Podcasts about variety club

Send us a textHad the pleasure of speaking with the founder of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Tod Gordon! On episode 137, we discussed being a fan, starting up ECW, his working relationship with Paul Heyman, writing Tod is God, serving as president of the international charity organization The Variety Club, and more. You can find more about Tod here:https://www.facebook.com/tod.gordon.1Get Tod's book Tod is God here:https://www.amazon.com/Tod-God-Authorized-Championship-Wrestling/dp/1637588666Are you a pro wrestler and have done community service and/or charity work? E-mail the podcast at wrestlingwithheart@yahoo.com and tell us if you would be interested in being interviewed.Follow us on:Facebook: Wrestling with Heart with Stanley KarrX: @wwhwskInstagram: @wrestlingwithheartThreads: @wrestlingwithheartHear Wrestling with Heart on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Hear Wrestling with Heart on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46cviL5...Hear Wrestling with Heart on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-wr...Hear Wrestling with Heart on Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/search/Wr...Donate to my Patreon and subscribe to my content here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=84502525Support the show

Pissed and Pickled Live: Casey and Randi Mahomes' First-Ever Pickleball Tournament In this episode, Missy and Lori from the 'Pissed and Pickled' podcast are live at the inaugural Casey and Randi Mahomes Pickleball Tournament in Kansas City. The tournament features chiefs players' family members and aims to benefit the Variety Club, supporting kids with special needs. The hosts interview participants like Randi Mahomes, Patrick Mahomes' mother, and discuss their frustrations both on and off the court. They also highlight their sponsors and engage with fans, making it a spirited and inclusive event. 00:00 Introduction to the Pickleball Tournament 00:41 Live from the Tournament 00:58 Inclusive Event for a Good Cause 01:32 What's Pissing You Off? 02:33 Sponsor Shoutouts and Paddle Bands 03:41 Interview with Randi Mahomes 04:46 Chatting with Jackson and Others 09:55 Chiefs Wives and Girlfriends 12:12 Fun and Games

Welcoming Susan Glasgow, CEO of Variety New Zealand, to Purposely where she shares her charity's mission to lift children out of poverty and discusses her journey from a fundraiser to the leader of a nonprofit organisation. We will also delve into the captivating origin story of the Variety movement, tracing its beginnings in early 1900s Pittsburgh, USA, to its current role in making a positive impact on young lives globally. Variety New Zealand's vision is clear: all children in Aotearoa should realise their hopes and dreams. With a purpose to raise vital funds to tackle child poverty and create opportunities for children to thrive, Variety has become a cornerstone of support for disadvantaged youth in New Zealand. Variety's roots trace back to 1927 when a group of actors in Pittsburgh took in a child left on their theatre doorstep. This act of kindness sparked the creation of the Variety Club, which soon began fundraising for children in need. Today, Variety operates as a global movement, with each country adapting to local needs while sharing a common goal of supporting disadvantaged children. Established about 35 years ago, Variety New Zealand has evolved from event-based fundraising to a more focused approach. Their flagship programme, Kiwi Kid Sponsorship, matches donors with children living in poverty, providing crucial support where it's needed most. Susan Glasgow, who joined as CEO in 2020, reveals shocking statistics about child poverty in New Zealand: 143,700 children live in poverty (as of June 2023); 1 in 6 kids in New Zealand will suffer food insecurity at some point in their childhood; and 1 in 10 children in the poorest communities doesn't have a bed of their own. Variety New Zealand works closely with initiatives like Healthy Homes, providing beds for children who would otherwise sleep on floors or sofas. They also partner with Sport New Zealand to break down financial barriers preventing children from participating in sports and recreational activities. Glasgow emphasises the resilience and resourcefulness of families living in poverty, challenging the stigma often associated with seeking help. "People who are putting their hands up to ask for help are the ones who are putting their children first," she states. The Kiwi Kid Sponsorship programme has shown significant results. Children sponsored through Variety for four years' experience about 50% less material hardship compared to those on the waitlist. This improvement spans various aspects of life, from school essentials to food security and housing stability. Since Glasgow joined Variety in 2020, the waitlist for sponsorship has grown from 300 to 3,000 children. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic challenges have exacerbated the need, pushing more families into hardship. Despite these challenges, Variety New Zealand raised over £10 million last year, distributing about £6 million in grants. However, the need continues to outpace available resources. As Variety New Zealand continues its vital work, Glasgow and her team remain committed to raising awareness about child poverty and the transformative power of sponsorship. They strive to bridge the gap between those who have and those who have less, ensuring every child in New Zealand can reach their full potential. Susan Glasgow's journey to becoming CEO of Variety New Zealand is a testament to the power of diverse experiences. With a background in performing arts and literature, Glasgow spent 12 years in the UK, where she transitioned into fundraising at Westminster School. Returning to New Zealand in 2007, she applied her expertise at the University of Auckland Business School before joining Variety in 2020. Her role as CEO combines her fundraising acumen with her passion for helping children access opportunities, a cause she had personally supported as a Variety Kiwi Kid sponsor since 2016. To learn more about Variety New Zealand and how you can support their mission, Here

Praise the club! 80s-2000s dance fun - good for tea dancing - even if it's iced in the north - club, alt, dance pop, retro,  poison - Bell Biv DeVoe boom boom boom - britney ft ying yang alright - janet funky and you know it - shakedown and bootsy collins someday - mariah i cant go for that - hall n oats last night a dj saved my life - indeep cruel summer - bananarama state farm - yaz election day - duran duran like i love you - justin get lucky - Daft Punk   feat. Pharrell Williams  kelis - milkshake slave - britney Rosalía - BIZCOCHITO Levitating - dua lipa sexy back - justin ft missy car wash - xtina ft missy step it up - stereo mc's new sensation - inxs groovy train - the farm groove is in the heart - deee-lite vibeology  - paula do you love what you feel - chaka kahn we got a love thing ce ce peniston 100% pure love - crystal waters  last night - chris anderson lets all chant - mz band lets have a ki ki - scissor sisters nails hair hips heels - Todrick and ciara category is - rupaul

Jodie Gillies commenced her dynamic career in 1983, following her graduation from the Nepean College in Sydney. In the same year she was cast as one of Major Stanley's daughters in the iconic Victorian State Opera's production and consequent tour of The Pirates of Penzance. She then appeared in Camelot with Richard Harris; followed by the role of Marta in Stephen Sondheim's Company and Vikki Fowler in King of Country, both for the Sydney Theatre Company. In October 1985 Jodie won the inaugural Australian Contemporary Singing Competition at the Sydney Opera House. Jodie starred in Australia Day Live, the Network Ten Bicentennial extravaganza. Jodie then went on to begin the first of three musical engagements at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, all of which would include the honour of creating her roles in the Premiere Australian seasons, these being Les Miserables, Chess and Aspects of Love.  Firstly she played Eponine in the amazing original Australian production of Les Miserables and her performance as the waifish Eponine won her wide acclaim as did her ensuing role as Aldonza in The Man of La Mancha. Jodie has also appeared in cabaret at Kinsela's in It's One for the Money and Two for the Show displaying her comedy and mimicry. Jodie then went on to play the lead role of Florence Vassy in the musical Chess to standing ovations and then toured to Queensland as Jess in Lipstick Dreams. Jodie was also awarded the prestigious Musical Theatre Performer of the Year by the Variety Club in 1991. Jodie has also toured with her own production The Other Woman which marked her debut as a writer and director. This show also took her to New York in 1992, where it was very well received. From there Jodie went on to play the role of Giulietta Trapani in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love in both Sydney and Melbourne. Jodie also joined the cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, taking over the starring role of the Narrator from Tina Arena at Sydney's Her Majesty's Theatre. Jodie also performed in Love Lemmings at the Tilbury Hotel in Sydney.  In late 1995, Jodie performed her second self written show called A Soldier's Song which tells the story of her Grandfather during the war years. She based the show on some diaries that her Grandfather had left behind from the war plus some of the classic tunes from around that time. Jodie's television credits include The Ray Martin Show, A Country Practice, Home and Away, The Money or the Gun, Live n' Sweaty, Hey Hey It's Saturday, the Steve Vizard Show and Once in a Blue Moon, a celebration of Australian Musicals. Jodie has also released a self titled solo album featuring songs from Les Miserables, Aspects of Love, Chess, Miss Saigon and more. The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

 St Patsy Party -  lots O'stuff to party your retro Azzzz off! 70s disco R&B, Club, retro*** 3/23 update - Track list added*** the night time - pretty poison give it to me - rick james beds are burning - midnight oil i should be so lucky - kylie le freak - chic miss you much - janet play that funky music - wild cherry der kommissar - falco everybody - madonna (uk remixed) nasty girl - vanity 6  boogie nights - heatwave last train to london - e.l.o. dance to the music - sly and family stone on broadway - george benson (nu disco mix) lovely one - the jacksons flamethrower - j geils 1999 - prince  our house - madness shiny happy people - r.e.m. i touch myself - divinyls  hot stuff donna true faith - new order victim of love - erasure the beat goes on - orbitz Xanadu - olivia and elo spanish eddie - laura brannigan rasputin - boney m cant get enough of you baby - the colourfield our lips are sealed - the go-go's

Anita Harris is a singer and actress who is one of the biggest stars of the 60s, 70s and 80s and is still performing today. Her huge hit song Just Loving You was suggested for Anita by Dusty Springfield and written by Dusty's brother. As an actress she was in the film Carry On Doctor, Casualty, French and Saunders, Midsummer Murders and her own one-woman show. In the 1970's she was the assistant to the TV magician David Nixon on his TV shows, as well as performing in the Royal Variety performance and having her own This Is Your Life. She was the Variety Club of Great Britain's Cabaret Performer of the year in 1982 and played the part of Griselda in the west end production of Cats for two years. She's just about to tour the country again with Freddie Davis' Legends of Variety Tour, alongside such legends as Freddie himself, Bobby Crush, Bernie Clifton, Tommy Canon, Billy Pearce and The Grumbleweeds, amongst others.Anita Harris is guest number 291 on My Time Capsule and chats to Michael Fenton Stevens about the five things she'd like to put in a time capsule; four she'd like to preserve and one she'd like to bury and never have to think about again .Follow Anita Harris on Twitter: @TheAnitaHarris .Follow My Time Capsule on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook: @MyTCpod .Follow Michael Fenton Stevens on Twitter: @fentonstevens and Instagram @mikefentonstevens .Produced and edited by John Fenton-Stevens for Cast Off Productions .Music by Pass The Peas Music .Artwork by matthewboxall.com .This podcast is proud to be associated with the charity Viva! Providing theatrical opportunities for hundreds of young people. Get this podcast ad-free by becoming a team member with Acast+! Your support will help us to keep making My Time Capsule. Join our team now! https://plus.acast.com/s/mytimecapsule. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Notes Astha is an actress in Telugu films, Chandrahas and Pellaina Kothalo and a worldwide recognized dancer for her talent in Kathak dancing. She exhibits her passion for Sufi dancing in Kathak at various festivals like Jahan-e-Khusrau where she performed first in 2013 and then subsequent years after. She has performed at the National Center for Performing Arts, Beijing as well as the Royal Opera House in Oman and Kuwait, and the world famous Baalbeck festival in Lebanon and festivals promoting culture through the Ministry of India. She is also a choreographer of many musicals and ballets theme-based in the Mughal times where she is the lead dancer. She has studied Kathak from her Gurus, Harish Gangani and Malti Shyam in New Delhi, India. She is a computer engineer from UCLA and left a promising corporate career to pursue her passion for dance and acting. She has penned her Memoirs in her new book, Door to Heaven, which is running for best-seller status. The book has already got noticed in the non-fiction category and has received high-flying reviews from book-readers and book-reader's clubs. Book is available on Zorba Books: - Amazon: - Flipkart: - She is a TEDx Speaker having had the honor of performing a dance routine along with her speech in at TEDx Conf in Gujarat. She was voted Best Dancer and Choreographer by the The Variety Club. She has received accolades for her classical dancing style such as Nritya Utsav given to her by the organizers of festivals. She is currently active in teaching and choreographing group dances in Orlando. She is excited to lead the future generations into their awareness of dance and culture of India so they can expand their talents through her website www.asthadance.com . Follow the exciting events and projects that Astha is currently working on at:

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On this episode: Country music superstar Casey Barnes Dave's Did You know Is Jay back on stage again? How much did it cost you the last time you fueled the car up? Jay's psychic ability put to the test Would you tell someone if they had something on their face? The Good Luck Truck pays a visit to Marian to see Lee & Vanessa Are there more doors or wheels in the world? Jay had a 'today year's old' moment based on his age Matt Lang from the Variety Club's Jet Trek leaving from Mackay Harbour this year See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Lapointe was just 26 years old and didn't know a soul when he arrived in Australia in 1967. Within a few years he'd become the king of fast food dining in this country. He ventured into varied business interests including horse racing. It wasn't long before he was leaving his mark on the turf. We caught up with Bob at his beloved Muskoka Farm which he established more than fifty years ago. With a tinge of sadness Bob reveals that he and his wife Wendy will soon be moving on. Bob takes us back to his early life in Canada and an enrolment in a Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Administration course at Ryerson Uni. He talks of his early interest in the hospitality industry. He has never forgotten his first meeting with Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Sanders. He says the colourful character had a huge impact on his life. Bob says he owned eight KFC stores at home before he left for Australia with a brief to launch the concept here. He recalls feeling very intimidated when he stepped off the plane in Sydney. Bob's first job was to lock in a regular supply of chickens. He's never forgotten his first meeting with Jack and Bob Ingham who were still operating from their original office at Casula. The entrepreneurial Canadian looks back on a succession of alternative dining concepts around Australia- Pizza Hut, Sizzler and Lone Star Steakhouses.  Bob looks back on his early involvement in the racing industry. He founded Doncaster Bloodstock and appointed the late Les Young to run the business. It was Les who became his chief adviser in the buying and selling of thoroughbreds. Doncaster Bloodstock started with a bang at the Adelaide sales.  A major investment for Bob was the purchase of the state of the art Nebo Lodge training complex at Rosehill. The now defunct establishment was created by Stan Fox. Bob talks of his approach to one of the world's biggest racehorse owners Robert Sangster. He persuaded Sangster to join him in the Nebo Lodge venture. He recalls the appointment of young Queenslander Brian Mayfield-Smith as Nebo lodge trainer. The arrival of the new conglomerate shook Sydney racing to its foundations. In his very first season, Mayfield-Smith deposed Tommy Smith after a 33 year reign as Sydney's champion trainer. Bob looks back on the unique fundraising concept he created in conjunction with Lone Star Restaurants. The Variety Club of Australia benefited greatly in a five year period. He remembers Iron Horse, the best to carry the Lone Star colours. He reveals that the great old gelding is still hale and hearty in his 30th year. Bob pays tribute to an elite group of horses he had the good fortune to race with friends and associates. He acknowledges the talents of his wife Wendy who is a skilled veterinarian and a successful horse trainer. Wendy has also played a major role in the management of Muskoka's well known training tracks. This is a wonderful trip down memory lane with a remarkable 80 year old who applied his innate business skills to horse racing with spectacular results. 

The Variety Club telethon celebrates 60 years this weekend. Ch 2 WGRZ Saturday night and WBBZ Cable channel 5 on Sunday benefiting the kids of WNY. The Goo Goo Dolls have a live exclusive that will be seen first and only in Saturday night. We discuss with Robby the bands involvement with Variety over the years. What super special we can expect Saturday night. We also talk his onw WNY endeavor Music Is Art and what to expect in 2022. We talk a nearly completed brand new Goos album, the tour coming up to promote it, and yes Robby's hair color. Please give this weekend. Please subscribe. Thanks for watching!!!

Variety dance club music

Variety Latin,Disco, old School,and new school

Variety mix Latin,Disco,old school,& new school

Claire trained at the Elliot Clarke Stage School in Liverpool and the Italia Conti Stage School in London. Her extensive acting work on television includes playing regular character Lindsay Corkhill in Brookside, the fiery Katrina in the award-winning drama Clocking Off, Lindsey Kendal in the popular BBC series Holby City, Roz in BBC1's hit drama Merseybeat, and Amanda in comedy drama Candy Cabs.Claire's West End roles include Roxie Hart in Chicago and Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, playing opposite Patrick Swayze. Claire played the title role in Educating Rita alongside Matthew Kelly and Paulette in the UK tour of the award winning Legally Blonde. In 2011, she starred in a one-woman show Tell Me on A Sunday. Other theatre credits include White Christmas, Shout!, Fosse (World Tour), The Play Wot I Wrote, and the UK Tour of John Godber's September in the Rain, alongside John Thomson. She has also performed duets with International Opera stars Bryn Terfel and Jose Carreras at The Royal Albert Hall, and headlined the Lytham Proms Festival.As a television presenter, Claire authored the one-hour ITV primetime documentary Claire Sweeney: My Big Fat Diet. She presented four series of 60 Minute Makeover(ITV1) and hosted Saturday night shows Here Comes the Sun (BBC1) and Challenge of a Lifetime (ITV1). Claire presented three live specials of I'm Famous and Frightened for Living TV. She appeared in the first and most successful series of Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother, was a regular panellist on Loose Women, appeared on Celebrity Come Dine With Me, and was a contestant on the first ever series of Strictly Come Dancing. Claire has also enjoyed taking part in The Royal Variety Show and BBC1's primetime Saturday night series Let's Dance for Comic Relief, in which she made it to the finals.Claire has entertained British Troops abroad, and was the first entertainer to visit the troops in Afghanistan and Oman. She was delighted and honoured to perform at A Party To Remember broadcast live on BBC1 from Trafalgar Square to celebrate VE Day and sang live at The Royal Albert Hall for VE Day as well as performing live to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in the presence of HM the Queen. Claire is an Ambassador for the Variety Club and was the leading force in raising one million pounds to build a new wing for Claire House as part of the Sparkling Star Campaign. Over the years Claire has made several trips to Africa for her Aids charity work, a cause she holds close to her heart.Claire's solo album, simply entitled Claire, reached the top 5 of the UK charts. In 2010, Claire performed in a series of concerts entitled Battle Of Britain - 70th Anniversary with three of the country's finest orchestras.She was recently seen in the BBC1 comedy Scarborough, staring alongside Jason Manford, Stephanie Cole and Catherine Tyldesley playing Maneater Hayley Coxand has also recently played Shirley Valentine onstage, Willy Russel's one-woman play directed by Ian Talbot OBE.She also starred as Irene Roth in Crazy For You, Baroness Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray (all on National Tour). Prior to these, Claire toured in the hit show Sex In Suburbia, which she co-wrote, following its hugely successful run at the Royal Court Liverpool. She recently guest starred as Maxine in the hit ITV comedy Benidorm, was special guest on Jane and Friends, and hosts her very own weekly musical theatre-themed show on Magic FM.2014 saw her most important production to date – the birth of her first child Jaxon.

Why are countries halting the AstraZeneca shot? Jeff Ryman explains in his health headlines. Margrett Weldon brings us In The Know about requirements regarding owning and operating Multi-tenant Homes, Rooming Houses, and Lodging-Houses. The Variety Club in Calgary is introducing what they're calling a one of a kind sport adaption. Jim Krysko has the story. Are you looking for some fun with letters? Dave and Debbie walk us through accessible word game options for blind and low vision players. We cover getting started with Spring cleaning with Leanne Baarda.Find Kelly & Company on YouTube! About AMI AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation and positive portrayal. To learn more visit AMI.ca and AMItele.ca. Find more great AMI Original Content on AMI+ Learn more at AMI.ca Connect with Accessible Media Inc. online: - X /Twitter @AccessibleMedia - Instagram @AccessibleMediaInc / @AMI-audio - Facebook at @AccessibleMediaInc - TikTok @AccessibleMediaInc - Email feedback@ami.ca

The Variety Club in Calgary is introducing what they're calling a one of a kind sport adaption. Jim Krysko has the story.Find Kelly & Company on YouTube! About AMI AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation and positive portrayal. To learn more visit AMI.ca and AMItele.ca. Find more great AMI Original Content on AMI+ Learn more at AMI.ca Connect with Accessible Media Inc. online: - X /Twitter @AccessibleMedia - Instagram @AccessibleMediaInc / @AMI-audio - Facebook at @AccessibleMediaInc - TikTok @AccessibleMediaInc - Email feedback@ami.ca

Claire Horton is the former chief executive of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, and is currently director general of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. She joined Battersea in 2010 during its landmark 150th year, spearheading a campaign which transformed the animal rescue service into a UK top 10 charity brand. During her years in charge, income and volunteer numbers quadrupled; new facilities were developed and the charity successfully campaigned for changes in animal welfare legislation. As a teenager Claire volunteered for a number of organisations including Mencap and the Riding for the Disabled Association. At 18 she joined the police force as a special constable, patrolling the streets of Dudley where she lived. Her first position in the charity sector was at the NSPCC and she later worked for the Cats Protection League and the Variety Club of Great Britain. In 2020 she was appointed CBE for her services to animal welfare. Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley

On December 1, 1985, Ronald “Dutch” Reagan was honored at an All-Star Tribute by the Variety Club for their annual fundraising dinner.  The money raised at this event went to name a children’s hospital building at the University of Nebraska for the president. So in today’s Words to Live By podcast, 35 years after the actual event, we give you the December 1985 All Star Tribute to Ronald Reagan. Let's Listen.

LEADING talks to leaders at the top of a wide range of organisations to discover how they learnt to lead, the big decisions they’ve taken and the advice they offer to others.From the worlds of business, charity, the arts, sport, technology and healthcare, CEOs share their take on leading vital causes, famous brand names, multi-million-pound enterprises and fast-growing start-ups. The podcast is presented by the journalist James Ashton.This time, hear from Claire Horton, chief executive of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, the London institution that has cared for more than three million animals since it was set up in 1860. Last year it helped over 5,000 dogs and cats across three centres and is braced for a post-lockdown surge in activity.Battersea has campaigned successfully for the introduction of Lucy’s Law which has made it illegal for anyone other than a breeder to sell puppies or kittens commercially.Horton worked at the NSPCC early in her career. She was also chief executive of the University of Warwick Students’ Union and chief operating officer at the Variety Club of Great Britain before taking the helm at Battersea in 2010.She is joined on the podcast by James Mason, who became chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire at the beginning of 2020. The tourism body is dedicated to driving visitors back to the region post-pandemic to boost an industry that is worth £9bn a year in better times.Its greatest hits include attracting the Tour de France to Yorkshire in 2014, but Mason must rebuild trust among the councils and businesses that fund it after his predecessor quit following concerns over spending and the treatment of staff.He spent 12 years as a broadcast journalist before becoming chief operating officer at Bradford City Football Club and also held the same role at the sports agency First Point USA.James Ashton’s book The Nine Type of Leader (bit.ly/NINEbook) is available to order now. Find out more about this series @leadingpod or at leadingpod.com

This is a special extra episode of the podcast, not one of the “proper” five hundred. A book I’ve written, on the TV series The Strange World of Gurney Slade, has just become available for pre-order from Obverse Books, so to publicise that I’ve done an extra episode, on the pop music career of its star, Anthony Newley. The next normal episode will be up in a day or two. Transcript below the cut.  Erratum: In a previous version of this episode, I mentioned, in passing, my understanding that Newley was an alcoholic. This has been strongly questioned by some fans, who took offence at the suggestion, and as it was utterly irrelevant to the point I was making I have deleted those three words rather than cause further offence.   —-more—- Welcome to a special bonus episode of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. This is not this week’s normal episode, which will be up in a couple of days, and nor is it the Patreon bonus episode, which will also be up as normal. This is an extra, full-length episode, on a song which didn’t make the list of songs I’m covering. But this week, a book I’ve written has gone on pre-order, and it’ll be out on the first of September. That book is on The Strange World of Gurney Slade, a TV show from the very early 1960s. And the star of that show, Anthony Newley, also had a very successful music career in the late fifties and early sixties — and a career which had a real influence on many people who will be seen in future episodes. So, in order to promote my book, I’m going to talk today about some of Newley’s music. If you’re not interested in anything that isn’t part of my “official” five hundred songs, then you can skip this episode, but I promise that other than a brief mention at the end, this is not going to be an advert for my book, but just another episode, about the music career of one of Britain’s most interesting stars of the pre-Beatles era. So let’s look at “Strawberry Fair” by Anthony Newley: [Excerpt: Anthony Newley, “Strawberry Fair”] Anthony Newley was someone whose career only came about by what would seem at first to be bad luck. Newley was a child in London during the Blitz, the son of an unmarried mother, which had a great deal of stigma to it in those days. When the Blitz hit, he was evacuated, and felt abandoned by his mother. That sense of abandonment increased when his mother married her new boyfriend and moved to Scotland. And then Newley was moved into a second foster home, this one in Morecambe, Lancashire. His foster father during the war was one George Pescud, a music hall performer about whom I can discover nothing else, except that he instilled in Newley a great love of the theatre and of the arts, and that as a result of this Newley started writing music, painting, writing, and, especially, acting. When the war ended, Newley was fourteen, and didn’t go back to live with his mother and her new husband, choosing instead to move to London and start living an artistic life. He saw an advert in the paper for the Italia Conti stage school, and tried to become a student there. When he found out that he couldn’t afford the fees, he found another way in — he got a job there as an office boy, and his tuition was included in his wages. While there, he became friends with another student, Petula Clark, who would herself go on to stardom with records like “Downtown”. [Excerpt: Petula Clark, “Downtown”] Clark also encouraged him to start singing — something that would definitely pay off for him later. Apparently, Clark had a crush on Newley, but he wasn’t interested in her. While at the school, Newley got cast in a couple of roles in low-budget films, which brought him to the attention of David Lean, who was directing his film adaptation of Oliver Twist, and cast Newley in the role of the Artful Dodger. The film, which featured Alec Guinness, became one of the classics of British cinema, and also starred Diana Dors, with whom Newley started an affair, and who managed to get him a job as a bit player for the Rank Organisation. For the next few years, Newley had small roles in films, started a double act with the comedy writer Dick Vosburgh, had a brief spell in the army (very brief — he was discharged because of his mental health problems), spent a couple of years in rep, shared a flat with Christopher Lee and appeared in a Hammer Horror film — the usual things that low-level actors do as they slowly work their way up to stardom. His most notable appearance was in the West End revue Cranks, which opened in late 1955. A revue, for those who don’t know, is a theatrical show that usually mixes comedy sketches and songs (though the term was, confusingly for our purposes, sometimes also used for a bill with several different musical acts). These were very popular in the fifties and sixties, and Cranks was one of the most popular. After its West End run it transferred to Broadway, and Newley was one of the cast members who appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show to promote it, though the Broadway run of the show was not a success like the British one was. It was in Cranks that Newley’s singing first came to public attention: [Excerpt: Anthony Newley, “Cold Comfort”] Newley was starting to get substantial film roles, and it was with the film Idol on Parade that Newley became a star, and became drawn into the world of pop music. In that film, the first film written by the prominent British screenwriter John Antrobus, he played a pop star who was drafted into the British army, as all young men were in Britain in the fifties. The film is usually said to have been inspired by Elvis Presley having been called up, though it was likely that it was also influenced by Terry Dene, a British rock and roll star who had recently been drafted, before having a breakdown and being discharged due to ill health, and who had recorded songs like “Candy Floss”: [Excerpt: Terry Dene, “Candy Floss”] Dene’s story must have struck a chord with Newley, who’d had a very similar Army experience, though you couldn’t tell that from the film, which was a typical low-budget British comedy. As Newley was playing a pop singer, obviously he had to sing some songs in the film, and so he recorded five songs, one of which, “I’ve Waited So Long”, was released as a single and went to number three in the charts: [Excerpt: Anthony Newley, “I’ve Waited So Long”] Somehow, despite Newley being an actor — and someone who despised a lot of rock and roll music — he had become a pop star. He won the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for Most Promising Newcomer of 1959, even though he’d been making films since 1946. “I’ve Waited So Long” was co-written by Jerry Lordan, who wrote “Apache”, and Len Praverman, but two of the other songs in the film were written by Newley and Joe ‘Mr. Piano’ Henderson, and this would soon set Newley on the way to a career as a songwriter — indeed, as the most important singer-songwriter in pre-Beatles British pop music. He had seven UK top ten hits, two of them number ones, in the years from 1959 through 61, and he had a few more minor hits after that. Most of those hits were either cover versions of American hits like Lloyd Price’s “Personality”, or were written for him by people like Lionel Bart. One odd example shows where he would go as a music-maker, though. “Strawberry Fair” is a traditional folk song, which was collected, and presumably bowdlerised, by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould — the lyrics, about a young woman offering a young man the chance to pluck the cherries from her basket, read as innuendo, and Baring-Gould, who wrote “Onward Christian Soldiers”, was well known for toning down the lyrics of the folk songs he collected. Newley rewrote the lyrics under the pseudonym “Nollie Clapton”: [Excerpt: Anthony Newley, “Strawberry Fair”] But Newley was someone who wanted to do *everything*, and did so very well. While he was a pop star, he starred in his own series of TV specials, and then in his own sitcom, The Strange World of Gurney Slade. He starred in the classic British noir film The Small World of Sammy Lee. And he recorded a satirical album with his second wife, Joan Collins, and Peter Sellers, mocking the Government over the Profumo sex scandal: [Excerpt: Fool Britannia, “Twelve Randy Men”] That album went top ten, and was co-written by Newley and Leslie Bricusse. Bricusse would go on to collaborate with Newley in writing a series of songs, mostly for musicals, that everyone knows, though many don’t realise that Newley was involved in them. Newley mostly wrote the music, while Bricusse mostly wrote lyrics, though both did both. Their first major collaboration was on the play Stop The World, I Want To Get Off!, a semi-autobiographical starring vehicle for Newley, which displayed the life of a selfish womaniser called Littlechap, who would regularly stop the action of the play to monologue at the audience in much the same way as Newley’s TV character Gurney Slade. Much of Newley’s work seems to be trying to be three different things at the same time — he seems to want to write self-flagellating autobiography about his own selfish and sometimes misogynistic behaviour — this is a man who would later write a song called “Oh What a Son of a Bitch I Am”, and mean it — while also wanting to create work that is formally extraordinary and involves a lot of metafictional and postmodern elements — *and* at the same time wanting to make all-round family entertainment. For a while, at least, he managed to juggle all three aspects very successfully, and Stop The World, I Want to Get Off! became a massive hit on stage, and was adapted for the cinema once and TV twice. Stop The World introduced two songs that would become standards. “What Kind of Fool Am I?” became a big hit for Sammy Davis Jr, and won the Grammy for “Song of the Year” at the 1963 Grammy Awards: [Excerpt: Sammy Davis Jr., “What Kind of Fool Am I?”] Davis also recorded another song from that show, “Gonna Build a Mountain”, as the B-side, and that too became a standard, recorded by everyone from Matt Monroe to the Monkees: [Excerpt: The Monkees, “Gonna Build a Mountain”] Newley and Bricusse followed that up with another musical, The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd, which again introduced a whole host of famous songs. “Who Can I Turn To?” was the big hit at the time, for Tony Bennett, and has since been performed by everyone from Miles Davis to Barbra Streisand, Dusty Springfield to the Temptations: [Excerpt: Temptations, “Who Can I Turn To?”] But the song from that musical that is now best known is almost certainly “Feeling Good”, which you’ve almost certainly heard in Nina Simone’s staggering version: [Excerpt: Nina Simone, “Feeling Good”] They also wrote the theme to “Goldfinger”, with John Barry: [Excerpt: Shirley Bassey, “Goldfinger”] That song was one that Bricusse would use in interviews to demonstrate the almost telepathic rapport that he and Newley had – when Barry played them the beginning of the melody, they both instantly sang, without looking at each other, “wider than a mile”. Barry was unimpressed, and luckily for all concerned the rest of the melody wasn’t that similar to “Moon River”, and the song became arguably the definitive Bond theme. But at the same time that Newley was having this kind of popular success, he was also doing oddities like “Moogies Bloogies”, a song in which Newley sings about voyeuristically watching women, while Delia Derbyshire backs him with experimental electronic music: [Excerpt: Delia Derbyshire and Anthony Newley, “Moogies Bloogies”] That was recorded in 1966, though it wasn’t released until much later. Newley’s career was a bizarre one by almost every measure. Possibly the highlight, at least in some senses, was his 1969 film Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? [Excerpt: “Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?” trailer] On one level, that film is a terrible sex comedy of the kind that the British film industry produced far too much of in the late sixties and seventies, featuring people like Bruce Forsyth and with characters named Hieronymus Merkin, Filligree Fondle, and Polyester Poontang. On the other hand, it’s a work of postmodern self-commenting autobiography, with Newley co-writing the script, starring as multiple characters, directing, producing, and writing the music. Roger Ebert said it was the first English-language film to attempt the same things that Fellini and Godard had been attempting, which is not something you’d normally expect of a musical featuring Milton Berle and Joan Collins. The film has at least four different layers of reality to it, including a film within a film within the film, and it features Newley regularly stepping out of character to talk about the problems with the film. It’s a film of his midlife crisis, basically, but where Ebert compares it to Fellini and Godard, I’d say it’s closer to Head, 200 Motels, or other similarly indulgent rock films of the era, and it deals with a lot of the same concerns — God and the Devil, sexual freedom, and the nature of film as a narrative medium. All of Newley’s career was like that — a mixture of lowbrow light entertainment and attempts at postmodernist art, both treated by Newley as of equal value, but each being offputting to an audience that might have enjoyed the other. If you want songs and pretty women and dirty jokes, you probably don’t want metafictional conversations between the main character of the film and the director, both of whom are the same person. If you want a film that Roger Ebert will compare to Fellini, you probably don’t want it to be a musical including a song that starts out as a fairy-tale about a lonely princess named Trampolena Whambang, and ends up with the princess having sex with a donkey: [Excerpt: Heironymus Merkin soundtrack, “Princess Trampolena”] The film also was one of the things that led to Newley’s breakup with Collins — she decided that she didn’t like the aspects of his character, and his attitudes towards women, the film revealed — though Newley claimed until his dying day that while the film was inspired by his own life, it wasn’t directly autobiographical. Given that the film’s main character, in one sequence, talks about his attraction to underage girls, that’s probably for the best. (And Newley did have a deplorable attitude to women generally — I’m not going into it in detail here, because this podcast is about the work, not the person, but Newley was a thoroughly unpleasant person in many respects.) Hieronymus Merkin was a massive flop, though the critical response to it was far kinder than its reputation suggests. Unfortunately, Joan Collins so detests the film that it’s never been available on DVD in the UK, and only sporadically elsewhere — DVD copies on Amazon currently go for around three hundred pounds. That was, largely, the end of Anthony Newley’s career as an auteur. It wasn’t, though, the end of his career in songwriting. With Leslie Bricusse he wrote the songs that made up the soundtrack of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory — songs like “Pure Imagination”: [Excerpt: Gene Wilder, “Pure Imagination”] That film also featured “The Candy Man”, which became a number one hit in a cover version by Sammy Davis Jr: [Excerpt: Sammy Davis Jr, “The Candy Man”] After that, though, Newley didn’t have much more success as a songwriter, but by this point his biggest influence on rock and roll music was already very apparent. David Bowie once said “I never thought I could sing very well, and I used to try on people’s voices if they appealed to me. When I was a kid, about fifteen, sixteen, I got into Anthony Newley like crazy, because a couple of things about him — one, before he came to the States and did the whole Las Vegas thing, he really did bizarre things over here. Now, a television series he did, called the Strange World of Gurney Slade, which was so odd, and off the wall, and I thought, ‘I like what this guy’s doing, where he’s going is really interesting’. And so I started singing songs like him… and so I was writing these really weird Tony Newley type songs, but the lyrics were about, like, lesbians in the army, and cannibals, and paedophiles” If you listen to Bowie’s earliest work, it’s very, very apparent how much he took from Newley’s vocal style in particular: [Excerpt: David Bowie, “Rubber Band”] There is a whole vein of British music that usually gets called “music hall” when bad critics talk about it, even though it owes nothing to the music that was actually performed in actual music halls. But what it does owe a great deal to is the work of Anthony Newley. One can draw a direct line from him through Davy Jones of the Monkees, Bowie, Syd Barrett, Ray Davies, Ian Dury, Blur… even a performer like John Lydon, someone who would seem worlds away from Newley’s showbiz sheen, has far more of his influence in his vocal inflections than most would acknowledge. Every time you hear a singer referred to as “quintessentially British”, you’re probably hearing someone who is either imitating Newley, or imitating someone who was imitating Newley. Newley is one of the most frustrating figures in the history of popular culture. He was someone who had so much natural talent as an actor, singer, songwriter, and playwright, and so many different ideas, that he didn’t work hard enough at any of those things to become as great as he could have been — there are odd moments of genius scattered throughout his work, but very little one can point to and say “that is a work worthy of his talents”. His mental and emotional problems caused damage to him and to the people around him, and he spent much of the last half of his career making a living from appearing in Las Vegas and as a regular on Hollywood Squares, and appearing in roles in things like The Garbage Pail Kids Movie — his last starring role in the cinema. He attempted a comeback in the nineties, appearing with his ex-wife Joan Collins in two Noel Coward adaptations on TV, taking the lead role in the hit musical Scrooge, written by his old partner Bricusse, and getting a regular role in East Enders (one of the two most popular soap operas on British TV), but unfortunately he had to quit the East Enders role as he was diagnosed with the cancer that killed him in 1999, aged sixty-seven. Anyway, if this episode has piqued your interest in Newley, you might want to check out my book on The Strange World of Gurney Slade, which is a TV show that has almost all the best aspects of Newley’s work, and which deserves to be regarded as one of the great masterpieces of TV, a series that is equal parts Hancock’s Half Hour, The Prisoner, and Waiting for Godot. You can order the book from Obverse Books, at obversebooks.co.uk, and I’ll provide a link in the show notes. While you’re there, check out some of the other books Obverse have put out — they’ve published two more of my books and a couple of my short stories, and many of their writers are both friends of mine and some of the best writers around. I’ll be back in a couple of days with the next proper episode.

This is a special extra episode of the podcast, not one of the "proper" five hundred. A book I've written, on the TV series The Strange World of Gurney Slade, has just become available for pre-order from Obverse Books, so to publicise that I've done an extra episode, on the pop music career of its star, Anthony Newley. The next normal episode will be up in a day or two. Transcript below the cut.  Erratum: In a previous version of this episode, I mentioned, in passing, my understanding that Newley was an alcoholic. This has been strongly questioned by some fans, who took offence at the suggestion, and as it was utterly irrelevant to the point I was making I have deleted those three words rather than cause further offence.   ----more---- Welcome to a special bonus episode of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. This is not this week's normal episode, which will be up in a couple of days, and nor is it the Patreon bonus episode, which will also be up as normal. This is an extra, full-length episode, on a song which didn't make the list of songs I'm covering. But this week, a book I've written has gone on pre-order, and it'll be out on the first of September. That book is on The Strange World of Gurney Slade, a TV show from the very early 1960s. And the star of that show, Anthony Newley, also had a very successful music career in the late fifties and early sixties -- and a career which had a real influence on many people who will be seen in future episodes. So, in order to promote my book, I'm going to talk today about some of Newley's music. If you're not interested in anything that isn't part of my "official" five hundred songs, then you can skip this episode, but I promise that other than a brief mention at the end, this is not going to be an advert for my book, but just another episode, about the music career of one of Britain's most interesting stars of the pre-Beatles era. So let's look at "Strawberry Fair" by Anthony Newley: [Excerpt: Anthony Newley, "Strawberry Fair"] Anthony Newley was someone whose career only came about by what would seem at first to be bad luck. Newley was a child in London during the Blitz, the son of an unmarried mother, which had a great deal of stigma to it in those days. When the Blitz hit, he was evacuated, and felt abandoned by his mother. That sense of abandonment increased when his mother married her new boyfriend and moved to Scotland. And then Newley was moved into a second foster home, this one in Morecambe, Lancashire. His foster father during the war was one George Pescud, a music hall performer about whom I can discover nothing else, except that he instilled in Newley a great love of the theatre and of the arts, and that as a result of this Newley started writing music, painting, writing, and, especially, acting. When the war ended, Newley was fourteen, and didn't go back to live with his mother and her new husband, choosing instead to move to London and start living an artistic life. He saw an advert in the paper for the Italia Conti stage school, and tried to become a student there. When he found out that he couldn't afford the fees, he found another way in -- he got a job there as an office boy, and his tuition was included in his wages. While there, he became friends with another student, Petula Clark, who would herself go on to stardom with records like “Downtown”. [Excerpt: Petula Clark, "Downtown"] Clark also encouraged him to start singing -- something that would definitely pay off for him later. Apparently, Clark had a crush on Newley, but he wasn't interested in her. While at the school, Newley got cast in a couple of roles in low-budget films, which brought him to the attention of David Lean, who was directing his film adaptation of Oliver Twist, and cast Newley in the role of the Artful Dodger. The film, which featured Alec Guinness, became one of the classics of British cinema, and also starred Diana Dors, with whom Newley started an affair, and who managed to get him a job as a bit player for the Rank Organisation. For the next few years, Newley had small roles in films, started a double act with the comedy writer Dick Vosburgh, had a brief spell in the army (very brief -- he was discharged because of his mental health problems), spent a couple of years in rep, shared a flat with Christopher Lee and appeared in a Hammer Horror film -- the usual things that low-level actors do as they slowly work their way up to stardom. His most notable appearance was in the West End revue Cranks, which opened in late 1955. A revue, for those who don't know, is a theatrical show that usually mixes comedy sketches and songs (though the term was, confusingly for our purposes, sometimes also used for a bill with several different musical acts). These were very popular in the fifties and sixties, and Cranks was one of the most popular. After its West End run it transferred to Broadway, and Newley was one of the cast members who appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show to promote it, though the Broadway run of the show was not a success like the British one was. It was in Cranks that Newley's singing first came to public attention: [Excerpt: Anthony Newley, "Cold Comfort"] Newley was starting to get substantial film roles, and it was with the film Idol on Parade that Newley became a star, and became drawn into the world of pop music. In that film, the first film written by the prominent British screenwriter John Antrobus, he played a pop star who was drafted into the British army, as all young men were in Britain in the fifties. The film is usually said to have been inspired by Elvis Presley having been called up, though it was likely that it was also influenced by Terry Dene, a British rock and roll star who had recently been drafted, before having a breakdown and being discharged due to ill health, and who had recorded songs like “Candy Floss”: [Excerpt: Terry Dene, "Candy Floss"] Dene's story must have struck a chord with Newley, who'd had a very similar Army experience, though you couldn't tell that from the film, which was a typical low-budget British comedy. As Newley was playing a pop singer, obviously he had to sing some songs in the film, and so he recorded five songs, one of which, “I've Waited So Long”, was released as a single and went to number three in the charts: [Excerpt: Anthony Newley, "I've Waited So Long"] Somehow, despite Newley being an actor -- and someone who despised a lot of rock and roll music -- he had become a pop star. He won the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for Most Promising Newcomer of 1959, even though he'd been making films since 1946. "I've Waited So Long" was co-written by Jerry Lordan, who wrote "Apache", and Len Praverman, but two of the other songs in the film were written by Newley and Joe 'Mr. Piano' Henderson, and this would soon set Newley on the way to a career as a songwriter -- indeed, as the most important singer-songwriter in pre-Beatles British pop music. He had seven UK top ten hits, two of them number ones, in the years from 1959 through 61, and he had a few more minor hits after that. Most of those hits were either cover versions of American hits like Lloyd Price's "Personality", or were written for him by people like Lionel Bart. One odd example shows where he would go as a music-maker, though. "Strawberry Fair" is a traditional folk song, which was collected, and presumably bowdlerised, by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould -- the lyrics, about a young woman offering a young man the chance to pluck the cherries from her basket, read as innuendo, and Baring-Gould, who wrote "Onward Christian Soldiers", was well known for toning down the lyrics of the folk songs he collected. Newley rewrote the lyrics under the pseudonym "Nollie Clapton": [Excerpt: Anthony Newley, "Strawberry Fair"] But Newley was someone who wanted to do *everything*, and did so very well. While he was a pop star, he starred in his own series of TV specials, and then in his own sitcom, The Strange World of Gurney Slade. He starred in the classic British noir film The Small World of Sammy Lee. And he recorded a satirical album with his second wife, Joan Collins, and Peter Sellers, mocking the Government over the Profumo sex scandal: [Excerpt: Fool Britannia, "Twelve Randy Men"] That album went top ten, and was co-written by Newley and Leslie Bricusse. Bricusse would go on to collaborate with Newley in writing a series of songs, mostly for musicals, that everyone knows, though many don't realise that Newley was involved in them. Newley mostly wrote the music, while Bricusse mostly wrote lyrics, though both did both. Their first major collaboration was on the play Stop The World, I Want To Get Off!, a semi-autobiographical starring vehicle for Newley, which displayed the life of a selfish womaniser called Littlechap, who would regularly stop the action of the play to monologue at the audience in much the same way as Newley's TV character Gurney Slade. Much of Newley's work seems to be trying to be three different things at the same time -- he seems to want to write self-flagellating autobiography about his own selfish and sometimes misogynistic behaviour -- this is a man who would later write a song called "Oh What a Son of a Bitch I Am", and mean it -- while also wanting to create work that is formally extraordinary and involves a lot of metafictional and postmodern elements -- *and* at the same time wanting to make all-round family entertainment. For a while, at least, he managed to juggle all three aspects very successfully, and Stop The World, I Want to Get Off! became a massive hit on stage, and was adapted for the cinema once and TV twice. Stop The World introduced two songs that would become standards. "What Kind of Fool Am I?" became a big hit for Sammy Davis Jr, and won the Grammy for "Song of the Year" at the 1963 Grammy Awards: [Excerpt: Sammy Davis Jr., "What Kind of Fool Am I?"] Davis also recorded another song from that show, "Gonna Build a Mountain", as the B-side, and that too became a standard, recorded by everyone from Matt Monroe to the Monkees: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Gonna Build a Mountain"] Newley and Bricusse followed that up with another musical, The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd, which again introduced a whole host of famous songs. "Who Can I Turn To?" was the big hit at the time, for Tony Bennett, and has since been performed by everyone from Miles Davis to Barbra Streisand, Dusty Springfield to the Temptations: [Excerpt: Temptations, "Who Can I Turn To?"] But the song from that musical that is now best known is almost certainly "Feeling Good", which you've almost certainly heard in Nina Simone's staggering version: [Excerpt: Nina Simone, "Feeling Good"] They also wrote the theme to "Goldfinger", with John Barry: [Excerpt: Shirley Bassey, "Goldfinger"] That song was one that Bricusse would use in interviews to demonstrate the almost telepathic rapport that he and Newley had – when Barry played them the beginning of the melody, they both instantly sang, without looking at each other, “wider than a mile”. Barry was unimpressed, and luckily for all concerned the rest of the melody wasn't that similar to “Moon River”, and the song became arguably the definitive Bond theme. But at the same time that Newley was having this kind of popular success, he was also doing oddities like "Moogies Bloogies", a song in which Newley sings about voyeuristically watching women, while Delia Derbyshire backs him with experimental electronic music: [Excerpt: Delia Derbyshire and Anthony Newley, "Moogies Bloogies"] That was recorded in 1966, though it wasn't released until much later. Newley's career was a bizarre one by almost every measure. Possibly the highlight, at least in some senses, was his 1969 film Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? [Excerpt: "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?" trailer] On one level, that film is a terrible sex comedy of the kind that the British film industry produced far too much of in the late sixties and seventies, featuring people like Bruce Forsyth and with characters named Hieronymus Merkin, Filligree Fondle, and Polyester Poontang. On the other hand, it's a work of postmodern self-commenting autobiography, with Newley co-writing the script, starring as multiple characters, directing, producing, and writing the music. Roger Ebert said it was the first English-language film to attempt the same things that Fellini and Godard had been attempting, which is not something you'd normally expect of a musical featuring Milton Berle and Joan Collins. The film has at least four different layers of reality to it, including a film within a film within the film, and it features Newley regularly stepping out of character to talk about the problems with the film. It's a film of his midlife crisis, basically, but where Ebert compares it to Fellini and Godard, I'd say it's closer to Head, 200 Motels, or other similarly indulgent rock films of the era, and it deals with a lot of the same concerns -- God and the Devil, sexual freedom, and the nature of film as a narrative medium. All of Newley's career was like that -- a mixture of lowbrow light entertainment and attempts at postmodernist art, both treated by Newley as of equal value, but each being offputting to an audience that might have enjoyed the other. If you want songs and pretty women and dirty jokes, you probably don't want metafictional conversations between the main character of the film and the director, both of whom are the same person. If you want a film that Roger Ebert will compare to Fellini, you probably don't want it to be a musical including a song that starts out as a fairy-tale about a lonely princess named Trampolena Whambang, and ends up with the princess having sex with a donkey: [Excerpt: Heironymus Merkin soundtrack, "Princess Trampolena"] The film also was one of the things that led to Newley's breakup with Collins -- she decided that she didn't like the aspects of his character, and his attitudes towards women, the film revealed -- though Newley claimed until his dying day that while the film was inspired by his own life, it wasn't directly autobiographical. Given that the film's main character, in one sequence, talks about his attraction to underage girls, that's probably for the best. (And Newley did have a deplorable attitude to women generally -- I'm not going into it in detail here, because this podcast is about the work, not the person, but Newley was a thoroughly unpleasant person in many respects.) Hieronymus Merkin was a massive flop, though the critical response to it was far kinder than its reputation suggests. Unfortunately, Joan Collins so detests the film that it's never been available on DVD in the UK, and only sporadically elsewhere -- DVD copies on Amazon currently go for around three hundred pounds. That was, largely, the end of Anthony Newley's career as an auteur. It wasn't, though, the end of his career in songwriting. With Leslie Bricusse he wrote the songs that made up the soundtrack of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory -- songs like "Pure Imagination": [Excerpt: Gene Wilder, "Pure Imagination"] That film also featured "The Candy Man", which became a number one hit in a cover version by Sammy Davis Jr: [Excerpt: Sammy Davis Jr, "The Candy Man"] After that, though, Newley didn't have much more success as a songwriter, but by this point his biggest influence on rock and roll music was already very apparent. David Bowie once said "I never thought I could sing very well, and I used to try on people's voices if they appealed to me. When I was a kid, about fifteen, sixteen, I got into Anthony Newley like crazy, because a couple of things about him -- one, before he came to the States and did the whole Las Vegas thing, he really did bizarre things over here. Now, a television series he did, called the Strange World of Gurney Slade, which was so odd, and off the wall, and I thought, 'I like what this guy's doing, where he's going is really interesting'. And so I started singing songs like him... and so I was writing these really weird Tony Newley type songs, but the lyrics were about, like, lesbians in the army, and cannibals, and paedophiles" If you listen to Bowie's earliest work, it's very, very apparent how much he took from Newley's vocal style in particular: [Excerpt: David Bowie, "Rubber Band"] There is a whole vein of British music that usually gets called "music hall" when bad critics talk about it, even though it owes nothing to the music that was actually performed in actual music halls. But what it does owe a great deal to is the work of Anthony Newley. One can draw a direct line from him through Davy Jones of the Monkees, Bowie, Syd Barrett, Ray Davies, Ian Dury, Blur... even a performer like John Lydon, someone who would seem worlds away from Newley's showbiz sheen, has far more of his influence in his vocal inflections than most would acknowledge. Every time you hear a singer referred to as "quintessentially British", you're probably hearing someone who is either imitating Newley, or imitating someone who was imitating Newley. Newley is one of the most frustrating figures in the history of popular culture. He was someone who had so much natural talent as an actor, singer, songwriter, and playwright, and so many different ideas, that he didn't work hard enough at any of those things to become as great as he could have been -- there are odd moments of genius scattered throughout his work, but very little one can point to and say "that is a work worthy of his talents". His mental and emotional problems caused damage to him and to the people around him, and he spent much of the last half of his career making a living from appearing in Las Vegas and as a regular on Hollywood Squares, and appearing in roles in things like The Garbage Pail Kids Movie -- his last starring role in the cinema. He attempted a comeback in the nineties, appearing with his ex-wife Joan Collins in two Noel Coward adaptations on TV, taking the lead role in the hit musical Scrooge, written by his old partner Bricusse, and getting a regular role in East Enders (one of the two most popular soap operas on British TV), but unfortunately he had to quit the East Enders role as he was diagnosed with the cancer that killed him in 1999, aged sixty-seven. Anyway, if this episode has piqued your interest in Newley, you might want to check out my book on The Strange World of Gurney Slade, which is a TV show that has almost all the best aspects of Newley's work, and which deserves to be regarded as one of the great masterpieces of TV, a series that is equal parts Hancock's Half Hour, The Prisoner, and Waiting for Godot. You can order the book from Obverse Books, at obversebooks.co.uk, and I'll provide a link in the show notes. While you're there, check out some of the other books Obverse have put out -- they've published two more of my books and a couple of my short stories, and many of their writers are both friends of mine and some of the best writers around. I'll be back in a couple of days with the next proper episode.

Hazel O'Connor in conversation with David Eastaugh Her film debut was in Girls Come First in 1975. She became prominent as an actress and singer five years later in 1980 when playing the role of Kate in the film Breaking Glass, and performing its accompanying soundtrack. Her performance as Kate won her the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for 'Best Film Actor'. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. The film's soundtrack album featured songs written and performed by O'Connor and reached number 5 in the UK Albums Chart. It had a 38-week chart run and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry. Several tracks from the album were released as singles, the most successful being "Eighth Day" and "Will You" (with a notable saxophone solo by Wesley Magoogan) which both reached the UK Top 10. When O'Connor toured the UK to promote the album, the opening act were a then-unknown group called Duran Duran. It was the band's first opportunity to play to large audiences throughout the UK and gave them the exposure they needed to secure a recording contract.

variety dance music ranging from the 70s 80s and today’s music and also some Latino music

variety dance music ranging from the 70s 80s and today’s music and also some Latino music

Didn't catch JB & Jack for Breakfast this morning? You missed the guys chatting about the Variety Club bash that visited Nemingha School yesterday , a hotel in India getting busted for taxing bananas, plus Australia's favorite supermarket has been named! Catch up on all the best bits from the show this morning right here with the Catch Up thanks to Fly Corporate.

Episode 051 we debut the BA on Radials and what a hell of a ride that is. We also have an extended chat with Anthony Begley....his involvement in Drag Racing over the years has seen him in Top Fuel, Nitro Funny Car, Top Doorslammer, Top Alcohol, Comp Eliminator, Super Sedan and Super Street. He has taken on the best in the US and now has his daughter and son actively involved in the sport. His contribution to charity and the Variety Club shows how committed Anthony and his family is to all causes. While we briefly discuss his explosion at the Motorplex recently, it's Anthony's future plans that are of great interest. We also discuss Lights Out 10 and the performance of some new players in the field of RVsW.

Brandstorm would like to welcome Bob Menefee to the show. Bob is the Development Director at Variety - the Children’s Charity of Wisconsin and is here today to talk about brand confusion. Bob Menefee Bob has a background in entertainment, having spent over 12 years as the Vice President of Marcus Theatres Corporation. He is currently the Development Director at Variety - the Children’s Charity of Wisconsin, an organization with roots in show business that originated after an infant was left in a Pittsburgh movie theatre in 1928. Brand Confusion The organization was originally known as the Variety Club. Over the years, this title began to feel too inclusive and needed to be revised to include everyone. To this day, the transition to Variety – the Children’s Charity of Wisconsin is still a challenge, causing a bit of brand confusion for the admirable organization. Wisconsin Variety Focus Each Variety charter throughout the nation has their own unique focus for the organization. The Wisconsin charter’s focus is on mobility, which includes lifts, doorways, ramps, and more. The “sexiest” form of mobility help the organization oversees is custom bicycles built for children with special needs. To do this, Variety teams up with Emerys Cycle Shop. Advertising a Nonprofit Advertising on a very limited budget, as most nonprofits encounter, is a challenge that requires creativity. Variety takes advantage of social media by sharing heartfelt stories. Additionally, Variety has successfully used crowdfunding and hosts fundraising events. Events Chatter Matters! Camp: http://www.varietywi.org/how-we-help/chatter-matters Variety Sportsmens Classic | The Highlands Sportsmens ClubSpring Golf Outing | Western Lakes Golf ClubGolf Classic | Grand Geneva Contact Bob Menefee:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-menefee-04130345/ Website: http://www.varietywi.org/Email: bob@varietywi.orgPhone: (262) 777-2090  

Bobby Crush made it big in 1972 when he won six appearances on the ITV talent show, Opportunity Knocks. He won the Variety Club's award for 'Best New Artist' and starred at the London Palladium alongside Jack Jones, Vic Damone and Julie Andrews.

Sketches of English Martyrs (I do like to be beside the seaside)Disaster: 291108Recovery: 181208Manchester, The Ark, 18th December 2008Howdy Kids! Fancy getting interfered with by taxi drivers? Of course you don't but its tough tits now you've got so far as rank and thus renounced your sexually formative AM years for a regular serving of spunky chops in the PM. Our ears and mouths are full of pox.This I'm afraid, only 3 podcasts in, is the end of innocence as, while I was away delivering international AIDS, I was temporarily ousted by a poorly-executed coup d'etat, instigated by none other than my cheeseball bounder of an engineer and his spastical compadre, o'wise known as Martyrs.Unfortunately these angsty teenagers appear more concerned with swearing loudly, missing comic opportunities due to inebriation and accusing each other of being racists while defending their own 'Britishness' against the Otherness of each other's mothers.I can only apologise and move to reassure the listening public that they were only let live to air in kind with the neu caring, inclusive Nazism that extends it's embrace around the reanimated Variety Club of Great Britain. Normal service will be resumed as soon as I return from my frankly disappointing kwanzaa sex tour of self-discovery (and when I've stopped frothing). Then I promise you I will surgically remove the errant Truppenfuhrung with an elegant pimp attack conducted by my infinitely more sophisticated schutzstaffel, what?Your humble fuhrerxxxSSSBlackBox 03a01 Stoneboat - Sunburned hand of the man02 Nailed to the Blank Spot - Chavez03 The Melody - Francesco Tristano04 Love and Pain - Clor05 War Pigs (Live) - Faith No More06 Go with the Flow - Queens of the Stone Age07 Control (Sketch) - Martyrs08 E-Talking - SoulwaxDOWNLOAD MP3!