Category: Music

Categories
1900-1949 Music War

75 years ago today – George Formby and Grandad, 1940

Grandad's George Formby postcard

In amongst my Grandad’s wartime letters and ephemera is this photo-made-into-a-postcard of George Formby, sent to Grandma in a letter. The nice thing about this is that two of my Grandad’s army friends are pictured either side of George – they’re the ones who Grandad marked with crosses. I didn’t even know about this picture until a few weeks back, when my mum uncovered it. But I was immediately massively impressed, I’m such a George Formby fan that the thought that Grandad had (presumably) seen him in person is incredible.

Grandad's George Formby postcard
Grandad’s George Formby photograph

And here’s a picture of Grandad around that time:

Grandad in the Second World War
Grandad in the Second World War

I didn’t know know anything about the photo apart from the fact that it appears to be in France – most of Grandad’s wartime things seem to be from the early part of the war when he was based in France on the Maginot Line during the Phony War period. I thought he must have taken it himself, as his friend is looking right down the camera at the photographer. Grandad wasn’t anywhere in it himself, although as it’s his unit it seems very likely he’d also be there. But that was it.

In fact, in this previous post about Grandad, Richard Dimbleby and an unknown German Soldier, I’d posted up this video of George singing his song Imagine Me on the Maginot Line and wondered if there was any chance that Grandad had actually been there. It’s such a fantastically alive moment in time for me, this video.

 

I didn’t expect to be able to bring the photo to life, but that’s just what happened a couple of weeks ago. I was going to post it up on the blog anyway because I loved it so much, and was just having a look at George’s Wikipedia page, something I’ve looked at quite a few times before, but this time I immediately noticed something amazing. On the top picture, there was Grandad’s friend right next to him! It wasn’t the same photo as the one I have, but it was obviously taken almost at the same time.

George Formby on Wikipedia
George Formby on Wikipedia

This was exciting. It was my lunch break at work and I was suddenly gripped by the desire to find out more about whatever was happening here. The Wikipedia page links to the Imperial War Museum online archive – here, which shows the full, uncropped picture, and reveals the same “English Spoken” sign as on my picture.

From the Imperial War Museum archive
From the Imperial War Museum archive

So I learned it was taken on 13th March 1940, 75 years ago exactly today.

It was also taken by the War Office Official Photographer Lt. L. A. Puttnam, which means presumably my photo was too, and also produced as a postcard for the soldiers perhaps?

This was exciting enough, frankly, some information gathered. But now I had the date I could search more. And I found more, here in the incredible British Pathe archive – British Pathe

 

It’s a whole skit for the newsreels! And Grandad’s two friends got little speaking parts in it to boot! I wonder if this group were picked as they were fellow Lancastrians to George?

So they all sing When I’m Cleaning Windows, and I’m practically in tears watching a family photo unexpectedly turn into moving pictures.

But not only that….if you carry on watching, it turns into the moment I posted above, and also posted months ago before I even knew of the photo. The soldiers have him by bayonet-point to sing another song, and there it is, the Imagine Me on the Maginot Line that is one of my favourite clips of George. Perhaps the photo is actually a still from this film.

And there it was, a little bit of personal historical research done in a lunchtime, and something that profoundly moved me. Not for the first time, I wished that I could talk to Grandad again one last time, and hear what really happened on that day from him.

Categories
1950-1999 Music Women

Miss Perfect – Christine McVie, 1970

Pelham Pop Annual, 1970

Christine McVie has recently rejoined Fleetwood Mac, and here’s a little post about her. The story of that band is like the quintessential story of a rock band, it’s got everything – early different band line up, fortuitous meetings, relationships, break-ups, drugs, fall outs, huge success and longevity against the odds. Plus, some damn good songs.

This is from the Pelham Pop Annual of 1970 (and the only year it was published as far as I can tell). Before Christine McVie married John McVie, she was Christine Perfect (her real name), a blues musician and member of the band Chicken Shack.

This is a lovely late 60s cool girl photo of her in a cafe, along with pics of other singers Marsha Hunt, Clodagh Rogers and Pat Arnold.

Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Categories
1950-1999 Music

Freddie Mercury’s Girlfriends, 1976

Fab 208, 1976

These are the last bits here that I’m going to post from Radio Luxembourg’s official magazine annual, Fab 208, from 1976.

Fab208-1976-cover

Incidentally, this was a present in about 1996 from my friend Neil, as you can see below, at one of our crazy student Christmas meals. Due to timey-wimey things, the book is nearly exactly twice as old as it was when I first got it. It seemed so funny and ancient at the time, and the fact that nearly as much time again has passed just seems impossible. Horrible thought – do current teenagers see the 1990s as funny and ancient right now? I suppose they must.
Fab-annual-inside

Here they ask Freddie Mercury about what type of girlfriends he likes. He’s obviously totally messing with them with his answer of Liza Minnelli and “…I enjoy a challenge as well!” Here, though, I’m mainly looking at lovely Richard O’Sullivan’s lovely face.

Fab 208, 1976
Fab 208, 1976

I like the incredulous, “what does he look like?” tone about this 1972 picture of Eric (my fave) from the Bay City Rollers, when he looks perfectly fine. It reminds me of 1970s Bob in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads taking the mickey out of what appears to us as Terry’s much more sensible haircut.

Fab208 Annual, 1976
Fab208 Annual, 1976

Plus, aw, Alvin Stardust. RIP, glove-meister. And thanks for this:

 

Categories
1950-1999 Music Uncategorized

Radio Luxembourg’s Hit Parade, 1976

Fab 208 annual, 1976

Did you know that the early independent radio station Radio Luxembourg used to work out its own pop charts? Wanting to stay ahead of the game, they’d base their chart on what they thought was shortly going to be popular rather than the usual one based on actual record sales. I wonder if they ever got it terribly wrong?

I’m pleased to see David Essex is happy, there – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/david-essex-is-sad-1976/

Fab 208 annual, 1976
Fab 208 annual, 1976

Also, 1970s Noël Edmonds. “Oh no, it’s a picture of me looking slightly different!”

 

Categories
1950-1999 Music

David Essex is Sad, 1976

Fab 208 Annual, 1976

How to live up to the expectations of David Essex in 1976.

From Radio Luxembourg’s official teen annual.

Categories
1950-1999 Games Music

Friday Fun – “Which is the boy for you?”, 1976

A quiz! From 1976 and the slightly Yewtree-tastic annual of Radio Luxembourg’s official magazine Fab 208.

A little insight into mid-70s teen dating. Although the girl who previously owned this book was a bit undecided about her choice of boy.

Which is the boy for you?

Fab208 Annual, 1976
Fab208 Annual, 1976
Fab208, 1976
Fab208, 1976
Categories
1900-1949 Music

Golden Slumbers, 1938 and 1969

The Weekend Book, 1938

I was an enormous Beatles fan as a teenager (well, I still am). In fact, they’re the reason I live in Liverpool now. I came up here for a University Open Day twenty-two years ago, spent all of ten minutes in the history department, then took the rest of the day off to look for another kind of history – old Beatles haunts around the city.

I remember reading about how their song Golden Slumbers from the 1969 album Abbey Road came about. Paul McCartney was saying he had seen a music book at his dad’s house with a old song of that name in it. He liked the title and, as he couldn’t read music to find out how the tune went, he wrote his own melody instead.

This is the original, from The Weekend Book, 1938. As you can see, Paul kept part of the lyric mostly intact.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4spkG8LizyE

 

Categories
Music Victorian

Portrait of the Duke as a Young Girl, 1894

The Strand Magazine, 1894

Just like today, Victorian magazines were interested in celebrities. The Strand Magazine had a series called “Portraits of Celebrities at Different Times in their Lives”, showing a range of paintings, photographs and biographical information over the person’s life. 1890s celebrities, however, seem to pretty much be either members of the nobility or clergymen, like some kind of Jane Austen fantasy.

I like seeing pictures of the children who would become Very Important Men. Infants had their own clothing styles which to us look extremely feminine – as seen here with The Duke of Wellington and the Bishop of Worcester in an issue from 1894.

The Duke seems to morph from Mia Farrow to Thomas Walsh of The Duckworth Lewis Method in 45 years.

Any excuse to link to the divine Duckworth Lewis Method, frankly! Here’s “Test Match Special”, a little cricket-pop treat for you (Neil Hannon 4 Eva):

 

Categories
1950-1999 Music

Question and Answer Time with Cliff Richard, 1970

Pelham Pop Annual, 1970

Well, I was going to post up this interview with the relatively newly-Christian Cliff Richard this week anyway, but due to recent events, he’s rather more newsworthy at the moment than I was expecting.

This is from 1970 and featured in the weight-obsessed Pelham Pop Annual (see my previous post on the subject here – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/cilla-black-likes-being-skinny/). This is a good fit for the “slimmed-down” Cliff, as he seems equally interested in dieting.

It sounds like he would be surprised to still be famous now – “…I mean, just how old can a pop singer be?”

Categories
1950-1999 Music

Maurice Gibb is Talent Hunting, 1970

Maurice Gibb is talent hunting, Pelham Pop Annual, 1970

From the Pelham Pop Annual in 1970, an interview with Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees on his new record company, started with his brother Barry Gibb. Their first signing was Billy Lawrie, the brother of Maurice’s new wife Lulu. This interview is mainly a call out for talent to be signed up by them, with a little look into the domestic life of Maurice and Lulu – they are trying to be a traditional couple and he even gives her housekeeping money.

An aside, see here for the incredible Lulu-mania scenes at their wedding as recorded by British Pathé in 1969 – http://www.britishpathe.com/video/lulus-wedding

He talks about the names they were thinking of for the company “Lemon” (discarded for being too similar to the Beatles’ “Apple”) or “BG” but fails to mention its chosen name – all he says is “the title you all know it as”. It took a bit of digging to find out the name, as there are very few references to this company now. It turns out it was originally called “Diamond” but changed when they realised there was a record company of that name in the US. It then became “Gee Gee” for the two Gibb brothers involved. But, unfortunately for the Pelham Pop Annual, this was already old news by 1970, with Maurice and Barry splitting up in December 1969 and the record company going by the wayside.

Interestingly, Maurice talks about their film Cucumber Castle here, except at the point of the interview it was a 13-week series. In the event, it became a one off television special. It was only released on video for a very short space of time, and was considered one of the rarest commercial releases ever. Now, though, you can see the whole thing on Youtube. It has quite a cast – as well as Maurice and Barry, there were Frankie Howerd, Vincent Price, Eleanor Bron, Ginger Baker, Lulu and Spike Milligan, to name a few. Maurice talks about the tens of thousands he’s spent on video equipment for the film, but looking at it, perhaps it needed a little more – although the songs are lovely, of course.