A 105-year-old bandstand in Beckenham - the last of its kind - is to be given Grade II listed status - not least, apparently, because on the 16th of August 1969 it was the scene of an early appearance (shortly after the release of 'Space Oddity') by David Bowie at a small-scale free concert. It's thought that he composed the lyrics to 'Life On Mars' while sitting on the steps of the bandstand, which is still in use. There's a photo on the BBC News website.
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I've always loved outdoor bandstands, specially seaside ones which often had very competent musicians and played good music. I enjoyed outdoor theatre too.
This is the webcam of the Minack theatre in Cornwall. It's fascinating but perhaps a bit voyeuristic - you feel you might suddenly see someone scratching their bum!
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17th August
On This Date: English forces under the command of the Duke of Bedford defeat a combined French & Scottish force twice its number at the Battle of Verneuil (1424 - also known as the "Second Battle of Agincourt", around 10,000 men are slaughtered, the English making up about a fifth of the causualties); 10 weeks of popular uprisings against the imposition of the Book of Common Prayer are brought to a violent end by the troops of the Earl of Bedford at the Battle of Sampford Courtney, who slaughter over a thousand of the rebels (1549 - many other rebels are subsequently arrested and hanged, drawn, & quartered for Treason); Tura Rigaud, an African man enslaved on the Knip Plantation in the Dutch colony of Curacao, leads a month-long slave revolt (1795); the Act for Marriages in England 1836 legalises Civil Marriage in England and Wales (the Act is strongly opposed by many bishops who see it as "the thin end of the wedge", "where will it all end?" etc etc); the 4-month-long Dakota Uprising by native Americans against white settler abuses begins (1862); Wagner's Gotterdammerung is premiered at the Bayreath Festspielhaus, conducted by Hans Richter, bringing the first complete performance of the Ring Cycle to a close (1876); Bridget Driscoll becomes the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed as a result of being struck by a motor car (1896 - the car is being used to demonstrate how safe cars are - and, it's true: nobody in the car is physically hurt); Emile Cohl's animated film Fantasmagorie, the earliest surviving animated cartoon, is released in France (1908); Jewish factory supervisor Leo Frank, controversially convicted of the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, is kidnapped from his prison and lynched by a group of 28 prominent antisemitic businessmen [including a lay Preacher, a judge, a former sherriff, and a former Governor of Georgia] watched by a crowd of adults and children (1915 - " Lynch law is a good sign; it shows that a sense of justice lives among the people"); the US Air Force, supported by the RAF, suffer heavy losses in the ambitious but unsuccessful Schweinfurt–Regensburg bombing mission to wipe out the German aircraft industry (1943 - on the same day the US 7th and the British 8th Armies complete the liberation of Sicily); Secker & Warbeck publish George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945); Honegger's Symphonie Liturgique is premiered in Zurich by the Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch (1946); the border between India & Pakistan, the Radcliffe Line, is published (1947); Gottfried von Einem's opera Der Prozess, with a libretto after Kafka by fello composer Boris Blacher, is premiered at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Böhm (1953 - the cast includes Max Lorenz, Walter Berry, Ludwig Hofmann, & Lisa Della Casa); an earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana causes 27 confirmed deaths with a further 9 possible casualties (1959 - it also creates a new lake, called "Quake Lake"); 18-year-old bricklayer Peter Fechter is shot by East German guards whilst trying to cross the Berlin Wall, and bleeds to death in front of onlookers who are prevented by the guards from helping, and who do nothing to help beyond throwing bandages at him [which he cannot reach] (1962); Soviet mission to Venus, Venera 7 [the first spacecraft to land on - and to transmit data from - another planet] is launched (1970); Arktika, a nuclear-powered Soviet icebreaker, becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole (1977); a group of very naughty boys release their film Life of Brian in the United States (1979); President Clinton admits that he had "misled people" when he claimed 8 months earlier that he "did not have sexual relations with that woman" Monica Lewinsky (1998); Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich, & Maria Alyokhina, members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot are sentenced to two years imprisonment in a penal colony for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" (2012); Australian Attorney-General George Brandis receives a standing ovation in the Senate for condemning Pauline Hanson, racist leader of the One Nation party, for wearing a Burka in the Australian parliament (2017 - "To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do.").
Birthdays Today include: Nicola Porpora (1686); Davy Crockett (1786); Marcus Garvey (1887); Mae West (1893); Henri Tomasi (1901); Leopold Nowak (1904); Zygmunt Mycielski (1907); Maureen O'Hara (1920); Valerie Eliot (1926); Ted Hughes (1930); VS Naipaul (1932); Edward Cowie, John Humphrys, & Robert de Niro (all 1943); Jean-Bernard Pommier (1944); Heiner Goebbels (1952); Sean Penn (1960); Johannes Maria Staud (1974).
Final Days for: Frederick the Great (1786); Lorenzo Da Ponte (1838); Ole Bull (1880); Carl Zeller (1898); Pierre-Octave Ferroud (1936); Florent Schmitt (1958); Carlos Salzedo (1961); Otto Stern (1969); Jean Barraqué & Conrad Aiken (both 1973); Ira Gershwin (1983); Rudolf Hess (1987); Pearl Bailey (1990); Franco Donatoni (2000); Graham Whettam & Bill Deedes (both 2007).
And the Radio3 Schedules for the morning of Sunday, 17th August, 1969 were:
What's New? "A programme of recent records" (including Scarlatti's Symphony in D for Flute, Trumpet, Strings & Continuo)
Bach Cantatas: BWVs 179 & 113.
Orchestras of the World: BPO
Artists' Choice: "John Pritchard introduces records of his own choice"
Haydn S4tet in G, Op 64 #4; Schumann Dichterliebe; & Brahms 6tet in Bb.[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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... I am convinced the producers of Breakfast read ferney's 'Today's the Day'.Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
What's the betting we get this tomorrow?
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You think they plan that far ahead?Originally posted by vinteuil View Post... I am convinced the producers of Breakfast read ferney's 'Today's the Day'.
What's the betting we get this tomorrow?
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18th August
The Feast Day of St Fiacre, the 7th Century Abbot, hermit, gardener, and physician who was born in Ireland (possibly near Kilkenny) who was brought up as a monk and trained in the preparation and usage of herbal medicine. He moved to France in 628, where the Bishop of Meaux granted him as much land as he could entrench with a furrow in one day in the area of North Central France that now bears his name. Using just the tip of his staff, Fiacre ploughed several acres of land, uprooting any trees or bushes that got in his way. On this land he built a hermitage, together with an oratory, and a hospice, the medicines for which were grown in the large garden. He is the Patron Saint of Gardeners, herbalists and of "people suffering from haemmorhoids and venereal diseases" (although whether both afflictions at once or separately isn't unambiguous).
Also on this Date: Virginia Dare is born, the first child of English parents born in the United States (1587 - what happened to her, her parents, and the colonial community on Roanoke Island into which she was born is unknown - her grandfather was Governor of the colony, and had to return to England to stock up on provisions, tools, and medicines; when he returned, on what would have been his granddaughter's 3rd birthday, the colony was totally abandoned); the two-day-long trial of the Lancashire Witches begins at Lancaster Castle (1612); Urbain Grandier is subjected to a day of torture before being burnt alive at the stake, accused of witchcraft and being responsible for the demonic possession of the Ursuline Nuns at the convent in Loudon in Western France (1623 - despite the torture, Grandier denies the accusations); Racine's Iphigénie is first performed in the Orangerie of the palace of Versailles (1674); a huge meteor, appearing about half the size of the Moon, is seen across England (1738 - it is possible that the Hambleton meteorite discovered in 2005 is a fragment of the 1738 meteor); Gordon Laing becomes the first European to set foot in Timuktu (1826 - he does not long survive his discovery: he dies 6 weeks later, strangled by robbers, after leaving the city); Ladislao Gutiérrez, an Argentinian Jesuit priest, and his 20 year-old lover Maria Camila O'Gorman Ximénez - 8 months pregnant with his child - are shot by firing squad on the orders of President Juan Manuel de Rosas who has suspended judicial proceedings and taken the interpretation and administration of the law upon himself (1848 - the pair had been kidnapped from their attempted elopement to face judgement: the baby is "baptised" by Camilla being given holy water to drink - so that's alright, then); during a total solar eclipse of the sun, French Astronomer Pierre Janssen notices a yellow line in the chromosphere that he speculates was created by a hitherto unknown element (1868 - three months later, the speculation is confirmed, and the "new" element named Helium); the Battle of Gravelotte is the largest in the Franco-Prussian War, and results in victory for the Prussian forces (1870); Schreker's opera Die Ferne Klang is premiered at Frankfurt Opera, conducted by Ludwig Rottenberg (1912); a fire breaks out in a house in the Greek city of Thessaloniki at 3:00pm - it is not put out until the following night, by which time two-thirds of the city has been destroyed, with around 73500 people left homeless (1917 - no fatalities, however); Tennessee becomes the last State to ratify the 19th Ammendment to the US Constitution, enfranchising many middle class white women (1920); the first annual Women's Amateur Athletics Association Competition is held in London (1923); the "Hardest Day" of the Battle of Britain, in which the Luftwaffe made an all-out attempt to destroy the RAF - more aircraft on both sides are destroyed on this date than in any other single engagement in the Battle of Britain, and subsequent aerial fighting is less intense, simply because neither side has enough craft to commit to such activity (1940); royalist extremists shoot dead Belgian Communist leader [and leader of the Belgian Resistance during the Nazi occupation] Julien Lahaut at his home, a week after he is believed to have shouted "vive la Republique" at the swearing-in of Prince Baudouin as Belgium's regent (1950); Jimi Hedrix brings the Woodstock Festival to a close (1969 - he & his band start performing at 9:00am, by which time many of the crowd have gone home --- leaving a mere 200,000 to see the closing performance); anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko is arrested at a road block for violating his court order banning him from travelling (1977 - he is held in Walmer police station, naked and shackled, and is tortured to death over the next three weeks); General Pervez Musharraf resigns as President of Pakistan having been threatened with Impeachment (2008); the first Terrorist attack in Finnish history is perpetrated in the city of Turku (2017 - a Moroccan asylum seeker stabs two women to death, and injures another 8 people); ... and, this time last year, proteomic tests at the University of Catania reveal that solidified material discovered in urns in the 2,000 year-old tomb of Egyptian official Ptahmes is a hard goats-milk cheese - the oldest yet discovered.
Birthdays Today include: Francesco Canova da Milano (1497); Antonio Salieri (1750); Benjamin Godard (1849); Marcel Carné (1906); Amelia Boynton Robinson (1911);Moura Lympany (1916); Shelley Winters (1920); Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922); James C Brown (1923); Brian Aldiss (1925); Luc Montagnier (1932); Roman Polanski (1933); Robert Redford (1936); Sheila Cassidy (1937); Patrick Swayze (1952);
Final Days for: Genghis Khan (1227); André-Jacques Garnerin (1823); Honoré de Balzac (1850);Walter Chrysler (1940); Erwin Schulhoff (1942 - in Wülzburg Concentration Camp); Robert Russell Bennett & Anita Loos (both 1981); Nikolaus Pevsner (1983); Elmer Bernstein (2004); Scott McKenzie (2012); Roger Smalley (2015); Bruce Forsyth (2017).
And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Saturday, 18th August 1979 were:
Aubade: Sullivan Overture and Dance of Nymphs & Reapers [from "The Tempest"]; Bizet Je dis que rien [from "Carmen"]; Reger Variations & Fugue on a theme of Mozart; Saint-Saens Danse Macabre.
Stereo Release: Balakirev Islamey; Mozart Divertimento in Eb K563; Tchaikovsky The Enchantress [acts 2 & 3].
Bandstand: Kettering Citadel Band/Donald Manning play Gregson Daralo March; Symphonic Rhapsody for euphonium and band; & Variations on Laudate Dominum.
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra: Smetana Polka to Our Girls; Dvorak 'cello Conc; Janacek Taras Bulba (historic recordings)[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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Fine CD of Da Milano's music by Paul O'Dette - Il Divino - on Harmonia Mundi, MMU 907557. The most admired instrumentalist of the Italian Renaissance, and court lutenist to various popes. Something of a specialist, his surviving output consists of Fantasias (or Ricercars), and instrumental arrangements of vocal works - unusually for a lutenist he has not left us any dance music, though he probably played and improvised it without bothering to write it down. I was struck by a passage from one of the Fantasias on this disc which also appears in Dowland's Fantasia P[oulton] 1, which I play (also known to pluckers as Fantasia no. 7 - its number in Robert Dowland's Varietie of Lute Lessons) and which turns up in other composers' work as well.Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
O'Dette has done a superb job over the years in producing generously-filled CDs of single composers covering some of the less well-known parts of the repertoire - Neusidler, Kapsberger, Bacheler - invariably around the 70-80 minute mark (hats off to Harmonia Mundi).
PS So who is the patron saint of taxis?Comment
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... not, as many think, S Fiacre. But you knew that, didn't you?Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
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Saint Hubert?[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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Saint Caberine (of the Wheels)?[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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There is a village with church dedicated to Saint-Fiacre near Moulins-sur-Allier. The son of the steward of the Count's estate intended to enter the priesthood, took up Medicine but on the death of his father, to earn a living gave this up and entered the police where he achieved some eminence. There was a scandal involving the sudden death of the Countess during first Mass one All Soul's Day in the early 1930s, after which the estate was sold up, but otherwise it is a dull uneventful place. Neither the church nor château are visitable, although I expect M. Vinteuil has passed through.Last edited by Alain Maréchal; 17-08-19, 19:10.Comment
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Possibly St Christopher, but maybe he's for the passengers not the driver!Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View PostComment
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If you're a taxi driver hoping to pick up somebody who's just arrived on the Eurostar, it would presumably be St. Pancras.Comment
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