Fortress

Lyrics

(1)

(Spare a little grease, spare a little grease...And today, here on the vitamin B glandular show...) (2)

Two hours!
With four left wing kids
I spent time in Nazi Fortress
Much discussion in room C-H-1-O-C-H-11 (3)

I did not understand why
I could not accept the fact
that I'd accepted the contract
Much discussion in this institution
Much discussion in boiled beef and carrots (4)
Room C-H-1-O-C-H-2-O-11

It was clear in the window eye
The brick outlined the blue sky
And I had to go round the gay graduates in the toilets
And Good King Harry was there fucking Jimmy Savile (5)

Much discussion in room C-H-1-O-2-H-11
Much discussion in room C-H-1-O-11 (6)

Notes

1. This song is brief on Hex Enduction Hour (1:23, depending on where you place the cut), where it serves as the intro to "Deer Park." Live, the songs were usually played separately, and "Fortress" was longer than in the studio. A possible clue to the lyrics is identified in the entry for this song on Reformation: "The first performance features MES mentioning King George (as well as Harry, as used in the released version) in the lyrics; George would continue to be a part of the lyrics for some time to come. The version played on 4 June 1981 (and there may be more) has the lines, 'I spent time in this institution / It's called Great Britain.'"

The keyboard riff at the beginning is a preset beat on the Casio VL tone keyboard; an almost identical riff is used on "The Man Whose Head Expanded." The same riff appears in "Da da da ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht aha aha aha" ("Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha") by the band Trio. They were associated with Neue Deutsche Welle ("German New Wave," but reportedly they preferred to call their style Neue Deutsch Frölichkeit, or "New German Cheerfulness"--one wonders, was there old German cheerfulness?). "Da Da Da" was a number 2 hit in the UK in 1982 (thanks to nochmal in the comment section of "The Man Whose Head Expanded" for bringing all this to my attention). "Da Da Da" came out not long before the appearence of Hex Enduction Hour.

The same intro (the Casio riff and the spoken lines) also appears at the beginning of "Look, Know" on Hip Priests and Kamerads.

^

2. We've had some back and forth on this one. To me it sounds as written. Thehippriestess is quite certain it's "Beryl Reid," which may be correct, but I don't hear it. The orange lyrics book does not have the line at all. 

Dan: "If 'grease' is right, it's probably a reference to 'greasepaint'--theatrical make-up, no doubt ubiquitous within the BBC and among those actors and other showbusiness types who plied their trade there."

^

3. From Craig on the Fall online forum:

QUOTE (chachacha @ Sep 29 2005, 03:32 PM)
did i read that room c-h-1-0 etc referred to a room in the bbc where mr smith was treated to a forum with some crypto/proto-communists or anarcho-syndicalists and their over-interpretation of things????

CRAIG: [I]t was Radio One Talkabout, a bunch of left wing kids (a theatre group or somesuch I think) were invited onto the show to talk about erm the state of the nation, and they in turn had invited MES as their guest. There are tapes of it floating around, and it's a hilarious listen. After 50-odd minutes, the problem with the nation is ascertained to be, like, y'know, right, the establishment, right, and all that, it's the establishment, right, right, y'know, it's like, them.

 
This has now been confirmed beyond reasonable doubt as the correct reference. Martin points out that, in the rendition of "Fortress" from March 7, 1985, MES sings "I spent time in BBC fortress." Dan did some investigating and discovered that on April 14th, 1981, MES indeed appeared on a BBC program called Talkabout as part of a round table discussion with four "left wing kids" from the Albany Basement Theatre Group of Lewisham: Stephen Powell, Miranda Taggart, Tracey Russell and Glenn Stevens, along with guest Ann Leslie of the Daily Mail
This session took place at the Langham Hotel, an establishment "across the road from Broadcasting House (the home of Radio 1 at the time) in the former hotel used by the BBC after the second world war before being bought by them in 1965 (sold again in the 1986 and returned to use as a hotel)." Note that in a press release for the mini-album Slates, the recording was said to take "[t]he hip priest approach, aired first on an April Peel session recorded in the Nazi fortress..." The Peel session was recorded in the Langham building, which thus seems to also be the titular ("nazi") Fortress in question here.
Talkabout is also apparently referenced in "Marquis Cha-Cha."
djbawbag points out that "Room C-H-1-0-C-H-11" may be partly inspired by George Orwell's 1984, where Room 101 was the ultimate torture chamber in the Ministry of Love. The room contained whatever the prisoner fears most--in Winston Smith's case, a cage of rats was fashioned like a helmet over his head, leading him to famlously cry "Do it to Julia!", signalling the moment where he was finally completely broken. According to Wikipedia, "'Orwell named Room 101 after a conference room at Broadcasting House where he used to sit through tedious meetings.'"
Lyrics from the version from Tut's Chicago 16 July 1981 :

'Much discussion in Langham House fortress.
Boiled beef and carrots' [see note 4 below; note the initials "BBC"]
Thus, MES's discussion on Talkabout is almost certainly a source of inspiration for the lyrics, and the BBC connection makes the Orwell connection plausible. The suggestion would be that the interview session was akin to a horrible form of torture. This seems entirely in character; considering the subject matter and the kind of discourse involved, it's not hard to imagine MES being displeased. 
 
According to Marvellous: "CH10H11 is a mangled reference to the chemical composition of disaccharide sugars (including table sugar): C12H22O11. Anybody who sat through chemistry lessons in the 70s was exposed to the formula C12H22O11 + H2SO4 → 12C + 11H2O."

From Duncan Goddard:
"In his book Have a Bleedin' Guess: the Story of Hex Enduction Hour, Paul Hanley suggests that 'CH' may have been a parody of the BBC's use of 'BHxxx' for room numbering in the broadcasting house across the road from the langham, and 'MVxxx' at Maida Vale where the band recorded many Peel sessions."
 
Dan submits:

Paul Hanley's Have a Bleedin Guess has a quote from Craig Scanlon:
 

The BBC had that ridiculous door-naming thing, which is why we always got lost in Maida Vale.

(p.109)

But here's Hanley's explanation:
 

Mark was sufficiently vexed by the experience [of appearing on the radio programme] to pen a satisfyingly splenetic lyric which even takes umbrage at the door numbers - CH10CH11 is presumably a parody of the BBC addressing system. All rooms in Langham Hotel were prefixed LH followed by the floor and room number. Broadcasting House rooms begin BH, in Maida Vale it was MV.


(p.108)

Finally, harleyr adds:

"If anyone is wondering why he would run two numbers together in this way, it might be because rooms next to each other at BBC buildings such as TV Centre were often knocked together as one - so CH10 and CH11 next door could have been effectively one room."

 
^
 
4. There is a music hall song that dates from 1909 called "Boiled Beef and Carrots," performed by Harry Champion (note the initials "BBC").
Also, from P.G. Wodehouse's Right Ho, Jeeves (thanks to idonotknowyournamr on the Fall online forum):
The air was sort of heavy and languorous, if you know what I mean, with the scent of Young England and boiled beef and carrots.
 
 

5. "Good King Harry" usually refers to Henry V, who ruled England from 1413 until his death in 1422, and of whom a fictionalized version appears in Shakespeare's Henry IV parts I and II and Henry V. Jimmy Savile was a DJ and television personality for the BBC who died in 2011 and is currently the subject of numerous allegations of sexual abuse of children. It's not completely clear whether King Harry is fucking Jimmy Savile, or whether "fucking Jimmy Savile!" is an interjection; the orange lyrics book has "My fave Jimmy Savile!" (which is again ambiguous due to the punctuation!). 

^

6. The room number is made even more mysterious by its dream-like mutability; every time it appears, it's something different. Other inexplicable, or only partly explicable, numbers or combinations of numbers and letters appear in "Eat Y'Self Fitter," "Paranoia Man in Cheap Sh*t Room," and "50 Year Old Man" (thanks to Reformation for the list).  

^

 

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Comments (58)

harleyr
  • 1. harleyr | 16/03/2013
As has been pointed out on the Forum, the phrase 'Boiled Beef and Carrots' gives a clue about the identity of the institution Smith is talking about.
dannyno
  • 2. dannyno | 24/03/2013
"fucking Jimmy Savile"

The Lough Press Fall lyrics book has it as "my fave Jimmy Savile".
bzfgt
  • 3. bzfgt | 24/03/2013
Harley, could you point me to the discussion? There's no thread for Fortress as far as I can tell...
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 27/04/2013
If we can take Good King Harry literally, then it may or may not be interesting to think about who had recently played Henry V on screen on the BBC or elsewhere, that MES have seen or imagined seeing. I mean, it's going to be an actor recently known for that role, rather than an apparation of the actual king.

In which case: Robert Hardy had played him in 1960 and David Gwillim had played him in 1979. Either of those would probably plausibly be found in the BBC, but my money is on Gwillim.
djbawbag
  • 5. djbawbag | 23/02/2014
Room number lyric is probably inspired by Room 101 from George Orwell's 1984.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_101

“ You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world. ”

"Orwell named Room 101 after a conference room at Broadcasting House where he used to sit through tedious meetings."

The Talkabout programme was presumably made at the BBC's Broadcasting House (in Portland Place and Langham Place, London).

Lyrics from the version from Tut's Chicago 16 July 1981 :

"Much discussion in Langham House fortress.
Boiled beef and carrots "
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 27/02/2014
What programme was this?

Conway Paton, in "The Pseud Mag" iss 2, Feb/Mar 2005, p.19, dates the show as follows:

"Fortress recounts a BBC1 radio roundtable that Mark took part in with 4 outspoken left-wing students. Broadcast on 6 April 1981, Mark managed to get in a couple of sentences during the hour-long programme. Listening to it, you can easily see Mark wondering why on earth he ever accepted the contract."

But the BBC Radio 1 schedule for 6 April 1981 was as follows:

7am: Mike Read
9am: Simon Bates
11am: Andy Peebles
12:30pm: Newsbeat
12 Paul Burnett
2:30pm: Steve Wright
4:30pm: Peter Powell
7pm: Stayin Alive [health advice programme]
8pm: Richard Skinner
10am: John Peel

So what roundtable?

However there was a programme on 7 April 1981 at 7pm called "talkabout". So perhaps it was that.

A couple of days later The Fall were playing gigs in Europe.

Dan
dannyno
  • 7. dannyno | 11/03/2014
Mention of Langham House in the live lyrics makes me think that perhaps this "talkabout" programme was based across the road from Broadcasting House (the home of Radio 1 at the time) in the former hotel used by the BBC after the second world war before being bought by them in 1965 (sold again in the 1986 and returned to use as a hotel).

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langham_Hotel,_London

I could see the BBC using it for "youth" type discussion programmes.

Anyway, the point is that the venue may well have been Langham House not Broadcasting House.

Dan
djbawbag
  • 8. djbawbag | 13/03/2014
Just checking the credits for the 1984 Saturday Live version that's on the box set.
Recorded at Studio S2 Sub-basement, , BROADCASTING HOUSE !

Song had been out of the setlist for a while, so presumably was revived in order to be played in the building that had helped inspire it ?
dannyno
  • 9. dannyno | 17/03/2014
Except that there is evidence it may not have been in Broadcasting House.
dannyno
  • 10. dannyno | 17/03/2014
Evidence here that Langham House was used by Radio 1 in 1981:
http://www.discogs.com/Siouxsie-And-The-Banshees-At-The-BBC/release/1800195

There were definitely studios in there, therefore.
dannyno
  • 11. dannyno | 17/03/2014
See also:
http://www.cure-concerts.de/fm-tv/ft_1981-01-07.php

See also references to Langham in this history of Peel Sessions:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qdsfrYAu-x8C&lpg=PA72&ots=wuCIVXKRIS&dq=%22radio%201%22%20langham%20studios&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q=langham&f=false
Martin
  • 12. Martin | 27/03/2014
With reference to note no 2, the German translation here simply says "(und Jimmy Savile)".
dannyno
  • 13. dannyno | 22/04/2014
Conclusive evidence that "Nazi Fortress" = "Langham House".

First, see this press release for Slates:
http://www.visi.com/fall/gigography/slatesdates.pdf

Which contains this line:

"The hip priest approach, aired first on an April Peel session recorded in the Nazi fortress..."

The Peel Session version of Hip Priest was actually recorded and transmitted in March 1981, but April is close enough.

Details of the session are here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/sessions/1980s/1981/Mar24thefall/

Which clearly says that the studio used was "Langham 1"

QED.

Dan
Martin
  • 14. Martin | 30/05/2014
The line "vitamin B glandular show" echoes, to a point, this line in "And This Day":

"...the greyer B-1 Glandel area"

I've been googling various sites to see direct connections between vitamin B1 and various glandular disorders and will report back if anything conclusive comes up.
Marvellous
  • 15. Marvellous | 18/09/2014
Room number lyric is probably inspired by Room 101


Maybe I'm stating the obvious, it's always been obvious to me, but CH10H11 is a mangled reference to the chemical composition of disaccharide sugars (including table sugar): C12H22O11.

Anybody who sat through chemistry lessons in the 70s was exposed to the formula C12H22O11 + H2SO4 → 12C + 11H2O
http://youtu.be/AP6rTJi59NM

--
This site has the most annoyingly incomprehensible captcha system ever.
Joseph Mullaney
  • 16. Joseph Mullaney | 23/11/2014
Line missing from the start: `Spare a little grease, spare a little grease'.
Joseph Mullaney
  • 17. Joseph Mullaney | 29/11/2014
Or maybe it's `greed', not sure...
bzfgt
  • 18. bzfgt | 01/01/2015
Yeah, I think that's why I never tried to put it in before. I put "grease" in for now. "Green" might make the most sense...
thehippriestess
  • 19. thehippriestess | 15/09/2015
The line at the beginning is - the initial grunting aside - "it's Beryl Reid, Beryl Reid". The section is a parody of radio jingles and, presumably, the use of Beryl Reid was a snarky jab in the ribs at Mike Read who, as noted above, was the Radio 1 Breakfast Show host at the time.
bzfgt
  • 20. bzfgt | 15/11/2015
Hippie priestess: hello, nice to see you here! I still hear "Spare a little grease" but prefer your theory since it makes sense. Do you feel quite sure? I must sleep on it. I don't think there are any other versions with this line, are there?
thehippriestess
  • 21. thehippriestess | 23/11/2015
I first heard the section on "Hip Priest And Kamerads" where it is, for some reason, attached to "Look, Know" rather than "Fortress" - "It's Beryl Reid" was all I ever heard it as. "Spare A Little Grease" has one syllable too many, even with the random factor of MES's diction and the deliberate tape-warping.
bzfgt
  • 22. bzfgt | 06/12/2015
OK, I'll listen to that version. I would be happy if it were "Beryl Reid" if there's a good explanation for that, "spare a little grease" os perplexing. But I don't really hear "Beryl Reid" on Hex, I've been trying to.

Now, if I do wind up changing it, do you have any more of an explanation? What is the connection between Beryl Reid and Mike Read?
thehippriestess
  • 23. thehippriestess | 15/12/2015
They're not connected as such but Smith has mixed people up deliberately for fun a few times...in the Michael Bracewell interview, he referred to Courtney Love as Courtney Pine for much the same reason. He probably just thought it was funny. Given that it's a taped insert rather than an actual song, I don't think any other version exists; it was just tacked onto a different track on "HP&K". Actually, given that "Look, Know" falls immediately after "Fortress" on "HP&K", it's possible that it was indeed a completely separate piece of tape and that it was a mastering error. But now imma speculating...
bzfgt
  • 24. bzfgt | 23/12/2015
Hmm, we need second and third opinions then....I'll put out the signal.
dannyno
  • 25. dannyno | 08/06/2016
An update on the dating of the Radio 1 Talkabout episode on which MES appeared. I suggested above a date of 7th April 1981, as being the closest Talkabout broadcast to Conway's dating of 6th April (when no Talkabout was broadcast).

However, in the NME dated 11 April 1981, T-Zers column, p.59, I read the following:


The Fall's Mark Smith makes a massive concession to commercialism by appearing on Radio One's Talkie (Talkabout, you call it...) next Tuesday. You can hear his words of wisdom between 7 and 8pm that night.


Magazines dates aren't always the date of publication, however on internal evidence "Next Tuesday" must mean Tuesday 14th April 1981.

So there you go. Nailed. Would be nice to find a listing as additional confirmation, but still.
Martin
  • 26. Martin | 09/06/2016
There's now no doubt about the reference to the BBC programme (and little doubt as to its date) but just in case anyone was still dubious:

7 March 85 Hammersmith Odeon, London:

MES: "I spent time in BBC fortress"
dannyno
  • 27. dannyno | 17/06/2016
redclaw2 posted a link to a recording of Talkabout on the FoF (misdated, but still):

http://z1.invisionfree.com/thefall/index.php?showtopic=8935&view=findpost&p=22586321
dannyno
  • 28. dannyno | 17/06/2016
The four "left wing kids are from the Albany Basement Theatre Group of Lewisham: Stephen Powell, Miranda Taggart, Tracey Russell and Glenn Stevens (I'm guessing at spelling). Their guests were Ann Leslie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Leslie) of the Daily Mail and MES.
dannyno
  • 29. dannyno | 17/06/2016
The broadcast includes a reference to the space shuttle Columbia re-entering the atmosphere, which allows us to date it precisely, and confirms that it was the 14th April 1981:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-1
bzfgt
  • 30. bzfgt | 29/06/2016
"left wing kids are from the Albany Basement Theatre Group of Lewisham:..."

Dan, is that a quote from the broadcast?
bzfgt
  • 31. bzfgt | 29/06/2016
Never mind, I got tripped up by the unclosed quotation marks but now I see what's what.
dannyno
  • 32. dannyno | 29/06/2016
I'm so sorry about the unclosed quotation marks,
bzfgt
  • 33. bzfgt | 29/06/2016
Dan, don't beat yourself up over it, it could happen to anyone.
bzfgt
  • 34. bzfgt | 29/06/2016
You did, however, end that sentence with a comma, and for that you shall not be forgiven.
bzfgt
  • 35. bzfgt | 29/06/2016
I want to express gratitude here to redclaw2 who posted the broadcast at the FOF which allowed Dan, in a herculean feat of sleuthery, to close the books on another case.
unhip
  • 36. unhip | 08/11/2016
Fortress - BBC's Lime Grove Studios: Orwell's 1984 was filmed there in 1954 and Top of the Pops was filmed there: Harry Goodwin used dressing room 57 to undress and photograph selected audience...
Deer Park: Louis XV kept his mistresses at a Parc-aux-Cerf, so this may be an off-site extension of the LGS activities. Notting Hill is not only Rough Trade, but the start of Virgin Records & Tapes. As for C.Wilson: Victor Golloncz published early Orwell.
Rutland Weekend Television has an early piece "Star of the sexy movies": The "policeman by day" says "Evenin' All" hinting at Dixon of Dock Green staff ...
dannyno
  • 37. dannyno | 14/01/2017
unhip, comment #36/ "Fortress" is definitely Langham House for the reasons exhaustively detailed above.
dannyno
  • 38. dannyno | 16/01/2017
Nazi fortress/Langham House/Hotel:

Image

Q.E.D.
dannyno
  • 39. dannyno | 16/01/2018

Spare a little grease, spare a little grease...And today, here on the vitamin B glandular show


If "grease" is right, it's probably a reference to "greasepaint" - theatrical make-up no doubt ubiquitous within the BBC and among those actors and other showbusiness types who plied their trade there.
bzfgt
  • 40. bzfgt (link) | 10/02/2018
It had vitamin B in it? It doubtless clogged their pores, affecting their glands...
Raging Ostler
  • 41. Raging Ostler | 13/02/2018
Haven't posted here much, and not for a couple of years, so this is a bit cheeky, but is there any chance someone could re-upload that Talkabout episode? I've been after it for years, and totally missed the link on the Fall forum, which no longer works. I'd be massively grateful.
dannyno
  • 42. dannyno | 14/02/2018
I might be able to do it, if you post a request on the FOF to remind me.
dannyno
  • 43. dannyno | 04/12/2018
"It was clear in the window eye
The brick outlined the blue sky"

Reminds me of the lyrics to Iggy Pop's The Passenger.


He looks through his window's eye
He sees the things he knows are his
He sees the bright and hollow sky
duncan goddard
  • 44. duncan goddard | 05/11/2019
re the CH10CH11 stuff- actually, I may as well stop right now, because I'm about to mention something that's in paul hanley's book about the album, which is excellent.....
I've been at meetings in the langham myself, with BBC people, but I can't remember if there were numbers on the doors. hanley suggests that 'CH' may have been a parody of the BBC's use of 'BHxxx' for room numbering in broadcasting house across the road from the langham, & 'MVxxx' at maida vale where the band recorded many peel sessions.
dannyno
  • 45. dannyno | 27/12/2019
Comment #44.

Paul Hanley's Have a Bleedin Guess has a quote from Craig Scanlon too:


The BBC had that ridiculous door-naming thing, which is why we always got lost in Maida Vale.

(p.109)

But here's Paul Hanley's explanation:


Mark was sufficiently vexed by the experience [of appearing on the radio programme] to pen a satisfyingly splenetic lyric which even takes umbrage at the door numbers - CH10CH11 is presumably a parody of the BBC addressing system. All rooms in Langham Hotel were prefixed LH followed by the floor and room number. Broadcasting House rooms begin BH, in Maida Vale it was MV.

(p.108)

Note he says "presumably" - he doesn't know for certain. But it's good enough for me.
dannyno
  • 46. dannyno | 04/01/2020
Alert!

Note 3 contains a reference to itself!


Boiled beef and carrots' [see note 3 below; note the initials "BBC"]


It took me twenty minutes to escape the recursion.
harleyr
  • 47. harleyr | 05/01/2020
>>CH10CH11 is presumably a parody of the BBC addressing system

If anyone is wondering why he would run two numbers together in this way, it might be because rooms next to each other at BBC buildings such as TV Centre were often knocked together as one - so CH10 and CH11 next door could have been effectively one room.
bzfgt
  • 48. bzfgt (link) | 19/01/2020
Fuck, that's what happens when something new gets inserted and I move the rest down without rereading them all...
dannyno
  • 49. dannyno | 31/01/2020
Lenny Henry released (a version of) Boiled Beef and Carrots in 1975.

It's terrible.

https://youtu.be/mip6ECd9Jl0

I don't think this has anything to do with either this lyric or the BBC=boiled beef and carrots thing, in relation to which I think boiled beef and carrots is the kind of unexciting standard British dish that was destined to become shorthand for an institution like the BBC.
James Marriott
  • 50. James Marriott | 03/07/2022
In addition to the room naming conventions Paul Hanley mentioned, the repetition in CH10CH11 etc could be a nod to Roy Hudd's 607080 Show, which ran from 1975-80 on BBC 1. The zeroes in the name were pronounced as the letter O.
adam marshall
  • 51. adam marshall (link) | 15/12/2022
"And today, here on the vitamin B glandular show" Terry Christian & Steve and Paul Hanley just explained that this line pertains to MES's appearance on a youth TV show called B15. see: https://shows.acast.com/oh-brother/episodes/terry-c 41 mins into the podcast
dannyno
  • 52. dannyno | 22/12/2022
Adam marshall, comment #51.

Terry Christian does mention a Radio 1 (not TV) show called "B15". But he's wrong. There was no such show.

What's he's misremembering there is the Radio programme mentioned in the notes and comments: Talkabout
dannyno
  • 53. dannyno | 22/12/2022
I mean, B15 was a Radio One radio show, but it wasn't what MES appeared on.
dannyno
  • 54. dannyno | 22/12/2022
B15 was a Sunday afternoon "magazine"-style and phone-in show which was launched in Autumn 1980. It was hosted by Adrian Love, who had joined the BBC from Capital Radio. He also took over presenting Talkabout and Round Table.

It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that B15 is what "vitamin B glandular show" refers to, but MES appeared on Talkabout. Perhaps Terry Christian is confusing the two points.
dannyno
  • 55. dannyno | 22/12/2022
Actually, looking a bit deeper, it was called "Studio B15"
HP Mayo
  • 56. HP Mayo | 27/12/2022
I’ve mentioned this in the Deer Park comments but, to reiterate, there is an interview out there where MES precedes ‘I like Jimmy Savile’ with a redacted section that states ‘all DJs are child benders.’ Around Salford, where he had a flat in the 70s, there were always rumours going around so I’m of the opinion that MES was probably aware of the kiddy fiddling gossip. The Good King Harry part is probably just another way of saying the royal family love him as I believe, around this time, he was already an OBE and very much in with the establishment. He wasn’t knighted until 1990 but I imagine with all the positive publicity around his charity work (if you can call it that) there will have been calls for him to be knighted back then too.
Mark Oliver
  • 57. Mark Oliver | 25/09/2023
That list of DJs on Radio One in 1981 reminds us (with the exception of John Peel and to a lesser extent, Andy Peebles) of what a dreadful bunch of hacks and creeps were dominating the nation's preeminent pop station at that time.
Ken
  • 58. Ken | 03/01/2024
The "Nazi fortress" familiar to most people in England in the '70s was Colditz: there was a TV drama about it and even a board game. Might that be what Langham Hotel brought to MES' mind?

If so, when parodying the room numbering system could CH be Colditz House/Hotel?

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