Lenny The Lion With Terry Hall - I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

 

                                            Released November 1959, the first of 2 records by Lenny The Lion With Terry Hall, the second an EP on the Decca label issued in 1963, I can remember Lenny The Lion on TV when I was young.

The 'B' side I Wish That I Could Be Father Christmas is not avalable for download

I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas - Lenny the Lion with Terry Hall - YouTube

Working in London.

Muffin after a visit to the Vets, while brushing Muffin one morning I noticed a large hole underneath in the back leg, as if a branch or large twig had goen in, on her walks I never saw any indication of bleeding, it was straight round the vets, an operation to clean out the wound and stitch it up, she also had a number of skin tags around the eyes, I asked for them to be removed while she was under anesthetic, when she came back she had what looked like 2 black eyes, the vet told me that the wound she had on her leg the object had gone between two muscles and would have not bled very much if at all.

 Some time back when I was working in the Holborn/Hatton Garden area, on a Saturday morning, I was changing trains at Holborn Station, the only interchange between the Piccadilly and Cental Lines though the lines cross each other at Hanger Lane there is no interchange there, I had clocked this thing in black and ignored them, he? followed me onto the Piccadilly Line Platform. I always walked to the end of the station so I would be in the right place for the last coach, I was tho only person on the platform and was standing behind the safety line, he walked behind me and the passed in front of me walking in the safety area (about 2ft), it (a better discription) was wearing a female punk outfit made from black bin bags with fishnet tights, I was suposed to be shocked, but I ignored it as it went past it let out big sigh, working in that area it felt like you were walking into a freak show everyday, what really wound them up was ignoring them, at other times I worked in Shaftesbury Avenue and Angel areas with similar experiences.

Tich & Quackers - Santa's Got Such A Terrible Cold

The 'B' side, as far as I know both the 'A' & 'B' sides of this record have never appeared on CD or an LP, often the 'A' side will feature on a compilation or 'Best Of' CD but not the 'B' side making the vinyl record the only source of the track, there are some records that it is the 'B' side that appears on the compilations.

(3) Santa's Got Such a Terrible Cold ~ Tich & Quackers & The Ted Taylor Four with The Corona Kids (1964) - YouTube

Christmas Eve On The Trains

 

One of my past jobs was planning capacity on one of the digital networks, stating early December and over Christmas and the New Year we always had an embargo on new works and freeing up capacity by moving/re routing circuits, the network would run almost to capacity all generated by Credit & Debit cards, unlike many people we were not that busy over Christmas, though the jobs in limbo (usually waiting for superstructure to be built had a default date of Christmas day), on Christmas Eve the Manager of the group I was working in would say 'we will finish at three O'clock today as the higher management can never decide what time to let the staff go, most people went to the pub across the road for a drink, a few including me would go straight home as British Rail had said that all trains will finish early and be at there destinations by 21.00, the underground and buses finished later, the reason I did not go to the pub is that when I start drinking and having a good time you forget about the time and before you know it you have missed the last train, when I got to Waterloo Station it was busy I was in luck there was an Epsom train due to leave in 10 mins, the train was not overcrowded, there was one person soundly asleep, as the train was arriving at Stoneleigh Park two stops before Epsom, some one decided to wake him to make sure he did not miss his stop, he went ino a major strop shouting 'what the f**k did you wake me for this is not my stop, I'm on my way to Amersham you should have left me alone', most of the nearby people were stunned and amused, not only was he on the wrong train he was on the wrong railway, I still wonder if he got home for Christmas.

One of my brother in laws worked as a Guard on South West Trains had had one of the last trains into Waterloo that Christmas Eve, getting into Waterloo not long before 21.00, he told me that the indicator boards all said there are no trains until XX XX (two days later) everyone was asking is this train going to XXXX, they cancelled his empty stock working to Wimbledon Depot, he managed to get a lift on another Empty Stock working to Wimbledon. 

Christine Hunter - Santa Bring Me Ringo

Yesterday I posted the Tich version of Santa Bring Me Ringo here is the original,there have been quite a few records about the Beatles, as far as I can recall only one made the UK charts beinf Doea Bryan's 1963 record 'All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle.

 Released November 1964, this record did not have a UK release and was coverd by Tich, this is the only release by Christine Hunter.

 Christine Hunter Santa Bring Me Ringo

Idiots In Public Places

On my recent trip to Epsom I was in B & M not a store I often use, the store is on two levels with up & down esculators and a lift at the back of the store, a family with a number of children arrived they took a trolly, then they went to the esculators and tried to take there push chairs and trolly up to the first floor they caused absolute chaos, the esculator had to be stopped causing more problems, as I had paid for my items I left the store before the drama had fully played out, the comments of the customers (unprintable due to swearing) sumed up the situation, 'What a bunch of ******* Idiots' was the genral expression.

 

Tich - Santa Bring Me Ringo

This 1964 record was one of the last releases on the Oriol label, CBS had aquired the independant Oriol label the year before for its production facilities, in Dcember 1964 the Oriol label was discontinued (and also Woolworths Embassy Label), this record was avalible to order for 2 weeks.

Tich & Quackers had a TV series about a boy Tich and his pet duck Quackers, though I do not recall ever watching it, Ray Allen of Lord Charles fame was the ventrloquist behind Tich, Tony Hart who would later host the art shows for deaf children Take Hart & Vison On, was the operator of Quackers, the guests on the show included the Beatles, despite there being 141 shows over 8 series between 1963 -1968 little apart from some stills exists.

(3) Santa, Bring Me Ringo ~ Tich and The Ted Taylor Four with The Corona Kids (1964) (Beatles spoof) - YouTube