PETERS AND LEE - “Welcome Home”
Suppose one wanted to give “Welcome Home” a low mark - what actual grounds would one have for saying it’s a bad record? It’s a catchy, memorable, uptempo song, delivered in a friendly and honest way. It’s sentimental, but a level of sentimentality is almost inevitable when you’re trying to communicate big emotions in a small song. Certainly its sense of calm and relief doesn’t transmit as phoney.
But I don’t want to listen to it again, either - I can make myself empathise with it but that doesn’t come naturally. It’s not an exciting record. It doesn’t want to be, so this is another unfair criticism, but one which gets closer to the contentedly huge gap between what “Welcome Home” offers and what I want. Pop music needs to agitate me somehow, contain questions or conflicts, provoke reactions (physical ones are fine!), build imaginative worlds - but “Welcome Home” is all resolution, a happy ending without a story to lead me to it. In the end I can’t respond to it, not because it’s bad, or poorly crafted, but because it feels too complete. Maybe later. 4
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brian on August 31st, 2007
aww, ta for the few welcomes……what a nice lot you seem to be! If anyone is interested or just want a laugh, I do have a peters and lee website! (Don’t laugh!) Heaven knows what the site address is (and I made it) but its easy to find in a search engine….anyway, dont stay away too long/old fasioned way was their third single, came after by your side/clear in my mind for thoes interested. I was only 3 when they won opp. knocks so love all your memories. Just wish I remembered more than a few seconds I can…..they even had their own TV series in 1976 for one series in april/may, on ATV. Love to see that now. But ATV have wiped it….the sods.
BRIAN
Billy Smart on September 1st, 2007
The series was called ‘Meet Peters & Lee’ and ran to six episodes in April and May of 1976. Charlie Drake co-starred in all shows, with musical support from either The Ladybirds or The Maggie Stredder Singers.
Waldo on September 1st, 2007
The Ladybirds! Cor! Don’t get me started!!! I wouldn’t mind betting Charlie Drake tried to jump them, the mucky wee devil!
Marcello Carlin on September 3rd, 2007
YouTube results for “charlie drake” “ladybirds” “jump” = 0.
They did sing backing vocals on Hendrix’s “Hey Joe,” mind.
Erithian on September 3rd, 2007
Now if we could only find a clip of the Ladybirds backing Clodagh Rodgers…
Waldo on September 3rd, 2007
Dear God, don’t torture me, Erithian…
Tez Burke on September 5th, 2007
What a thoroughly enjoyable trawl through the “joys” of oily Hughie Green-era OpKnox this is proving to be. Many thanks, Marcello & co.
Now my question is; did Mud appear on the show, a good few years before Les Gray and his outrageous wing collars started to trouble the chart compilers? Maybe my memory is not what it was, maybe things are being conflated after nearly forty years; but I’m pretty sure they did, at around the same time that the horrendous Gerry Monroe won it.
Marcello Carlin on September 6th, 2007
I mainly remember pre-chart Mud being regulars on the Basil Brush Show, but I think you may be right about their being on OpKnox; that definitely rings a bell. At that time IIRC they were much more of a Barron Knights type of comedy group.
brian on September 7th, 2007
yes thats the one, Charlie drake did appear in all the episodes of the main “meet peters and lee” series. However they had also a couple of Christmas episodes as well and he wasn’t in these I don’t think, Leslie Crowther was in the 1974 edition…..And yes, the ladybirds did aapear in the episodes n all….gee I wish they still exsisted now to see…love to see some of that stuff now. Does anyone recall much more about the series at all?????
BRIAN
Waldo on September 8th, 2007
I guess the Basil Brush show featured “Mr Derek” at this time, who went on to save his career by appearing in the wonderful “Yes Minister” as Sir Humphrey’s number two as well as in one episode of the unbeatable “Morse”. As for Charlie Drake and Peters and Lee, I don’t recall this at all, which is just as well as it sounds terrifying. Did Pat Coombes appear on this as well, or is that perhaps a bridge too far?
intothefireuk on September 9th, 2007
I seem to have erased most of these names from memory over the years probably not a bad thing - but Pat Coombes was a bridge too far and I fear I will be having some horrendous flashbacks over the next few nights now. Thanks Waldo.
Mr Derek also of course made a few quid by starring in countless episodes of the enigma that is ‘Heartbeat’.
And, yes, Mud did appear in OpKnox but didn’t win - more of them later I suspect.
brian on September 9th, 2007
awww….so none of you recall much about the “meet peters and lee” series then? I dont think Pat coombes was in the series though. I know there were some dodgey storylines though as Dianne lee told me of one where she lost her voice and one with a mouse in Lennies piano and Drake comming on in combat gear to get it (as a joke!) They do a song on hobbies with Drake in ep. 1 and this is about as much as I know of the series. But this is all I know of sadly.
Waldo on September 10th, 2007
INTF - Sorry, buddy but Pat Coombes flashbacks are simply a fact of life for those of us who were teenagers back in the seventies. Their effect can be nothing short of horrific but the wonders of modern medicine have offered hope that they can be eventually suppressed. This is done by a session of home therapy where the patient must take down liberal quantities of Wray & Nephew overproof rum mixed with cranberry juice, vodka, fresh limes and Toilet Duck. One simply continues to drink this nourishing brew until all remembrances of “Patty” dissolve like plant feed into the soil.
The downturn is that you also forget your own name. A compromise most sufferers willingly accept…
Billy Smart on September 10th, 2007
Happily, at least 13 editions of variety shows featuring Peters & Lee do survive in the archives. Here’s a list, Brian;
THE BIG TOP VARIETY SHOW: Featuring Peters and Lee, Duanes, Keith Harris (1980)
CILLA: Featuring Peters and Lee, Jim Dale (1976)
THE DAVID NIXON SHOW: Featuring Anita Harris, Johnny Hackett, Peters and Lee (1973)
THE DAVID NIXON SHOW: Featuring Dinardi, Peters and Lee, Victor Burnett and June (1977)
LONDON NIGHT OUT: Featuring Peters and Lee, Jerry Stevens, Tammy Jones (1980)
LOOK–MIKE YARWOOD!: Featuring Peters and Lee (1974)
THE ROLF HARRIS SHOW: Featuring Nina Bader-Semper, Liesbeth List, Peters and Lee (1973)
RONNIE CORBETT’S SATURDAY SPECIAL: Featuring Peters and Lee, Rod Hull And Emu, Dana (1977)
SEASIDE SPECIAL: Featuring Peters and Lee, Billy Dainty, Stu Francis (1975)
SEASIDE SPECIAL: Featuring Tony Blackburn, David Hamilton, Peters and Lee (1976)
SEASIDE SPECIAL: Featuring Peters and Lee, Mike Burton, Brian Marshall (1978)
SEASIDE SPECIAL: Featuring Peter Powell, Little and Large, Peters and Lee (1979)
STARBURST: Featuring Peters and Lee, Grace Kennedy, Sheena Easton (1980)
Marcello Carlin on September 10th, 2007
It was, literally, a different world.
Waldo on September 10th, 2007
I think the Seaside Special in the drought year “featuring Tony Blackburn, David Hamilton and Peters and Lee” would have been more than enough to see me scuttling off Beachy Head had I seen it, which quite clearly I didn’t, thank God.
Does anyone have Anita Harris flashbacks, btw?
Billy Smart on September 10th, 2007
- and here are details of the 3 editions of variety shows starring Peters & Lee which don’t survive in the archives;
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MILL: Featuring Peters and Lee, The Dotrice Family, Jack Dieval (1976)
WEDNESDAY AT 8: Featuring Peters and Lee, Neville King, Lyn Paul (1976)
WEDNESDAY AT 8: Featuring Peters and Lee, Black Abbotts, The Nolan Sisters (1977)
Marcello Carlin on September 10th, 2007
Anita Harris? Principally I remember her at the time from a kid’s show called Anita In Jumbleland which was every bit as awful as it sounds. This was long before I saw her in Carry On Doctor.
Her 1967 weepie “Just Loving You” is apparently the biggest selling number six single ever but few remember her extremely weird, non-charting follow-up “The Playground” - surprised Saint Etienne haven’t rumbled it and put it on one of their compilations yet.
brian on September 10th, 2007
wow Billy,…..how do you know what exsists then, gee how can I get hold of any of that list….sigh! Dianne Lee gave me a wednesday at 8 from 1977 with the Nolans in it, wonder if thats a rare one, also the seaside spech of 1978 with Mike burton. But I have so little of them…do you know ANY way I can get hold of that stuff Billy???? Any way at all? Any idea’s???? Any?
Billy Smart on September 11th, 2007
The television archivists association Kaleidoscope publishes a series of useful filmographies detailing every British drama and variety television programme transmitted - The recently released Top of the Pops volume would make an ideal gift for any regular Popular correspondent! A concise version of this information can be found at http://www.lostshows.com , a site created to encourage people to look for missing programmes.
As for viewing programmes… It’s very difficult to arrange. Understandably, archivists like a better reason for a request than our really wanting to see something.
However, if a request is made to view a programme by somebody who was involved in the production, then television archives do allow viewing. So I’m sure that Dianne Lee could get to see her old appearances.
You can see Peters & Lee on the Christmas 1973 Top of the Pops on Youtube, though.
brian on September 11th, 2007
aw, fiddle…..thought it wasn’t as simle as that then. Ive also already got a copy of the you tube TOTPs welcome home, had that for years already……drat. I take it this kaleidoscope confirms that “meet peters and lee” is gone then now does it? I wish there was a way to get hold of this stuff….after all, its rather unlikley that we will ever se a DVD release of any of this stuff…Id buy it that way if that was an option.
Erithian on September 14th, 2007
So Marcello, do you have a list of the highest-selling singles at each chart position? (I imagine “White Lines” might feature on it somewhere. “My Way”? “A Scottish Soldier”?…)
Marcello Carlin on September 14th, 2007
White Lines peaked at seven but has subsequently been outsold by LeAnn Rimes’ How Do I Live?
You’d think My Way would have been the number five champ but since Bing’s White Christmas, which is the second biggest selling single ever, did peak at the same position following his death at Xmas ‘77 I might have to rule that one out (since the UK chart didn’t start until 1952, i.e. a decade after White Christmas’ commercial peak, it’s difficult to assess this for definite, though).
But I would reckon that A Scottish Soldier is the best-selling number 19 single.
Erithian on September 14th, 2007
And is this going to be the first thread on Popular that reaches 100 comments???
Marcello Carlin on September 14th, 2007
Doubt it.
brian on September 14th, 2007
If only this could show that Peters & lee were not that bad as evidence. 100 COMMENTS! I mean, they were the first act ever to have a number 1 album and single at the same point in time since the Beatles! And now most of their op. knocks wins have also been wiped as well as their TV series….is there no justice in the world?
BRIAN
Waldo on September 14th, 2007
Didn’t Rod the Mod have both single and album at the top at the same time both here and in the US - to wit: “Maggie May/Reason to Believe” and “Every Picture tells a story”? If so, would this not have been between the Beatles and Lennie and Dianne?
Nevertheless, a raised bat for “Welcome Home”. If Brian can get a message to Dianne, I’m sure she’d be delighted.
brian on September 14th, 2007
Its well known that at least here in the UK that Peters & lee were the first act to hold the no 1 singles and albums chart at the same time since the Beatles, Dianne also told me and its been mentioned a few times on TV as well. In the US it might be different, dunno…..but its a fact they were the first UK act to do this since the Beatles anyway.
brian on September 16th, 2007
I wonder if you lot also know that peters and lee are not even the real sir names of Lennie or Dianne? BUT Lenard sargent and Dianne littlehales….hmmmmm sargent & littlehales doesn’t sound right though does it. Also their act was “lennie peters and Melody” when they first got together. Ive no idea why Melody was chosen as a name. They won 7 or 8 opp knocks and none exsist now….
Marcello Carlin on September 17th, 2007
I knew about Littlehales but not about Sargent. I agree they were right not to go with that billing; makes them sound like a Windsor Davies and Don Estelle kind of deal.
brian on September 17th, 2007
Do you all know Lennie has a few single flops pre-peters & lee? He had “for a lifetime”, “let the tears begin”, “stranger in paradise” and just found “here we go again” from 1970! He has an LP in 1981 called “unforgettable” but isn’t eally all that good without Dianne.
Erithian on September 18th, 2007
Brian/Waldo – on a quick check Peters and Lee appear to have been the 5th case of an act having the UK number 1 album and single simultaneously in the 70s. First was George Harrison (My Sweet Lord/All Things Must Pass), then Rod as Waldo mentioned earlier, and T Rex did it twice, with Telegram Sam/Electric Warrior and Metal Guru/Bolan Boogie.
In the latter case Marc nearly replaced himself at the top of the album charts, as the reissued “My People Were Fair…” from Tyrannosaurus Rex days had been at the top a fortnight before. What a major star we lost 30 years ago last Sunday.
Marcello Carlin on September 18th, 2007
Yes, Victor the Giraffe is still sadly missed…
brian on September 18th, 2007
yes I know they were not the only act to have consecutive no 1s in the LP and single charts at the same time, but they are the first in the UK since the Beatles to do this.
Marcello Carlin on October 1st, 2007
While routinely leafing through Guinness I came across the unlikely info that Lennie Peters was Charlie Watts’ uncle. Can’t quite see it myself.
brian on October 1st, 2007
yes, Ive known that info for a while and it is weird to think isn’t it!
BRIAN
Waldo on October 4th, 2007
Are you sure that’s not the other way round?!
Patrick Cargill was the uncle of Surrey and England paceman Robin Jackman, btw. I’m sure you were all twitching to know that…
Billy Smart on December 15th, 2007
Brian will be pleased to see that Peters & Lee’s appearance on ‘The Tommy Cooper Hour’ is now available on DVD.
brian on January 7th, 2008
what..when…were…..what do they do on this DVD in case I have it already….can you say more?????
BRIAN
Billy Smart on January 7th, 2008
The complete Thames series from 1973 to 1975. A review of it that I saw mentioned that Peters & Lee are amongst the special guest performers. I couldn’t tell you what they perform, though.
brian on April 26th, 2008
poor old peters & lee, they are often forgotton.
BRIAN