One of my favourite television series creator, actor and writer was on television the other day:
He's had a book published about the great English folk singer Nick Drake coming to his house. It's titled: "If Nick Drake Came To My House".If it is anything like "Detectorists" it will be excellent. I think that series was the best television series the BBC ever made.
It's my birthday in less than a fortnight. I think I will leave some hints that I would like this book. I looked at at it on Kindle this morning.
Are you a fan of Nick Drake? He was only 26 when he died. Sadly he never lived to get the recognition he deserved.
Which famous person would you like to meet? I think my hero would be a rock musician and guitar hero Gary Moore. I love Parisienne Walkways so much.
Here's Man In A Shed by the late and great Nick Drake:
I would like to meet Rick Wakeman. He is a great keyboard player and I believe one of the nicest people around. I would love to meet him in person and discuss music and how he grew up in the Church and how it influenced his music and his later life. And of course talk about all other things too. Thanks Dave. I like the sound of that book too.
ReplyDeleteI hope you do get that book for your birthday. Drop lots of hints!
ReplyDeleteA famous person I would like to meet? I can't think of anyone!
It would be Elton John or Stephen Fry for me, maybe both together, or is that greedy.
ReplyDeleteTwo very clever and talented people Marlene. I would love to have met C S Lewis, Emily Bronte and smallholdings guru John Seymour. Also George Best and Thomas Hardy could knock on my door and we would go for a walk up on the hills above the bays.
DeleteI have seen Rick twice Rachel. Once in Germany with YES and this year playing his Journey To The Centre Of The Earth at Cropredy. His stand up stuff his very funny like his Grumpy Old Rock Star memoirs which I have read. He's a Tory and a big City fan and I would put him up there with Keith Emerson. Yeah I would like to meet Rick Rachel. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI like him for his humility, a quality I look for and admire in people, and of course his talent on the keyboard and for entertaining us for so many decades. I was not aware that he is aTory. My admiration for people and friendships surpass politics. Thanks Dave.
DeleteRick is very down to earth yet incredibly talented Rachel. Roger Scruton was a Tory but he is one of my favourite authors. I also like John Major and Ian Botham. Thanks Rachel.
DeleteI like Hillary Benn and his speech on Syria and admire him greatly for speaking as he did. I also had great respect for Stephen Kinnock during the Brexit debates when although he was in favour of Remain he refrained from shouting and being intolerant of Leave and respected the result as it stood and tried to get Parliament to all pull together on it. At times like that I think of actual politics as being more or less irrelevant. Thanks Dave.
DeleteI agree with you Rachel there have been some excellent orators on both sides of the House Of Commons floor. Keir Hardie with his Christian Socialism and comparing the poor to Jesus sermon on the Beatitudes comes to mind. Thanks for your comment Rachel.
DeleteIt has the same sadness as Willie Nelson's latest.."The Last Leaf on the Tree"
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure who I'd like to meet...but only on equal terms...like when I met Edmund Blishen when I worked, running the bookshop in Porthmeirion...he just wandered in on a quiet day and we happened to chat about the process of writing for an hour or more.
Meeting as a"fan" is just too embarrassing, probably on both sides!
There's tons of people. Barbara Castle is probably most famous personI talked longest to JayCee. I also had a good conversation with Focus keyboard player Thijs Van Leer. I will hope someone close reads 5his post or I will buy the book myself.
ReplyDeleteThe only famous person I can remember speaking to was the actor Walter Gotell back in the 1970s. He had been the baddie in several Bond films and was also in the old TV police drama series Softly, Softly. He was a nice man, very courteous.
DeleteI had to Google him. I don't know who is alive and who is dead these days JayCee.
DeleteMay I say that I am still alive and I think that JayCee is too. Have you passed away?
DeleteNo but I probably would need to have passed away meet a lot of my heroes. Thomas Hardy and CS Lewis especially.
DeleteHi GZ. I had to Google Edmund Blishen. But I immediately recognised him when I saw his photo.
ReplyDeleteWhen I finally got to see Kansas in Warsaw in 2014. My friend pointed out Steve Walsh stood outside the theatre and suggested we go over and talk to him. But I was too shy. I wish I had met the great Rock singer and keyboardist.
I was at the biennial Ceramics fest in Aberystwyth, in the café...and people were crowding around Michael Leach (son if Bernard). It was all a bit sycophantic....
DeleteI was on my own...so he came and sat with his coffee and cake and we talked about life and gardening and families..it was a change for him to have a good discussion not about pots.
How wonderful GZ. I often meet complete strangers and end up talking about gardening and allotments and smallholdings. Keir Starmer should put me in charge of allotments and smallholdings. I would even talk to Russia and America about making peace gardens. Peas not war.😊
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely man MacKenzie Crook is and you are right about "Detectorists" in my humble opinion - it was so tender and so brilliant. I can understand you being shy when you had a chance to meet Steve Walsh. Once, at a badly attended folk evening, I got to meet one of my musical heroes - Robin Williamson of The Incredible String Band. We chatted for half an hour. It was surreal.
ReplyDeleteThe man in the polytunnel
Grabbed an old funnel
For he desperately needed a wee
When his wife saw the chunnel
Forming into a puddle
He lied that he'd spilt some tea!
Thanks for that YP. I would love to meet Mackenzie Crook. His "Detectorists" was sheer TV escapism and so beautiful if not spiritual. I literally had tears of joy in my eyes when I saw Kansas play. I like your polytunnel poem. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't wait to tell you. My daughter in the UK read my blog post about Tim wanting to see Lou Gramm. We had decided not to go because the cheap tickets would have set us back over $100 for the two of us. She bought us two tickets, center to the stage. I was horrified. We go to concerts to hear the music. We don't care about being right up front to see them. But...there we are. Lou Gramm was the original lead singer for Foreigner. He is touring now using Asia as his back up band.
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited to see this one.
And yes, there is something about seeing the old bands that does leave us with a tear in our eye as we remember who we were when we first heard those songs.
What a lovely present Debby. I was mad on Asia when they first formed. I had tears of joy when I saw Kansas. I had waited over forty years to see them and I was not disappointed.
ReplyDeleteHow sad that Nick Drake died so young. I really enjoyed The Detectorists. Mackenzie Crook is a talented man.
ReplyDeleteYes Jabblog he was only 26. I never tire of watching The Detectorists. It really is a gem of a television series. I wish they would make another series. Mackenzie Crook is talented and yet very humble. Thanks.
ReplyDelete