Memories of the Odeon Hammersmith now the Eventim Apollo

My visit to the Hammersmith Apollo to see First Aid Kit reminded me that the first time I went to this venue was over fifty one years ago. On 18th November 2007 I wrote the following on this blog.

When I left school, I lived in digs in Riverside Gardens in Barnes, just over the bridge from Hammersmith. So my walk to George Wimpey's offices on Hammersmith Grove took me close to the Odeon every day. So I was lucky to be able to see what were the forthcoming attractions. So from 1963 I went to see Tony Bennett, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Duke Ellington and Woody Herman and the Herd. All fantastic big band performances.

These were followed by a blues concert with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and in May 1964 by the best rock and roll show ever with Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins. They were supported by new British groups such as The Nashville Teens (Tobacco Road had not yet entered the charts), The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Animals. Wikipedia confirms they played their version of House of the Rising Sun on their tour with Chuck Berry in May 1964 but did not release a recording until a month later. I can still remember what a great job they did with Alan Price on keyboards.

The most disappointing concert I have ever attended was around this time. Louis Armstrong was a particular favourite, having bought his Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings from 1927 and 1928. So Louis to me was a trumpeter, not a singer. But for the whole concert I wait in vain for a trumpet solo. All the other members of his band played solos, but not Louis. Maybe he was not up to it, but he played with the band, and any short burst on his own would have sufficed.

The last of my 60's memories at the Odeon is the premiere of Thunderball in December 1965. On the day of its release, it was decided to show it at 1 minute past midnight. I must admit that I might have nodded off during the final long underwater sequence, but the music will always wake you up.

The one show I missed was the Beatles. They played 38 shows over 21 nights in late 64/early 65. I had heard that you couldn't hear the music for the screaming and that put me off. But I really should have gone.

Since then I have returned every few years to see Jackson Browne in 1986, Leo Sayer in 1988, Mary Chapin Carpenter in 1995, Ryan Adams in 2007 and Bon Iver (there to see support Kathleen Edwards) in 2011 and now First Aid Kit. So this venue holds many happy memories for me.

First Aid Kit at the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo

Last night I made my way to the Hammersmith Apollo to see Klara and Johanna Soderberg, the two sisters who make up First Aid Kit. The venue was sold out, packed to it's capacity of over 8,000, more than can be fitted into the Royal Albert Hall. That's why the girls told us this was their biggest gig to date. There was a huge cross section of ages in the audience from teenagers through twenty and thirty somethings to middle aged. I must have been one of oldest there (again).

I cannot remember when I first heard about them, but I have only had their three albums for a few months. They play a kind of folk come country rock that is my favourite kind of music these days. The sisters could not be more different, the elder tall, willowy, blonde and hippieish, the younger dark, smaller and more serious. It was quite strange to hear the normal interaction with the audience coming from a double act. They were accompanied by drums, percussion and pedal guitar and what a show they gave us. They are an excellent live band.

 

Most of the songs were from their latest album "Stay Gold" but there were also half a dozen from "The Lion's Roar". And from their first album came a duet without microphones. Ghost Town was sung beautifully and we all joined in.

The light show was quite something, but they are these days. Just to finish, two photos that were not mine.

Breathing Lessons, Everything I Never Told You and Arthur and George (and The Sense of an Ending)

On the face of it Breathing Lessons is a dull book about a day in the life of Maggie Moran, on her way to the funeral of the husband of her (best?) friend Serena. Lots of back story as she wonders about her life with Ira and her two children. But what elevates this story is the quality of Anne Tyler's writing:

Part Two starts with "For the past several months now, Ira had been noticing the human race's wastefulness. People were squandering their lives, it appeared to him. They were splurging their energies on petty jealousies or vain ambitions or long standing, bitter grudges. It was a theme that emerged wherever he turned, as if someone were trying to tell him something. Not that he needed to be told.. didn't he know well enough all he himself had wasted?"

There were only a couple of times when the book slightly loses it's way, particularly near the end when, for me, it should have concentrated on the present and not the past. But I really got into the characters even though Maggie makes you mad. And a road trip through the Eastern States was always a pleasure.

If you want to read a family drama, there are far better ones than Everything I Never Told You. Just because it knits in a mysterious death does not take it into great thriller territory, it just falls between the two genres. The only sympathetic character is the one who ends up dead, all the others have contributed in their own delusional way. This is not to say there are some neat passages in the back story. But why it won Amazon's book of the year, well you will have to ask them.

When I started this book, I didn't know that Arthur and George were real life characters. I try not to read reviews before I start a book. So I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this longish novel as it alternates between the lives of the two characters of the title. It was when I realised who Arthur was half way through that I suddenly realised this was a true story. I was really looking forward to when Arthur and George meet and how their joint lives interact. Unfortunately it was all a bit of a let down. In a fictionalised account, it might have made an exciting ending, but not in real life.

Overall, I found the whole thing a bit overblown. Whilst Julian Barnes is a first class novelist, he could have done with cutting out at least a hundred pages, especially all the nonsense about Arthur's obsession with spiritualism. The brevity of his "Metroland" and "The Sense of an Ending" shows he can do it. Then it might have made an excellent book.

The Sense of an Ending
I hardly ever read a book twice. But having previously read my second Julian Barnes novel "Metroland", I knew I had to return to this even shorter novel. It felt it was an even better read than first time round in 2012. I'm not much older than our retired narrator Tony and there are many similarities with my character. He thinks he has had a peaceably good life (maybe not altogether a good thing) if not peaceable, has "some instinct for survival, for self preservation" (been there). But I don't agree with the last two paragraphs (poignant and brilliant as they may be) which sum up his present state of mind ... "towards the end of life ....the end of any likelihood of change in that life". I was older than Tony when I took up running, and that my friends is a massive change.  Yes, the book is about time and memory, and when our narrator says "time doesn't act as a fixative, rather as a solvent" I know what he means. And I know I will read this book again in a few years time.

My review for 2012 said: You wonder how such a short novel could win The Man Booker Prize, but Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending just shows how a brief story can be so good. Tony is looking back. He is retired (yes, OK, I am too) and is ruminating about Adrian, who he first met at school, and what happened to him. I did start off wondering why "The" Sense of an Ending and not "A". But in the end I did found out why. The writing is just sublime. Tony asks a lot of questions of the reader. We do not have to necessarily agree, but they do make you think, and not in a highbrow philosophical way, but just about life. The book is also about memory, and how it is imperfect or distorted, especially as you grow older. But more than anything, the book transports you to a sort of semi-comfortable reflection of the past. I'm just not sure if, like Tony, you have to be retired.

American Sniper, Testament of Youth and Whiplash

I found American Sniper to be quite a troubling film. The glorification of army sniper Chris Kyle may be typical of conservative America, but I couldn't enjoy it. There was so much that was embarrasing, particularly the script and what came out of Kyle's mouth. It seemed as if director Clint Eastwood became bemused by his subject, an expert with a rifle and comfortable on tour, but a pretty pathetic character at home. The Iraq war and the effects on home life were done so much better in The Hurt Locker. How Bradley Cooper has been nominated for an Oscar I will never know. Sienna Miller was better as his wife, but made her character too nice to have married such an oaf. The action sequences were done well, but Kyle's post Iraq experiences were glossed over. In the end I thought a better story would have been about the enemy sniper skipping across the rooftops.

The memoir of Vera Brittain has been turned into a solid and attractive movie in Testament of Youth. It is only because it is a true story that you believe all the tragedy, this would have been quite ridiculous as fiction. The screenplay by Juliette Towhidi is excellent, and director James Kent has made a terrific transition from TV. The cinematography, costume and sets are equally magnificent. The scenes at Charing Cross Station (actually Keighley station plus some CGI) are wonderful. Typically the British cast are all good with a stand out performance from Swedish lead Alicia Vikander. I only heard one slip from her classy English accent. This is an emotional film, perhaps a bit too serious. We could have done with the odd lighter moment.

After all the recent films based on the lives of Turner, Turing, Hawking, Kyle and Brittain, it was good to see an original story. How the brilliant screenplay by young writer/director Damien Chazelle is only up for the best adapted screenplay Oscar, only the Academy knows. The rule about adapting his script from his earlier short is just crazy. This is as original as it gets.

There will be blood. JK Simmons deserves the same Oscar as Daniel Day Lewis for his portrayal as jazz music teacher Terence Fletcher, and that is for actor in a leading role. Yes, he outdoes Cumberbatch and Redmayne. But strangely (again) he is up for best supporting actor for which the others in this category can stay at home. His performance as the vicious, foul mouthed, angry, puffed up, domineering, manipulative, vitriolic but ultimately misguided Fletcher is a tour de force. Think the staff sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. How does he get away with it?

But it's not his blood that is spilt, it's that of nineteen year old, over ambitious, cross and pathetic student drummer Andrew Neiman, played adequately by Miles Teller. The story becomes a game or a one sided battle between the two as it twists and turns. When it goes into the most fantastic overtime, there is only one winner. The last fifteen minutes is the best of any movie I can remember. This is film at it's best, a theatrical experience but one that only works on the big screen. If there is one criticism, it could have done with a bit of the emotion from the previous film. It was all a bit loud, but that's what you get with drum kit.

A Career in Construction Part 27

I enjoyed my time in the Langley regional office. Although my main job was now processing Sub-Contract documents,I was still taking an active role in the previous contracts, including the Bath Road jobs and Epsom. I also inherited some administration on a few old contracts but overall, the year 2000 was pretty uneventful. And so was the start of 2001. I had also taken over a just completed contract for Gillette in Reading and the setting up and then managing the start of another large industrial job at Hanworth. Before this contract started I had to go to York in the May of 2001 to show the estimators that having had so many addendums and alterations during the tender process, they had somehow managed to end up with a negative quantity of excavated material to be removed from site. Apart from that, Hanworth went really well.

Into 2002 and nothing much changed. Lots of work on the completed but complicated Bath Road contracts, lots of administration on many old jobs, Sub-Contract documents to process and Hanworth in it's final stages. However in the summer of 2002, the company was negotiating a huge apartments complex called Discovery Dock near Canary Wharf. There were to be 185 luxury apartments over 23 storeys with a contract value of £42.4 million.

It was this contract that would take up most of my time for the next couple of years. I was given the responsibility for the whole of the negotiating and procurement of all the Sub-Contracts, and this involved some massive packages of work. My most successful negotiation ever was for the Joinery , all mdf doors, frames, skirtings and architraves. When we found the right Sub-Contractor we made over £1 Million on letting the work inside the tender allowance. This helped towards a bonus that we were paid in 2004.

The contract started in September 2002 and by early 2003 I was making regular visits to site. By this time I had relinquished all responsibility for processing Sub-Contract documents (apart from my own) and instead took on a couple of Sub-Contractors to look after their accounts on site. Both 2003 and 2004 were very busy years, but it was great being involved with a big team set up in a smart offices on site. However I had the best of both worlds, keeping my office in Langley with visits to Docklands once or twice a week.

In the September of 2004 I was finalising the Sub-Contracts for the last few trades on Discovery Dock when the region was awarded a laboratory complex called Burlington Danes on Du Cane Road in West London. At 12,000 Square Meters and a value of £35 million, another huge contract.

This was interesting to me as I had attended the school that had been demolished to make way for this project. The school was St Clement Danes, an all boys grammar school that became part of the comprehensive Burlington Danes School when it was merged with the girls Burlington Grammar next door.

So in the October of 2004 I was given the same role as Discovery Dock, negotiating and placing large Sub-Contract orders whilst finishing off those left over from the previous job. Again I was visiting site a couple of times a week. The groundworks, frame mechanical and electrical installations were all fairly straightforward but the many different types of cladding were a nightmare. So 2005 was as busy as ever. In the December we moved the regional office from Langley to one floor in a Slough office block. No longer my own office, but a desk in an open plan environment. Once I got used to it, it was great. I had a lot of involvement with the office move, both sorting and archiving vast amounts of files at the old office, and setting up the new place.

Towards the end of 2005, I decided I would retire at the end of the following year. This coincided with the company winning an office building in Welwyn Garden City, and they asked me if I would be the contract QS. I would not be site based but retain  my desk in Slough and visit site as necessary. I would also have a junior assistant to help out on an ad hoc basis.

So for my last year at work, in 2006, I was back to where I was in 1972 when I first joined Henry Boot. The contract itself was a delight. Just me, the site manager Darren and a part time planner. Everything went as well as any job I've been involved with. The monthly meetings with senior management were a delight. The contract had not quite finished by the time I left the week before Christmas, and I handed the job over to another QS.

There was a party for me at the end of my last day, and many members of staff came in from other contracts. I had been in the industry for 43 years and there are not many QS's in there sixties. I had thoroughly enjoyed nearly all my time working for national contractors and I was involved with so many wonderful buildings. From the fountains in Nottingham City Square, to the Hilton Hotel refurbishment and the last three contracts at Shepherds where the pictures above say it all.

These are my notebooks from 1992 to 2006. They have been very useful in compiling this posting, but it's now time for them to go to the recycling centre (previous years have already gone). It will be sad to see them go, but I have kept my pocket diaries. One day those will go too.

A Career in Construction Part 26

It was towards the end of my three month "holiday" that I took a phone call, through a third party colleague, inviting me to an interview for a job with Shepherd Construction. This was a little weird as I went for an interview with the same York based company back in 1972 when I was looking to leave George Wimpey. That time I was not offered a job, but this time would be different. An interview with the Southern Area manager in Watford was followed by one in York with the Company Construction Director and the Chief QS. I hired a Fiat Punto for the day (my company car had been embarrassingly collected on a low loader weeks before) and had a long interview at the Head Office.

I was then offered a job as a Unit Surveyor. This turned out to be the same grade as a Managing Surveyor, which title I inherited in due course. The Southern Area was a fledgling organisation, the office being some desks in the Company's small London office on Conduit Street used by directors and marketing people. I was to be site based, not far away on a office refurbishment on Cavendish Square, to begin with as the only QS. So on my first day on the 9th July 1996, I was back to where I was in 1972. Except this time my office was big enough for a desk and that was about it. How we were expected to work on site with the constant use of percussion breakers I do not know. The only concession was that the council limited this noisy working to three hours on, three hours off. There were times we just had to leave the site and give our eardrums a break.

But the job was great. The initial stages required much knocking down and breaking up of walls and floors. I remembered from my visits to sites  as a manager, that my QS's used to use coloured highlighters to show what was actually taken out. So there was I marking up drawings with my highlighter to use in the production of new schedules of quantities on which we were to be paid. These the client's QS never even checked. Most of my time was taken with placing Sub-Contract Orders, preparing valuations, remeasures and variation accounts. So I was grateful for some assistance when Joe started on 16th September.

That assistance was quite fortuitous as in October I was attending preliminary meetings for the construction of a new office building on the Bath Road in Slough. So through October and November I was looking after both contracts. I actually moved into the site office at Slough on 10th December 1996 but I still had overall responsibility for Cavendish Square. 165 Bath Road, Slough would be my home for the next 2 years. And although Slough took up most of my time, in 1997 I was also given a industrial contract for BOC at Wembley. The region had also taken offices in Windsor but it was always crowded. Towards the end of 1997 the company won the contract for the offices at 217 Bath Road, right next door to 165.

So I now had overall responsibility for both Slough contracts as well as Wembley and Cavendish Square. Into 1998 and an industrial complex at Southall also came under my wing. By the end of 1998 I was setting up the Sub-Contracts for another major industrial contract in Hayes. At the beginning of 1999 we moved out of the offices on Bath Road and moved to some tiny temporary accommodation that had been left at one of the Southall contracts. Not a very satisfactory situation. I was also given a role to head up a large retail complex in Epsom, but I had to strongly resist efforts to make me site based there. That journey would have been horrendous. In the end I took on the management of the QS team in the short term.

For most of 1999 I was dodging about between Southall and the Regional Offices in Langley, mostly putting out fires on all the contracts with which I had become involved over the last three years. There was a big claim to put together on 165 Bath Road Slough, lots of work on final accounts on Southall and Hayes and by the middle of the year Epsom  was in full swing  But in the September, I took on a completely new role. The man who processed all the Sub-Contract documents for all the region's contracts left the company and I took over his position. This did not mean I lost responsibility for the contracts with which I was involved. But I was office based once again, and would be for my last seven years at Shepherds.

A Career in Construction Part 25

It so often happens that one large loss making contract can bring a construction company to it's knees. And so it was with Gloucester Road. Turnover was never a problem in 1995. We even hit our best month in November 1995 at £2.344 Million. But Gloucester Road was hemorrhaging cash.  Although our bank balance at the 3rd January 1996 was £460,000, this was a lot less than we were used to.

At the end of 1995 and into the new year, we were looking for investment or at the worst, a buyer. In January we brought in advisers to review if we were a "going concern". We had claims in o April n Gloucester Road and New Bond Street, but both clients were playing for time. And our failure to gain completion certificates (the clients again) for both jobs meant we also had cash tied up in bonds.

There is nothing so horrible as the pressure of not paying our Sub-Contractors, but this is what happened in February 1996 when the cash position was unbearable. By March we had called in Butcher Phillips as Administrators and on Friday 15th March we went into Administration.  It was actually a big relief in the end. Most of the staff were made redundant on the Monday with no prospect of a buyer for the company. I was made redundant on the 29th March but attended the office all through April, mainly working on a Statement of Affairs.

It had been an amazing eight years, something I was very lucky to experience.

I finally left at the end of April. I was in no hurry to find another job. I took three months off, and how wonderful this time would be. I bought a computer from the administrators and learnt how to use one for the first time. It would stand me in good stead when I finally found my next job.

A Career in Construction Part 24

In the first months of 1993, a huge amount of my time was involved with negotiations on the Final Account for the British Airways Shorthaul Catering Facility with meetings every week. This was a complicated and intense resolution of many Sub-Contract accounts but eventually we achieved a successful settlement. The most notable contract we gained at this time was the reconstruction and fit out of a mansion on Palace Green, Kensington for an Arab Sheikh. A major contract and one that turned out very well. I can remember being involved in the presentation documents to go with the tender, one of the latest nights at work ever, and I mean after midnight. So late, that on the way home I was stopped by the police for a random breath test.

Other contracts in 1993, as well as those spilling over from the previous year (notably Fenchurch Street) included Heathrow House, Paddock Wood, and Raines Dairy. But the largest contract this year was gained through our ownership by SAE. The Orion Hotel (now the Citadenes Aparthotel) was a new building of 129 apartments on Goswell Road in the city. Plenty to keep us busy.

But what happened at the end of 1993 would define our existence for the years to come. Our French owners had a change at the top and instead of their global expansion (of which we were part) they decided to put this in reverse. They had been looking to sell our company but could not find a buyer. There was even a chance they might just close us down. In the end they sold the company to Mike for a nominal sum. I can remember vividly the 16th December 1993. I joined Mike at the offices of his solicitors, Garrett and Co, with our advisers Arthur Anderson, as the final documents were signed in France and faxed over to us. There was much nail biting and pacing The Strand as we were never convinced it would happen. But it did and we were on our own. Not really a place to be as the market was becoming more and more difficult.

However, 1994 started on a high note when we won St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy. A major reconstruction and refurbishment of an existing property on Fitzroy Square. Note the extra storey we built on top.

We also won Woolwich County Court and  Travel Lodges for Granada at Leigh Delamare. And we were negotiating the contract for a large Aparthotel on Gloucester Road for Citadenes. Instead of a reasonable negotiation with who were our ex French partners, it turned out to be a nightmare with their consultants MDA. We were desperate for this prestigious contract (£6.6 Million was quite something in 1994) but being an independent small builder was going to make it hard to capture jobs of the size we were used to. At the final meeting we conceded too much but agreed the deal. In the taxi back from the meeting I made it plain that we needed to win some better profitable work in the future to offset what I believed would be a big hit. The contract was signed on 20th May 1994, but it proved to be a fatal decision.

Gloucester Road was in trouble from the start. Although we submitted early claims for delays outside our control, cash flow was already a problem. We were also experiencing problems on tenders. The market was getting ever tighter with work being won below cost, something we could not compete with, especially as we knew we had to get profitable work with the risks on the hotel contract.

The year ended with winning only one decent contract out of the many for which we tendered, a £2 Million contract for the Cable Corporation. Although at the beginning of 1995 we also won a £3 Million refurbishment contract on New Bond Street. But Gloucester Road was continuing to be financially very difficult although going better on site. I remember the Sunday we closed Gloucester Road for the delivery of two massive vierendeel steel girders to bridge the pub that never closed.
And there was  one huge highlight. We were invited to the opening of St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy by the Queen and Prince Philip. On the 8th March 1995 with five other members of staff, waiting on the landing of the rear staircase, we were greeted by the Queen who climbed the stairs on her own. To shake her hand was as good as it gets.

St Luke's Hospital also turned out well financially. Although the contract period was doubled due to client changes, by the end of 1995 I had managed to negotiate a respectable final account over a succession of meetings with the client's QS, and the top bras from the clergy. This was to be our last bit of good news.

We did win the odd small contract during 1995, but what amazed me, looking at my notebooks, was how many tenders we processed in  both 1994 and 1995. It was just so hard to win anything decent, which would make 1995 our last full year of trading.

A Career in Construction Part 23

The first half of 1989 was a period of consolidation. New jobs came are way, Herbal Hill Offices on Faringdon Road was a huge capture. And we had settled into our office in Ruislip. However the pressure for space there had become a problem. Our finances were such that we could afford somewhere better and in June we moved into a much plusher and self contained office block in West Drayton with carp parking underneath. We had definitely arrived.

There were lots of tenders coming our way and we added to our estimating team with a tender planner. So may of our tenders required professional submissions and we were getting used to presenting fairly sophisticated tender documents. This stood us in good stead when, at the end of the year, we tendered for a Shorthaul Catering Facilty for British Airways at Heathrow. This was our most important job so far, so when we won it against stiff competition, we were ecstatic. That was to be our flagship project for 1990.

Although contracts at The Royal Mint, Denmark Hill and Saville Row (below) and other smaller jobs meant we were a very busy company. And, amazingly, profitable. Our site teams had grown considerably.

By this time we had changed our name to Wiltshier Design and Management Ltd and taken on a Design Director to add to our board that comprised the Managing Director, Commercial Director, Construction Director and Finance Director. Into 1991 and more new contracts including 1 America Square. But it was at the end of the year that a small refurb became something major. The interior redevelopment for Generali Insurance's headquarters on Fenchurch Street was a hugely successful contract  for 1992. Other projects that year started with Chiltern Street, Farnborough, a car rental facility for Avis  and a refit in Terminal 4 both at Heathrow.

But 1992 was momentous for one reason. The Wiltshier Group sold our company to the French Group SAE. There had been a link between the two groups over the last couple of years and when SAE were looking to expand their operations into this country, it was our company that seemed to fit the bill. It also gave us the opportunity of being a more independent concern, being able to tender for traditional contracts as well as design and build and management jobs. We would be away from the Wiltshier brand but with the backing of a huge French company. The only problem was our change of name to Relais Construction. Where did that come from?

But apart from change of ownership, things went on pretty much as before. A healthy balance sheet, our contracts had been overall profitable for five years (not very often a construction company can say that) and we had a large cash reserve in the bank. Little did we know that this independence from bank borrowing would be our downfall in the future. But at this time, with our company being five years old, we were heading into 1993 in a good position.

A Career in Construction Part 22

I'm not sure how we were allowed to win our next contract. The office building for Digital at the Solent Business Park was pure design and build and we were only supposedly Wiltshier Construction Management. Maybe we were already treading on the toes of other southern divisions of the group. Or our chairman and the group MD wanted to give us a decent start. We won this contract in the February of 1988, took on some new staff and suddenly, with the Hilton job going full pelt, we were very busy. I was heavily involved with tendering and placing the first Sub-Contracts on the Digital contract before our new surveyor started.

We had taken on an estimator and settled him in the portacabin at Harmondsworth. He was invaluable in us winning the Digital contract and others to come. However, we needed some decent office space. We found a cheap office to rent in Ruislip and after some quick redecoration, we moved in on 6th June 1988.

During the second half of the year the group decided to wind down Wiltshier DMC (design, manage and construct) and transfer their outstanding contracts to our company. These contracts certainly did wonders for our portfolio of contracts, and our balance sheet. They included student accomodation at Stag Hill for the University of Reading amongst many others.

We also took on our own accountant (later to become Financial Director) and a Construction Director. We started a job for Portex in Kent and a small residential complex at Shirland Road in London. The next major job to be won was a management contract at Richford Street in West London.

So 1988 had been a momentous year, probably the most enjoyable of my career. From a portacabin to some almost reasonable offices, a good number of contracts and a growing number of staff. Could we keep it up?

Birdman, The Theory Of Everything and Into The Woods

Post Christmas and the rush to show Oscar favourites is on. And what a great start with the amazing Birdman. My most vivid memory is of Edward Norton and Emma Stone on the roof of the St James Theatre on Broadway, the theatre where basically the whole movie was shot in 30 days. Their conversation pitches both of them in contention for best supporting roles. Emma Stone was brilliant throughout, and who could have expected that.

Michael Keaton is equally amazing, think Natalie Portman in Black Swan. I guess it's not surprising that a movie about theatre, shot in a theatre, would bring out the best in the whole cast. The long takes shot by director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu are quite astounding. They help to give the impression of theatricality, as if we were watching the continuous action as it would be on stage. The whole film is highly original if not really weird. But what an experience.

For some reason I actually preferred The Theory of Everything to Birdman. The latter just does not have the constant emotion of the former, something I wasn't expecting. It must have been the screenplay by novelist and play-write Anthony McCarten that did this. He is actually the man to thank for getting this movie made. He fell in love with Jane Hawking's memoir and persuaded her to sell him the option for the movie rights whilst writing the screenplay. And he couldn't have found two better producers than Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title to wring out the words that I finally fell for.

Add to that the miracle of casting Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as Stephen and Jane Hawking (both deserve best actor Oscars) together with the direction of James Marsh and you have the best film I have seen for a long time. It was probably more enjoyable than my favourite films of the last two years in Locke and Margin Call.

The only reason I went to see Into The Woods was because we actually went to see the stage version in London back in December 1990. Here Julia McKenzie and Imelda Staunton were superb. However the movie is a huge disappointment. It has that screechy frantic quality that has you hoping the end will come quicker. The only saving grace is Emily Blunt as the baker's wife who brings a calm beauty  to the proceedings, And she can sing which is more than can be said for most of the others. This was not the movie for James Corden or Anna Kendrick. One of the worst films I have seen for ages.

Tring Book Club - The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

What an extraordinary book, so unlike Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake trilogy. Parts were reminiscent of the domestic dramas of "Cat's Eye" that I read a long time ago. But that is where the similarities end. This is the story of three middle aged ladies in Toronto who all have the misfortune to have known Zenia, a reincarnation of those horrible witches from fairy tales. The novel slightly lags when we hear about their individual childhoods, but ramps up when we find out how Zenia came into their lives. I could not read these passages in bed as I was so angry that I would never have got to sleep. It all then comes together in the last eighty odd thrilling pages which I read in a rush. This was Atwood at her best, fantastic storytelling combined with writing from the top drawer. Phew!

"New Tricks" Bow Out With The Cure

The latest series of "New Tricks" came to a conclusion in October but we have only just watched the final episode. This is one of our favourite TV shows and Episode 10 "The Queen's Speech" was a fitting finale. Lots of great location shots of Harrow School and hardly any scenes with Denis Waterman.

The one great moment for me was the final song "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure. After the inspired inclusion of their song "Friday I'm In Love" in the Richard Curtis movie "About Time", this latest use of one of their songs was almost as good.

Songs From "Call The Midwife" - The Christmas Special 2014

This post is quite late because we missed the live showing of "Call  The Midwife". So we watched it on BBC iPlayer last night courtesy of my new Sony S5200 DVD and Internet box. So, at last, here are the songs from this episode.

"The Sea of Love" by Marty Wilde.
I had originally thought it would be the original version sung by John Phillip Baptiste (aka Phil Phillips) who wrote the song with George Khoury. But it failed to make the charts here in 1959 when Marty Wilde's cover version reached number 3. I will always associate the song with the movie of the same name starring Al Pacino.

"Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me" by Elvis Presley. A song from 1957.

"I'll Be Home For Christmas" by Johnny Mathis. From his 1958 Album "Merry Christmas".  Originally a Bing Crosby recording in 1947.

"I'll Hang My Heart On A Christmas Tree" by Suzi Miller. I had never heard this before.

P.S.  The incidental music at the beginning of the episode reminded me so much of  the orchestral arrangement to a 1959 record by Adam Faith called "What Do You Want". The arrangement was by my hero John Barry.

P.P.S. I thought I saw somewhere a trailer for the new 2015 series with the backing of a song called "Baby I'm Yours". Maybe by Peter and Gordon? But now I cannot find that trailer anywhere on the web. Maybe I dreamed it?
Hurrah! No, I didn't dream it. It's the version by the Arctic Monkeys. Superb. Listen to it on YouTube.

A Double Parkrun

A Double Parkrun on New Year's Day. Aylesbury Parkrun started at it's normal time of 9am, so an early start for a record breaking 170 runners! I took it very easy with the prospect of a hilly Tring Parkrun to come at 10.30. I'm so glad I did as the Tring Park course was even harder than I had imagined, and a lot more muddy. There were about fifty of us who ran both events and the Facebook page for Tring has the full list.

I wondered who the fast lady was who lapped me at Aylesbury. Their Facebook page told me the answer.
"On a positive note if you ran with us today you ran with a Team GB athlete & London 2012 Olympian Claire Hallisey!!! How awesome is that.
Not only did she run with us today she broke our course ladies record, Well Done Claire!"

Alison and I also ran Aylesbury Parkrun on Christmas Day (I ran with Sara who was over with my son Michael for the holiday). So if you add this to the Saturdays at either end of the two weeks, Alison and I ran Parkrun six times in fifteen days. And today it didn't stop raining. We must be mad.