Nag - Maddy Prior - Seven For Old England 08 The Foggy Foggy Dew  - Tim O’Brien - Cornbread Nation 09 Bonny Black Hare - Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick - Byker Hill 10 Navvy Boots - The Dubliners - Original Dubliners 11 German Clockmender - George Spicer - Blackberry Fold 12 Jolly Tinker - Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem - Greatest Hits 13 Candy Man - Steve Earle - Avalon Blues: A Tribute To Mississippi John Hurt 14 With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock - George Formby - With My Little Ukulele In My Hand 3 15 Little Ball Of Yarn - Jim Causley - Dumnonia 16 The Molecatcher - Peter Bellamy - Fair Annie 17 The Crayfish - John Roberts and Tony Barrand - Across The Western Ocean 18 The Widow’s Promise - Crows - No Bones Or Grease 19 Isabel Makes Love Upon National Monuments - Jake Thackray - Jake In A Box 20 Take Your Fingers Off It - The Even Dozen Jug Band - The Even Dozen Jug Band 21 My Husband’s Got No Courage In Him - The Once - Row Upon Row Of The People They Know

The Independent Shakespeare Company's own David Melville returns, to again open up our comedy minds to the works of George Formby.  Still a respected name in English comedy, his work never quite traversed the ocean sufficiently, so it's time for … Continue reading →

Målet: spela banjoukulele. Bli som George Formby! Men än har Leif inte nått dit. Istället blev det Tom Waits på svenska med Bad Liver tillsammans med Gerhard Hoberstorfer och med Tom Waits välsignelse framförde han The Black Rider på Dramaten. Obekymrat skapar Leif konstmusik, barnmusik och prisbelönt filmmusik. Han har samarbetat med många bland andra Nina Ramsby och Peter Le Marc. Leif gör musik för att han är musiker, och har en hel del att säga om det också!