And yes , we are going to do it all over again NEXT YEAR.
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| Well , What a day , quite possibly the biggest and best Laurel and Harday we have ever had , the day kicked off with the traditional Bacongrabbers Quiz ,set , as usual by David Wyatt , this year with a musical theme , three tents tied for the trophy , Hats Off , Brats and er....oh yea Bacongrabbers , despite having a tiebreak question , (which NOBODY got right) David got 1 member from each tent and asked us who was the singer in Blotto , Hats Off answered first and as a consequence get to polish the trophy for a year. (oh the answer was Frank Holliday) | |||
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| Dougie brown helped out Nancy Wardell with an auction for her Charity Fund and the generosity of the assembled sons raised about £180, The Stranraer tent raffelled off a maquette of the Statue and it was won by our very own Bacongrabber MC Ian Parker , Eric Woods as usual came up with something to sell in aid of the statue appeal , which as of 1st Sept stood at around £22,000 (well done Sons) , Eric has had made some English Pewter tankards with engraving of the Statue on the front and "The Laurel and Hardy Statue appeal for Ulverston Supported by the Sons of the Desert The Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society" on the back , and this year we have a new NEESIE EARSIE NOSIE Champion , and for the first time in it`s history its a NOT and English person , (yes on the day England Beat Germany 5-1 ) England lose the N.E.K to a Dutchman , Hans Ligtenberg of Jitterbugs in Holland by a magnificent display of dexterity and sheer luck (and the fact the other contestants were all disqualified for various serious offences , such as having a beard , being called Linda , persistent smiling , oh and in the words of the Judges "being Bloody Useless at it" amongst others , all VERY Serious offences) , and this year we only had two cases of bribing the Judges , although one of the payments was less than £25 pounds so didn`t count , but Eric kept it for the Statue Appeal anyway (it`s the principle that counts) . | |||
| But the highlight of the day has to be Ronnie Hazelhurst and his Band , they were superb , the effect of Ronnie playing Sons of the Desert and about 120 Sons singing at the tops of their voices was electric , he gave us a 2 hour concert of all the music from L&H films , before the concert Chris Coffey interviewed Ronnie and Ronnie explained that when he was doing the Generation Game with Bruce Forsythe and Anthea , if you are old enough to remember , they had a spot where an expert came in , demonstrated a skill , like cake decorating for instance and then the contestant had to do the same thing but in a much shorter time , so Ronnie thought the L&H music would be ideal for the "hurry up" music as he called it and originally didnt know the names of the songs , but just called them Laurel and Hardy 1 , 2 , 3 etc , eventually discovering the real titles and of course transcribing them to sheet music and LP , | |||
| Ronnie played all the
favorites , "On with the Show" , "Bells" , "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" , he
invited members of the audience to get up and sing with the band , but
surprisingly we are a shy lot in the Sons and he got very few takers , but
after Eric rallied the troops he managed to get groups of us up , singing? in
various keys , Ronnie said that his Pianist could accomodate whatever key we
sang in , but when you have about 15 Sons singing
"We are the Sons of the
Desert" in at least 15 different keys , well you had to hear it to believe
it! , we had John Ullah , Eric and Hans
regaling us with "Let me be your sweetheart" , as you have never heard it sung
, we then had Eric , Chris Coffey , Dougie Brown , Ian Parker and Myself ,
singing "Honolulu Baby" assisted by 4 Honolulu Babes from the Audience , Janice
, Marika , Annie , and Francis , also the massed voices of all the tents (1
from each) singing "On the trail of the Lonesome Pine" (in those various keys I
mentioned) , Ronnie Hazelhurst at the end of the day very kindly stayed and
signed many autographs for the Sons ,
we had many distinguished regulars at the day as usual , (in no particular
order) Willie McIntyre esteemed editor
of the Bowler Desert ,
Chris myself and Simon went to Wigan on the Friday night and met up with Willie
, Janice and Francis in "Sams Place" opposite the Quality Hotel unfortunately
we picked the night that Wigan played Bradford at Rugby League and what should
have been a quiet chat turned into yelling at the top of your voice (oh by the
way , the drinks in the picture aren`t ALL Willie`s ,
Marion Grave the curator of the
Laurel and Hardy Museum
, Eric Woods of course ,
Stan Slade made an appearance ,
Nancy Wardell (Stans Cousin) ,
who told us that her Uncle did the Kneesie Earsie Nosie for them when Stan was
young , so like Peewee it seem as if Stan used that from his childhood ,
Everyone had a great time ........... And yes , we are going to do it all over again NEXT YEAR. |
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| More Laurel and Harday Pictures | |||
| THERE ARE NO STRANGERS HERE , MERELY NEW LAUREL AND HARDY FRIENDS YOU HAVE YET TO MEET! | |||
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