Seventy years on we can hardly imagine a Britain or a Beeb without that lovely litany of late-night warning spoken
Posted in General on 22. Jul, 2010
Seventy years on, we can hardly imagine a Britain, or a Beeb, without that lovely litany of late-night warning spoken still in perfect RP by the duty Radio 4 continuity announcer.
As David Chandler of the Photographers’ Gallery writes in the preface to Mark Power’s book of photographs of the places behind the names, “The shipping forecast.. is at once familiar and obscure. For most people, those of us whose lives and livelihoods are not determined by the weather at sea, its coded messages are unintelligible, yet it resonates with a powerful mythic voice, conjuring dramatic seafaring imagery, the unremitting challenge of a sea that encloses us, that symbolically protects us and isolates the British isles, our group of old island nations, battered but surviving.”German Bight, Fastnet, Lundy and Malin exist not just on the edge of Britain’s coastal waters, but also on the fringes of our imagination. For most of us, Fair Isle might as well be an offshore annexe of Narnia; Rockall, a goblins’ fortress; and Forties, a film-noirish sort of place that most definitely roars.It is something of a shock to see this world of uneasy dreams come to life in Power’s potent photographs. Before then, gale warnings were tapped across Britannia’s waves by Morse code.
Essential information the shipping forecast, yet it needed no words. Fred Astaire? I mean Finisterre, although these Gallic syllables sounded like the name of Hollywood’s leading tap-dancer to me as a child, tucked up under the eiderdown on stormy nights, listening to the rain drumming, wind howling (or so it seemed) on my London window and the shipping forecast on the Home Service on the portable radio under my pillow. The BBC has broadcast the shipping forecast with its risings and falls, goods and fairs, Forties and Finisterres since it first gained its charter in 1928. The forecasts actually began on 26 January, 1926, before the Beeb nannied the nation. He shot and fatally wounded his landlady, before turning the gun on himself.. Viking Dogger Bank Faeroes Rockall German Bight Fred Astaire. Manuel, who had one of the great, soulful American pop voices, was found hanged from the shower rail in a motel room during a “comeback” tour by members of The Band.Joe Meek British record producer (“Telstar”, “Just Like Eddie”, “Have I The Right?”) Died 3 February, 1967.
A pioneer of recording techniques, whose inventions were overtaken by the British beat boom led by the Beatles. The sense of rejection, professional and personal (he was a homosexual afraid of scandal), made him flip. He left Los Angeles in 1971, halfway through an American tour, to join the Children of God sect. Current whereabouts unknown.Richard Manuel Canadian singer and pianist with The Band Died 7 March, 1986.
He drank heavily, and his general disillusionment was given tragic shape when he became the victim of an attempted strangling during an African tour, which left him with badly damaged vocal cords. Not long after a concert in aid of Chile that he had organised, he hanged himself, aged 35.Jeremy Spencer guitarist, Fleetwood Mac. In a group notorious for its many changes of personnel, Spencer’s departure was possibly the most dramatic. With historical irony, his co-writer, Tom Evans, also committed suicide in 1983.Phil Ochs American folk singer, songwriter, Sixties radical and (briefly) contributor to Time Out magazine Died 7 April, 1976. For a while, Ochs was considered a serious rival to Bob Dylan, but his career tailed off as his folk-protest songs found decreasing favour. Despite the patronage of the Beatles and a worldwide hit with Nilsson’s version of his song “Without You”, Welshman Ham hanged himself in despair over money and personal problems. Green was arguably the best British blues guitarist of the Sixties, with a worldly and introspective compositional style.
He left Fleetwood Mac in 1970 amid mounting drug abuse and mental problems, and worked as a grave digger and hospital porter. Eventually diagnosed as schizophrenic, he was sent to a mental hospital in 1977 after threatening with an air rifle an accountant who was trying to give him a royalty cheque for pounds 30,000. He later became a dosser on the streets of Richmond and Twickenham, but now, aged 49, lives with his parents on Canvey Island.Pete Ham singer and leader of Badfinger Died 23 April, 1975. Barrett (whose real name is Roger) disappeared from Pink Floyd in 1968, barely three years after their first success, taking with him much of their mystique and knack for hit singles. The subsequent legend of an erratic genius overlooks the fact of his mental instability and meagre output. He has since returned to the parental home in Cambridge.Peter Green guitarist and founder, Fleetwood Mac. The act of hanging himself, at the age of 23, was the tragedy of a boy totally unable to cope with his bit of fame.Syd Barrett former singer and founding member of Pink Floyd One of the first celebrated acid casualties.