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    #26
    Next year I will have been longer living in Dublin than growing up in Fife. Two more years to go before I’ve lived longer away from Scotland than in it.

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      #27
      Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
      I’ve been to Nottingham. In 1984.
      Why?

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        #28
        Family tour of Europe. Not sure why we went through Nottingham except to see the Robin Hood-relates tourist sites. I recall that we gave up trying to find an authentic ye olde place to eat - my brother and I were too young to be allowed in pubs - and went to some kind of pizza place.

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          #29
          Originally posted by treibeis View Post
          I may be the first person on this board to say this, but: Fuck off, ursus arctos. Al Martino could sing, man. He never sang anything I wanted to hear, I'll give you that, but he had a voice on him.
          Well, I'd perhaps not have put it like that, but I'd go along with that. David bloody Hasselhoff isn't/wasn't fit to wipe down Al Martino's mic stand. (And Cheap Trick had far too much self-awareness to be lumped alongside DH.)

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            #30
            The comparison wasn’t of their intrinsic quality, but rather of their popularity in the identified countries compared to that on these shores.

            In terms of quality, I’d strongly agree with you both.

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              #31
              To provide different examples to 'a is now further back in time to b than b was to c':

              Joe Cole announced his retirement today - I don't have any great opinion on Cole other than he looked a bit stupid when he used to run with his tongue out, but it doesn't seem a great deal of time since he was being tipped as the savior of English football. In fact I can remember where I was when I read the Observer after England got knocked out of the 1998 World Cup when they were doing one of those 'it'll be alright next time' articles in which they tipped Cole to be the centerpiece of the whole team. And now his career's over, at a fair age too.

              The first teacher I encountered in my own secondary school was recently teaching at my daughter's school. Said teacher was my form tutor and a newly qualified teacher in her first job, which would have put her 11-12 years older than me, which means she's now approaching retirement (I'm nearly 47).

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                #32
                Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                (And Cheap Trick had far too much self-awareness to be lumped alongside DH.)
                Indeed. This ongoing 'Cheap Trick weren't all that' thing is really odd. They were an astoundingly tongue-in-cheek band who, while they may have taken their craft seriously, didn't take their selves seriously.

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                  #33
                  Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                  The comparison wasn’t of their intrinsic quality, but rather of their popularity in the identified countries compared to that on these shores.

                  In terms of quality, I’d strongly agree with you both.
                  Ah, got you. I seriously thought you'd had a funny turn or something.

                  Al Martin's relative lack of fame has always got my father's goat. "Frank Sinatra? Don't give me bloody Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra should have the word "singer" removed from his passport. All Frank Sinatra does is speak along to music. Al's worth ten - no, ten thousand - Frank bloody Sinatras. Al actually SINGS."

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                    #34
                    I was born 9 years and 10 months after England won the World Cup. It's now 10 years this month that Barack Obama won the US Presidential Election.

                    Kids doing their GCSEs this year were born after 9/11

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                      #35
                      Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                      Ah, got you. I seriously thought you'd had a funny turn or something.

                      Al Martin's relative lack of fame has always got my father's goat. "Frank Sinatra? Don't give me bloody Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra should have the word "singer" removed from his passport. All Frank Sinatra does is speak along to music. Al's worth ten - no, ten thousand - Frank bloody Sinatras. Al actually SINGS."
                      He's comparing apples and oranges

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                        #36
                        Well, should he still be with us, your dad might be interested in the industry rumor that Martino’s relative lack of success on these shores was largely due to the fact that he was not as well “connected” to certain “influential” people of Italian heritage in this country. Among other things, this made it more difficult for him to get gigs in Vegas, given said people’s control of the casinos at the time.

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                          #37
                          Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                          Kids doing their GCSEs this year were born after 9/11
                          This is the one that gets me. I'm usually rather bemused when people express surprise at the passage of time, but now when I interview people for bar jobs, a lot of them are born after I started working behind a bar for the first time myself. You can legally drink if you were born in 2000. When I was 20. That's really crept up on me, I suppose as a result of me absolutely pissing away my 20s and 30s and not acting, or living in a grown up manner until about, ooooh, 13 months ago. Still, soon be dead.

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                            #38
                            Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                            Well, should he still be with us, your dad might be interested in the industry rumor that Martino’s relative lack of success on these shores was largely due to the fact that he was not as well “connected” to certain “influential” people of Italian heritage in this country. Among other things, this made it more difficult for him to get gigs in Vegas, given said people’s control of the casinos at the time.
                            My father (who is indeed still with us) has always claimed that Frank bloody Sinatra "knew people that Al didn't", yes.

                            My father also reckons that Al was framed when he got had up for shoplifting. I, on the other hand, reckon Al Martino simply fancied nicking a shirt.

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                              #39
                              As will we all. If it's any consolation, it's only recently that I've learned that my lot in life is pretty good, all told.

                              I expect it'll go to shit shortly, like. Ever the pessimist.

                              EDIT: in response to EIM.
                              Last edited by Toby Gymshorts; 13-11-2018, 13:55.

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                                #40
                                To go back to my almost 10 year gap with the World Cup Final of 66 - that felt like an unreachable distance of time for me growing up. I knew it had happened but it was so far in the past when I wa sa kid that it may as well never have happened. how would I ever know. My niece was born slightly before the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. So something that was so world and era defining to me, is the same level of unreachable, unknowability to her. It's ancient history. When i tell her where I was when 9/11 happened (and I vividly remember that) it's not different to my mum saying how she heard JFK had been shot or Dad talking about watching Neil Armstrong on the moon. And Britpop to her is like Beatlemania to me.

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                                  #41
                                  9/11 was/is a huge deal, obviously, especially for those who died on that day and in all wars that were launched in it's wake. But some teenagers I've talked to seem to think that being born after it - or at least not remembering much about the world before it - is the most important differentiator between them and earlier generations. It's significant, but I believe the bigger gap comes from them not remembering a world where almost everything they want to know, listen to, or see is available nearby and probably on a thing in their pocket. As we've discussed on here before, even those of us who lived through that transition don't fully grasp what it will mean in the long run.

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                                    #42
                                    Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                                    Ah, got you. I seriously thought you'd had a funny turn or something.

                                    Al Martin's relative lack of fame has always got my father's goat. "Frank Sinatra? Don't give me bloody Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra should have the word "singer" removed from his passport. All Frank Sinatra does is speak along to music. Al's worth ten - no, ten thousand - Frank bloody Sinatras. Al actually SINGS."
                                    While I'd largely concur with Satchmo's 'apples and oranges' comment, it's worth noting that neither of them could hold a candle to Nat.

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                                      #43
                                      Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                      While I'd largely concur with Satchmo's 'apples and oranges' comment, it's worth noting that neither of them could hold a candle to Nat.
                                      True.

                                      As for Al and Frank, perhaps Al couldn't get anyone to place a horse's head in someone's bed for him.

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                                        #44
                                        Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                        To go back to my almost 10 year gap with the World Cup Final of 66 - that felt like an unreachable distance of time for me growing up. I knew it had happened but it was so far in the past when I wa sa kid that it may as well never have happened. how would I ever know. My niece was born slightly before the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. So something that was so world and era defining to me, is the same level of unreachable, unknowability to her. It's ancient history. When i tell her where I was when 9/11 happened (and I vividly remember that) it's not different to my mum saying how she heard JFK had been shot or Dad talking about watching Neil Armstrong on the moon. And Britpop to her is like Beatlemania to me.
                                        Ten years prior isn't going to be as unreachable for your niece as it was for us - unless she wants it to be - because there's so much more media from that time easily available.

                                        In 1976, it was impossible for a normal person to just go watch the original broadcast of the 1966 WC Final (or even the 1974 final). Nobody had a VCR. They just had to wait until something appeared on TV. In fact, I can't even find the whole match on youtube now. Highlights and some home movies and some later documentary stuff only. Nor was it easy for them to read the newspaper reports from that time unless they saved the paper from those days and/or had access to a library that had an archive (probably on microfiche, which was a bit of a hassle to deal with by today's standards of hassles vs. non-hassles when it comes to accessing media).

                                        Whereas now, there's a shit-ton of, for example, 9/11* stuff from the day readily at hand. (though you have to wade through pages and pages of conspiracy theory bullshit to see it) There was a lot more media created that day than for equivalent news events in previous decades and much or most of it is easily accessible online (well, for those of us who have access to the internet, but barriers to access are declining). Most newspapers - even student newspapers - have all their archive online. CNN et al. put their old reports on youtube. It's all there. And it gets repackaged and repeated on cable news and a zillion and one documentaries online or on netflix, etc, etc.

                                        So the recent past - 10-15 years - is much more present and in our faces now than it was in the, er, past and there are a lot fewer layers of interpreters, documentarians, editors, etc, between us and the original events.

                                        And now that almost everyone has a powerful digital camera in their pocket, everything is documented and uploaded like never before, so that will only accelerate in ways we can only guess at. (as we discussed on that "they will not grow old" thread)

                                        At least it definitely feels that way. And that's really what you're talking about, I think. That feeling of the past being lost or ancient history.


                                        And Britpop to her is like Beatlemania to me.
                                        My impression is that, for kids today, Britpop and Beatlemania are no different. I don't mean that they don't understand how time works or know that the Beatles and Blur aren't different kinds of music. I mean that for them, it's all just one more thing they can chose to listen to, or not, on youtube or spotify. This time-compression is exacerbated now by all the current bands who sound almost exactly like something from a bygone decade.

                                        In a lot of ways, it's great that we no longer have to depend on the radio (especially now that radio is run by algorithms and not DJs) or MTV or very limited record shops to give us our music and, essentially, tell us what we're going to listen to. But the downside of that is kids today will probably not have many moments like the Manchester Free Trade Hall show or the Beatles on Sullivan or Smells Like Teen Spirit suddenly blowing all the shitty hair-bands off the radio. There won't be any moments of "everything is different now" because tastes and culture and the market is so fractured and niche now that there is no more "everything."


                                        *There's also a shitton of misinformation on 9/11 out there, but that's another topic.
                                        Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 13-11-2018, 16:19.

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                                          #45
                                          Originally posted by adams house cat View Post
                                          True.

                                          As for Al and Frank, perhaps Al couldn't get anyone to place a horse's head in someone's bed for him.
                                          You don't reckon Johnny Fontane might've made a few useful contacts?

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                                            #46
                                            Johnny Fontane, yes.

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                                              #47
                                              On the 1982 theme, The Young Ones is older now than The Goons was in 1982

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                                                #48
                                                And The Young Ones was every bit as as shit as The Goon Show was. Series 1, anyway, before they let all the others (French and Saunders, Smith and Jones etc) jump on it too.
                                                Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 14-11-2018, 18:55.

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                                                  #49
                                                  The Young Ones made complete (non)sense back in 1983. It's good only for a few quotes now.

                                                  I'm not sure that French & Saunders was ever funny, tbh. Except to the (admittedly-sizeable) demographic that believes several hours spent in make-up/costume represents an adequate replacement for good scriptwriting.

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                                                    #50
                                                    The bit where they dress as fat sexist slobs could be seen to be groundbreaking, as it had previously been men who cross-dressed for comic effect (and the slobs were making a social point, albeit crudely). But it's a one joke routine, as with all their other stuff.

                                                    Smith and Jones never impressed me without Atkinson and Stephenson to balance them out, and it seemed they were doing character comedy with writers who had previously written topical comedy.
                                                    Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 15-11-2018, 12:13.

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