Friday 31 March 2017

Donald Trump's False Hair - comics by kids


For my last Comic Art Masterclasses on the month I took a mini road trip through Northumberland, from Newcastle up to Alnwick, courtesy of the Hexham Book Festival who have had me back to the North East repeatedly, working with reluctant readers, on whom I seem to have some sort of effect. Trump has, again, reared his ugly head. And, in Northumberland CofE Academy, we see what rests on top of it.


And here we have the sort of good old fashioned fun titles you get when kids let their imaginations run free, and don't just make bloomin' Donald Trump gags. As always, all the kids in the class write a title down, then we choose the favourite. The covers get drawn, by me, very quickly, while the kids are designing their characters, then they add a small doodle to the cover while waiting for me to draw their faces. Lindisfarne Primary & John Calvert Spence College, how are those for cracking school names?




When I get the chance, by arriving in good time before the class starts, I get a drawing done on the flipchart. These are various mixed efforts from the past month. For the main image I usually work from reference from a popular comic, largely so that the kids will recognise the character and the style. Simple characters like Beano stars, Adventure Time, Doctor Who and the Simpsons I draw freehand, but to be honest kids seem to be equally impressed by me copying a drawing from reference on my phone as they are when I conjure the pictures up from nowhere. And I hope everyone appreciates how much effort I make to get as many female as male characters on each flipchart? You're welcome.


The celebrities these four classes chose for my demonstration strip were Neymar, Rowan Atkinson, Simon Cowell and Bill Gates.





Comic Art Masterclasses coming up in 2017:

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Saturday 25 March 2017

Miss Strong and vans - comics by kids


No, I have no idea why the year 7 (or as they're called, First Form) pupils at the King's School in Gloucester have an obsession with vans. But both groups, independent of each other, thought mentioning a van in the title of their group comic was the funniest thing on God's good earth. And why not?




In Andover, the year 5 pupils made their teacher the star of the front cover (her name was actually Miss Sloham, but she seems to have acquired a rather positive alter-ego), while the year 6s proved to be just plain silly (they insisted on it being Lemon Grabber sat on a realistic drawing of a swivelling office chair). As always, the class all take away an A5 photocopied comic containing a strip by every one of them, plus an individual caricature by me. I add these dabs of colour to the covers after the event.


Friday's class, near Andover, was a novelty. A group of home-schooled pupils, brought together by the Hamphire Home Ed Network. I've had a little experience with home-schooled pupils before and found some discipline problems, but that couldn't have been further from the case today. A group of 26, in a community centre in a Hampshire village, were as well behaved as any I've worked with, and just as easily amused by the mention of a butt.




The celebrities these five classes chose for my demonstration strip were Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Donald Trump, Ariana Grande, The Queen and, novel choice of the week, Phil Vickery. When I asked why the pupil, at Kings in Gloucester, had nominated Phil Vickery she replied "He's my Dad". This is what one finds in the independent sector. (In the past I've taught the children and grand children of everyone from Will Carling and Ronnie Wood to Bob Marley and the Beckhams. The only state schools with so many celebrity offspring are those in King's Heath in Birmingham where someone in every class appears to have an uncle in UB40.)



Comic Art Masterclasses coming up in 2017:

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Monday 20 March 2017

10 Movies That La La Land Isn't


I realise I'm late to the party, but I finally got around to seeing La La Land, in the cinema just before it makes its way to the small screen, and I have to say it suffered from the overhype. No film could live up to the expectations that get built up when a movie has broken the record for Oscar nominations, and La La Land probably breaks a new record for the number of people it's disappointed as a result. It's not that it wasn't enjoyable. But it wasn't "all that". Here, in passing, are ten movies it wasn't.


LA Story
As well as being the second best movie about a TV weatherman (just beaten by Groundhog Day), Steve Martin's LA Story (1991) is probably the best and most honest love story to the city of Los Angeles. Coming with the same intentions as Damien Chazelle, to romanticise LA, not by comparison to other more obviously romantic cities, but by playing up its distinct qualities, from its freeways to its fads, its shallowness to the landmarks on its hills, Steve Martin does it beautifully. Remaining funny throughout, though Martin was just on the cusp of moving from cinema's funniest man to its sentimentalistist, he pulls off a truly romantic paean to the city of stars.


Sunset Boulevard
For a more bittersweet Hollywood romance, Billy Wilder's tale of self-delusion and shattered dreams is the winner. Made in 1950, when Hollywood was, for the first time, coming to realise the depths of its disconnection from the real world, and its first generation of superstars were fading into obscurity while the latest generation of hopefuls tried to make it, Sunset Boulevard conjures up a realistic world of backlots and mansions, peopled by strivers and dreamers, hopefuls and the hopeless. La La Land echoes much of Boulevard's look and feel, down to its intense leading man & the compromises he makes, without feeling it takes you as far under the skin of this strange city.


Rebel Without A Cause
La La Land, rather oddly, homages Rebel Without A Cause directly, showing a clip from the film then restaging it, taking our couple to the Griffith Observatory, in the footsteps of James Dean and Natalie Wood. As a film to have yourself compared with, it is a very dangerous choice. Nicholas Ray's 1955 film portrayed a new generation of youngsters, the booming post-war Beat kids who were coming to terms with new freedoms and asking new questions about the world and themselves. And it did so using brand new acting techniques, with Dean and Sal Mineo fresh from the Ilya Kazan school of method acting. To contrast this introspective but adventurous generation with the pair of Millennials in La La Land is to throw into stark relief the vacuousness at the heart of the latter's story.
     Rebel's angst-ridden teens have deep psychological problems, reflecting realities in society at large, and highlighting the difficulties between their generation and their parents. La La Land's duo's biggest concerns are that they keep failing auditions and that jazz isn't as popular it used to be.
     The Griffith Observatory is the sight of the final fatal shootout in Rebel - a scene which is even referenced in La La Land: "I got the bullets - look". To remind the viewer of this, then use the venue for a dreamy dance sequence could almost be satirical, but comes across as just puzzling. Heaven forfend we're being asked to compare Ryan Reynolds with James Dean.




Any Fred Astaire film
In this article Arlene Phillips compares Gosling favourably to Astaire, noting "he’s obviously studied Astaire and he does a perfectly good imitation of what style is about". And the dancing of Mia and Seb was supposed to be naive and gauche, so perhaps it's unfair to point out that Gosling & Stone are no Astaire & Rogers. But I'm just saying, those two do stand out as being the only non-dancers in a dance-ful movie. Not bad choreography, I'll give it that. But.


Weekend
Jean Luc Godard's 1967 nouvelle vague movie has the most famous traffic jam tracking shot in film history. Seven minutes long, it pans past a mile of cars in a jam, their various inhabitants all doing something of interest, from picnicking in the road to carrying lions in the back, until (spoiler alert) we whizz past the grisly car crash that caused the queue. This is homaged in the opening shot of La La Land. Unless they're homaging the traffic jam scene from Fellini's 8-and-a-half (1964), though that was done better in REM's Everybody Hurts video. Or are they doing Falling Down with Michael Douglas?


Enchanted
Whoever Chazelle is homaging with the opening song and dance number, it certainly is impressive. But for a recent movie musical that not only uses our central character well & moves the story on, with a pivotal lyric & a cracking tune, but also spoofs the entire genre of musical routines, few can beat Amy Adams performing That's How You Know in Disney's Enchanted (2007). Most of the tropes in Another Day Of Sun can be found here, though they get full marks for making it look like one take. Apparently Damien Chazelle wanted the road to reference the Yellow Brick Road in Wizard Of Oz. Really Damien, you're asking to be compared to a lot of movies that maybe you shouldn't.


The Player
If it's impressively long tracking shots and a satire of contemporary Hollywood you want, you're looking for Robert Altman's The Player (1992). Opening with a 7 and a half minute tracking shot, that manages to introduce every plot & sub plot of the movie while cramming in a dozen top gags at the expense of the LA movie world, it goes on to lampoon the industry while also demonstrating some exemplary film making. Never once descending to homage, Altman continues the realism, improv & ensemble casting he's utilised in his previous works, this time with a good plot too.

(A very good piece on the 12 Best Long Takes In Film History, here from CineFix)





Fame
Not that I'm obsessing over the one scene where they dance on car roofs, but really Fame owns that. Fame (1980) also remains the best evocation on film of the struggles of wannabes in the acting business. Mixing a dirty-looking realism with a flashy cinematography he'd brought from British advertising that was streets ahead of his American contemporaries, Alan Parker makes the lives and problems of his young leads truly believable. Fame is also excellently cast, entirely with unfamiliar faces, all of whom can out-dance the La La Land leads. And you end up knowing that these characters, despite being obviously more talented than the couple in La La Land, will most likely never achieve the Fame in the movie's title. Also, unlike LLL, these self-obsessed brats are shown to care more about other people than they do themselves. How different the 1970s must have been.


Whiplash
Damien Chazelle's previous feature film was "the drumming one", whose title we can never remember. I still have to wrack my brain to remember why it was called Whiplash (I won't spoil it for you). At its heart was jazz music, as with the Seb character in LLL, and the protaganist's struggle to succeed. The big difference with Whiplash is that the struggle is palpable, the enemy is terrifying and real, and our hero exudes literal blood, sweat and tears to prove himself. The story also twists and turns, tightening the knot and cranking up the drama. And is there a happy ending in Whiplash? Even after you've watched it, you're not entirely sure. But if you wanted a movie that was, in so many ways, the diametric opposite of La La Land in terms of drama, originality, and overall impressiveness, you don't have to go far. You don't even have to go to a different director.


Singing In The Rain
The movie that La La Land is most often compared to, and one that it homages directly, is the one with which it fails the biggest comparison. Both are positive, optimistic, romantic musical comedies, with song and dance routines, taking a satirical look behind the scenes at Hollywood and movie making. The one made 65 years ago is set 90 years ago and is as stunning, entertaining and relevant today as it was then. The one made a year ago is already starting to look a bit meh.
La La Land also (spoiler alert) takes the ending of An American In Paris and redoes it. It would seem unkind to point out it had already been done, but really it had.

I apologise if I've been overly harsh in rubbishing a film that probably didn't have pretensions to be as over-examined as it's being, and quite likely feels embarrassed to have been so feted in awards season as it ended up being. Had I discovered it as a little indie film on Netflix I'd no doubt be raving about it as a novel little gem and a work of overlooked genius. Sadly I came to it with expectations the like of which you probably only have if you're a twenty-something wannabe actor arriving in LA for the first time. And we all know how that ends up.



Comic Art Masterclasses coming up in 2017:



2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe
August 15 - 17 Camden Fringe

Sunday 19 March 2017

Richard III comic - brand new from the Socks


Check this shiny little baby out. It's only a brand new comic strip adaptation of the Socks' Richard III routine, which has just gone off to the printers.



The comic version of Romeo and Juliet has been doing very nicely on the merchandise table at the Socks Do Shakespeare touring gigs, so it only seemed right to build on that success with a follow up. Richard III runs to 12 pages long, so I've backed it up with the 8-page Robin Hood (from the Socks Go To Hollywood paperback) and a page-long condensed version of James Bond. A guaranteed collectible from the get-go. Let's see how it does when it comes back from Ka-Blam.


And did I mention the DVD? I finally got round to turning the Edinburgh production of Socks Do Shakespeare into a full length DVD, backed up with a few extra videos from the pre-show medley. At ten quid a pop they've proved remarkably popular. What with those and the t-shirts, and a new batch of Socks Do Shakespeare badges I produced last week, we're rocking that merchandise stand this tour.



2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe
August 15 - 17 Camden Fringe

Chicks, Zombies & Land Whales - comics by kids


I must say this week's selection of comics by schoolkids are all a bit dark. Deadpool, Gangsters, Zombies, Ninjas and Great Battles, all from kids in years 5 & 6 (and one mixed bag of all ages). Whatever, they've been good fun. And look, here's my second class of Welsh speakers in a week, this time in Caerphilly.




As I may have mentioned before, the most often mis-spelled phrase I ever see in primary schools is Zombie Apocalypse. Why it never comes up in year 5 spelling tests I don't know. I've seen some lovely guesses at how to spell it over the years. Likewise Ninja, which will regularly appear with a G, or without a middle N (a combination that, you can imagination, has to go totally unremarked-upon and quietly corrected when it pops up). This bunch from Blakesley Hall Primary in Birmingham.


This last cover comes from a day at Prema Arts centre in Uley, Gloucestershire where, rather than letting me do my usual two classes in a day, they insisted I do one day-long class. Lots of padding towards the end, but it went beautifully and sent away 28 satisfied customers. A good job, as they'd been charge a record-breaking £30 for the privilege. (No, I wasn't on a door-split. Yes, I should have been shouldn't I?) They had, to be fair, expecting only a dozen kids to apply. They hadn't reckoned with one kid and his mother coming all the way from Oxfordshire. It's nice to be popular.




The celebrities these classes chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Katy Perry, Johnny Depp, Ant McPartlin, Harry Hill (making a return after a drought of appearances - he used to be all over these classes in the TV Burp days) and, making his debut as far as I can recall, Chris Packham.



Comic Art Masterclasses coming up in 2017:

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Thursday 16 March 2017

Fresh printing of Socks Do Shakespeare t-shirts


Here it is in its full glory, the Socks Do Shakespeare t-shirt, as modelled in Edinburgh in 2016. 

The Socks Do Shakespeare t shirt from 2016 has proven so popular at the touring shows, that we're ordering another new batch. Who wants one?

TO ORDER - pay £18/$28 by Paypal to sockpuppets@sitcomtrials.co.uk including in your order the size you want and your full address and a shirt will be yours by post. (Production takes place week commencing March 20th 2017).

They'll also be available at this spring & summer's touring shows themselves, slightly cheaper because there's no postage (and because you've bought a ticket for the show, you deserve the discount). However some sizes do sell out, so to be sure of the size you want, ordering now could be best.



The t shirts are black, bearing the new Socks Do Shakespeare roundel, as you can see above. Available sizes are:

Small, Medium, Large, XL, XXL, Female Small and Female Medium.

 


2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe
August 15 - 17 Camden Fringe

Wednesday 15 March 2017

Socks do Purim & their first self-teched gig


The Socks have been asked to play some novel and varied gigs over the years, from birthday parties in converted railway stations to that gig in Castle Skibo to a couple on their wedding anniversary with no-one else there. Add to that list their first Purim gig. Courtesy of the Bloom family in Hendon, the Socks found themselves in the lounge at the head of a table seating what seemed like fifty people and, after Kev F had done an epic afternoon of caricaturing, the Socks played a half hour set which included the debut of their adaptation of The Book Of Esther. This went very well.

I called on the services of young Zacharia, middle child of the family, to operate my iPod, and he did a sterling job. One that, quite possibly, I might not have to oblige anyone else to do in the future.

Because tonight, in Glasgow, on the first of the Socks' two-night run at the Glasgow Comedy Festival, we performed our first-ever self-teched show.



Up until now I've needed someone to operate the sound cues on the iPod, reasoning that I can hardly make it work with Socks on my hands. I had tried, to no avail. Then, necessity being the mother of invention, I tried again in the run up to the Glasgow gig, when it looked like I wasn't going to be able to find a technician. Amazingly it worked. Somehow I am able to operate my touch-sensitive iPod through socks. And by attaching the iPod to the set, via the hi-tech method of sellotape, it stayed put firmly enough for me to do this during the show.


I cannot tell you what a revelation this is. This would have saved a dreadful show I did back in September last year when, in the support slot of a comedy night, I had to call on someone from the front row to help out and, beset by connection problems, it all went disastrously wrong.

This also means, in theory, I can chop and change tracks more easily during a show, without having to confuse a technician who can then get it wrong.



It's not perfect, mind. The iPod cable was very lucky in only having to reach a mixing desk that was directly behind me tonight. Though it would work for reaching my mini Marshall amp, which I use for gigs like the Purim party, so that's opened up possibilities too.

I have a second gig tomorrow night, at which there's every opportunity for this whole set up to go tits up. But for the moment I'm delighted that I pulled off a very good gig - even shifted a few bits of merchandise too (note to self, print more t shirts) - with a wonderful and appreciative audience, and didn't need a technician or anyone else's help whatsoever. I even took the tickets at the door myself, all sold online by one of those smashing online ticket systems the kids have nowadays, this one called See Tickets (we'll see just how smashing it is when we find out how long I have to wait to get paid.)

UPDATE: Second night in Glasgow was probably even better than the first. Had a bit of a technical hitch with a guitar, and an entertaining Socks fan called Hughie in the front row, who's been before. Neil Aitken captured a moment when the two collided:





2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe
August 15 - 17 Camden Fringe

Sunday 12 March 2017

Mourning Sounds Of The Sixties


I'm truly lamenting the loss of Radio 2's excellent Sounds Of The Sixties which, for 25 years, was curated by Phil 'The Collector' Swern and presented by Brian Matthew. As of last week it's been presented by Tony Blackburn, swapping the informative introductions to each record with inane drivel, and decimating the interesting selections, filling the show with predictable 60s hits the like of which you'd get on commercial radio. 

Below you can see the tracklisting of the final Brian show and the latest Tony show. As a good example of the difference in music selection, this week Tony played the Supremes. Which track? The rather predictable Where Did Our Love Go. In Brian's final show he also played the Supremes. The big difference? He played Baby Baby Wo Ist Unsere Liebe, the German language version. The difference between the old show and the new in a nutshell.



If the music choice is not disappointing enough, have a look at the very different content of the two shows. One is a history programme for the benefit of listeners who most likely were not alive at the time, the other a nostalgic reminiscence show. I've transcribed a few links by each presenter, from Brians' final show and Tony's second.  

Opening Link

Brian: Good morning Avids, and welcome to his week’s edition of Sounds Of The Sixties. It’s to be my final show, a bit more about that in a moment. After we’ve heard from Johnny Preston with his follow up to his hit Running Bear. This one was pipped to the post for the top spot by Cathy’s Clown by The Everly Brothers. So it was Number Two for Johnny in 1960 with Cradle Of Love.

Tony: Good morning, how are you this morning? It’s Saturday, it’s March the 11th, and of course if you’re listening to the repeat, it isn’t. But, er, ha ha ha, let’s get things underway shall we with Edwin Starr from 1966.

Tony: "How much information do you want at this time of the morning?"


Second link

Brian: Johnny Preston’s second hit in the UK, Cradle Of Love. Here’s a duo called Sundragon, who were Robert Freeman and Anthony James, whose first two records were covers of Lemon Pipers originals. The second one being Blueberry Blue.

Tony: That is terrific isn’t it, what a way to get things started, kicking off Saturday, that is SOS (Stop Her On Sight) Edwin Starr. Erm, actually first came out in 1966 when it only reached number 35 in the UK, then reissued for a double-A side with one of my favourites Headline News some two-and-a-half years later. How much information do you want at this time of the morning?


Supremes intro:

Brian: That 1969 recording by Melanie brings us to one of many foreign language versions of hits that The Collector dug up from the vaults, and a bit of the history of The Supremes, and the Holland Dozier Holland song Where Did Our Love Go, which they first played to The Marvelettes but it was turned down. It was then offered to The Supremes but Diana Ross wasn’t keen to accept another group’s reject. However the other girls persuaded her otherwise, and the result was their first American Number One, as well as their first hit in the UK, reaching number three. And that’s not all. The Supremes also recorded the song in German, as Baby Baby Wo Ist Unsere Liebe.

Tony: Glenn Campbell and Brenda from 1961. Actually that was a request. It was chosen by David Strohaker, I think I’ve got the name right there, who lives in Bournemouth. Lovely Bournemouth. Beautiful Bournemouth. And he would like me to play a record for his lovely wife Brenda who celebrated her 70th birthday on Thursday. So I hope you had a lovely time Brenda. Probably strolled along the seafront there, where I used to sell ice creams many many years ago. In my holidays. Er, the record she asked for, not surprisingly, is entitled Brenda, by Glenda Campbell (sic). And incidentally that was an early recording by Glenn, a B side of his 1961 release Turn Around Look At Me. Although the track was popular in its own right, at the time. But, er, to be honest with you I prefer the A side, but there you go. (Supremes plays).

Tony (back announcement): The wonderful Diana Ross and the Supremes, Where Did Our Love Go, a UK number 3 in 1964. In the seventies I toured with Diana Ross and The Supremes, that was actually The Supremes there. Diana Ross used to come up to me every single night, in the interval usually, she used to come up to me and say “Who are you?”.


Track listings

Brian Matthews Final Sounds Of The 60s – Feb 25 2017



Familiar Hit
Less familiar (eg LP track)
Interesting Rarity
Fascinating “Never Heard That Before”
Cradle Of Love




Sun Dragon Blueberry Blue




Grapefruit Breaking Up A Dream




Valleri




Running Scared




Melanie  Beautiful People




The Supremes Baby Baby Wo Ist Unsere Liebe




Sammy Davis Jr.  Every Time We Say Goodbye




Dusty Springfield All I See Is You




The Rolling Stones  Honky Tonk Women




Aretha Franklin Respect




Chris Farlowe Ride On Baby




Brenda Lee Here Comes That Feeling




Gene Pitney Looking Through The Eyes Of Love








Al Wilson  The Snake




Kenny Ball The March Of The Siamese Children




Cat Stevens Matthew & Son




The Searchers Everybody Come Clap Your Hands




Raymond Froggatt Callow La Vita




The Dave Clark Five Glad All Over




The Beatles  If I Needed Someone




Bobby Darin Lazy River




Scott Walker Jackie




Dionne Warwick Walk on By




Manfred Mann  Sha La La




The Beatles  She's Leaving Home




The Everly Brothers Walk Right Back




Elvis Presley In The Ghetto




Billy Fury  Last Night Was Made for Love





Tony Blackburn’s 2nd Sounds Of The 60s – March 11th 2017



Familiar Hit
Less familiar (eg LP track)
Interesting Rarity
Fascinating “Never Heard That Before”
Edwin Starr - S.O.S. (Stop Her On Sight)




The Merseybeats - Wishin' & Hopin'




Jimmy Cliff - Wonderful World, Beautiful People




The Turtles - Happy Together




The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun




The Kinks - You Really Got Me




The Cowsills - The Rain, The Park And Other Things




Craig Douglas - Our Favourite Melodies




Brenton Wood - Gimme Little Sign








The Hollies – We’re Through (The Collector’s Collossal Collection)




The Fortunes - Here It Comes Again




Glen Campbell - Brenda




The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go




Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas - From A Window




Sandy Nelson - And Then There Were Drums




Small Faces - Sha-La-La-La-Lee




Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman




The Seekers - A World Of Our Own




The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup








Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People




Blood, Sweat & Tears - You've Made Me So Very Happy




Barry McGuire - California Dreamin'




Cilla Black - Step Inside Love




Doris Troy - I'll Do Anything




Scott Walker - Joanna




Elvis Presley - (You're the) Devil In Disguise




Jimmy Ruffin - I've Passed This Way Before




Cliff Richard & The Shadows - On The Beach




Ruby & The Romantics - Our Day Will Come




Unit 4+2 - Concrete & Clay




Sir Douglas Quintet - She's About A Mover




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