Best Of British: Sept 2020:' Fly Me To The Moon'. 'Journey Into Space' ran on the BBC's Light Programme in the 1950's and has made several one-off returns each decade since then. This is my look back at the last radio series to attract a bigger audience than the television programmes it was up against JIS was an undoubted influence on Dr Who and probably responsible for the term 'space opera'. As a child I listened to the re-runs of the series and read the novel adaptations written by creator Charles Chilton, my first ever foray into adult fiction-fifteen years early! And yes, this is my very own copy of Chilton's first volume of Pan Books' best selling adaptation as read by the juvenile me under the bedclothes!
Best Of British: June 2020; 'Tyranosaurus Rocks'. One of my first ever interviews was with Marc Bolan. This has appeared on Rocks Backpages and several other places but I'd never written it up. Until now:
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Best Of British: May 2020:' Meeting a VI_Peers' In my entire life I've only ever asked two people for their autograph. One was Stan Lee (nuff said!) and the other was.....Donald Peers. I was 8, of course. And in the middle of a field. And under strict parental orders. Read all about it here!
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R and R Life The Definitive Guide To The Beatles On Wearside (1200 word article. Parts one and two )
The Beatles appeared in my home town of Sunderland three times in 1963. Three dates, but five shows as two were part of packages at the Empire Theatre and had both 'early' (6.00) and 'late' (8.30) performances. In my articles I talk to the fans who were lucky enough to get tickets for the gigs. And also to Carol Roberton, who in her capacity as junior reporter for the Sunderland Echo, gave one of the first ever provincial critiques of The Beatles in a review of the February 9 Sunderland Empire appearance of the Helen Shapiro package. More about this in the 'Music Journalism' section.
The article is here;
http://www.randrlife.co.uk/the-beatles-in-sunderland-a-definintive-history4636
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Television from Tyne to Tees, my article about the early days of Tyne Tees Television, based on an interview I did with my former boss Heather Ging (Head of Arts and Entertainment at the station) was in Best Of British magazine 184. BOB is available from WH Smiths or from; info@bestofbritishmag.co.uk
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Having been involved in the wild and wonderful world of music and entertainment for many years I've got a gaggle of stories, some of which I can still remember. A few years ago I did half a dozen guest spots on Brendan Lynch's radio shows on Lanzarote's UK Away station, talking about some of the people I've met, TV programmes I've worked on and the like.
These always got a very good reaction and I decided I should write some of them down. An article about my time on kids' TV and pop shows in the 1980's was published in the last-but one edition of The Word magazine as part of the regular First Person feature under the title Gloving The Alien and was an edited extract of a larger piece. As, regrettably, The Word is no longer with us, here for the first time, is the full article.
Snots n'Gunge n'Rock n'Roll
The life and times of 1980's childrens' television researcher
 |
| Me and Gilbert arm-wrestling in 1987. I think he won.... |
In the 1980's I was a young(ish) journalist who'd graduated from music papers (where, as now, I used the by-line 'Ian Ravendale' to avoid confusion with the NME Ian Penman), BBC Radio, band management and PR to work as a television researcher for Tyne Tees, Border and other TV companies.
As a researcher I came up with ideas, interviewed contributors, booked guests,
briefed presenters and generally made sure that programmes came together. I
contributed to arts, entertainment, documentary and, of course, music
programmes. One of the pop programmes I worked on at Border Television in Carlisle was Get Fresh, a Saturday and Sunday morning kids magazine show presented by two humans (Gaz Top and Charlotte Hindle) and an 'alien' called Gilbert.
The first series of Get Fresh in the summer of 1986 did OK, but BBC1's
Saturday Superstore first broadcast in 1982 had a headstart, and the ITV
newcomer needed a kick up the ratings for series two. How about a new
presenter? How about.........a puppet!!-
Puppets had been around since the start of television and with the exception of elaborate productions like Thunderbirds or the sophisticated adult satire of Spitting Image puppet shows were cheap to make and appealed to a wide audience. Young kids thought puppets were cute. Older kids reckoned they were cool, a bit of a piss-take. Hence the popularity of
Rainbow, where the absurdity of a middle-aged man sharing a house with a bunch of puppets and a goon in a bear suit made the programme a staple of student bars country-wide.
The 1980's was the heyday of puppets on television where, among others,
there was;
Sooty; (man talking to
his hand and squirting water over himself)
Gordon The Gopher (man
talking to someone else's hand)
Orville (man talking to
his hand that's covered in a luminous green duck suit and
nappy and answering himself in a funny voice)
nappy and answering himself in a funny voice)
Roland Rat
(egocentric-wide boy-condomed-lugged Ratmobile-driving rodent)
All on regular prime time television. Britain was puppet crazy! Every Saturday
morning kids show up until the mid-90's had at least one puppet; Live and
Kicking's Leprechauns, Superstore's Crow and Malcolm, What's Up Doc's Bro
and Bro, Ghost Train and Gimme Five's Nobby The Sheep.
Saturday morning TV had got naughtier, thanks to the anarchic Tiswas, with
Bob Carolgees' Spit The Dog the first bad boy(dog) puppet. Spit didn't say
anything. He just spat. And looked like Carolgees had knocked him together in
an afternoon from a couple of old scarfs.Gordon the Gopher at Going Live was carrying on this minimalist tradition, probably cost about 25 pence to make and gave Phillip Schofield a personality-swerving, squeaking, comedy sidekick who didn't require Equity fees.
As Get Fresh was opposite Going Live in the schedules, if our programme had
a puppet presenter, it would have to look and sound very different to G The G.
Gilbert was a lumpy bumpy green latex creation, covered in warts and
carbuncles with huge red lips, a ping pong ball nose and knitting needles hair.
He dripped 'intergalactic snot' -in reality KY Jelly-and had the personality of a
deranged, burbling cosmic conman. Devised by series producer Michael Forte,
Gilbert had been made by Fluck and Law of Spitting Image fame and was
operated by puppeteers John Eccleston or Richard Coombs (or even, very
occasionally, the two of them together).
 |
| The Get Fresh crew 1987 l-to-r ; Get Wild presenter Michael Bassett, voice-man Phil Cornwell, Gilbert, Gaz Top, puppeteer Richard Coombes and Charlotte Hindle standing in front of The Millenium Dustbin. |
What brought Gilbert truly to life were the voices and totally bizzaro persona
supplied by zany stand-up comedian and impressionist Phil Cornwell, later to
find fame for the 'Mick n'Keef' routines on the Stella Street series. In fact, the
voice Phil used for Gilbert bore quite a few similarities to his later Jagger
take-off. The stream of consciousness, off-the-wall, babbling freak-out of Gilbert was the antithesis of Gordon and co and, in many ways, the starting point for the whole irreverent school of pop-star interviews that are now the norm on programmes like Channel 4's T4.
No one ever completely knew what Gilbert was going to say. Not even Phil
Cornwell. And because the words sometimes came out so fast, Phil could, every
now and again, slip in the odd bit of outrage that wouldn't be picked up by a
casual Saturday or Sunday morning viewer. Or their parents. Or the Television
Complaints Commission. Like asking whether a female pop singer had broken
wind or if a member of a reggae band fancied 'skinning up'.
The idea was that The Millennium Dustbin 'spaceship' 'piloted' by Gaz and
Charlotte, with interference from Gilbert was lost in space but would find its'
way down to land every Saturday in a different ITV region, and every Sunday at
Border Television in Carlisle. Not very lost at all, actually. The Saturday shows
were live activity-based outside broadcasts with the recorded Sunday studio
programme being more magazine orientated. Both were interspersed with
bought-in cartoons.
As a puppet that needed operating, Gilbert always had to be behind a table,
desk or something similar, so that puppeteers John or Richard could crouch
down and work his left arm and mouth. For this reason, when we did outside
broadcast shows Gilbert tended to stay in the portable studio set that was rigged
up inside The Millennium Dustbin.
 |
| The Millenium Dustbin on programme day. We knew how to attract a crowd.. |
In reality The Dustbin was an articulated lorry that slowly trundled it's way along
the highways and byways of the UK, with most of the Get Fresh props and
equipment stuffed inside it. On arrival on site, the props crew would unpack and
screw on the fins, nose cone and other bits and pieces that turned an artic into
the sort of ramshackled shambolic spaceship that the loopy Gilbert would likely
roam the galaxy in.
As these bolt on bits tended only to be on view for a few hours a week they
weren't very sturdily built. One edition of Get Fresh from a particularly wet and
windy Whitehaven saw Border Television's crew valiantly re-fixing fins and
gizmos in the torrential rain while the viewers at home watched the Centurions
cartoon, oblivious to the work of the props boys.
By the mid 1980's Saturday morning TV was more crazed than ever and pop
guests were expected to enter into the wacked-out spirit of it all. They would
play or mime a couple of songs including the latest single and then be interviewed.
The pop acts were also expected to partake of the on-site fun and frolics by going on jet skis, abseiling, joining in with games and generally making fools of themselves. There
wasn't the blanket video channels there are now and pluggers were desperate for
TV exposure for new releases and lots of negotiating between promo departments and artist managements undoubtedly went on.
 |
| TV listing previewing Get Fresh series two. Note the oblique reference to Gilbert. |
Get Fresh Saturday was a two hour live OB (quite often from the back of
beyond) and took a fair amount of directing experience to hold together. Get
Fresh's directors tended to be old regional television hands and many had cut their
teeth on light entertainment or the cut and thrust of live sport. What they generally weren't
was music people. Our audience probably started at about 4 years old and this
was showbiz, not The Old Grey Whistle Test.
Add into the mix original executive producer Janet Street Porter who tended to
treat pop stars (and anyone else she deemed a minion) with a certain amount of disdain.
All of which made Get Fresh not a show for a band to go on if they wanted to just
stand around looking moody.
When series two of Get Fresh kicked off in the summer of 1987, no pop act
had yet undergone the Gilbert experience. The Go West duo had gamely agreed
to be interviewed by 'Gilbert' on the first show. Without knowing who or what
'Gilbert' was.
 |
| Go West, mid 80's. Richard Drummie (left) Peter Cox (right). Before Gilbert got hold of them. |
Come show-time, I take Go West's Peter Cox and Richard Drummie to the
lorry/Dustbin and wait outside while for the first time live on national television,
Gilbert gets to do his stuff. From my safe vantage point I hear banging, screeching
and the noise of things being thrown around.
Right...........I thought.
Five minutes later, interview over and commercial break running, out stagger
Peter and Richard, definitely shell-shocked by their encounter with the snotty
horror. "Fucking hell! What was that?!" they ask me in disbelief.
Well........
I knew immediately we were on to a winner. Sooty and Bungle might have got
Harry/Matthew Corbett and 'Mr Jeffrey' a tad exasperated but they never had
them questioning their sanity. It was even funnier because Peter and Richard hadn't
been in on it, didn't know what to expect and were genuinely gobsmacked.
Natalie Cole, daughter of the late Nat, also received the Gilbert treatment. She'd
been having a run of hits in the late 80's, and, like most artistes with records to
promote, was available for interview. I'd booked Natalie on to the studio-based
Get Fresh Sunday and told her record plugger that we'd probably get her to do a
spot with Gilbert.
As Get Fresh series two progressed into its' run, record companies began to
know the score but were still gagging for the exposure. So, tall, serene,
sophisticated Natalie arrives. I say hello and tell her that Gaz Top will do the
main interview but Gilbert would also like a short word. She's fine with that,
although I do get the idea that while she understands Gilbert is a puppet, she
hasn't quite been told the finer points of how he conducts himself.
When it's time for her spot, I take Natalie over to Gilbert's table and introduce
her to John and Phil. Cameras rolling, the snotty green latex loon is leering at
cool, composed Natalie. She leans against his bench, and looks back, smiling.
Action!
 |
| Natahlee. With fans like Gilbert...... |
Gilbert; "Natahlee,
Natahlee, Natahlee! I'm a biigg fan! A biigg fan! Natahlee!"
Natalie; "Why,
thank you very much Gilbert!"
Gilbert; "Yeah. I
just wave my arms around and all this air comes outttt......."
Natalie; "?"
Floor Manager "Cut!
That' s great! Crew! Reset please!"
The main Saturday Get Fresh was live from a different outside location (and
ITV region) every week. All the Sunday magazine shows were pre-recorded in
Carlisle in Border Television's scene shed, decked out as a somewhat larger
spaceship interior than the lorry could provide. Because the Saturday and
Sunday shows were done in different places the Gilbert puppet generally had to
be flight-cased up and transported from the Outside Broadcast location via rail
to our Get Fresh Sunday production office in Carlisle.
On this particular recording day, Gaz and Charlotte are there. Phil is there. John
is there. The production team and TV crew are there. Shakin' Stevens, that
episode's pop guest, is there. Who are we missing?
Gilbert!
 |
| 'cos I love him so much, more Gilbert. Gaz obviously not very impressed by our shenanigans. Although his mullet is miles better than mine. |
A few frantic phone calls reveal that Gilbert, all securely packed away and snug
in his flight-case, is stuck on Widnes railway station. There's no way we can get
the puppet in time for the recording of the programme. The taping of television
programmes run to very tight schedules, so we can't not record the show. What
do we do?
A lot of the audience tuned in just for Gilbert, particularly the students who'd
got up especially.
wanted anyway, was a completely different kettle of cosmic snot.
We hatched a plan.
Gilbert was having an intergalactic strop.
He'd barricaded himself into a cardboard box and wasn't going to come out, no
matter how much Gaz or Charlotte begged him. Phil was all present and
correct, so we could still hear Gilbert but not see him. As 'he' was on Platform 1
of Widnes station in a flight case marked 'Get Fresh, Border TV,
Carlisle-URGENT!'
We were fortunate that Shakin' Stevens had been on Get Fresh before and knew
the set-up. Shakey was an affable but sussed guy who appreciated and
understood the symbiotic relationship that existed at that point between bands and soloists
promoting their latest records and kids' TV shows like ours. We had a big
pop-mad audience; He had a new pop record to sell. Simple!
Even so, the sight of Shakey kneeling down in front of an empty cardboard box
that was being gently moved by an-out of-shot broom and talking in his light
Welsh lilt to something that until a couple of hours before had contained four
dozen cans of beans will stay with me forever.
 |
| Shakey; A good sport. I hope we gave him the beans. |
Shakey; "What are you doing in there, Gilbert...?"
Gilbert; "I'm not
coming outttt!"
Shakey; "Oh,
please, look you Gilbert......"
The Sunday show was recorded in advance but Get Fresh Saturday was 60
minutes worth of totally live television, alongside another hour of cartoons,
videos and some pre-recorded items. Come 9.25 on Saturday morning, Get Fresh
went live and nothing was going to stop it.
We and the BBC's Saturday Superstore/Going Live had around 5 million
viewers between us. Quite a major chunk of the singles-buying public so the pluggers took Saturday and Sunday mornings pretty seriously.
The band on this particular Saturday's Get Fresh from a large field on the
Scottish borders were Wet Wet Wet, who were scheduled to mime their latest
single.
We'd brought the OB unit to the Kelso agricultural show. Lots of cows, sheep
and farm equipment. Hardly the usual sort of environment for pop stars. Except
for Scottish nutter Jesse Rae, who had his own farm nearby in St Boswells and
happily drove across on his tractor. Dressed in a kilt and centurion's helmet. As
he generally was.
 |
| Wet Wet Wet today. l-to-r, Graeme Duffin (more on him later) Marti Pellow, Neil Mitchell, Graeme Clark, Tommy Cunningham. |
The Wets, though, had dragged themselves out of bed and along to Kelso to
plug their new record. The general idea for bands was that our audience would
see them miming the single on Saturday morning and then go out and buy it that
afternoon. Preferably at a Chart Return shop so it could crash into the Sunday
afternoon Radio 1 and ILR pop charts.
Ten minutes before Wet Wet Wet were due on, I go into the hospitality tent to
take them to the performance area. Everything's fine, except guitarist Graeme
Duffin is missing and the others don't know where he is. A quick search brings
no guitar player. A bit of a problem because guitar is the most prominent
instrument on the track. The guitar and mike stand set up stage left are starting
to look very lonely. No Graeme. The floor (or, in this case, field) manager turns
to me;
"If we can't find him, you're going to have to get up there!"
"Umm......"
Fifteen seconds to spare, in runs Graeme.
 |
| Pellow; "Y'made it then?" Duffin; "Aye. I was awa having a wee sandwich". Pellow; " Help ma bob! Y' ken we almost had to go on with that researcher?" |
"When are we on?"
"NOW!"
I breathe a sigh of relief.
Most of the pop acts I worked with on childrens' television were absolutely fine
and-certainly early in their career-grateful for the exposure we could give them. As
the act got more successful, getting them up to either our Carlisle studios or
some far-flung outpost of the Border television empire like Stranraer became
harder. So, in the case of stars like Bros or Tina Turner (and even Princess Anne,
who we interviewed about conservation) we'd pre-record the occasional phone
interview. I'd generally do these with my questions being re-voiced by Gaz or Charlotte for transmission.
This, of course, saved us from situations like when Matt Bianco were taking
telephone questions from the viewers of BBC 1's Saturday Superstore and one
juvenile wag rang to ask the band why they were "such wankers". Proof that the
show was live, anyway.
The Border TV editions of Get Fresh and its' Channel 4 predecessor Bliss, which
I also worked on, were directed by a staff member called Harry who was an
essential part of both teams. He'd been at Border for years, was a veteran of
thousands of live nightly news programmes, could think on his feet and would
always get the job done. He knew where to get stuff and how to work around the
(sometimes) rigid television union practices that operated within Border at that
time.
Everybody knew Harry. And everybody knew that Harry was Mr Showbiz. Given
a free choice, he'd have it cheesey. Give him The Krankies or Stu Francis and
Harry would be like a pig in, well, actually, gunge. If Harry could cover guests
and contestants in slop he was happy. For one particular edition of the Crush A
Grape kids variety show he had William 'Ken Barlow' Roache, a "What-am-I-
doing-here?" grin firmly bolted into place, absolutely dripping from head to toe
in the stuff.
Harry was most definitely 'old school' but he and I got on fine. Our working
relationship, though, brought some surreal moments. Including 'auditioning' a
porta cabin full of dogs. Harry had decided that the very thing that Gaz and
Charlotte needed for Get Fresh Sunday was a pet. Or, more accurately, a dog.
On a spaceship. With Gilbert.
 |
| The Border TV Get Fresh crew. Included are Gaz, Charlotte, Muppet the dog and his owner Tessa Gibbon, Vera Lyon, Harry King, Helen Petts. Not sure where I am. On tour with Wet Wet Wet? Sorting out Shakey's beans? |
So after an announcement on Lookaround, Border's nightly news magazine
programme, along come several dozen owners who've brought their pooches
ready to strut their woofy stuff.
Big dogs. Little dogs. Yappy dogs. Barky dogs. Dogs that wanted to run round.
Dogs that didn't like other dogs. Dogs that didn't like people. All in a porta
cabin 12 feet by 8 feet.
"Err, can you get him to walk up and down?" I'd ask.
"He can roll over
and beg. Do you want to see it it?"
"Alright then"
"She can talk you
know!"
"Right......What
can she say?"
" She can say
"Roof!" Do you want to hear it?"
"H'mm....."
Polaroids of the pooches were taken, which Harry, generally a man to avoid
confrontation (which he usually left to me) said would go off 'to London' for a
decision.
The winning hound, as decided by Harry, me and Issy, the Production Assistant
who very definitely had the measure of Mr Showbiz, was a shaggy sheep dog
called 'Muppet', who lived on a farm in nearby Lockerbie. Lovely dog, looking
for all the world like a huge ball of tangled black wool on legs. Not sure what he
made of Gilbert, mind.
Mum and twelve year old daughter used to bring Muppet along to the recordings
and chat to the visiting pop stars. Nice family, and I will admit to checking that
the farm wasn't anywhere near the row of Lockerbie houses that Pan Am 103
decimated the following year.
 |
| Not the actual Muppet the dog. But one very similar. |
In addition to drafting in Muppet the dog, Harry ruled that for Get Fresh Sunday
our pop guests couldn't just come up and talk about their new records. They had
to discuss their hobbies or bring some interesting item up that Gaz or Charlotte
could interview them about.
This piece of contrivance had varying degrees of success. Swing Out Sister
vocalist Corinne Drewery was quite happy talking about her penchant for buying
unusual clothes from charity shops, and showed us a couple of purchases she'd
made during a quick nip round the Carlisle ones during lunch hour. The two lads
in the band were a lot less comfortable playing with a Scalextric that we'd
provided for them after their plugger had assured us that they were mad for
making little electric cars go round and round.
 |
| Swing Out Sister. I'm sure Corinne bought that jumper in the Carlisle Oxfam shop. |
Some resourceful promo guys turned our little proviso into an opportunity.
Virgin Records were desperate to promote the newly-signed Johnny Hates Jazz.
I liked the record and thought it was right for the Sunday show. Guess what? the
plugger asks me. They've all got hobbies! Up they came, armed with toys, rare
records and the like to talk about. As a former PR man, I can spot a set-up at a
hundred paces, but it kept Harry happy.
Gaz and Charlotte were a good team. She was the likeable girl-next-door, he the
elder sister's slightly racy boyfriend. Top in particular was a very good
presenter: professional, great with kids and quick thinking-essential when you're
ring-mastering a two hour live show.
 |
| Charlotte, Gilbert, Gaz. One of these has Ringo Starr's Spitting Image latex lips. |
He looked like a pop star and had been a roadie for The Alarm but Gaz could
occasionally be a bit of a musical snob. When a member of the decidedly un-hip
Bananarama mentioned being pregnant during an interview he rudely sniped;
"Occupational hazard?"
"Of being a woman,
yes", coolly retorted the Banana.
A good slap might have been an even better response.
Sometime later I was looking for a pop guest for Get Fresh Sunday. Recording
day was looming and my attempts to get any big names to come up to Carlisle
were getting nowhere. And believe me I'd tried.
I needed a guest quick!
In a "I-know-you're-not going-to go-for-this-but-I'm going-to mention-it-anyway"
sort of way, the EMI plugger tells me that he's got Heart over in Holland and
they could fly over to do the show if I wanted. A new single was imminent and
we'd get first play of the video.
Having been a fan of the band since the 70's and wanting to meet Anne and
Nancy Wilson I book them.
When Gaz sees that Heart are on the show, he grills me about why. A fair
enough point; they were huge in America at that time but hadn't had any hits in
the UK. And hardly fitted our Bros and Rick Astley-hungry audience profile. But
hey, rather one of the world's biggest bands than some no-name newbies which was
the only other option.
 |
| Ann and Nancy Wilson. They're all Heart. |
So Anne and Nancy come across and are pleasant well-behaved guests who don't
throttle Gaz when he starts the interview with "And here we have Heart. Or is it
Liver? Or Pancreas?"
The single they were promoting was Alone, the first of a string of UK hits that
Heart had in the late 1980's. Can I (accidentally) pick 'em or what? As we'd
started the UK ball rolling, EMI gave me a gold record, which still hangs over
my fireplace.
Coming up with interesting locations for Get Fresh Saturday could be a problem.
I'm not sure whether it was because we'd spent the OB budget but one show was
broadcast from Border Television's car park. For one of the items we got our
guest pop acts-Slade and The Kane Gang-to demonstrate how 'easy' it was to be a
pop star by showing some young would-be musicians how to play.
This sort of goes alright and at the end of the show, kids, pop stars, presenters
and guests all join in on an actual live version of Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
which is chaotic but held together by the powerhouse lead vocals of Noddy
Holder. And.....thanks to the wonderful YouTube, you can see a fuzzy, somewhat out of synch, clip here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG-R4Z7jlX0
 |
| The Slades; Holder, Powell, Hill and Lea. |
When the show is finished, Jimmy Lea, Slade's great bass player, tells me what it
was like being in the middle of a Whole Lotta chaos; "I'm up there, and I hear these thrashing
power chords! I turn round and it's not Dave Brewis (from The Kane Gang). I
look across at H (Slade guitarist Dave Hill). Nope. Then I see the nine-year old
I've shown a few chords to, rocking out for all he's worth!"
As Border didn't have much in the way of interior studio place, Harry had
become pretty creative with the car park. As David Cassidy found out. Cassidy
had a run of hits in the early to mid-1970's and for several years was the teen
scream hearthrob supreme. He'd tired of it all and went off to do other things for
ten years. But he was back and we'd booked him onto Bliss. Interview, guest
presenting, mime his new single. We were going to get our money's worth.
Musicians Union minimum rates for miming at the time, as I recall.
Harry had a plan. And I was delegated to let Cassidy in on it.
As we needed to start recording our programmes at 10 in the morning so that
BTV's crew would be available by 4 pm for their day jobs on Lookaround, most
major guests came up the night before. So, the evening prior to the recording,
I go over to the Hilltop Hotel in Carlisle where David was staying to say hello
and chat through what would be happening on the show. Harry had come up with
the idea of having David, now trying to establish himself as a 'serious' singer-songwriter,
playing his guitar and singing in a cherry picker that we'd raise over the studio
audience on the souped-up barbecue set that we had erected in BTV's car park.
We'd keep the supporting arm out of shot so it looked like David was floating over the crowd.
 |
| "OK Ian, I've got my guitar. Where's the stage?" "See that cherry picker, David? Well....." |
There was one other detail I needed to keep till last.
I'm running through the set-up with David, and as I'm doing so I'm thinking,
"This sounds so
bloody naff....".
As I'm nearing the end, Cassidy leans back, draws on a cigar that's almost as big
as he is and says;
"Hey Ian, this isn't going to look........wanky, is it?"
"No, of course not
David......."
It was probably the pink balloons that Mr Showbiz was having draped around
the platform that Cassidy was going to be standing on that gave it away.
To his credit, come filming day, David gets on the cherry picker, pink balloons
and all and carries it off like the true pro I'm sure he still is. And......just to prove
I'm not making it up....and to eyeball the biggest bunch of pink balloons you'll ever see...here's the YouTube link;
So, if anyone is looking for a television researcher, used to working with serious
teen idols, off-the-wall aliens, shaggy dogs, showbizzy directors and who
almost joined Wet Wet Wet for five minutes, I'm in the book. I can get you a
very good deal on intergalactic snot and pink balloons.......
ENDS
 |
| Is that it then? I came all the way from Widness for that? And howcum I didn't get any pink balloons? |
***
