Teenbeats

Hastings' finest, the Teenbeats formed in 1979 their line up was - Huggy Leaver (vocals), Ken Copsey (lead guitar), Paul Thomas (rhythm guitar, vocals), Eddie Mays (bass), and Dave Blackman (drums).

The Teenbeats were one of the better bands on Britain's late '70s mod revival scene. Their timing was impeccable, making their debut just as the mod revival was gathering steam -- they further fired up the movement with a fine cover of the Troggs' 60's hit "I Can't Control Myself", and followed this up with the even better self-penned "Strength Of A Nation". Safari released both 45's, however ,neither single made a real impact on the UK charts but they did score a hit in Canada.

Teenbeats had the attitude, the look and by far away the best button badge/logo! They snarled away at the punky end of the mod sound but sadly they never recorded a complete LP. However, their songs made it onto many a mod revival compilation. Including; 'Uppers On The South Downs' & 'Mod City'. Most recently Castle Records' released 2003 Mod Revival Generation: Time For Action.

Live they were a very different proposition to their tamer studio sound. Huggy (ex lead singer of semi legendary punk combo The Plastix) was a hugely charisamtic front man and his sheer force of personality would often galvanise even the most reluctant audience into a frenzy. Normally, that was not an issue though as the Hastings/Eastbourne Mods were a pretty vocal mob and needed no encouragement to roar along with the band. I was fortunate enough to see them a fair few times and apart from when they ruled the roost on Hastings Pier, their best gig was at The Dublin Castle, supported by The Lambrettas. They blew the place apart. Fantastic!

Rumour has it that a reformation is in the offing. It's just a pity that Hastings Pier is no longer there to host it!

Small point of interest. Huggy went on to appear in Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels as one of the other 'firm'. Not a lot of people know that!

Dreams

When I was younger and living on the other side of the world. I would dream I was flying above my home town. Skimming from rooftop to rooftop (Sans Umbrella). I can still clearly recall looking down on to Langney roundabout and over to the Catholic Church and then back down Pevensey Bay Road.

According to a dream dictionary...

You first start dreaming of flying when you are 3 to 5 years old. It is a very common dream, though less prevalent in adults. More than one third of the dreaming population has dreamed of flying one time or the other.
* Flying dreams have a positive link with relief from tension and nightmares.
* Lucid dreamers tend to have twice as much of flying dreams.
* An intense emotional condition can also trigger off a flying dream
* The dreams are not exclusive to the post flying machines era.
* They feature in dream books of Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations.
* Creative thinkers have more flying dreams

Stuff and nonsense? It may well be, dream interpretations always seem to come back to the same themes. All I know is that I used to like it when I could fly!

James Bond Novels # 2 - Live & Let Die

James Bond is sent to New York City to investigate "Mr. Big", an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected by M of selling 17th century gold coins to finance Soviet spy operations in America. These gold coins have been turning up in Harlem and Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the Welsh pirate Sir Henry Morgan. Although Bond is at first reluctant to take on the mission, his attitude quickly changes upon learning that Mr. Big is an agent of SMERSH and that this mission offers him a chance of retaliation for previously being tortured by SMERSH operative Le Chiffre and having a Russian (Cyrilic) letter carved into the back of his hand by a SMERSH assassin in Casino Royale.

In New York, Bond meets up with his counterpart in the CIA, Felix Leiter. The two decide to visit some of Mr. Big's nightclubs in Harlem, but Mr. Big is aware of their movements through his network of informers and they are easily captured. Bond is personally interrogated by Mr. Big, who uses his fortune telling-girlfriend, Solitaire, to determine if Bond is telling the truth. Solitaire lies to Mr. Big, supporting Bond's cover story. Mr. Big decides to release Bond and Felix with only a mild beating, and has one of his men break one of Bond's fingers by pulling it backward until it snaps, but Bond then escapes and kills several of Mr. Big's men in the process. Leiter is released by a sympathetic gang member who shares his love of jazz.

Solitaire later contacts Bond and they travel to St. Petersburg, Florida. While Bond and Leiter are scouting one of Mr. Big's warehouses that is used for storing exotic fish, Solitaire is kidnapped by Mr. Big's minions. Felix later returns to the warehouse by himself, but is either captured and fed to a shark or tricked into standing on a trap door over the shark tank. He survives, losing an arm and a leg. Bond finds him in their safe house with a note pinned to his chest "He disagreed with something that ate him". After getting Felix to the hospital, Bond investigates the warehouse himself, and discovers that Mr. Big is indeed smuggling gold by placing it in the bottom of fish tanks holding poisonous tropical fish. Bond destroys much of the warehouse and then causes Mr. Big's gunman (the "Robber") to fall into the shark tank without leaving evidence that he has discovered the coin-smuggling scheme.

Bond continues his mission in Jamaica where he meets Quarrel and John Strangways, the head of the MI6 station in Jamaica. Quarrel gives Bond training in scuba diving in the local waters. Bond swims through shark and barracuda infested waters to Mr. Big's island and manages to plant a limpet mine on the hull of his yacht before being captured once again by Mr. Big. In the grand finale, Mr. Big ties Solitaire and Bond to a line behind his yacht and plans to drag them over the shallow coral reef and into deeper water so that the sharks and barracuda that he attracts in to the area with regular feedings will eat them.

Bond and Solitaire are saved when the limpet mine explodes moments before they are dragged over the reef: though temporarily stunned by the explosion and injured on the coral Bond and Solitaire are protected from the explosion by the reef, and Bond watches as Mr. Big, who survived the explosion, is killed by the sharks and barracuda. Bond and Solitaire then stay in Jamaica for a brief holiday in the book's close.

Ian Fleming intended the follow-up to Casino Royale to be of a more serious tone, a meditation on the nature of evil. The novel's original title, The Undertaker's Wind, reflects this. Fleming conducted research for Live and Let Die and completed it before Casino Royale was published; his publishers had offered him a contract for three books following Royale's popularity. Drawing from personal experiences, the opening with Bond's arrival at New York's Idlewild Airport was inspired by Fleming's own arrivals in 1941 and 1953. Also, the warehouse at which Felix Leiter is attacked by a shark was based on a warehouse Fleming had visited in 1953.

One of the weaker Bond novels, Live & let die betrays a barely concealed racist view of Black American and Jamaican culture that leaves the modern reader more than a little uncomfortable. Fleming's belief that Britain could save a decadent and addled American society from Communist infiltration through the hard graft of just one man is now quite an amusing construct though.

Poll Results - Bond novels (Part 1)

1= Casino Royale
1= From Russia with Love
3. Diamonds are forever
4. Live & let die

James Bond Novels - Casino Royale

The first of Ian Fleming's Bond novels, Casino Royale was apparently written in response to the looming shadow of getting married and the impending 'castration' from all the good things in life.

He started working on it in January 1952. At the time, Fleming was the Foreign Manager for Kemsley Newspapers, an organisation owned by The Sunday Times. Upon accepting the job, Fleming sensibly requested that he be allowed two months vacation per year. Every year thereafter, until his death in 1964, Fleming would retreat for the first two months of the year to his Jamaican estate, Goldeneye, to write a James Bond book.

Fleming used all aspects of his life as inspiration when writing: Every acquaintance of Ian Fleming ran the risk of ending up in one of his Bond books, and almost every character in his fiction is based on a real person, even if only by name. He plucked these monikers from his social circle, his memory, his reading, his favourite newspaper, the Jamaica Gleaner, and his imagination: old school friends (and enemies), clubmen, colleagues in the City and Fleet Street, golfing partners, girlfriends and others found themselves transported into Fleming’s fiction. The fact that my father's name Peter Franks appears in Diamonds are Forever, was always an intriguing adjunct to my fascination with the Bond novels.

Between 1953 and 1966, twelve James Bond novels and two short story collections by Fleming were published, including one novel and one collection issued posthumously. (It is still argued whether Fleming himself actually finished 1965's The Man with the Golden Gun, as he died very soon after it is known to have been completed.)

In Casino Royale MI6 assigns James Bond, Special Agent 007, to bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster for a SMERSH-controlled trade union, in a high-stakes baccarat game at the Royale-Les-Eaux casino. With him is Vesper Lynd, an MI6 accountant sent to make sure Bond handles the agency's money properly. He initially thinks of her as a nuisance, but over time grows to have romantic feelings for her.

The game soon turns into a one-on-one confrontation between Le Chiffre and Bond that soon bankrupts the latter. As Bond contemplates killing Le Chiffre outright, he is approached by CIA agent Felix Leiter, who offers to stake Bond for another hand. Bond accepts the offer and eventually wins the game, taking from Le Chiffre tens of millions of francs belonging to SMERSH. Desperate, Le Chiffre kidnaps Lynd and subjects Bond to brutal torture, threatening to kill them both if he does not get the money back. Suddenly, a SMERSH assassin bursts in and kills Le Chiffre as punishment for losing the money, saving Bond's life.

Lynd visits Bond every day as he recuperates in the hospital, and he gradually realizes that he loves her; he even contemplates leaving Her Majesty's Secret Service to settle down with her. When Bond is released, they go on holiday together, and eventually become lovers. One day, they see a mysterious man named Gettler tracking their movements, which greatly distresses Vesper. The following morning, Bond finds that Lynd has committed suicide, leaving behind a note explaining that she had been working as an unwilling double agent for the MVD. SMERSH had kidnapped her lover, a Polish RAF pilot, who had revealed information about her under torture; SMERSH then used that information to blackmail her into helping them undermine Bond's mission, including her own faked kidnapping. She had tried to start a life with Bond, but upon seeing Gettler — a SMERSH agent — she realized that she would never be free of her tormentors, and that staying with Bond would only put him in danger.

Bond copes with the loss by renouncing Lynd as a traitor and going back to work as if nothing has happened, coldly telling M, "The bitch is dead now." Nevertheless, subsequent novels reveal that he never truly gets over her death; in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, for example, it is revealed that he makes an annual pilgrimage to Royale-Les-Eaux to visit her grave, while in Diamonds Are Forever, he avoids listening to "La Vie en Rose", a song closely associated with Lynd in Casino Royale.

Fleming stated that Casino Royale was inspired by certain incidents that took place during his career at the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. Childhood friend Brett Hart was the basis for the novel, including a trip to Lisbon that Fleming and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Godfrey, took during World War II en route to the United States.

While there, they went to the Estoril Casino in Estoril, which (due to the neutral status of Portugal) had a number of spies of warring regimes present. Fleming claimed that while there he was cleaned out by a "chief German agent" at a table playing chemin de fer. Admiral Godfrey tells a different story: Fleming only played Portuguese businessmen and that afterwards Fleming had fantasized about there being German agents and the excitement of cleaning them. His references to 'Red Indians' (four times, twice on last page) comes from Fleming's own 30 Assault Unit, which he nicknamed his own 'Red Indians'.

The failed assassination attempt on Bond while at Royale-Les-Eaux is also claimed by Fleming to be inspired by a real event. The inspiration comes from a failed assassination on Franz von Papen who was a Vice-Chancellor and Ambassador under Adolf Hitler. Both Papen and Bond survive their assassination attempts, carried out by Bulgarians, due to a tree that protects them both from a bomb blast.

On a geographic note, the city of Royale-les-Eaux and its casino are inspired by Le Touquet-Paris-Plage or by Deauville, where Fleming used to play as a young man.

Casino Royale is a fanatstic introduction to Bond, the otherwordly almost exotic atmosphere of a late-night French casino was in stark contrast to the austerity of both post-war and mid-seventies (when I first read it) Britain. Bond's willingness to take on the cunning Le Chiffre, whilst polishing off numerous drinks and enemies in equal measure sets a pace that didn't let up in his writing for the next ten years.

Bond's latent racism and inherent sexism, whilst not to be dismissed, must be taken in the context of the time and Fleming's upbringing. In fact compared to some of the crass examples of both in the latter films his prejudices are quite mild. That being said, Casino Royale is the only place to start for anybody discovering him for the first time and indeed the only place for anyone returning to his annual trawl through the files of Commander Sir James Bond, (KCMG, RNVR).

James Bond & Harry Palmer

It is often said that where Bond glamourised the world of espionage, Palmer epitomised the mundane nature of life in the British Secret Service. For every one of Bond's rather rich meals in a french casino, Palmer rustles up a nice little omelette for his current acquaintance. It is new money v old England, Flash v Stylish, Fleming v Deighton...

Interestingly enough, Deighton was actually invited to write the screenplay for From Russia with love. Although little of it was actually used. Either way, the truth of the matter is, they both looked good, dressed well & drank steadily. All in all, enough to satisfy Gentlemen of any era!

Poll Results - Harry Palmer Novels

1. The Ipcress File
2. The Billion Dollar Brain
3. Funeral in Berlin
4. Horse under water

Poll Results - Favourite Welshman

1 = Richard Burton
1 = Dylan Thomas
3 - Aneurin Bevan

Ash Wednesday

And you can't have a cigarette in colour, black & white only. That is why they smoked in the 60's but we don't anymore. It says so, it's in the rules...

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day)

You can't make a pancake without...

Pretending you are actually Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File, it says so, it's in the rules.

Dole Days

"Wham! Bam! I am a man! Job or no job, you can't tell me that I'm not"

Back in the way back, when jobs were optional and the dole was, if not plentiful, then financially tolerable and more importantly readily available.

The days stretched out like an endless road before us. Wake up whenever, go to bed whenever, skip a day, miss a night. Pop round a friends at three in the morning to have a smoke and listen to some Cajun Be-Bop or Ragamuffin Hip Hop.

Wake up at six & head down the seafront to read Ian Fleming novels on the beach, pile over to Brighton in Malc's van or just luxuriate in the sensual company of someone infinitely more interesting than the man at the job centre.

Those were the special days...

Afternoon Films #2 - Where Eagles Dare

'Get him!'

It is World War II, in the winter of 1943-44; U.S. Army Brigadier General George Carnaby, one of the chief planners of D-Day, is captured by the Germans when his aircraft is shot down en-route to Crete. He is taken to the Schloß Adler (The Castle of the Eagles – hence the title), a fortress high in the Alps that is headquarters of the German Secret Service in southern Bavaria. A team of mainly British commandos is assembled and briefed by Colonel Wyatt Turner and Admiral Rolland (Michael Hordern AKA Paddington Bear)of MI6, and led by Major John Smith (Richard Burton) and US Army Ranger Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood). Their mission is to parachute in, infiltrate the Schloß Adler, and rescue General Carnaby before the Germans can interrogate him. Agent Mary Elison, an MI6 operative, accompanies the mission in secret, her presence known only to Major Smith.

As the mission begins, two members are mysteriously killed, but Major Smith is unperturbed and keeps Lt. Schaffer as a close ally. Contriving to get the party captured, Smith and Schaffer, being officers, are separated from Thomas, Christiansen, and Berkeley, the only three remaining NCOs. Smith and Schaffer kill their captors and blow up a supply depot before hitching a ride on a cable car — the only approach to the castle. Mary, posing as a new maid, had been brought into the castle by Heidi, an MI6 agent disguised as a barmaid in the nearby village, and Major Von Hapen, a Gestapo officer and Heidi's acquaintance, who becomes infatuated with her. Mary allows Schaffer and Smith to climb in through a window overlooking the castle's station.

Carnaby's interrogation is underway, carried out by Gen. Rosemeyer and Col. Kramer, when Thomas and the others arrive and reveal themselves to be German double agents. Smith and Schaffer intrude, but Smith betrays and disarms Schaffer, and establishes himself as "Major Johann Schmidt" of SS Military Intelligence. He exposes the identity of Carnaby — that of a U.S. Army Corporal named Cartwright Jones, posing as the real general — and also explains that Thomas and the rest are British impostors. To test them, Smith proposes they write the names of their fellow conspirators to be compared to the personal list in his pocket, and divulges the name of Germany's top agent in Britain secretly to Kramer, who silently affirms it. After the three finish their lists, Smith reveals his list to Kramer, which appears to be blank. To the room's surprise, Smith admits the rescue operation was a cover for the real mission — to discover the identities of German spies in Britain.

Meanwhile, Mary, preparing the explosives, meets von Hapen again; he takes her to the castle's cafe, and subtly forces her to recite the tale of her assumed identity. He finds faults in her story, prompting him to investigate; he happens upon the meeting just as Smith finishes his explanation, and becomes hostile. Mary's entrance distracts von Hapen enough for Schaffer to kill him and the other German officers, after which the remaining group escape. Thomas, Berkeley and Christiansen are taken prisoner. Schaffer sets explosives to create diversions around the compound and Smith leads the group to the radio room, where he informs Rolland of their success. This scene includes the by now immortal code words "Broadsword calling Danny Boy", which Burton hams up to ludicrous levels.

They then battle their way to the cable car station; Thomas is sacrificed as a decoy, and Berkeley and Christiansen attempt their own escape, but Smith climbs atop the cable car they steal and destroys it with an explosive. Smith makes it back on a returning cable car and rides back down with the others, but the group abandons it mid-descent to reunite with Heidi and board a bus, prepared earlier as their escape vehicle. They drive hard to an airfield with soldiers in hot pursuit, and barely make it onto a disguised extraction plane, where Colonel Turner is waiting for them.

Smith briefs Turner on the mission and confirms a suspicion that he and Rolland had shared since before the start — namely that Turner himself is the top Nazi agent in Britain, whose name the late Kramer had agreed to before; Turner had been lured into participating so MI6 could expose him, with Mary (Smith's trusted partner) and Schaffer (an American with no connection to MI6) specially assigned to the team to ensure the mission's success. Deciding to save face, Turner commits suicide by jumping out of the plane.

All in all a cracking romp and one that survives repeat viewings, even now. Burton looks every inch a hard bitten lover of the sauce and Clint, well Clint looks like Clint, perfecting his minimalist approach to dialogue which came in hand for his role as Harry Callahan in the Dirty harry movies (more of which another day). Plenty of Nazis being blown to kingdom come and of course the brilliant cable car scene.

Cast
Richard Burton as Smith
Clint Eastwood as Schaffer
Mary Ure as Mary
Patrick Wymark as Turner
Michael Hordern as Rolland
Donald Houston as Christiansen
Peter Barkworth as Berkeley
William Squire as Thomas
Robert Beatty as Carnaby
Brook Williams as Harrod
Neil McCarthy as MacPherson
Vincent Ball as Carpenter
Anton Diffring as Kramer
Ferdy Mayne as Rosemeyer
Derren Nesbitt as Von Hapen
Victor Beaumont as Weissner
Ingrid Pitt as Heidi

Smarties

In the sepia tinted days before blue Smarties came on the scene and ruined everything, before the tubes became hexagons, when you wished that the letter on the inside of the lid corresponded with the target of your affection. There were proper Smarties...

Rowntrees of York, England, had made "Chocolate Beans" from 1882 onwards. The product was then renamed in a fit of marketing exuberance "Smarties Chocolate Beans" in 1937. However, before you could even blink an eye, forty years had passed and Rowntrees were forced to drop the words "chocolate beans" in 1977 due to trading standards requirements (the use of the word "beans" was felt to be misleading) so they adopted the stunning "Milk Chocolate in a Crisp Sugar Shell". Later, the sweet was rebranded quite simply and somewhat provocatively as "Smarties".

Smarties are now no longer manufactured in York; production has now moved to Germany (don't get me started), where a third of them were already made (did we know this?). Outside Europe, Nestlé's largest production facility for Smarties is in Canada, where Nestlé has been manufacturing products since 1918.

Apparently, in subculture "smarties" is a street name for ecstasy, because of the latter coming as colourful tablets. Although why on earth anyone would want to pop a pill as opposed to gulping down a handful "Chocolate Beans" is beyond me!

Taking a stroll...

Through Soho at dusk. From Carnaby Street to Kettners, dreaming of the girl at the end of the bar!

St David's Day

What we miss most about Wales...

Travelling to the Millenium Stadium for Cup Finals
Dylan Thomas
Bets-Y-Coed creamy Fudge
Brains Bitter
Rodney Ontong
Matthew Maynard
Duffy
Steven Gerrard OG
Ryan Giggs
St Mary's Street, Cardiff
Late nights at the Marriott
Sophia Gardens
St Ives Caerphilly
Llandridod Wells
Le Monde (St Mary Street)
Faggots in Gravy
Merthyr at dusk
North Wales slate mines
Beating Wales at Twickenham
Tom Jones
Walking along the Gower
The Hayes Toilet, Cardiff
Richard Burton
Anthony Hopkins
The Great Orme
Gavin & Stacey
Zulu
JPR Williams
Barry John
Holyhead ferry to Ireland
Severn Bridge Toll
The Prisoner
Young Marble Giants
Welsh Anthems that make your hair stand on end
Revolution Vodka Bar
Welsh rarebit (cheese on toast)
Eddie Niedzwiecki
Simon Jones
Monty Panesar & Jimmy Anderson
the road home (via the Membury Services)


(With thanks to Carlo Sartori)

Poll Results - Pop Art Explosions!!!

And the winner was...

1. WHAAM!!
2. POW!
3. ZAP!