"Milestones"

Friday Nights video clip was of a trio of organs playing at Milestones Living History Museum, Basingstoke in May. Some thirty organ grinders played during the weeks visit, this being the largest gathering of organs at the museum to date. 

"Friday Night is Music Night"

"Let it Snow, let it Snow, let it Snow"

Over the last few days nearly every Blog has a photo of the blogger's garden knee deep in snow.

Well, I'm afraid I don't have a digital camera and there was no film in my Pentax....

...So this is the best I can do.

"The Flag"

"Drowning Street was forced into making a grovelling apology yesterday for displaying the Union Flag upside down during an official ceremony... Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell said: “It’s an unbelievable flaw in protocol by Number 10. You’d think they would know which way the flag was flown. Whoever is responsible for this should know better.”" - Daily Express

Well, what can I say? This is something every Boy Scout learns on day One. As least I did.

"Elf and Safety" Music

A professional musician, who has been working in the West End and touring shows for ten years, tells of the preposterous precautions now being forced on production companies by insurers and elf ’n’ safety.

Producers are so terrified of being sued for hearing loss that musicians are forced to wear strapped-on decibel meters, earplugs and noise reduction headphones.

When he questioned this madness, he was told it was now a criminal offence to play a saxophone without noise-reducing headgear.

Needless to say, it defeats the whole object of playing together as an orchestra, since they can’t hear each other.

I think I'd better get a pair of  "PC/elf 'n' safety" reduction headphones and then I wouldn't have to listen to all this crap.

"BBC Gets Jam on its Face"

"The BBC confirmed tonight it had dropped Carol Thatcher as a presenter on The One Show after she referred to a professional tennis player as a "golliwog" in a private conversation."

Not quite true I believe.....I think you will find that she said the tennis player had 'sticking out

hair, like the Gollywog on the Robertson's jars of Jam.

The logic of the BBC's argument is that the very mention of the word 'golliwog' is considered racist.

Utterly preposterous.

 

A Golliwog is nothing more than a stuffed toy, popularised in 1895 by Bertha Upton in The Adventures of two Dutch Dolls and a 'Golliwogg'. The story is concerned children's toys. and is still in print as a book. 

Toy Golliwogs swept the world, and Debussy was inspired to write The Golliwog's Cakewalk, as part of the Suite "Children's Corner"

"Two's Company...Three's not Green"

"COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned"

What right does the state have in restricting the number of children we choose to have?

 None whatsoever in my opinion. I have no problem with people having as many children as they want - as long as they have the resources to feed, clothe and house them and don't expect the taxpayer to carry the burden.

Pehaps we could propose that child benefit, income support, tax credits and other related child benefits apply to only a maximum of two children and then people can make a choice. 

If they have the resources and means to raise more children then good luck to them.

Isn't the domestically generated population of the UK declining?

 So if anything, aren't people in the UK having too few rather than too many children?

The birthrate in this country is 1.91 - how is that a problem?

"Victim of intolerance"

"A nurse has been suspended for offering to pray for her patients. A fellow nurse took offence on their behalf.
This poor nurse is a victim of intolerance and discrimination.
All she did was offer the patient a choice.
But choice is to be denied, and healthcare must be secular."

In 1939 when this music was written a prayer was seen as an offer of kindness and if this is not now the case, then I believe we must live in a society all the "more the worse" for it.
When I read this I was not angry, but very much sadden'd by the society this government has created.

"Not Fade Away"

When I read that it is fifty years since the death of Buddy Holly, it made me stop and think how time flies.The songs he co-wrote and performed with his backing band the Crickets remain as fresh and potent today as when recorded  in New Mexico half a century ago: That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Not Fade Away.

I would have been sixteen at the time and had two of his song books which, if I remember correctly, put me back seven and sixpence each. All out of my saved-up pocket money.

In those days I had an old Spanish guitar and would take it down to the Youth Club and strum, on three chords only, Peggy Sue. We all gathered in the kitchen at the back to keep out of the way of the table tennis in the main hall.

What happened to the Song Books ?

Well, I had them until a couple of years ago, but after a bit of a clear-out, I put them up on ebay

and sold them for £35........Never mind.....You have to let thing go some of the time. 

"Captain Brown"

This little piece was written in 1932 and it always springs to mind when I hear people refer to the goverment as "re-arranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic". I wonder why ?

When I was a lad my father used to sing it me and my brothers and I guess that is why it has stuck in my memory.

I am always on the lookout for old sheet music and I came upon this copy a couple of years ago in the local flea-market.

It is a Comedy Foxtrot and it plays well on my 26 note Organ........The words...Oh yes..

"I'll tell the tale of the Nancy Lee,

The ship that got ship-wreck'd at sea,

The bravest man was Captain Brown,

For he played his Ukulele as the ship went down;"

"All the crew were in despair,

Some rush'd here and others rush'd there,

But the Captain sat in the Captain's chair,

And he played his Ukulele as the ship went down:"

There are at least another twelve verses, each from a different member of the crew.....

...I think it is probably best to spare you all those.

No more Drunken Sailors then ?

Another broadside from the "Good Ship" PC. Heaven help us where will it end.  First sung in the days when Britannia ruled the waves, it became a schools favourite, handed down through the decades.  Nanny thinks any reference to alcohol and drunkeness should be banned. This is hardly going to prepare children for the real world.

Nick Seaton, of pressure group the Campaign for Real Education, said: "Changing the words of a much-loved children's nursery rhyme is simply trying to re-write the history and tradition of this country."

The song was sung by sailors on the Royal Navy's ships of the line in the 19th century. It was often sung when raising a sail or lifting the anchor - hence 'Up She Rises' in the song's chorus - or when sailing into battle. 

When I was at school we used to sing songs that would make the PC brigades hair curl.

Do you remember "Johnny come down to Hilo" ?

The first verse went:-

"I nebber see de like since I bin born,

When a big buck neegger wid de sea boots on, Says"

"Johnny come down to Hilo.

Poor old man"

This was known as a "Windlass and capstan" song and I'm sure singing this as a child has not done me any harm.

Children are great levellers and no matter how politically correct the Government and their quangos become, they will still sing the original nursery rhymes because they are funny. 

Kipper's Dickie

Quite a few people have asked me why "Kipper's Dickie".
Well, twenty years ago, as an engineer, I worked for Plessey. The site where I worked had a post-room staffed by two lovely ladies who's job it was to collect and deliver all the mail.
In addition to this they were a never ending source of news, scandal, gossip, rumour, tittle-tattle etc....They were the first to know about most of the "going's on" on and around the site. I am not suggesting that they "steamed" open letters, but this was the first place to go to get the latest on "so and so" or about "such and such".
"One of these days, you'll get into trouble for spreading rumours like that" I said.
"I don't care" she said.
"I don't care a Kipper's Dickie".
So now you know.....