Continuing the discussion from People from Andy's formative ....... Part 4 (Part 4) - #100 by EI3LH.
Previous discussions:
OK, I will kick off here with RIP Bill Oddie, who died a couple of days ago. A man of many talents, comedian, musician (anyone remember Funky Gibbon?) writer of books, scripts and lyrics, a member of the Goodies (a series that ran for 12 years) and of course a presenter of TV series about wildlife and particularly birds. For a gloriously funny book to dip into, I recommend “Gripping Yarns”, a punning title that birders will chuckle at, a collection of his articles (mainly about his [mis]adventures while birding) in Birdwatch magazine. Dammit, Bill, you were six months younger than me, now I’ll be looking over my shoulder for a man with an hourglass, agricultural impliment and a VERY DEEP VOICE! 
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Bill Oddie was mega. I heard his birding books are well worth a read so will pick a couple up soon.
Random fact of the day. Freddy from Rod, Jane and Freddy saved Bill Oddie from drowning when he was on holiday in the Seychelles.
One to keep in your back pocket for a pub quiz! 
EDIT: Additional pub quiz trivia. Jane was married to Freddy (and Rod! Who she divorced to marry Freddy! 
) until he passed away in 2021. Never knew he had even passed. Wasn’t it Geoffrey who died falling off his roof trying to adjust his satellite dish to watch a Man Utd game? Or was that Rod Hull?
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It was Rod Hull, but there was an investigation that EMU may have had a hand in it.
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Technically Mr. Oddie was someone from my misspent youth but he was not someone important. Sure I can remember making an effort to watch The Goodies when it first started and there were amusing vignettes in the episodes. In general there weren’t that many laughs per episode. Sure concepts like the Northern Martial Art ‘Ecky Thump’ was funny as was some of the speeded up slapstick. But in general it was not super-funny. I compare it with Black Adder. The first series had a few chuckles but wasn’t a laugh a minute. The team were given an ultimatum “this costs a lot to make… more laughs or you’re canned”. Result being Black Adder series 2-4 being continuously funny with plenty of guffaws/episode. Someone should have done that to The Goodies. But they did a wonderful hatchet job on Apartheid in South Africa in 1975 for which they should always be remembered.
Later on Bill was seen on so many conservation and birding programs, a committed conservationist. But he always seemed miserable. It’s only later I found the poor man suffered from clinical depression all his life. That shows the horror of mental health illnesses… unless you know, you don’t know the person is really ill. That’s a real bummer.
TBH I miss Tim Brooke-Taylor on ISIHAC more and Graeme Garden is still with us.
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The only member of Z.Z. Top without beard, Frank Beard, dead at 77
Frank was one of those great drummers. He was essential to the music but never got in the way. And some of his comments on the documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas are simply sublime, especially what he spent the money from his first big cheque from touring
I saw them in 1983 at Leeds University. One of the tightest acts I’ve ever seen play. Wonderful stuff that doesn’t seem like 43 years ago. RIP Frank.
Super classic songs
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Tres Hombres was on our turntable two nights ago.
I can also recommend the documentary that was made when they were all around. It is superb.
A small world of people from my formative youth no longer here… Z.Z. Top were booked to play Leeds Uni by former alumni Andy Kershaw (15) who was mentioned in this thread last April when he too shuffled off his mortal coil. They were a huge band in the US but had been on a hiatus for some years in the late 70s and were on a come back. But it still must have been a coup for Mr. Kershaw to book them considering how big a band they would become.
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Re-invented by MTV.
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Dolly Parton is no longer with us.
https://news.sky.com/story/country-music-legend-dolly-parton-dies-13446799
Again, she’s not from my formative youth.
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To me “Andy’s formative youth” describes a period of time rather than your influences! Anyway, I bet that you noticed some of her attributes!
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She wasn’t attractive to me before or after any of the many plastic surgeries she had. Nor did I find her breast augmentation appealing. In fact as time progressed she looked more and more like Kenny Everett’s character Cupid Stunt but not as entertaining. I didn’t like her songs or singing voice. I’d not be surprised to find her music was used to torture prisoners in Gitmo. In fact I abhor Country Music, both the old style (to use Billy Connolly’s line) “My granny drowned in the grotto at Lourdes because a midget pushed her in” stuff to modern country music sung by blokes with mullets whilst driving their enormous pickup trucks.
So she was an active entertainer when I was young but not a part of my youth. In fact all she and other Country entertainers have done was harden my resolve to avoid all and every part of Country Music.
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Hear, hear! Not my bag at all, but I can acknowledge skill even in C&W.
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One of the greatest guitarists ever is Albert Lee who plays predominantly CW. I’ve seen him 4 or 5 times. Why? The skill transcends the music.
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I visited the Country Music Hall of Fame while in Nashville 10+ years ago. I love music and as a genre I knew little about, enjoyed the visit. You can’t get more than 10 feet into it without seeing the acknowledgment to it’s roots via Appalachia and the migration of so many English, Irish and Scottish Borderers. I thought that was a pretty cool nod to the music’s origin.
I thought Dolly was a great performer, boobs and all…
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TIm Curry has also passed away.
Oviously famous for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I seem to remember a tv series based around the Cluedo game that he appeared in.
An odd choice to play a russian submarine officer, but there he was in The Hunt for Red October too.
Also this week Billy Boston passed away. This is probably more of a local legend and almost certainly not from Andy’s formative years but still a superstar of Rugby League and landlord of the Griffin pub in Wigan which had many visits from me in my youth.
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Now Tim Curry was someone from my youth. I do remember reading a review of the Rocky Horror Picture Show when it recently been released in some kind of Time Out magazine that my sister had brought back from university. I remember looking at the pictures and being 15 or so and thinking “that all looks very odd, what’s going on.” I didn’t get to see the film until 1980 when I too was at university. The audience were well versed in the shadow script with all the callouts and people dancing The Timewarp. This would be at the Hyde Park Picture House, several people on here will know that place well. So typical Friday would be some beer in The Packhorse at lunchtime followed by trying to do a lab practical then home and the The Skyrack and more beer till chuck out time then down to The Hyde Park for the cheap late film. Sometimes it would be chips on the way and others some exotic take out later on. Then it would all go hazy! It all seemed so exotic and avant garde when you’re just 18 
I remembered reading Tim’s health was not stellar later on in his life but reading now I was surprised to find that he was a) 80 and b) 14 years since his major stroke. Wow, tempus fugit.
I’m sure that there will be a TV station already showing RHPS. With luck some station will show him in Stephen King’s It where he was Pennywise The Clown.
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I’m pretty much in agreement with this, but I do love Americana. The BBC did a great series of Transatlantic Sessions a few years ago, where you had Scottish folk and traditional musicians playing alongside Americans. Superb stuff.
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I have a Blues Brothers-esque dislike of country music. And western.
I have an intense dislike of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
But offer me a gig playing any of the above, and I’m in!
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