A friend and blogette Chris sent me a list of dates of a tour by Mike Oldfield to celebrate 50 years of Tubular Bells which I wrote about recently. Mike is taking an orchestra around the country to perform Tubular Bells but isn't coming to Norwich and this happens time after time after time.
We always seem to miss out despite having a theatre and other venues. Chris De Burgh is coming in February but most of the main acts miss us out. And this isn't something new. Years ago when I was on the newspaper I wrote a rock music column and also reviewed music and plays at the theatre.
That was in the days of the legendary general manager Dick Condon who I have written about on numerous occasions. I used to moan to Dick about the never ending list of artists appearing there who were either on their last legs or were has beens trying desperately to resurrect their failing careers. There was a Scottish singer whose name evades me who had so many farewell tours in Norwich that it became a standing joke.
The theatre rarely got cutting edge artists and that annoyed me. I used to chat about this with Dick and it was always a matter of economics. He had to be certain when booking an artist, play etc that it would produce as he put it "bums on seats"
We all gave him a list of artists he had never heard of that definitely would have put bums on seats but he always stuck with the tried and trusted. I lost count of how many times Daniel O'Donnell appeared.
Tubular Bells is my third favourite album of all time. I would love to hear it live but will now have to travel quite some distance to catch it. Mind you if Brian Blessed is involved I might just give it a miss. I still can't listen to the 50th anniversary disc without doubling up with laughter as I have mentioned before when he starts shouting.
So if Tubular Bells is number three, what are numbers one and two I hear you ask?
1/ Once Again by Barclay James Harvest
2/ Hunky Dory by David Bowie
* * *
Some blogettes will do anything to get into my blog. On Tuesday I was sitting in the lounge, generally minding my own business when the doorbell went. It didn't ring once, A podgy digit rang it three times. I thought something important had happened like the annual Christmas Elf was at the door.
And when I opened it, two people burst into carols. It should have been enough to have got them arrested for bad taste.
It was two blogettes demanding to be in my blog. They looked cold and had come from afar - well two streets away. It was a pretty pathetic attempt to inveigle their way into my blog. And that's the first time I have ever used the word inveigle.
But being a very tolerant man, I invited them in and tried to ply them with wine. They protested that the Yorkshires were about to rise which I have reason to believe was code for something or other.
No time for wine but they might be able to do a coffee. They didn't elaborate on what they were going to do with the coffee, but they did have a couple of slurps before saying "The Yorkshires are in the oven" which was again a code for something or other. And off they went into the sunset (or in this case into the mist). Before they went I took a photo, something they insisted on and then pretended they didn't want.
Ok time to come clean. It was my friends John and Hazel. They aren't related but Hazel was at John's to see the Yorkshires Rise. John's wife Ros was at home overseeing the Rising. They are lovely people but I still haven't worked out quite what their visit was about. Perhaps they wanted to see whether our Yorkshires had risen. I'm still sure that's code for something or other. Any help with this would be appreciated.
If you are a blogette and are reading this be assured that if you knock on my door you will receive a warm welcome, a cup of tea or coffee or something a little stronger and of course the possibility of Rising Yorkshires.