A good bit of nostalgia (From Gazette & Herald)

A good bit of nostalgia

A DATE to remember, as if we should ever forget, for it was on this date in 1944 that the D Day landings took place in Normandy, where so many good folk gave their all, and for those remaining it was the beginning of the end. We owe thanks to so many!

- Other anniversaries include the birth of Sir John Stainer, composer, in 1840, of Robert Falcon Scott, explorer in 1868, and of Aram Khachaturian, composer in 1903. Louis Chevrolet, the automobile designer died in 1941, and Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. As I said, a date to remember.

- With the Queen's jubilee it has been time to think of flags again, and R Yates & Sons in Railway Street started the ball rolling with an excellent example of patriotism, with a line of Union Flags across the front of their premises. And they're all hung the correct way! An invitation for others to follow suit, which I suspect has already started, and by the time this gets into print I hope it has snowballed. Looked at rather like a family, the retail businesses in Malton and Norton must have a senior partner as it were, and I suspect that Yates are perhaps the grand-daddy of 'em all, so taking their position seriously they are setting an example to all which I hope will be heeded. Let's have a colourful occasion, be it business or household.

- The Night Network on radio, Monday nights, run by Frank Wappatt is usually good for a bit of nostalgia, and he transfers music from old 78s to disc and makes it sound like new again. He does have a tendency to talk a little bit too much at times - dear Alan Dell had it right, as does David Jacobs - but nevertheless, when the music comes it's always worth the wait.

Thus I heard a tune, quite by accident, because I wasn't really 'listening' to the radio at the time, but just 'rigging up' a bedside clock/radio, and what came out of it was 'Moonlight Madonna'. I hadn't heard it for years and years, and it immediately conjured up a picture of fairground days before the war, when they were set up in Malton Market Place. Marshall's Amusements were the leaders in those days, and brought with them many other well known names, but the music came from Henry Marshall's Noah's Ark, filling the town centre with as many decibels as the equipment of that day could produce, yet of a quality in most cases, a lot better than one hears today. Mr Marshall, a quiet man, sat at his control panel, his brown trilby hat tilted to the back of his head, a cigarette drooping from his lips, and his hands on the potentiometer wheel which brought the ''Ark'' to life. He was at the same time looking after the takings which were handed to him at each 'ride', and he also kept the music going round and round (to coin the name of a popular tune). The powerful amplifier giving us the entertainment was of course a 'valve job', and the power valves of that day were huge clear glass ones of at least six inches long. After being in use for an hour or two, sound distortion would set in, as the filament of the valve distorted with being red hot for a long period, and it was then that he would reach for a spare valve, which would have been loosely rolling about on his cash desk, and with a piece of cloth, remove the hot 'tired' valve, and slip the standby one in its place, to keep the music playing, until it was time for the procedure to be reversed once again. He too, liked Moonlight Madonna, because it got played time and time again, and we all loved it. Meanwhile, the big, beautiful showman's engine, blocked up level near the Town Hall wall, and gently rocking on its chocks, 'chuffed' quietly away, generating for hours on end, the power needed for the ride and the light and music, whilst many a man, and boy, would just stand and gaze upwards at its spinning flywheel, and whirring crankshaft, and just watch, and watch, and watch....... The noisy diesel can never replace the magic of steam can it !

- And talking of music, one of my pet hates as you know is the so-called background music in supermarkets, designed to get you in the shopping mood, and as I said to the cashier this week, when paying my dues "I shall be glad to get out of this place - away from those screaming 'singers'." Known as 'piped music' I read that there is no impartial evidence to show that it increases sales by one penny. Many pubs, airports, cafes etc have stopped this aggravation, and the big supermarkets, Tesco, Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer have dropped their plans to introduce it.

I have a suspicion that a local hardware shop in our main street has introduced 'musak', which, added to television monitors selling their products, adds an air of confusion, and Radio York still persists in 'more than background music', behind or even alongside the weather folks etc. You surely don't need it all at once, but then I'm a music lover.

- Muscial quote. 'Canned music is like audible wallpaper'. Alistair Cook (b 1908, Broadcaster-journalist).

Updated: 10:31 Thursday, June 06, 2002