We went to the New Year's Day displays at Cromer for a number of years. Crawled into Cromer, hung around for hours in anticipation, stood in the freezing cold for a display that lasted about 15 minutes and then took over two hours to crawl home thinking "was it really worth it?"
Displays are usually pretty standard and my feeling is once you've seen one you have seen them all. It's the same as gong to away football games. You travel for six hours, hang around for another hour or two and then the game takes just one and a half hours. Is this really a good use of time?
A number of years ago we were in Liverpool seeing New Year in down the historic Cavern Club. We came out at around 12.30 am to hear some very loud bangs. Assumed they were fireworks but there was nothing going up in the air and fireworks always go up. Turned out a car had caught fire in a multi storey car park and had set off fires in other cars in a domino effect. What we heard was the sound of cars exploding. There were a lot of people stranded that night.
I was prompted to make these musings by an article in the local newspaper looking back on a disappointing laser show in Norwich to see in the new millennium. I didn't actually see in the new millennium (well not in the accepted sense).
I went to a party/disco at Hethersett Middle School (now Hethersett Junior School). At 10 pm, not having had an alcoholic drink of any kind, I drove into work. Everyone was expecting the millennium bug to wipe out computers and as I was working for one of the emergency services this could have been a big deal.
So there I was as midnight approached sitting on my own in the office waiting for something to happen that never did. I think I hung around until about 1.30 am and then went home to bed as all the celebrations had finished.
There was none of that last year/this year though. For the first time in many years (other than last year of course) we stayed in. I made it to 11.15 pm and then gave up and went to bed to see in the New Year reading.
Had spent much of the evening watching the Great Yarmouth Christmas Circus on You Tube. It was very confusing as it was billed as a live premiere. The show was actually recorded on Christmas Eve. I'm a big fan of the Yarmouth Hippodrome Circus which has a summer show, a Hallowe'en Show, a Pirate Show and a Christmas special. Shows are noisy and entertaining although there was rather too much filler and not enough circus about this one.
And of course no animals. There was a box for comments on my laptop coverage of the event and some of the comments made were funnier than Jack Jay and Ben Langley (who admittedly were only funny if you were a seven year old and enjoyed toilet humour). Somebody asked when the elephants were arriving and somebody else said they were outside the venue watching the show on their laptop - which seemed rather a strange thing to do.
We first took grandson Elliot to the show when he was about four. As I've already said it was noisy but about 10 minutes from the end he fell asleep and we had to carry him out at the end. When we took granddaughter Poppy a few years ago she screamed and we had to take her out. Now she absolutely loves the show. How things change and how things never stay the same.
The Hippodrome building dates back to 1903 and is described as the country's only total circus building (not absolutely sure what that means). The building has seen some interesting happenings. David Lloyd George held political rallies there, Lillie Langtry sang, Max Miller told funny stories and Harry Houdini undertook his famous escapes. It is thought that Charlie Chaplin appeared there before becoming famous. The venue has hosted concerts, orchestral performances and even BBC Radio's Question Time. It certainly is a venue for everything including a water show which fills in the second half of most circus shows. The floor of the big top unfolds to produce a circular swimming pool.
Norfolk impresario Peter Jay bought the building in 1979 and restored the water feature two years later. Jay is an interesting character - one of the unsung heroes of the sixties music scene as leader of the pop/rock group Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers. Now unless you come from Norfolk you will never have heard of them. If you do come from Norfolk you will need to be of a certain age to have heard of them. They didn't actually set the music world alight but they did support the Beatles and the Rolling Stones who you may have heard of.
Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers was formed in 1960 by Peter Jay whose father Jack owned a number of cinemas and nightclubs in Great Yarmouth. Drummer Peter formed the group while he was studying at Norwich College. In 1962 they signed for Decca Records and their first single was the Can Can from Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. Presumably this record would be banned by the BBC who, in those days, banned any singles that used classical music. They released several more singles without gaining any hits although they were very popular, supporting the Beatles in November and December 1963. They also appeared on TV shows including Ready Steady Go and Thank Your Lucky Stars.
The band moved to Piccadilly Records in 1964 but met with little success and in 1966 were part of a package tour that included the Rolling Stones, Ike and Tina Turner and the Yardbirds. Following that tour they disbanded.
Peter and Jack then purchased the Hippodrome which they restored. Jack died in 1985 but Peter has continued to run the Yarmouth venue ever since, being joined by his son Jack who acts as compere for the shows.
Sadly there was a tragedy at the Hippodrome back in 2003 when Eva Garcia died after falling 30 feet after slipping during her aerial act.
I remember the days when trapeze troupes didn't have safety nets. One slip and it would have been disaster. Thankfully now a slip will simply mean an embarrassing fall into the net. Indeed a few years ago one such troupe tried to set a new world record for something or other. They tried and failed three times before giving up which just goes to show that not all circus failures are deliberate and designed to make everything look super difficult.
This year's Hippodrome Special is available on You Tube.
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Having been in bed when the New Year came round, we decided to pop up to North Norfolk for the day. Leaving at 9 am there was virtually no traffic on the road and we were at Weybourne within the hour. Lots of walking and lots of photographs and on our way home we stopped at Holt for a last look at the lights before they come down. Hope you enjoy some of the photos taken yesterday.