Coventry, Cars and Stars

We spent the weekend down in the Midlands this week. We decided to visit the NEC on Sunday for the Comic Con and Memorabilia Show at which we could catch up with a couple of friends and looking to make a weekend of it, we decided to stay in the Coventry area and visit the Transport Museum there.

I booked a room in a decent hotel between Coventry and the NEC where the event was being held over the weekend. We drove down from Blackpool and found a convenient car park near the motor museum. We had a spot of lunch in the museum's cafeteria and then went to look round the exhibits. The museum is free to enter and concentrates on vehicles that were made in the area. Vehicles of all sorts from bicycles to motorbikes to cars. During World War II local companies stopped car production to make armoured cars and tanks and other firms made vans, buses and emergency vehicles. All are represented in the museum's collection.

I always think it unfair to show too much of a museum's stock, so there are just a few of my favourites here. This is Queen Mary's 1935 Daimler. The National Motor Museum loaned it to the owners of the ocean liner Queen Mary, by then a floating hotel in Long Beach, California. It stood on the deck of the ship for ten years exposed to the weather and was bought by the Coventry Museum in 1984 since when it has been restored.

The 1938 Alvis Speed 25. This car was owned by the Alvis company's owner. What an impressive solid looking piece of machinery it is! Just right for roaring through the countryside on the quiet roads of the time!

Myself, I always look for the late 1950s and 1960s cars of my childhood. The ones family members drove and my own first few cars. My Dad always bought Fords during my childhood and they weren't built in Coventry but I did find my first "proper" car (I had a Reliant 3-wheeler at 16). My first four-wheeled car was a 1961 Hillman Minx, registration 485 TD.

The strange vehicle shown here is a 1948 Tippen Coventry Chair. A hand-propelled vehicle designed for invalid soldiers following World War II. They were a sad but frequent sight in the mid to late 1950s of my childhood.

The Thrust SSC World Land Speed Record car. This car broke the world land speed record on October 15, 1997 by reaching the speed of 763 miles per hour. For me the magic went out of the World Speed Record when the power plant stopped turning the wheels but just thrust the car forward on free-spinning wheels. "It's not really a car is it?" another visitor commented to his elderly father. That sums it up entirely. A rocket on a track is still a rocket not a train. These are not cars - they are aeroplane engines mounted on wheels!

It was mid-afternoon when we came out of the museum and we decided to have a look around the city centre and to visit the cathedral.

We came first to the Church of the Holy Trinity. It had this well-worn set of steps leading up to a door. The church dates back in records to 1113, though a fire in 1257 destroyed the original building. It was rebuilt following the fire and the walls were painted with scenes from the Bible. One of these, long covered over by material such as varnish which with age had gone opaque, was rediscovered and restored in 2004. It shows Jesus and His Disciples at the Last Judgement. Jesus is judging the souls of Men some of whom will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and the others, including bishops and kings and ale-wives (who were universally hated as they were believed to water the ale they sold) trembling before the Mouth of Hell. The painting is known as the Coventry Doom.

The Parish Church of St Michael was described in 1138 as standing "in the Bailey" - so within Coventry Castle. The original chapel was rebuilt in the 1300s-1500s. The present condition of the cathedral is down to nine terrible hours on the evening and night of 14 November 1940. Coventry had been bombed before, but the prolonged raid of that night destroyed much of the city centre and with it, the cathedral.

A few tiny portions of stained glass are all that remain of the shattered windows. The Undercroft still exists and is currently undergoing restoration work.

Above ground, only the tower and spire and external walls survived the night. It was decided to let these stand as witness to Coventry's most desperate night and a new cathedral was built next to it.

Close by the walls of the old cathedral stands this water pump. A reminder of the times when water had to be collected rather than obtained by the turning of a tap.

The Golden Cross pub is also lucky in having survived the incendiaries of the Luftwaffe. Dating from 1583 it has three stories each of which are wider than the floor below. It was extended considerably in 1968, the original covering an area roughly half as big as the present building.

We found the hotel easily enough and unpacked our few things for the following day and then went out to eat at another local hostelry. The following morning we were looking forward to catching up with a couple of friends who we knew were attending the Memorabilia show, the actresses Caroline Munro and fellow Bond Girl and Hammer Horror star, Martine Beswick. I had also seen from advertisements that Liv Tyler would be there, though the advertised price of her autographs looked a little high. Anyway as we took our seats for breakfast, the Lady Arwen of Rivendell was sitting just a few tables away...

The pairing of Memorabilia with a comic convention has done no favours to those people who used to attend and enjoy looking at and buying old toys, magazines, books and records. The comics stalls are still there but mostly the Marvel and DC comics are being replaced by the Manga style comics and the old British comics such as Beano, Dandy, Eagle, Look & Learn and so on have all but disappeared. The same has happened to the collecting cards displays. Gone are the 1970s chewing gum collections of American Civil War and Outer Limits cards. Now they all depict young (very young!) huge-eyed, green or purple-haired and cat-eared heroines dressed in the tiniest of skirts.

The paying customers too are dressed as their heroes and heroines. Young and not-so-young girls in skimpy costume - some almost indecently so - wander about clutching ferocious-looking cardboard weapons. Pictured is Sauron himself - done on the cheap. His cardboard morning star had dents but his figure was impressive as he was walking on stilts under his black robe. "I can't keep up, walk slower!" complained his attendant orc... I refrained from taking too many photos. The lion whose back is towards me had his head pushed up in an attempt to breathe. He was not too many years behind me in age I think. As I suspect was one rather tubby Spider-Man showing a rather comical visible panty line under his costume...

We found Caroline and Martine and chatted for a while and then wandered around the other celebrities - a Dr Who contingent and several recognisable chaps even without their armour from TV's Game of Thrones. Liv Tyler and Lee Majors, the Six Million Dollar Man along with a few others were sitting signing photos that you had to buy before being allowed to approach them. The queues were huge. In truth they would have not been able to sign all those photos if they had not been kept away from the casual observers. I'll make do with having seen that beautiful face at breakfast!

Memorabilia Show November 2014

We had a run out today down to Birmingham to meet up with some friends we've come to know over the years. The Memorabilia Show is run twice a year at Birmingham NEC and also has a slot in London. This year it was teamed with a Comic Con - one of those conventions where a sizeable proportion of the visitors dress in costume. There were super heroes, manga characters, Jedi knights, Tuscan raiders, Jawas and a couple of Princess Leias from Star Wars, a few Jokers, a lot of Harlequins (some quite sexy, some quite gross) and a plethora of Poison Ivys from Batman and er... a couple of Lego men...

There were also lots of Gothic horror characters from the likes of Twilight, Hunger Games and so on. Apart from all the weaponry, there were acres of flesh on display, much of it concentrated on just a minority of people... eeeew! Costumes ranged from slinky, to really authentic looking to... yes, well, there was at least one made of painted corrugated cardboard.

It made for a much more geeky Memorabilia than when it was teamed with a sports theme, but we were there to meet some friends we've made over the years, most of whom were first met at such shows.

Caroline Munro (Career highlights [will follow this approach for all artists below]: The Spy Who Loved Me, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Journey To The Centre of The Earth, Dracula AD72 etc) has been a friend since 1997. We first met at a quite early Memorabilia show, when she was sitting with that other lovely star of the big screen, Ingrid Pitt. I remember her days as a model who appeared regularly in Amateur Photographer and Practical Photography in the late 1960s. Then she won a ten year contract starring in adverts for Lambs Navy Rum.

She was the female lead in Golden Voyage of Sinbad and became the only actress contracted to Hammer Films, appearing in Dracula AD72, I Don't Want To Be Born (aka The Monster) and Captain Kronos, Vampire Killer. She memorably eclipsed Barbara Bach, the female lead in the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, playing Naomi, the beautiful assistant to the villain Stromberg. She is memorably killed when pursuing Bond and Russian Agent Amasova when her helicopter is blown up by a missile fired from their submerged car-submarine. Her wink at Bond as she flies past him is always included in the top Bond film sexy moments.

We've had the pleasure of showing Caroline some of the better places to eat in Blackpool and whenever I'm in London we try to meet up for a drink and a natter. A nicer person you just couldn't hope to meet.

Martine Beswick (From Russia With Love, Thunderball, Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde, One Million Years BC, A Bullet For The General, Slave Girls, etc) I met Martine through Caroline and spent a couple of hours one afternoon acting as her minder at a signing. She was one of the fighting gypsy girls in From Russia With Love and met a sticky end as Bond's colleague Paula Caplan in Thunderball. She was the brunette counterpart and main rival to Raquel Welch's blonde in One Million Years BC and was the female Hyde to Ralph Bates' Dr Jeckyll in Hammer's Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde. Few men would disagree that her dance in the Hammer film Slave Girls (aka Prehistoric Women) is something every man should see before he dies...

Carole Ashby (Chariots of Fire, Octopussy, 'Allo 'Allo, Bergerac, Minder, Dr Quinn Medicine Woman etc.) Carole is probably best remembered as Louise of the Communist Resistance in TV's 'Allo 'Allo. She was one of Octopussy's gang of female circus gymnasts. A real character is Carole - she once had me sitting on her knee for some photos with Helene Hunt, one of her colleagues from Octopussy - how could I refuse...? The first time I met her, a sound technician was feeding a mini-microphone up her shirt and out of her neckline. A tough job, but someone has to do it... She's a delight to talk to.

Shane Rimmer (This could take all day even sticking to the highlights: Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, The Saint, UFO, Rollerball, Space 1999, Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, The People That Time Forgot, The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman, Hanover Street, Secret Army, Superman II, Ghandi, Superman III, Lace, Out of Africa, Whoops Apocalypse, Coronation Street, Lipstick On Your Collar, Batman Begins, etc etc etc...) A modest Canadian with the oh so recogniseable voice - yes! Scott Tracy from Thunderbirds!!! He has an amazing list of 154 credits on the Internet Movie Database going right back to 1957 (remember Hawkeye and the Last of The Mohicans? I didn't mention at least three other James Bond films and he was in just about every TV series in the 1960s including Danger Man, Dr Who, Orlando, The Saint, The Persuaders, The Protectors, Quiller, Hadleigh... - the man is a legend!

He was in The Spy Who Loved Me with Caroline so I got to know him as he was often sat next to her and we'd chat when she got busy with other fans. He was telling me he has even found time to write a book, a thriller called Long Shot. You can buy it as an Kindle book at Amazon.

Now, this lady I hadn't met before. Margaret Nolan aka model Vicki Kennedy is probably best known for playing the masseuse, Dink, in the early stages of Goldfinger. She too has a list of credits as long as your arm, including A Hard Day's Night, Crossroads, Carry On Cowboy, The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery, Witchfinder General, Nearest and Dearest, Carry On Henry, Carry On At Your Convenience, The Persuaders, Steptoe and Son, Carry On Matron, Budgie, Carry On Girls, Carry On Dick etc. Very friendly and the beauty of that 1960s glamour girl is still there shining out!

Fenella Fielding (Carry On Regardless, Doctor In Love, Doctor In Distress, The Avengers (TV), Doctor In Clover, Carry On Screaming, Drop Dead Darling, The Prisoner, Lock Up Your Daughters etc.) The legendary vamp who played up her man-eating image in a couple of Morecambe and Wise TV shows, Fenella Fielding is the only person featured here that I didn't meet through the Memorabilia shows. I first met her at one of Ingrid Pitt's birthday parties-cum-fan club dinners when, to the envy of all other men in the room, I found myself sitting next to her for the night. There was a very glamorous blonde sitting opposite me too - either Ingrid was looking after me or she was trying her best to get Miss Franny sore at me... Anyway I spent the evening acting what I like to call "charming and witty" and what others like to call "like a prat"... I've met Fenella a couple of times since and she always remembers me - hopefully for all the right reasons! Sorry for the awkward pose, there wasn't a gap in the tables at this point and I wouldn't expect a lady to climb over...

Wow... Wish I could write this sort of article every day lol!

Hobnobbing November 2011 Part 2

I meant to publish this one last Sunday... It was last Saturday when we went with David and Jeannie down to Birmingham to meet up with Caroline Munro, who was at the Memorabilia Show.

When we got there she had a massive queue of people in front of her. I recognised a couple of mates sitting with celebs as minders and they were waving to indicate the size of the queue and raising eyebrows and thumbs at me.

We stayed to say "Hello" and exchange hugs and then left her to get on with talking to fans who were now queued up behind us. We promised to come round again and she pointed us towards where Martine Beswick was sitting so we went off to boast again about being grandparents to her!

Martine has had two featured Bond roles and a walk-on part to make the hat trick and was the dark-haired counterpart to Raquel Welch's blonde in Hammer's One Million Years BC, going on to play a memorable part in the same company's Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde.

Lindsay was acting as her minder and I nudged him to get some of his wonderful celebrity sketches out. He's a talented lad!

Then I spotted another acquaintance. I sat next to Fenella Fielding at one of Ingrid Pitt's birthday-party-cum-fan-club-nights. She remembered us and we spent a while chatting.

There was a large number of other famous people here and there at the show. So much so that I found a young lady sitting all on her own on a row of seats with no one taking any notice of her. Always a sucker for a pretty face I said hello and then noticed her photos showed slightly more than her face - but those bits were quite pretty too...

Flickr Viewings

For the last few days I've been keeping a record on Facebook of the top scoring photographs from my Flickr collection.

Inevitably on a daily basis this leads to some repetition as my most viewed photos come top on a regular basis. But on those days I choose the No.2 or No.3 photo to feature.

The celebrity photos understandably come high up on the list of most-viewed photos with this one of actresses Carol Hawkins and Sally Geeson being all time top scorer by far. Currently (and this will change in 10 minutes or so) it has been viewed 13,452 times. Carol played Sharon in Please Sir having taken over the role from Penny Spencer. Sally was Sid James' daughter in Bless This House. Both appeared in Carry On films also, notably Carry On Abroad.

All time No.2 currently with 7,319 views is this one of me with Helene Hunt and Carole Ashby, who were both member's of Octopussy's all-girl team in the James Bond film of that name.

I'm actually sitting on Carole's knee here - at her insistance I hasten to add! We'd met a couple of times previously and she has a great sense of humour. She played Communist Resistance girl Louise in TV's 'Allo 'Allo.

Both of these photos were taken at the Memorabilia events at Birmingham's NEC. There's always a number of film and TV people there signing autographs and willing to pose for photos. Just don't expect treatment like this until you've got to know them though! And even then don't expect it!

Here's some of the quirkier photos to crop up in the top 3 ratings this week. The Citroen was found in St Tropez in 2008 and at first I thought it was a surviving 1960s Mini Moke. As seen in TV's The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan. Even the gear stick coming out of the dashboard or the chevrons logo didn't make me twig it was a Citroen based on a 2CV chassis from the 1980s until some kind soul commented on the photo!

Yesterday for some reason the focus was on this shot of Manchester Cathedral from 1998. It was Fran's birthday and we'd gone to Manchester for the day and the shopping got a little much for me so I left Fran and daughter, Gill, to the shopping and wandered round with the camera!

The black granite stone used inside is slightly oppressive I thought. A bit of limestone would have lightened the place up a bit.

Large versions of the photos: Carol and Sally, Helene and Carole, Citroen fun car, Manchester cathedral

Sally Geeson

A couple of months ago I told you about a photo of two penguins that had passed the 1000 views milestone on my Flickr account.

Well for some reason this one has been racing up the viewing charts behind it and has now overtaken it with a score of 1,165 to 1,129.

Sally Geeson, you may remember, played the daughter of Sid James in the long-running TV sitcom Bless This House and also appeared in a couple of the early 70s Carry On films: Carry On Abroad and Carry On Girls.

There are not too many photos of her on the Internet which may account for the views of my photo - which in the eyes of any of her fans can hardly be enhanced by having my mug on it! Every day it attracts anywhere between 6 and 40 views!

It was taken at one of the Memorabilia shows at the National Exhibition Centre, in November 2004.

Sorry To Miss You!

We saw them both last week at Ingrid's birthday party, but I'm still sorry not be going down to Birmingham this weekend to see Ingrid Pitt and Caroline Munro and a few other stars I've come to know.

The NEC Memorabila events are great fun and a chance to meet and natter to stars of film and television, comic writers and artists and lots of other interesting people.

We've been going for what seems like ages - we first met Caroline and Ingrid over ten years ago.

So I hope you have a great weekend down there girls, whilst the band are busy playing in Freckleton!

Venus - Your Strings Are Showing...

Every now and then my screensaver throws this one up at me from all the thousands of images I have on the computer.

I always think you can judge someone's age by the earliest Gerry Anderson show they remember. I'm a Four Feather Falls man myself...

That was preceded (apparently) by Torchy the Battery Boy and Twizzle but they mean nothing to me other than having seen photos of them.

Four Feather Falls was a western, in an era when both childrens' and adults' TV was dominated by American western series - The Lone Ranger, Bronco Lane, Cheyenne Body, Tenderfoot, Champion the Wonder Horse, Laramie, The Rifleman, Waggon Train, My Friend Flicker, the list is almost endless! I can still remember the theme tunes from the first five of those!!!

Anyway Four Feather Falls was followed by Supercar, then Fireball XL5 which is shown, during which colour TV came out which led to the first Gerry Anderson colour series, Stingray. The hugely popular Thunderbirds followed that and then I was getting less interested in things like Joe 90, The Secret Service, Captain Scarlet etc. Interest revived with live action series like UFO and Space 1999 and Space Precinct which was quite a bit later.

Right: me with the man himself - Gerry Anderson at Memorabilia in 2006.

A Wizard Encounter

There's a story behind this one.

This is my daughter, Gill, with actor Chris Rankin who plays Percy Weasley in the Harry Potter films. We were at a Memorabilia show at the NEC and it was 24 July 2003.

Too shy to ask him for an autograph she got me to do it. However Chris's manager phoned her up and said she had to come herself and they were holding her dad hostage until she came!

She turned up with a very red face and then, when he realised it wasn't a child they were teasing, Chris too went very red!

However the photograph made up for Gill's embarrassment!

Article Writing for Ingrid Pitt

The past couple of nights have been a bit frantic - I got my daily email from actress Ingrid Pitt's Yahoo Group to find she was expecting 500 words from me for her fanclub newsletter about her appearance at the Spring Memorabilia Show at the NEC over the weekend of 31 Mar/1 Apr. (See previous entry)

"Did you not get my email?" she asked. Er... no... but anyway 500 words isn't a lot so I started jotting a few bits down. Quite a few bits down actually... 500 words isn't a lot at all - I had to cut some of my best jokes out!

Anyway the article got sent off last night and I breathed a sigh of relief until this morning when at breakfast another email came in:

"Sorry John, can't open your attachment. Can you send it in the email. Thanks Ingrid"

Well that was easy enough - open Word file and copy and paste into a fresh email. Then noticed a further email. This was the one asking for the article. Tone (Ingrid's husband) had sent it on the 2nd but it had arrived on the 10th... Well that'll teach them to buy Apple Mac heh heh!

It went on: "The connection between Ingrid and Hazel is lost in the mists of time. Ingrid was at her wedding. Can't remember the religion but fruit, particularly bananas, played a significant part." Huh??? "Funniest memory of Hazel was going to a posh premiere in the West End. Went to get some drinks and when I came back Ingrid and Hazel were sitting on the stairs eating sandwiches from a lunch box Hazel had brought while all around people were quaffing champagne and nibbling nibbles..." Yep, that sounds like Ingrid!

Tonight was an email from Ingrid asking for photos of me with Hazel and Toyah - sent off in record time as I'm currently waiting for the other two members of the band to turn up for a rehearsal - blimey, when did we start having those? Oh sorry, it's half a rehearsal and half another recording session for the album!

Oh... and no, I can't let you see the article here as the fan club members have first priority!

Links to all three ladies so I don't get accused of favouritism! Names are in order of how long I've known you!

Ingrid Pitt's Pitt of Horror
Toyah Willcox's Web Site
Hazel O'Connor's Web Site

April Memorabilia Show, 2007

Hazel O'Connor and Ingrid Pitt

Actress and singer, Hazel O'Connor (the film "Breaking Glass" gave her punk rock status and hits such as "Eighth Day" and "Will You") catches up with actress and writer Ingrid Pitt. Ingrid is best known for Hammer Horror roles in "The Vampire Lovers" and "Countess Dracula" but has an impressive string of movies including a debut in mainstream movies as the lovely Heidi in "Where Eagles Dare" starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.

I met up with them at the Memorabilia Show, held this weekend at the NEC in Birmingham. I've been friends with Ingrid for ten years but it was the first time I've met Hazel, whose first Memorabilia appearance this was. I've always said I don't have favourite artistes, as every song has to stand on its own merits, but Hazel's "Will You" would be in my top ten of best ever musical recordings!

I also caught up again with Toyah Willcox and owe her a debt of thanks. Fran took a photo as we were talking and she said "Take it again - I probably look all gobby!" Anyway Toyah, you looked fine but I look like a complete prat in it... The second one has been added to the Celebrities set at my Flickr site (no longer available) along with others of Dr Who, Colin Baker, helper Deborah Watling, and me with Hazel and Ingrid. The first one will never see the light of day!

Ah, and thanks to Ingrid who enthusiastically told all these successful singing artistes that I was a "fabulous singer"... Yep - 35 years on now so it can't be long before I become an overnight success...