Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre
The Royal Exchange Theatre has been a part of my life for most of my life.
For those not in the know (you will be people who have never been to Manchester, because if you have been you would have obviously visited the theatre), the Royal Exchange is a three tier theatre in the round housed within the magnificent Great Hall of the Royal Exchange buildings that was Manchester's trading centre used from the late 19th to early 20th century.
One of my earliest memories is seeing my mum walk through the stage as part of a crowd in (I think) the musical Leaping Ginger. She wasn't meant to be part of the performance, but we had tickets on the top tier and my mum had a dreaded fear of heights, so asked to be reseated, the only way to do this was to have her walk through the set at an opportune moment. Me and my sister sat amazed as we watched her parade through.
The theatre opened in 1978 and has seen an array of famous actors perform there. It always seems to me that the theatre itself is always the star and the intimacy of it makes even the grandest of luvvies that little bit humbler and makes for exceptional performances.
On Saturday 15th June 1996 the IRA bomb that destroyed large chunks of Manchester town centre also severely damaged the theatre. Walking towards the theatre a couple of weeks after that, in an eerily silent Manchester, seeing the bulding with blown out windows and looking like it would never reopen was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
The theatre company managed to soldier on for the next couple of years with a travelling tent that housed a replica of the ground level of the stage. They even managed to reopen better than ever, in November 1998 with a second smaller performance space being launched.
I have a lot of memories of seeing stuff at the Royal Exchange, watching my dad enjoying Andy Capp: The Musical ("good old legs, what are your legs for? Walking!"), my mum's only stage performance, a sneaky afternoon off seeing a matinee of Waiting For Godot (I'm a rebel!), my wife and I laughing hysterically at a preview perfomance of Charley's Aunt and so many more.
Even memories of what I recall as bad productions leave good memories, my mum and I did something very rare and left at the interval of a production of Pinter's The Caretaker starring Charlie Drake, you can't like everything!
So thanks for the memories and keeping me cheerful.
One of the theatre's founders Richard Negri, has further details of the history of the theatre on his website.
For those not in the know (you will be people who have never been to Manchester, because if you have been you would have obviously visited the theatre), the Royal Exchange is a three tier theatre in the round housed within the magnificent Great Hall of the Royal Exchange buildings that was Manchester's trading centre used from the late 19th to early 20th century.
One of my earliest memories is seeing my mum walk through the stage as part of a crowd in (I think) the musical Leaping Ginger. She wasn't meant to be part of the performance, but we had tickets on the top tier and my mum had a dreaded fear of heights, so asked to be reseated, the only way to do this was to have her walk through the set at an opportune moment. Me and my sister sat amazed as we watched her parade through.
The theatre opened in 1978 and has seen an array of famous actors perform there. It always seems to me that the theatre itself is always the star and the intimacy of it makes even the grandest of luvvies that little bit humbler and makes for exceptional performances.
On Saturday 15th June 1996 the IRA bomb that destroyed large chunks of Manchester town centre also severely damaged the theatre. Walking towards the theatre a couple of weeks after that, in an eerily silent Manchester, seeing the bulding with blown out windows and looking like it would never reopen was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
The theatre company managed to soldier on for the next couple of years with a travelling tent that housed a replica of the ground level of the stage. They even managed to reopen better than ever, in November 1998 with a second smaller performance space being launched.
I have a lot of memories of seeing stuff at the Royal Exchange, watching my dad enjoying Andy Capp: The Musical ("good old legs, what are your legs for? Walking!"), my mum's only stage performance, a sneaky afternoon off seeing a matinee of Waiting For Godot (I'm a rebel!), my wife and I laughing hysterically at a preview perfomance of Charley's Aunt and so many more.
Even memories of what I recall as bad productions leave good memories, my mum and I did something very rare and left at the interval of a production of Pinter's The Caretaker starring Charlie Drake, you can't like everything!
So thanks for the memories and keeping me cheerful.
One of the theatre's founders Richard Negri, has further details of the history of the theatre on his website.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
The song Warpaint by The Brook Brothers
We were wandering around a local town centre and noticed a lady with way too much make up on, and then I started singing this song. "You're not going to fight a war, you're only going out with the boy next door", what a fab line.
Written by Howard Greenfield and Barry Mann, songwriters from the infamous Brill Building. Despite both Mann and Greenfield writing numerous hit songs with other people, I can't find many others they wrote together. The song in this version was a hit in the UK in 1961. It was also recorded by Barry Mann and Bill Haley amongst others.
The Brook Brothers are real brothers and were for a time the British answer to The Everly Brothers, one has to wonder what the question was.
Written by Howard Greenfield and Barry Mann, songwriters from the infamous Brill Building. Despite both Mann and Greenfield writing numerous hit songs with other people, I can't find many others they wrote together. The song in this version was a hit in the UK in 1961. It was also recorded by Barry Mann and Bill Haley amongst others.
The Brook Brothers are real brothers and were for a time the British answer to The Everly Brothers, one has to wonder what the question was.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Ken Dodd's song Happiness
It's difficult not to feel a bit cheery with this song. Written by prolific country writer Bill Anderson, who also recorded the song. Anderson is known for speaking a lot of lyrics, and the majority of his version of the song is exactly that. Doddy's song is much more upbeat. Ken Dodd, a British comedian spanning several generations had a number of hit records in the 60s, the most famous "Tears (For souvenirs)" was the third best selling UK single of the 1960s, only being beaten by two Beatles' hits.
The song lyrics don't bear too much scrutinising, "A wise old man told me one time, That happiness is nothing but a frame of mind, I hope when you go to measuring my success, That you don't count my money count my happiness". It's all very well to live your life that way, but after you've gone it's a lot easier to quantify assets than how often your teeth got an airing.
Here's Doddy and Anderson's version below it
The song lyrics don't bear too much scrutinising, "A wise old man told me one time, That happiness is nothing but a frame of mind, I hope when you go to measuring my success, That you don't count my money count my happiness". It's all very well to live your life that way, but after you've gone it's a lot easier to quantify assets than how often your teeth got an airing.
Here's Doddy and Anderson's version below it
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Rubber Ducks 1 - Ducks in a mirror
I can't find any definite answer as to who made the first rubber duck or when that was, it seems to be around 1890 and they were made of rubber.
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