barclaycon

Wasn't that a cinema advert ? Like the 'tasty' Westlers hot dog. Cinema adverts used to be hysterical - especially when they had the 'locally made' adverts. One TV jingle I always remember is Opal Fruits (now called Starburst) Opal Fruits made to make your mouth water Fresh with the tang of citrus, four refreshing fruit flavours Orange, lemon, strawberry, lime Juicy chewy Opal Fruits Made to make your mouth water

Yes. As a laxative !

I guess some people might say that Shipstones was an aquired taste (!) I always regarded it as an example of what 'poor quality' English beer was all about. In the same way that 'mild' was always thought of as the dregs or 'slops' from better quality stuff. For me, Shipstones was always way down the list. I don't know about the brewing method, but water from the River Leen ? Wasn't there a saying about: 'Shippo's makes you sh*t'. Of all the beers that were brewed in Notts, I really can't imagine that there was an enormous demand for Shipstones to be brought back.

Just as a matter of interest, where does all the coal for the Notts power stations come from now that nearly all the pits have closed ? I'm thinking of places like Ratcliffe power station. Is that imported coal ? Where is it brought in from ?

Do they still do anything for railway locomotives ? It seemed to be a prosperous company when I was at Loughborough in the 70's - doing all kinds of 'power' electric stuff. Then I heard in the 80's that they built the Class 60 loco's that do a lot of the coal and freight haulage. I noticed that they had to lay in a new railway line to the works. Every time I go past it on the train it seems to be part of another company. I think it changed hands again in 2008.

Yes. Education, education, education - remember that absolute bollocks from the prophet Tony Blair ? Get all the school leavers to go to University (to get them off the un-employment figures). Rename Colleges of Further Education and Polytechnics as 'Universities'. Encourage meaningless degrees that do nothing for employment prospects and, best of all, get them to pay for it ! (£9,000 a year now isn't it?). Make the famous Universities like Oxbridge (and Nottingham) into earners i.e. to attract foreign students paying through the nose. Difficult not to be cynical isn't it ? The best ad

What ever happened to the concept of clean-burn coal ? If there's one thing we still have a lot of left in this country, it's coal. The infrastructure is all laid in. Instead of just closing down power stations, putting up wind turbines and investing in gas, why not investigate this idea - as stop-gap at least. At the end of the Labour era they vetoed the investment to develop this new carbon-capture technology, preferring instead to leave it to the energy companies who are quite content close perfectly good power stations They simply pass on the cost of gas-fired stations, make enormous pr

Yes Trevor. I lived at the top of Sandy Lane and used to walk over 'the hill' and down to Bramcote Lane to go to the shops or catch the bus into town. Like I've mentioned before, I used to consider the E8 route (and later the F5) the 'back way' into town, but it was still a pleasant journey. My memories are from '68 onwards. Even then roads like Wollaton Vale ended abruptly. I remember the Nottingham Canal from the bridge at Bramcote Moor, it still had water in it even though it had been closed. If I remember rightly Bramcote Lane had only recently been connected to Thoresby Road - itself

#70 Yes, quite a pleasant journey. Past Clement Pianos up to Canning Circus. Ilkeston Road and past the Players factory. Left at the Wheelhouse and past Wollaton Park, along Bramcote Lane. It usually dropped everyone at the shops before turning round. The E8 used to turn into Kevin Road to turn round. Can't remember what the F5 did. Happy days indeed.....

The changeover from 405 lines to 625 lines was a major faff. When BBC2 came along it was 625 lines only, which meant a new aerial and major changes to TV electronics. There was a period of a few years when televisions had to handle both 405 lines and 625 lines. I remember that when you wanted to watch something on BBC2 like 'World Of Beachcomber' (Spike Milligan) or 'His Lordship Entertains' (Ronnie Barker, David Jason), you'd push a huge button and there would be a massive clunk and then you'd have to rotate a dial to tune it properly. I guess with Redifusion you didn't have all that mess

Interesting. Thanks for that Rob.

I was trying to remember if Radio Luxembourg was available on Redifusion ? I seem to remember in some hotels they had a box with a rotary switch for radio channels (might not have been Redifusion of course).

Re. Walter Carlos. Now known of course as Wendy Carlos since 'gender transition' in 1972. I think Clockwork Orange was about the 4th. album (after 'Switched On Bach', 'The Well Tempered Synthesizer' and 'Sonic Seasonings') Switched On Bach was ground-breaking and still sounds great today. On the Clockwork Orange soundtrack I particularly like the version of Beethoven's 9th - with it's vocoder choir. Amazing really for 1972. Re. Warren Clark. He was great for those craggy-type roles. I particularly liked a TV play he did with Haydn Gwynne many years ago about relationships. Good Brummie

Even if you could afford it, you would be disappointed. London is geared towards tourists. The 'premier' shopping street (Oxford Street) is dreadful. Overcrowded, un-inviting and overly expensive. There are no bargains to be had and certainly nothing exclusive. (i.e. nothing that you couldn't already buy out of town or online). There was a time when they had great Christmas lights and seasonal bargains (remember the lasers ?). Then they had Christmas decorations sponsored by Birds Eye and Findus (!) The whole crossrail disruption has churned up the centre - but it was naff even before tha

Do they still have a Christmas market in Slab Square ? A friend of mine used to rent a stall each December selling costume jewellery. He did very well out of it. It used to be all nice and festive. Mind you, I'm going back a few years. I suppose now they have EU sponsored prancing reindeers in the 'storm drains' (!)

I feel sad that I never got to travel on Concorde. I'm told it was an unforgettable experience. It flew pretty close to space !

You've mentioned a few places that I know particularly well. I went to college in Loughborough and always liked the place. The Carrilon is in the park. There is a museum nearby now in what used to be the swimming baths. The market place is one of those traditional types and it takes over the centre just in front of the town hall every Saturday. It's a nice place to go. Do you know that Loughborough had 3 railway stations at one time. Cleethorpes. Yes I agree, it is dull. My dad worked there for 3 years in the 70's. Though I must say that Grimsby (nearby) is much better and actually not

It's like all conspiracy theories, there can only be some doubt if there is a serious anomaly somewhere that throws light on it. The 'evidence' in the case of the moon landings seems to be that some of the pictures "didn't look right". I think it's good to keep an open mind on all things - especially when we are fed so much by the media and by authorites that have a vested interest, but some people seem addicted to intrigue and alternative motives - however unlikely. By all means let's see your 'proof' that things didn't happen the way that they appeared. Most of the time this 'proof' amou

That sounds funny! I used to look forward to Nottingham students rag week because they use to publish a magazine full of jokes. Was is called King Kong ? Anyway, it used to be very funny. All these old pictures of the city make it seem as though it was full of churches, chapels and public houses. On some of the main streets it looks as though there was a public house every 3 or 4 buildings ! That pub shown in #4 looks beautiful. I never noticed it before. The kind of pub that was a local landmark. Sad that in other places they are tearing these things down. They were'nt just drinking h

Funnily enough, they've been posting pictures on RCTS of the demolition of Victoria station. Also on that site there are some earlier pictures showing the imposing building of the Nottingham Brewery - which I believe is the site of York House. I remember going to York House many years ago when Radio Nottingham had 'open days'. I thought it was a crap building then. Typical of the kind of rubbish they used to 'throw' up in the late 60's / 70's when they thought this kind of development was modern and bright. These things looked awful only a few years after being built. Vic station on the

We've had a plethora of conspiracy type theories about how the Moon landings were faked and that we really didn't go there. All of the Apollo landings left stuff up there but we've never had telescopes that were powerful enough to view the stuff from Earth. But I believe these things are now visible from craft in Moon orbit, and didn't they also put a laser reflector there which anyone can use to bounce a beam back ? No doubt the theorists will claim this all fakery too.

It was unintentionally hysterical to see how piss-poor the security was !

Jack Bruce was an amazing musician and songwriter. When he got the gig with Manfred Mann he went and played the first date without even rehearsing the songs. (Just winging it -so to speak). I think he argued with everyone - not just Ginger Baker. He just had that kind of personality. The couple of occasions I worked with him were not particularly pleasant and I got the impression that he was always causing friction between people. Clearly he had a drink problem. Cream split up far too early in my opinion, but I think they'd just got fed up with each other. He made far too many solo album

Re. Well it was on a curve Smiffy - between Watmoughs and the County Hotel. Brentnall's seemed a bit more hip than Clement Pianos - the other main shop selling guitars and what not.

Sad to hear about Alvin Stardust. I worked with him a couple of times. He was a nice guy. Showed that he had a good sense of humour when he did all those glam-rock revival tours and had the enormous quiff and massive brothel creepers ! I never worked out why he had a broad Lancashire accent - even though he was from the East End. He had a suprising number of hits - one I particularly liked was 'Pretend'. R.I.P.