January 2012
3 posts
“Every man is a damned fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists...”
– Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915)
Blessed are the peacemakers….
I did a few highly enjoyable gigs with my old china Klaus Weiland – brilliant guitarist, competent driver (saving me from having to sit at the wheel all the bloody time) and an excellent, loquacious, companion with whom I have, on a large number of subjects, vastly disparate opinions: from Farcebook (which he adores, and I consider to be very much the proverbial Curate’s egg,) to...
December 2011
3 posts
“One must pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while still...”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)
What Is It With Guitarists?
So, what is it with guitarists, then? Not the Townshends, Knopflers, Pages, Langs, or Tristanos (my knowledge of whose personal idiosyncrasies is as comprehensive as my knowledge of applied mathematics) I mean the ones I actually know, the acoustic, so–called “folkie” fellers. Not those plonking out a few easy chords and the odd riff or run, to accompany their vocalisations, I mean...
November 2011
3 posts
“..I don’t like cricket, oh no I love it…”
– 10cc ” Dreadlock Holiday”
A Brainless Tongue And A Jumping Squib
My maternal grandfather lived with my maternal grandmother, my parents and me in the house where I was born, in South London. Fortunately for us we all – my maternal grandfather, my maternal grandmother, my parents and me – moved to a small semi shortly before German bombs razed our old area, leaving, in grand Teutonic gesture, only the local Cop-shop and...
October 2011
3 posts
“I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the...”
– Mark Twain
Mayhem in München
When the British Tourist Authority enquired if we’d care to warble for them during “Englische Woche” in München, we accepted with alacrity (the famous Welsh stand-up comedian). One snag was that we were expected to sing at 10.00 Wednesday morning in München, and were booked to perform on Tuesday night in the great Pforzheimer Jazz/Folk Club, meaning we’d have to travel...
August 2011
3 posts
“The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his...”
– William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist (1811-1863)
Carry On Bussing
In this game, you, now and again, cop a really cushy number, unfortunately not too frequently, but mustn’t moan, over the years I’ve had quite a several. A really splendidly live-saving one came about due to poor old Martin Winsor severely injuring his arm. He and Jeannie were booked to do a load of gigs for the British Tourist Board, involving them traveling round Germany on a red...
July 2011
3 posts
“ …. Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”
– William Congreve. (1670-1729)
"My long lost..."
We left Paris early, but it turned into one of those terrible loads–of–rides–but–only–short–distances days, instead of reaching Brussells, as planned, we were forced to break our journey in the little town of Bapaume, arriving as late afternoon became early evening. We were almost, but not quite, boracic – just enough bread to cover a night in a cheap hotel. We found one, booked in, then cased...
June 2011
3 posts
“The excesses of our youth are drafts upon our old age, payable with interest,...”
– Charles Caleb Colton, author and clergyman (1780-1832)
" We may not have written the book…"
My story about Alex Campbell’s flying ‘Ampsteads (try saying that in a John Cleese ‘Obson’s as if introducing Mon-ty Py-thon’s Fly-ing Cir-cus…..… sounds good, eh?) received several interesting comments. Jeannie, thoroughly destroyed my illusion that we at the Fairfield Hall concert were the only ones to witness it (though I bet in no other case did the Campbell...
May 2011
3 posts
“My response to people saying slang destroys the language is: bollocks.”
– Jonathon Green, eminent British slang lexicographer, in a Guardian article
Them Two Front Teeth!
Teeth, if you want my opinion – well, even if you don’t you’re gonner get it, ‘tis my bleeding’ blog, innit?– are a ginormous mistake on Mother Nature’s part, an indubitably unclearly thought-out number one, top of the heap, prize cock-up. They’re a nuisance from the opening over: firstly, as a baby, one cops the uncomfortable pain of teething, secondly the...
April 2011
3 posts
“If it weren’t for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far...”
– Joey Adams, comedian (1911-1999)
A Bit Faster Ben
It was Saturday afternoon, we didn’t have to leave for a few hours, so were taking it easy before travelling to the gig; just relaxing – legs stretched comfortably out, noses deep inside our books. Although we were living in a vast block of flats in one of the less salubrious areas of London’s insalubrious East End, we were situated on the 18th floor, and this seemed to filter the...
February 2011
3 posts
“The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than...”
– William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830
Snow, Sledges and Soapbox cars
Blimey ! It hasn’t half bin taters recently, take my word for it. I do realise, ov kosst, that some areas in Siberia are even colder, and that in Oymvakon (which, with a lowest record temperature of −71.2 °C (−96.2 °F), yes, folks, that is correct: MINUS SEVENTY–ONE degrees) has the unenviable rep. of being the coldest town on the planet, but it was...
January 2011
3 posts
“Everyone, in some small sacred sanctuary of the self, is nuts.”
– Leo Rosten, author (1908-1997)
Kudos
Snow fell relentlessly upon us – as it probably did upon you – and chaos ruled: tail-backed autobahns, jammed country roads, flightless airports, overcrowded, late-running trains…….The stupid sod who wrote: “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” must be first to go to the wall…no, no, no, hang about, I haveter reconsider that, get me priorities correct…change of plan… obviously...
December 2010
3 posts
“Throw your dream into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring...”
– Anais Nin
Songs Are Like Kids
Recently I had the great, but unfortunately all too rare, pleasure of playing with my old mate Klaus Weiland. He was breaking in his brand new, beautiful sounding Deerbridge guitar (built for him by Martin Wieland) and I was playing my battered, old – but stilll beautiful sounding – Bailey (built for me in 1964 by John Bailey). We were working on a two axe arrangement for one of the songs...
November 2010
3 posts
“Anyone without a sense of humour is at the mercy of the rest of us.”
– Vince Sablo
Getting The Needle
Everyone aware of my eternal scepticism knows that, compared to me, Doubting Thomas was a dead-ringer for the protagonist of a Neil Diamond song (en passant, and by the bye, Bette –the mother of Mike Nesmith,member of pop group The Monkees that back in the 60s had a hit with the aforesaid Neil Diamond song ” I’m A Believer ” – was the woman who invented Liquid Paper which, like...
August 2010
3 posts
“Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may...”
– Dandamis
Sweating For Germany
The tragic, utterly pointless death of a Russian competitor during Finland’s annual World Sauna Championships (the winner, who also won last year, is himself in hospital) reminded me of a piece I wrote five years ago – which I considered, at the time, to be a light-hearted impression of German preparation for the event – unwittingly almost predicting the recent tragedy……. ...
July 2010
3 posts
“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”
– Groucho Marx
Falling Off The Mountain
Stand on me, folks, I’ve absolutely no desire to make it habitual – however there was a wee touch of Groundhog Day about the events of July 10th.
You may perhaps recall that in my last posting I described dramatically how on May 17th I was “...laying flat on me back strapped to a stretcher in a speeding ambulance: blue lights flashing, siren yowling, as we raced towards Brackenheim...
May 2010
2 posts
“Maybe it’s true that life begins at fifty…..But everything else...”
– Phyllis Diller
The Answer
Laying flat on me back strapped to a stretcher in a speeding ambulance:blue lights flashing, siren yowling as we raced towards Brackenheim Hospital, was not the way I’d intended to spend Pfingsten/Whitsun/Pentecost/Spring Bank Holiday or wotever you choose to call it, but…….
I spent three days: Friday May 7th to Sunday May 9th, sharing compereing duties with Dieter at the...
April 2010
3 posts
“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”
– Mark Twain
Croak, Snuffle and Cough
A nasty thumping headache, a double–nasty nagging sore throat, a n’orrible ‘acking cough interspersed with violent nasal eruptions…….other than that, on his arrival, Wizz was essentially top–hole, tickety–boo, and fighting fit.
I drove up to Vince and Christine’s to spend some days with them before the aforementioned Mr. Jones flew in from Blighty, and we...