Caption Competition

Massive prizes (any prizes at all) - have been dispensed with for this competition... Add a comment with the picture number and your caption - keep it clean! I reserve the rights to moderate and withold any captions I feel are not in keeping with the nature of the blog. Children read this! No correspondence will be entered into. It's my blog, what I say goes! Apart from all that - have fun!

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Captions will not appear until I have had chance to vet them (see what I did...?) groan...

All photos taken at Blackpool Zoo during September 1982.

Marching Bands from 1981

Ah, the sound of kazoos, drums and glockenspiels! For the past couple of nights I've been scanning these and other photos of a marching bands parade along Blackpool Promenade from 1981.

In fact I can be really precise. They were taken on the 26th of July 1981. Blackpool had two carnival processions a year in the 1980s and my problem is I can't remember which this is. Both the Lions and the Round Table charity groups organised parades.

One was a regular carnival-type procession of floats from local societies, businesses and groups, themed individually and the other was this one which was made up of marching bands from all over the country who would arrive in fleets of old buses and coaches, curtains twitching as youngsters got changed into uniforms to march up the Promenade and then compete in a competition.

Now how does that little lad with the maraccas see where he's going...?

Anyway, I'm looking to my knowledgeable readers now for help! Is this the Lions or the Round Table event? Does anyone know? Does anyone recognise themselves or have memories of marching in a band like this that they may care to share either in a comment or in a future entry? Does anyone have hip trouble because they were one of the retinue of young girls waving pom poms and slapping their thighs until they were red raw on cold and windy days in what we rashly call Britain's summer?

It's been a while since I've been able to feature a reader's memories on here - so the challenge is open! My email address can be found in the left hand column should you not want to leave memories as a comment.

After the parade had ended I turned the camera onto the Golden Mile. The photos are still waiting to go through the scanner so a joy to come...

All 23 of my photos of this parade can be seen in a set at my Flickr account.

Best Overall Photograph

A bit of good news yesterday when I found one of my photos had won Best Overall Photograph in a photo competition at work.

This was the first such competition organised by the University of Northumbria and I suspect there may be more entries next time... But, having said that, I don't want you to get the impression that it was the best out of only three entries or anything! There were some excellent photos on display in the foyer of Northumbria's Ellison Building in Newcastle and I'd not have liked to have been the judge!

I like to think of myself as a serious photographer so it's perhaps a little embarrassing to have to admit that this was taken on my phone! It shows the Tyne Bridge silhouetted against the sunset and was taken as I crossed the river on the Millenium Bridge.

Thanks to Northumbria University and their judge for excellent taste and to Janette Hillicks for wielding the camera to take my photo with my photo for the photo ...er... at the top of the page!

Thanks also to Northumbria for the Boots gift voucher that was the prize. Miss Franny has now given me a list of things to buy with it... She has allowed me to spend some of it on myself too! The list includes razor blades...

Large view of the winning photo at Flickr (click "All Sizes")