Whatever Happened to the Oxo Family?

One of Oxo's best-remembered advertising campaigns was launched in the UK in 1983, when "The Oxo Family" debuted on commercial television. The campaigns made household names of Michael Redfern (the father) and Lynda Bellingham (the mother), while the children were played by Blair MacKichan, Colin McCoy and Alison Reynolds. The adverts typically featured the family sitting down to a meal at which Oxo gravy would be served. The product was not always mentioned by name, occasionally appearing only as a logo in the corner of the screen at the end of the commercial. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the family were seen to grow older, and when the campaign was retired in 1999 the family moved out of the house. But whatever happened to the famous Oxo family?

Michael Redfern has appeared in numerous television dramas and comedies as policemen over the years, namely The Young Detectives, Crossroads, The Offence, And Mother Makes Five, George & Mildred, Robin's Nest, The Young Ones, Filthy, rich & Catflap, Boon and Fool's Gold: The Story of the Brinks - Mat Robbery

His other comedy appearances include roles in Man About The House with Richard O'Sullivan, Bless This House with Sid James and Some Mothers Do 'ave 'em with Michael Crawford. With Ronnie Barker in Open All Hours, Porridge and The Two Ronnies 1982 Christmas Special playing the barman in the famous drink ordering sketch. The '80s and '90s saw him act in episodes of Hi-De-Hi!, Never The Twain, Three Up, Two Down, Terry & June, Sorry with Ronnie Corbett, Girls on Top, The Nineteenth Hole, Bottom and The Detectives. Michael was also in 1 episode of EastEnders

After the Oxo adverts, Redfern worked as a taxi driver and restaurateur before moving with his wife Carol to Spain, where he often works as a compere for quiz nights.

Twice in the 1960s Lynda Bellingham Bellingham appeared in the Pendley Open Air Shakespear Festival. She got her big break as a nurse in an ITV afternoon Soap Opera of the 1970s, General Hospital. She went topless for her roles in Confessions of a Driving Instructor and Sweeney! (1977).

She is best known as the head of the family in the Oxo adverts during the 1980s. Other prominent roles included the All Creatures Great & Small (where she was the second actress to play Helen Herriot on television, replacing Carol Drinkwater) and the Situation Comedy, Second Thoughts and its sequel, Faith in the Future.

She starred in the 14-part Doctor Who serial The Trial of a Timelord (1986) as the Inquisitor. Lynda Bellingham reprised the Inquisitor character for the Big Finish Productions audio series, Gallifrey. In 1998 she appeared in The Romanovs: A Crowned Family as Empress Alexandra.

From 2000 to 2003, Bellingham played Pauline Farnell, the compassionate accountant in At Home with the Braithwaites alongside Amanda Redman and Peter Davison. In 2007, she appeared alongside Redman again, this time playing DCI Karen Hardwick in New Tricks. For several months in 2004, she had a recurring role in The Bill as villainess Irene Radford.

She also had a memorable role in the ITV comedy Bonkers playing Mrs. Wadlow, a man-eating suburban housewife who seduces her neighbour's teenage son and turns him into her gigolo. Later that year she filmed guest appearances in episodes of Love Soup and Robin Hood. In October 2007, she appeared in a play entitled Vincent River at the Trafalga Studios in London. Her performance received critical acclaim, and it was announced on Loose Women in early 2008 that the play would be moving to Broadway in July of that year, although this never actually transpired.

From September 2008 to July 2009, she played the role of Chris Harper in the stage version of Calendar Girls on tour and in the West End. She returned to the show for further tours in 2010 and 2011.

Blair MacKichan is a British Actor, Jazz Musician, vocalist and songwriter. As an actor he appeared in adverts for Oxo during the 1980s and 1990s, while as a songwriter he has written for Will Young and Lily Allen. As a musician he fronts a band named Blair and Friends.

In the Oxo adverts, MacKichan played the oldest son of the Oxo Family, starring alongside Michael Redfern and Lynda Bellingham who played his parents. He started his musical career playing drums, then later progressed to the piano. In 1997 he fronted the house band for Channel 5's The Jack Docherty Show, a nightly chat show recorded at the Whitehall Theatre in London. MacKichan writes a lot of his own material, and won a Brit Award for the 2004 song Your Game after it became a hit for Will Young. He also co-wrote Lily Allen's 2007 hit Shame For You. In addition, Blair has composed music for film and television.

Then: From aged 13, played youngest son for 11 years. Remembered for teasing his sister about vegetarian boyfriend Troy. Now: Divorced with three sons he lives in Highgate, North London. Trained as a forensic chemist but wanted to be a professional magician - performs a cabaret magic act at weddings. Colin McCoy was a quality control manager vistiing chocolate factories Works for Woolworths says: "It definitely helped with the ladies when I was younger when people recognised me. I still do magic cabaret so I do still like the performing side.

"I was absolutely gutted when the ads were dropped. You just know you are never going to experience that again. I think to succeed in acting you need to be 100 per cent dedicated - which I wasn't able to be."

Alison Reynolds, then: Debuted aged eight as the precocious daughter and filmed the final episode aged 23. Her catchphrase was: "What's for dinner Mum?" Now: Full-time mother in Dagenham, Essex, with two sons, Kai and Wyn. Alison met husband Andrew Levell, an electrician, at Viking battle re-enactment. Says: "People often ask me if I was at school with them or if I used to live in their area because the public have seen me grow up."

TV-Times (1975)

This classic edition of the TV-Times dates back to September 1975 and gracing the cover are Comedian Frankie Howerd and Opportunity Knocks supremo Hughie Green. There's also a new written serial based on the cult soap, Crossroads!

The Real Amy Turtle

Amy Turtle was a character in Crossroads, the classic British television soap opera, played by Ann George from 1965 to 1976 and again from 1987 to 1988.

Amy first came to prominence in the series helping out at the antique shop in Kings Oak (the fictional village where Crossroads was set), but it was as the cleaner at the Crossroads Motel that she is best remembered. Her job gave her the perfect opportunity to listen to gossip and pass it on, yet, despite her irritating ways the staff remained strangely fond of her; as David Hunter ( Ronald Allen), the motel manager, commented in a 1974 episode when Amy had been away from the Motel for a while: "I miss Amy. Don't know why, I just do."

Over the years, Amy was involved in many storylines, some dramatic, some comedic. The last storyline she was involved in was the death of her son Billy. Amy went to visit her nephew in America, and didn't return to King's Oak until 1987.

It has often been (mistakenly) suggested that Amy Turtle was the inspiration for Victoria Wood's parody of Crossroads, Acorn Antiques; Victoria has denied this, and Julie Walters (the actress who portrayed Mrs Overall) more than suggested with her performance and appearance that Mrs Overall was in fact based on Crossroads character Mavis Hooper played by Charmian Eyre. However Walters commented in 2002, that when she first saw the script of Acorn Antiques the Mrs Overall role she thought instantly of Amy Turtle, and so she wanted her to have a Birmingham accent.

Ann George joined the cast of Crossroads in 1965 playing the cleaner Amy Turtle. She got the part after apparently complaining to ATV producers that there were not enough true Birmingham accents. She first appeared in 1966, working in the antique shop. She later became a cleaning lady at the Crossroads Motel, working for the formidable housekeeper Mrs Loomis. Critics derided George's performance; Crossroads was shot as live, and the low budget meant that the recording could not be edited and retakes were rare. Any slips made had to remain for the transmission; memorably, Amy would often answer the telephone with the show's catchphrase "Crossroads Motel, can I help you?" - five seconds later the phone would actually ring.

In 1976 she was axed from Crossroads. There followed a famous photograph of her in the British newspaper The Sun, waving her fists outside the ATV Studios. In the storyline, Amy was convicted of shoplifting; only later did the truth become known, that it was a cry for help as her son Billy had been killed in tragic circumstances. One of her last performances was a storyline in which Amy broke into Coventry Cathedral in the dead of night in order to mourn her son. The character is also famous for a story that never happened. The storyline of Amy being arrested for being a Soviet Double Agent, Amelia Turtleovski wasn't seen on-screen. Crossroads Appreciation Society researchers, working through the show's script documents, discovered that Amy was never arrested, nor was she accused of any crime. Simply a Russian guest at the motel mistook her for Amelia, and left Amy baffled by his reaction to her. In her final 1976 storyline, Amy went to see her nephew living in Texas in order to get over the death of Billy. After her departure the staff of the Motel never mentioned her again.

During these years George worked in clubs and pantomimes, before returning to the soap opera 11 years later. In 1987, she made a return to the programme. Crossroads was now under the management of producer William Smethurst, who insisted on bringing Amy back. When she walked into the studio for the first time in 11 years the cast - many of whom had worked with her first time round - broke into a spontaneous round of applause which brought tears to her eyes. It has been reported that George was unable to climb the stairs to the studio, which meant her appearances were limited to the occasional cameo in the studio, or on location in the village of Tanworth-in-Arden that doubled for the fictional King's Oak. The ATV Centre, however, had at the time fully operating lifts to all floors - including the studio level, so where this story originated from is still a mystery.

Movie Life (1946)

Movie Life was Hollywood's only All-Picture magazine.  This particular cover dates back to January 1946 and gracing the cover is legendary actor, Gregory Peck wearing a bandanna.  Also: In colour are, Diana Lynn, Elizabeth Taylor, Jimmie Stewart & Roy Rogers.

Nick Drake: (1948 - 1974)

Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar-based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone. Although he failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, his work gradually achieved wider notice and recognition; he now ranks among the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years. Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded two more albums—Bryter Later and Pink Moon. Neither sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release.

His reluctance to perform live, or be interviewed, contributed to his lack of commercial success. Yet he was able to gather a loyal group of influential fans who championed his music, including his manager, Joe Boyd, who had a clause put into his own contract with Island Records to ensure Drake's records would never be put out of print. Drake suffered from depression and insomnia throughout his life, and these topics were often reflected in his lyrics. On completion of his third album, 1972's Pink Moon, he withdrew from both live performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. There is no known footage of the adult Drake; he was only ever captured in still photographs and in home footage from his childhood. On 25 November 1974, Drake died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a prescribed antidepressant; he was 26 years old.

Drake's music remained available through the mid-1970s, but the 1979 release of the retrospective album Fruit Tree caused his back catalogue to be reassessed. By the mid-1980s Drake was being credited as an influence by such artists as Robert Smith, David Sylvian and Peter Buck. In 1985, The Dream Academy reached the UK and US charts with "Life in a Northern Town", a song written for and dedicated to Drake. By the early 1990s, he had come to represent a certain type of "doomed romantic" musician in the UK music press, and was frequently cited as an influence by artists including Kate Bush, Paujl Weller and The Black Crowes. His first biography appeared in 1997, and was followed in 1998 by the documentary film A Stranger Among Us. In 2000, Volkswagen featured the title track from Pink Moon in a television advertisement, and within a month Drake had sold more records than he had in the previous 30 years.

His father Rodney Drake (1908–1988) had moved to Rangoon, Burma, in the early 1930s to work as an engineer with the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation. In 1934, Rodney met the daughter of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service, Mary Lloyd (1916–1993), known to her family as Molly. Rodney proposed in 1936, though the couple had to wait a year until Molly turned 21 before her family allowed them to marry. In 1950, they returned to Warwickshire to live in the country estate of Far Leys, near Tanworth-in-Arden in west Warwickshire, just south of Solihull. Drake had one older sister, Gabrielle, later a successful film and television actress. Both parents were musically inclined, and they each wrote pieces of music. In particular, recordings of Molly's songs which have come to light following her death are remarkably similar in tone and outlook to the later work of her son. Mother and son shared a similar fragile vocal delivery, and both Gabrielle and biographer Trevor Dann have noted a parallel sense of foreboding and fatalism in their music. Encouraged by his mother, Drake learned to play piano at an early age, and began to compose his own songs, which he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder she kept in the family drawing room.

In 1957, Drake enrolled at Eagle House School, an English preparatory boarding school in Berkshire. Five years later, he went on to public school at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all attended. He developed an interest in sport, becoming an accomplished sprinter (his record for the 100-yard dash still stands) and captain of the school's rugby team for a time. He was also Head of House in C1, the College's largest house. School friends recall Drake at this time as having been confident and "quietly authoritative", while often aloof in his manner. His father Rodney remembered, "In one of his reports [the headmaster] said that none of us seemed to know him very well. All the way through with Nick. People didn't know him very much."

Drake played piano in the school orchestra, and learned clarinet and saxophone. He formed a band, The Perfumed Gardeners, with four schoolmates in 1964 or 1965. With Drake on piano and occasional alto sax and vocals, the group performed Pye covers and jazz standards, as well as Yardbirds and Manfred Mann numbers. The line-up briefly included Chris De Burgh, but he was soon ejected as his taste was seen as "too poppy" by the other members. Drake's academic performance began to deteriorate, and while he had accelerated a year in Eagle House, at Marlborough he began to neglect his studies in favour of music. He attained seven GCSE O-Levels in 1963, but this was fewer than his teachers had been expecting, and he failed "Physics with Chemistry". In 1965, Drake paid £13 for his first acoustic guitar, and was soon experimenting with open tuning and finger picking techniques.

In 1966, Drake won a scholarship to study English Literature at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. He delayed attendance to spend six months at the University of Aix-Marseille, France, beginning in February 1967. While in Aix, he began to practice guitar in earnest, and to earn money would often busk with friends in the town centre. Drake began to smoke cannabis, and that spring he travelled with friends to Morocco, because, according to travelling companion Richard Charkin, "that was where you got the best pot". Drake most likely began using LSD while in Aix, and lyrics written during this period—in particular for the song "Clothes of Sand"—are suggestive of an interest in hallucinogens.

Upon returning to England, he moved into his sister's flat in Hampstead, before enrolling at Cambridge that October. His tutors found him to be a bright student, but unenthusiastic and unwilling to apply himself to study. Dann notes that he had difficulty connecting with staff and fellow students alike, and points out that official matriculation photographs from this time reveal a sullen and unimpressed young man. Cambridge placed much emphasis on its rugby and cricket teams, yet by this time Drake had lost interest in playing sport, preferring to stay in his college room smoking marijuana, and listening to and playing music. According to fellow student (now psychiatrist) Brian Wells: "they were the rugger buggers and we were the cool people smoking dope." In September 1967, he met Robert Kirby, a music student who went on to orchestrate many of the string and woodwind arrangements for Drake's first two albums. By this time, Drake had discovered the British and American folk music scenes, and was influenced by performers such as Bob Dylan, Josh White and Phil Ochs. He began performing in local clubs and coffee houses around London, and in February 1968, while playing support to Country Joe at the Fish at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, made an impression on Ashley Hutchings, bass player with Fairport Convention. Hutchings recalls being impressed by Drake's skill as a guitarist, but even more so by "the image. He looked like a star. He looked wonderful, he seemed to be 7 ft."

Hutchings introduced Drake to the 25-year-old American producer Joe Boyd, owner of the production and management company Witchseason Productions. The company was, at the time, licensed to Island Records and Boyd, as the man who had discovered Fairport Convention and been responsible for introducing John Marytn and The Incredible String Band to a mainstream audience, was a significant and respected figure on the UK folk scene. He and Drake formed an immediate bond, and the producer acted as a mentor figure to Drake throughout his career. A four-track demo, recorded in Drake's college room in the spring of 1968, led Boyd to offer a management, publishing, and production contract to the 20 year old, and to initiate work on a debut album. According to Boyd:

In those days you didn't have cassettes—he brought a reel-to-reel tape [to me] that he'd done at home. Half way through the first song, I felt this was pretty special. And I called him up, and he came back in, and we talked, and I just said, "I'd like to make a record." He stammered, "Oh, well, yeah. Okay." Nick was a man of few words.

In a 2004 interview, Drake's friend Paul Wheeler remembered the excitement caused by his seeming big break, and recalled that the singer had already decided not to complete his third year at Cambridge.

Drake began recording his debut album Five Leaves Left later in 1968, with Boyd assuming the role of producer. The sessions took place in Sound Techniques Studio, London, with Drake skipping lectures to travel by train to the capital. Inspired by John Simon's production of Leonard Cohen's first album, Boyd was keen that Drake's voice would be recorded in a similar close and intimate style, "with no shiny pop reverb". He also sought to include a string arrangement similar to Simon's, "without overwhelming... or sounding cheesy". To provide backing, Boyd enlisted various contacts from the London folk rock scene, including Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson and Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson (no relation). He recruited John Wood as engineer, and drafted Richard Hewson in to provide the string arrangements.

Initial recordings did not go well: the sessions were irregular and rushed, taking place during studio downtime borrowed from Fairport Convention's production of their Unhalfbricking album. Tension arose between artist and producer as to the direction the album should take: Boyd was an advocate of George Martin's "using the studio as an instrument" approach, while Drake preferred a more organic sound. Dann has observed that Drake appears "tight and anxious" on bootleg recordings taken from the sessions, and notes a number of Boyd's unsuccessful attempts at instrumentation. Both were unhappy with Hewson's contribution, which they felt was too mainstream in sound for Drake's songs. Drake suggested using his college friend Robert Kirby as a replacement, although Boyd was sceptical at taking on an amateur music student lacking prior recording experience. However, he was impressed by Drake's uncharacteristic assertiveness, and agreed to a trial. Kirby had previously presented Drake with some arrangements for his songs, and went on to provide a spare chamber music quartet score associated with the sound of the final album. However, Kirby did not feel confident enough to score the album's centerpiece "River Man", and Boyd was forced to stretch the Witchseason budget to hire the veteran composer Harry Robinson, with the instruction that he echo the tone of Delius and Ravel.

Post Production difficulties led to the release being delayed by several months. It has been alleged that the album was poorly marketed and supported, though the inclusion of the opening track "Time Has Told Me" on the Island Records sampler Nice Enough to eat brought him a very wide audience (a track from his second album was likewise included on the subsequent sampler Bumpers). Drake was featured in full-page interviews in the pop press. In July, Melody Maker referred to the album as "poetic" and "interesting", though NME wrote in October that there was "not nearly enough variety to make it entertaining". It received radio plays from the BBC's more progressive disc-jockeys such as John Peel and Bob Harris. Drake was unhappy with the inlay sleeve, which printed songs in the wrong running order and reproduced verses omitted from the recorded versions. In an interview his sister Gabrielle said: "He was very secretive. I knew he was making an album but I didn't know what stage of completion it was at until he walked into my room and said, 'There you are.' He threw it onto the bed and walked out!

Drake ended his studies at Cambridge nine months before graduation, and in autumn 1969 moved to London to concentrate on a career in music. His father remembered "writing him long letters, pointing out the disadvantages of going away from Cambridge ... a degree was a safety net, if you manage to get a degree, at least you have something to fall back on; his reply to that was that a safety net was the one thing he did not want." Drake spent his first few months in the capital drifting from place to place, occasionally staying at his sister's Kensington flat, but usually sleeping on friends’ sofas and floors. Eventually, in an attempt to bring some stability and a telephone into Drake's life, Boyd organised and paid for a ground floor bedsit in Belsize Park, Camden.

In August, Drake recorded three songs for the BBC's John Peel show. Two months later, he opened for Fairport Convention at the Royal Festival Hall in London, followed by appearances at folk clubs in Birmingham and Hull. Remembering the performance in Hull, folk singer Michael Chapman commented:

The folkies did not take to him; [they] wanted songs with choruses. They completely missed the point. He didn't say a word the entire evening. It was actually quite painful to watch. I don't know what the audience expected, I mean, they must have known they weren't going to get sea–shanties and sing-alongs at a Nick Drake gig!

The experience reinforced Drake's decision to retreat from live appearances; the few concerts he did play around this time were usually brief, awkward, and poorly attended. Drake seemed unwilling to perform and rarely addressed his audience. As many of his songs were played in different tunings, he frequently paused to retune between numbers.

Although the publicity generated by Five Leaves Left was minor, Boyd was keen to build on what momentum there was. 1970's Bryter Later again produced by Boyd and engineered by Wood, introduced a more upbeat, jazzier sound. Disappointed by his debut's poor commercial performance, Drake sought to move away from his pastoral sound, and agreed to his producer's suggestions to include bass and drum tracks on the recordings. "It was more of a pop sound, I suppose", Boyd later said, "I imagined it as more commercial." Like its predecessor, the album featured musicians from Fairport Convention, as well as contributions from John Cale on two songs: "Northern Sky" and "Fly". Trevor Dann has noted that while sections of "Northern Sky" sound more characteristic of Cale, the song was the closest Drake came to a release with chart potential. In his 1999 autobiography, Cale admits to using heroin during this period, and his older friend Brian Wells began to suspect that Drake was also using. Both Boyd and Wood were confident that the album would be a commercial success, but it went on to sell fewer than 3,000 copies. Reviews were again mixed: while Record Mirror praised Drake as a "beautiful guitarist—clean and with perfect timing, [and] accompanied by soft, beautiful arrangements", Melody Maker described the album as "an awkward mix of folk and cocktail jazz."


Island Records was keen that Drake promote Bryter Layter through press interviews, radio sessions and live appearances. Drake, who was by this time smoking what Kirby has described as "unbelievable amounts" of marijuana and exhibiting "the first signs of psychosis", refused. By the winter of 1970, he had isolated himself in London. Disappointed by the reaction to Bryter Layter, he turned his thoughts inwards, and withdrew from family and friends. He rarely left his flat, and then only to play an occasional concert or to buy drugs. "This was a very bad time", his sister Gabrielle Drake recalled, "He once said to me that everything started to go wrong from [this] time on, and I think that was when things started to go wrong."

Although Island neither expected nor wanted a third album, Drake approached Wood in October 1971 to begin work on what would be his final release. The sessions took place over two nights, with only Drake and Wood present in the studio. The bleak songs of Pink Moon are short, and the eleven-track album lasts only 28 minutes, a length described by Wood as "just about right. You really wouldn't want it to be any longer." Drake had expressed dissatisfaction with the sound of Bryter Layter, and believed that the string, brass and saxophone arrangements had resulted in a sound that was "too full, too elaborate". Drake appears on Pink Moon accompanied only by his own carefully recorded guitar save for a single piano overdub on the title track. "He was very determined to make this very stark, bare record," Wood later recalled. "He definitely wanted it to be him more than anything. And I think, in some ways, Pink Moon is probably more like Nick is than the other two records."

Drake delivered the tapes of Pink Moon to Chris Blackwell at Island Records, contrary to a popular legend which claims he dropped them off at the receptionist's desk without saying a word. An advertisement for the album placed in Melody Maker in February opened with "Pink Moon—Nick Drake's latest album: the first we heard of it was when it was finished." Pink Moon went on to sell fewer copies than either of its predecessors, although it did receive some favourable reviews. In Zigzagmagazine, Connor McKnight wrote, "Nick Drake is an artist who never fakes. The album makes no concession to the theory that music should be escapist. It's simply one musician's view of life at the time, and you can't ask for more than that."

Blackwell felt Pink Moon had the potential to bring Drake to a mainstream audience; however, his staff were disappointed by the artist's unwillingness to undertake any promotional activity. A&R manager Muff Winwood recalls "tearing his hair out" in frustration, and admits that without Blackwell's enthusiastic support, "the rest of us would have given him the boot." However, following persistent nagging from Boyd, Drake agreed to an interview with Jerry Gilbert of Sounds Magazine. The "shy and introverted folk singer" spoke of his dislike of live appearances and very little else. "There wasn't any connection whatsoever", Gilbert has said. "I don't think he made eye contact with me once. If you wanted to be uncharitable, you could say he was just a spoiled boy with a silver spoon and went around feeling sorry for himself." Disheartened and convinced he would be unable to write again, Drake decided to retire from music. He toyed with the idea of a different career, even considering the Army.

In the months following Pink Moon's release, Drake became increasingly antisocial and distant from those close to him. He returned to live at his parents' home in Far Leys, and while he resented the regression, he accepted that his illness made it necessary. "I don't like it at home", he told his mother, "but I can't bear it anywhere else." His return was often difficult for his family; as his sister Gabrielle explained, "good days in my parents' home were good days for Nick, and bad days were bad days for Nick. And that was what their life revolved around, really."

Referring to this period, John Martyn (who in 1973 wrote the title song of his album Solid Air for and about Drake) described him as the most withdrawn person he'd ever met. He would borrow his mother's car and drive for hours without purpose on occasion, until he ran out of petrol and had to ring his parents to ask to be collected. Friends have recalled the extent to which his appearance had changed. During particularly bleak periods of his illness, he refused to wash his hair or cut his nails. Early in 1972, Drake suffered a nervous breakdown, and was hospitalized for five weeks.He lived a frugal existence, his only source of income being a £20-a-week retainer he received from Island Records. At one point he could not afford a new pair of shoes.He would often disappear for days, sometimes turning up unannounced at friends' houses, uncommunicative and withdrawn. Robert Kirby described a typical visit: "He would arrive and not talk, sit down, listen to music, have a smoke, have a drink, sleep there the night, and two or three days later he wasn't there, he'd be gone. And three months later he'd be back."

In February 1974, Drake again contacted John Wood, stating he was ready to begin work on a fourth album.^] Boyd was in England at the time, and agreed to attend the recordings. This initial session was followed by further recordings in July. In his 2006 autobiography, the producer recalled being taken aback at Drake's anger and bitterness: "[He said that] I had told him he was a genius, and others had concurred. Why wasn't he famous and rich? This rage must have festered beneath that inexpressive exterior for years." Both Boyd and Wood noticed a discernible deterioration in Drake's performance, requiring him to overdub his voice separately over the guitar. However, the return to Sound Techniques studio raised Drake's spirits; his mother later recalled, "We were so absolutely thrilled to think that Nick was happy because there hadn't been any happiness in Nick's life for years.

By autumn 1974, Drake's weekly retainer from Island had ceased, and his illness meant he remained in contact with only a few close friends. He had tried to stay in touch with Sophia Ryde, whom he had first met in London in 1968. Ryde has been described by Drake's biographers as "the nearest thing" to a girlfriend in his life, but she now prefers the description 'best (girl) friend'. In a 2005 interview, Ryde revealed that a week before he died, she had sought to end the relationship: "I couldn't cope with it. I asked him for some time. And I never saw him again." As with the relationship he had earlier shared with fellow folk musician Linda Thompson, Drake's relationship with Ryde was never consummated.

At some time during the night of 24/25 November 1974, Nick Drake died at home in Far Leys from an overdose of a type of antidepressant. He had gone to bed early the night before, after spending the afternoon visiting a friend. His mother stated that, around dawn, he left his room for the kitchen. His family was used to hearing him do this many times before but, during this instance, he did not make a sound. They presumed that he was eating a bowl of cereal. He returned to his room a short while later, and took some pills "to help him sleep" Drake was accustomed to keeping his own hours; he frequently had difficulty sleeping, and would often stay up through the night playing and listening to music, then sleep late into the following morning. Recalling the events of that night, his mother later stated: "I never used to disturb him at all. But it was about 12 o'clock, and I went in, because really it seemed it was time he got up. And he was lying across the bed. The first thing I saw was his long, long legs." There was no suicide note, although a letter addressed to Ryde was found close to his bed.

At the inquest that December, Drake's coroner stated that the cause of death was as a result of "Acute poisoning—self-administered when suffering from a depressive illness", and concluded a verdict of suicide. Though this has been disputed by some members of his family, there is a general view that accidental or not, Drake had by then given up on life. Rodney described his son's death as unexpected and extraordinary; however, in a 1979 interview he admitted to "always [being] worried about Nick being so depressed. We used to hide away the aspirin and pills and things like that." Boyd has stated that he prefers to believe the overdose was accidental. He recalled that Drake's parents had described his mood in the preceding weeks as having been very positive, and that he had planned to move back to London to restart his music career. Boyd believes that this levity was followed by a "crash back into despair". Reasoning that Drake may have taken a high dosage of his antidepressants to recapture this sense of optimism, he said he prefers to imagine Drake "making a desperate lunge for life rather than a calculated surrender to death". Writing in 1975, NME journalist Nick Kent comments on the irony of Drake's death at a time when he had just begun to regain a sense of "personal balance". In contrast, Gabrielle Drake has said she prefers to think Drake committed suicide, "in the sense that I'd rather he died because he wanted to end it than it to be the result of a tragic mistake. That would seem to me to be terrible."

On 2 December 1974, after a service in the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Tanworth-in-Arden, Drake's remains were cremated at the Solihull Crematorium and his ashes later interred under an oak tree in the adjoining graveyard of St Mary's. The funeral was attended by around 50 mourners, including friends from Marlborough, Aix, Cambridge, London, Witchseason, and Tanworth. Referring to Drake's tendency to compartmentalise relationships, Brian Wells later observed that many met each other for the first time that morning. Molly recalled "a lot of his young friends came up here. We'd never met many of them.

The Mamas & The Papas: California Dreamin' (1965)

I really do love this song, it has the knack of picking me up when I'm down. "California Dreamin'" the classic song by The Mamas & The Papas, first released in 1965. The song is No89 in Rolling Stones' list of The 500 Greatest Songs of all Time. The lyrics of the song are about a man in a cold winter landscape longing for the warmth of California. According to John Phillips in a Bravo documentary, and Michelle Phillips in an NPR piece, the song was written in 1963 while they were living in New York. He dreamed about the song and woke her up to help him write it. At the time, the Phillips' were members of the folk group The New Journeymen which evolved into The Mamas & The Papas.

They earned their first record contract after being introduced to Lou Adler, the head of Dunhill Records, by the singer Barry McGuire. In thanks to Adler, they sang the backing vocals to "California Dreamin'" on McGuire's album This Precious Time. The Mamas and the Papas then recorded their own version, using the same instrumental and backing vocal tracks to which they added new vocals and an alto flute solo by Bud Shan k. McGuire's original vocal can be briefly heard on the left channel at the beginning of the record, having not been completely wiped. The single was released in late 1965 but it was not an immediate breakthrough. After gaining little attention in Los Angeles upon its release, Michelle Phillips remembers that it took a radio station in Boston to break the song nationwide. By early 1966, the song peaked at No4 and stayed on the charts for 17 weeks. "California Dreaming" and "The Ballard of the Green Berets" sharply divided the popular music market in March 1966.

The song is used repeatedly in the 1994 Wong Kar-Wai film Chungking Express, in which a character played by singer Faye Wong obsessively listens to it. The original song by The Mamas & the Papas was also used in the soundtrack on the Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning film Forrest Gump. A version by the band The Bald Eagles was used for the remake of the movie The Hills Have Eyes. In the movie Congo the song is sung by members of an expedition as they prepare rafts for an ill-fated river trek.

"California Dreamin'", as covered by Bobby Womack (1968), features prominently in 2009 British film Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold, where the main character Mia dances to it and uses it as her audition piece. The collection CD on which the song appears also plays a role, and is "The Best of Bobby Womack" (2008), on which "California Dreamin'" appears on track 17, as Mia requests at her audition.

The song was also used in the South Park episode 201.

In the British time travelling sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, one of the main characters, Phoebe, sang this song, thinking it had been written by her husband, Gary Sparrow. (Gary Sparrow travels from the 1990s to the 1940s and claims to write songs, which are actually songs from popular bands or singers, such as "Yesterday" by The Beatles, "Imagine" by John Lennon and "Back To You" by Brett Anderson.)

A cover of the song by Shaw Blades was used in the final scene of the season 2 finale of Californication.

The song is used in promos for HBO Films' Cinema Verite.

It was also used in a "Butter Menthol" Cough Lolly TV advertisment in Australia

In 2004 the Mexican bank Banamex use the theme for a TV Commercial.

Billboard Hot 100 (1965)

1965  was a great year in music. The Beatles ruled the charts again but even with their five No1 hits there was plenty of room for some old favorites and newcomers alike. The Rolling Stones had one of the biggest hits of the year with "Satisfaction", this song has been voted as one of the top five rock songs of all times.
Possibly the last gasp for good old rock&roll was a song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs called "Wooly Bully". It never hit No1 but it managed to stay in the Top 40 for over 14 weeks. Music was becoming more complicated and "Wooly Bully" was a throwback to simpler rhythms and lyrics.

The British invasion continued with No1 hits from Herman's Hermits, "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" and "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter" as well as the Dave Clark Five's hit, "Over And Over".

There was quite a lineup of newcomers in 1965. Sonny & Cher took a No 1 spot with their "I Got You Babe" even if it did sound suspiciously like "It Ain't Me Babe" from Bob Dylan. The Byrds with an all star lineup would have a hit with a Bob Dylan tune, "Mr. Tambourine Man". Their popularity would only last a couple of years, changes in members due to successful solo careers would eventually end the group. While they were together they are credited with creating the genre 'folk rock' along with Pete Seeger and Dylan, they also pioneered 'country rock' sounds as well as the beginnings of 'psychedelic rock'. Their musical interpretations would influence music throughout the remainder of the 1960's.

Another newcomer was The Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick, they didn't have a chart success until 1967 though. Out of the San Francisco Bay area and not causing much of a stir until later years was a group that was eventually known as the Grateful Dead. Their pioneering in long musical improvisation gave rise to the musical term jamming.

Number of Charted Songs Top 100: Beatles - 5 Supremes - 3 Herman's Hermits - 3 Byrds - 2 Four Tops - 2 Yarbirds - 2

And The Grammy Goes To: Record of the Year - "A Taste of Honey" - Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Album of the Year - "September of My Years" - Frank Sinatra Song of the Year - "The Shadow of Your Smile?" - Paul Francis Webster Best Rock and Roll Recording - "King of the Road"- Roger Miller

Roger Miller had the biggest Country & Western hit of the year with "King of the Road" proving again that there can be a cross over market for C&W. While folk music was turning electric Simon and Garfunkel had a more acoustic hit with "The Sound of Silence" which would hit No1 on New Years day 1966.
In the grown-up world movie soundtracks were ruling with some all time greats like "The Sound of Music", "Doctor Zhivago", My Fair Lady", and "Fiddler on the Roof" leading the way.

SONG	ARTIST (click to purchase)	# OF WEEKS	DATE
Downtown	Petula Clark	2	1/23
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'	The Righteous Brothers	2	2/06
This Diamond Ring	Gary Lewis and the Playboys	2	2/20
My Girl	Temptations	1	3/06
Eight Days A Week	Beatles	2	3/13
Stop! In The Name Of Love	The Supremes	2	3/27
I'm Telling You Now	Freddie and the Dreamers	2	4/10
Game Of Love	Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders	1	4/24
Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter	Herman's Hermits	3	5/01
Ticket To Ride	Beatles	1	5/22
Help Me, Rhonda	Beach Boys	2	5/29
Back In My Arms Again	Supremes	1	6/12
I Can't Help Myself	The Four Tops	2	6/19
Mr. Tambourine Man	The Byrds	1	6/26
Satisfaction	Rolling Stones	4	7/10
I'm Henry VIII, I Am	Herman's Hermits	1	8/07
I Got You Babe	Sonny & Cher	3	8/14
Help!	Beatles	3	9/04
Eve Of Destruction	Barry McGuire	1	9/25
Hang On Sloopy	The McCoys	1	10/02
Yesterday	Beatles	4	10/09
Get Off Of My Cloud	Rolling Stones	2	11/06
I Hear A Symphony	Supremes	2	11/20
Turn! Turn! Turn!	The Byrds	3	12/04
Over And Over	The Dave Clark Five	1	12/24

Cloppa Castle - Episode Seven - Off Duty

The castle guards are protesting again at the fact they have been on duty for months without a break. The Queen decides that they should all have a day off and go to the seaside. Before they can go Cue-ee-dee has to build a new wagon to carry everyone. Alas for poor Cue-ee-dee he has built inside his lab and the doorway is not big enough for it to get out. Whilst this problem is being dealt with, the castle comes under attack from the Hasbeenes.
 
 
Elbow is most annoyed as this may mean he cannot have a holiday. Suddenly the Byegones realise that they could use Beosweyne battering ram to smash a hole in the laboratory and thus get the wagon out. It all goes to plan and Beosweyne comes rushing into the castle and crashes through the lab wall. He is about to claim victory when the Queen invites both him and his men for a day out. A twenty four hour truce is thus called. Everyone is very happy and has a nice time relaxing, although the sea is at very low tide. At the end of the day they are all hungry and it is up to Mudlin to bring out the food.
 
 
He makes a complete mess of it and Beosweyne is not happy about it. He starts to complain and the Queen leaps into her chariot and with the wagon in tow, she heads for the castle leaving everyone stranded at the beach. Beosweyne decides to show all the others how to organise a feast and party back at his camp. Everyone has a great time part from the Queen who is in bed at Cloppa Castle.

Saluting the Greatest - Happy 70th, Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) the American former professional Boxer, Philanthropist and Social Activist Considered a cultural icon, Ali was both idolized and vilified.

Originally known as Cassius Clay, Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975, and more recently practicing Sufism. In 1967, three years after Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. Military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. Ali stated, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of the era.

Widespread protests against the Vietnam War w had not yet begun, but with that one phrase, Ali articulated the reason to oppose the war for a generation of young Americans, and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and antiwar upheavals that would rock the 1960s. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King Jr. – who had been reluctant to alienate the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda – to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.

Ali would eventually be arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges; he was stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license was suspended. He was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S.Supreme Court, where it was eventually successful.

Ali would go on to become the first and only three-time Lineal World Heavyweight Champion.

Nicknamed "The Greatest," Ali was involved in several historic boxing matches. Notable among these were three with rival Joe Frazier, which are considered among the greatest in boxing history, and one with George Foreman, where he finally regained his stripped titles seven years later. Ali was well known for his unorthodox fighting style, which he described as "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee", and employing techniques such as the Ali Shuffle and the rope-a-dope. Ali had brought beauty and grace to the most uncompromising of sports and through the wonderful excesses of skill and character, he had become the most famous athlete in the world. He was also known for his pre-match hype, where he would "trash talk" opponents, often with rhymes. In 1999, Ali was crowned "Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and Sports Personality of the Year by the BBC..

Clay won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amatuer Athletic National Title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses.

Ali states (in his 1975 autobiography) that he threw his Olympic Gold Medal into the Ohio River after being refused service at a 'whites-only' restaurant, and fighting with a white gang. Whether this is true is still debated, although he was given a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.

Ali is generally considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time by boxing commentators and historians. Ring Magazine, a prominent boxing magazine, named him number 1 in a 1998 ranking of greatest heavyweights from all eras.

Ali was named the second greatest fighter in boxing history by ESPN.com behind only welterweight and middleweight great Sugar Ray Robinson In December 2007, ESPN listed Ali second in its choice of the greatest heavyweights of all time, behind Joe Louis.

Muhammad Ali has been married four times and has seven daughters and two sons. Ali met his first wife,Cocktail Waitress Sonji Roi, approximately one month before they married on August 14, 964. Roi's objections to certain Muslim customs in regard to dress for women contributed to the breakup of their marriage. They divorced on January 10, 1966.

On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. After the wedding, she, like Ali, converted to Islam and more recently to Sufism, changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: Maryum (b. 1968), Jamillah and Rasheda (b. 1970), and Muhammad Ali Jr. (b. 1972).

In 1975, Ali began an affair with Veronica Porsche, an actress and model. By the summer of 1977, Ali's second marriage was over and he had married Veronica. At the time of their marriage, they had a baby girl, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Veronica were divorced.

On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda Ali. They had been friends since 1964 in Louisville. They have one son, Asaad Amin, who they adopted when Amin was five.

Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. Ali has two other daughters, Miya and Khaliah, from extramarital relationships.

As a world champion boxer and social activist, Ali has been the subject of numerous books, films and other creative works. In 1963, he released an album of spoken word on Columbia Records titled I am the Greatest! He has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 37 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan. He appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull. His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee. When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won an Academy Award and the 2001 biopic Ali garnered an Oscar nomination for Will Smith's portrayal of the lead role.

For contributions to the entertainment industry, Muhammed Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.