Benny “down” Hill all the way

In the late eighties I was a support guy working from a narrow closet. It was just wide enough for a desk and chair and long enough for the desk and 4 or 5 floor standing computer systems which kept the room very warm. The building did have high ceilings and at one end of support room was a slender but tall, window that looked out over Teddington High Street. Teddington is an average, small suburban London town, ten miles west of the city along the River Thames. The High street had the usual assortment of pubs, small supermarkets, fast food shops and banks. Our building was next to the Barclays Bank.

I say goodbye, you (still) say Hello.

The Beatles, be-suited mop-tops or Kaftan clad hippies, whichever incarnation, why are the Americans so obsessed with them? The rest of the world tipped its hat, said thanks and moved on. But here you can’t move for them. Major radio stations still dedicate hours of programming each week, there are literally hundreds of Beatles tribute bands and a new cash-in their old hits CD release is a huge news event. Let’s remember that the Beatles first hit was nearly 50 years ago now. How ridiculous would it be if in 1962, when The Beatles exploded on the scene, our parents were listening to music from 1915 (not to mention still shelling out for repackaged songs that they already owned)? Surely pop music has moved on?

TSO Culture Trivia: William Shakespeare’s Plays

William Shakespeare is England’s greatest poet and playwright and undoubtedly the worlds most famous. His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. How well do you know your Shakespeare?