I am pretty sure that when we had BFN Langeleben had a Billy Cotton Fan Club from his weekly programme. Anyone remember that?
At the time we also had AFN (American Forces Network) which was one of the best for Country and Western music although probably not to your taste Paul.
Tom
Thanks Ken, I had fotgotten about that one. I however do remember Jim Burke responding to an on air quiz and mentioning my name as BAOR`s biggest scrounger - moi. Good times.
BFN, AFN. Don't forget Radio Luxembourg. Many a request was played on that station for the lads. I seem to recall that there was an occasion when one of the DJs said that 'A white sport's coat and a pink carnation' was not a very good record. Thus producing a watch letter informing him that he was talking rubbish and dared him to read our letter out the next time his programme was broadcast. Which he did - another little trip down memory lane
Happy memories of AFN – listening to ‘Strictly from Dixie’ during lunch break when we were on day work. The frequent safety slogans from the DJ’s – “Don’t forget poor old Fred, he smoked in bed, now he’s dead.” “If you’re driving tonight, remember, it’s better to be alive and late than dead on time!”
BFN The sympathy felt for the recipient when a misguided girl friend requested Ann Shelton (?) singing “Come to the station, Jump from the train, March at the double down lover’s lane……………………Lay down your arms and surrender to mine.” They don’t write them like that any more!
On the other hand, I can’t understand, let alone remember, most of the current lyrics on the airwaves.
from what you say, Ron, would I be right to harbour a sneaking suspicion that its them like you who have made Vera Lynn no.2 in the Pops list? Sad to say, it will probably be the last record (is it a record) where I will know all of the words.
I had a bit of a nostalgia week-end. Ended up at Chicksands on Saturday for a Y Group gathering only to find that they were all RAF. There was one interesting talk on Enigma which made it all sound so simple that I had to wonder why it took so many to break into it. There was a competition, the prize, a botle of wine which fortunately I won. It would have been embarrassing beyond belief to have been beaten by a load of Octogenarians and Nonogenarians. Nice to be one of the youngest in a room again.
Then to Bletchley park Sunday. Piss-ups and breweries come to mond. Having advertised it for a 10am kick-off they decided to make it 10.30. That was fine as we all formed an orderly queue that then blocked the whole road and evrything back to the main road. Unfortunately they forgot! The guests of honour were being let in at 10a,m and since they were all over 80 at least they got themselves into one hell of a mess.
No sign saying the car park entry fee but some enterprising chap was extracting £3 off everyone without any ticket.
The main event was that there were suposedly 70 Enigmas on show. There weren't but it was a fascinating show regardless. Nice to see the actual Russian cipher machines finally. GCHQ had a load of stuff from their Museum which, when I asked, is not open to the public. It's like the MI6 one just across the water(Fort Monckton, Gosport) from here. They can be security bonkers. What on earth can the Russians learn from seeing one of their own machines on display or the Germans from looking at a load of WWII stuff.
My biggest beef is that in all the exhibits there is only the most fleeting of comments on traffic analysis nor any explanation as to the importance of callsigns, procedures and networks. As we all know so well; without this Enigma was utterly useless. In 1939/40 the Army was taking Enigma traffic religiously only to find out that it had been Luftwaffe (GAF) all the time. As soon as this was discovered they refused to touch it. (And we were supposed to be fighting for a common cause).
All the old ladies lined up for their photos and it reminded me of us doing a similar thing at Konigslutter. Like those old Wrens and WAAF we had no real idea half the time what we were doing and why. We just tried to do a good job.
A final Chicksands story. There was old chap who was telling the audience of his time and what a marvellous job he had done. He probably didn't notice that quite a few of us were having a quiet smile. We had been going thorugh some reports and there was his name, being recommended for RTU'ing for being absolutely useless, incompetent and idle. Once all your colleagues have gone to other places you can tell what you like!
Not me, Paul. I think the members of the Vera Lynn Fan Club are all at least ten years older than I.
Re Bletchley - glad to hear you carried the banner and aquitted yourself well. When I was in hospital a few years ago I was next to a Royal Navy op spec who had recently been to a Bletchley re-union and he said he hated every minute of it and would never go again. He was a reasonably sociable chap but couldn't fit into the scene. One of his problems was that he could not cope with the way the vivacious young ladies he knew had changed in the intervening fifty plus years!
Like me, Ron, I expect you rather fancied Caterina Valente. What was her big record? The breeze and I? Whilst writing the floodgates of memory are beginning to open now I've started. How about Malaguena as another one? I don't remember many photos of her but I DO know that I fancied her more than a bit but that was before I dedicated my life to lusting after Sophia Loren. I must have a built-in thing about voluptuousItalian birds. on the other hand though Gina Lollobrigida (except when she was the trapeze artist) never did that much for me.
I don't think that I ever put any money into the Deutsches Haus jukebox during my entire stay. Fortunately there plenty who did. There was an I Corps chap with the rather splendid name Armstrong Buisseret who I recall fed it endlessly. The last time I saw his name was when he was sentenced to several months as a guest of Her Majesty for some slightly illegal goings on at GCHQ. Nothing whatsoever to do with secuity matters.
Time to shut the floodgates after confessing that it was some months before I found out that I had been listening to Elvis Presley. Oh, the ignorance and innocence of youth. One lst thought. How we hated it when a daring young German would choose a German record! Bloody cheek!
Well folks I got a reply from BFBS, what used to keep us going at Christmas alas is no more
"
Dear Mr Fry
Many thanks for your email. As you know BFBS had a long history supporting Wireless for The Blind but we decided a couple of years ago that our audience, who are so good at getting behind our campaigns, would prefer to raise money for charities closer to home. Therefore we launched the BFBS Big Salute. We support currently 6 forces charities.
Sara
The Big Salute
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There we go, I hope the blind managed to get there wireless`s.
Paul,
Your memory on such subjects never fails to amaze me!
Caterina Valente....now there's a name from the dim and distant past!
In my pre Langeleben days at 12 Wireless, the local German cinema was 200 yards from the barracks, and Caterina as a big hit with the local Bavarians with her drindl skirts and her singing and yodeling as she disappeared over the mountains into the sunset.
We ended up at the cinema in the bleak November and December days when Pay Day was still a few days away, and we had enough D Marks for the cinema, but not much else.
The theme of the film was always the same...'boy meets girl'...'they love each other'..'boy falls out of love.... 'tears and drama' 'boy back in love again'....' both live happily ever after'...
We had to be careful not to visit the cinema when a war film was on. It didn't go down very well with the locals when after another victory for the Allies, they found some of them, sitting amongst them.
I see from Caterina's website that she is not making a comeback. Tough luck Paul.
Bill.
I was looking, only an hour ago, Bill, at some Langeleben photos. What a handsome lad you were. Have you retained those rugged good looks or have you like, most of us, sagged firmly and irretrievably downwards.
Another dreadful song from 1955 comes to mind when the word 'dirndl' was mentioned. I am now going to prove how much German I have forgotten. (Sorry JR)
It went something like:-
"In Sommer er sonne
In Winter er schneit
In Der Schweiz, in der Schweiz, in der Schweiz"
Had it existed in those days, it was bad enough to have won the Eurovision song contest. Has Germany ever written a decent song, leaving aside Schubert?No! Bung him in as well as I cant stand 'Liede'
I can't say I was ever a great devotee of BFBS, but it was usually blaring away in the background somewhere during my service. Listening to it on shift was strictly forbidden, which meant that (in Berlin, at least) as soon as the day shirkers departed the shift supervisor -being the good eggs most of them were - piped BFBS (which we always referred to as "Fibbies") through to the intercept positions in the set room. (The BFBS frequency was blocked by the technicians in a futile attempt to stop us listening). During the day the programmes were more or less end to end mindless pop music but in the evenings there was occasionally something worth listening to, I remember "What Ho, Jeeves" and "Doctor in the House" among the comedy offerings of the 70s. And of course the Saturday afternoon sport programme was a must.
"Wireless for the Blind" was something else, the idea was that you made a request with a donation, which was then played. It was held on New Year's Eve, and the big prize was to put in a bid for either the last record of the Old Year or the first record of the New. The tension increased during the evening and the bids got bigger and bigger (as the on-line callers got drunker and drunker).
The music requested was pretty standard, there usually was one from us to the local Security Company "Listen, do you want to know a secret" and they usually replied with "Fool on the Hill", although occasionally there would be some nerd who would request the Royal Signals March.
The pay office had a "Blind Bottle" for loose change standing outside, which came in handy when some person had lost heavily in the card school on the mid (Yes, I am looking at you Bob Cr***art) and needed a sub.
Sorry to hear of it's demise. I was definitely part of the BAOR scene. _________________ John Richardson
I have to inform you Paul, that thanks to a good Presbyterian background, (no lose women, drink and gambling) the signs of sagging have been limited. I would still be recognised from the school photo of 30 years ago. If it wasn't that you are 400 miles away, I would have asked you outside and introduced you the the 'Glasgow Kiss' for such a comment.
Our set room security door was painted green at 12 Wireless, so the obvious request to AFN Munich for 'the Brits at Degerndorf..' was Shakin' Stevens 'Green Door'
The words were so appropriate....
'Midnight,
One more night without sleeping
Green door..What's that secret you're keeping?
Wonder just what's goin' on in there?'
I remember Elvis was reaching his peak 56/57.........but the lyrics were beyond me, he was singing something that sounded like to me, "amaw shucup". It was sometime before I realised he was actually singing "I'm all shook up" _________________ Mike Webber, I Corps Langeleben 57/58
Discriminator B watch.
Birgelen 56/57
What a fine collection of chaps we were Mike. We, who had the honour of being the Discriminators on 'B'Watch! There was another Elvis that was played constantly: something to do with a house and there was a slow smoochy type of thing for those able to get hold of one of that very rare commodity - girls who would go with Squaddies - for the last waltz type of thing. 'Last grope' might have been more applicable!
Mr Lloyd, Sir, I only asked if you had retained those ruggeed good looks. I didn't for ONE moment dare to suggest that they might have faded somewhat. One might suggest perhaps that you may be the Dorian Gray of Langeleben
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