The Grammar Vigilante

[Jah Womble]

The Grammar Vigilante

Somebody's been watching Top of the Pop's...

[treibeis]

The Grammar Vigilante

So one of the blokes my father used to go to Ashton Gate with reckons, former Bristol City goalkeeper John Shaw was so incensed at the The Wurzel's advert in a matchday programme in 1979 that he went to the printshop that was responsible for it and tried to punch his way in to get at the owner.

Luckily, Fred Wedlock and Pam Ayres, who just happened to be passing on their way to work at Radio Bristol, managed to drag him away, otherwise he'd have killed the poor blighter.

Unfortunately, he did his hand in during his funny turn and had to be replaced by Ray Cashley for the remainder of the season.

[Benjm]

The Grammar Vigilante

I don't know if you know the story of how '70s MOR vocal group Man's Brotherhood came to change their name to The Brotherhood Of Man?

Lead vocalist/enforcer Martin Lee had a volatile combination of a very short temper, a hardened street scrapper's repertoire of dirty fighting tricks and no tolerance whatsoever for misplaced punctuation.

In the free apostrophising Britain of the Heath/Wilson years, club owners came to fear his sudden bouts of rage and violence should Man's Brotherhood's billing not meet his approval. Often Lee Sheriden and Nicky Stevens would drive on to venues ahead of Lee to check for any likely flashpoints, but still it became increasingly difficult for the act to attract bookings.

Mentor Tony Hiller eventually decided that the only lasting way to manage the issue was to eliminate it and Man's Brotherhood became The Brotherhood Of Man, almost immediately moving on to greater success that was memorably capped by winning the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest.

[Calvert]

The Grammar Vigilante

Someone scrawled The Teardrop Explode's on a wall which I found offensive.
Julian's a mammoth twat and his music sucks but it was more the bad grammar, I think.

[Duncan Gardner]

The Grammar Vigilante

To be fair, the brass intro to 'Reward' is a thing of rare beauty.

Why do so many misspell minuscule?

[Jah Womble]

The Grammar Vigilante

Calvert wrote:

Someone scrawled The Teardrop Explode's on a wall which I found offensive.
Julian's a mammoth twat and his music sucks but it was more the bad grammar, I think.

Yet you're still on first-name terms with him, which is nice.

[WOM]

The Grammar Vigilante

Punks Not Dead always bothered me, but I don't imagine The Exploited gave much of a fuck.

[Calvert]

The Grammar Vigilante

Jah Womble wrote:

Someone scrawled The Teardrop Explode's on a wall which I found offensive.
Julian's a mammoth twat and his music sucks but it was more the bad grammar, I think.

Yet you're still on first-name terms with him, which is nice.

Well, I speak from experience, so I don't feel it overfamiliar.
On the other hand, I've never met you...

< Winky>

[Jah Womble]

The Grammar Vigilante

Hmm, I don't know about 'mammoth' - maybe a pygmy hippo-sized one...

[treibeis]

The Grammar Vigilante

In the free apostrophising Britain of the Heath/Wilson years

It's funny you should mention that, as one of the semi-regulars at the golf hut was going on about something similar the other day.

So the story goes, shortly before being relieved of his England managerial duties, Sir Alf Ramsey had decided to become an actor.

One of the first roles he applied for was as Sergeant-Major Williams in It 'Ain't Half Hot Mum. When he went to BBC Television Centre, he was greeted by all the rest of the what would turn out to be the cast, who were sitting outside the audition room waiting their turn.

When the receptionist asked what he wanted, he apparently said, “H'I 'ave came 'ere for h'an h'audition h'as Sergeant-Major Williams h'in “H'It H'Isn't 'Alf 'Ot, Mother”.

After what seemed like an eternal ear-splitting silence, Don Estelle stepped forward, blinked furiously, shuffled his feet and said, “We don't want you here, do we, fellas? You don't show apostrophes the respect they deserve, you don't, does he, fellas?”

One word led to another and things really did begin to get rather ugly, with a clearly furious Melvyn Hayes at one point having to be physically restrained by Stuart McGugan. Only when Windsor Davies, who'd just had an interview for the upcoming vacancy as Tony Gubba's successor on Sportsnight, walked past and instructed everybody to shut up did things get back to normal.

The auditioners were so impressed by Windsor Davies' impromptu performance that he got offered the role as Sergeant-Major Williams on the spot. Sir Alf tried getting the part as La-di-da Gunner Graham, but they told him to fuck off because he couldn't play the piano.

[Benjm]

The Grammar Vigilante

It's just as well that no one called 'Big' Windsor's bluff that time. Donald Sinden once nailed his hand to a desk for ridiculing the Dark Knight's suggestion that Ne'er The Twain would be a classier name for their antiques dealer sitcom. It was only Davies' agreeing not to involve the police that caused Sinden to back off on the matter.

[Lang Spoon]

The Grammar Vigilante

Benjm wrote: It's just as well that no one called 'Big' Windsor's bluff that time. Donald Sinden once nailed his hand to a desk for ridiculing the Dark Knight's suggestion that Ne'er The Twain would be a classier name for their antiques dealer sitcom. It was only Davies' agreeing not to involve the police that caused Sinden to back off on the matter.

Typical of the Welsh Faces, all talk then they back off from the ruck. All fackin mahf.