The name may not be familiar to a lot of you. I wrote recently about heroes of mine as I was growing up and I omitted the biggest hero of them all.
A couple of days ago I was scrawling down my Facebook feed and came across details of interviews Harry had with British DJ and presenter Noel Edmonds.
Us Brits will know that there was a time when you couldn't switch on your TV without seeing Noel's cheesy grin. He developed a whole genre of feel good and frankly daft television that is now the domain of the likes of Ant and Dec.
But before Noel took to television he had a very enjoyable Sunday morning radio programme and before that he had the Radio One prestigious breakfast slot in the days when Radio One played music and not endless noisy dross written by five year olds. Noel's shows featured pranks and wind ups which were very entertaining in themselves. He also played some excellent music and introduced me to two of my favourite artists - Harry Chapin and John Stewart.
Noel Edmonds played quite a bit of Harry Chapin and championed the single about an American morning DJ which was called WOLD. I liked that single and bought the LP from which it came and then every album before and after.
Now I know that there are many people that don't like Chapin's music but to me he says more in one song than most artists say in a lifetime.
Chapin wrote story songs and songs with meaning. He taught me a lot about life, but above all it was his humanity that shone out. He valued each and every one of his fans and never lost sight of the people that made it possible for him to be a modern troubadour. He also raised millions of dollars a year to fight world hunger and poverty by playing half his concerts for charity. He had this saying "one for me and one for the other guy."
His son was once asked "what's it like to have Harry Chapin as a dad." He replied along the lines of "hard to tell as he's never home."
Harry actually wrote a song about this which became one of his most popular. It's called "Cats in the Cradle." You may have heard it.
Back to Noel Edmonds.
He spent many years hosting the game show Deal or No Deal before taking off into the land that we know as obscurity. In fact Edmonds is now living with his third wife near Auckland in New Zealand.
Many years ago I was a contestant on The Weakest Link and the person who looked after us on the day had worked with both Mrs Nasty Anne Robinson and also Noel Edmonds. Of the two he much preferred Robinson, telling us that Edmonds was rather too arrogant for his liking.
But Noel Edmonds has left us with one legacy - the famous or infamous Mr Blobby.
But back to Harry Chapin. He was I should imagine very different in character to Noel Edmonds. If you have never heard his work, do seek it out. Hopefully you won't be disappointed.
Incidentally my family tree includes a number of Edmonds. Could we be related?
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Last evening we went on the fish and chip special on the North Norfolk Railway.
We chugged along the North Norfolk coast from Sheringham and then inland to Holt by steam. This year we have been used to travelling at over 200 mph. This journey was more like 20 mph. There wasn't a lot to it. We got the food as soon as we left, had about 20 minutes on Holt station and then ice cream was handed out on the return journey and that was a out it.
We had a latish lunch at the Two Magpies Bakery in Holt. We were only looking for a snack but the lunch menu seemed quite extensive. Quite extensive that is until we were told what wasn't available. The couple who came in in front of us left again.
We complain nowadays about places being understaffed. This one was overstaffed. There were only a few people in but we counted eight members of staff. Most of them were very young and just hanging about chatting amongst themselves. It didn't give a good impression and the food was strictly ordinary.
Today it's the Royal Norfolk Show. I think we now officially qualify to be referred to as gad abouts.
The dictionary states that to gad about is to visit or travel about to different places, enjoying yourself without worrying about other things you should be doing.
I'm not sure a visit to the Norfolk Show comes into the category of enjoying myself. Will report back on it tomorrow.