Foreign Food

I would like to add smatterings of foreign languages to my everyday speech, I know how to order aubergines in Arabic so it would probably get me more than a few nods of admiration if in mid conversation I said, ‘as the Arabs say,  ‘ لدينا طباخ يطبخ لنا ،’  (‘we have a cook who cooks for us.’) A little pretentious, you might say? Probably, but also ‘on trend.’

GB News

Group thinking has always worried me, what we should or shouldn't say. Free speech used to be the thing but not anymore, it's so much easier to tow the party line. Where's Cromwell's men when you need them? Surely there are a few more cathedrals to knock down? Oh, they're already here.

This morning I was watching DJ Diddy David Hamilton on GB News. I’m sure he’s a National Treasure and beyond criticism, but he was talking about an old demo of David Bowie’s which had just sold at auction. It seemed to have gone for a small amount of money, to which ‘Diddy Dave’ said something like, ‘mind you, it may not have been any good. After all, David Bowie did write the Laughing Gnome, he sounded like Anthony Newley!’ Pretentious and unimaginative.

I found this extremely irksome for a number of reasons. First I think it’s a really good tribute to Anthony Newley. 

If you are unsure what I mean, look up ‘Strawberry Fair’, and if you really want to know where David Bowie got it all from, watch ‘Who Can I Turn to,’ also by Anthony Newley.

Present Laughter

I think these songs are genius and very much a part of the witty 60s, perhaps a continuation of Noel Coward’s contribution to music and society. 

One of my favourite all time lyrics is in the line from, Right Said Fred, by Myles Rudge, where it says: 

‘And Charlie had a think, and he thought we ought to take off all the handles

And the things wot held the candles.’

Those of you who didn’t live in what is now known as ‘olden times’, may not be aware that there were candle holders on pianos. I don’t think you get them on synthesisers, but I’ll check it out. 

Derek Fearnley

Going back to Dave, (Bowie not Diddy) I have one other reason for liking, ‘The Laughing Gnome’.  And that reason is Derek Fearnley, someone who was funny and who I really liked and who died sometime ago in a hospice in Eastbourne.

(‘Then I put him on a train to Eastbourne.

Carried his bag, and gave him a fag’. Laughing Gnome lyric)

Derek played bass with David Bowie and with his brother, I believe, arranged, The Laughing Gnome. I met Derek when he played in a group I was in during the 70s. He had a blue Fender Jazz bass and was extremely proficient and modest with it.

Derek only told me 2 Bowie stories, one was that David Bowie had a bass cabinet belonging to him which he wouldn’t give back. 

The second one was that the last time Derek saw him, David Bowie was lighting his farts in the back of a Transit van. (Pure, Bowie!)

I find it hard to relate to people who are embarrassed about their past successes. Although as I write this, I realise I’m guilty of it too.

I suppose I shouldn’t really expect much more from a DJ but you’d think Diddy (Dave not P) might know more about the stuff he’s been feeding us for the last 60 years.

And to end this, my late wife Louise collected a few gnomes from garden centres and started painting them in bright colours. It gave her great pleasure. I once told her about my grand plans to make an arbour in the garden to which she replied,’ are we getting a boat?

Unpretentious and imaginative. 

‘There is no life I know

To compare with pure imagination

Living there you'll be free

If you truly wish to be’ 

Pure Imagination, by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse