An article written in the best possible taste Like in so many households of the time, our front room was sacrosanct. Sundays, birthdays and funerals it received people. The rest of the year it was simply dusted and hoovered. Except for one afternoon during the school holidays in the mid-sixties. That was when Mum allowed [...]
Archive for August, 2009
I wanted to write something different for this month’s meeting, something I’ve never tried before. With four weekends between meetings to determine, plan and execute this different thing I thought I had plenty of time. But I hadn’t allowed for the lady indoors who decreed that decorating would take precedence over my literary endeavours. ”I [...]
The crowded tenement buildings in the poorer quarters of any major city are home to the old and infirm, the unemployed with little or no hope of work and those who indulge in criminal activity just to make a living. In this world within a world racial and ethnic tensions run high and a gang [...]
Edward Lionheart is the greatest ever Shakespearean actor or at least that is his opinion. It is one not shared by the newspaper critics who giving increasingly scathing reviews of his season of Shakespeare tragedies. At the annual award ceremony of the Critics Circle the prize goes to a rival actor, and in his humiliation [...]
The Carnival Is Over (Judith Durham & The Seekers)
Posted: 31st August 2009 by Phil in Articles, The Soundtack Of Phil's Life - Musical MemoriesWhen the trials and tribulations of advancing years begin to plague me, when one by one my senses start to fail, it may be the only sounds I will hear will be the ones inside my head. What then for the music that has been such a constant companion in my life? Will I only [...]
Losing You (Dusty Springfield)
Posted: 31st August 2009 by Phil in Articles, The Soundtack Of Phil's Life - Musical MemoriesI only saw Dusty Springfield live as it were the once. It was in the summer of 1964 when as a callow fifteen year old I went with a friend and his parents for a weeks holiday in Scarborough, home of Jimmy Corrigan amusements, sandy beaches and a bracing wind from the sea. Two memories [...]
End Of A Fairy Tale (Kirsty McColl)
Posted: 31st August 2009 by Phil in Articles, The Soundtack Of Phil's Life - Musical MemoriesIn the late 60s, when pop had lost much of its verve and vibrancy, I flirted for a time with the burgeoning folk music scene. A number of pubs in my hometown of Lincoln regularly turned over their bars or function rooms for a steady stream of bearded worthies to regale their devotees with tales [...]
Dreams Do Come True (Olivia Newton-John)
Posted: 31st August 2009 by Phil in Articles, The Soundtack Of Phil's Life - Musical Memories“There’s a concert I would like to go to.’ I casually dropped the subject into the conversation when I thought the moment right. “No way,” she said when I told her the details and I wasn’t too surprised. The timing of the event was hopeless, slap bang in one of our busiest periods. The venue [...]
This Is Where I Came In (Maurice Gibb)
Posted: 31st August 2009 by Phil in Articles, The Soundtack Of Phil's Life - Musical MemoriesThese days the name ‘Delia’ is more synonymous with exotic dinner recipes but back in the late 60s when I was in my second year of working the Delia I knew was a far more exciting proposition. She was Australian, about five or six years older than me, with long black hair and whilst not [...]
A New Jersey Lily (Katherine Jenkins)
Posted: 31st August 2009 by Phil in Articles, The Soundtack Of Phil's Life - Musical MemoriesWe have strong connections with the island of Jersey where my wife’s uncle was born and lived after retirement. For many years we were frequent visitors and made a number of friends many of whom, like her uncle, have sadly passed on. But we have kept in touch with one or two people and a combination of [...]