- METEOR
- INVERARAY
- ST ANDREWS
- EDINBURGH SHERATON
- DON JACK
- SCOTT CUTHBERTSON
- JEREMY BEADLE
- STEVE HARLEY
- PAUL ZENON
- URI GELLER
- LEN "SILVER FOX" MURRAY
- TERRY STEVENS
Hi, how are you? All well, preparing to welcome Spring, and full of zest for life? Good! I’ve had so many people moan at me about the weather lately that I’ve resurrected an old favourite of mine: I just remind them that "Every day spent above ground is a good one!"
CATCH A FALLING STAR
What a thrill it was. One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Sure, I’ve seen falling stars before - you know, a little bright dot streaking across the sky. But this was different. It was a dark night, and suddenly the sky above me lit up. Something - I assume a meteorite - came whizzing across the sky, falling from the heavens; a blazing ball of light with fluorescent red shooting from it in all directions. It was like a firework - coming down the way. An amazing sight, indeed
.
THIS MONTHWeird gig month – another trip up, past Loch Lomond and across to INVERARAY, over the mountain passes and through the forests – the sun shining - for a show at the Argyll Hotel.
This was followed almost immediately by a trip to ST ANDREWS. I knew I was in trouble from the moment I woke up, with about eight inches of snow blanketing the countryside. The police in Glasgow had to organise temporary accommodation for 3000 revellers in Glasgow.) What’s more, the police were advising people not to travel unless it was absolutely necessary... Now who would have thought that the council snowplough drivers in Fife and Kinross would have taken THAT advice on board?
I passed cars facing the wrong way on the by-pass, and cars in ditches off the main roads. To make things worse, my stupid GPS took me over the hills, along country roads, to my destination. It was an abandoned-car-slalom. I did manage to make it to the gig, and even some of the guests who LIVED in the town didn’t make it.
***..And ANOTHER thing. Those huge motorway signs, coated by snow and their message all but obliterated by falling flakes, all said the same thing: "Caution. Snow" They PAY the operators to come up with that stuff? ***
Next up was a gig at the EDINBURGH SHERATON, as after-dinner speakers for almost 300 Brewers and Distillers – ‘nuff said!
And then back to RUSSOCK HOTEL in ST ANDREWS – will it never stop?
WEB WORTH WATCHING.
This takes a while to download, but I promise you, it really is well worth it. DON JACK enthused about Chris Bliss, and I couldn’t believe it. It’s juggling, Jim, but not as we know it. PLEASE take the time to have a look at this. http://www.chrisbliss.com/videopresskit.html (the piece you want is entitled "The Grand Finale")
DOON SOOTH
More trips to London, much of it for the filming of TV taster tapes and meetings trying to hammer out a decent format - including one very enjoyable meeting at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant "15". Very nice!
Not quite so nice was trying to get out of Heathrow on the first trip. First there was "de-icing" the wings, a really scary operation to watch. Then an impressive storm that closed the airport for thirty minutes... You know that feeling that when things START to go wrong...?
But even less pleasant was a flight into London’s City Airport. Now, I really like this airport. It’s small. There’s the Docklands Light Railway connection. No queues... perfect. But because it’s only a toy airport, they only allow toy planes to land there... like the turbo prop Dornier (it was German... might have been a Heinkel or a Stuka – one of those jobs the Germans used to parachute from during the war!) Now, I LIKE a bit of turbulence, but coming into the water-surrounded airfield in a gale was not my idea of fun. White knuckles and pucker-factor nine!)
BEADLE CHARITY
Attended a charity gala, organised by SCOTT CUTHBERTSON - well done Scott – at which JEREMY BEADLE was present. Now, the man may have taken a bit of a knocking in the past, but what a professional entertainer and emcee he is. From 7.30pm until well after midnight, he never stopped; not even for food. He kept the whole thing going and deserves a great deal of praise. Looking for a REALLY good MC for a charity event? I can certainly recommend Mr Beadle.
HARLEY ALMOST MEETS ALI
What’s it like being in close proximity to your hero? My chum STEVE HARLEY (Cockney Rebel fame) was sitting in the lobby lounge of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, on New York's Central Park South, when MOHAMMED ALI came in... Steve writes about it beautifully, as only Steve can, and reacted exactly the way I imagine most of us would. Read about it in Steve’s diary right here: www.steveharley.com/diary.html#010306
WHO’D LIVE IN A HOUSE LIKE THIS?
You know the programme "Through the Keyhole" with David Frost, whereby they go into the homes of celebrities and film various rooms, then a panel has to try to work out from the clues whose house it is? "Who’d live in a house like THIS?" Well, one hour before it was aired, I got a text from my old mucker PAUL ZENON (we first met as special guests on the Marc Salem chat show; WHAT A FUN EXPERIENCE that was!) to let me know that his house was to be featured on the show... His take on it? "Who’d WANT to live in a house like this?" Come on, though, any house that has a bar AND a dancing pole in the garage has got to be worth a programme! Paul, you are a weirdo, mate!
BLINK
This from a great book (if you want to know more about how I do what I do, buy this book) BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell. One part of the book discusses how the unconventional and spontaneous tactics of a retired colonel ripped through the US defences during Operation Millennium Challenge – a dry run for the Gulf War. "It’s like Gulliver’s Travels... The big giant is tied down by little rules and regulations and procedures. The little guy? He just runs around and does what he wants"
I LIKE that!
WOO-HOOO!
Some of you may know, and some of you may not know, that for three years I worked as a retained (volunteer but paid) fire-fighter in my home village of West Calder. (An exciting hobby, really.) As a kid I used to always wave at passing fire engines – I loved ‘em. Of course, I’m still in touch with the lads at the station, and one day this month I was driving through the village when the machine whizzed past in the opposite direction, lights flashing and klaxon blaring. Even so, the driver (Hutchy) took time to wave as he flashed past... The guys in a fire engine waving at ME. How cool is THAT?
GELLER EXPLAINS THE PSYCHIC
I’m meeting up with my friend URI GELLER in April. (I’ll be in Stirling on April 8th when Uri is appearing at the Albert Hall. – Telephone 01786 473544). You can find out what else he’s up to at www.urigeller.com, and the tour "Uri Geller Explains The Unexplained.
Uri sent me a copy of the Independent Magazine this month in which there was an article about him and his support for a cancer sufferer, Barbara Clark, and the availability of the drug Herceptin.
It’s a wonderful piece, and I think it captured the real spirit of the man, the man I know rather than the one so often suggested by The Media. You can read the piece here: http://www.uri-geller.com/charity/2006/mar12_ind.jpg
I recommend you do. Uri has been called many things, but never a "poppet"! (Well, have you, Uri?)
CHARITY AND FRIENDS
LEN "SILVER FOX" MURRAY, one of the premier after dinner speakers in the UK, and one of the nicest blokes you could ever hope to meet, was taking part in the Wag Of The Year competition in Edinburgh (It was part of a fundraising event for an Epilepsy Charity.) By pure chance, Len is a great chum, and my brilliant (ex)-brother- in-law TERRY STEVENS, was heavily involved in the organisation of the event... so I went along to hang out in the bar after the event. What a great night it turned out to be, with the chance to meet friends and acquaintances, some of whom I had not seen in a long, long time including Noel and Kenny and Stewart. You know, I don’t often get the chance to hang around at these things, as the only time I really attend them is when I’m performing at ‘em. It was a wonderful time. Thank you one and all. And congratulations on raising a truly remarkable amount of money.
TECHNOLOGY
I just bought an Ipod. (One of the new ones that shows crystal clear videos). How do they do it? 75 hours of film and thousands of songs on a wee box that’s smaller than a mobile phone. I now have the first three episodes of one of my favourite programmes Due South to catch up on – one a screen not much bigger than the face of a wristwatch – and it’s hardly scratched the surface of the available memory. (Thanks, EWAN of ELITE CONTROLS for introducing me to another excuse to waste time...) Goodbye.
No comments:
Post a Comment