From the word go comedy played a central part of the programmes' planning. As far as we were concerned, the staple diet put out to the listener had to contain comedy.
There's enough serious stuff going on in the world right now - you don't need me to remind you of that. I like to think of myself as someone who has always liked to entertain. It was our duty to entertain the listeners of the Pioneer Valley whenever we were on the radio. People need to have a smile put on their faces by what music was played, what comedy was played and the way we entertained people. It was important to show the listeners that you were having fun doing the show and that we cared about what we did. My show, "The Late English Breakfast" was, as the jingle went, " . . . an homage to all things British on a staion full of Yanks! "
I'm from the North West of England. I used to listen to BBC Radio Manchester, primarily for the sport and on Sundays to Jimmy Wagg and Eamon O'Neal. They played a comedy show called "The Bradshaws" (http://www.thebradshaws.biz/ ) It was a tale set in a bygone era, when we as a world were less cynical and yet the show was, and still is for that matter, very relevant today. It was a story of Alf, Audrey and their little lad Billy and it told tales of going ot the zoo, winning competitions, of neighbours and playing games with next doors' kids. The magical part about it was it was performed by one man - Buzz Hawkins - here's a picture of him
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| Buzz Hawkins - master entertainer |
Buzz has created many stories revolving around Alf, Audrey and Billy and I was proud to play it on both "The Late English Breakfast" and when the show merged with "The Nightclub". My wife Linda has grown to love the stories we featured and loved the way certain words were mixed up to great comedic effect.
Here's an episode of The Bradshaws for you to listen to
Now, "The Nightclub featuring The Late English Breakfast" didn't just feature British comedy. We played Jerry Seinfeld on numerous occasions but our crowning glory, in my humble opinion, was when we found material from the legend that is George Carlin to play on air!
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| The late great genius George Carlin |
We were fortunate to see the great man (left) in concert in 2008 not long before he died. We went to The Calvin Theater in Northampton. I still have the T-shirt from the gig! It was a fabulous night.
As I mentioned earlier, we prepared our shows very meticulously. So , you can imagine how excited we were when we found material from his 1972 album "FM AM" that was broadcastable!
It was a wonderfully funny album to play. Here's a clip from that album
However, his most famous routine, apart from the one about those seven oh so naughty words, was the legendary weather forecast given by "Al Sleet" the famous "Hippy Dippy Weatherman"
Here's George performing Al back in the 1970's
Comedy when done well is truly a joy to the heart and soul and long may people continue to perform . . .
The Nightclub featuring The Late English Breakfast Video Memories
Talking of fun as I have been doing, no band encapsulated fun better in Great Britain during the 1980's than "Madness" Here's one of their classics from that era "House of Fun" - couldn't have picked anything else could I?!
"House of Fun" got to number 1 in April 1982. Wow, it's hard to imagine the song's nearly 30 years old. Now, probably one of the best singers America has ever produced was Johnny Cash. One of Johnny's most famous and certainly in my eyes one of his funniest was the classic that is "A Boy Named Sue". It's only fitting that to round off this feature we feature the man who featured on the show numerous occasions and several times as the subject of one of our tribute nights when "The Nightlcub featuring The Late English Breakfast" really did make "staying in the new going out!"
As Ed McMahon famously said "Here's Johnny" See you next time and make sure you find a good comedy to watch!
Keep on winning,
Ed
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