Humble Pye

[samkydd]

(David Brent @ Jan 11 2006, 03:20 AM) Of course it was Decca Records (amongst others) who famously turned down The Beatles. They did bounce back with The Rolling Stones. Pye had The Kinks. They also had Benny Hill. Anyone remember his hit single " Bamba 3688"? Dave.

I remember buying "Ernie (Who Drove The Fastest Milk Cart in the West)" with my school dinner money! Shame really, we had cottage pie and queen's pudding on the menu that week! Uncanny but have you spotted any resemblance between my young Sandy Powell avatar and a certain Benny Hill character?

[smudge]

(samkydd @ Jan 12 2006, 06:36 PM) I remember buying "Ernie (Who Drove The Fastest Milk Cart in the West)" with my school dinner money! Shame really, we had cottage pie and queen's pudding on the menu that week! Uncanny but have you spotted any resemblance between my young Sandy Powell avatar and a certain Benny Hill character?

What's the Sandy Powell picture from ?

Do you reckon old Scuttle was a 'lift' then, like Les Dawson borrowed Cissie and Ada from George Evans' 'gossip over the fence' character? I don't know if she ever had a name, but I've seen GE doing her on TV, and if Les's was an homage, it was spot on !

SMUDGE

[Hugo]

Do you reckon old Scuttle was a 'lift' then, like Les Dawson borrowed Cissie and Ada from George Evans' 'gossip over the fence' character? I don't know if she ever had a name, but I've seen GE doing her on TV, and if Les's was an homage, it was spot on !

I hate to be pedantic but it was NORMAN Evans who invented the gossipy housewife in his "over the garden wall" sketch.
The character did have a name - Fanny Fairbottom.

[smudge]

(Hugo @ Jan 13 2006, hate to be pedantic but it was NORMAN Evans who invented the gossipy housewife in his "over the garden wall" sketch. The character did have a name - Fanny Fairbottom.

So it was Hugo. Ageing brain cells mate !

Thanks for giving her a name for me...

SMUDGE

[Tony Pendrey]

(Fellwanderer @ Jan 9 2006, 07:03 PM) Whatever happened to Ecko? I may be misremembering it but I'm sure there was a factory in Southend through into the sixties - somewhere near the airport. I also have a feeling there was a Phillips involvement FELL

No you are right Mr. Fell. The main Ecko factory was opposite Priory Park and they had another place on the A127 arterial road.

The name lives on. They are part of National Plastics, and NP Ecko still operate on the same site.

They recently had a big exhibition of Ecko memorabilia in the local museum. Sadly I was too busy doing the washing up.

[samkydd]

(smudge @ Jan 12 2006, 08:23 PM) What's the Sandy Powell picture from ? Do you reckon old Scuttle was a 'lift' then, like Les Dawson borrowed Cissie and Ada from George Evans' 'gossip over the fence' character? I don't know if she ever had a name, but I've seen GE doing her on TV, and if Les's was an homage, it was spot on ! SMUDGE

I'm not sure what the avatar's from.

I don't know if Scuttle was a direct copy of anything SP did because all I remember Sandy Powell doing was the crap ventriloquist routine. Apparently when he managed a variety theatre, agents kept sending him ventriloquists and saying they were ansolutely brilliant only for Sandy and the audience to discover that they were rubbish, so he decided to do his own parody of them and it went down a storm!

Benny Hill was well known for using others' material though, mainly from European circus and mime acts of performers we'd never ever see over here. Many others famous comedians have done the same and unfortunately still do, so if you see someone's act and you think you've seen or heard some of it before, you probably have!

The biggest problem on the London comedy club circuit is the amount of drama students there are performing. They have to do stand up as part of their course, and although some have real and original talent, others would take a notebook or dictaphone to a club and make notes on, or record performances so that they could cobble together their own five minute Try Out routine at a later date, hoping that no-one would notice that the material was blatantly stolen.

A friend of mine runs a comedy club and he allowed a drama student to come on and do a spot and ALL of his material was nicked! Unfortunately it was stolen from the main act who was due to come on in the second half! Needless to say the proper stand-up wasn't too happy about it and the drama student got a good kicking!

[Fellwanderer]

(Tony Pendrey @ Jan 13 2006, 05:36 PM) No you are right Mr. Fell. The main Ecko factory was opposite Priory Park and they had another place on the A127 arterial road.

Thanks. I thought it was there as I cycled that way to school and also spent many hours playing cricket on that side of Priory Park. Had no memory of the other site though.

The name lives on. They are part of National Plastics, and NP Ecko still operate on the same site. They recently had a big exhibition of Ecko memorabilia in the local museum. Sadly I was too busy doing the washing up.

Nice to know the name lives on. Was that the museum in Priory Park itself?

FELL

[Jim]

Those old boxes bring back some memories! I remember in our street that we were so poor that we all piled round this one house in the street on Coronation Day 1953 and took it in turns to look at this small screen. I remember we had to draw the curtains to view the screen comfortably. I also remember another rich person had a sodding great magnifying lens on the tele!!! Ah! golden days (just kidding).

[Tony Pendrey]

(Fellwanderer @ Jan 13 2006, 08:09 PM) Thanks. I thought it was there as I cycled that way to school and also spent many hours playing cricket on that side of Priory Park. Had no memory of the other site though. Nice to know the name lives on. Was that the museum in Priory Park itself? FELL

The main museum used to be in the park but it is now in what was the old library building.

As a point of interest (or not), there was a major discovery of an intact saxon burial just about where we are talkng about, Fell. It was all on a Time Team special last year. The site is now occupied by protesters trying to prevent the whole lot being lost to road widening.

I never played any cricket in Priory Park, but spent many an hour at Third Man just across the road in the Victory Sports ground. And now I live opposite that very place.

[Tony Pendrey]

No nothing at all electrical, and haven't since the 1970's. They used to have presses for the production of TV and radio cabinets so they moved into that area when they could no longer compete with Formosa and the like.

[Fellwanderer]

(Tony Pendrey @ Jan 16 2006, 03:01 PM) The main museum used to be in the park but it is now in what was the old library building. As a point of interest (or not), there was a major discovery of an intact saxon burial just about where we are talkng about, Fell. It was all on a Time Team special last year. The site is now occupied by protesters trying to prevent the whole lot being lost to road widening.

I seem to recall reading of that but missed the TT special.

Also spent some time during 6th form summer holidays on an archaelogical dig by the old museum.

I never played any cricket in Priory Park, but spent many an hour at Third Man just across the road in the Victory Sports ground. And now I live opposite that very place.

Brings back memories - Cuckoo Corner and the delightfully named Hobleythick Lane!

FELL

[ollie]

Hmm, I was never keen on Frampton, I can only remember him blowing a bit of plastic pipe in, Show Me The Way, or whatever it was called.

It is called a talk box
A small audio speaker or high end driver is enclosed, air tight, into a metal box with a hole in the top where a tube comes out. The guitar is plugged into an amp, but the speaker output is routed through the TalkBox. Then the signal is routed back from the box into the amp again. So, the sound from the guitar is sent through the box, up the tube to a waiting mouth, where the sounds are manipulated, before being picked up by the microphone! So by this method you can mouth the words while the sound of the guitar replaces the human voice box....hence the name Talk box
also popularised by joe walsh and in recent times by richie sambora, bon jovi "livin on a prayer" all in all a bit of a gimmick really there's (got to be carefull or the apostrophe police will get me) no real substitute for harmonic knowlege.

cheers Ollie.

[ollie]

It used to be rumoured that the talk box could cause throat cancer but i dont know if that was just a myth,i tried one once and it does cause a vibratey feeling in your gutty wutts, not to mention yer choppers

cheers Ollie.

[ollie]

Haitian divorce is a great! tune,and there is a point to be made for the actual guitar sound (including talk box) on the solo, it has a nice contour, but the actual content,for the initiated is just pentatonic wank, a technical term

cheers Ollie.

[ollie]

Favourite van sign (fabled) a firm of asian builders had "Youve tried the cowboys,now try the indians!" on their van

cheers Ollie.