Lets say it wasn't greatly funny and there were more double entendres than you could shake a stick at. Their performance lasted about nine minutes and consisted mainly with a female member of the audience who was , well let's say amply proportioned, sitting on Bernie's lap and running her fingers down his chest while reciting the words Eeny meeny miny mo to which Bernie replied "That's as far as you go." I have no idea whether the lady in question was a plant or a genuine member of the audience.
Mind you I never saw the point of Old Time Music Halls - thank goodness they don't seem to raise their ugly head nowadays.
The Good Old Days took place at the City Varieties in Leeds and it was a hark back to the heady days of music hall. Everyone got dressed up in Victorian clothes for the show and there was a master of ceremonies who was Leonard Sachs. Contrary to belief Sachs is not related to Andrew Sachs who played Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
Leonard Sachs would introduce the acts with a barrage of long words which brought gasps of oooh and aaah from the audience. The Good Old Days was copied up and down the country.
When I became a reporter in a seaside town (Lowestoft) I made it known that my interests included the arts and sport. As a result I was given responsibility for covering both. That meant reporting on various summer shows in Lowestoft and the surrounding areas.
I think there may have been an Old Time Music Hall at Lowestoft but the one I really remember was Sunday nights on Cromer Pier Pavilion Theatre. I took over the reporting of that when I moved to Cromer I attended their old time music hall on a number of occasions, mainly because of the man who took on the Leonard Sachs role. I have long forgotten his name but what I do remember is that he was always inebriated on stage, stumbling over the long words, dropping his handkerchief and generally messing up. It was an entertainment in itself.
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Yesterday I decided as a bit of fun to generate a random date between 1973 when I started writing a daily diary and the present day and see what I was doing at that point in my life.
The computer generated November 7th, 1996. It was an interesting day as I was attending the annual conference for Police Press and Public Relations Officers. This was in Portrush in Northern Ireland and there was heavy security around our hotel.
This was very much in a loyalist area of Northern Ireland but we were still told to be careful. If we went out into Portrush we were advised not to talk about what work we did or where we were staying. I kept to the hotel.
On the way there our minivan driver had shown a wicked sense of humour, telling us that if he shouted duck we should all hit the floor. At one point he turned down a road and did a very quick u turn.
"Is something up," asked one of our number.
"There certainly is. I missed my turning," he replied.
The conference was full of high profile presentations including one on the Dunblane Massacre which had taken place just eight months before.
One of my memories of that conference was a trip round Bushmills Whiskey distillery - something I was to repeat many years later when I took my other threequarters there.
I have to say here and now that I can't abide whiskey. It just makes me feel sick (as does brandy). When we went back on our second visit we bought milky coffees to pour our whiskey sample into as neither of us could drink it any other way.
Do you know what one of the big differences between Irish Whiskey and Scottish Whisky is? That sentence actually gives you a clue. The word whiskey has an e in Ireland but no e in Scotland and not a lot of people know that.
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Finally today photographs of the artwork from Hethersett Hall which I promised a few days ago.