The economy in the 1970s - whose fault?

This posting cannot go by without some mention of the pathetic shower that is the England football team, and their futile attempts to overcome some neo-third world countries in an effort to reach Euro 2008. There, I think I've made myself clear on that. However, what I did find interesting is that they reckon the economy will lose £2 billion pounds this year because England failed to qualify. This is the cost of all those pints of beer, replica shirts, new widescreen LCD and plasma tvs etc etc. Quite staggering isn't it? Which got me thinking (always a dangerous think to be happening) - when I was in my teens/early 20s we actually failed to qualify for any European Championships of World cups tournaments between 1970 and 1980. Yes, 10 years without the 3 lions in a major football tournament, staggering, but it actually happened (and there we about 3 foreign players in the football league at the time, so let's put that one to bed). Now, add the cost of not qualifying for 4 tournaments at £2 billion every other year for a decade and that's a staggering £8 billion lost to the economy in less than 10 years. So don't ever believe the history books when they tell you that the economic problems of the 70s were caused by oil prices after the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, or the greedy miners, or the powerful unions, or punk, or the long hot summer of 1976, or glam rock, or Maggie Thatcher, or flares, it was caused by England's failure to be at the big football parties! Which is why we need Jose Mourinho as the next England football manager otherwise we could be doomed once again to galloping inflation, soaring oil prices, mass unemployment, and yes, possibly even flares and teardrop collar shirts. Pray for Mourinho, I can't wear platform shoes again, not with these feet.

It's a Tie

So, whoever decided that a piece of coloured cloth knotted around your neck was smart? I guess this dated back to the 18th century (fashion historians help me out here!) when cravats probably first came into existence, that's what I remember from pictures in history books, anyway! It seems that this fashion has been around a long time as we are still wearing them so they are pretty well ingrained in the culture now. But I think it's still unfair that men are expected to 'be smart' wearing a suit and tie and yet women can still express themselves pretty much any way they please and it's still regarded as smart. Still, I think this is getting better as most companies sensibly allow casual dress when they are doing nothing more than sitting in an office all day and rightly so. But correct is that if they are going out to meet people they should be smart as anything less may give the wrong impression of the company they represent. I've just re-read what I've written so far and my rant about expectations of men's clothing have turned into a rather conciliatory piece about the correctness of wearing a tie - that's the trouble as you get old, your mind wanders quickly and you lose the point. Still, could be worse, could be raining.

How to pass the time when you are off sick

Had the unfortunate experience of being off sick from work last week. Nothing serious, and I was a bitdiappointed as it's the first time that I've missed work through sickness for 3 years - not bad for a 50 year old! No doubt it'll get worse as I get 0lder and start getting things like gout and 'a bit of a chest'. Anyway, while sitting round at home not really feeling like doing much I watched some films that I have had sitting on my DVD recorder for some months and have never got round to watching.
The first one was Amelie, a French film from 2001 with subtitles. I don't particularly like subtitled films (I suppose it's hard to concentrate on words and pictures at my age) but this was really quite good, very quirky with some great performances.
Second one was Once Upon A Time In America a film from 1984. This is a a sprawling epic directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro, and it covers about 60 years in the lived of some Jewish kids from New York who become gangsters. Very long, but well worth staying with to the end.
Last up wasn't one from the DVD recorder but a purchase from Tesco's. This was Sleepers from 1996 and has a stellar cast of Robert De Niro (again), Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Dustin Hoffman and Minne Driver. Once again it's about some poor Italian kids from New York (bit of a thread here?) who get mixed up with gangsters and end up in reform school but I won't say any more as it will ruin the story for anyone who wants to see it.
And why not? as Barry Norman used to say when his film review show was worth staying up for.
And finally, farewell to Myles Rudge. Who, I can hear say? The man who wrote that Junior Choice staple Right Said Fred as well as Hole In The Ground, both for Bernard Cribbins died last month aged 81. 'So Fred said let's have another cup of tea and then we went home'. Magic!

Wet Winter Sundays

Anyone remember the famous Hancock sketch about Sundays and how boring they are? If you think back 30+ years they were pretty dull, nothing open, everyone having roast dinner 'because we always have done and that's the way it's going to be'. It's so much better now - shops are open if that's your thing, pubs, bars and restaurants are open much longer instead of the archaic licensing laws that held sway in this country for 90 odd years, live football on the tv if you want it. So if they are that much better I hear you say then why are you in writing your blog? Well, the truth is that when it's wet, windy and raining out then indoors is the best place to be anyway. Maybe that's why the typical British Sunday was always dull, because apart from about 5 times a year the weather is so crap there is nothing better to do than sit around indoors! So there, I'm off to drink a few glasses of wine and watch some tv in front of a blazing fire, pipe and slippers on etc etc. Yes, sometimes being 50 does have a lot going for it....

Do you like good music? (yeah, yeah)

Apologies to my faithful readers out there, been away for a weeks break so haven't got around to blogging. Just been reminded that a group of us are going to a soul night next week, should be good fun. This made me think that looking through my cd collection I have a vast number of soul cds, mostly compilations, but stuff that I wouldn't have dreamt of buying when it was out first time around. I was very happy to go clubs and listen to the music, but I would never dream of buying it and listening to it at home, I was strictly a guitar band man. I think the only soul music I bought was Stevie Wonder who was hip enough then for me to get away with. Now I can sit and listen to it for hours, maybe it's just a nostalgia thing and it brings back memories of some great times, or maybe it was great to begin with but I just didn't appreciate that it was good music to listen to as well as dance with.
RIP then, Ronnie Hazlehurst. He was a bandleader who wrote many tv series theme tunes e.g. the Two Ronnies. However, the most interesting fact that has come out after his death is that he wrote the theme to Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, and the main melody (sounds like it's played on a recorder) is actually morse code for Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em! Honestly, it's true! How clever is that?
I've had a very good suggestion to do a list of the best music-related films. This can cover a wide spectrum, so let's leave musicals out, shall we?

1) This is Spinal Tap
2) Hard Day's Night
3) That'll Be The Day
4) Flame
5) Quadrophenia
6) High Fidelity
7) Moulin Rouge
8) The Blues Brothers
9) Gimme Shelter
10) Standing In The Shadows Of Motown

There. That should provoke some discussion.

Lee

Happy Birthday Radio One!

Radio One was born when I was 10 years old so it kind of grew up with me. It's hard to believe now that it was really the only radio station that you could listen to that played pop music, excepting Radio Luxemburg (Fab 208!) which was good but it really use to piss me off they way it used to fade in and out. It was like being a French Resistance fighter trying to pick up the BBC during the war!
My best memories of Radio One were the roadshows; I managed to get to two. The first one was in Great Yarmouth on the famous Norfolk Broads holiday of 1974, the second was in Cornwall (my memory fails me for once - was it Newquay or Falmouth?) in the long hot summer of 1976. By this time Noel Edmonds held no fascination for me as I had been working in the same building as him for a year so saw him quite regularly. Anyway, the only real reason for going to the roadshows was to pick up girls, which myself and my holiday chums failed spectacularly at both times! I'm sure those holidays will come up again in the future so watch this space.
My other great memory of Radio One was listening to it on the way up to Sheffield for a weekend of heavy drinking and more attempts to snare the opposite sex in April 1980. Two songs released that week that got heavy airplay that day were 'Rough Boys' by Pete Townshend and 'Turn It On Again' by Genesis, and still every time I hear one of these songs it takes me back to that time when my hair was longer, I could run upstairs without getting out of breath and my liver was (almost) intact. Happy days!

Hughesy

They said you was hung!

As anyone who knows me well will tell you, my favourite all-time film is Blazing Saddles. Now I tried showing my kids this classic pice of cinematic genius, but they were not impressed. I guess that the use of the 'N' word renders this film now as a museum piece, like the D W Griffith film 'Birth Of A Nation' (look it up, I'm not doing it all for you). I guess one of the good things about modern life is that people are more tolerant of minorities. Certainly, at the local comprehensive my two both had friends of all colours, ethnic backgrounds and different sexual persuasions. When I was a lad the only black kid I knew was Phil who lived one road up from me, and he was a foster kid to a white family. I didn't get to know any gay people until I started my part time job at the Bedford Hotel, and although they say 1 in 4 men are gay I certainly to this day don't know of any kids at our all boys school that are (or were) gay. But I'm prepared to listen to any gossip that says otherwise. As I've got a glass of wine on the go and I'm feeling particularly lazy tonight after a long day, here's a way to fill up space. Going back to my first sentence, here it is - another list - my 10 all-time favourite films!

1) Blazing Saddles
2) The Deerhunter
3) Casablanca
4) Pulp Fiction
5) The Conversation
6) Angels With Dirty Faces
7) Life of Brian
8) Monty Python And The Holy Grail
9) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
10) Duck Soup

Any you're not familiar with please check out on www.imdb.com

Until next time pop pickers, when I will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the birth of Radio 1!!

Hughesy