Allow Me To Shamelessly Exploit One Of The Best Debut Albums Ever
As if anything like conscience, morals or respect for a musician ever had any effect here at the blog. Art!
Well worth a listen. You, children of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, might have a little trouble parsing that title, so just imagine that instead of 'Wireless' it says 'Radio', because that's what it was.
All clear? Good. Let us proceed. As radio emerged as the media method in the Twenties here in This Sceptred Isle, broadcasts began to span the nation. By 1922 the 'British Broadcasting Corporation' had been created, with the splendid motto 'Nation shall speak unto nation'. Not that all spoken was worthwhile, since the first commercial broadcast was of an opera singer.
ANYWAY Art!
BBC headquarters. No expense spared for a national institution!
Here an aside. It's a given that all the right-wingers in Perfidious Albion detest the 'Lefty' BBC, whilst all the left-wingers in Perfidious Albion detest the 'Pro-Establishment' BBC, so if it's offending everyone equally it must be doing it's job properly.
ANYWAY AGAIN back to the radio broadcasts. By September 1923 these had reached such a profligacy that they required a magazine to inform the listening public. Art!
By 1936 the Beeb had ventured (first across the globe) into the dizzyingly new medium of TELEVISION! which has made a lot of people very angry because they can't use their imagination and the cost of a licence <Cont. Page 96> Art!
Inevitably, the 'Radio Times' began to - you may be ahead of me here - list television programs in it's weekly publication. There was a separate section for films being shown that week, which was outstanding in the double-length Christmas edition. Conrad could look at all the films his parent's refused to watch.
ANYWAY ANYWAY what has provoked all this sepia-toned nostalgia? O I thought you'd never ask! An image from Facebook is what. Art!
The date of publication is important, since the six-week holiday from school for that year had begun as of July, and would continue to run until early September. So Conrad was at home in the holidays for this page of the 'Radio Times'. Let's have a closer look at the individual programs.
'The Flashing Blade': This was a dubbed French program, split into umpteen 25 minute sections, to play across the summer holidays, and I would definitely have been watching this episode as of this date. Art!
Terrific theme song, which was in English. Conrad cannot remember seeing the last episode, so please - no spoilers in the Comments.
"Noggin and the Ice Dragon": Ah yes, Noggin the Nog, the semi-animated tales of a mythical Norseland and it's inhabitants, one of the outputs from the Postgate studios. If Art will put down his bowl of coal -
Supper's ready
For an 'Ice' Dragon it more resembles sentient spinach. Art!
This is shorthand for 'Kid's programs are over for a couple of hours, let the adults watch the batting with a glass of beer'. I've no idea what happened to the other 4 tests, Conrad is a howling black hole of ignorance when it comes to cricket. Then, early afternoon -
"The Herbs": Okay, kid's programs are back. This one was another animated one, that Conrad rather liked. The central character was a lion dubbed 'Parsley', since all the characters were named after - once again, you may be ahead of me here - herbs. Thus Dill the Dog, Sage the Owl, Lady Rosemary, the Chives, Bayleaf the gardener - Art!
"The News": Now, back in the early Seventies all the newsreaders were men. None of that silly gender equality back then. Note that the weatherMAN also gets a credit, since this is Perfidious Albion and we take our climate seriously. Art!
That is the late, great Kenneth Kendall appropriately in black and white, as the new-fangled colour television was still a novelty. Art!
Back to the grown ups, in Welsh this time, with an Eisteddford to endure. Then more cricket. The British love love love their cricket, but to Conrad it makes as much sense as Welsh.
"Play School": This was a flagship of the BBC's children's broadcasting, that was around for decades. It featured a shifting cast of presenters, a set of dolls and a series of windows that the program took an exploratory trip through each day. Art!
Conrad always treated it with mocking disregard, as he was far too old and mature to bother with a 'baby's program'. So I'm not going to spend any more time on it. Tee hee! Art?
Okay, a cheap and cheerful South Canadian imported space-filler. Conrad had a soft spot for the verrrry short-sighted Vincent Van Gopher. Art!
You and me against the world, Vinnie, you and me against the world.
"Jackanory": One of the BBC's most famous and cheapest programs that ran for decades. It was simply a presenter - occasionally a celebrity - reading from a book directly to camera, with a few illustrations thrown in during the reading. Art!
Art!
'Harlem Globetrotters' is an animated series, not the real thing, another filler program from South Canada. I may have seen an episode where they were all playing blindfold, being helped to score by pies being dangled in front of them on fishing rods - Art!
'Barrier Reef' is another filler program, the difference being that this one is, unusually, Australian. Conrad remembers seeing a couple of episodes and they were deeply boring. Art!
Zzzzzzzzzz -
It was boring guff about a research ship saili zzzzzzzzzzzz
Yes yes yes, it may have been terribly worthy and ecology-aware but it was altogether lacking in explosions. Give me 'Thunderbirds' any time!
I have put the 'News' in there as at this point the adults took over the television set, the dastards. We may come back to the more 'adult' portion of the schedule at a later date. I bet you can hardly wait.
Conrad Yawns
As you should surely know by now, Conrad is not the least interested in the ballfoot game, apart from the BBC's hilariously venomous 'Have Your Say' when fans throw creative insults at each other's teams.
ANYWAY AGAIN there is some bimbling guffwater who bribed BOOH with a fake peace trophy and whom is back in the news - Art!
Hey mate, get in touch with a Hollywood casting agency, the next live-action 'Thunderbirds' film that needs someone to play 'The Hood' just landed you a contract.
O the ballfoot stuff? Who cares.
On The Loose With Bruce
Pennington, that is, sci-fi artist as featured on the Youtube channel - once more, you may be ahead of me here - 'Sci-Fi Art'.
Conrad has arbitrarily decided to skip the artwork sequels to 'Dune' such as 'God Emperor of Dune', 'Dune Messiah' and 'Frank Herbert's Recently Discovered Laundry List'. Art!
Conrad recognises this one, it was used as a cover illustration - 'Space-Time And Nathaniel' if memory serves. Brian Aldiss? Art!
Close enough
Nathaniel has let himself go a bit, hmmm? As have those skyscrapers in the background. Brucey also likes to repeat flying objects ranging back to the horizon, doesn't he? Hmmm and where did a mountain of skulls originate from, I wonder?
Having a look at book review sites doesn't help, this is a collection of 14 short stories from early in Bri's career, so there may be a story where an hideous alien sits on a pile of bodies, scanning the skies, but we'll never know unless I buy it and that's not going to happen. Art!
Looks like an album cover. Allow me to dig a little -
I rest my case Your Honour.
Conrad: Trailblazing Or Is It The Silly Season?
For Lo! these many years we have been carrying out 'A Little Musical Critique' whereby we rigorously and analyse, in exaggerated fashion, song lyrics. Of late we have focussed on 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway', which is difficult to make sense of even when quite sober. Art!
Shall I click?
Or is this an example of editors without enough content to fill their webpages, and whom resort to the basest of all journalism?
Don't worry, we'll be returning to TLLDOB, don't doubt it!
Finally -
No photographic evidence but I made a huge bowl of zharkoye last night - Ukrainian beef and potato stew.
No comments:
Post a Comment