Same with my Sis, but when I got older I realised that she wasn’t smarter; I just though she was because she was girl and she ‘sounded’ smarter. She wasn’t as smart as I thought, which is possibly why she wound up pregnant.

As for the song; it has ‘hit’ written all over it. It’s a fine effort from the period, if a little light. For what it was – a movie theme – 3 is harsh; 7 for me.

I’ve been enjoying his work in the luxurious, drowning-in-honey Shillingbury Tales recently, which I freely admit I was inspired to buy to add to my nascent Diane Keen dvd collection…but, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s idealised of course, a pastoral England that never existed, but made with enough charm and the odd little undercurrent of something amiss to demonstrate some real intelligence.

And Robin Nedwell is always good value.

Seconding Ice Cold In Alex, esp. the beer drinking scene. I was trying to explain to someone recently why a Popular entry from 2002 by C******** A******* is as unerotic a song as I’ve ever heard, and how much I miss subtlety in modern R&B. John Mills and Sylvia Sims could learn ‘em.

Sylvia Sims in Expresso Bongo still affects me in a prominent fashion.

It reminded me a lot of the Budgie musical with Adam Faith which I was dragged to by my family in the late eighties which was VERY SOHO, and also had some terrific strip club chorus scenes which affected my fifteen year old mind in a prominent fashion.

The songs in Expresso Bongo were meant to show how calculated and crass Denmark St was in the late 50s – one with shades of religion (Voice In The Wilderness) and another which mentioned religion AND Cliff’s dear old mum (The Shrine On The Second Floor). Maybe there were more in the play but they were too obviously parodies? Voice In The Wilderness stopped one place short of Popular, and nobody noticed it wasn’t entirely serious (some of Hank’s loveliest lines probably helped).

Cheers for coming in spite of the strike! Sorry about the stalker : /

As for the Young Ones soundtrack, I always get Friday Night in my head if I’m getting ready for a big night out:

“‘ere come on mate, lend me your comb now
I’m the one they’re gonna choose
Shine up your winklepicker shoes
See you at the dance tonight!”

Does kind of make me itch to restage the original musical though, I can see how it really would have worked on stage. The film could have done with a fair few more songs – something Cliff’s later musicals (including The Young Ones) always supplied.

Sandy Nelson was schoolmates with Jan & Dean and Kim Fowley – Back-of-the-classroom freak zone! No wonder Let There Be Drums sounded so wild. He’s one of those people who probably made a lost psych/freak-out 45 or loner folk (when do you ever see pictures of him) album at some point, but I ain’t discovered it.

I think you might be right, though Tom’s problem seems largely to be with Norrie Paramor’s strings, which I don’t find intrusive. Widescreen and wide-eyed on the Shadows’ Wonderful Land, they have a bit of an ill wind feel on TYO. It’s basically a pretty pessimistic song.

The odd thing about Expresso Bongo is how Cliff’s career barely differs from the storyline. What’s Bongo gonna do when he’s no longer a teenager? Records and films like The Young Ones.

Hmm, I think I may join you for the Bongo, its been donkeys years since I’ve seen it. Ironic that you are screening it the day after the death of Om Bongo, long term leader of Gabon (nr Congo).

Plugging done, I think Tom’s way too harsh. The lyric doesn’t suggest domestic contentment to me, more a recognition of realities of the pre-Beatles, pre-hippy British way of life that meant my parents were married in 1961, aged 19. At least they held out for 3 years of relative Young Ones-ishness til I came along.

“Tomorrow sometimes never comes”.

My sis got pregnant at 23. In the meantime I’d written a fanzine and plotted my escape from Knucklesville, East Anglia. But she was always smarter than me, and I wonder what on earth might have happened in her life had things been different.

Cliff doesn’t have any answers, but I like the ‘now or never’ premise of The Young Ones quite a lot. And, arpeggio aside, the strings act as a bright-eyed kitten counterpoint to Hank’s moist-eyed, ninth-driven guitar lines.

I also twigged that the basic conceit (Cliff’s Dad being Robert Morley who wants to knock down the youth club – which Cliff wants to save) is the same plot as Herbie Rides Again, but without Stefanie Powers. Melvyn Hayes is no substitute.