‘JOCK’S BOX’ … an intermediate supplement! I’m still bashing away at part 12 of my Gloucestershire lad’s musical adventures whilst growing up in Cheltenham and also have a rather enthralling local railway story in the bag! .. I’m going all verbose already, en it, Val and Duncan? Just a quickie this morning, as the actress said to the bishop! ‘Ridin’ along in my automobile’ (don’t you just love Chuck Berry!) yesterday, I was, as always, giving my CD player a bloody good hiding, when a particular track I transferred from a vinyl single many years ago came booming out of my speakers! .. Suddenly, I was back in DGBiC Land and thinking about the many comments made recently appertaining to the sad demise of the Odeon Cinema! Going off track for a moment, I remember as a youngster, sitting in the very front seat at the Gaumont Cinema, when a man approached me and angrily ordered me to get out of his seat. . I told him I was there first so it was my seat. . My answer really made him mad and once again he demanded I give up my seat to him and again I refused .. After more protests and arguing, the furious chap stormed off and shouted, ‘Okay sonny, you can play the f…… organ!’ The particular track playing on my car CD player yesterday was used as the backing music by the Gaumont/Odeon/Top Rank circuits from 1964 as an accompaniment to their newly launched ‘Showtime’ magazine’. . ‘Showtime’ which was sold in the cinema foyer was a typical publication of it’s time, featuring reviews of the latest films, fashion, pop records/recording artists etc. .The magazine was published monthly from January 1964 as a response to the ABC Cinema’s fairly long running, ‘Film Preview’ magazine … same horse, different feathers! I used to look forwards to the advertisement just to hear the snippet of the music on the ‘Showtime’ advertisment which also turned up at least once as incidental music on the soundtrack of ‘Pathe News’. Unbeknownst to me, the record was played nightly as the signature tune of London ITV’s news magazine programme, ‘People In London’. .. I guess there are many folks out there in DGBiC Land, who have memories of instrumental music they heard through the media as youngsters, but never knew the title, or even who performed it? I began collecting music associated with radio at the demise of the second era of offshore stations, which ended (with the exception of Radio Caroline) in September 1974. Anyhow, back to the record in focus, which was recorded by Les Reed and his Combo for the Philips group’s Fontana label (TF 455) in 1964 and adopted as the incidental music for the ‘Showtime’ magazine! Personally, I think ’Spanish Armada’ by Les Reed and his Combo is one of the most underrated instrumental British records of it’s time! .. I hope this piece of music brings back memories of afternoons or evenings spent in the 1/6d’s with a bag of Butterkist and a Kia-ora to wash them down with! (if we had the money, that is!) Les Reed is one of the UK’s most talented musicians and songwriters. ..During the sixties, he wrote more ‘hit’ songs (often in partnership with Barry Mann) than you can shake a stick at! .. Les Reed’s 1970 composition/recording called ‘Man Of Action’ has become inextricably linked with the legendary, ‘Radio North Sea International’ a trans European music station which adopted the title as it’s theme throughout the broadcasters four years on the high seas! .. Another radio connection with Les Reed’s work is a recording called ‘Imogene’ (1967 Deram Records) which became nationally associated with the late BBC Radio 2 presenter, John Dunn and the Irish RTE Radio 1 presenter, Ronan Collins. *From the link to ‘Spanish Armada’ you should also find, ‘Man Of Action’ .. happy listening, folks and have a good Thursday! youtube/watch?v=-nOqPq-8g7U
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 07:26:04 +0000
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