A change is gonna come…

I used to embrace change. Now it just irritates me. Once I’d know the names of all the cabinet ministers. Now I’d be hard pressed to recognise the current Prime Minister(s) if I saw him/them in the street. And everything seems to be getting a makeover/facelift apart from me. I can barely find my own blog since WordPress re-arranged their desktop deckchairs. Rapidshare used to be a useful tool until last week’s re-design and it’s now top of my list of places to avoid like the plague. It will crash your PC if you have the temerity to attempt to navigate away. (In fact my new resolution is to never ever click on any download link other than box, mediafire or megaupload).

So just when I was getting p—ed off with my PC and life in general it was nice to receive this obviously totally genuine eMail. Hooray !! Looks like a larger house is on the cards after all !!

“My name is Mohammed. I am a dying man who have decided to donate the sum of $18m million dollars.) to you for the good work of the humanity.
Please contact me via. Email for details information on this noble project of mine Please note that I have WILLED $18m to you by quoting my personal reference number so that i can confirm that you actually received my email notice to you.”
Wassalam and regards,
Mohammed Ahmed

PS: And better still, with my new-found wealth I can now afford this genuine Monet I’ve been offered. I asked if I could see it first before I paid but they said that wasn’t awfully convenient. As soon as they get my bank details they’re going to parcel it up and send it by UPS. I’ve even been promised a tracking number and a link to click on…

Swingin’ Cymbal

Anyone over a certain age will remember Dave Nice, the presenter of “Pick of the Pops” on the BBC Radio Light Programme. He rotated with other presenters from September 1961 and then became the sole voice of the BBC Top 20 (later increased to a Top 30) from January 1964 to September 1972 when the sixties officially ended and the world prepared for the delights or otherwise of Glam Rock and the Osmonds and the Partridge family.

From 1967 to 1972 I regularly recorded “Pick of the Pops” in its Top 30 Sundays 5pm to 7pm phase. Dave kept it simple, just giving us the names of the singers/bands and song titles, along with how many places in the chart the single had risen or fallen. And of course the programmes were advert and Jingle free apart from the theme music used behind the chart countdown. Just for the record, (pun) “At the sign of the swinging cymbal” by Brian Fahey and his Orchestra was used between 1961 and 1966. The “b” side was “The Clanger”. (I don’t know why his name was spelled “Brian Faye” on the single as later LPs he released used the correct spelling). For the period of 1966 to 1970 the instrumental “Quite beside the point” by the Harry Roberts Sound was adopted as the theme. From 1970 onwards “At the sign of the swinging cymbal” returned as the theme tune to ”Pick of the Pops” , only this time it was performed by Brass Incorporated.

PS: Didn’t Alexis Korner have a radio show that followed “Pick of the Pops” at 7pm on Sundays in the 1970s ? In hindsight I now wish that I’d recorded some of those instead.

PPS: Of course, with the “Collective Consciousness Society” he produced a quite famous pop theme tune himself…

More Knight and Squire

I just couldn’t resist looking up Batman No 62 from 1950.

The Knight and Squire have a remarkable number of similarities to their transatlantic heroes. Obviously they live in a mansion with a secret cave beneath. To emphasise that they are in England Robin says such gems as “Jolly meeting you here old bean”. Later the Knight requests a tea break whilst they are chasing the crooks. The phrase “The blighter’s balmy” is evidentally referring to the weather ?? Batman and Robin disguise themselves as the Brits to save their secret identities. Everyone lives happily ever after apart from the villains.