Index
» #21 Aug 1997
THE GOODIES CLARION AND GLOBE
THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF 'THE GOODIES RULE - OK' FAN CLUB
Issue No. 21 12th August 1997
IN THE C&G THIS MONTH
Late again, but at least your servers will be happy as this month's issue of the C&G is a bit shorter. And once again we have some interesting stuff such as Bill Oddie's cover notes for "Yum Yum - The Very Best Of The Goodies", some info about "Best Footlights Forward" a celebration of the Cambridge Footlights Club, which was presented by Graeme Garden and featured Bill Oddie. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 a week or so ago and was a very interesting show.
Also: the answers to David McAnally's brilliant Goodies crossword (which so many of you enjoyed last month), more on the petition and the convention plans. And for Terry Pratchett fans we have, as promised, a snippet from a recent interview (by club member Stuart Beaton) where Terry talks about his favourite style of comedy, which includes "The Goodies" and "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again".
CONTENTS
1. BOFFO IDEAS - Club happenings and ideas.
2. SPOTTED!!! - The latest Goodies sightings.
3. GOODIES TRIVIA QUIZ - More brain teasers from David McAnally.
1. BOFFO IDEAS
You can make it happen here. Liven up the club with a boffo idea for bob-a-job week. Mail <carrot@olis.net.au> with your comments, ideas or suggestions.
THE RETURN OF GOODIES-L
Yes, at last! Goodies-L has returned and is as popular as ever. For those not in the know Goodies-L is a mailing list that you can subscribe to and use via e-mail. Through Goodies-L you can discuss The Goodies and other related topics.
To join e-mail <listserv@lss.com.au> with SUBSCRIBE GOODIES-L YOUR NAME (eg. SUBSCRIBE GOODIES-L BILL ODDIE) in the body. You will receive welcome e-mail within a few minutes.
Once you are subscribed you can post to the list by e-mailing <goodies-l@lss.com.au>. Goodies-L is free and comes to us courtesy of the wonderful Jonathan Potter of Left Side Software < http://www.lss.com.au/ >.
IRC MEETING
Apologies to all those hanging out for a good Goodies IRC chat fest. We will definitely be organising this for sometime in the next month. Look out for a Prune Flash coming your way soon. Among the topics we hope to discuss at the IRC meeting are...
GOODIES CONVENTION 2000
I received this e-mail from Ben Evans <b.evans@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au> recently
I'm on the committee (as a general member) of Multiverse Inc., runner of fine science fiction conventions here in Melbourne. At the present time, we are in the planning stages of Multiverse 3, to be held in February next year to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Red Dwarf.
Multiverse Inc. is made up of several clubs, the core of which are the Official Red Dwarf Fan Club, Doctor Who Fan Club of Victoria, and Enterprise (a Star Trek fan club, in case you couldn't guess ;). We also have the support of several other clubs from the X-Files Fan Club to the Australian Costumiers' Guild.
The reason I am telling you this is that a suggestion was made at our last meeting to involve "The Goodies Rule - OK!". Multiverse has experience in planning conventions and has resources, monetary and otherwise, which are not insubstantial, and we're looking ahead beyond Multiverse 3 to the next con.
The idea proposed was that if The Goodies Rule - OK! would like to join and support Multiverse (as a full member, including the right to a voting representative on the committee), then Multiverse would agree to assist in running the Goodies convention you have proposed for the year 2000.
At this stage, this is really all there is to it. The Goodies convention would still be that, not a Multiverse 4, although obviously the various clubs that comprise Multiverse would want to participate. As I understand it (and, if you are interested I'll get firm details), joining Multiverse would cost the club $100.
I realise this is not something you'd want to decide yourself and it's early days yet, so all I'd like is an expression of interest. But speaking as a member of The Goodies Rule - OK! rather than as a Multiverse committee member, I think the experience and resources of Multiverse to help run a Goodies con are well worth $100 worth of fundraising.
The money goes into Multiverse, more or less. The money made from a Multiverse con goes towards (a) paying the con's expenses, (b) donating to the various charities (for example Amnesty International from the RD fan club, and the RSPCA from (I think) Enterprise), and finally (and rarely) (c) the remainder (should there be any) is distributed amongst the clubs.
The main point I should make is that, basically, the club wouldn't get anything out of the deal in the short term. You would get access to Multiverse events, and to mailing lists of members of the other clubs involved for relevant events - the reverse would also be true. The Goodies con is still three years away, and it is a long time to wait to see something...but joining Multiverse next year, after M3, when planning for the 2000 con could begin, would probably be a good option.
This is certainly a good idea for the club to consider. Many of us don't have any experience in the area of planning a convention and it would be great to have the support of others. Also, a convention planned through Multiverse would be likely to have more attendees, from all the other clubs involved.
Naturally, the problem with this idea is that we don't have any budget at all and we can't, at present, afford the $100 joining fee. However it is not a huge amount of money and it could be quickly raised in several ways. The first way would be to ask for donations from members. We currently have over 700 members in the club and so people wouldn't have to donate a huge amount. The other idea would be to hold some kind of event like a video night and to charge a small entry fee of say $2. I was talking about this with a friend who suggested booking a room (or even the bar) at my university and advertising on campus, as well as amongst club members.
Any other suggestions would be gratefully received regarding this idea to <carrot@olis.net.au>. And this would certainly be on the agenda for our IRC meeting and chat session.
AUSTRALIAN GOODIES PETITION
The petition is going well and thanks a lot to those many people who are signing it or collecting signatures. And an even bigger thank you to those who have sent their completed petition sheets to me. But there are still lots of you out there who haven't sent them back to me yet. When you've collected up all your signatures please return them to me ASAP at:
7 Sharpes Ave
Fulham Gardens
S.A. 5024
But meanwhile I received this e-mail regarding the petition from Bree <Bree@fl.net.au>:
I was just reading the petition on the website. I actually talked to a person from ABC just a couple of months ago, asking her about a couple of my fave shows from ABC, The Goodies included. She said that The Goodies and Dr Who are now owned by Foxtel and ABC therefore can no longer screen them.
This is entirely the fault of the government, who by cutting back on funding to ABC, have forced them to sell off a lot of their repeat rights to the Pay TV companies in order to balance the books. Good news is ABC video still owns video rights to all the episodes. Maybe a campaign for more video releases could yield better results?
Certainly this is a major problem which could inhibit the success of the petition. It would probably be better if we use the signatures that have been or are being collected, to petition the ABC for more Goodies video releases. But this is another issue we can discuss at the IRC meeting.
2. SPOTTED!!!
Seen a Goodie recently? Mail <carrot@olis.net.au> with the details. Here's where we've Spotted!!! The Goodies this month:
BILL ODDIE'S COVER NOTES FOR "YUM YUM"
Recently on Goodies-L there has been a discussion about Bill Oddie's cover notes for "Yum Yum - The Very Best Of The Goodies". And I must confess that having spent a good 15 minutes typing it for you all here (I'm a very slow typist), I've decided that you were all right. These cover notes rule - OK! and they're very funny. I still think they're ever so slightly bitchy, but these things we can live with. Enjoy!
Cast your eyes down the composing credits on this peerless and long overdue list of classic tracks and one name will strike you time and time again, mine. I wrote them all, words and music(*). There was a time during the Goodies hey day - or rather hey years - during the mid 1970s, when snide little journalists were in the habit of referring to me as a "frustrated rock and roller". Well folks in 1976 a reputable rock magazine - if that isn't a contradiction in terms - placed the Goodies as the sixth best-selling group in Britain, and - more to the point - I, W.E. Oddie, was the fifth most successful songwriter in the land. Frustrated? I think not! Not in any sense of the word. In those days we even had the Goodies groupies, who insisted on expressing their admiration of Black Pudding Bertha as enthusiastically as the fans of any velvet-trousered heavy metal icon of the time.
"Comedy is the new rock and roll", announce the 1990's equivalents of the same snide little journalists. Oh yeah! So show me the present day comedy group that has had five top twenty singles in one year like the Goodies did in '75. Three Lions in my booty, say I. Eat your heart out Tony Ferrino.
The irrefutable truth is that The Goodies were the first, the only, and most successful comedy rockers ever, even if I have to say it myself ('cos no one else will). "Er what about the Monkees?" I hear you mutter. Yes, but their records weren't meant to be funny. (Were they?) They make us all laugh now, I grant you - and so would we, if we were distasteful enough to make a comeback, when we're old enough to be the Spice Girl's grandads - but their music was supposed to be taken seriously.
"And, of course, the Goodies' music wasn't", you presumably deduce. Well think again Sherlock!
The fact is, you may well be surprised - or disappointed, or indeed utterly gob-smacked - to learn that my song writing and compositional endeavours were fuelled by no end of musical pretensions (not to say pretentiousness). Did you know, for example, that the rhythm track for the Funky Gibbon was influenced by Miles Davis' fusion-experiments, which were, in turn, based on the fragmented-licks approach of Sly and the Family Stone? Well they were. Indeed, so aggravated was I by the drummer's inability to get the right feel, that I ended up playing it myself by banging on the closed lid of the piano with a rolled up newspaper. It's true. Listen closely and you will hear the unmistakable sound of Evening Standard on Steinway. Or lend a discerning ear to Baby Samba, and you will surely appreciate the Roland Kirk influence on the tin whistle solo (played by me, of course). Not to mention the inescapable aural evidence that the Goodies version of Wild Thing is a tribute to Jimi Hendrix (not The Troggs). Indeed, rumour has it that the vomit on which Jimi choked was actually induced by hearing Tim Brooke-Taylor's invitation to "Come on and hold me tight". I know how Jimi felt; Tim's vocals often had the same effect on me (hence the true inspiration for Sick Man Blues).
Yes, you bet I took my music seriously. Listening to these tracks now brings back many memories of hours in the studio. I recall the lonely nights I spent replacing Tim and Graeme's backing vocals by double tracking myself, and then putting my voice through a harmoniser so that they wouldn't recognise me and get all hurt and sulky. "Yes, of course that was you two singing in perfect thirds." Not.
I hear Cricklewood Shakedown and I experience again the intense, almost orgasmic, satisfaction of overdubbing cowbell, tambourine and vibraslap, thus confirming the old musician's adage: if you can't play anything properly, play percussion. I skip to I'm A Teapot and relive the sheer devilment of isolating the bass player's track and revealing his bum note in the thirteenth bar (Not until I had eliminated his unwanted F sharp did the true inner meaning of the song emerge. Listen to it. It's so obvious when you know). The truth is that this is not a collection of Goodies songs. These are my songs. Listening to them you are hearing a large part of my life. Sad, isn't it? that they have been unavailable for so long, I mean.
I confess that, if you had told me twenty years ago that my music would one day be issued on a CD, I would have said you were crazy - I would also have said: "What the ****'s a CD?" - but, now that it has been, I realize that I am indeed a frustrated rock and roller. But my frustration is merely on behalf of a generation that has so long been deprived of a crucial part of its cultural heritage. For my own part, the very existence of this collection is satisfaction enough: it makes an old man feel very happy (and a happy man feel very old). I ask for no further reward. Except perhaps for an interview in Q. Or maybe a Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement. Or perhaps to be voted Wanker of the Week on the Girlie Show. Failing that, how about some royalties?
Bill Oddie
March 1997
PS. I would like to thank the other two Goodies; but I really can't. It would have been so much easier without them.
* except 'Wild Thing' which was written by someone (#) Taylor - Editor.
# CHIP Taylor! - Keith Topping.
REVIEW OF "YUM YUM - THE BEST OF THE GOODIES"
by Keith Topping <keith@tooon.demon.co.uk>
The new Goodies CD has got a couple of reviews in the English music press. Mostly very obvious and unflattering. Such as 'Record Collector' which writes in its August issue (no. 216):
"Some pop starts out trying to be funny, fails miserably, only for audiences to discover its 'fun' years later. You might put Black Lace in that category. Sometimes the fun just never comes.
The Goodies won a few hits on the back of their TV series. This was so funny that one chap died laughing whilst watching one episode. If he'd stayed around long enough to have heard this spin-off, he might have died of boredom instead. Perhaps comedy is the spew rock 'n' roll.
As the song ('Funky Gibbon') goes "let me hear you say 'Oooh'". Bleauaagggh! (Nice packaging though, for a mid-price set)."
* "Yum Yum - The Very Best Of The Goodies" (Music Club MCCD 294) is actually a really cool CD, that is available from all good CD shops in Australia and the UK. If you're having trouble finding it, get your local CD shop to order it in for you. It is distributed in Australia by Festival Records and in the UK by Music Club (presumably). *
TERRY PRATCHETT'S FAVOURITE COMEDY
Cult comedy/science fiction author Terry Pratchett visited Australia last month on a promotional tour and club member Stuart Beaton <rastous@light.iinet.net.au> was lucky enough to get an interview with him. Here is an extract from the interview, which was broadcast on Radio 5UV and will appear in several publications.
STUART: What was your single biggest influence in the way of comedy? Was it The Goodies style of comedy?
TERRY: People always assume it's something like The Goons or Monty Python and I would say it's probably The Goons. This isn't the time for a long discussion about the family tree of British comedy, but there was a split around about the time of The Goons, in fact their were about 15 threads. But there was one which was personified by Michael Bentine and from that came "It's A Square World" and "The Goodies" and "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again". And from the other way, which owed more to Spike Milligan came, most notably, The Pythons. And I always liked the Bentine thread, because he married up traditional music hall comedy, almost, with Goonishness. So it always had one foot on the ground, it was always, sort of coherent, but in a very odd kind of way.
* This interview is reproduced thanks to Rastous El Aurance and Krystalle Enema, who would in turn like to thank Pterry for his time and also Pushkin Bullock, Transworld Publishers, the terribly noisy concierge at the Hindley Parkroyal - Adelaide (NOT!) and Laine Langridge, John Murch and Ewart Shaw at Radio 5UV.
GRAEME WRITES FOR RORY BREMNER
by Angus McLaren <neelix@hydra.com.au>
I was watching Rory Bremner on UKTV (on Foxtel) the other night and low and behold, in the credits for Scriptwriters I spotted Graeme Garden's name. Can anyone enlighten us on this?
GOODIES ARTICLE IN ESCAPE MAGAZINE
by David Balston <david.balston@virgin.net>
Computer magazine 'Escape' have devoted a whole page to our favourite show (in the September 1997 edition) illustrated with a couple of colour photos, the trio with Dougal and the threesome dressed up as mice. The text doesn't quite know if it's for or against the Goodies. I quote:
"The Goodies, three men who changed British television forever. Where would we be without them? It was live action Monty Python cartoons; it was Men Behaving Badly Before Men Behaving Badly and before the Young Ones....The problem with looking back at these things is that they never turn out quite as you remember them (take a look at the early episodes of Men Behaving Badly if you don't believe me).
The Goodies was a half-hour comedy show which ran from 1970-1980 on the BBC, then from 1981-1982 on ITV. Once you've generated something as unique as The Goodies it becomes a difficult child you could never hope to control. As such you are simply not responsible for it's actions as it goes floundering around in global zeitgeist.
Take Australia. For reasons best known only to themselves, the Australians have gone mad for The Goodies. They are as gods to the humble Aussies, and you'll find a large proportion of all Goodies sites on the net are Australian. Following up these links may not be enough for you, and if that is the case then you're in luck. Those who control these things have just seen fit to release the album, Yum! Yum! - The Very Best of The Goodies, which includes classics such as 'Nappy Love', 'Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me' and of course 'The Funky Gibbon'
We have a labour government again, The Professionals is coming back to TV...God bless the Seventies. The Goodies revival starts here. "Yum! Yum! - The Very Best of the Goodies" is available from those record shops who've had their taste glands removed. The Very Best of The Goodies? Isn't that a contradictions in terms?"
The article also lists 4 links, The Goodies (mini FAQ), Mark Juddery's Goodies Resume, Matthew K. Sharp's Goodies Episode Guide and The Goodies Rule - OK! Of them 2 Links worked, 1 link completely failed and your link was an outdated FAQ page (located I think in Dundee) which didn't link properly with the current pages. You'd have thought they would have checked these links out!
BILL'S FAVOURITE VIDEOS
from David Balston <david.balston@virgin.net>
from 'Radio Times' for 2nd-8th August 1997:
* My Favourite Videos *
Bill Oddie - The one time Goodie and contributor to 'Best Footlights Forward (Tuesday 5th August 9.30-10.30pm) has a weakness for weepies and fantasy.
"My most watched video is Prince's Purple Rain. I'm a great Prince fan, and it's the film I wanted him to make. The story's soppy, but the music's great - and it's one rock movie that captures the feel of a live gig.
'West Side Story' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' are both contenders for the best film, but 'ET' wins - it's a brilliant blend of fantasy and everyday life. My favourite film star is Mickey Mouse - the design icon of all time, a star who transcends his material. My favourite human movie star is Buster Keaton.
'Field of Dreams' is my pick of the weepies, so beautiful and magical you forget you're in fantasy land. The funniest movie I've seen is 'This is Spinal Tap, a very subtle send-up and so well acted it's hard to believe the guy's aren't British. And my favourite film scene is Donald O'Connor singing 'Make 'Em Laugh' in 'Singing in the Rain'. No one else has done acrobatics like that in a movie and there's hardly a cut in the whole sequence. It gets better each time I see it.
The Radio show referred to was 'Best Footlights Forward' and I quote from the Radio Times - "Graeme Garden celebrates the Cambridge University Footlights Society. With contributions from Clive Anderson, Bill Oddie, John Bird, Eleanor Bron, Douglas Adams and Rory McGrath. Plus extracts featuring Peter Cook, John Cleese, Fry and Lawrie and Emma Thompson".
It was an interesting show, with Graeme presenting it in his own humorous way. Most of the info can be found elsewhere (in the book "Footlights!" by Robert Hewison) but a few audio gems from the archive are included.
Bill Oddie is also interviewed and reveals that John Cleese was considered the best comedian in the revue "Cambridge Circus" (performed in 1963, which featured Bill, John and Tim Brooke-Taylor), despite the fact that Bill got more offers for professional work.
"Cambridge Circus" was also the most successful Footlights show in history, touring the UK, New Zealand and Broadway. Graeme, in turn remarked: "Cambridge Circus was a hard act to follow and I know, because I had to do it."
TIM IN CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
by Rhianna <s332044@student.uq.edu.au>
Just wondering if you knew that Tim Brooke-Taylor made an appearance in the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"? Apparently he played one of the computer operators (not sure in what scene) and was uncredited for the part. Not sure if this was old news but I'm still trying to find him in it!
* Tim Brooke-Taylor did play the uncredited part of the computer operator in a short, but very funny scene in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". This scene is towards the beginning of the film. *
KAT KONG
by Jamie Evangelista <ale@townsqr.com>
The other day I was at the Library in the Children's department (I'm a part-time Librarian) and I happened to come across a children's book entitled "Kat Kong"! It stopped me short so I took a glimpse inside it - to my relief, it seemed more as though it was based on the movie "King Kong" than on "Kitten Kong". It has a giant cat rampaging through a mouse city - at the end, the cat falls off a building and ends up waist deep in the street, rather than being shrunk down to the size of a kitten.
GOODIES ARTICLE IN PLAYBACK MAGAZINE
by David Balston <david.balston@virgin.com>
A few years ago there was a magazine called 'Playback' which was intended to be a monthly magazine on classic TV (but didn't last longer than the collector's special debut issue due to financial problems with Marvel Magazines UK). This collectors magazine was a retrospective of all things Classic TV and included a page devoted to 'The Goodies' (written by Andrew Pixley), complete with some great pictures.
3. GOODIES TRIVIA QUIZ
by quizmaster David McAnally <dsm@maths.uq.edu.au>
1. What special honour was awarded to Tim and John Cleese - though at different times?
2. What Monty Python creation appeared in at least two episodes of "The Goodies"?
3. In the original "Jack and the Beanstalk" story, Jack used an axe to chop down the giant beanstalk. In "The Goodies and the Beanstalk" Tim and Bill also each used an axe for the same purpose. Graeme's method, however, was different. In what way did he bring about the demise of the beanstalk?
4. What were the Goodies carrying in their violin cases in the Mafia episode "Goodies in the Nick"?
ANSWERS TO LAST MONTH'S CROSSWORD
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THE END
Oh dear, we've run out of Goodies' birthdays to celebrate! Oh well, see you on Goodies-L where the party never stops.
Cheerio,
Alison Bean
<carrot@olis.net.au>
President.
*********************************************
DISCLAIMER
This is an archive newsletter of The Goodies Rule - OK! International Fan Club (copyright The Goodies Rule - OK! 1997). Some of the information in this newsletter may now be incorrect. Current information can be obtained from http://www.goodiesruleok.com
*********************************************
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