Re: Would you believe it?

"Steve Cobham" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote...

> "James Screaton" <screaton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>>>>>I just happened to have my car radio on Radio 2 at about 5:30 and they
>>>>>were [ ... ] "Wow Brill" I thought. [ ... ]

>>James (who is rather amazed to be listening to R2, let alone defending it
>>:)

> Well, compared to most of the Radio One output Two seems at least the
> lesser of the two evils IMO.
> I actually listen to a lot of R2 in the car - never at home apart from
> maybe Wossy on a Saturday morning.

> It's OK, although for some strange reason the R2 execs seem to think
> that its demographic changes from 25 to 50 year olds the rest of the
> week to zimmer-frame merchants and incontinence pad wearers all day
> Sunday and also on Friday nights.

Really?

What about Russell Davies? His programme is highly analytical - the
successor to the muh-missed Benny Green.

I'll concede your point in respect of those two renowned musicologists Elain
Page and Lulu... :-(

Bring back Desmond Carrington, I say.

> It wasn't really that long ago that you could tune into Sing Something
> Simple on Sunday night with the George Mitchell Singers (who had also
> been the Black & White Minstrels back in the days of yore FFS).

Still on AFAIK. It isn't a year-round programme though.

> I always wanted to kill the accordian player who often accompanied
> them.
> Slowly.

Jack Emblow? Does more sessions than even Clem Cattini. Any time you hear an
accordion on a record or radio/TV programme, it's likely to be Jack - and he
can play literally anything on the (family of) instrument(s). I can't claim
to be fond of highlnd fling stuff, put Parisian Musette is wonderful.

> I remember them on TV and all the men blacked up like a load of Al
> Jolsons and wore satiny suits and toppers, whilst the women remained
> white as far as I can remember- ie no black slap whatsoever - and
> often wore leotard things so their legs were on show all the way from
> their toes to their nethers.

> I mean, what the holy dribbling feck was *that* all about? On one hand
> you insulted black people with the men blacking up grotesquely, but on
> the other you had all these uppity blacks consortin' wuth white wimmen
> who wuz half-nekkid! ;)

> Talk about mixed signals!

It would be more useful to talk about the programme in its correct and
considerable (American) historical context. The number of intelligent people
queuing up in recent years to condemn the B&W Minstrels - completely without
reference to what was acceptable in the period or to the tradition it
represented - is astounding. Ironically, they would probably be among the
first to insist that analagous prejudiced thinking and unevidenced
conclusions in other fields is unacceptable.

> Steve - who awaits some sort of response from Jim Nugent as he's
> probably the only other person here who remembers the B&W Minstrels!

I can't say it was my favourite thing at the time - far from it - but it was
"theatrical variety" of a sort on a Sunday, at a time of the evening when
the ABC TV competitive offering was something usually "worthy" like "The
Sunday Break" (remember that? I found it hypnotically boring at the age of
9) - SNATP wasn't on until later. And Leslie Crowther and "Crackerjack's"
Peter Glaze took part as light relief (not blacked up). Musically, it meant
little to me until I later developed an appreciation of the above-mentioned
Al Jolson; but that was decades later.

I am - by and large - reluctant to dismiss any musical form or tradition,
but I make an exception for things that take themselves too seriously and
whose practitioners and adherents take a dismissive attitude to other
peoples' tastes.

But hey... you *know* that!


.

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