Johnny and The Hurricanes - 1963 Tour

Johnny & The Hurricanes developed a following in Europe. In 1962, they played at the Star Club in Hamburg where The Beatles, then a little-known band, served as an Opening act. Johnny and the Hurricanes cut records until 1965, with "Old Smokie" (their cover of "On Top of Old Smokey"), and an original tune, "Traffic Jam", both on Big Top Records, being their last releases to chart in America. Johnny continued to tour with the Hurricanes in Europe and United States until his death. Johnny had an uncle (a realtor) in Rossford, Ohio (Johnny's home town) who owned a building on the main street and offered Johnny's first wife (Sharon Venier-Pocisk) space for an antique shop. When not on the road he helped out with the antique shop and vending machine business as payment for the store front for his first wife.

Back in 1963 Johnny & The Hurricanes undertook a successful tour of the UK with acts such as, Billy Fury, Gene Vincent and the Shadows as the Jokers.

January 1963

15 - Kilburn (Gaumont State)
16 - Alderley Edge (Regent Hall)
17 - Harrow (Granada)
18 - Birmingham (Ritz/Plaza)
19 - Leyton (Baths)
19 - Romford (Wykham Hall)
20 - Newcastle (City Hall)
21 - Bedford (Granada)
22 - Maidstone (Granada)
23 - Aylesbury (Granada)
24 - Portsmouth (Guildhall)
25 - Kingston (Granada)
26 - Slough (Adelphi)
27 - Tooting (Granada)
28 - Grantham (Granada)
29 - Bradford (St. George's Hall)
31 - Scunthorpe (Baths)

February 1963

01 - Stafford (Trentham Gardens)
02 - Nelson (Imperial)

Johnny & The Hurricanes

"Juke Box Doubles"
Brad Newman as Elvis Presley
Steve Francis as Billy Fury
Sally Green as Brenda Lee
Dev Douglas as Adam Faith
Dru Harvey as Gene Vincent
Jokers as The Shadows
Jimmy Saville (compere)

Promoter : Don Arden

60s Classics - The Power Game

The Plane Makers was a British Television series made by ATV for ITV between 1963 and 1965.

The series focused on the power struggles between the Trades Union and the management on the shop floor of an (fictional) aircraft factory, Scott Furlong Ltd, as well as the political in-fighting between the management themselves. Patrick Wymark proved particularly popular as the anit-heroic managing director John Wilder, who was almost a proto-type J.R Ewing in that he became a central character that the other characters and viewers "loved to hate". Wilder's nemesis in the boardroom was David Corbett (Alan Dobie), though he was supported by his long-suffering wife Pamela (Barbara Murray, with Ann Firbank standing in for a few episodes when Murray was unavailable), his Sales Director and confidant Don Henderson (Jack Watling) and ever-reliable secretary Miss Lingard (Norma Ronald). Their task was to manufacture and sell aircraft the Sovereign to an international market.

Lew Grade, head of ATV, reportedly found the series boring because of its factory setting. Believing that the majority of viewers would have had enough of factories after their days' work, he decided the Wilder character should be spun off into a new series. At the end of the final Plane Makers series in 1965, Scott Furlong collapsed, and Wilder's future was uncertain. He swiftly returned later that same year in The Power Game, having collected a Knighthood. Bored of being a gentleman of leisure, Wilder uses his influence with a merchant bank to become joint managing director of an established building firm, Bligh Construction. The first two series of The Power Game in 1965-6 chronicled his attempts to keep control in the face of opposition from the company's elderly founder Caswell Bligh (Clifford Evans), a stern, old-school patriarch who resents what he sees as Wilder's imposition on a family firm, and Bligh's ambitious but inexperienced son Kenneth (Peter Barkworth), who would prefer to be sole managing director, and free of his father's influence. Both Henderson and Miss Lingard were back in harness.

Wilder's private life came more to the fore in The Power Game, he has a long-running affair with a civil servant, Susan Weldon (Rosemary Leach), but is aghast when his wife Pamela also plays the field, with engineering expert Frank Hagadan (George Sewell).

The third and final series in 1969 saw Wilder free from Bligh's - but not from Bligh himself - and working for the British government as a 'roving' Foreign Office Ambassador for Trade.

Patrick Wymark died suddenly in 1970 and it was decided not to continue with the series without its most notorious and memorable character.

Sons and Daughters, love and laughter, tears of sadness and happiness

Sons and Daughters was a Logie Award winning Australian Soap Opera created by Reg Watson and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation. It screened on the Seven Network in an early evening timeslot running from 18 January 1982 until 19 August 1987. The series commenced in Melbourne with the first three episodes screened in a 90 minute format on Monday, 18 January 1982 at 19:00. A repeat run on the Seven Network in Australia ran in October 2006 but ended in March 2007; however, beginning from July 2008, it has started up again, picking up where it left off every Thursday night at around midnight. Additionally, the Seven Network's digital channel 7TWO has begun airing the series from the very beginning starting Wednesday, 4 November 2009 every weekday at 08:30, and is currently up to airing Season 3. A DVD marking the 25th Anniversary of Sons and Daughters was released in October 2006.

Series One - Episode One

Sydney, 1962: David Palmer and his girlfriend, Patricia, turn up at a boarding house run by landlady Fiona Thompson. Patricia is heavily pregnant and gives birth in her room within the boarding house. After the birth has taken place, Fiona asks David what he wanted - a boy or a girl? He says he doesn't mind. Fiona tells him he has one of each - twins.

Patricia is not happy, though. After a week, she decides to leave David, and she takes her baby daughter with her. She leaves her son for David to look after. David decides to call him John.

Melbourne, 1982: David Palmer is now married to Beryl, and they have two children of their own - Kevin and Susan - and John is living with them. Susan is about to marry her fiance, Bill, and is trying on her wedding dress, which she shows to David. John decides to invite the whole of Victoria to the wedding, by climbing a mast and attaching a huge banner to it. However, he is caught by the police, and his antics appear on television. Kevin is also arrested, after being caught in a telephone box calling the TV station, and using different voices to say how much he enjoyed John's antics! Beryl is disappointed that both lads got into so much trouble.

When John goes to bed that night, he has a dream in which he is standing in a field, watching a beautiful girl riding a horse.

The next morning, Beryl wakes John up and tells him that he'll lose his job if he doesn't get to work soon. At work at the 'Selmar Warehouse Import-Export', he has an altercation with Bill, who is annoyed at the way John acted the previous night. The two of them knock over a load of boxes, and are caught by Sam Selmar, who tells them to get their act together, or they'll face the sack.

The initial premise for the show was a Romeo and Juliet style storyline which revolved around working-class John Palmer from Melbourne and spoilt rich girl Angela Hamilton from Sydney. They met by chance when John was on the run from the police for a murder he did not commit and they fell in love not realising that they were actually long lost twins, separated at birth 20 years earlier. Early episodes saw the pair discover the truth about their relationship and showed the problems and strains this put on their own relationships and those of their immediate families, the Hamiltons and the Palmers. Whilst on the run John was protected in Sydney by Fiona Thompson, an ex prostitute and now boarding house owner who had raised John when he was a young boy. With a new identity and now going by the name of Scott Edwards, John attempted to rebuild a new life along with Fiona's help and that of neighbour Jill Taylor.

For the Palmers life was going from bad to worse, newly wed Susan received the shock revelation that husband Bill was responsible for the murder her brother had been arrested for and young lovers Kevin and Lynn found their life turned upside down when she became pregnant despite their families best efforts to keep them apart. David and John's relationship continued to deteriorate and when David and Patricia met up again after 20 years old passions were reignited leaving Beryl fighting for her marriage.

For the Hamiltons financial worries were the least of their worries, Wayne Hamilton was involved in a near fatal car crash after his father, Gordon, kicked him out of the Dural home upon discovering he planned to buy and demolish the family's country residence at Woombai and Patricia announced to Gordon that their marriage was over and they would leave separate lives. Patricia developed into the main focus of the show with many storylines revolving around her, hence the introduction of her best friend and confident Charlie Bartlett.

End of season cliffhanger (Episode 174): At John & Angela's 21st Birthday party at the Palmer house David tries to stop Patricia from gate crashing only to be met with an unexpected admission, she has been lying all the time and David isn't the twins' father after all.

Action Man - Part Five: Vintage Action Man

And so my series on Action Man continues with Part Five. In Part Five I take look back at some of the vintage Action Man figures that have filled many a Christmas stocking!

Action Man Commandant (1974)

The Commandant uniform consisted of greatcoat, shirt, trousers, jackboots, belt, Luger pistol holster, cap, baton, map case and map and sub machine gun.

Action Man French Foreign Legion (1973)

The French Foreign. Legion uniform consists of greatcoat (sky blue at first, then more commonly dark blue) trousers, Kepi, boots, waist belt with pouches, cumberband, canteen, bayonet and scabbard, rifle.

Action Man Ski Patrol

Ski Patrol uniform consisted of white parka, white trousers, black boots, green goggles, white mittens, skis, ski poles and Equipment Manual. Shown here also wearing accessories in the form of camouflage pack, belt with pouches, snow shoes, M1 rifle (white) and helmet.

Action Man Talking Commander (1st Issue)

Talking Commander (1st issue): fatigue jacket (with medal ribbons and divisional flashes not shown), trousers, tall, black boots, black moulded beret with red shield badge, belt, black hoslter, Colt 45 Piostol.

Action Man Grenadier Guards.

Uniform consisted of: 'bearskin' hat, tunic (earlier shown that is heavier material than earlier, has more detail and more authentic blood red colour), navy trousers with red stripe, white belt with white frog, SLR Rifle with white strap, black scabbard, bayonet and lace up boots.

Action Man (British) Army Officer

Uniform consisted of: Cap with badge, jacket, shirt, tie, trousers, Sam Browne, rank stickers, baton, socks and shoes.

Bob Dylan remembered

One of the greatest musicians of all time, Bob Dylan has delighted, angered, frustrated and inspired fans since 1962. All this week I shall be taking a look back at the Singer's highs and his lows. Beginning today with, "Not Dark Yet"

Bob Dylan had been drifting for quite a while by the time 1997's Time Out of Mind was released. Some of his output over the previous two decades had been plain embarrassing. A rare highlight was 1989's Oh Mercy. Dylan decided to reunite with Daniel Lanois, who produced that album, for a record that managed to signal his artistic rebirth while also making him sound like he was well on his way to the grave. "Not Dark Yet" was Time Out of Mind's first single and it's the moody album's center. A world-weary and resigned-sounding Dylan sings of shadows and burdens, hardened souls and unhealed scars. The closest thing to a chorus is the line, repeated at the end of every stanza, "It's not dark yet, but it's getting there." It's a moving end-of-life song written and sung by an aging artist who has somehow managed to remain vital.

Macca's Club Sandwich!

This is the front cover to, "Club Sandwich @50" from Autumn 1988. This was the UK issue of Paul McCartney's 'Club Sandwich' fanzine. This particular 20-page 50th issue features articles and pictures - many rare, including a shot of Paul McCartney receiving his BMI Award for 'Yesterday' plus a great Paul & Linda colour picture cover).