BjornAgain

Remember back in the early '90s, I was on a stopover at Bangkok International Airport, as it was known. Now Don Mueang. Had 9 hours to kill before flight down to SYD. So went to the on-site Hotel. Sign outside said Discounts Available. Whilst booking my room enquired into their discount. Bloke spoke to his colleague who was checking in another solo traveller, we looked at each other, but decided to remain solo!

Them were the days. Friday evening in the tin Bath by the fire in the living room. Had to take your turn mind, mother first, then pater, big brother then me. Nickname at school was Coaly.

Then there's symbols. ! Prefer doing it on my head # 4-Way = T&B ' Single quote, so self sex ☆ Spreadeagled

Robert Helpmann, took me a while before the cogs turned and clicked. The Child Catcher in the Ken Hughes / Roald Dahl 1968 film adaption of Ian Fleming's Chitty-Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. Remember having nightmares of him, as have a lot children over the years. During the 2002; 3 year run in the West End musical the part was initially played by Richard O'Brien (Rocky Horror Show), with later replacements including Wayne Sleep, Stephen Gately, Paul O'Grady, Lionel Blair, Derek Griffiths and Alvin Stardust! With the exception of Richard, and no offence to the others, but they hardly have a reputation of being scary!

Maybe you're doing it all wrong! https://youtube.com/shorts/gCT7GZxSsTY?feature=shared

I Googled Götterdämmerung motif, and found a French video explaining how the motif is used throughout the opera, so do concur in terms of I Have a Love. There's a brilliant documentary I saw a number of years ago with AWL that detailed the history of the Phantom. Also the fact that Hal Prince as director insisted Sarah Brightman audition for the part, even though Andrew had written the part specifically for her as his wife. Interestingly, Sarah has been playing the part of Norma Desmond in Australia for the last couple of years, and is now on tour with the show in China, having played Singapore last month. Forgot to mention when talking about Oliver! Use to write pub quiz questions years ago (early '90s) for a work colleague who was the quiz master for his pub down in Swindon. "What links Phil Collins, Davy Jones of The Monkeys and Steve Marriott of Humple Pie / The New Faces. They all played the part of The Artful Dodger in the West End."

All out favourite is West Side Story, the 1961 Robert Wise directed film. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning 10, it remains to date the most awarded musical of all time. Regrettably I've never seen a professional production, but have 'suffered' a number of school and college productions over the years. Have owned the soundtrack LP, VHS, DVD and BluRay versions over the years, currently have a 4K version. Favorite track is The Overture, just the sheer magic of Bernstein's music. Crank up the surround sound, or the Bose headphones, single malt. Magic. The film does make changes to the stage version in terms of song order, but I find it flows better. Apparently Elvis Presley was approached to play Tony, but his management declined (Colonel Tom Parker). Others approached included Marlon Brando, Burt Reynolds, Anthony Perkins, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford. Interestingly, Natalie Wood who played Maria, wasn't considered, however when the producers reviewed clips of Warren Beatty from his debut film, Splendor in The Grass, they were more impressed with his co-star Wood, so she got the part. Although Wood's vocals were sung by Marni Nixon, she did sing in later movies, including Gypsy the following year. Marni Nixon was the Hollywood go-to ghost vocalist at the time, covering Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Deborah Kerr in that musical we don't mention in Thailand! I do have a copy of Steven Spielberg's 2021 version, but somehow never got round to watching it. Another favorite would be Oliver!. Tried to get tickets for the 2008 Rowan Atkinson revival at the Palladium. However Rowan had to back down due to illness, was temporary replaced by Russ Abbot, then formally replaced by Omid Djalili. He was absolutely hilarious. An Iranian born comic playing the part of Fagin. Cameron had a bolt of genius coming up with that. Great staging, infact the production went back to the original stage design from the 1960 version. Rowan replaced Omid, who in turn was replaced by his old Not The 9 O'clock News partner, Griff Rhys Jones. Never saw the original Cats, but did see the Nicole Scherzinger version in 2014 at Dury Lane. Fantastic production, and as with the original show, a member of the cast remains on stage during the interval for photos or chats. Demeter, played by Zizi Strallen got the gig when I went, Bonnie Langford 's niece. One show I wish I saw was the Michael Crawford / Sarah Brightman version of Phanton at Her Majesty's. Was working in London, use to walk down Haymarket on my way to Waterloo after a Chinese in Dean Street. Seen other productions over the years, still kick myself.

Apologies. Should have checked in more detail. Just read in my movie Db that Hemmings was a star boy-soprano in his youth. In fact, Benjamin Britten wrote the part of Miles in his opera "The Turn of The Screw" especially for him back in 1954.

Never got around to seeing Sunset, but do remember the Faye Dunaway controversy. AWL has always had a thing for staring named actors in his productions. Went to the opening of "By Jeeves" in April '75, which had David Hemmings as Bertie and Michael Aldridge as Jeeves. Both fine actors, Aldridge especially in the BBC's '79 production of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as Percy Alleline, or his time in Last of the Summer Wine. But both not recognised for singing or musicals. My mum was Paul Channon's secretary at the time, who was Shadow Minister of The Arts under Ted Heath. When Maggie took over in February '75 she clean swept all of Ted's ministers, so Norman St.John-Stevas took over. For what ever reason over at AWL's company (RUG wasn't incorporated till '77), the official invite was addressed to Channon, who thought best not to attend so gave the tickets to my mum. Middle Front row in the circle. Hugh Jenkins as Minister of The Arts was seated off center. As a 16 year old found the event amazing, as my first ever West End experience. Shame it closed after 38 performances. Show was originally directed by Eric Thompson of The Magic Roundabout fame, as well as Emma. Alan Ayckbourn who wrote the story and lyrics sacked Thompson just prior to opening. He was quoted at the time saying "I think musicals are pretty damn boring".

Wow, EP and Colm Wilkinson. His version of Jean Valjean in the original West End production of Les Mis is to me still the best. Saw him early 1986 in the original production. Just Googled to check the date, and found Michael Ball was also in the original cast. Also saw EP in Anything Goes in 1989, in a production she co-produced with her partner at the time, namely Tim Rice. This production became notable in later years for John Barrowman's piano playing! Agree with the ego, not one jot. He is a keen cricketer, and served as President of the MCC in 2002.

Had the honor of meeting Sir Tim a couple of times. Once in 2014 when Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was being performed locally in a Bill Kenwright production, in fact grabbed a word with the pair of them. Had a family member in the production. Commented that I didn't know there was so much humour in the script. Couple of other times was in the Shipwrights Arms in Helford where he has his quiet Cornish bolt hole. Just across the creek is Roger Taylor's country retreat, also not far from Mick Fleetwood's UK country gaff. A right rock'n'roll back water, to say nothing of the Rock God WHO's a member of the local sailing club.

I'm surprised that Harvey Milk doesn't get a mention.

I think Adams summed it up quite clearly:- There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Interesting use of 16th Century English. Dotting "I's", however Fox's accuracy rating is hardly what you could call high. Maybe tittle-tattle would be more appropriate in terms of describing Fox, i.e. Gossip! However American English does imply "Not at All", which is probably a better way to describe Fox as "...not at all makes sense".

I remember when he joked about this on Graham Norton, but didn't understand the comment until I saw it yesterday. Had me absolutely in stitches. His recent Panto with John Bishop as his husband was an absolute hoot and sell out.

Cheers for that. Seams like a bit of a security flaw.

There's a song title in there! Now that ain't workin', that's the way you do it Lemme tell ya, them guys ain't dumb Maybe get a blister on your little finger Maybe get a blister on your thumb That ain't workin', that's the way you do it Money for nothin' and your boys for free

Begs the question how did he get through Passport Control at LAX?

What's wrong with the old adage of drinking blood?

The idea of a Thai F1 race has been kicking around for a number of years, with either Pattaya or Bangkok heavily touted as options for a street race. The reality is it won't happen based on today's infrastructure or location. Bangkok has been sinking for years, back in the '80's about 10cm per year, with some clever use of replanting forests and woodlands around the capital, these areas have slowed the sinking to approximately 2cm per year. Ironically the capital used to be surrounded by woodlands and paddy fields pre the 1980's and the expanding desire for a concrete jungle. In comparison, Venice is currently sinking by 1 to 2mm per annum, same as New York. With on-going current Bangkok construction, it's adding more weight to the sinking city, despite the green planting, water soaking initiative. Current doom mongers have Bangkok seasonal floods effecting upto 40% of the capital by 2030, so any F1 construction will be short lived. No one has designed a floating F1 track, maybe this could be an option? To me the best solution the Thai government could do is to the escalate the concept of building a new capital outside the current city, to accommodate the government machine, and with a green field site and modern construction techniques and foresight of expansion, absord the concept for F1 style racing circuit into the design. As messes Mitch Leigh and Joseph Darion wrote back in '65, made popular by both Jack Jones and Andy Williams, we can but "... Dream the impossible Dream".

Not clear from the OP, but Noël's house (Firefly) is infact above Flemming's Goldeneye. Currently serves as the Noël Coward museum. In his study, the view from his study desk is worthy of the title Room with a View, as looks due East across to the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, famous for its coffee. The house is a time capsule from 1973 when he died, the old Rolls Royce is still in the garage and maintained in prestige condition. Which he used to use to visit his hotel Blue Harbour below, or Goldeneye. The house was built on the land formerly owned by the pirate Henry Morgan, aka Captain Morgan, in fact it's old lookout was converted into a bar by Noël, and today serves as the refreshments shack for visitors. Well worth a visit if you're ever in Jamaica, just 25 miles NNW of Kingston. The photos taken by Coward that are scattered around the place serves as a Who's Who of famous Royals as well as UK, USA and European celebrities from the 1920's onwards. Adding to the collection of Young Men in their swimwear, an excited Noël Coward c1930's in the Bahamas.

Yes, can confirm have met the man from down under outside CockA2. Easy to spot, as was wearing his Miami shirt, which prompted my comment back previously as reminded me of an ex boss who supported a similar beard and penchant for similar shirts.

Just found out, the backup generators were diesel based, so were resently replaced with biomass generators and a brand new auto-switching solution so that Heathrow could move towards their Net-Zero target. They failed, hence the black out. Sometimes the old and well trusted solutions work best, despite a bit of black smoke.

You'll be amazed as to the number of SPOF's (Single Points of Failure) large organisations have. Whether by design or accidental operational incidents. Especially in Communications Companies, ie BT, Vodafone etc. Most issues caused by bean-counters, as full autonomous switch over of geographical dispersed infrastructure costs a shed load of money. While regulations, especially in the Finance Sector force Enterprises to invest in DR (Disaster Recovery) or BC (Business Continuity), the impact of Reputational Damage is always below cost on a Risk Register. For those of you who bank with the blue coloured high street bank, pray their main data center doesn't go down, as their primary backup site is at Heathrow!

Sorry my bad. Candy is solo. Not part of a group.