Well, I will be... looking for some Blitz Spirit from local companies, to get this show on the road! of course, it would help if my printer didn't run out of ink every three minutes.
Rather exciting talking to the ladies in Penge as they started telling me their Blitz stories. Next week I'm going armed with a recorder!
Please see the Blitz 70th anniversary site at
http://sites.google.com/site/alexcarter ... Home/blitz
if you're interested, anyone/ company who helps out will receive a mention and I'll post up what the total remaingin is, as we go- and it'll go in the SAF brochure too if they do it before Thursday next week.
Thanks for looking,
Alex
Singer Seen Traipsing Around Sydenham
I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to "commemorate" the Blitz in this manner? Much less trivialise it as some kind of trite musical event.
If you want to remember it I suggest you find some of the mass graves scattered around and clean them up and lay a wreath or two.
To "commemorate" a period that was so full of terror and destruction especially in this part of London is the height of crassness.
Perhaps you could write some kind of song around pulling bits of people out of what was once your home?
Or about being in such fear, that you dirty yourself as bits of the house next door come through the walls as you are all cowering under a iron table while the bombs an incendaries drop?
Or of going weeks without sleep and trying to sleeping in rubble?
You really have no idea, especially as you seem to believe the Tony Robinson view of history of cheery chirrupy cockneys singing in the rain of bombs while chalking anti Hitler slogans on their bombed out shop fronts and giving Churchill style V signs with the other hand.
gor blimey guv wot a larf eh? ain't me 'ouse, aint got me missus no more, well, we only found arf of 'er..... still we ain't arf got some happy tunes ter sing eh matey.
gor luv a duck orf to the music 'all wiv me pie an mash ration.
If you want to remember it I suggest you find some of the mass graves scattered around and clean them up and lay a wreath or two.
To "commemorate" a period that was so full of terror and destruction especially in this part of London is the height of crassness.
Perhaps you could write some kind of song around pulling bits of people out of what was once your home?
Or about being in such fear, that you dirty yourself as bits of the house next door come through the walls as you are all cowering under a iron table while the bombs an incendaries drop?
Or of going weeks without sleep and trying to sleeping in rubble?
You really have no idea, especially as you seem to believe the Tony Robinson view of history of cheery chirrupy cockneys singing in the rain of bombs while chalking anti Hitler slogans on their bombed out shop fronts and giving Churchill style V signs with the other hand.
gor blimey guv wot a larf eh? ain't me 'ouse, aint got me missus no more, well, we only found arf of 'er..... still we ain't arf got some happy tunes ter sing eh matey.
gor luv a duck orf to the music 'all wiv me pie an mash ration.
kenny
kennyb wrote:I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to "commemorate" the Blitz in this manner? Much less trivialise it as some kind of trite musical event.
If you want to remember it I suggest you find some of the mass graves scattered around and clean them up and lay a wreath or two.
To "commemorate" a period that was so full of terror and destruction especially in this part of London is the height of crassness.
Perhaps you could write some kind of song around pulling bits of people out of what was once your home?
Or about being in such fear, that you dirty yourself as bits of the house next door come through the walls as you are all cowering under a iron table while the bombs an incendaries drop?
Or of going weeks without sleep and trying to sleeping in rubble?
You really have no idea, especially as you seem to believe the Tony Robinson view of history of cheery chirrupy cockneys singing in the rain of bombs while chalking anti Hitler slogans on their bombed out shop fronts and giving Churchill style V signs with the other hand.
gor blimey guv wot a larf eh? ain't me 'ouse, aint got me missus no more, well, we only found arf of 'er..... still we ain't arf got some happy tunes ter sing eh matey.
gor luv a duck orf to the music 'all wiv me pie an mash ration.
Thank you for your post, KennyB. You reaction is interesting. Do you have some direct experience to contribute to the project? In that case I would be glad to hear more from you.
As far as trivialising the Blitz as a trite musical event, I think you have misunderstood the concept of this Blitz project.
We all know some wartime songs, and on their own, they mean nothing. Perhaps some of them are trite without the context in which they were set. Their strength is drawn from the horror which they were trying to drown out.
I didn't live through it, but I don't think this disqualifies me from respecting the people that did for their valour and dignity. Would we survive it today? It cannot be answered without placing us in exactly the same circumstances, which we hope would never happen.
Of course the propaganda was there to simulate a coping attitude. However the ladies in Sydenham on Monday and in Penge on Tuesday, told me that people clung to a sense of humour, clung to their community, and supported eachother in the face of horror.
Whether we like it or not, it is 70 years since the Blitz. People want to share how they coped. They want it to be relevant to those of us who didn't live through the Hell of it. This is meant to be a tribute to the stoicism and bravery of Londoners.
Thank you admin
I appreciate squiqs good intentions.
commemorate is perhaps a poor choice of word to choose in order to create an impression of what happened.
I was there as a child, it wasn't nice.
While not exactly the blitz period I suggest you google "flying bombs and rockets" to see the carnage caused in South London
As for the old ladies I am puzzled; as this is all happened 70 years ago these ladies will be in their 80s to have at least a half decent recall, surely? I am hard put to recall much from the age of 10, albeit being bombed to pieces does make a stronger impression on ones memory.
Where are all these octogenarians in Penge?. [land of my fathers so to speak]
Pehaps I spent too much time that weekend watching that Tony Robinson [the worlds worst historian] with his dreadful Blitz pastiche.
As for maestro he is just one of an aggressive group of 3 or 4 here who delight in harranging and bullying other posters which is why I rarely [hardly ever] post despite being a regular reader.
I don't feel I have to defend myself to a fool.
My apologies for living where I do.
Goodnight
I appreciate squiqs good intentions.
commemorate is perhaps a poor choice of word to choose in order to create an impression of what happened.
I was there as a child, it wasn't nice.
While not exactly the blitz period I suggest you google "flying bombs and rockets" to see the carnage caused in South London
As for the old ladies I am puzzled; as this is all happened 70 years ago these ladies will be in their 80s to have at least a half decent recall, surely? I am hard put to recall much from the age of 10, albeit being bombed to pieces does make a stronger impression on ones memory.
Where are all these octogenarians in Penge?. [land of my fathers so to speak]
Pehaps I spent too much time that weekend watching that Tony Robinson [the worlds worst historian] with his dreadful Blitz pastiche.
As for maestro he is just one of an aggressive group of 3 or 4 here who delight in harranging and bullying other posters which is why I rarely [hardly ever] post despite being a regular reader.
I don't feel I have to defend myself to a fool.
My apologies for living where I do.
Goodnight