I think we pay £7.99 a month and for that we get hundreds of magazines and newspapers to read online. Before subscribing, I bought a couple of music magazine and a history mag each month which would have cost me around £20. Now I get these online along with so many more.
Yes I miss having something tangible in my hand but reading online does save you from having a build-up of magazines littering the place and the beauty is you can always re-download previous editions.
Readly started slowly with newspapers but now has the Express, the Mirror, the Guardian, the Independent and the Observer online amongst others. So the value just improves all the time. I expect the cost will go up soon.
One of the magazines included on Readly is "Let's Talk" - the East Anglian/Norfolk nostalgia Mag directed, I suspect, at readers of a certain age.
This edition made me ruminate on some of the local showbusiness people I knew in my former life, writing about the stage and screen and music.
It featured an article on Norfolk comedian/compere Phillip "Peachy" Meade. I came across "Peachy" on numerous occasions and I believe I even went to his house once where he had a jukebox, a full size pinball machine and a one-armed bandit - I thought I was in heaven.
Peachy was also a film extra and I remember him appearing in a number of episodes in the Tales of the Unexpected stories which were based on the writing of Roald Dahl. In fact Peachy appeared in so many episodes in so many guises that we renamed the series "Tales of Spotting Peachy Mead."
I seem to remember that Peachy's parents owned or were landlords of the Garden House Public House in Pembroke Road. I have this very vague memory of being in a pushchair at the Garden House when there was a flood of some kind. Like so many memories this may have been a completely fabricated one, or maybe there is something in it. I do remember going to the pub with my grandmother and parents on Bank Holidays. My grandmother lived just round the corner in Rupert Street. We would sit in an outside open shed type structure overlooking the bowls green. I would have a Vimto and my parents would have a pale ale (just one). No idea what my grandmother drank but it was probably milk stout. I do remember that with my dinner from the age of about eight I was allowed to have a small glass of beer.
She was a firm believer of everything in moderation and her arguments were that if I was encouraged and allowed a small glass of alcohol I would learn the importance of not over-imbibing. Well I think it worked. Today in an average week I might have a couple of glasses of wine and a pint of beer - certainly no more than that and I could happily become teetotal if I had to, although I do enjoy craft beer.
After our drink, we went back to my grandmother's where we would have a roast dinner with very large Yorkshire Puddings. Then we would watch the Bank Holiday sport on television (it always seemed to be motorcycle racing for some reason). I did tell you what an exciting life I have led!!! I remember going to the pub, I remember lunch, I remember watching TV but I don't really remember being driven home, although I do remember being in the car one night when there was what's generally known as a pea-souper - a thick fog/smog that we no longer seem to suffer. I guess that's because of the demise of coal fires. I remember people walking in front of cars with torches which I have always thought to be rather a dangerous occupation.
I know there was a huge smog souper in the year I was born but, only being two months old, I have no memory of that.
But I seem somehow to have moved a long way from my subject of this blog - Peachy Mead. The article in Let's Talk looked back on his career with particular mention of the parts he played in "Tales of the Unexpected. "Peachy" is still entertaining at the age of 82. He was always, and I'm sure still is, a larger than life and very friendly guy.
There were lots of other local people involved in showbusiness that I remember. John Fisher who ran the Talk of the East in Oak Street, Brian Russell who ran a talent agency, David Valentine who was a crooner in his own right and also organised talent competitions at which I was often a judge. Then there was Mr Magic who ran Magic City on Prince of Wales Road and whose real name was Derek Downing (or something similar) and the magician Geraldini whose real name was Gerald Morter. Karl Adams was a very talented guy and all-round entertainer and there are probably many many more whose names have escaped me at the moment but who I will re-visit in future blogs. I even had the joy of partnering one of the Brothers Lees in a tennis tournament at Cromer. They became nationally known for their appearances on the Generation Game with Bruce Forsyth. I can't remember which one I partnered at tennis but he spent the whole time telling jokes and doing impressions. Other than that I can't remember whether he was any good at tennis or whether we won.
I do know it would have been a Sunday afternoon in summer on the grass courts. Every Sunday they had a pot luck doubles tournament where club members mixed in with holidaymakers. Partners were decided by names being picked out of a hat. I usually went along with one of my flatmates John Scott who was annoyingly good at virtually every sport known to man apart from golf.
John was ambidextrous and could play tennis at county level with either hand. This was annoying because you never knew how to serve to him. Myself and John were both club members at Cromer and played a number of times a week throughout the summer I was there. I consider myself to be a reasonable player and above average and actually played for Norfolk Under-16s many many years ago, but I think I only beat John twice in all our matches - once when he had a wrist injury and once when he had the flu! I have a list of our results in some old diaries.
We used to go down to the pot luck games on Sundays. On one occasion I partnered the local rector, the Rev Derek Osborne. Derek was one of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of knowing. On this occasion I was serving and he was at the front of the net singing hymns. This must have put me off because I fired a serve which hit him in the back of the head (it was a complete mis-hit by myself). Derek didn't turn a hair (although to be fair he didn't have many to turn). He laughed when I apologised and said "what a lovely day it is", wandered back to the net and continued singing his hymn.
Now I have to give you a smut warning as the next bit will be a touch risque. As I mentioned, myself and John used to go down to Sunday afternoon pot luck doubles. I must mention here that John was a full blooded male. On this occasion he was paired with a young lady. John went to pieces and didn't play very well that day at all.
After a shower we retired to the Red Lion Pub for a couple of pints. I told John I thought he had been distinctly off colour that afternoon.
"It wasn't me. It was my partner," he said.
"I thought she looked quite good," I replied.
"Yes there was no problem with her tennis but she wasn't wearing any knickers and every time I went to serve she was bending over at the net. You try serving when your partner doesn't have any knickers on," he replied.
I guess he had a point, although I don't think the Brother Lees would have had the same affect on me!