Last Day in America : Disney Studios - EPCOT

Wednesday 14 July 1993. We had spent the previous day shopping in the malls and we went to see the movie Jurassic Park a few days before it opened in the UK. We thought, having been in some wonderful art-deco theatres inside the parks, that this would be a great place to see this much-hyped film but we ended up in a tiny cinema with a small screen set to the side so that we were looking across it rather than at it. Huge disappointment!

So for our last day we drove to Disney's Magic Kingdom, then left the car and got on the monorail to MGM Studios, where we - sorry where I - sang along to the background music...

Some Enchanted Evening...

We went on the rides again, quite good actually as the Great Movie Ride gave us a different set of tableaux as we were sitting towards the rear of the train and had been at the front the last time.

Around lunchtime we got back on the monorail, rapidly learning the Spanish for "Please mind the doors" and "For the safety and comfort of your fellow passengers, please, no smoking eating or flash photography"! We trundled along to EPCOT and walked round the World Showcase again. There was another fabulous tijuana band at the Mexican pyramid, really superb.

This is the Norway segment. Timber buildings and a ride that backed you almost over a waterfall. We had a troll round the shops too...

A view of the lagoon that separates the two halves of EPCOT.

Then we had an early thunder storm. "But it's not 4 o'clock yet!" Fran protested. We watched as Italy got wet then carried on as it brightened up again. But only for a few minutes then FLASH! BANG! we had another. But it was the third and most prolongued thunderstorm that set the tone for the rest of the day.

By now we had reached Morocco and we took shelter on a bench outside a building under an overhanging roof (with occasional forays into a souk where a bit of belly dancing was going on...) This was our 4:00pm thunderstorm. It had started at 1:30 and went on until 6:00pm!

The Canada segment. The rain, thunder and lightning was coming in vast quantities. The yellow plastic chickens started to make an appearance but we hadn't brought ours and in the end we just gave up and sallied forth and got wet. It was no worse than being on holiday in England after all... Around five o'clock we went back to the monorail - ah not quite, but almost got that Spanish phrase - something about minding doors and not falling over... and we headed for our third and final park of the day, Disney's Magic Kingdom. It will also lead to the final article in the Florida 1993 series.

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Universal Studios

Monday 12 July 1993 saw us driving to Universal Studios, Florida.

After the fantastic landscaped gardens of Sea World and the Disney parks, Universal in 1993 came as a bit of a culture shock. Based on street scenes and cityscapes, the closest to landscaping it got was the harbour base for the stunt show.

We found lots to do though. This was just before the Jaws ride opened but the old wee beastie was there, all strung up and rather less smelly than the one in the film, which was a real and very dead shark with it's guts piling up due to gravity just behind its throat!

The big ride of the year was Kong. Unfortunately having started to queue, the queue came to a stop as the ride had broken down. Forty five minutes later the technicians had to make the decision they couldn't fix the ride quickly and we had to leave the queue disappointed. Round the corner was the Ghostbusters fire station.

Then a siren sounded and they drove past in their distinctive car!

We were impressed by the number of look-alikes posing and giving autographs, some of them were really like the originals. Laurel and Hardy were driving about in an old car; Elvis, Marilyn and a host of others were waiting to hug and be hugged by adoring fans. I didn't choose Elvis... I can't find the Marilyn photo... We rode the Back To The Future simulator and the E.T. ride where E.T. himself spoke our names to the car in front... oops, bad timing! I braved the Earthquake ride which was very good if a little similar to Disney's Disaster Canyon ride a couple of days before.

The diner was based on the one from George Lucas's film American Graffiti. It was as functional as it was decorative and we went in and ordered burgers - what else?

A Wurlitzer 1015 jukebox was belting out American fifties and sixties hits and our table had this Seeburg selector unit which we duly fed with coins even though it was quite obvious the jukebox would not be allowed to go silent!

As we left the diner an acapella group were singing the old Herman's Hermits hit Silhouettes and we stayed to listen as they were really superb. We only caught the end of the Blues Brothers show and there was a Rocky and Bullwinkle show, one of two horrendous films that year based on superb cartoons, that were desperately being pushed in the parks. I've already mentioned the Tom and Jerry film and here was a show trying to convince people that the Rocky and Bullwinkle film would be worth going to.

The one cartoon-related exhibition that was worth seeing was this homage to Hanna-Barbera. The Flintstones segment included this car that you could sit in. There were reminders to other Hanna-Barbera characters too, mostly now forgotten by later generations. Huckleberry Hound, Pixie and Dixie and Mr Jinks, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw. Yogi and Booboo might still be remembered...

We had our evening meal at a Ponderosa Steak House - what an experience! We paid for our meals and were given empty plates. These were for the vegetable bar. Every sort of vegetable you could think of - and a few we had never thought of - were there and you could take your plate back as many times as you wanted to fill up. Some people were gorging - the only apt word - on plates stacked into pyramids. We waited until the main course came but when the steak arrived it filled the plate it was on...

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Sunnyside Down!

What a FABULOUS weekend!!! The Billy Fury weekend went in a blaze of meetings, hugs, laughs, highs and great, great music!

We went down to an Innkeeper's Lodge hotel in Northampton that was more-or-less just filled with Billy fans including the wonderful Moya, a close personal friend of Billy's who had come all the way from her adopted home in New Zealand. Moya's a pint-sized person with a tanker-sized personality and was such a lot of fun!

Friday afternoon we played a set in the meeting room of the hotel to a small but enthusiastic audience and then Friday night was the first main gig - an informal gathering in a packed room with many of the great artists who have sung on the Sounds Special monthly feature on Billy Fury web site. We met up with all the artists and the other regulars from the site's forum and it was a great night with music from (in totally random order)Rob Dee, Bruce Seaton, Johnny Storme, Jewel, Dean Hubert, Angus, Steve Sinclair, Jane, Pat James, Paul Staines, Snowy, Phil Jennings plus David and myself.

Paul and Johnny, dubbed The Fury Boys by the female members of the forum, (The Fury Girls...) did a fantastic duet together and set hearts fluttering all round the room judging by the reactions!

Then it was the turn of The Fury Girls themselves at the end of the night to gather to sing Fans of Billy Fury to the tune of Land of Hope & Glory, whilst I desperately tried to keep up accompaniment on the keyboards! We ended with all the
singers up for a rousing rendition of Billy's most famous hit Halfway To Paradise.

After such a great night there wasn't much chance of sleep until we had wound down a bit and a bottle of wine in the room with David and Jeannie brought the night to a close and David and Jeannie went back to their own room and we collapsed like a light switched off.

Saturday was the main event at the Sunnyside club where Billy had given his last stage performance. The singers were joined by Jett Scream, Geoff Howlett and Andrew Tween.

Out of 14 acts we were chuffed to find ourselves only 4th from the top of the bill, which was topped by Billy's ex-flatmate Vince Eager with his band Rockola.

With three hours of music before we were due to go on, there was plenty of time for a few butterflies in the stomach and I was unbelievably nervous as the MC, disc jockey Pierre Petrou from London's Radio Northwick Park introduced us. But the roar that followed us as we walked onto the stage banished the nerves and I quickly made sure the guitar was still in tune and then promptly cocked up the intro to I'm a Believer! Not to worry, we gave what seemed like a good set of six songs and we hadn't gone all that far before the floor filled with dancers which is always a good sign!

Lots of people made very kind comments afterwards but we found it quite strange and having spoken to some of the other singers we knew we weren't alone. You grow into a gig and we felt that we had only just got going and then our 6 songs were up and we had to come off. But enough people said how much they had enjoyed it to make up for any regrets about only having a 20 minute slot and the whole night was a buzz with some really great acts!

I was grabbed to dance with Babs and then Jean and Marie and then once more all the singers joined Vince on stage to sing "HTP" and a really great night ended on a high.

We left on Sunday morning after doing a final round of goodbyes and reflected on lots of new friends made and meetings with people from the forum who I've felt I've known for so long. The proudest moment? Probably when someone from one of the two fan clubs came to say how much he had enjoyed my arrangement of Billy's King For Tonight which he described as "rocked up"!

Unfortunately Fran's camera died but David (the Click-Monster) took loads of photos of the other artists so I'll borrow them to add to my memories of a BILLYANT night!

Sunnyside Up!

It's been a bit quiet on the blog this week - I've been charging about again and doing more Twittering than blogging. I'm johnburke1 on Twitter if anyone wants to follow me there.

I'm going to be a bit busy over the coming weekend too.

We're just getting ready to load the car with keyboards and guitars and head off down to Northampton for this event.

If you haven't got tickets already there's now no chance of getting any I'm afraid (for "afraid" read "glad to say"!) The event is sold out and the Sunnyside club it was reported had to turn down another 50 applications for tickets the day after it sold out!

Tonight is a chance to meet all the great people from the http://www.billyfury.com forums and I'm anticipating a great night tonight also!

Reports to come...!

Busch Gardens Roller Coasters

We've reached Sunday 11 July 1993 in our trek through the American holiday and this particular day we left Orlando for a look at Busch Gardens near Tampa.

As we left the hotel entrance there was a distant roaring sound and when I looked up, it turned out to be the burners of a few early morning hot air balloons.

Busch Gardens was way out on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, close to the city of Tampa. It was part theme park and part zoo with enough space to have some really great environments and an overhead monorail train so you could actually see the animals. One of the features of modern zoos is they create areas where the animals can feel safe and quiet but then of course, it's less good for the visitors because the animals can find spaces to hide away. The overhead monorail was quiet and unobtrusive and had the advantage of affording the occasional face-to-face with a giraffe!

There were supposed to be some white tigers, but I only managed to see the usual orange one.

There were a couple of roller coasters at Busch Gardens that I really loved. No doubt they are old hat now and there will be bigger and better coasters but at the time these were brilliant. I'd never ridden a coaster with a corkscrew loop before and Python had a double corkscrew that took you through 360 degrees twice in quick succession. That was pretty much all it did, but it was great all the same.

Plus I took the camcorder with me and sat in the front seat and I have a shaky black-and-white-cos-the shaking-affected-the-camera video record of the event.

I was going to do the same on the large four-abreast coaster Kumba. This was an awesome coaster, it did more aerobatics than the normal up and down with an occasional loop coaster. However the staff were adamant that my camcorder had to remain with them until I had got off the ride and I have to admit, it would have been very difficult not to bash myself in the face with it on that particular ride!.

Like Sea World the park was owned and operated by Anheuser Breweries so there was plenty of Budwesier beer to be had! It was another very hot day, but we went to see an ice skating show and it was brilliantly cool, even approaching shveringly cold, inside!

We had done the overhead monorail so it seemed only right that we should do the ground level railroad as well.

A fair number of large alligators came out of the water, tails thrashing about as they tried to driver their very heavy bodies up the raised bank before they feet could get a purchase. The turtle seemed to be taking its life in its hands as it shuffled across the nose of this alligator, but perhaps it was secure in the knowledge that it tasted bad... An excellent day. Even though Fran at one point was told by a woman "I'm going to hit you - you have a mosquito on your back!" There was then a hefty thump, enough to make Fran stagger! However she wasn't stung and didn't catch any grisly tropical disease so I suspect it may have been worth it!

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Blackpool's Golden Mile 1980s Style

Ages since I added to the occasional series of Vanished Blackpool so here's a quick one to savour!

Savour may not quite be the most apt word, and I'm not sure I should have used style in the title as the Golden Mile in July 1981 showed little flair for style.

The buildings had originally been houses - you can spot gable ends towards the right. The original Golden Mile started as stalls in front gardens. The householders sold drinks for the beach and were so successful that they learned that if they knocked down their garden fences or railings and let out the front garden they could earn fortunes.

Drinks stalls were joined by quack medicines, sideshows, and some really tasteless stuff. One not-so-rich newly wed couple spent their honeymoon in a glass case "Starving to Death for Love", just one of many questionable shows which included the (arguably wrongly) defrocked Rector of Stiffkey, who exhibited himself in a barrel. He later died in the jaws of a lion in Skegness when, whilst preaching from inside its cage, he inadvertantly trod on its tail...

But despite the boarded up windows and horrendous dilapidation of the upper storeys of the buildings, I always think of this section as the last bit of the Golden Mile with character...

There was an excellent burger bar there too before burgers became the bland stuff you get at franchise burger bars these days. Fried onions and ketchup with none of this cheese and salad and grated onion nonsense! The late 1970s saw a rapid decrease in the small independant burger stalls. New Trade Description laws meant that the term hamburger had to disappear - as burgers were made with beef - and a new word beefburgers appeared on the menu.

Large version of the photo: Golden Mile

EPCOT

Saturday 10 July 1993. Today we are at EPCOT, Disney's Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.

Gill thinks it should stand for Every Person Comes Out Tired... EPCOT has two bits - a science and nature section with the landmark golf ball structure at its centre and The World Showcase, a series of themed building collections based on various countries from around the world. Judging from the bit representing England, I suspect they are all a bit of a cliche'd view of the countries. England had the Rose and Crown Pub next door to a Tudor half timbered building, next door to the Norman castle... Pretty much what you find in real life nowhere.

We sailed across the lagoon on a ferry which probably wasn't the best thing to do as we were now right in the middle of the World Showcase and couldn't go both ways at once... This is the Germany bit - a very picturesque bit of Bavaria. More picturesque actually than I remember Bavaria being...

This chap was strolling around playing a squeezebox and singing under his breath, presumably to save his voice for when some tourist turned up. Once he spotted us he did get louder and it seemed to me to be eminently sensible not to sing your heart out and give yourself a sore throat unless there was someone to admire it. In fact his hairstyle was worthy of admiration. I suspect he'd been given an electric shock shortly before someone from a duelling school swung a very sharp sword...

Some of the "countries" had a ride and some had live entertainment. China had a filmshow projected all the way round the inside of a circular pagoda building which was really good and they also had acrobats and plate spinners outside - it would have spoiled the film inside...

Japan had some drum bangers, which I found difficult to get into, the rhythms they use didn't gel with my ideas of music but that was the whole point of the World Showcase - a chance to immerse yourself briefly in a different culture, where all the staff were of the relevant indiginous ethnicity and spoke the language but also spoke English if you didn't. Many of the staff were students from the relevant country, who had taken the ultimate in holiday jobs. We spoke to Victoria in the Twinings Tea shop in England who, when prompted, turned in a very proper and refined English accent.

The souk in Morocco was a much more laid back place than the souk we visited in the real Morocco - no one attempted to drag us into their stall and no one pestered us or threw baby goats at us so we would catch them by instinct and that be taken as an invitation to take a polaroid and sell it us for twenty quid...

In the America bit a singing troupe told the story of the American national anthem and the audience all joined in to sing it and then congratulated each other on how good it had been. "Boy, what a great way to start the day," one chap said and there was no hint of irony or self-conciousness about it. They take their patriotism seriously in the US of A. The story telling and the singing was done very well and I have to think in retrospect that I envy them their opportunity to wave flags and sing their national anthem without some lunatic trying read something into it and tarnish it. But then again, there is nothing to envy in the sort of culture regarding guns that sees a far greater percentage of their population, especially children, shot dead by lunatics than any other civilised country.

Here we are in a suddenly deserted spot with Italy or France as our background and able to rest the camera on a flat surfact and put it on a self-timer to take a photo of the three of us together. Italy was themed more around Venice than Rome with a scaled down version of the Doges Palace.

Here is Mexico. Had we not taken the ferry to the middle of the World Showcase, Mexico would have been our starting point. A massive Aztec (or was it Inca?) pyramid takes pride of place and whilst it was bright daylight outside, the interior is a night scene and held a boat ride themed on The Three Caballeros cartoon.

Outside the Inca (or was it Aztec?) pyramid the entertainers were superb and large crowds gathered to watch and applaud them and have their photos taken with them.

And finally here is Gill, fancying the roast beef on offer in dear old Blighty, outside the Rose and Crown pub. I really enjoyed the World Showcase and whenever going to Florida is discussed as a possibility, it is this place I particularly think of. We'll visit EPCOT again before the holiday is over.

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Dandelion and Burdock

I've mentioned sarsparilla before on this blog but not the other great taste of childhood.

For me, either of the two could knock Coca-Cola or Pepsi for six. Dandelion and Burdock, despite sounding as though you should throw up on hearing the name, never mind tasting it, is a rich dark wonderfully tasty drink. It immediately brings back memories of being 12 and skipping school dinners to go to the local chippy eating room.

Then we'd go to the sweets shop which had big bottles of Ben Shaws drinks, every flavour imaginable. They had a huge stock of plastic glasses and you could buy a glass of your favourite pop for 3d. Some kids went for cream soda, some went for ginger beer, but I would always go for one of my favourite two, or on those days when I simply couldn't make my mind up, I'd get all giddy and have a half-and-half!

And now Asda, at least, have brought back this great taste for me to enjoy again. Thank you Asda!

Dinner Party

Great night last night. We hosted a dinner party to celebrate Fran's birthday which falls within the week.

We had Gill and Eddie, Mum and our great friends David and Jeannie.

The table had to be dismantled and taken into the front room to fit us all round it but it was well worth the effort!

Fran and Jeannie had decided (in advance I hasten to say) to be twins for the night and we had a very laughter-filled night with a brilliant meal - starters: chicken liver pate with toast, onion relish, green salad and cherry tomatoes or melon with summer fruits coulis or prawn cocktail. main course: chicken marinated in white wine with a white wine and cream sauce with choices of potatoes au gratin, boiled new potatoes, cubed roasted potatoes with green bits on (fancy names?!? what do you want fancy names for?) and a choice of veg with sliced carrots, asparagus spears, peas and mixed cauliflower and broccoli. Sweets were mandarin orange cheesecake, chocolate gateaux or an assortment of cheese and biscuits and we finished with coffee and mints. All complimented with pink cava, chardonnet, or decanted merlot - hey, can be good with chicken if you're not that fussed!

Me and my little girl!

Photos courtesy of David the click monster, great hilarity ensued when he announced in a shocked tone that the camera's storage card was full... It did already have a fair number of photos stored when he started. But even then it was after 100 photos of the night...

The Magic Kingdom

Monday 5 July 1993 and our long-awaited first look at Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom.

This view is so familar to everybody whether they have been to a Disney park or not that once you come through the turnstiles and see Main Street USA before you with the princess's castle at the far end it really is a magical moment. We just stood for a moment taking it all in, saying things like "Wow!" and "Brill!"

We had made a point of being at the park early and not everything was open. We explored Main Street USA with its shops full of fluffies and an arcade with old amusement machines (and a couple of new pinballs!) We went in a 3D cinema and saw a Chip 'n' Dale cartoon in 3D and stopped off for a drink where this was one of the napkins. Then the rest of the park opened and we made a beeline for the castle.

In Orlando the castle is Cinderella's and the tale of Cinderella is told in mosaics containing hand-cut glass, marble and a lot of 14 carat gold on the inner walls of the castle. We tried lots of the rides, Pirates of the Carribean in pre-Johnny Depp days was even then an excellent ride. Also note Gill's Mickey ears - a happy accident - they are plants in the distance!

Each section of the park - Fantasy Land, Tomorrow Land, Frontier Land etc, had it's own uniform for the ride operators who were not allowed to venture into another part of the park wearing the wrong uniform. All the staff were excellent. They were genuinely concerned with making your day a brilliant day, whether it was helping with the rides or simply waving for the video camera. Also there was a total lack of litter.

We went on the stern-wheeler Mississippi boat and as you can see from the rather generously-built lady with the umbrella, testing the thickness of the ship's decking, it was by now getting to thunderstorm time. It didn't really spoil the trip I have to say - rain there was a welcome break from the heat for a while. In fact, every day at 4:00pm on the dot there was a horrendous thunder storm, heralded by strong winds that bent over the palm trees. The lightning and thunder were fierce and everyone was scurried away from water of any kind. After the rain finished, the Disney employees came out in force with brooms, to sweep the water towards the drains! I was amazed and said "You missed a bit!" The young lad didn't miss a second in his comeback; "I got it Buddy!" and he did a quick circle around me with the broom! Impressive! In England the most probable response I'd have got was "Sod off!"

What? Er... yes, the chap with the hideous legs and white socks would be me...

When the rain came everyone put on bright yellow capes that either had Mickey Mouse or Shamu the Killer Whale on the back - depending on where you bought them! They had hoods and especially over a baseball cap they reminded us of chickens with the cap peak forming the beak. 16 years later, we still refer to rain capes as plastic chickens...

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in the Magic Kingdom. It really was magical and the firework display at night was the best we had ever seen. We then set off to drive back to the hotel at 11:00pm, getting hopelessly lost on the Freeway. We had remembered where we got on it, only to find you couldn't get off it at that junction travelling north! We didn't get back to the hotel which was only 20 minutes away until 1:30am...!

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