A funny thing happened to me a couple of days ago at a cafe in east Belfast. Myself and Kyle ‘The Kylemeister’ Leitch, whom some regard as ‘the godfather of punk’ in Belfast (even Terri Hoooley, who’s made a career out of that very epithet!), were quaffing Americanos at an outside table and putting the world to rights when a gentle soul in glasses at the next table said, “Did I just hear you mention Jimmy Clitheroe…?”
He did. It transpired the fellow had seen Clitheroe at an end of the pier show in Blackpool many years ago. Obviously, I had to then find a way to explain why his name had just come up in our conversation. It was like this…
The Kylemeister, in between anecdotes about old punks, had said, ‘Van’s not been back here since he was turned away…’ (The cafe in question is one of The Man’s haunts but one day a few weeks back he turned up and all the tables were full. Sometimes being The Man is no good when The Seats are unavailable.)
At this point, I may have mumbled a brief bit of Van impersonation involving pasty suppers, Mahalia Jackson, creme anglais and Jimmy Clitheroe. And so you can see what happened next…
Obviously, I had to explain to all concerned that, look, there’s this blog, and occasionally I might be known to contribute the odd very slightly exaggerated homage to Van’s mystical/nostalgic rants – Spangles, Rancheros, Keith Chegwin, Bessie Smith, Sidney Bechet etc etc etc
And so we all had a gay old time in the cafe garden, swapping anecdotes about the 70s. Man with glasses had been and remained a devotree of the cheesier end of 70s glam ( @Beany – you would have loved it!), telling how disappointed he had always been with Gary Glitter’s B-sides. The Kylemeister, who had run a record shop in the 70s, expressed that his disappointment never got past Gary’s A-sides.
Wouldn’t it have been great if Van had suddenly appeared in the middle of all this?
And the thing is, he still wouldn’t have got a seat.
Radio 4 Extra is performing a great service to the public by repeating Clitheroe shows on Sundays. It proves that most humour does not age well. Never mind Shakespeare’s comedies, stuff from the 40s (ITMA), 50s/60s (The Clitheroe Kid) is painfully unfunny. ITMA in particular is obviously the inspiration for The Fast Show’s Arthur Atkinson, as it consists of nothing much more than catchphrases, each of which sends the audience of the time into hysterics. I wonder which of today’s comedians will still be funny in 50 (or 5) years time?
I love Four Extra.
Two comedies which still sound great are ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ and ‘Round The Horne.’
Funnily (or should that be ‘not funnily’) enough, pretty much any early incarnation of Monty Python or The Goodies which Four Extra airs, is always fantastically bad.
‘I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again’? Yikes!
Rule of thumb…..rarely used to determine such things, but should always be used to determine such things…..if they went to Oxford or Cambridge it is almost certainly complete shite*.
(*exception, obviously, Peter Cook/Dudley Moore’/’Beyond the Fringe.’)
To think that Ben Elton used to be considered the cutting edge of comedy…
The last time I saw The Young Ones the only thing I laughed at was Alexei Sayle’s parts. Against that, Steptoe, Porridge, Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads, are still as funny (if not more) than when first shown. Has anyone watched the repeats of ‘On The Buses’ and done more than groan?
I’m old enough to remember going to see the Clitheroe Kid being recorded in Manchester.
I’m old enough to remember it on the radio, and finding it hilarious at the time (although I was only a kid, unlike ‘Jimmy’).
I’m old enough to have seen him in panto.
I’m old enough to remember seeing him on telly in the 1960s and thinking, even then, WTF? (or pre-school words to that effect).
I’m old enough to remember … hang on … him … what’s-his-face. You know. On the wireless.
A slightly disturbing cross between Angus Young and Janette Krankie doesn’t really sum it up. So, for the benefit of younger readers, perhaps we should take look at Jimmy Clitheroe?
http://i.imgur.com/4yMpnIb.jpg
One for football fans – the late, great Jim Baxter taunted diminutive, squeaky-voiced Alan Ball throughout the ’67 thrashing of the England team (3-2) by constantly referring to the midfield Dynamo as Jimmy Clitheroe. ‘Drove him potty’, according to Slim Jim.
Diminutive, squeaky-voiced, WORLD CUP WINNER Alan Ball’s dad ran a pub in Oswestry and was player-manager of Oswestry Town FC at a time when my grandma ran the tea buffet with her friend Pom. My gram said (she died years ago) that she kicked the diminutive, squeaky-voiced, WORLD CUP WINNER’s arse often when he used his diminutive stature to try to steal biscuits off her tea urn counter. I could post a picture of Gram, Pom & tea urn if I can find it but Alan Ball Jnr is not on it.
My first claim to fame. I sang in the St. Stephen’s church choir at Alan Ball’s wedding. Them were t’days.
The boy done good!
Just about as funny as those other sinister, sexually disturbed BBC “light entertainers” Jimmy Edwards and Charlie Drake.
Back in the 70s I shared a house with a girl whose mother was a close friend of Jimmy Edwards’ wife. She used to tell us some great stories about the notoriously rude and grumpy comedy actor.
I’ll change the names to protect the innocent (mainly because I can’t remember them) but one story involved my flatmate’s mother (who we shall call Betty Johnson) ringing the Edwards’ home in Sussex asking to speak to Jimmy’s wife Valerie.
Jimmy answered the phone in typical brusque fashion and the conversation went something like this:
JE: “Yes?”
Betty Johnson: “Oh, hello Jimmy, it’s Betty here, how are you? Is Valerie there?”
JE: “Hang on”
(Jimmy puts receiver on hall table and walks to foot of stairs)
JE (yelling upstairs) “Val! it’s that Betty fucking Johnson for you. Don’t be too long gassing, I have to go out soon”
JE: (picking up phone) “She’s just coming”
But he was brilliant at the Monterey festival.
This thread has certainly developed in a way I hadn’t foreseen.
It’s all your fault, referring to the “cheesier end of 70s glam”. What’s not to like?
Before you know it there will be Charlie Drake punk records. Look!
This was a staple of Children’s Choice on the BBC Light Programme in the 50s.
Now it just seems weird.
Punk Charlie, you’ll be saying he produced a prog record, oh he did. With a line up of lead vocal Charlie Drake, backing vocal Sandy Denny, Robert Fripp on guitar, Percy Jones on bass, Keith Tippett on keyboards and Phil Collins on drums. Produced by Peter Gabriel.
Duffy Power played harmonica on one of his mid 60s records (I think it was ‘I’m A Boy’, but I’ve never heard it) and did a TV Palladium show with him.
First time on the blog, Colin?
Very good, HP!