‘Willie Morgan on the Wing’, Tristar Airbus (by Williemac007)
The writer of this gem is none other than Graham Gouldman, who would later form 10cc.
Messrs Stewart, Gouldman, Godley and Creme would start out as sound engineers and songwriters with credits including ‘For Your Love’ for the Yardbirds, and ‘Bus Stop’ for The Hollies. This would be followed by production work for Kasenetz Katz, a leading publishers of bubblegum music.
Between then and forming 10cc, they would also record as the Hotlegs, and provide session musicians for Ramases (on their début album ‘Space Hymns’). This song was written shortly before 10cc were formed.
I caught a bit of the excellent Brassed Off on More4 over a week ago, a film which I’m no stranger to having seen it on countless occasions.
Doing a random search on YouTube, I found this documentary on Grimethorpe village, a former mining village between South Elmsall and Barnsley reeling from the closure of its pit even now.
It is a collection of eyewitness accounts and archive film on the colliery since the Miners’ Strike with footage between 1984 and 1995. There is a wealth of footage on the village which - thanks to the Tories - has changed again since initial filming.
If you’re familiar with Mark Herman’s excellent film starring the late great Pete Postlethwaite, this documentary is well worth watching. On watching this, you will have noticed how much research was done during the making of Brassed Off, in both film and stage forms.
I was pleasantly surprised to find one of my local bus routes has gone over to hybrid minibuses. They make a nice change from the 51 54 and X reg Solos and a quantum leap from the converted bread vans which formed the gamut of that route in the late 1990s and early noughties.
I’ve yet to ride on one of these beauties, though most happy to get a photograph of this vehicle on its first week of operation.
I have recently discovered this satirical programme from 1979 - 80 thanks to the internet. This is the forefather to The Day Today and Brass Eye, lampooning the graphics and the programmes of that period.
For your eyes and ears this is the first episode of the second series of End of Part One. In my honest opinion, this is a most underrated programme, every bit as surreal as Monty Python and Harry Hill’s TV Burp. Enjoy the clip.
The true measure of being a real football fan, in my honest opinion, is by making the effort to go to more than one away game per season. Add 10 points for visiting a local one like Altrincham or Vauxhall Motors, 50 for somewhere medium distance like Gainsborough Trinity or Guiseley. Award yourself a ton for a more distant one like Whaddon Road, home of Cheltenham Town, whom Gloucester City share. Double any of these points for night matches!
As you can tell I am describing this from my local viewpoint being a fan of The Mighty Stalybridge Celtic® owing to the distances stated.
Night matches have a certain theatrical aspect to them, particularly when the clocks go back. Nothing beats the beam of a good set of floodlight pylons, though today’s examples are more like beanpoles.
Via Flickr:
The Stagecoach Stand, built in the 1950s, seats 1,000 persons with separate boxes for press and radio crew at the top left.
Taken prior to Stalybridge Celtic’s away match against Gloucester City (30 March 2011).
#1: The Goals of Post-Christmas Past: Nearly 17 years ago, the Mighty Stalybridge Celtic were members of the GM Vauxhall Conference and held their own for six seasons in their first stint at the top flight of non-league football.
Today’s national non-league competition is a more intense affair with half of the clubs recently relegated from NPower League Two. The Mighty Stalybridge Celtic play in the Conference’s second division’s northern section and are, at this time of writing, second to rivals Hyde FC.
This clip shows two things missing from the non-league scene. Firstly, Bromsgrove Rovers, whom in the last year have folded. Secondly, the Popular Side family stand: this was replaced by the cantilever Lord Tom Pendry stand in 2003. Its opening fixture was a friendly match versus Blackburn Rovers.
Also defunct is Wire TV, the source of this clip. From 1993 - 1997, Wire Television was a cable channel which also broadcasted on the Intelsat 601 satellite. Besides offering cheap and cheerful quizzes and phone-ins, its piece de resistance was highlights of GM Vauxhall Conference football matches. It was absorbed by Kelvin MacKenzie’s Live TV in 1997, which too disappeared in November 1999.
In 1995, The Mighty Stalybridge Celtic staved off relegation into the Northern Premier League. Despite losing 1-0 to Bath City, other results went Celtic’s way, so Wraggy stayed for another season and a few weeks of the 1996-97 season.
To use a well worn cliché, there is no time like the present with The Mighty ‘Bridge being in the top half of the Blue Square Bet North league table.
All a world away from today’s aggressive superstore pricing, Davenports offered a home delivery service for your favoured alcoholic drinks. In other words, like the milkman does with milk, only with bitter.
It is also worth noting that lager didn’t get a look in with this clip. Instead it was the joys of pint Guinness, a Snowball and R Whites Cola.
Lewis’s as you’ve never seen it before! A brilliant article and excellent set of photos by Hayley Flynn.
Prior to its closure in that guise in 2001, Lewis’s store was famed for its elaborate Santa grottos and, along with Pauldens opposite, was the place to go to for a coffee, clothes, furniture and the like. Its central position makes for a good meeting place, which was popular among bus and tram passengers.
What we now know as the premises of Primark was originally built to house a Lewis’s Department store. By virtue of housing such a spectacular venture the building has some wonderful features that you wouldn’t expect to find when you’re fighting through the crowds on a sticky Saturday.
What’s hidden on the rooftop isn’t actually visible from the street but you can see on the Google image above there’s a large glass dome, an ornate feature that is no longer in view whilst in the building but once was an integral part of the magic of the Lewis’s store.
On the corner of Market and Moseley Street this particular branch opened in 1877 and closed as a Lewis’s in 2001 (though Lewis’s had actually gone into adminstration ten years prior to this). The building is by architects Horton and Bridgford and is built in a French renaissance style with a grand corner tower.
The shop applied for an extension in 1915, buying up the Royal Buildings (the site of the Royal Hotel, where the football league was founded in 1888) and with the expansion two back streets were absorbed into the buildings and covered over by a glass archway. This was the Lewis Arcade and is briefly featured in the film ‘Hell Is a City’. These days, the Mosley Street entrance has become nothing more than a rubbish bay, although what little is left of the passageway does retain the original glass roof. The other end of the arcade, on Market Street, is obscured by Cafe Nero - if you stand back and look at this you can see it’s actually a free-standing shop located in a street and not actually part of the Royal Building’s nor Lewis’s).
The new site was over twice the size of the original and it was during this extension that the glass dome in question was erected. From the dome down to the ground floor was an atrium which would house the Christmas grotto where a steeple jack dressed as Santa would climb a golden ladder towards a crowd of excited families on the upper floors as a circus was held on the ground floor.
Immediately below the dome was, and still very much is, the ballroom complete with a sprung dancefloor.
Hidden Musical Gems of Panic In Granadaland: ‘New Brighton’, It’s Immaterial (1990).
Jarvis Whitehead’s It’s Immaterial were a criminally underrated band. Many people would remember them for the excellent ‘Driving Away from Home’, but ‘New Brighton’, taken from their 1990 album ‘Song’ is a most underrated tune. Its introspective vocals picture the then faded seaside resort in the same way as Morrissey did with Rhyl, though more eloquently.
What’s worse, is that the dulcet tones of Jarvis Whitehead make me want to board a train to New Brighton and West Kirby, on a Wirral Zone Saveaway ticket. On my first and only visit in 1999, it has changed a bit from 1990. According to what I’ve read it has changed again.
At this time of writing, some 10 - 12 million persons watched ‘The X Factor’. Shame, when good tunes like this are under-appreciated.
Until the start of this century, a common feature of the cinema going experience was a selection of featurettes as well as the pre-film adverts. In ODEON cinemas, Michael Aspel would lend his dulcet tones for Previewtime, a selection of forthcoming films.
This 15 minute film above is a selection of titles and graphics used at ODEON cinemas throughout the UK. Most of the titles date from the late 1970s with the ‘This is Cinema’ clip featuring music by Francis Monkman (of Sky and Curved Air fame).
This feature below includes a set of titles used in ABC cinemas:
Today’s cinemas still promote forthcoming feature films and have adverts prior to the main feature. This time, they have less pizzazz than their predecessors. Nor do they have the dulcet tones of Michael Aspel or phallic adverts for hot dogs on sesame seed buns.
Mine’s a cool glass of Kia-Ora and a packet of Butterkist popcorn before Escape to Witch Mountain or Star Wars begins.
