The Gibsons - The Magic Book

This 1967 record got quite a bit of radio play when it was released, though the record failed to chart, this was also a record I could not afford to buy at the time, when I was buying EP's often on the back cover would be written in pencil a name followed by 7/6d paid 5/3d to pay, people had far less disposable income in those days, though most of the annotated EP's were from earlier in the decade.

When this record was released I was in the Sea Scouts and one of the stranger thing we did was man a water point for the Devizes to Westminster canoe race at Shepperton Lock, this meant being up all night, the lock was noted as it had an electric hand dryer in the toilet, one of the of tactical objects was to get to Teddington just before High Tide so you would have the tide assist you between Teddington and Westminster, this record was played twice on the radio on the short journey between Hampton and Shepperton on both the outward journey and the return journey.  

 The Gibsons – The Magic Book - YouTube

Fishing Cancelled

 Todays Fishing Trip from Brighton has been cancelled due to the weather, it's a bit windy, a replacement trip has been booked for the 21st of this month.

The picture was taken a couple of months ago in Epsom, I had caught the bus into Epsom as Lidl had advertised some fishing equipment, I was walking along Upper High Street to Lidl when I saw this doll abandoned outside one of the shops, on my way out of Lidl I was asked by someone where's Biscuit.

A short time later Aldi advertised a similar Item at a similar price so I checked it out, it turned out the Lidl item was larger and of better quality than the Aldi item.

Rodney Bewes - Dear Mother Love Albert

 

 

Title music from the TV series Dear Mother Love Albert, the program ran for four series between 1969 - 1972, the first series has been lost, I was watching the introduction titles where the locations were all street signs beginning Albert, the first one being Albert Square (the home of East Enders), unusual it is the 'B' side of this record 'Meter Maid' that appears on CD compilations. My copy of this record came from Hook Road Boot Sale for the grand sum of 20p, I don't think I got round to posting this on the original blog.

Dear Mother, Love Albert - Rodney Bewes

Highly Likely - Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads

 

The Original Likely Lads TV series ran between 1964-1966 and featured James Bolham as Terry Collier and Rodney Bewes as Bob Ferris, in the final episode Bob enlists in the Army, at the end of the episode Terry says that he has also enlisted and been accepted, it then comes out that Bob has been rejected by the Army, the series was revived in 1973 as 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads', with Terry having been discharged from the Army and Bob engaged to be married.

(1) Highly Likely - Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads (Theme) - YouTube

Mad Hatters - The Humphrey Song

A spin off from the 1976 advertising campaign for Unigate milk, watch out there's a Humphrey about, you never saw a Humphrey only a line of red & white drinking straws.

In the afternoon on the commercial TV channel, there would be an announcement the the following commercials were part of the new advertising campaign for xxxxx, they would then show all the campaign commercials back to back, the Humphrey adverts were first shown as one of these.  

At the time of this campaign my girlfriend (later Wife) and me had just moved into our first house, money was very tight. that year the company I worked for made a massive loss, and as a consequence the stopped all overtime, at the time I was relying on some overtime to make ends meet, as I worked nights I decided to get a pert time job during the day, I ended up working as a lunchtime barman in a Truman's pub, at this time Truman's and Unigate were both owned by Grand Metropolitan Hotels, advertisements for the Humphry campaign were put up in the pub but they kept disappearing, the assistant manager, one of the barmaids was supposed to go out with the trainee manager, for some reason he did not turn up (he may have had to work if there was a staff shortage)  she went out with one of the patrons who was a milkman, after the one night stand she found out she was pregnant, for her the "I've been Humphried" had to totally different meaning, she took Umbridge at the posters and quietly removed them when no one was watching. 

 (1) The Mad Hatters The Humphrey Song 1976 - YouTube

A Quiet Time

With Septembers fishing trip being cancelled due to bad weather, the second trip cancelled this year, but the first one cancelled due to the weather, some years it has been 10 trips booked 8 cancelled due to weather, the next trip is from Brighton early in October.

My main email account seems to be playing up, I am getting emails that appear on my mobile phone bur for some reason don't appear on my laptop, a number of years ago before I had a mobile phone, I changed my computer while I was setting it up and transferring my email account I got a large number of 'New' historic emails, that for some reason had not been delivered.

The picture was taken about four years back is the Ashley Centre car park, Epsom, I had been in Epsom renewing my mobile phone, due to a problem with the handset I had to get it replaced, both times I parked in the Ashley Centre car park as the phone shop is in the Ashley Centre, though I dislike the car park and prefer the one at Hook Road ( the bays are larger), I had left the car park and was heading home I noticed a large plume a black smoke, I ignored it thinking it was builders burning some rubbish, but no it wasn't, a woman had steam and smoke belching out of her car, rather than stopping on the road she drove into the Ashley Centre car park and parked on the third floor (in the area I usually park in) and left her car to do some shopping, the car caught fire, the fire destroyed/seriously damaged 7 other cars and  damages the fabric of the car park, when the car park re-opened they had put in temporary roof supports from the second to seventh levels and closed off the main floors for parking, this cut the capacity down by at least 70%, parking now only available on the mezzanine floors and the annexes, it took about a year for the repair works to be completed, I wonder what her insurance company had to pay out, seven written off cars, repairs to the car park fabric and no doubt loss of income of 70% of the car park for a year, it was and still is a very busy car park.

The pictures below are from the Surrey Live website.

 

Valarie Singleton - Solomon's Centipede

 

Released 1969, both sides of this record were written by Peter Sarstedt.

 I was thinking about the continuity announcers on ITV Children's TV Wally Whyton and Muriel Young, Wally Whyton had a hit record as part of the Vipers Skiffle group and released a number of records under his own name, Muriel Young like Christopher Scott appeared as a narrator on a number of Meccano Story Records, they also had a number of different hand puppets over the years starting with Pussycat Willum, the flaw with Pussy Cat Willum was he didn't have a mouth so could not speak, this was rectified on the replacement Ollie Beak and later Fred Barker both spoke,  From memory I seem to remember another Children's continuity announcer on ITV, he was always in strange cloths and had a dark secret about the Dagenham Cocoa Rooms, I think his name was Reg, I always found him rather weird.

 

Valerie Singleton - 'Solomon's Centipede' (1969)