CLIFF RICHARD AND THE SHADOWS – "The Young Ones"

Come see Expresso Bongo at the Barbican tonight!! 8 30 start!!!

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.

Also ironic that I’m screening it when there’s a tube strike – oh, hang on, that’s the Alanis M definition of ironic.

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.

Wow, “Let There Be Drums” was one of the first half-dozen singles I ever owned, and it’s fantastic. Didn’t know anything about Sandy Nelson, but according to Wiki he’s still recording and might tour this year! And move over Rick Allen, he was the first amputee drummer (albeit losing a foot rather than an arm in his accident).

Acker Bilk recorded possibly the very first UK reggae 45 – Dream Ska – in 1964, and it was arranged by… Norrie Paramor. I love it when things work out like that. Yes, it’s sweet. Rootsier than a lot of “UK reggae” entries to come on Popular, anyway.

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.

Andrew Oldham and sidekick Tony Calder have been talking about remaking Expresso Bongo forevs.

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!”

The only other Very Soho movie I can think of that compares to Expresso Bongo is The Small World Of Sammy Lee with Anthony Newley – more strip clubs, more pronounced violence, no R&R. If they turned it into a musical they could set it in Bolton and use He’s Fat He’s Round He Bounces On The Ground as a theme tune.

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

Likewise Sylvia Sims in “Ice Cold in Alex”.

“Expresso Bongo” was directed by Val Guest wasn’t it?

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.

@ Wichita Lineman # 2: “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.”

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 would like to know (sir) cliff is going to release that movie he made not long after,EXPRESSO BONGO It was called SERIOUS CHARGE he star role alongside ROBERT MORELY The plot of the movie was to rob a bank! So they buy wrecked fire engine from a wrecking yard. Then stole one the same as it in some little country town, blew that fire station up.
then committed a bank robber with the good fire engine that when the fun and games started along the road till the police caught up with them. by the way (SIR)ROBERT MORELY is the fat guy on t.v. add heinz big red tomato soup add and he also played (sir) cliff father in the young ones the movie

this seems as good a place as any to say R.I.P. to Acker Bilk, whose ‘Stranger on the Shore’ this record kept at Number 2 according to the chart of record – although other charts reversed the positions
According to wikipedia ‘Stranger on the shore’ ‘was the UK’s biggest-selling single of 1962, [and] the biggest-selling instrumental single of all time.’ It also reached number 1 on the US chart

One of my favourite Cliff singles. 7/10 for me.