h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

yes, very interesting. But for the record it was not Winchester where they met but Westminster school (in London).

I stand corrected.

I apologise for the brevity of this, but it's been moderated to death. Originally it had the lyrics to A Song of Patriotic Prejudice, but they were taken out.

Has anyone got any idea where I can get more records of their stuff??
Please?

¦M¦

((Please ignore this post, it is unrelated to the topic, though now I'm here I am fairly interested. I'm just doing an experiment to see exactly how long it takes the previous postee to notice this post this. Its all in the interest of science. Please excuse me ))

[HP}=~~

3 minutes.

Anyone any idea?
Please?

¦M¦

Re: enquiry on availability of F&S material: there's an HMV own label (Green label) concert CD with a lot of old favourites on it (Gnu, Mud, Bedstead Men, Greensleeves etc). Part of a current series so should be available - I got it within last 2 years.

Really? Oh, brilliant!!!
Yay!! Yay!! Yay!!!!
Thanks Hurtenflurst!!!

¦M¦

I've got the CD you're referring too and it's become a family favourite. My boys aged 7 and 10 love the songs and the repartee. The Gas Man and Song of the weather are our favourites.

Woohoo!!! It does, it's got my favourites on it!!!
YAY!!! YAY!!! YAY!!! YAY!!!!!
*bounces around happily*
Thanks everyone!!!

¦M¦

They didn't make many records, so you probably have the lot. "At the Drop of a Hat" and "At the Drop of Another Hat" were the only vinyl albums though there was a sort of remake of the former (and nothing like as good, they sounded tired). There is stuff on CD and I'm sure HMV or Virgin would put you right.

Ian Wallace recorded "A Bestiary of Flanders and Swann" but I doubt if this is on CD.

There is a box set of 3 CDs - At the Drop of a Hat, At the Drop of Another Hat, and The Bestiary, 1991 EMI.

my own favourite is the french horn sorng..
...i found my horn...gorn.
brilliant stuff.
alec

Yes that's one of our family favourites too. My boys like All Gall as well But it's not easy explaining a 1960's satirical song to Boys of 10 and 7. But hopefully it's introduced them to a few things they son't cover at school. Oh they love The Fist and Second Law of Themodynamics too. I'd love to a be a fly on the wall in the lesson where the teacher asks if anyone knows what they are.

The Song of Reproduction is so very topical. It can now be applied to all forms of communication. We have so many whizz ways of saying things to each other (SMS, e-mail, answering machines, etc. etc) and are continually striving for better service and better quality. But no one has anything meaningful to actually say to each other.

I know!! And what's so amusing for me is that I know two people who are obsessed with sound systems to that extreme!!

¦M¦

I worry about the amount of time I spend tinkering with the 'puter. But it seems that once you've got one ( whatever you got it for in the first place) you have to learn to tinker just to keep the darn thing going. I suppose it's much the same as the early days of motoring if you owned one you were your own mechanic.

This is hardly the "early days of computering" any more!

People (from Bill Gates downwards .. down to my son, for example) just love fiddling with the workings of computers, but at the other end of the scale there are those who really can and do just use them like the kitchen mixer. Switch on, write, send, print, switch off. (Well, you know what I mean)

Most of us are somewhere in between. I actually have a friend who doesn't know any DOS commands, but manages perfectly well on the computer. It's a clever invention, for some it's the means, for some it's the end. Some don't want to accept that it should be tool - just like cars or stereos, they're there for the sake of themselves, not for getting you from a to be, enjoying music, or, in the case of computers, communicating, administrating and making life simpler and more organised.

Now the campaign must begin to add the missing information!

Michael Flanders - b. London, March 1922, educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford (History), served in the RNVR as an Able Seaman, later commissioned, suffered polio after torpedo attack in 1943 during the African landings (which you have, I note) thereafter permanently confined to a wheelchair. First professional engagement at the Oxford Playhouse, l941 (Valentine in You Never Can Tell). Collaborated with old friend Swann in revues for Laurier Lister: Penny Plain (St. Martin's, 1951, with decor by Ronald Searle of Molesworth and St Trinians fame who later illustrated their album covers); Airs on a Shoestring (Royal Court, 1953); Fresh Airs (Comedy, 1956). New Year's Eve, 1956, started "At The Drop of a Hat" - an "after-dinner farrago", opened at the New Lindsey Theatre at Notting Hill Gate and immediately transferred to the West End. Ran for 759 performances. F&S played throughout the United States, Australia and New Zealand (1964). Flanders was married in New York to Claudia Davis (an American). 1963 - launched At The Drop of Another Hat, which played at the Globe and the Haymarket. Flanders was a regular on radio and television; at one stage he was chairman of The Brains Trust. He wrote the libretti of two operas; translated (with Kitty Black) Stravinskv's The Soldier's Tale - and in 1962 appeared as The Storyteller in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Aldwych, London. In 1964 he received the OBE. He died in 1975 aged 53. [ Source: The Times, and others ]

Donald Ibrahim Swann ("the Enid Blyton of English light music", as Flanders put it)was an altogether more complex character. Devout Christian, prolific composer and gifted tenor. Born September 30, 1923 in Llanelli to Russian parents, educated (like Flanders) at Westminster (where he met Peter Ustinov, Joachim von Ribbentropp and Tony Benn) and Oxford. During the war he served as an ambulance driver (which you have). He wrote operatic and other pieces, and was a gifted pianist. He was an accomplished linguist, fluent in Russian and Greek,and set poetry to music, including Greek narrative verse and works by Tolkien, Betjeman, Cecil Day Lewis and Sydney Carter. He was an active churchgoer and, at the 1975 meeting of the World Council of Churches in Nairobi, collaborated with Dr Donald Coggan, then Archbishop of Canterbury, to present a new musical version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Swann was divorced from his first wife Janet in 1983, with whom he had two daughters. Died in London 23 March 1994, of cancer.

Subs of the world unite: give these two the recognition they deserve!

*falls over*
Are you carrying all that in your head or did you look it up...?

... Wasn't Swann fluent in French as well, or am I imagining things again...?

¦M¦

thanks guy...
anyone got a number for the 3cd set?
ta...alec.