Yes, dear blog reader, it's that old bloggerisationisms time again here at From The North. Are you ready to be entertained? Oh, okay. Might be an idea for you lot to check out somewhere else first in that case. For everyone that said 'no', we're on safer ground.
Anita Dobson and Michelle Greenidge are the latest guest actors who will be appearing in the next series of Doctor Who according to the BBC. And, let's face it, they should know since they make the damn thing in the first place. 'Doctor Who returns in November 2023 with three special episodes to coincide with the Sixtieth anniversary with David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor. The Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, will then take control of the TARDIS, with his first episode airing over the festive period in 2023,' they add, helpfully. Yes, we did know all of that, BBC Media Centre. But, thanks for confirming it.
The filming of Doctor Who series fourteen is currently in full swing. Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson have been spotted at various locations across Wales - the latest of them being in South Pembrokeshire. On Monday, the TARDIS was seen on the Pembroke Coastal Path looking all ... well, you know, TARDISy.
Someone also managed to take a picture of the moment when the time machine's two occupants came out to have a stretch of their legs. Instantly prompting speculation about whether the yellow sowester Ncuti was wearing at the time is a new costume or just there to keep him warm between scenes as it's rather nippy in Britain at the moment.
The latest filming is taking place near Proud Giltar between Penally and Lydstep, as cast, crew, vehicles and the TARDIS prop were spotted setting up in a field on Tuesday. Bristol247 has also reported filming taking place in the Clifton area of the city, with the location seemingly standing in for Notting Hill in London. Road signs around Park Place, Bruton Place and Frederick Place were changed with new names including Rouen Street, Forbridge Street and Minto Road. Which might've been a bit confusing for anyone trying to find their house. Even the bins had the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea written on them rather than Bristol City Council.
Speaking to the Daily Torygraph, From The North favourite Jenna Coleman has revealed that she had never seen Doctor Who before she auditioned for the role of Clara, admitting that she was 'terrified of getting involved until I met Matt.' Jen also talked about her favourite Doctor Who scene, which occurred in the 2012 Christmas special, The Snowmen and saw her climbing up an invisible ladder to reach the clouds where the TARDIS awaited. 'It was like being in a kids' storybook,' she said. 'There was something so Alice In Wonderland or Willy Wonka about it. Climbing up into a world of imagination.' Heaping praise upon former showrunner The Lord Thy God Steven Moffat (OBE), she added: '[He] has the most brilliantly inventive mind. He writes scenes that are so beautifully moving without ever tipping into sentimentality. Although when Peter Capaldi took over ... they would have these intense, sci-fi nerdy conversations in a language I didn't understand!'
And, speaking of The Lord Thy God Steven Moffat (OBE), his play The Unfriend had its London press night last week at The Criterion. Attending, as the Daily Scum Mail gleefully reported, were three Doctors that Steven had written for - David Tennant, Peter Capaldi and Peter Davison. Here's two of them, posing for the cameras.
Though, of course, it's a well-known fact that there Peter Capaldi will get his picture taken with any old Doctor.
This blogger's thanks go to one of his beast fiends, Mick The Mod, for the following intriguing suggestion. 'Discussion point for From The North, perhaps. Is Manchester United's recent run of form down to the fact that Eric Van Taag reads the Litany in praise of Xoanon before every game?' To which this blogger could merely reply, 'I am totally nicking that!' And, indeed, this blogger did.
All of which nonsense, naturally, brings us too that occasionally popular semi-regular From The North feature Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Seventy Eight: The Androids Of Tara.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Seventy Nine: Twice Upon A Time.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Eighty: The Doctor's Daughter.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Eighty One: Spearhead From Space.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Eighty Two: Time-Flight. You may, indeed, believe that to be true, sir. Many in the viewing audience would beg to differ ...
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Eighty Three: The Snowmen.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Eighty Four: The Tomb Of The Cybermen.
Memorably Daft Double-Entendres In Episodes Of Doctor Whom (1963-2022). Number Eighty Five: Kerblam!
The latest episode of this blogger's favourite podcast - Kermode & Mayo's Take - in the Questions Schmestions section, there was a fascinating discussion, one that fits in with something which irritates the flaming spunk-juice out of this blogger's ire. It was on the topic of spoilers in film and television and was prompted by a listener's question. 'When was the precise moment in time that the phrase "No Spoilers" went from being a facile and slightly shallow whine to some sort of social contract by which actual adults are duty-bound to abide?' the listener, Paul, asked. I may be a miserable old curmudgeon, he continued (to which Simon Mayo, the king of the one-liners noted 'there's no "may be" about it!'), but 'it seems to me that if your enjoyment of a feature-length film relies solely on one hackneyed plot twist or an unexpected cameo rather than a decent story, good script, a great performance, sublime photography, visual and special effects, heart-stopping music, sumptuous costumes or any other number of elements then their you've misunderstood what a film is. Or you need to be going to [some] better films. So, my question is, don't you get frustrated treading-on-eggshells when discussing films because spoilers are - or should be - such a tiny fraction of the whole?' And he ended with the memorable spoiler-filled observation: 'It's a sledge; his mother is a skeleton; he's already dead; he abracadabra'd him off the clock tower; he is Keyser Soze; she learned to time-travel through language; it's his wife's head in a box!' 'Quite an articulate rant, young man' as Mike from The Young Ones would, no doubt, have said. Mark Kermode replied starting with the joke about a man getting a taxi to the theatre where The Mousetrap is playing (St Martin's Theatre), getting out and not giving the taxi driver a tip so, the driver calls after the chap 'The Butler did it!' (Actually, of course, The Butler didn't do it in The Mousetrap but to reveal who did do it would, potentially, be a spoiler.) 'I understand as a critic it is kind of incumbent upon you not to spoil a film unnecessarily by revealing things that are part of the film's [denouement] ... The wider point is the [in a mock whiny voice] "that's a spoiler!" thing has become, for most critics, an annoyance on the level of "oh, shut up!" I try not to tell you more about movies than I need to describe [them] but, in describing them, I am, inevitably, going to tell you some things about that movie [that you don't already know]. If you don't want to know anything about the movies, do what a lot of people do which is read the reviews afterwards. If you're going to go and see a film and you've got a lot invested in not knowing what happens in it, then don't read stuff on the Internet, don't watch the trailer, don't read reviews. Just go and see the film and then do all that stuff. Constantly whinging like a fourteen year old ... literally makes me want to start a review by telling you [spoilers]. I, also, know that it is very annoying when something gets spoiled completely stupidly and fool-hardily or deliberately but it has, definitely, got to the point where I've given up replying to [such whinging].' This, of course, also goes for this blogger's own sphere of influence, television. Particularly with regard to episodes of TV series which are popular in a number of different territories but which are shown at different times in different places. The most obvious example being, of course, Doctor Who and the huge amount of bandwidth used by some American fans of the BBC's popular long-running family SF drama in complaining - in advance of the most recent episode, The Power Of The Doctor being shown in the UK (where, let's remember it is made) - five hours before it was due to be shown stateside. Anyone the UK who dared to suggest that, in that case, it might be an idea that those in America who didn't wish to know anything about the episode in question may consider saying off social media for the five hours leading up to its US broadcast. That went down like a sack of shite with many outraged US viewers who, it would seem, find themselves incapable of not trawling Twitter or Facebook or other social media platforms for less than five minutes, let alone five hours (even on a Sunday) and, then complaining to any person who has said - on their own social media page - 'that was a good Doctor Who episodes, wasn't it? ... What about that bit when The Zarbi appeared?' screaming at them because they, themselves, have yet see the episode. This blogger's own favourite 'no spoilers!' nonsense came a couple of years ago when someone contacted this blogger about a spoiler he'd included on From The North relating to the 2017 remake of Murder On The Orient Express. This blogger was obliged to remind the angry correspondent in question that Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express was first published in 1934. Forty years later, it was subject to of star-studded, Oscar-winning movie adaptation. Since then it has been remade at least twice for television (versions starring Alfred Molina and David Suchet) and that the 2017 Kenneth Brangah version had already been out for over nine months when the comment on From The North was made. If 'they all did it' took that particular dear (former) blog reader by surprise, then that's hardly this blogger's fault any more than revealing that Birnam Wood really did come to Dusinane or that the sword with which Laertes fences with Hamlet was tipped with poison. This blogger, like Mark Kermode, doesn't appreciate deliberate or numbskull spoilerisationisms of things which are current but, in the case of someone going looking for spoilers only to get angry when they actually find some, this blogger can only advise that they should, perhaps, grow up. Here endeth the sermon.
On Friday 20 September 1963, the four original cast members of Doctor Who assembled in London for their first photo-call. That quartet was, of course, William Hartnell Carole Ann Ford, Jacqueline Hill and William Russell. You knew that, right? The pilot episode An Unearthly Child would not be recorded for another week and the studio sets had yet to be built so mock-ups of a classroom and the junkyard were erected in a photographic studio in the basement at Television Centre. They were quite different from how the sets would appear on screen in November - nevertheless (especially in the case of the junkyard) suitably evocative. Radio Times photographer Don Smith was present, along with his friend Douglas Playle, who worked for the BBC's picture publicity department. Both men have since died, but in 2003 Don told Radio Times: 'I remember it well. It was just a large room - most uninspiring. We had bits of furniture in the waiting room and it was just a matter of dragging anything in.' Over the decades, many shots from this session have been printed, but nearly all the original negatives are lost. However, one of Don's negatives from 1963 does exist in the Radio Times archive - making it our earliest-surviving negative from Doctor Who. It was probably saved because it was filed separately under 'Jacqueline Hill'. Variations exist of this shot of Hill as Barbara Wright, but it is believed this one has not been previously published. Jacqueline died almost thirty years ago at the age of sixty three. She was survived by her husband, the acclaimed producer/director Alvin Rakoff. Now in his nintiess, Alvin was happy to talk to Radio Times about his late wife and her time on the series. 'Sixty years ago is often easier to recall than sixty hours ago,' he says. 'The thing that Jackie repeated to me endlessly while she was making Doctor Who is that each director would come up to her and say, "Can you scream here?" and she would say, "What sort of scream?" She said, "There are only so many screams you can do. How loud? Face this way, face that way? Eyes wide? Eyes wider? There's a limitation to how you vary a scream." She couldn't often persuade a director to let her tremble with fear rather than scream. It always had to be a scream. That's the thing she most remembered about Doctor Who.' Alvin is sure, however, that his wife enjoyed her time in the programme, staying for almost the entire first two series before leaving in 1965. 'She loved those early episodes because they divided the stories between history and the future in space. She particularly liked the historic episodes because, I guess like a lot of actresses, she loved dressing up in the period costumes that were assigned to her. She felt she could get something out of the historic ones. They offered something she could capitalise on, whereas dealing with the future, it was often just a lot of screaming.' In the 1964 serial From The North favpourite The Aztecs, for example, her character became the focus as a reincarnated high priestess. 'Oh yes, she loved that episode,' Alvin notes. Rakoff and Hill had first crossed paths a decade earlier, at the BBC in 1953. 'I was a raw neophyte director and was casting for a TV series called A Place Of Execution. I needed a young leading lady. I interviewed a number of people including Jackie but I didn't hire her. I decided she was wrong for the part, which was upper middle class. Then about a month after that, I was at a party with actors and in came Jackie with a friend. She was cold towards me and I was cold towards her, but finally after the party we socialised a bit more and we agreed to meet after that.' Soon, they became a couple and, subsequently, did work together several times in the 1950s. The first TV play they made together was Three Empty Rooms in December 1955. Alvin and Jacqueline married in 1958 and it was in the late 1950s that, he recalls, they first encountered a dynamic woman in her early twenties, Verity Lambert - in London and then America. 'I was working in New York in 1959 and Verity was at the same organisation as a glorified typist/secretary for an American television producer. So she and Jackie, these two English girls, met up in New York and really became friends. A few years later Verity became producer of Doctor Who and offered the role to Jackie because they knew each other.' Did Verity, perhaps, also cast Hill because, in some ways, the character of Barbara represented Lambert herself on screen? Rakoff says: 'I think that is true. I think it often happens that directors and producers see a projection of themselves in the story they are telling.' What did his wife make of the enduring appeal of Doctor Who and getting fan mail for years afterwards? 'She liked it,' Alvin claims. 'She didn't capitalise on it in the way that some people do, going to Doctor Who reunions and conventions. She would avoid all of that. Jackie found them a little self-conscious making. She was too professional an actress. And people coming to the house she objected to, though she tolerated it. But we didn't get many of those.' In 1980, she briefly returned to the series as a completely different character (in Meglos) and, in 1985, made her one solitary appearance at a Doctor Who convention.
Did anyone else spot the surputicious and strategic placement of the TARDIS in a 1964 episode of The Saint which was shown on Talking Pictures this week? Just Keith Telly Topping then. That's always happening.
How marvellous it was to see not one but two questions in this week's episode of From The North favourite Only Connect which involved From The North favourite Lord Weller of Woking. 'To be someone (on Only Connect) must be a wonderful thing' indeed.
There's a really good article on from The North favourite Slow Horses by the Den of Geek website's Laura Vickers-Green, Slow Horses: Gary Oldman Spy Thriller Deserves To Be As Big As Line of Duty which this blogger urges y'all to check out, dear blog reader.
Another From The North favourite, Wor Geet Canny Robson Green, has a new series for the BBC, Robson Green's Weekend Escapes a-comin'. More details on it can be found, here, in the Evening Chrocodile.
A stalker who targeted From The North favourite Claire Foy has been given a suspended prison sentence and will be repatriated to the US. Because, obviously, we've got enough of our own nutters over here without getting lumbered with any of President Joe's cretins. Jason Penrose, sent Claire more than one thousand e-mails in a month and appeared outside her North London home. The Old Bailey heard that Claire, sadly, now 'views the world in much more fearful way.' In November, Penrose admitted stalking the actress over a six-month period. He also admitted a stalking protection order breach, by sending her a parcel. In a statement by Claire read to the court, she said that she had felt 'terrified and helpless in my own home,' adding: 'I feel like the freedoms I enjoyed before Mister Penrose contacted me have now gone.' A sentencing hearing was adjourned last month, when concerns were raised that Pemrose might continue to contact the actress. Penrose, who has paranoid schizophrenia, has been held in a secure mental health unit in London for the past year. During an application to a court to impose the stalking protection order Penrose received in July, an officer from the Metropolitan scuffers said that Penrose had posed as a film director and producer who wanted the actress to appear in his next film. He had contacted Claire's sister and agent, found out where the actress lived and frequently rang her doorbell, the court was told. At the Old Bailey, Judge David Aaronberg KC said Claire had 'become scared and suspicious of post she does not recognise and of her front doorbell ringing.' Sentencing Penrose to twenty two months' in The Slammer, suspended for two years, the judge said he believed the US citizen had not intended to 'cause fear or distress to Ms Foy.' However, Judge Aaronberg added he remained 'troubled' that Penrose might continue to be infatuated with her. As a condition of his suspended sentence, he must remain under the care of a psychiatrist in the UK until his repatriation to the US.
Netflix has revealed its biggest successes of 2022, with the fourth series of Stranger Things topping (or, should that be, if you will telly topping?) the list for TV and the Russo Brothers The Gray Man leading the pack of Netflix original movies. On Netflix's TV list, debut series like Wednesday and From The North's favourite show of last year The Sandman rub shoulders with franchises like Stranger Things and Ozark, while the movies list runs the gamut from SF action to romantic comedy.
The coming weekend's episode of From The North favourite Vera will be something of a sad one for many fans of the much-loved North East-based crime drama as From The North favourite Paul Kaye will be bowing out of the show, after several years playing police pathologist Malcolm Donahue. Since joining the Vera cast for series nine, Paul, who first found fame in the 1990s as the obnoxious spoof journalist Dennis Pennis, has become a real fan favourite on the ITV drama. Paul will be seen on-screen in this Sunday's first episode of series twelve, after the much-delayed previous series wrapped on Sunday night with the tense whodunnit, The Way The Wind Blows. Series twelve's opening episode, Against The Tide will see DCI Stanhope called to a remote lighthouse where the body of body is local council enforcement officer and experienced amateur sailor Frank Channing has been discovered lashed to a sailboat. A new pathologist character, Paula Bennett (played by Sara Kameela Impey) will replace Malcolm in the following episode, For The Grace Of God, which will be broadcast on 5 February.
The teenage star of The Last Of Us has said she believes its popularity has made a second series 'likely.' From The North favourite Bella Ramsey, has previously had acclaimed roles in From The North favourite Game Of Thrones and Lena Dunham's film, From The North favourite Catherine Called Birdy. Bella plays the lead role of Ellie alongside fellow Game Of Thrones alumnus Pedro Pascal in the HBO series which is already generating a lot of very positive reviews. She said: 'If people keep watching, I think [a second series] is pretty likely. It's down to the guys at HBO. There's nothing confirmed yet so we'll have to wait and see,' she added. The series, based on a PlayStation game, has been described as 'the best video game adaptation ever.' Not that this is a particularly difficult boast to make given the low quality of many previous video game adaptations but, still, it looks from the evidence of the trailers to be an accurate claim. It follows the journey of a man and a teenage girl as they travel across the US during The Zombie Apocalypse. Bella said: 'The Last Of Us is, essentially, about a man called Joel who meets this little, brassy, foul-mouthed kid called Ellie. The two of them form an unlikely bond that ends up being stronger than anything else.' Bella is now back at her Leicestershire home, after attending the show's premiere in Los Angeles and said she had been 'startled' by the attention. 'It's weirder seeing billboards locally than it was in LA,' she said. 'I took my driving test the other day - which I failed - and, during that I kept driving past the billboards, which was quite strange.' Bella added that her family were 'forcing themselves to watch the show. It's not the sort of thing they would normally watch,' she added. 'My grandma sent a message to my mum last night saying, "it's not easy watching but it is rather thrilling." That's what they are making of it.' Bella started acting as a child, initially in amateur theatre groups. She joined Nottingham's Television Workshop - a youth drama group which has also honed the skills of From The North favourites Samantha Morton, Vicky McClure and Jack O'Connell - and was cast in Game Of Thrones at the age of eleven.
Really-bastard-annoying TV adverts which grate this blogger's cheese, most actively. For a kick-off, there's that ruddy smug McDonald's ad which uses Yello's 'Oh Yeah' on the soundtrack. This blogger hopes everyone involved in it gets a nasty dose of diarrhoea after they've eaten their McNuggets with dip. On general principle. And, shockingly, that would seem to include From The North favourite Edgar Wright who directed the bugger! Bloody hell, now that's a line on a CV which includes Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, The Sparks Brothers and Last Night In Soho which you never thought you'd see.
A rare cloud formation, that creates an optical illusion tricking viewers into thinking it looks like a UFO, has been observed in Turkey. The wave-like pattern is known as a lenticular cloud. Bursa lies at the base of a mountain range, which makes the phenomenon more likely.
The nominations for the latest From The North Headline Of The Week award includes not one but two contributions from Metro (so, not a real newspaper, then). Firstly, Man Named 'Number One Buyer Of Quavers Crisps' At Local Shop For Second Year Running. IOne trusts he got a trophy and a certificate of merit on both occasions?
Or, if that doesn't get you creaming in yer own shorts, dear blog reader, what about Man's Utter Dismay At Finding Just One Lonely Hazelnut In His Chocolate Bar? Two points; firstly was it the same 'man' as featured in the previous story? (It wasn't, by the way, but the headlines don't make that point clear.) Secondly how, exactly, does this chap (and, indeed, the Metro their very selves) know that the hazelnut in question was 'lonely'? Maybe it just prefers its own company. Many of us do. It's not a crime.
Wales Online, meanwhile, has the sensational scoop 'World's Longest Chip' Found By Nine-Year-Old Boy In Wales. All joshing about the author of the piece, Bethany Gavaghan's chances of the Pulitzer for her 'exclusive' aside, even this blogger is forced to concede that is, indeed, a bloody whopper (even if it is a bit burned at one end).
Therefore, it is important that everyone remembers, dear blog reader ...
The North Wales Daily Post provides us with another triumph for journalism, Defendant Told He Can't Take His Trident Into Court As He Faces Charges Over Magic Mushrooms. Presumably not the creamy sort you can buy in a tin at Morrisons?
Next ...
The Vatican is investigating rumours of a 'sex party' at a cathedral which is alleged to have happened during lockdown, according to the Gruniad Morning Star. And, the really annoying thing here is that the cathedral in question is but a mere couple of miles away from The Stately Telly Topping Plague House. And, this blogger didn't get an invite. Truly, it would seem, there is no God.
As part of an investigation into the circumstances of Robert Byrne's resignation as the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, the Catholic church is looking into claims that one of his priests invited worshippers to a private party at his lodgings. Multiple people are said to have complained that Father Michael McCoy, dean of Newcastle Cathedral, approached them to attend a party at a time when such gatherings were not permitted. An, alleged (though suspiciously anonymous and, therefore, probably fictitious) diocese 'source' allegedly told the Sunday Times (they're not alleged, they do exist) 'a number of complaints were made by individuals within the diocese after information came to light about a sex party taking place in the priests' living quarters attached to Newcastle Cathedral.' McCoy, killed himself in April 2021 four days after finding out he was subject to an investigation by Northumbria police's child and adult protection department for alleged child sexual abuse. He had been appointed by Byrne in 2019, replacing the popular Father Dermott Donnelly, the older brother of TV presenter Wor Geet Canny Dec. While there is no suggestion that Byrne attended the party in question, the Gruniad hastily add (not wishing to get themselves sued), he resigned as The Bish in December, telling worshippers his office 'has become too great a burden.' In a letter to clergy, which he read in St Mary's Cathedral in Newcastle, he said: 'My own discernment has caused me to recognise that I now feel unable to continue serving the people of the diocese in the way that I would wish.'
In a letter seen by the Sunday Times, the archbishop of Liverpool, Malcolm McMahon who is running the diocese until Byrne's successor is appointed and is leading the investigation into his resignation, said that he has been asked by The Pope's advisers to prepare an in-depth report into the events leading up to Bishop Byrne's resignation.' The Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency last week began an 'unscheduled safeguarding audit' at the diocese. Steve Ashley, the CSSA chief executive officer said the body was independent and had 'full autonomy.' He said: 'The scope of the investigatory work will cover any reported abuses, alleged abuses, safeguarding concerns and the culture of safeguarding in the diocese as a whole.' The former chief prosecutor for the North-West of England, Nazir Afzal, chair of the CSSA, added: 'There should be no doubt that we will leave no stone unturned when it comes to keeping people safe and this includes investigating the safeguarding culture in Hexham and Newcastle.'
A thread on this blogger's page concerning some early BBC recordings by The Be-Atles (a popular beat combo of the 1960s, you might've heard of them) featuring Pete Best on the drums soon, somewhat inevitably, turned into a discussion on the - sometimes under-rated, by total glakes - abilities of his successor on the drummers stool, yer actual Sir Ringo Starr (MBE). This blogger noted that arguments which suggest Ringo was in any way a less-than-magnificent drummer are usually only made by those who haven't got a blithering clue what they're talking about. Yes, he wasn't Keith Moon or Ginger Baker in terms of flamboyance but, in that particular band, with that particular front line, he didn't need to be. What he did need to be was 'a human metronome' (to use George Martin's description) and he fitted that descriptor perfectly in The Be-Atles (same with Charlie in The Stones albeit Charlie had a jazz background, unlike Ringo). The beauty of Ringo's drumming in The Be-Atles is that he could play, literally, anything. He could do rock and roll, blues, show tunes, latin, country, folk, r and b and soul, ska, in the case of 'Helter Skelter' proto thrash metal. You name it, if John, Paul or George gave it to Ringo and said 'what can you do with this?' he would be on the nail every single time. There is that great story about the time that George came in with 'Here Comes The Sun' and apologised to Ringo because the middle section was in, is it 7/4 time or something? Some really strange time signature anyway. Ringo said 'play it got me' so George did whilst he patted out of rhythm and then he said 'okay, I've got it' and his drumming on that song - just as it is on around two hundred other Be-Atles recordings - is outstanding. The fact that the same drummer could be completely unfazed by 'Rain' or 'She Said She Said' or 'Tomorrow Never Knows' as much as he was by 'Honey Pie' or 'Here There & Everywhere' or 'When I'm Sixty Four' is the ultimate testament to Ringo Starr's genius. This blogger think he was (and, still is) great. And remember, dear blog reader, it's Ringo's world, we just live in it.
Unseen portraits taken by Sir Paul McCartney (MBE) in the early 1960s as The Be-Atles (a popular beat combo of the 1960s, you might've heard of them) were catapulted to international superstardom at the very toppermost of the poppermost will go on show at the refurbished National Portrait Gallery in the summer. Sir Macca (MBE) thought the photographs, taken between December 1963 and February 1964, had been lost, but he recently rediscovered them. The exhibition, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes Of The Storm, 'will provide a uniquely personal perspective on what it was like to be a Be-Atle at the start of Be-Atlemania,' said Nicholas Cullinan, the NPG's director. 'The photographs taken in this period captured the very moment that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were propelled from being the most popular band in Britain to an international cultural phenomenon, from gigs in Liverpool and London to performing on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York to a television audience of seventy three million people. At a time when so many camera lenses were on the band, these photographs will share fresh insight into their experiences, all through the eyes of Sir Paul McCartney.' The former Be-Atle approached the NPG in 2020, said Cullinan. 'He said he'd found these photographs that he remembers taking but thought had been lost. We sat down with him and began going through them. [It was] extraordinary to see these images - which are unseen - of such a well-documented, famous and important cultural moment. They're taken by someone who was really, as the exhibition title alludes, in the eye of the storm looking outside at what was happening.' Sir Macca (MBE) plans to publish a book of the photographs to coincide with his eighty first birthday in June. The two hundred and seventy five photos in the collection were taken on a thirty five millimetre camera in New York, Washington, London, Liverpool, Miami and Paris. McCartney's family, of course, includes three celebrated photographers. His first wife, Linda, was the first woman to shoot a Rolling Stone cover. The couple's daughter Mary is an acclaimed photographer and film-maker and his brother, Mike, has published several photography books including many intimate images of The Be-Atles (a popular beat combo of the 1960s, you might've heard of them).
And now, dear blog reader, a new - probably quite regular - From The North feature: 'There really are some twenty four carat fucking planks floating around on the Interweb (and, indeed, elsewhere)' dear blog reader. Example number one - this week, The Pink Floyd (a popular beat combo of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, you might've heard of them) announced a fiftieth anniversary reissue box-set of their biggest selling record, Dark Side Of The Moon. You know, the one that looks like this.
To launch the new box-set, the band shared an updated varient of the Hipgnosis cover art for Dark Side Of The Moon as their Facebook profile picture.
Sadly, although perhaps somewhat inevitably, some cretins chose to see the picture as a statement of advocacy for the LGBTQ+ movement - which wouldn't and shouldn't have been a problem even if that had been the intention (which, at least in part, it may have been) - and vented their incandescent bile at what they believed was a 'woke' (hateful word) representation. 'Lose the rainbow, you're making yourself look stupid!' wrote one person who had, ironically, just done exactly what he'd accused the band of and looked idiotic himself. A tip, mate - you weant to think about getting a new mind, because the one you already have is narrow and full of shit. Another, no doubt perfect specimen of humanity, claimed that they would not listen to Pink Floyd ever again. Although, presumably, if they didn't know what the original Dark Side Of The Moon cover looked like, they probably hadn't listened to much of their oeuvre anyway. So, frankly, that's no great loss to Dave and Nick's already massive bank accounts, one could suggest. 'Are you going woke with rainbows?' another angry moron added. 'Is there a straight flag? I want equal representation.' As do we all, dear boy, as do we all.
In response, a number of Floyd fans laughed their cocks off at the misguided fury of these heed-the-baals, with one writing in the comments section: 'I thought [this] was a joke and had to come see for myself. Are people really having tantrums over the rainbow that has always been there?' Yes, mate, they are. They're called numbskulls and, sadly, the world is full of them. 'You know you're homophobic when you get mad at the rainbow that has always been Pink Floyd's logo,' another - reasonably sensible - fan added. Perhaps the finest response, however, came from the great and saintly George Takei on Twitter.
Another of this blogger's musical heroes has left us, dear blog reader. David Crosby, who has died aged eighty one, was a Premier-League rock and/or roll superstar twice over. In the mid-1960s he was a founder member of The Byrds, the Los Angeles band often credited with inventing the genre of folk-rock. This was defined by their shimmering, jingle-jangle-morning recording of Bob Dylan's 'Mister Tambourine Man', its distinctive harmonies and chiming twelve-string Rickenbackers carrying it to the top of the charts in both Britain and the US in 1965. Always appealingly arrogant and argumentative, David was sacked from The Byrds in late 1967 but, after producing Joni Mitchell's debut LP, Song To A Seagull, he found an ideal berth in the first 'supergroup' of the era, Crosby, Stills and Nash. It was a group of distinct individuals who, together, created one of the great harmony-singing blends in pop history. Their eponymous debut, was an immediate smash and proved hugely influential on a rising generation of West coast artists and was played at just about every pot smoking party in the land for the next five years. Crosby's long hair, walrus moustache and buckskin jacket made him look like a frontiersman for The Age Of Aquarius. Their second LP, Déjà Vu (1970), with the crucial addition of Neil Young, felt like the crowning moment of a Californian golden age. It topped the US chart, reached the top five in the UK and has sold fourteen million copies. The members then embarked on solo ventures and their reunions grew increasingly rare and, at the same time, increasingly tetchy, though they reformed for a stadium world tour in 1974, a lavishly wasteful affair that Crosby nicknamed The Doom Tour. A major obstacle to their continuing working together was that Crosby, already a regular marijuana and LSD user, would succumb to a ferocious addiction to crack cocaine, with near-fatal consequences. This came to a head in March 1982, when he was arrested by the California Highway Patrol after he crashed his car into the central divider on Interstate 405. Police found freebasing paraphernalia and a forty five-calibre pistol in the car and it was later determined that Crosby had suffered a seizure from 'toxic saturation.' A couple of weeks later he was arrested again on similar charges, this time at a Dallas nightclub where he was supposed to be performing. A spell in rehab in New Jersey failed to cure him when Crosby fled the premises. His decline was halted only when he was jailed in Texas in 1986, following yet another drugs-and-firearms arrest. In 1985, Spin magazine had told its readers The Tragic Story Of David Crosby's Living Death, but after being paroled from Huntsville prison in August 1986, Crosby staged a remarkable comeback. He marked his return with the enthralling autobiography Long Time Gone (1988) and the solo CD Oh Yes I Can (1989). He would make six further solo records, in addition to Crosby & Nash (2004), two CDs with Stills and Nash (Live It Up in 1990 and After the Storm, 1994) and American Dream and Looking Forward with CSNY (1988 and 1999). In 1987 he married Jan Dance, who had survived her own addiction purgatory alongside him. Shortly after being diagnosed with hepatitis C, in 1994, he underwent a liver transplant, the operation paid for by Phil Collins (Crosby had sung on Collins's 1989 hit 'Another Day In Paradise' but we'll try to forgive him for that) and bounced back with renewed energy.
Born in Los Angeles in 1941, David Van Cortlandt Crosby was the second son of the cinematographer Floyd Crosby and his first wife, Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead, a scion of the influential Van Cortlandt dynasty. Floyd came from an upper-class New York background, his father having been the treasurer of the Union Pacific Railroad and his mother the daughter of a renowned surgeon. Floyd had tried his hand at banking in New York before working on documentary films in the South Pacific (including FW Murnau's Tabu, for which he won an Oscar) and eventually moving to Hollywood, where he won a Golden Globe award for his work on Fred Zinnemann's High Noon and made numerous films with Roger Corman. David's early musical influences included classical music and jazz as well as The Everly Brothers and bluesman Josh White and he recalled how he would take the harmony parts when the family gathered to sing extracts from The Fireside Book Of Folk Songs. A trip with his mother to hear a symphony orchestra 'was the most intense experience I can remember from my early life' (as he wrote in Long Time Gone), because it illustrated how musicians could collaborate 'to make something bigger than any one person could ever do.' He attended the exclusive Crane school in Montecito, California, then boarding school in Carpinteria. Though highly intelligent, he regarded academic work with contempt and refused to apply himself. One area where he did shine was in musical stage shows, such as his performance as the First Lord of the Admiralty in Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. He subsequently attended Santa Barbara City College, but quit and moved to LA to study acting. However, music was becoming his true focus and he began playing in folk clubs with his elder brother, Ethan (who would take his own life in 1997). When a girlfriend became pregnant, David hastily left town and worked his way across the country towards the folk-singing mecca of Greenwich Village in New York, where the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary, Phil Ochs and Joan Baez were breaking through and Bob Dylan was about to transform the musical climate entirely. Crosby formed a partnership with the Chicago-born folk singer Terry Callier and they performed frequently together, before Crosby travelled to Florida in 1962 to sample the folk scene in Miami's Coconut Grove. He then moved back to Los Angeles via Denver, Chicago and San Francisco. In LA he met Jim (later Roger) McGuinn and Gene Clark, all of them fascinated by The Be-Atles (a popular beat combo of the 1960s, you might've heard of them) and the idea of mixing Dylan-style folk with rock and/or roll. A significant moment was when the trio went to a cinema to watch A Hard Day's Night, McGuinn recalling that, as they emerged, Crosby swung round a lamp-post (Be-Atles-style) in awe at the possibilities pop music seemed to present. They became The Jet Set, which soon evolved into The Byrds with the addition of the bassist Chris Hillman and drummer Michael Clarke.
Signed to Columbia, The Byrds had already built an enthusiastic local following playing in clubs such as Ciro's on Sunset Strip by the time 'Mister Tambourine Man' was released in April 1965; its success was followed up by their debut LP, in June. Crosby's distinctive tenor voice was integral to the band's vocal blend and he began to develop an idiosyncratic songwriting style. Influenced by jazz as much as rock, his songs used unusual chords and unconventional melodies. On the band's third LP, Fifth Dimension (1966), one of his most significant contributions was co-writing 'Eight Miles High'. This proto-psychedelic milestone gave them a major hit and also reflected Crosby's infatuation with the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. Their next LP, Younger Than Yesterday (1967), featured Crosby's ethereal torch song 'Everybody's Been Burned' as well as his more self-indulgent sound experiment 'Mind Gardens', while the song 'Why?' reflected his admiration for the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. When The Byrds had met The Be-Atles in August 1965, Crosby's enthusiasm for Shankar helped to spark George Harrison's emerging interest in Indian music (whilst McGuinn, Crosby and Peter Fonda shared a particularly memorable acid trip with Harrison, Lennon and Ringo that became the subject of Lennon's 'She Said She Said'). At the Monterey Pop festival in 1967, The Byrds jammed with South African trumpet maestro Hugh Masekela on their cynical, industry-bashing single 'So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star'. Crosby's green suede cape and Borsalino hat had made him a Hollywood Hills style-icon, but his days as a Byrd were numbered. He had irked his bandmates at Monterey, making rambling speeches from the stage about the glories of LSD and the assassination of John Kennedy and also by appearing with Buffalo Springfield for their set in place of the absent Neil Young. Crosby's song 'Lady Friend' (1967) flopped as a single and during the making of The Notorious Byrd Brothers he was fired after arguments over the choice of material. His song 'Triad', depicting a menage-a-trois, was vetoed by his bandmates as being too risqué (Jefferson Airplane subsequently covered it). Nonetheless, Crosby played on and co-wrote several songs and The Notorious Byrd Brothers is arguably The Byrds' masterpiece. The sleeve photo, however, has Crosby's place in the band's line-up replaced a horse.
Borrowing twenty five thousand dollars from his friend Peter Tork of The Monkees, Crosby bought a schooner called Mayan, where he would write some of his best-known songs including Crosby, Stills & Nash's 'Wooden Ships'. Stills was an old friend and Nash, whilst on a Hollies tour of the US in 1966, had been introduced by Crosby by their mutual friend Cass Elliot. The trio spent some time in England during 1968, hanging out with The Be-Atles and almost (but not quite) signing to Apple. The obvious potential of CSN immediately won them a deal with Atlantic Records, which released their mellow, mostly acoustic debut in May 1969. Their second-ever live appearance was at the Woodstock festival that August, by which time Young had joined them. Though dominated by the all-round wizardry of Stills, the LP showcased the different writing skills of each member. Crosby's 'Guinnevere' demonstrated his fondness for unusual scales and harmonies, while the bluesy 'Long Time Gone' was a heartfelt response to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and indicated the group's willingness to embrace political and social issues. Déjà Vu, released nine months later, brought another strong showing from Crosby. The hanging chords and mysterious time changes of his title song made it one of his most mesmerising compositions, while 'Almost Cut My Hair' was his battle cry for the counterculture. However, personality clashes within the quartet while on tour in 1970 (and there were lots) prompted them to split, although their swansong was a masterpiece - Young's bitter protest song 'Ohio', Crosby ending the song - about the Kent State shootings - with an anguished cry of 'how many more?' They reunited for the troubled, but often thrilling, 1974 world tour which included a legendary, cocaine-soaked three hour plus set at Wembley Stadium to an audience of over eighty thousand stoned hippies. If there was a single reason why punk happened, this was probably it! All the members on CSNY made solo LPs, including Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971). Additionally, he formed a successful duo with Nash, which brought them US hit LP in 1972, followed by Wind On The Water (1975) and Whistling Down The Wire (1976). In 1973 Crosby, briefly, reunited with his previous band for The Byrds and in 1977 Crosby, Stills and Nash released CSN, which reached number two on the US chart and outsold the trio's debut. However, by the time they made Daylight Again (1981), Crosby was in the throes of addiction. Allies (1983), a patchwork of live and studio material, was the group's last effort before he was banged up in The Joint.
Crosby's post-prison renaissance continued with regular tours with CSN, who went on the road almost annually from 1987, with Young joining them in 2000, 2002 and 2006. He released the solo CD Thousand Roads (1993), which gave him a minor hit single with 'Hero', then picked up the pace dramatically in the new century with Croz (2014), Lighthouse (2016), Sky Trails (2017) and Here If You Listen (2018). For Free, featuring Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and Michael McDonald, came out in 2021. His final release, in December, was David Crosby & The Lighthouse Band Live At The Capitol Theatre. One of his regular musical collaborators was James Raymond, his son with Celia Crawford Ferguson, whom Crosby had left pregnant in California in the early 1960s and who had given her baby up for adoption. She later moved to Australia. Raymond met his birth mother in 1994, then in 1995 introduced himself to his biological father at UCLA medical centre, where Crosby was having treatment following his liver transplant. An accomplished musician and composer, Raymond played in the jazz-rock band CPR with his father and Jeff Pevar (they released four CDs between 1998 and 2001), was music director for Crosby's solo shows and also became a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash's touring band from 2009. Yet Crosby's creative rebirth coincided with a calamitous breakdown in relations with his old comrades. In 2014 Young said CSNY would never tour again after Crosby described Young's new partner, Daryl Hannah, as 'a purely poisonous predator' and in 2016 Nash, the quietly spoken Mancunian who had always gone that extra mile for Crosby throughout his addiction years, also announced his estrangement from his old friend having been verbally abused once too often. In 1991 Crosby was inducted into the Rock and/or Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Byrds and in 1997 with Crosby, Stills and Nash (it remains a total mystery why CSNY haven't been). He won the 2019 Critics' Choice movie award as the 'most compelling living subject of a documentary' for AJ Eaton's film David Crosby: Remember My Name. Crosby continued to be plagued by health problems. He suffered from type two diabetes and in 2014 was left with eight stents in his heart following major cardiac surgery. He was the sperm donor for the children of Melissa Etheridge and her partner Julie Cypher: their son, Beckett, who died in 2020 and daughter, Bailey. Jan and their son, Django, survive him, as do James, a daughter, Erika, with Jackie Guthrie and a daughter, Donovan, with Debbie Donovan.
There is a pretty decent interview in the Gruniad Morning Star with another regular on The Stately Telly Topping Manor Plague House dansette, yer actual John Cale on subjects including The Velvet Underground (and Nico), Covid and 'a gun-ridden world gone bad.' Which you can have a good butchers at, here.
This blogger's beloved (and now, thankfully, sold) Magpies hold a slender advantage from the Carabao Cup Semi-Final first leg as Joelinton's goal gave Th' Toon victory at Southampton. The Brazilian made amends for missing an earlier, far simpler, opportunity when he arrived on the end of substitute Alexander Isak's perfect low cross to make the decisive contribution with seventeen minutes left. Newcastle will now be favourites to reach their first major Wembley final since the FA Cup in 1999 as they attempt to end a trophy drought stretching back to the 1969 Inter Cities' Fairs Cup win. if Newcastle do complete the job in the second leg on Tyneside they will owe a massive debt of gratitude to their goalkeeper Nick Pope, who made two vital second-half saves from Southampton substitute Che Adams with the score still goalless, extending his remarkable personal record to ten consecutive clean sheets (and sixteen in all competitions this season, the best in any top league in Europe). Southampton, who had what they thought was an equaliser from Adam Armstrong disallowed for handball by VAR, saw their night of frustration complete when defender Duje Caleta-Car was sent off in the closing minutes for a second yellow card hacking down Allan Saint-Maximin. Joelinton was a central figure, seeing a first-half goal contentiously ruled out for handball then blazing over from close range when it seemed easier to score, before hitting the target to make Eddie Howe's side favourites to reach Wembley.
A previous From The North bloggerisationism update detailed the jolly sad and painful story of The Stately Telly Topping Manor Plague House bath, the Stately Telly Topping Manor Plague House knee-injury and the panicked Stately Telly Topping Manor Plague House phone call to The Department Of Baths. The Man from The Department Of Baths (let's call him Tubby, for simplicity's sake) arrived at The Stately Telly Topping Manor Plague House bright and early on Wednesday morning all full of good cheer. And was, thereafter, about as much use as a one-legged man in an arse-kicking competition. To get a walk-in shower and/or sit-in bath (which this blogger had confidently expected would be item number one on the agenda given the fact that we'd just almost broken his knee-cap falling whilst attempting to get himself out of the previous bath), apparently, one needs a letter from ones doctor giving the medical condition which requires such a thing. Getting an appointment with whom is, of course, var nigh impossible at short notice. Because the NHS is currently close to breaking point due to shocking under-funding by a 'haven't got a clue' government. Woah, bit of politics there. In the mean time, The Department Of Baths have taken measurements and, unless told otherwise, will install a replacement bath at The Statelty Telly Topping Manor Plague House when they've got one in stock. Which may, or may not be before 6 February (or, several weeks thereafter - Tubby couldn't give this blogger any further advice on that particular score). That, of course, will be about as much use as a pork pie at a Jewish wedding should it occur. This blogger did attempt to explain, in simple terms (and, using graphs), that fitting a replacement bath of the same type as the old (broken) one would be something of a pointless (and, indeed, potentially lethal) exercise given that exactly the same accident would be likely to happen if this blogger attempted to use such a thing. Tubby's response was, basically, 'not my problem, mate.' (Not his actual words, this blogger should stress, but that was pretty much what it amounted to.) So, Keith Telly Topping rang his local medical centre and get an appointment for the earliest slot they had - which was Monday 6 February despite this blogger attempting to explain the urgency of the situation. But, of course, this will have to be a telephone appointment. 'Won't the doctor I speak to need to actually see me, you know, to assess my condition?' this blogger asked, not unreasonably, he felt. The receptionist, as if reading from a script, replied 'we can only book in telephone appointments here.' Which may, indeed, be the answer to some question but it's not, actually, an answer to the question which this blogger had asked. Resistence was, of course, futile. So ... that was fun start to the day and this blogger hadn't even had his breakfast and a nice hot cup of Sweet Joe at that stage.
And finally, dear blog reader, this rather smacks of the truth.
