Isn’t It A Revelation!
One prominent politician, Michael Gove of the funny faces (above), admits to using cannabis when he was a lowly journalist and now the news is filled with people coming forward to confess, the latest but surely not the last, is SDLP’s Colum Eastwood. Should that damn them for all time. If they’ve realised the seriousness of this and left it behind, then not at all. If everyone was as honest about their drug habits, which one of us would be innocent of some undesirable habit. Alcohol is the most abused substance so ponder on that for a while. A lot of terrible actions come out of drinking to access and when it becomes an addiction there is no knowing the lengths the person will go to to get their ‘fix’.
“It’s useless to hold a person to anything he says while he’s n love, drunk or running for office.” Actress Shirley MacLaine quoted in the LA Times.
My addiction was tobacco, I smoked for Ireland at one time, I was eating them, Olivier, Stuyvesant, Cocktail Sobranie, menthol – didn’t matter’, however with those brand names it’s fairly clear this was a long time ago! My Dad smoked Passing Cloud apparently when he was young, Senior Service followed and then Gallahers Blue.
Mummy was a Gallahers Green girl. They both gave up and so did I but I still dream about enjoying a glass of wine and a Sobrani, dressed to the nines and sitting in some Parisienne Cafe!
I wonder will anyone out Boris Johnson for any misdemeanours!! Telling lies, being a serial womaniser and the rest perhaps. He and Trump seem a carbon copy of each other. He’ll be tweeting next. I guess he’ll be watching his fellow contestants tonight on TV, isn’t he played a clever game? By refusing to take part he’ll be able to see how the land lies, they’ll criticise him and then he’ll come back at them next week and present a very fine performance. Some of the comments written about him have been very damning but in a sort of a way that plays into his hands and people who are sitting on the fence might well feel sorry for him and tumble into the Boris camp. Hope not!
Funny Lady?
And what about Jo Brand? I don’t think what she said was a joke or meant to be a joke, she thought she was being smart voicing what a lot of people must have thought at the time Farage was doused with a milkshake. Now he’s jumped in to capitalise on the situation.
I know when it happened I immediately thought how easy it was for that man to get close and hit his target so easily – what if it had been some corrosive substance? The outcome would have been horrendous. What she said wasn’t to entice violence nor to make people laugh in a jocular way, the audience I think reacted out of a sense of embarrassment or shock but, at the heels of the hunt, it was a very unpleasant moment even for her, she should never have said what she did in the way she did. Like Danny Baker it will now be part of her legacy and I expect she will regret that. Punishment enough.
Thought For The Day
Good Bye To Leon Redbone
I was a great fan of this man who died during the week. If you like jazz, rag time and gravelly blues have a listen.
Boys Will Be Boys
I notice that tonight on TV we have New Top Gear and Soccer Aid for UNICEF. What I’ve seen of Top Gear it’s a real jolly for the presenters, screaming with laughter, screaming with alarm and just screaming. They are certainly having the time of their lives, boys games extraordinaire. Who gains from this programme? The presenters for sure – and they get handsomely paid for it at a time when pensioners are worried about paying for the TV licence – if it comes to that. It’s vitally important elderly men and women have recourse to television for company and information without worrying about the licence fee.
I recall my mother being very pleased with me because I visited an elderly aunt a couple of times a week. She told mummy that I always looked very well and discussed very interesting things with her. Apparently these visits were the highlight of her week. It transpired that my visit was on UTV when my programme Ask Anne was shown twice and I realised just how important television is and the friendships that are forged through the airwaves.
There’ll be more screaming and hugging with the football – money will be raised for a good cause and the participants will have a ball! Even on my favoured radio station, 5 Live, we’re being treated to women taking over the programmes talking over each other and laughing at in jokes – I don’t think they are aware that I and many other are listening – do we matter? And even my idol Nicky Campbell is annoying me, he has fallen into the habit of saying ‘hell’ a lot – ‘a hell of a ….’ He’s my favourite broadcaster, he’s witty and funny, very quick and not afraid to show his emotions but I’ve even heard a ‘bloody’ on 5 Live – this is what’s commonly referred to as the thin end of the wedge!
A Rare Vintage Who Loves The Image
Tom Jones was 79 week before last and still a fine figure of a man who obviously has no problem turning women to jelly and for some reason wanting to throw their knickers at him. It’s been like that for years, since I first meet him in the early 60s when he came to Ulster Television to publicise ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and I had the pleasure of going to his dressing room and asking him to sign his contract for something like 10 guineas! He was shirtless and beautiful, bulging muscles, leather pants and a rabbit’s foot on his belt. Oh Yes, I remember it well!
I passed a compliment on the song and he said: ‘Thanks love, I’m going to enjoy it – it’s a one off’. Almost 60 years later there he is blowing everyone away when he sings on The Voice. And still turning women to quivering jellies.
Most recently at the New Orlean Jazz Festival he was bombarded with pants of all shapes and colours and he took it in good heart. After all, he is the ultimate showman.
Around about 15 years ago I brought my friend Margaret to see her idol perform in the Waterfront Hall. It was a cauldron of feverish excitement, women dressed up to the nines, short skirts and plunging necklines – and that was only the older members of the audience. When this Adonis came on stage it was total mayhem! Soon Margaret, a granny, was dancing in the aisles to a sex bomb grandpa gyrating on stage!
Looking back I remember Margaret telling me how her father heard Tom Jones on radio and told her he was going to be big, the boy’s good he said. “And if my Daddy told me something was good it was good!” She became hooked, bought all his records, posters and programmes, she went to see him in Blackpool and had a precious memento. “A scarf I threw at him, he wiped his brow with it and threw it back. I can still smell his aftershave from it!” She’d made it to the front row. “It was wonderful, I could even see the fillings in his teeth.” Now that is adoration!
In the Waterfront audience a couple from the Falls Road and their three daughters, nine, five and four were really enjoying the fun, Margaret from East Belfast was on one side of me and a lady called Anne on the other.
I wrote about the experience at the time and how I was especially intrigued when Anne left the auditorium for a few minutes during the second half, came back in and marched straight down to the front and proceeded to throw her panties onto the stage.
But so did a lot of women
One girl told me how she’d been practising for weeks with her Marks and Spencer pants, getting the tension of the elastic just right to catapult them through the air and she – and I – couldn’t believe it when on the night her offering actually hit his feet!
He continues to bump and grind and shout ‘YA’, he obviously enjoys the sex symbol tag but doesn’t take it too seriously; his fans still lust after him but there’s a lot of genuine love and respect as well. On that night in the Waterfront the tight trousers and the frilly blouse had gone, it was black shirt and well tailored dark suit, with the jacket’s one button at the breast bone allowing a little glimpse of lower torso which infuriated a woman behind me who kept shouting – ‘take your jacket off’.
Poor Margaret was well known for her infatuation of this amazingly sexy man but it was a Catch 22 situation. Every time Tom Jones appeared on television, Margaret didn’t get a chance to see him because the phone never stops ringing with friends telling her Tom Jones was on television! I wonder if that still happens to those fans all these years later.
For the man who has done for karaoke what McDonalds did for cheeseburgers, it was the theme song from the Full Monty film ‘Leave Your Hat On’ with throbbing guitars that got the place vibrating and sent Margaret into paroxysms of delight.
Some girls jumped on stage but were gently removed, no one was precious about photographs being taken, the pants and bloomers landed all round the place but everyone knew it was a joke, especially Tom Jones who occasionally caught a pair and it looked like he dabbed his brow, this nearly brought the house down.
People danced to ‘Sex Bomb’, ‘Green Grass of Home’ went down well, some nearly had heart attacks to ‘Mamma Told Me’, and when he sang – “Your Kiss” well, I almost had one too! Those were the days.
And what was the hit of the night and nights ever since? For the man who has done for karaoke what McDonalds did for cheeseburgers it was ‘Delilah’. Despite the fact that this is a very iffy song in this day he continues to sing it and in the age of girl power some think rugby crowds in Wales should stop singing it at games – some chance! But have you ever listened to the words?
I saw the light on the night that I passed by her window
I saw the flickering shadows of love on her blind, She was my woman
As she deceived me I watched and went out of my mind.
My, my, my, Delilah, Why, why, why, Delilah
I could see, that girl was no good for me
But I was lost like a slave that no man could free, At break of day when that man drove away, I was waiting
I crossed the street to her house and she opened the door
She stood there laughing
I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more. My, my, my, Delilah etc.
And to think all those years ago he reckoned It’s Not Unusual was a one off!
I hope all those people effected by the terrible floods will have a much better week and be able to pick up the pieces of their disrupted lives. It’s one thing having wet weather when you go on holiday but when your life falls apart because of torrential rain that is a tragedy. So far this morning the sun is shining here and the colours of the trees and in the gardens are just beautiful. Long may it last – doubtful!