Thursday, September 07, 2006

Spike Milligan & Jeremy Taylor


A record on the Music For Pleasure label released in 1974 but I think the recording at Cambridge University was probably made in the late sixties. Here's almost one side until a pice of fluff gets in the way!

SPIKE MILLIGAN

"Milligan was born in India to a father who was an Irish captain in the British army. Milligan lived in India until he was 15, an experience that later came in quite handy when he and Goons co-star Peter Sellers began the tradition of dueling Bengali accents. That Milligan more than held his own in the company of Sellers is an obvious tribute to the former man's comic gifts. The third main Goon was Sir Harry Secombe, a great musical and comic talent who is sometimes mistakenly called the group's straight man; but make no mistake about it, there was nothing straight at all about The Goon Show. When his family moved back to England, Milligan's proclivity for entertaining came to the surface, beginning with an interest in jazz that he never lost, eventually even contributing liner notes to a Stan Getz album. Milligan spent much of his youth playing trumpet in various jazz bands. He joined the British Army at the outbreak of the Second World War, serving in the Royal Artillery through the North African and Italian campaigns, where he wound up hospitalized for shell shock. Following the war, he joined the Goons at a time when the British nation was collectively wondering whether it would ever be able to laugh again. The show became a huge success, but created enormous pressures for Milligan, who was writing the lion's, or the loon's share of the scripts as well as doing the enormous weekly work of editing in sound effects."

JEREMY TAYLOR

"Jeremy set South Africa alight in the sixties with his "Ag Pleez Deddy" and was then banished from South Africa for ridiculing apartheid. After two years on the West End stage in WAIT A MINIM, a South African musical revue, he became a leading entertainer on the British folk circuit with songs like "Jobsworth", " Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver " and "Prawns in the Game".
His " Piece of Ground" was recorded in the USA by Miriam Makeba. With John Wells he wrote songs for the West End musical satire MRS WILSON'S DIARY, was for two years Spike Milligan's stage partner in FOR ONE WEEK ONLY, wrote a Latin lyric ("O Caritas") for Cat Stevens, made frequent concert appearances with Donald Swann and Sidney Carter and performed his own one-man show at Soho's Boulevard Theatre. TV series included Granada's AT LAST ITS FRIDAY with Richard Stilgoe, Diana Quick and Keith Dewhurst, PSSSST! which included Julie Covington, Jean Hart and Kenny Lynch, and SONGS FROM THE TWO BREWERS in which he hosted stars from the folk world including The Dubliners, Ralph McTell and Pentangle. In 1980 he had his own series on BBC2 with Telephone Bill and the Smooth Operators. A change of government in 1979 led to his re-admittance to South Africa and from 1980 to 1994 he chronicled his life in Broederstroom, a farming area of the Transvaal, in a series of tales which were gradually woven into his one-man stage shows."

You can find the original photo of the sleeve HERE.

2 comments:

Coffee Messiah said...

Quite interesting, Thanks!
While I'm at it, all the African music is very nice to hear also!
Cheers!

Wastedpapiers said...

Glad you are enjoying these CM. Appreciate the feedback.