Britain says "Goodbye" to Cy Grant

Cy Grant, singer, actor and writer died on the 13th February at the age of 90.

What you didn't know was that he was :

* Born in a village in British Guiana and grew up surrounded by music, playing guitar and singing folk songs.

* Excelled at school and was keen to study law, but his parents lacked the funds.

* Worked as a civil servant and left for Britain and joined the RAF in 1941.
* Trained as a navigator and in 1943 was shot down in the Battle of the Ruhr, landing in Holland.

* Was identified by the Gestapo as : 'a member of the Royal Air Force of indeterminate race' and held as a prisoner of war for two years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhTZqkXV4MY


* In 1957, began to make daily appearances on the BBC's 'Tonight' programme, bringing by giving a 'calypso' rendition of the News.

He's about half way through this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3uvjRyZa8w
And right up front in this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ21FPr9S2U

* Was the first black face on TV on a regular basis.

* Gave up 'Newsnight' in 1960, fearing that he would be considered capable of nothing else.

* Voiced a character for Gerry Anderson's 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' and appeared in an episode of The Persuaders, opposite Roger Moore.

* Anderson,had lost his own brother over the Netherlands in the War and drew on Cy's personal qualities to develop one of the first positive black fictional characters in children's television. These were the qualities deemed necessary by Anderson to defeat the Mysterons in 2068.

* His 'melliflous tones' gave Lieutenant Green, the black defender of Planet Earth alongside Captain Scarlet, a serene and heroic quality.

* He looked back on that series, an allegory of the battle between good and evil, with great fondness.

* Successfully auditioned for Laurence Olivier, had stage appearances for Olivier's company in London and New York.

* In 1965 was acclaimed as 'Othello' at the 'Phoenix Theatre', Leicester.

* In 1966 starred in 'Cindy Ella' with Cleo Laine at the Garrick Theatre.

* Appeared in the films, 'Shaft in Africa' (1973) and 'At the Earth's Core' (1976).

And the deeper side of Cy Grant :

* In order to launch black artistic talent, in 1973 founded 'Drum Arts Centre', in London, with Zimbabwean actor, John Mapondera. Staged a number of productions, including 'Bread' by Matura and 'The Gods Are Not to Blame', by Rotimi.

* The two major influences in his life, were the poet, politician, and philosopher , Aime Cesaire and the Chinese text called 'Tao Te Ching'.

* Produced and performed Cesaire's epic poem 'Notebook of a Return to the Native Land' as a one-man show,and toured Britain for more than two years. He was later to say of Cesaire:
"His revolt against Europe is what worked on me in a subliminal yet positive way. It wasn't just a revolt against racism, colonialism and the excesses of European culture, but a call for a return to our native human values, to recognise that nature is alive and bounteous and that we should not abuse her."

* In his book, 'Blackness and the Dreaming Soul', (2007), argued that white society must first discover new ways of seeing itself, in order that it might comprehend and value the "otherness" of its indigenous black citizens.

* In his essay, 'The Way of the West' (2008), argued that the black man, having reclaimed his authentic history and recovered his lost soul, must not fall into the trap of aspiring to assimilate into the so-called 'civilised values' of his former oppressors.

* Kurt Barling wrote ' In 2008, I persuaded Cy Grant to return to the village in the Netherlands where he had landed during the War to make a documentary. He recalled the desperate efforts to evacuate his plane when it crashed on Dutch soil, and the absurdity of thinking he could escape to Spain. "A black man in occupied Europe had no means of disguise".

P.S. Birthdays :

Len Deighton, novelist, is 81 today.

Graeme Garden, comic actor and script writer, 67 today.

Michael Buerk, broadcaster, 64 today.

Mans' technology of present & future were foreseen by 2 Britons : H.G.Wells and Sir James Jeans , but Canada's K.D.Lang reminds us of our humanity

I watched the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics and I was awestruck by the technology. It reminded me of the words H.G.Wells wrote, probably 70 years ago :

'It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn.

It is possible to believe that all that the human mind has accomplished is but the dream before the awakening; out of our lineage, minds will spring that will reach back to us in our littleness to know us better than we know ourselves.

A day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

Also the words of Sir James Jeans in 1928 : 'Humanity is at the very beginning of its existence—a new-born babe, with all the unexplored potentialities of babyhood; and until the last few moments its interest has been centred, absolutely and exclusively, on its cradle and feeding bottle.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hopwood_Jeans

Returning to the 'Opening of the Vancouver Olympics', it wasn't the awesome technolgy which brought a tear to my eye, but K.D.Lang's soulful rendition of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEKL4GaAdvg

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to Claire Bloom who is 79 today

So, Claire Bloom is 79 today. This is how I first saw and remember her in John Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger' in 1958 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a_VPXM8i0s

Burton was magnificent and she was beautiful and the script resonated with Post-War anger, as men like Osborne broke free from their pre- and post-War time chains. They precursored the 1960's, in fact, without them the 60's would not have happened.

The things I didn't know :

* Daughter of Elizabeth Grew and Edward Blume.

* Paternal grandparents, Blumenthal, and maternal grandparents, Griewski, were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.

She appeared :

* In her stage debut in 1946, at 15, with the Oxford Repertory Theatre.

* On the London stage in 1947 in 'The Lady's Not For Burning' with Richard Burton and John Gielgud.

* In her first film role in 1948 in the 'The Blind Goddess'.

* In 'Limelight' after chosen by Chaplin in 1952.

* In Laurence Olivier's film of 'Richard III', Ibsen's 'A Doll's House', 'The Outrage' with Paul Newman and Laurence Harvey, as well as, the films, 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' and 'Look Back in Anger'.

* In the 1960s played, as an unhinged housewife, in 'The Chapman Report', a psychologist in 'Charly', and Theodora in 'The Haunting'.

* The 1989 Woody Allen film, 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'.

* 'Brideshead Revisited', on television, in 1981.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI8ZtLiNB00

* On the London stage in 'Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks' and co-starred with Billy Zane

* 'Doctor Who' in 2009.

Personal life :

* Married three times. First in 1959, to actor Rod Steiger.

* Third to Philip Roth and divorced in 1995.

* Written 2 memoirs. The second went into her marriages but her romantic relationships with Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier.

Britain is no country for old men who have become ' politically explosive'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnj3
I listened to a programme on Radio 4 this morning called 'Broadcasting House' which deals with the political issues which have arisen in the week. This week it was the care of old people in Britain with Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary calling and emergency conference to discuss how to fund free care at home for the elderly.

The commentator said that this week : " The whole issue of health care in old age, became so much more politically explosive ".

The Chief Political Correspondent came on and made the points that :

* Reform of the long term of the elderly had been a 'backwater'.

* Last Autumn the Prime Minister said there would be free care for the most needy.

* Cash-strapped Local Councils were outraged.

* David Cameron piled in this week to say : " It is Labour Councils telling the P.M. his policy doesn't add up".

Dame Joan Bakewell said in the House Of Lords : " I think it highly regrettable that political interests have stepped in where this serious issue was being discussed by serious men with old people at heart".
The correspondent said : " At least long term care is no longer political back water".

And the Richard Reeves, the Director of the 'Think Tank' called 'Demos' came on and made these points, from which you can draw your own conclusions :

* More people will need more care and the big question is how to pay for it.

* The only fair answers is to make pensioners sell their own homes to pay for their own care.

* Labour promise to pay elderly people to have care in their own homes will cost £1,000,000,000 and this is money they don't have.

* Baby boomers who will need the care have "done pretty well for themselves out of the property market and their assets should be sold to pay for their care, even if it means that their children miss out on juicy tax free inheritances".

* The alternative of paying for care from general taxation would be unfair with a cleaner earning £9,000 a year paying for someones care, so that "they can pass on their house worth half a million quid to their children".

* "Inherited money is the least morally deserving unrelated to any effort or talent on the part of the recipient".

* Protecting the rights of affluent people to "slosh their money down to the next generation" should not be a high priority for a Labour Government.

* The younger generation " worried about their inheritance" should step in and provide care for their parents themselves, rather than expect the State to step in.

* " Britons are obsessed with bricks and mortar, but this madness has to stop".

* " I'm sorry Mum and Dad, But you'll have to sell the house".

BABY BOOMERS, THERE ARE SHADOW MINISTERS LIKE DAVID WILLETTS AND ORGANISATIONS LIKE 'DEMOS', WHO DO NOT LOVE YOU.

Canada is a country for old men like Donald Sutherland

I watched the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics at Vancouver which was spectacular. A feast of modern technology. I learnt that, like Donald, Joni Mitchell, the singer, is Canadian ; as is k.d.lang who sang a beautiful rendition of the Canadian, Leonard Cohen's 'Alleluia' or is it 'Halleluyah' ?

For me, the sight of 1.93m, Donald Sutherland, striding out with the Olympic flag, with 5 other bearers, to lay in front of the red coated police officers, was quite something, with his white beard, 75 years and mane of hair.

My first memory of him was from the film 'M.A.S.H' in 1970, where he co-starred with Elliot Gould. It was set in the Korean War, in the 1950's, but was really about the Vietnam War in the 1960's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UeYGS0UU6E

Donald's life ;

Born : 1935, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

Jobs : Radio DJ in his youth
: Almost set on becoming an engineer after graduating from the University of Toronto with degrees in engineering and drama. He chose drama.

: His first roles were bit parts in films like : 'Dr. Terror's House of Horrors' in 1965 with Christopher Lee.

: He appeared in episodes of TV shows such as 'The Saint' and 'Court Martial'.

: First film break in which he played Vernon Pinkley in the Second World War film 'The Dirty Dozen' in 1967

: His second break was playing in the film 'MASH' in 1970 with Elliott Gould and Tom Skerritt.

: His next best film would have to be 'Klute' in 1971, which made Jane Fonda a star and was about a prostitute whose friend was mysteriously murdered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq8RATwKeAk

: His career went on : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000661/bio

Long live old Canadians like Donald Sutherland !

His commercial for the Olympics with his 'lilting' Canadian voice :

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRSu_ENxn7U

Britain's old men, you are moaning busy bodies who can't laugh at yourselves

An article appeared in the Telegraph newspaper in January entitled :

Are you fed up with Britain's old people?

Are you living in fear of Britain's teenagers?

We hear a lot about Britain's youth and how bad they are for society but perhaps the problem doesn't lie with them at all. Perhaps old people aren't what they used to be.

Where once old people were kindly and sat quietly on park benches minding their own business, now we have a generation of busy-bodies, constantly moaning about the state of Britain and bragging about how lucky they will be to drop dead before it gets any worse.

Thanks to the property boom, the house they bought for next to nothing back in the Sixties is now worth a fortune and still they moan about how hard it is to make ends meet.

They spent much of their working lives in Britain pre-Thatcher, leaving at 5pm on the dot and always enjoying a lunch break thanks to trade unions that have long since been neutered. Yet still they complain about poor quality services.

They received their education when degrees and A-levels meant something but all they use their superior knowledge for is complaining, rather than putting things right. Worst of all, they can't laugh at themselves.

Have you had enough of old people?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Perhaps the author of the article would approve if we were all more like this cheerful old German :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR2zaPeafEE

P.S. I was at my local Tescos supermarket the other day and I had a moan to the duty manager about the filth and litter outside around the cash machines. He indicated that he would do something about it. Needless to say, when I left half an hour later the rubbish was still there.

Britain, in winter, is no place for old men but still a place for Sandie Shaw

It's snowing again and the forecast for this week and next week is bleak.



Look at that high pressure system to the right of Scandinavia. That's the one which will drag in cold air from Siberia which will feed into Western Europe and bring the snow and icicles back into Britain by the end of this week and into next week.

'TheWeatherOutlook' website says :

COLD AND WINTRY WEEK AHEAD

The next couple of weeks look set to be cold and increasingly wintry across the UK, with an increasing chance of sleet or snow. The first half of the coming week should be mostly dry, although in the east there will be some wintry showers at times.

During the second half of the week we expect it to turn even colder, with sleet and snow showers becoming heavy in central and eastern regions.

By the weekend there may well be some significant accumulations of snow, particularly in the east, with a white Valentines day possible.

Overnight frost will also become sharp and widespread, although the longer daylight period at this time of year means that in most places temperatures should continue to rise just above 0c.

The following week looks likely to remain cold, although we may switch from an easterly air stream to a northerly one. This is likely to increase the snow risk for northern areas.

February often brings the UK its most wintry weather, with the coldest conditions frequently coinciding with Valentine's Day, and it looks as though this pattern may well occur this year.
http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/

On February 18th 1947, I was a 5 month old foetus snug in the womb, while outside my mother endured the worst winter weather of the century.
















Sandie Shaw was born on the 26th February in 1947.
She sang for us old men in the 1960's and back then, we would all willingly, have spent out 'dinner money' on her :


Always Something There To Remind Me : 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsB-_le-VEg

Don't You Know : 1965
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSbViUU4Z8g&NR=1

Long long Live Love : 1965
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At8as-jujIs

Puppet on a String : 1967
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrs8CgpH980

Her biography : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandie_Shaw

Google :'Old People in Britain Today'

If you put 'Old People in Britain Today' on a 'Google' search, it produces a rich harvest of sad and depressing websites :

Survey finds 4% of older people in Britain are victims of abuse ...At least 340000 older people are being abused in their own homes by family, ... The first thorough survey of elder abuse in Britain found 4% of people over 66 are...http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/jun/15/socialcare.longtermcare

Old people 'being robbed of will to live' by loneliness - This ...The NOP survey found that 72 per....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/old-people-being-robbed-of-will-to-live-by-loneliness-565591.html

Elderly people's lives 'worsen'... More than one fifth of elderly people feel they are living in poverty and 28% say their lives have got worse.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6747161.stm

Britain's elderly people 'bankrupted' by care bills.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1190134/Britains-elderly-people-bankrupted-care-bills.html

Marginalised and depressed : One million older people in the UK..
http://www.ippr.org/pressreleases/?id=3215

The Decline of Employment Among Older People in Britain by N Campbell.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/6501/1/The_Decline_of_Employment_Among_Older_People_in_Britain.pdf

Who would want be a pensioner? The grim reality for millions of older people is a far cry from the ...
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/pensions/article.html?in_article_id=431935&in_page_id=6

Britain Today : A country which neither reveres nor cares for large numbers of its old people.

Britain says " Happy birthday" to Professor Greenhalgh, Jimmy Tarbuck, Rabbi Lionel Blue, Denis Norden and Patrick Macnee

" Happy Birthday" today to :

1. Patrick Macnee. Actor who is 88
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0YOlU3SMgs

2. Denis Norden. Scriptwriter and broadcaster : 88
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr1rEFF1-IY

3. Rabbi Lionel Blue. Broadcaster : 80
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5336130.stm

4. Jimmy Tarbuck. Comedian : 70
This is the best I came up with from 18 years ago :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvRoGpcxyrs

5. Professor Roger Greenhalgh : 69
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwQACYm77xU

Yesterday, Britain said "Happy Birthday" to a remarkable old man called Sir Norman Wisdom

Norman Wisdom was born 95 years ago in the Marylebone district of London. Baby boomers like me will remember him for his films in the 1950's where he wore a tweed flat cap askew, with peak turned up, a suit at least two sizes too tight and a crumpled collar and a mangled tie.

The 'Rank Organisation' turned out the films :

Trouble in Store (1953)
One Good Turn (1954)
As Long as They're Happy (1955)
Man of the Moment (1955)
Up in the World (1956)
Just My Luck (1957)
The Square Peg (1958)
Follow a Star (1959)

Few people will know that :

* He went to a children's home in Deal, Kent.

* He ran away when he was 11, then returned and when he left school at 13, became an errand boy with a grocery store.

* He walked to Cardiff, where he became a cabin boy in the Merchant Navy.

* He also worked as a coal-miner, waiter and pageboy.

* He enlisted as a drummer boy in the '10th Royal Hussars' of the British Army and in 1930 was posted to Lucknow in India as a bandsman.

* He gained an education certificate, rode horses and was the 'Flyweight Boxing Champion' of the British Army in India.

* He learned to play the trumpet and clarinet.* While performing a comedy boxing routine in an army gym, discovered he had a talent for entertainment and began to develop his skills as a musician and stage entertainer.

* After leaving the army he worked as a private hire car driver and having improved his diction in the army, also took a job as a night telephone operator.

* At the outbreak of World War II, was sent to work in a communications centre in a command bunker in London, where he connected telephone calls from war leaders to Prime Minister Churchill.

* When he left the Army in 1946, made his debut as a professional entertainer at the age of 31 and was a West End star within two years.

* His film career started in 1949.

This takes us back into that smaller, gentler world of the 1950's where I have my 'heimat' :

'Trouble in Store' from 1953 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbwS9qcpi0k

'The Square Peg' from 1958 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw3ZExDxySs

'A Stitch in Time' from 1963 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYSGStXMr7I&NR=1

His biography : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SNcocqFwp8

Britain's old grandpas, you have a champion in Baroness Deech

I met an old friend for lunch in a Kentish pub yesterday. He is 67 years old and a grandfather. What's more, at the moment, he and his wife have their 8 and 11 year old grandsons living with them. The fact that the television is loud in their bedroom and the living room floor strewn with toys are minor factors in their lives.

By coincidence, at the very moment I was talking to my friend, Baroness Deech, who is a Senior Law Lord in the House of Lords, was making a speech at Gresham College in London.

She made the point that wealthier grandparents give money to grandchildren for houses and higher education and many provide unpaid childcare. She said : 'There is a dearth of affordable childcare and an attempt to meet it by conscripting grandmothers.' By babysitting - an average of 16 hours a week - they save families some £50billion a year.

Her point was that, despite all this, the number of elderly people ending up in care homes is on the rise.

'In return for all that grandparents do, should there not be an obligation to keep them, and to keep parents, and reciprocate the care that was given by them to children and grandchildren in their youth?'

She called for a return to the values of the Elizabethan Poor Law, which, until it was repealed by Labour in 1948, forced families to look after those who had brought them up.

She said in some U.S. states and Singapore, family members still have a responsibility to look after aged relatives.

She conceded, however, that the welfare state was so embedded in British society, that it would probably be impossible to force grandchildren to meet financial obligations.

Later in the afternoon when she was interviewed on the PM radio programme, she said that the idea also wouldn't work because families were too fragmented and, in addition, the care of elderly relatives would fall unfairly on the shoulders of women.

The Baroness, however, has raised the debate and her arguments about the contribution the older generation have made and are still making stand in contrast to those of Shadow Cabinet Minister, David Willets who argues that the elderly are both wealthy and avaricious and an increasing burden on the young. (See my postings for January 18th and 20th).

After lunch yesterday, my friend, the 67 year old grandpa, drove to pick up his 8 and 11 year old grandsons from school.

Britain is a country where 'cold callers' on the telephone prey on old men

I had a call last week from a young man who wanted to sell me the 'energy'- gas and electricity- from his company.

He asked me : " Who do you get your energy from ?"
I said : " That's private".
He said : " That can't be private".

I put the phone down.

I had a call today, purportedly from my Bank.
Someone from 'India' ? spoke very quickly to me.
I asked her to slow down and said : " Are you trying to sell me something ?"
Her reply was garbled.

I put the phone down.

Britain today : a country employing telephone predators.

Britain is a country where old men count birds in their back gardens

Yesterday my friend Del Boy and I took part, along with thousands of other Brits, young and old, in the annual 'Big Garden Birdwatch', organised by 'The Royal Society for The Protection of Birds'. The results are fed to the Society by post or on line and it is then possible to see which speicies are rising in numbers and those in decline. I'm not sure, but I suspect that this is the only country in the world where something like this happens.

It was a fine, crisp and cold day and this was our tally in my back garden :
20 wood pigeon
8 magpie
3 black bird
3 blue tit
2 dunnock
2 starling
1 robin
1 thrush
1 collared dove
1 jay
1 common gull
1 black headed gull
1 greater spotted woodpecker





This last little chap, a greater spotted woodpecker, is rare and 'made the morning' of the two old boys keeping their tally.

Gillingham's Football Stadium is a place for old men

I went to Gillingham's 'Priestfield Stadium' yesterday to see the local team play 'at home' against the London team from Walsall.

I was amongst 4,795 other people in the stadium, most of them fans of the 'Gills' including my companions, our leader Del Boy, Robbie and Kelvin.

I know very little about football, but what I did observe was :

* How young the players were, with most in their 20's.

* How fast the game was, as a consequence of youth.

* How the Old Boys like me sat and cheered in the crowd.

* How the Old Boys were playing their role as supporters alongside their sons or daughters and grandchildren who were also present. It was a family event.

Gillingham occupy a place in the 'First Division'and achieved this in May 2009 with their win against Shewsbury in Wembley Stadium in May last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSWQkoo2JLE

P.S. It was very cold sitting in the Stadium. I wore 2 pairs of socks, a pair of my wife's tights, pants and undershirt, cardigan, scarf, overcoat, gloves, hat and warm shoes and I was still cold.

This is what us 'True Brits' do for our sport. Sacrifice and fortitude and no moaning.

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to Tony Blackburn and Andrew Loog Oldham

Andrew Oldham, music producer, impresario and author is 66 today. Tony Blackburn, disc jockey is 67.


Andrew was in London in the Second World War in 1944. His father, Andrew Loog was a United States Army Air Force lieutenant of Dutch descent who served with the Eighth Air Force who was killed in June 1943 when his B-17 bomber was shot down over the English Channel. His Australian mother was a nurse and comptometer operator.

His interest in the pop culture of the 1960s and the Soho coffeehouse scene, led to working for Carnaby Street mod designer, John Stephen and later as an assistant in Mary Quant's shop.

In the field of music he became a press agent for British and American rock & roll acts and in 1963 he was tipped off by a journalist friend to check out a young R&B band called 'The Rolling Stones' and with his business he took over their management.

His moves, which helped propel the group to fame included:

* retaining ownership of the band's master tapes, which allowed greater artistic freedom than a standard recording contract.

* bringing Lennon and McCartney to the recording studio at a crucial moment, which led to their "I Wanna Be Your Man" becoming the Rolling Stones' second single.

* getting the Rolling Stones to write their own material and actively promoting a "bad boy" image for The Rolling Stones as a contrast to the clean shaven Beatles.

As 'The Stones'success increased, he thrived on a reputation as a garrulous, androgynous gangster who wore makeup and shades but relied on his bodyguard 'Reg' to threaten rivals.

He sold his share of the Rolling Stones' management to Allen Klein in 1966, but continued in his role as the band's producer until late 1967.

In 1965 Oldham set up Immediate Records, and released work by PP Arnold, Chris Farlowe and the Small Faces. After the Small Faces split in 1969, he put together Humble Pie, featuring Steve Marriott formerly of the Small Faces and Peter Frampton of 'The Herd'.

Since the 1970s he has worked in the USA and in Colombia which has been his primary residence since the mid-80s, when he married Esther Farfan, a Colombian model. There he became a mentor for local bands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEC0eD0dJys

Tony Blackburn was also born during the Second World War. He first achieved notice as a disc jockey who broadcast on the offshore pirate stations 'Radio Caroline' and 'Radio London' in the 1960s and was the first presenter to appear on BBC Radio 1 in 1967 and launched the new station with : "...and good morning everyone! Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1". His cheery style and corny jokes ensured his household reputation and made him a popular figure with some, though his dislike of heavy and progressive rock and punk made him a hate figure with others. His fellow Radio 1 DJ John Peel would often derisively refer to him as 'Timmy Bannockburn'.

After a long career as a presenter he hit the headlines in 2004 when he was temporarily suspended from his show on 'Classic Gold' for playing songs by Cliff Richard, in defiance of a ruling by the head of programmes that Richard's music did not match the station's 'brand values'.

The dispute was even referred to in Parliament, with Leader of the House Peter Hain voicing his support for Blackburn.

He was reinstated, amid rumours that the episode was merely a publicity stunt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-GoutDkY_Q

Britain is a country verdant with grumpy old men

Tony Slattery, the Irish comedian is only 51 years old, but he already has the makings of a first class grumpy old man.



I found myself agreeing with him as he gave his take on :

( I've starred my favourites )

Music
Cinema
Bottled water *
Multitasking companies
Post *
Getting old
Crossing the road
The tube
Weather girls *
Bluetooth
Directory enquiries *
DVD
Poncy art critics *
Hair *
Spilling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vXGYF-d1CM

This blog has made this old man famous in Sweden and perhaps the World.

http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1264419102406RA78&q=low

Britain is no country for old men confirmed

Britain's home alone old men :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZtH-5KqTl8

Sad.

And now something to cheer us old men up :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14njUwJUg1I

Britain's River Medway has a riverside path for elderly joggers

My twitcher friend, Del Boy has sent me some photos of the Medway Estuary and if you ignore the power station in the background, it is astonishingly beautiful. The riverside path is just the place for old men to jog and jog their memories at the same time.

Britain is a country where old men can jog their memories.

Scientists now tell us that jogging makes your brain grow.
Apparently, research on mice shows that running and other aerobic exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells, leading to enhanced memory recall though the growth of new brain matter.

The new brain cells appeared in a region that is linked to the formation and recollection of memories. The equivalent result in humans could be remembering what you had for dinner yesterday and the day before, or where you parked on different trips to the supermarket.


Can you remember these things ?

Well, if you can't START JOGGING ! ......and who knows, before long you might be competing like this :