Is this a big deal I hear you ask? Well yes it is. Abba are arguably the greatest pop group of all time. I use the word pop rather than rock. Rock is Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones and many more. Abba were/are pure pop and what songs Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson wrote/write.
The new album is good and bordering on very good. It's almost as if we were back in the 1970s/1980s and this was just a continuation of their last album before they split. It's almost as if those 40 years have gone in a heartbeat - which of course they have.
I watched a television interview yesterday morning with Bjorn and Benny and they seemed very relaxed. The ladies - Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad appear to be the driving forces behind this album, however, and their voices are as good as ever.
Bjorn and Benny said this is their last album unless they get talked into doing another "by the ladies". They didn't sound very convincing, however, so I wouldn't rule out another in a couple of years.
There is some classic Abba on the album. I had already liked their two singles, but other tracks are equally good and I particularly liked the final track "Ode To Freedom" which sounds as if it is based on a Beethoven piece (can't quite identify it at the moment).
Now I am a fully paid up member of the Old Codgers Front (OCF) that makes younger people angry when I talk about the glorious music of the 1960s and 1970s. It's not allowed to say that today's music is by and large crap and in five years' time will be totally forgotten while the music of the sixties and seventies will live forever. But that's how I feel at times. although I have been listening to Adele, Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey of late.
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Now for some good news. Yesterday I. along with many others, included details of the alleged theft of medals from Fred Squires.
The following message was posted on Facebook:
"Grandad just phoned me and said he was having his cup of tea and noticed his wheelie bin had been moved. So he went outside to put it back and his medals were behind it in a cloth. So some one has returned them, as strange as it is, at least he has them back! Thank you everyone."
Nice to have some good news amongst all the racism claims and sleaze. There's a lovely photo that has been sent to me by my good friend John Head of Fred with Philip Curson.
Philip was the subject of an article I wrote for the local newspapers a couple of months ago. Spent a very interesting morning with Philip and his wife at their Dereham home. Philip's father William died in the Le Paradis massacre and features in my coming book on the subject.
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On Thursday, I was reminded of the old Crowded House song "Four Seasons In One Day." In the morning I played tennis in conditions that ranged from dark clouds to swirling winds and sunshine to rain. Then in the afternoon I walked down to Hethersett Memorial Playing Field for the ceremonial planting of an Oak tree by the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk Lady Dannatt.
The Oak is the start of the village's celebrations to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Most of the celebrations will take place next year but this was an appropriate start - something that will last for many years.
I took photos and later wrote a piece for the local Media. The whole ceremony took just 10 minutes because everyone was keen to get away due to the bone chilling wind that was cutting across the park. I have added some of the photos of the planting taken on the day.
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Was sad to hear of the passing of Lionel Blair. He always struck me as a nice man and he was hardly ever off our screens. On Breakfast TV they mentioned a Gotcha he was awarded many years ago. For those of you confused, the Gotchas were part of a show featuring Noel Edmonds where he set people up - much as Ant and Dec do today.
The Lionel Blair Gotcha was carried out at a play he was starring in with Vicki Michelle. Things started to go wrong. First of all Edmonds dressed as an old man started heckling from the audience and taking flash photographs. Then things went wrong on stage with booming sirens going off. Then Edmonds arrived dressed as a diver with flippers and snorkel. Nobody knew why but he disrupted the entire play before revealing his real identity.
The point is that Lionel Blair took it all in good heart and was obviously concerned for the audience and not for the fact that he was being destroyed as an actor. He kept apologising and ad libbing. It is a very funny clip and is available on You Tube.
I imagine that Blair was as nice off screen as he appeared to be on screen.
As for Noel Edmonds. Well he seems to have disappeared. Actually I believe he now lives in New Zealand. I loved his Sunday morning programme which I believe was on Radio One. He used to do wonderfully funny telephone wind up calls. He also proved to have a good taste in music introducing me to two of my all time favourite singer-songwriters - Harry Chapin and John Stewart.
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November 5th is no longer the only time we have fireworks. They now seem to be an all year round thing - at New Year, at Christmas, on special occasions etc etc.
Last year of course was a damp squib thanks to COVID, so it will be interesting to see how much noise is generated over this weekend.
Over the years I have been involved in organising a number of displays including those held by Wymondham Round Table, Hethersett Athletic Football Club and Hethersett and Tas Valley Cricket Club.
The Round Table event took place on Hethel Airfield and became so popular that we had to stop it because it just got too big.
Went to a community display in Milton Keynes one year when more people seemed interested in the fact that actor Kevin Whately was there than the display itself. He lives near MK.
A number of years ago we were in Liverpool for New Year's Eve and saw the New Year in down the historic Cavern Club dancing to the Cavern Club Beatles.
As we came out, we heard a number of loud bangs. I thought it was strange as what we assumed were fireworks weren't appearing in the air. We later heard that cars had exploded in a Liverpool car park and those were the noises we heard. It was at the Echo Arena and over 1,600 cars exploded! Apparently there wasn't anything suspicious. One care caught fair and exploded and there was a domino effect. We were so glad that our car was safe in the hotel car park. I believe a number of people were stranded in Liverpool that night with no way of getting home.
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For some reason the word abrogate or abrogation kept coming into my mind yesterday. Words often impinge on my day.
The dictionary definition of abrogate is: evade a responsibility or duty.
My favourite abrogation is the one that everyone will have been subjected to.
"Can you remind me that I've got a dental appointment at 3.30 next Wednesday."
Why the person can't remember it themselves has always been beyond me. But it's the way of abrogating responsibility. Another favourite is to tell someone something on the phone. Rather than write it down themselves they ask you to pop the details down in an e-mail. That's abrogating responsibility.
OK I do that one. It buys you time!!!!
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Was speaking to parish councillor Jenny Walpole on Thursday and she noticed I was taking down details in shorthand, something she also uses.
People always seem impressed when they find out you can do shorthand. They are fascinated by the swirls and strokes which they see as a foreign language.
I learnt Pitman shorthand at journalism college. I won't pretend it came easily. I struggled but over the years I have developed my own kind of shorthand. It's a strange thing but everyone's shorthand develops its own idiosyncrasies. It's quite difficult to explain.
I had problems learning due to the strangled nature of my vowels, having a Norfolk accent. When you are learning you have to get things right. That means putting strokes and characters either above, on or below the line depending on the vowel sign. That way you can tell the difference between words such as debt and date. But after you have passed your exams you don't worry about the position of the outlines because the meaning of the sentence will tell you what the word is.
Obviously if you have the words: Can you make a date in your diary. It wouldn't make sense to have the phrase Can you make a debt in your diary. So you don't have to worry where you put the word date on the page.
I'm sure artistic people are better at shorthand than non artistic like me. Anyway myself and Jenny tried to guess when Pitman shorthand was invented and I couldn't believe it when I found the date to be 1837.
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Finally I like to collect silly or implausible stories which appear in newspapers. My favourite heading of all time is "Parrot suffering from Alzheimer's returns home."
The local paper had report of a court case about a couple and their family who had broken COVID rules by travelling from their home in London to Cley On Sea in North Norfolk. They said they had gone there to take pictures of socks (yes socks). When asked why they couldn't take pictures of socks closer to their home they said because Cley is a much nicer place. The police officer who caught them told the court that she could find no photographic equipment in their car.
In levying high fines on the couple the magistrate said: "I'm really socking it to you." (Actually I made that bit up).
This has been an extensive blog - possibly my longest ever weighing in at almost 2,000 words. I am fast approaching my 1,000th blog since I started and am proud to say I haven't missed a single day.