Sunday night in Hunstantons KIT KAT

[EWW]

The local Soapbox Derby started from outside 8 Boston Sq. Estimated in the local today that some 6 thousand people went to see it

Two lots of mountie series.
Blair of the Mounties

And as you said.
Renfrew of the mounties.
Both on youtube if you want a bit of nostalgia.

[EWW]

Oh the memories.

[8 boston square]

Yes indeed the memories, not sure who can read the poster in the upstairs window though!
I have just returned from a couple of weeks in the UK, I do tend to bring the better weather back with me 25C on 3 days and only rain on 2! Always nice to visit the UK but as Frank says its so much nice to come home and off to the coast tomorrow for a week and with 34C its is most welcome, 7 nights in the Palm Garden Hotel for 2, 7700 bhats that's about 180 GBP.
So lets go back to November 1963, not a lot happened in this month but what did was enormous. On the 1st a military coup in South Vietnam took place and on the 23rd Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy in Dallas ( or did he ?). The music of the month was much more interesting, in September the Beatles were number 1 with "She Loves You". in October it was down to number 4 but in November it was back to number 1!!! What does that say about the rest of the chart? Lets take a look and see what you think and again some Sunday Night favourites to behold.
So the Beatles are at number with "She Loves You", at 2 its Gerry and the Pacemakers with "You'll Never Wak Alone." The Searchers are at 3 with "Sugar and Spice" and "Be My Baby" with the Ronnettes is at 4. Shirley Bassey at 5 with "I who Have Nothing." Roy Orbison is at 6 with "Blue Bayou" and at 7 its Cliff with "Dont Talk to Him." Cathy Kirby and her "Secret Love." is at 8 whilst an old favourite is at 9..........Chuck Berry with "Memphis Tennessee" and holding up the top ten is the Basildon Butcher and his mates, "Do You Love Me." from Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Not a bad top 10 but we were in love with the Beatles weren't we at the time.

[8 boston square]

1963 was quite a year and here we are at then of it, December '63, nice ring to it as the Four Seasons can testify so what happened in the last month of that year?
On the 3rd Nelson Mandela was put on trial for treason in South Africa, on the 6th Christine Keeler got 9 months for perjury at the Old Bailey, 10th saw a grenade explode in the Yemen injuring 39 whilst talks about the independence and future of the British Base in Aden were taking place. the 11th saw the release of Frank Sinatra's son from kidnappers and the 27th saw the cancellation of the Saturday night satirical show "That Was the Week That Was"

As far as the music was concerned it was a remarkable year, most of the familiar American and local acts were swept away by the Beatles and their mates from Liverpool, the charts now were mainly British acts, I don't remember a year like it for change although I did like very much like the previous 3 years music as well, so , lets have a look at the chart for December 1963 but let us first recall that "She Loves You" had gone back to the top after first being top in September! Well its not top now! The Beatles again with "I want to hold your hand" is top and at 2 its the Beatles again with "She Loves You", Cathy Kirby is at 3 with "Secret Love" and at 4 The Dave Clarke Five ( the Tottenham boys ) are "Glad All Over", The Manchester Milkman is still in there at 5 with "You were made for me". Cliff is at 6 with "Don't Talk to Him" followed at 7 by Dust Springfield with "I only want to be with you". Now at 8 who remembers the Singing Nun with "Dominique"? Los Indios Tabajaras are at 9 with "Maria Elena" and arriving at 10 Gene Pitney arrives with "24 Hours from Tulsa".

Not a bad chart to end with and a year that produced some classic tracks, some that we heard on a Sunday Night at the Kit Kat and some that still bring back fond memories of a time long gone by, a simpler, happier time perhaps?

[8 boston square]

Last reflections then on 1963, the year the music changed, the year that propelled the Beatles to super star status. We got a first look at the Beatles in October 1962 with the release of "Love me do." which got to about 16 I think, remember seeing them on the 625 show the BBC2 new talent show, only group to perform twice on the show, maybe somebody saw the potential?
In January 1963 a Scottish tour for the Beatles was followed by the release of "Please Please Me." on the 11th January and an appearance on "Thank Your Lucky Stars." In February they toured the UK supporting Helen Shapiro and on the 23rd "Please Please Me'" hits the number 1 slot, written by John Lennon, the LP is under way as well from the 11th.
March the Beatles are again touring this time supporting Tommy Roe and Chris Montez. April sees them appear at the NME awards and the "Please PLease Me." Lp which was released the previous month in mono goes to number 1 in the LP charts.. The stereo version is released on 26th April.

In May "From me to you." is released and goes to number 1 for 7 weeks, they also begin another UK tour with Roy Orbison.
In June the BBC on the Light programme at 5pm a new show called "Pop go the Beatles" started where they played live and had guests as well as conversations.
August 3rd saw the Beatles play their last ever dance at the Cavern, that along with Casbah were the early bases of the band in Liverpool.
September saw them voted Top Vocal group by the Variety Club of Great Britain that was on the 10th and the 14th saw "She Loves You." released, 350,000 advance orders and eventually selling 1.6 million.
October sees the first appearance on "Ready Steady Go." on the 4th and the 13th their first appearance on "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" attracting a record 15 million viwers, they did not beat the clock!
The Beatles first tour starts in November supported by Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, the Brook Brothers and the Vernons Girls. On the 4th they appear on the Royal Variety Show in front of the Queen. The 30th sees the release of their 2nd LP "With the Beatles." and "She Loves You." returns to the top of the hit parade. The 2nd LP replaces the previous LP "Please Please Me." at the top of the album charts and becomes the first LP to sell a million.
December 14th see the release of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." the first single to have 1 million advance orders and it eventually sells 1.6 million.
"Please Please Me." the single spent 22 weeks on the charts. "From me to you>" 25 weeks. "She Loves You" 36 weeks and "I wanna Hold your Hand." 24 weeks.
The "Please Please Me." LP was in the charts for 76 weeks, "With the Beatles." 51 weeks.
On the first LP "Boys was the only track that took just one take, "I saw Her Standing There." took 12 and evetually was combo of takes 10 and 12. The Offbeats did rather well every week I thought.
Without the Beatles the following acts probably would never have reached fame. Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Fourmost, The Big Three, Bill J Kramera nd the Dakotas, The Searchers, Cilla Black, Peter and Gordon. Cilla carved herself a nice litle tv career but the rest had all but gone within 2 years such is the fickleness of the music loving public.
This is the beauty of having a great local group, Danny Ford and the Offbeats, who never released records for the charts and therefore never went out fashion, being free to choose what to play and what not to for our pleasure. They outlasted the Merseybeat and almost the Beatles themselves, there interpretation of the songs they chose was excellent and that those memories stay with us to this day is a testament to just how good they really were live, we will never see the like of them again.
Is there a music scene today, well nothing much we would recognize I guess, after all we are just old farts whoknow nothing but expierienced everything musically it was the time of lives.

[8 boston square]

Amazingly its almost a year ago that I produced my Danny Ford and the Offbeats Sunday Night at the Kit Kat playlist of songs I wished I could have heard them play, tracks of that era that would have been possible but did not get aired and tracks that came along much later after the band had finally called it a day, where does the time go? It certainly seems to go quicker the older I get, very different when I was young when days seemed to last forever! Do you find things the same?
When I compiled the list it was not always easy to decide which tracks to include and which numbers to leave out so although you saw my selection, it was a good one I think, there was also a shadow list which did not got aired but could also have been a great night of music, so, next week I will list the tracks that almost made it as an alternative Sunday Night, I wont be doing it again next year that I can promise you, the more you do it the more the standard drops and you get fillers. Very much like "Fawlty Towers" ad "Ripping Yarns" 2 series each and that's your lot although there was always clamour for more episodes, in the end people accepted it, that's your lot!
So I will start next week as previously with 5 each week which nicely will take us nicely through the Festive season and just as teaser the first track will from the Searchers and my guess is that you will not guess which one it is, you may never have even heard it before, living in Hunstanton it brought back memories for me, memories that expect many people who lived at the seaside had and could relate to this track.

[8 boston square]

So then my shadow list to the one I did a year ago, a Sunday Night at the Kit Kat Sunday Dance Club featuring Danny Ford and the Offbeats but playing songs and numbers I never heard them play or were written after they dis banded.
Track one is from the Searchers playing a track from 1964, its the theme to a film shot along the south Devon coast mainly around Exeter to Torbay. It was set in the summer and showed the local lads travelling by train to Exeter and then coming back to Brixham ( when it had a station) looking at the girls who were arriving for the summer holidays, this resonates very much with me and my friends in Hunstanton although we used the prom from the pier to the fair!
The song is called "The system" from the film of the same name, it had a different name in the USA and the recording was on an EP "The System". The year was 1964.
Number 2 is also by the Searchers, the B side of Needles and Pins and its called "Saturday Night Out." It was the big night of the week for going out in the 60's and this can be viewed on youtube in glorious black and white, I think its a true reflection of the times, this comes from 1963.
For number 3 lets zoom forward to 1977 and slow things down a bit, this is an old Jim Reeves number but I preferred the number by the "king", at number 3 its "Welcome to my World by Elvis Presley.
Number 4 its time for a bit of Abba, no surprise there then! Going forward again this time to 1981, get your feet tapping to "Lay all your Love on Me."
Lets stay with Abba for number 5 and a track that is rarely played although I always thought it was a great track, a complex song which they arranged brilliantly, again you can see several versions on youtube………"If it wasn't for the Nights."

So there we are then the first 5 tracks of the shadow list, some music there I think many will be unfamiliar with so do go and have a listen, I think you will like the ones I have chosen and maybe introduced to something you never knew was out there.

[8 boston square]

For all of this shadow list I think we have Derek on the drums and Nigel on keyboards, Les on rhythm, Nick on bass and Roger on lead guitar. Let me just recap now on the first tracks.
1. The Searchers with "The System."
2. The Searchers with "Saturday Night Out."
3.Elvis Presley with "Welcome to my World."
4. Abba with "Lay All Your Love on Me."
5. Abba with "If it wasn't for the Nights."

At number 6 this might be a surprise, it surprised me when it came out in 1967, never been a fan but this Paul McCartney number was most suitable for here and I liked it, so at 6 its Prissilla White ( Cilla Black) with "Step Inside Love." This was also her theme song to her tv show running at the time on Saturday Nights, she made the transition to tv presenter very well, gave a her a long career where she did not expect it to be.
Number 7, well you all know the words, from 1969 and still played a lot today, I even heard it on the cricket from Columbo and one of the commentators apparently loves to do the karaoke, Neil Diamond with his monumental hit "Sweet Caroline."
Number 8 is another favourite performer who we heard little of at the Kit Kat but was very popular in the 60's and 70's, a real smoothy, Andy Williams with "Almost There." From 1964.
At 9, time for an instrumental I think and when I say that it can only be one of 2 groups so how about the Shadows with "Peacepipe." Did not get too many slow numbers did we so lets regain our energy for the next track eh? That was an oldy by the way back to those days of innocence? Well maybe not but a great year non the less. I think it turned up in "The Young Ones." as background music in the youth club, lovely track.
Number 10 then, from 1967 always liked this one and from a manufactured group for an American tv show, the "Monkees" they had some great tracks but this one I liked for the organ solo in the middle...…….."A Little Bit Me. a Little Bit You."

There we are then some good memories for you I think and as we have a lot of older, shorter tracks we might be able to get s few more memories in as well, you never know.

[8 boston square]

So far then on my shadow list we have:-
1. The Searchers with "The System."
2. The Searchers with "Saturday Night Out."
3. Elvis Presley with "Welcome to My World."
4. Abba with "Lay All Your Love On Me."
5. Abba with "If It Wasn't For The Nights."
6. Cilla Black with "Step Inside Love."
7. Neil Diamond with "Sweet Caroline."
8. Andy Williams with "Almost There."
9. The Shadows with Peacepipe."
10. The Monkees with "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You."
11. Now a lovely number from 1975, the sort of song you drift off to dream of being on a palm filled tropical beach, well that's what it does for me, "Blue Guitar" by Justin Hayward, a real relaxing number.
12. Back to 1964 for this classic which you can sing along to the chorus, this reminds me of The Maids Head in Norwich and Norwich is general, its the McCoys with "Hand On Sloopy."
13.Forward 15 years now to 1979 and its another instrumental which I doubt many of you have ever heard, its from Chris Rea and the number is called "Deltics" The Deltic was the most powerful diesel locomotive when it arrived on the East Coast Mainline in 1961 and the drummer, like me, was a big fan so go and find it, its out there on youtube and see what you think, I think it would have sounded great on a Sunday Night.
14 Moving forward again just a couple of years to a band that were really great live. It was formed from 2 Leicester bands that merged together after jamming in a north Leicester pub, it is of course Showaddywaddy, loved their colourful suits! So the one I have chosen is "Footsteps." takes you way way back eh? They specialized in reviving the oldies and did a great job of it. I loved the opening of their live shows, the lights go down and search lights start swinging as the "Dam Busters" theme is played and the band come on, brilliant idea that worked so well.
15 Now lets go way back to that golden era, 1960 to be precise, here is a song that reminds me of standing on the playing field of Hunstanton Secondary Modern, I chose one of his tracks in the original list and we were treated to a couple regularly on a Sunday Niht, this was probably his biggest hit though, its Bobby Darin with "Dream Lover." I always thought that Danny had more than a passing resemblance to Bobby Darin.

So there we are then some great memories for me and maybe for you

[8 boston square]

We are coming to the end of the first half of the shadow list when we will pop off downstairs to see who are the guest group for tonight, they wont get their break until 945 but it was always an interesting 30 minutes to se someone new. the only time I ever saw Danny Eves and the Strollers and I think they were the best band I saw downstairs, perhaps the Burns Black Bisons had something to do with it as well but no good having good gear if you could not play it eh?
Last week we ended up with Bobby Darin and his big hit from 1960 "Dream Lover." So lets carry on now until the interval.
At number 16 then we go back one year to 1959 and a track that always reminded me of the cricket ground at Wolferton, this track came originally from Dion and the Belmonts in the USA but was covered in the UK by Craig Douglas and the artist I preferred was Marty Wilde with "Teenager in Love." Marty was born in Blackheath Reg Smith but now lives in Hertfordshire at a village called Tewin, NE of Welwyn Garden City, its only a small place but it is also the home of Alesha Dixon and Lewis Hamilton among others.
17. Cliff Richard was having to deal with arrival of those groups from Liverpool when he released "Visions." It would not be a Sunday night without Cliff would it, so lets have another one.
18.Cliff Richard and his number one from 1979, been a long time since he had a number one, "We Dont Talk ANymore." I remember being in Cornwall and I was driving from the Lizard to Penzance when it was announced that Cliff was back at number one, 8am and a great start to the day, weather was good as well!
19 ABBA again for this track from 1982, a rarely heard track and the accompanying DVD was filmed in Stockholm on a cold winters day, feel the cold but always made me smile when Agneta smiles at an admirer on the train, its "The Day Before You Came."
20. The Bangles with "Eternal Flame." It was unusual for a girl band at the time to be successful and this was not their most famous track but one I liked and it would have suited Danny well, this song came out in 1989.
21. To end the first half then lets have an instrumental, this came from Fleetwood Mac but they only did a short intro into a song, the version I thought was really something used to come on BBC2 on a Sunday just before 1pm, Motor Racing fans will instantly recognize the theme tune to Formula One as "The Chain."

[8 boston square]

Here is the complete first half of the shadow list then, something to peruse with a glass or cup in your hand reflect on the tracks, approve or not, maybe even tracks that are unfamiliar and something to go and have a look and a listen on youtube.
1.The Searchers with "The System"'
2. The Searchers with "Saturday Night Out."
3.Elvis Presley with "Welcome to My World."
4.ABBA with "Lay All Your Love on Me'"
5.ABBA with "If it Wasn't For The Nights."
6.Cilla Black with "Step Inside Love."
7.Neil Diamond with "Sweet Caroline."
8.Andy Williams with "Almost There."
9.The Shadows with Peace Pipe."
10.The Monkees with "A Little Bit Me, Its a Little Bit You."
11.Justin Hayward with "Blue Guitar."
12.The Mcoys with "Hang On Sloopy."
13.Chris Rea with "Deltics."
14."Showaddywaddy with "Footsteps."
15.Bobby Darin with "Dream Lover."
16.Marty Wilde with "Teenager in Love."
17.Cliff Richard with "Visions."
18. Cliff Richard with "We Don't Talk Anymore."
19.ABBA with "The Day Before You Came."
20.The Bangles with "Eternal Flame."
21.BBC 2 theme of "The Chain."
So there we are then the full listof the first half, always good to see the full list I think and now we head towards Christmas and all that that entais which where I am means nothing at all! I saw an advert for a 5 kilo turkey at a supermarket ( the nearest to me is 120 kms away) with stuffing going for an eye watering 80 quid! Well Iam not that merry I will do with a loin of pork with stuffing and all the usual vegetables except the one I realy want and I have never sen it here, parsnips!


Hope you all have good time whatever you are up to, try not to get too stressed out if it heading that way come and imurse youself in the music of the list.

[EWW]

Cheers for a great year of music memories Boston. (why not grow your own )

[8 boston square]

I have tried to grow my own nothing works for me, in theory parsnips should grow here and be popular after all they grow potatoes and carrots, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and "GAT" which you may know as Mooli, its a large white radish but its a no no no! A couple of weeks ago I did manage to find sprouts on the market they are called here "calum dow" but a rarity so the nearest to sprouts is Pak Choi which is also grown in England, strangely enough my wife here only discovered it Leeds and Nottingham but then looked out for it in the local market and there it was!
I have taken stones back and tried to grow peaches, apricots and nectarines but again no luck whatsoever. The garden does have bananas, coconuts, mulberries , limes amongst other things though, its amazing how many people survive here picking leaves and stems from the hedgerows and ponds, add some rice and chilli a touch of sauce and that's dinner for some especially out in the sticks.
Whist you all look forward to Christmas, hoping for snow but just getting the cold and wind we are now at 27c at 1045 and I have fresh strawberries in the fridge for later, the winter here is so very much like the English summer without the rain.

[8 boston square]

In the early 1950's there were a group of people known as the "Crazy People" ( one of their fans who it also been suggested is also a bit crazy, but in the nicest possible way, has been eating turkey 7 miles NNE of Kings Lynn recently), they went on to become "The Goons". The Goons were Spike Milligan ( I could see his house from my bedroom in London, 2 towers with a joining living block in between, just what you would expect), Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine, later to be joined by Eric Sykes, they produced 238 half hour shows of complete madness with resident stars as Colonel Bloodnok, Bluebottle, Ned, Jim and Eccles amongst others. Originally they were on Decca records but transferred to Parlophone and in 1956 released "Bloodnok's Rock and Roll Call" followed by "I'm Walking Backwards to Christmas ( to prove that I love you) and the "Ying Tony Song" amongst others by this time they had been joined by Charles Springall, to most he was known as Charlie Drake, you will no doubt, well some of you older ones, will recall "Splish Spalsh", "Hello my Darlings" and "My Boomerang Wont Come Back" and there were loads more, also there was Bernard Cribbins with "Right said Fred" this was indeed the time of the novelty record. I recall seeing some of the above mentioned at home, my brother must have bought them as I did not have any money although I must admit that on arrival in Hunstanton I did buy a couple of Peter Sellers LPs "Songs for Swingin Sellers" which was a spoof on the Frank Sinatra album "Songs for swingin Lovers" and "The Best of Sellers" so that was in the early 60's, the golden age of the novelty record was just about over, The Shakspearian version of Hard Days Night from Peter Sellers, The one he did with Sophia Loren and Benny Hill just about wrapped it all up, thank goodness the Offbeats saved us from all that, there is a time and place for everything and Sunday Night at the Kit Kat was not one of them.
It is a strange co incidence then that all of those above do have a connection with the Kit Kat and that is with the producer of the records, a man who was into classical music and jazz, not novelty or pop, his name was George Martin, there is something to be said about not knowing your subject in front of you as you can see it and hear it from a different standpoint and that was one of his secrets I think which made him so successful. The Beatles became one of his bands and I can just imagine him working at EMI (Electronic Musical Industries) that anyone on Parlophone was new and not established on arrival so " here George see what you can do with this lot." Well we know the answer don't we he went on to become probably the greatest producer of all time and also known as the fifth Beatle, they got on like a house on fire although it must have seemed a strange mixture to start with until they discovered they had one thing in common, George produced the "Goons" recordings and the "Beatles" were huge fans of the "Goons" suddenly everything falls in place.
Christmas is now behind us and we look forward to the new year and the beginning of the second part of my shadow list and as for the year 2019 lets hope its a good one with lots of new memories yet to be experienced.

[8 boston square]

Can you remember climbing the stairs as the interval is coming to an end? Just been down stairs to watch the guest group, kindly supplied by Nigel, then heading upstairs about 915pm, 917 and the Offbeats are back on stage, sound check, one, one, one, a bass note, treble note, a chord then one, wow, three four! We are off for the second half.

So then at number 1 for the restart is a Beatles track, a nice melodic number with Paul on vocals, a track that reminds me of "The Rampant Horse" at Gayton, this was where I first saw "The Vampires" play and this a number that they did and they did it very well, from 1963 then its "All My Loving."
At number 2 we will have a bit of ABBA, this song always seemed to me to be from a time gone by, a sound that would fall easily into the late 50's early 60's but its from 1974, not one of the biggest hits but every tribute act I saw included this one, clearly "Honey, Honey." goes down well with the fans and my partner as well, can you avoid tapping your foot or swinging a leg?
Number 3 and Danny steps down for a short while, this track is from 2017 and a band from Cambridge called Clean Bandit, you probably know this better as the backing track to the Marks and Spencer adverts on tv and so its an instrumental version of "Rather Be."
At number 4 another instrumental from 2001 this time and a group from Norway, now that's got you thinking eh! Ok then no more suspense its Royksopp with "Melody AM."
We get Danny back on stage now for number 5 and a song rarely heard by me on the local band circuits in fact I don't ever remember hearing it, for sure it would have gone down well but there is only so much time available to play the tracks for the evening and each band had its favourite tracks and the ones the audience expected to hear so this one never showed for me, so, without more ado lets go back to 1962 and meet "The Girl from Ipanema" from Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66.

Tracks 6-10 next week but before I go just a last thought on the "novelty" records, we were not alone the Americans had them as well one that remember around was Stan Freberg who did take offs of the US crime show from 1951 "Dragnet" its hero was Joe Friday and " only the facts mam, we only want the facts" , "Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent" One of them that I recall was called "St George and the Dragonet" My brother had a right rum idea of what records to buy in those days, they were different times.