What a load of Balls!

It was with much mirth and a certain amount of sheer amazement when I read this news item last week concerning arch-rivals Norwich City:

Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls named new chairman of Norwich City

NORWICH City Football Club is delighted to confirm the appointment of former Cabinet Minister and lifelong Canaries fan Ed Balls as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Mr Balls, 48, takes up his non-executive role with immediate effect and will join his fellow Directors at Carrow Road for tomorrow's Barclays Premier League match against Aston Villa.

Welcoming Mr Balls to the Board, City's joint majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones commented: 

"We're absolutely delighted to confirm that Ed Balls is the new Chairman of Norwich City.

His economic know-how and experience, coupled with his passion for all things Norwich City, will be a major asset for the Board and we're excited about working closely together with Ed, David McNally and the other Directors in this new era for the Club.

Ed will work closely with all of us on the short, medium and long-term strategy to shape the future of this great football club."

Economic know-how and experience? Surely, even Delia can see that the appointment of a man whose policies would have bankrupted the country, will eventually end in disaster.

Delia Smith

and

Ed Balls

A marriage made in hell!

But enough about NCFC – here’s the goal that prompted me, for the very first and last time, to kiss another male of the species:

Happy days!

I’ll leave you with a song from a lady who I saw for the first time on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny show on New Years eve and for me stole the show.

American singer/songwriter Beth Hart with Jeff Beck:

Hey Ho! Back to the sunbed!

Good Morning 2016

For those of you born on  January 1st. here's what to expect for 2016:

Great news - Pluto is in motion confirming your struggles have not been in vain. Yes, finally a reward comes in a major way. You could fill any shoes with all the qualities the Capricorn naturally possesses. It is quite possible to achieve a role in life that is unsurpassed by even your wildest dreams. 

Surround yourself with those that you wish to become and the shoes you fill could be some prominent ones. Get out there, and make some new connections. Money, power and respect can be all yours

And if you believe that then your dafter than I thought!

Famous people born an January 1st include:

E M Forster - Writer (A Passage to India) – born 1879

J Edgar Hoover – (First Director of the FBI) - born 1895

Dana Andrews - American film actor (Over 80 films in a 40 year career) – born 1909

Kim Philby British Intelligence (double agent who defected to the Soviet Union in 1963) – born 1912

J D Sallinger – Writer  (Catcher in the Rye) - born 1919

Milt Jackson - American jazz vibraphonist (Co-founder of the MJQ) - born 1923

Ty Hardin - American film actor (Bronco Layne in TV series Cheyenne & Bronco) – born 1930

Joe Orton  – Writer – (Entertaining Mr. Sloane) - born 1933

Phi Read – British Grand Prix Motorcycle Road Racer aka “The Prince of Speed” – born 1933

Suzy Kendall – British actress- (Up the Junction) – born 1944

Jack Wiltshire – (Arsenal & England footballer) – born 1992

Those not so lucky on the 1st January were:

Hiram King "Hank" Williams, Sr. 

Legendary Country & Western singer/songwriter who, despite his short life, is regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. 

Williams had 11 number one hits in his career as well as well as many other top ten hits, the early ones with his band The Drifting Cowboys.

Sadly, several years of back pain, alcoholism, and prescription drug abuse severely damaged Williams' health and he died in the early morning hours of January 1, 1953, at the age of 29, from heart failure exacerbated by pills and alcohol.

Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner 

British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major influence on the sound of the British music scene in the 1960s, Korner was instrumental in bringing together various English blues musicians.

Alexis Korner's Blues Incorpoated - Korner on guitar & vocals, Dick Heckstall-Smith on sax, Cyril Davies on vocals and harmonica, Jack Bruce on bass and Charlie Watts & Ginger Baker on drums - were the first Blues band I ever saw, appearing regularly at Bluesville at the Manor ballroom Ipswich on Monday nights. 

Korner, a chain smoker, died of lung cancer aged 55 years, on 1 January 1984.

Clara Ann Fowler 

Known by her professional name Patti Page an American top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s, selling over 100 million records during a six decade long career. 

Her hit song  "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window" topped the charts in the US and the UK in 1953. 

A sample of her hit song "Old Cape Cod" forms the basis for the 1999 Groove Armarda hit "At the River".

Patti Page died on January 1, 2013, at the Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas, California, aged 85 years.

I'll leave you with the opening sequence from one of my favourite boyhood westerns - I don't think I missed and episode!

Hey Ho and a Happy New Year!