Thursday, November 13, 2008
OH JUNE!
First up, I'd like to issue an apology to Arabella. According to Geoff, my response to her comment on the previous post was probably viewed by her as "sarcastic and patronising". Whoops! That certainly wasn't the intention. As I've always imagined Arabella as the sort of bird who would wear immaculate red lippy and a 40's style floral frock even if she's going to the garden centre, the last thing I would want to do is upset her, and therefore look completely uncool ...
Anyway, as Bonfire Night is over with, we're officially hurtling on the free fall towards Christmas. Time to consider a hit single from a Christmas past ...
From the film Way Out West, The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine by Laurel And Hardy was a big hit in Britain in 1975.
It was also the subject of what is known as a "send up" that year on my local early evening news magazine TV programme, Midlands Today.
Midlands Today cast a long shadow over the earlier years of my life with its monochrome drabness. The overbearing memory of its 1970's coverage was of industrial correspondent Peter Colbourne and his terrifying Flying V eyebrows grimly announcing yet another round of redundancies at Coventry's Jaguar plant.
So it came as something of a surprise when Midlands Today decided to let its hair down on that momentous Christmas show in the mid 1970's with the Laurel And Hardy skit. The times - they were a changin'. As Adam Buxton's dad would tell you, PUNK ROCK was just around the corner. Joe Strummer was going to deliver us all from the three day week and unburied bodies piling up in the streets. So was Midlands Today.
Main presenter - burly Tom Coyne - was in the Oliver Hardy role. Skinny little David Stevens (the news reporter) was Stan Laurel. The only suitable modern physical equivalent to the pair would be Phillll "Gogol Bordello" Jupitus and Simon Amstell.
I don't think there was an appearance by Peter Colbourne and his flaring eyebrows, unless he was one of the barmen.
I haven't even bothered to look up this gem on YouTube. On YouTube, you can't even find a full, unexpurgated version of Paul Shane's You've Lost That Loving Feeling (from Pebble Mill At One - another Midlands TV show). That was the greatest live vocal performance of the past century. What hope then for Tom and David and their Trail Of The Lonesome Pine?
No, the approximation of Laurel And Hardy must be the stuff of legend instead, talked about in hushed tones by, er, me and no one else.
Still, that's part of what blogging is about - keeping a record of the seemingly tiny, insignificant ripples in the great ocean we call life.
Tom and David: gone but never forgotten.
Keep the faith.
Anyway, as Bonfire Night is over with, we're officially hurtling on the free fall towards Christmas. Time to consider a hit single from a Christmas past ...
From the film Way Out West, The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine by Laurel And Hardy was a big hit in Britain in 1975.
It was also the subject of what is known as a "send up" that year on my local early evening news magazine TV programme, Midlands Today.
Midlands Today cast a long shadow over the earlier years of my life with its monochrome drabness. The overbearing memory of its 1970's coverage was of industrial correspondent Peter Colbourne and his terrifying Flying V eyebrows grimly announcing yet another round of redundancies at Coventry's Jaguar plant.
So it came as something of a surprise when Midlands Today decided to let its hair down on that momentous Christmas show in the mid 1970's with the Laurel And Hardy skit. The times - they were a changin'. As Adam Buxton's dad would tell you, PUNK ROCK was just around the corner. Joe Strummer was going to deliver us all from the three day week and unburied bodies piling up in the streets. So was Midlands Today.
Main presenter - burly Tom Coyne - was in the Oliver Hardy role. Skinny little David Stevens (the news reporter) was Stan Laurel. The only suitable modern physical equivalent to the pair would be Phillll "Gogol Bordello" Jupitus and Simon Amstell.
I don't think there was an appearance by Peter Colbourne and his flaring eyebrows, unless he was one of the barmen.
I haven't even bothered to look up this gem on YouTube. On YouTube, you can't even find a full, unexpurgated version of Paul Shane's You've Lost That Loving Feeling (from Pebble Mill At One - another Midlands TV show). That was the greatest live vocal performance of the past century. What hope then for Tom and David and their Trail Of The Lonesome Pine?
No, the approximation of Laurel And Hardy must be the stuff of legend instead, talked about in hushed tones by, er, me and no one else.
Still, that's part of what blogging is about - keeping a record of the seemingly tiny, insignificant ripples in the great ocean we call life.
Tom and David: gone but never forgotten.
Keep the faith.
Labels: Arabella, David Stevens, Laurel And Hardy, Peter Colbourne, tiny insignificant ripples in the great ocean we call life, Tom Coyne
