Jonathan Meades: Remember the Future (1997)

The news that the Jodrell Bank telescope may soon be no more sent me back to a piece by Jonathan Meades:

Concorde was seen in the sky over West London for the first time in late June 1969. Less than a month later Neil Armstrong stepped from Apollo 11 onto the moon. The future had arrived. It was tangible, it was thrilling, it was now. We came to believe that we were all part of an adventure without end. This was just the beginning, the new beginning. 

What we didn’t realise was that this was it. A peak had been achieved. The only way was down.

And from there I went to this television film of his on the same theme.

I don't agree with all he says here, but then what Meades offers in his work is not so much a set of beliefs as an attitude. And it's that attitude we love him for.

"An ingenious inventor is keeping his secret in some remote farm building between Market Harborough and Peterborough"

I've blogged before about the C.W. Allen and the phantom airships of 1909. It turns out that excitement was running so high that the Daily Express sent a special correspondent to Market Harborough. Here is part of his report.

THREE EYE-WITNESSES

“Express” Special Correspondent

MARKET HARBOROUGH, Tuesday Night

The mysterious airship with blazing headlights, which is reported to have been seen flying by night round Peterborough and across East Anglia, is being eagerly watched for again to-night. 

This strange aerocraft, with its suggestion of Mr. H. G. Wells' "War in the Air," has fired the imagination of the countryside, and the villagers everywhere are watching the sky for its reappearance. It has been seen driving through the night by several credible witnesses in districts wide apart, and many people believe that an ingenious inventor is keeping his secret in some remote farm building between Market Harborough and Peterborough.

I have motored this evening across part of ' the district in which the airship—judging from its line of flight—is understood to be concealed. The fenland of the country round is as flat as a billiard-table, and remote from the main lines of railway and high roads, and is thus admirably suitable {for an aeronaut who desired to keep his trial flights secret. 

Among the first to see the airship that flies by night was Mr, C. W. Allen, the pedestrian holder of the 2,000 miles road record, who lives in Northampton Road, Market Harborough. 1 have today seen Mr. Allen, who has given me an account of what he saw.

You can read Allen's account in an earlier post on this blog – he lived at 43 Nithsdale Avenue, not on Northampton Road. It seems there was a second panic over these mysterious airships in 1913.

British Airways attendant found naked and on drugs in onboard toilet

We have our Headline if the Day - well done, BBC News.

If it's any consolation, the gentleman it refers to, Haden Pentecost, wins Name of the Day,

The Joy of Six 1382

Alexandra Hall Hall lists 10 things Britain could do if it really cared about Palestinians.

"If this plan is about prevention, then nature should be central to it. The science is unequivocal: contact with the natural world supports human health in wide ranging and profound ways. It lowers stress, improves mood, and alleviates symptoms of anxiety." Andrea Mechelli et al. argue that there is a striking omission from the NHS's 10-year plan.

"I recently wrote an article for the Telegraph about a series of unexplained electrical substation fires across the country. There had been eight in the space of a few weeks between March and mid May, when normally you might expect one or two every few years." Coincidence or enemy action? Jonathan Ford investigates.

Henry Jeffreys has the latest on the Unbound scandal: "Pete Brown, Britain’s best-known beer writer, said: 'I don’t think I got a single UK review or mention anywhere apart from those I generated myself. It was then that I realised the model gave Unbound absolutely no incentive to try to sell a book post-publication.'"

"In late May he secured an incredible coup over Caroline’s chief advisor, the Whig MP Henry Brougham, who was trying to negotiate a behind-closed doors settlement. Instead, Wood met Caroline in Calais and convinced her to return from exile, take up residence in his London home and from there claim the right to be crowned Queen of the United Kingdom." Martin Spychal on Matthew Wood, who took up the cause of Caroline of Brunswick, the estranged wife of George IV.

B.D. McClay speaks up for her favourite Jane Austen novel: "It’s not my intention to turn Northanger Abbey from a gleeful romp into a treatise on human judgment. It is a light novel – Austen’s lightest – and that lightness should be burdened as little as possible through overthinking it. Nevertheless, at risk of weightiness, it’s worth exploring how Northanger Abbey is more than a satire of other novels. Managing disastrous first impressions, discerning the sincerity of another’s intentions, seeing into somebody’s character: these are all here, explored in just as nuanced a way as they will be in Emma or Pride and Prejudice."

Gladys Knight and the Pips: Midnight Train to Georgia

One of the things that's great about this song is that the Pips are more than just backing singers. You just know they're going to give Gladys Knight a hard time if she doesn't catch that train.

Midnight Train to Georgia was a track on the group's 1973 album Imagination, but not released as a single in the UK until 1976, when it made the top 10. It had topped the US singles chart in the year the album was released.

The song was written under the title Midnight Plane to Houston by Jimmy Weatherly, inspired by a conversation he once had with Farah Fawcett.

He sent the song to the musician and producer Sonny Limbo, who wanted to record it with the singer Cissy Houston. Limbo asked, in view of the clash of names, if he could change the lyric to 'midnight train to Georgia'.

"I don't mind," replied Weatherly, "just don't change the rest of the song."

Llandow, 1950: The worst air disaster the world had seen

The national anthems at the Wales vs England rugby international in Cardiff today were preceded by a silence for the victims of the Llandow air disaster of 1950.

The disaster involved a plane - an Avro Tudor - that had been chartered to take Welsh fans to and from the Five Nations game against Ireland, which was played at the Ravenhill Stadium in Belfast. The Avro crashed at Llandow aerodrome when attempting to land after its return flight.

Eighty people died in the crash - 75 rugby fans and all 5 of the crew. At the time it was the worst air disaster the world had seen.

An inquiry found that the probable cause of the accident was the loading of the aircraft, which had moved its centre of gravity considerably aft of where it should have been.

You can read more in the Wikipedia article on the Llandow Air Disaster. The photo above is taken from The Sphere, 18 March 1950.

First newspaper listing for what became the Spencer Davis Group?

It's not much to look at, but this notice from the Birmingham Mail for 23 October 1963 sets a new record for the earliest press mention of Steve Winwood I can find.

The previous record was 3 December 1963, and because new titles are being added to the British Newspaper Archive all the time, it's possible that this one will be broken too.

Here again, though he was only 15, Steve Winwood shares top billing with Spencer Davis. The band has not yet become the Spencer Davis Group.

This notice is on page 2 of the newspaper. Stories on page 1 include:

• Final moves made to allow prime minister Alec Douglas Home to renounce his peerage;
• All seven aboard a test flight of the BAC III die when it crashes in Wiltshire;
• Michael Foot continues to recover from a serious car accident.

Spencer Davis is in the Manchester Evening News for 18 October 1963, but it looks as though he was sitting in with the Graham Bond Organisation the following evening rather than playing with the rest of the SDG.

The towers of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station await demolition

James Graham (the television writer not the former Liberal Democrat blogger) has joined calls for the preservation of the cooling towers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, which was Britain's last working coal-fired station before it shut down at the end of September.

BBC News quotes him as saying:

"Some might think they're ugly. I think they're majestic. Concrete cathedrals.

"I got to stand inside one, filming Sherwood series two. I've never stood anywhere like it on Earth.

"I'd love future generations to stand in them too. But they are inexplicably all going – all of them."

There are various online petitions calling for the preservation for one or more of the towers, but none seems to be arousing much enthusiasm.

No application for demolition has yet been submitted to the local council, says another BBC News report. But if demolition does take place, East Midlands Airport will have to be closed while it is underway.