In the late 1970's I was working in a London Bingo Club which had just undergone a substantial period of updating and to relaunch the club we had a few appearances by certain entertainment acts and lesser personalities. Including someone who played tunes on his "£1000 Organ" and a woman who did a rather risque dance with a large python. In one of the upstairs bars, there was someone playing popular songs on the piano, though with some competence, it was little more than background music. The player turned out to be Roger LaVern, formerly keyboard player with the Tornadoes, though at the time he was more well known for his high number of marriages.
LaVern had been part of the Tornados the group formed to play backing music upon certain musical tracks produced and recorded by Joe Meek. Meek is considered to be one of the most influential sound engineers in history.
Meek did his National Service with the Royal Air Force, where he was encouraged to develop an interest in electronics. This was followed by a spell with the Midlands Electricity Board, developing an interest in music production and then progressed to work for a independent radio production company, working upon various projects for Radio Luxembourg.
In 1960 along with William Barrington-Coupe founded Triumph Records, which had some notable success with the record "Angela Jones" by Michael Cox. Triumph was the predecessor to Meek's company "RGM Sound Ltd" at 304 Holloway Road a three floor flat above a leather shop.
Here he set about using his skill to build a record recording studio and it was from here he had a Number One chart success with John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me" Followed by "Telstar" recorded by the Tornados, a UK and US number one. A third and final major success, a British number one and American number five, The honeycomb's "Have I The Right"
Bletchley Park is probably most famous for the work of Alan Turing and his efforts to break the German code ciphers, important to the outcome of WW ll All personnel and the work carried out there was undertaken in the utmost secrecy. And so little information about the people and their work is actually available in the public domain.
Someone who is known was Mavis Lever, one of several thousand women whom worked at Bletchley, she was assigned to a section run by Dilly Knox and played a key role in deciphering an Italian Naval Operational code. Which in turn led to the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy victory in 1941 at the battle of Cape Matapan and the destruction of several Italian warships and the virtual end of the Italian Navy as an effective force.
Cape Matapan can hardly be said to be another Midway, far from it, but could have perhaps benefited from a Hollywood perspective, at least it brought to an end Mussolini's dreams of a new Roman Empire.
The actual Naval battle followed a more or less fruitless action off Gavdos, in which there were various attempted engagements and later a night time action, which after some confusion resulted in the loss of three Italian heavy cruisers, which equated to the loss of a cruiser division. Although at the same time the Allied force failed to engage and destroy the battleship Vittorio Veneto.
This Ghost Story was first told to me some years ago by word of mouth and I've enjoyed telling the story upon many occasions since. Although the story is often quoted as being The Croglin Vampire, and told to a more elaborate verse. I've always known the story as being purely a Ghost Story.
There are supposed to be elements of truth in the story, there's a house and a churchyard and the players could well be real, but clearly, other parts of the story are down to your imagination.
The story is set about two-hundred years ago, in the Cumbrian village of Croglin Grange, a dozen or more miles to the south-east of Carlisle. There were two brothers and a sister, there name said to be Cranswell, came to rent a house in the village for the Summer. One night the sister retired to her bedroom which was on the ground floor of their house. There was a light dusk outside and through the window, she became aware of a figure, outside, who slowly approached the house, and as it was a warm evening the window was slightly open and the figure was able to clamber in and sought to attack the young woman. She rushed to the door screaming, which was locked from the inside and struggled to open the lock as the creature now seized her from behind, at last she managed to get the door open as her brothers who were trying to enter the room from the other side rushed in and the intruder made his escape. However, one of the brothers had a pistol and was able to take a shot at the fleeing figure and was sure he'd hit him in the leg.
The next day, the brothers decided to organise a search party and with the help of several other villagers set out to find the intruder. Eventually they entered the nearby Croglin graveyard and were surprised to discover the lid of an old stone tomb had been disturbed and inside there was an old and withered body, but with a fresh gunshot wound on one leg. As a result the horrified villagers removed the corpse from the tomb and it was burnt to ashes and the tomb was completely destroyed in an attempt to remove any trace of the ghost.
The Scottish Distillers Macallan, thought by many to be makers of the finest single malt Scottish Whisky in Scotland if not the World. The distillery at Craigellachie, Moray, North-East Scotland is owned by a group known as Edrington, who purchased the distilery from Highland Distillers in 1999.
Macallan's are noted in particular for a barrel of single malt whisky from as long ago as 1926 which then spent a mere 60 years maturing in a former sherry cask, and then bottled in a limited number in 1986. Said to be the finest whisky ever matured.
Two Artists of note, Peter Blake, a pop artist, known for various album covers and the Italian pop artist Valerio Adami, were brought in to design twelve labels each for the whisky bottles. One bottle of the Adami design, sold for a then world record of £848,000k in Edingburgh, in October now known as The Holy Grail of Scotch Whisky. This as now been surpassed with the new landmark price of £1.1 million for the above bottle.
A further single bottle baring a design by the Irish artist Michael Dillon a noted mural painter, being of the Easter Elchies estate at Craigellachie, was sold by Christie's in London at a price of £1 million which in turn equates to around £43,000k per measure. it's debatable what price others of the 40 bottle batch will bring, should they ever come up for sale.
A slight disagreement has broken out between members of one of Rome's leading families the Torlonias. over a collection of certain pieces of antique and historical sculpture. In actual fact, this relates to the largest privately owned collection of ancient antiquities, including over 600 pieces of sculpture, in the world, said to have an estimated value in the region of £1.6 Bllion.
The collection of artifacts from the ancient world is kept in various palaces, including the Villa Albani (above) which lies within the city of Rome. The collection was seized and impounded by court order and will be the subject of an inventory. This action came about after the challenge of one Carlo Torlonia, a Prince, who is said to believe his other family members were trying to break up the collection and sell them off. In recent years various attempts by the government to buy the collection have come to nothing.
The family came from France in the 18th century, they then worked in various money markets including money lending and banking, then eventually earned a title through the Vatican, after looking after their finances, The family then built up their collections from various sources, including, buying up private collections and even excavating certain items, from their own extensive land holdings.
During the period of the 1920s Villa Torlionias was leased to a certain Benito Mussolini, whom. among other things, added an air raid shelter to the extensive cellars.
Honister is to the South-West of Keswick and a notable pass in the area in the Lakeland Fells. Upon a worldwide scale, Fells, would probably rate as something similar to foothills. The image above shows part of the old quarry workings and the walkway is part of the Via Ferrata already in existence at the activity centre.
In a recent application to the Lake District National Park Authority LDNPA the company running the former Honister Slate Mine has now been granted planning permission for a Zip Wire. The decision comes after a protracted struggle with various objectors, the former applications being refused in 2011 and 2012
Certain interested groups, objecting to the proposal, were pinning their hopes upon public support and the recent grant of World Heritage Status to the Lake District National Park in a Cultural Landscape Category and supposedly quiet enjoyment and planning officers had previously recommended refusal of the application due to impact upon the landscape. However the LDNPA's planning authority deemed the site to be already developed as an industrial site and could not be considered to be a "tranquil" area.
The original plan was put forward by the late Mark Weir, owner of the Honister Quarry Operations and the plan has finally been brought to fruition by his widow Jan Wilkinson.
A recent crisis in The Royal Navy, brought about by a lack of personnel among other events, is having a marked affect upon the number of days ships of the Type 23 flotilla is able to spend on active duty at sea.
There are thirteen frigates in the class known as "The Duke Class" as all the ships are named after British Dukes. And of the thirteen, four, Richmond, Portland, Lancaster and Iron Duke, have, up until the end of September so far this year, remained in port.
The ships, first commissioned in 1989 with an intended lifespan of 18 years, which is currently extended, though they will soon be replaced by the new Type 26 ships (see previous article).
With the home ports of Portsmouth and Devonport, the ship's main function is anti-submarine warfare. Although with a recent host of cut-backs throughout the services, the Type 23 is being called upon to cover extra duties, in turn needing increased periods of servicing and days in port.
