2020 started brightly enough for Janice and I with a wonderful 2 weeks in Egypt, cruising the Nile and site seeing then relaxing for a week by the Red Sea..
On our return we went back to Tenerife
for 6 weeks but just before we were due to fly home The Curse of the COVID hit
Tenerife.
We had only been back at Cotswold
Towers for a few days before England also descended into doom and gloom with
panic buying, social distancing and lock down.
Janice and I made the most of it and
helped by the beautiful spring and early summer weather undertook the massive
task of tidying up and re-landscaping our overgrown back garden which had been
totally neglected due to our many absences over the last 6 – 7 years. I had
already decided to give up a large part of my two allotment plots and create a
“mini” allotment plot at the bottom of our garden.
By the end of May all had been
achieved and we could once again enjoy spending most of our time basking in the
summer sun in our revitalised garden. We even got to know and have
conversations with our neighbours with whom previously we just used to politely
pass the time of day before rushing off somewhere.
I have listed some of the more notable
people who leave me with such good memories from my youth and adolescent years.
Sir Sean Connery (August 25 1930 –October 31 2020)
He will always be remembered as the
ultimate James Bond although he appeared in over 60 feature films as well as
countless TV dramas.
Originally
Cary Grant was cast in the role but he would only agree to appear in one film. Several
“refined” English actors including David Niven, Richard Johnson, Richard Burton, Stanley Baker,
Rex Harrison, James Mason, Trevor Howard,
Patrick McGoohan and Roger Moore were also
considered but were either rejected or turned the role down. Producer Chubby
Broccoli, persuaded by his wife Dana, chose Connery, whose physical prowess and
sexual magnetism became closely identified with the 007 character. Ian Fleming,
whose preferred choice was Richard Todd, was appalled at the selection of the
uncouth 31-year-old former local milkman considering him the antithesis of his
character but ultimately changed his view and incorporated aspects of Connery’s
portrayal into the books.
The
first film, Dr. No, became at overnight success. I remember leaving my cinema seat at the end of
the film with the 007 theme ringing through my head imagining I was James Bond.
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Honor Blackman (August 22, 1925 – April 5, 2020)
Blackman started acting on television
in the recurring role of "Nicole", secretary to Dan
Dailey's character of Tim Collier in the television series The Four Just Men in
1959. But it was as Dr. Cathy Gale in the Avengers in 1962 that she shot to
fame quickly followed by her role in Goldfinger.
Goldfinger is my favourite Bond movie with Shirley Bassey belting out the theme song, Shirley Eaton painted in gold and Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore along with her Flying Circus.
Born in Dallas he formed his first
band at the age of 15 in 1955. His first album included a cover version of
"If I Had a Hammer" which was released as a single and reached number
one in 36 countries selling over one million copies and earning him a Golden
Disc. He later went on the design two guitars for the Gibson Corporation which
are now collector’s items.
When I started work in 1963 I
used to buy a single every week. Part of the excitement when playing the record
for the first time was discovering what was on the “B” side. I remember buying “If
I had a hammer” and after playing it for the first time turning it over and
playing the “B” side. I don’t think I played the “A” side again! I have it on
my Jukebox and still play it regularly.
Spencer Davis (July 17, 1939 - Oct. 19, 2020)
Spencer David Nelson Davies was born
in Swansea moving to London when he was
16 and began working in the civil service as a clerical officer at the Post
Office Savings Bank in Hammersmith and then for HM Customs and Excise. He soon
went back to his old school to study for A-levels in languages, becoming head
boy in 1959. In 1960, he moved to Birmingham, to read German at the University
of Birmingham. In music circles, Davis was later known as "The Professor".
In 1963 he formed the Spencer Davis
Group with Pete York on drums, Muff Winwood on bass and the young Stevie
Winwood on keyboards and guitar.
I was lucky to be around in the mid 60’s
and experience first-hand the dramatic and exciting change in the music scene
in the UK with skiffle, trad jazz and folk music being replaced by American
influenced R&B and Blues.
In the late 50’s, in Ipswich, Nanda and Ron Lesley ran the very successful Ipswich Jazz Club, held on a Monday evening. By 1962 the club had become The Bluesville Club hosting artists such as Alexis Korner, Cyril Davies and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. In the years that followed the club regularly hosted the young and upcoming bands including Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Long John Baldry and his Hoochie Coochie Men with Rod Stewart (then nicknamed ‘Rod the Mod’) & Julie Driscoll, The Steampacket, Fleetwood Mac, Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds, Jeff Beck, Spencer Davis Group, Graham Bond Organisation, The Downliners Sect and Zoot Money and his Big Roll Band. I had never heard music like it and never missed a Monday night at the Manor Ballroom. The bar was upstairs and the band members used to drink and chat with us before they started and during the interval. I remember one night the Spencer Davis Group joined us at our table. Muff Winwood went to the bar and bought the drinks - three pints and a coke for his brother Stevie who was not old enough to drink at the time! Much later in the 90’s I met Spencer Davis at a gig in Camberley and reminisced with him about those heady days in the 60’s.
Peter Green (Oct. 29, 1946
- July 25, 2020)
Peter Allen Greenbaum was one
of the most talented blues singer and guitarist I have ever seen. He took over
from Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in 1966. When asked what was
he going to do without Clapton, Mayall said, "Don't worry, we got someone
better. He might not be better now, but wait, in a couple of years he's going
to be the best."
B.B. King commented, "He
has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold
sweats”.
In 1967 Green left Mayall to
form Fleetwood Mac and it was in that year that I first saw them at the Bluesville
Club. We had never heard of them and just didn’t know what to expect although
we recognised Peter Green from his time with John Mayall. They set up and went straight in with this number:
It just blew me away I was
hooked on electric blues from that moment.
Nicknamed "The Green
God" by his fellow musicians Green was more interested in expressing
emotion in his songs and guitar playing, rather than showing off how fast he
could play, demonstrated in this selection of songs:
We have been back in Tenerife since the beginning of October enjoying the winter sun and not due to return until the end of Ferbruary.
So here we are approaching the start of another year in a similar situation as we were in March, but at least the vaccination roll-out programme does give us the hope that sooner rather than later things will get better and life can once again return to “Normal”, always assuming that you can remember what “Normal” was!
So let’s kick 2020 into touch
and look forward to 2021 and all be thankful for our lives:
