Our Tune not only had the first-ever mention of a former Ipswich Town player in the HMHB songbook, but it also referenced the A47, which isn’t a million miles away either. So I liked this one. Of course we later got Zondervan and Chatteris, but it always kept a special place in my heart. And he did look a bit like Alan Brazil, you know. Thanks to Nick
See lyrics for Our Tune
Aubrey
I always thought that ‘Dead-shot-Ken’ was actually your favourite Chinese men talist, and mine, ‘deng Xiao (Shaow) Ping’. Am I irretrievably lost?
22 January 2009
Paul F
“Dead-shot Keen” was the original owner of Billy’s Boots in the eponymous comic strip. But Deng Xiao Ping is a brilliant alternative lyric which I fear will now replace Dead Shot Keen whenever I listen to this song.
23 January 2009
Charles Exford
…and “Is it me or is it Dead-Shot-Keen?” was the sort of thing Billy used to ponder to himself, not only after scoring a last-minute miracle winner, but also sometimes even when he played badly.
I remember Grandad Exford pointing out in a letter to the Scorcher magazine (c. 1972) that this made Billy’s Boots quite a little moral maze of a parable at times – not least because the boots gave Billy a bit of an unfair advantage. But it took the genius of Nigel Blackwell to turn this into a brilliant metaphor in this song for the abnegation of responsibility by the criminally insane.
Having said all that, a pair of boots possessed by the ghost of Deng Xiao Ping might also quite useful to a psycho loose on the A47 having murdered his girlfriend’s family: handy for long marches, great leaps forward, outmanoeuvring small gangs ….
23 January 2009
Simon Smith
I seem to recall Frank Worthington using a Shoot questionnaire in 197? to reveal his likes and dislikes etc and, puckish chap that he is, Wanky Wortho royally took the piss. One of his likes was ‘browsing hardware shops’. I doubt this escaped the young N.Blackwell whilst he bemoaned the lack of Ken Beamish posters.
(Ed’s note: see comment below for the questionnaire)
26 January 2009
Paul F
But did Worthington come up with the old perennial favourite?
Q Most Difficult Opponent? A The wife.
26 January 2009
Paul F
I realise that every site with HMHB lyrics says the same as this one, but…
I’d always heard it as “Oulton Park” (motor racing track) rather than “Hilton Park” (services).
Can I get any back-up on this one
28 January 2009
Mr Larrington
@Paul F
John Peel thinks it’s Oulton Park as well.
I’m unconvinced.
3 February 2009
Charles Exford
I love listening to Peel’s warm voice on old tapes and especially at the end of this session track – it’s kind of comforting that there he is straining his ears to ‘get’ every lyric, just like us, and barking up the wrong tree, just like we do. It’s clearly Hilton.
At the risk of barking up another wrong tree, I would like to postulate that “you know who” is Steve Howe, and that this lyric is another dig at his brother’s prog rock obsessions akin to “as you pin another Roger Dean poster on the wall”.
Steve Howe played guitar on the less-than-glorious “Grocer Jack” in that crap rock opera thingy before joining Yes, and one can imagine the young Blackwell taunting his Yes-obsessed brother endlessly with this fact while stuck in bottlenecks on the way to a caravan site….
13 February 2009
dj
why would you chase bunty james round a service sation? a motor racing track however
13 February 2009
John Anderson
Maybe she asked for two scotch eggs and a jar of marmite.
Definitely Hilton Park to me.
13 February 2009
Paul F
That was my thinking DJ. But I’ve since listened to it on the album and sadly have to agree it’s Hilton Park. I’ll have to dig out the BBC session version to see if it is different on that.
16 February 2009
Paul F
Finally listened to the BBC session and it is more than likely that Peel’s comment at the end has had me hearing it as Oulton ever since. Sadly however I have to admit that despite “Oulton” being a far better lyric, “Hilton” it is.
20 March 2009
TWO FAT FEET
I always thought, and I’ve yet to be convinced otherwise, that the track listing on the CD had this and Girlfrend’s Finished With Him back to front. The songs certainly match the titles much better that way round.
4 April 2010
Bobby String
Quick, run, hide, here come the nit-pickers!
According to the official Paul Evans website, the girl on the answering machine has two N’s in her name, i.e. “Hello, this is Joannie”.
Just thought you might like to know!
Ô¿Ô
12 July 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Nit-picking, thine will be done. It’s this kind of inspired pedantry that I’ve missed on this site over the past few months.
12 July 2011
Bobby String
In that case, Vendor, go check out my latest post on pragVEC At The Melkweg.
Ô¿Ô
12 July 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Nostalgia can be a slippery eel. If the story behind the Dead Shot Keen line is not quite as fresh in your mind as it undoubtedly was in 1970 then you might enjoy these scans.
5 November 2011
Dave Wiggins
Brilliant VQN. When we used to go on caravan holidays, near Capel Curig, in the 70′s, I used to dream that the local club would be a player short, and ask me to play in the Clwydian Hills & District League cup final. We never found out if Billy Dane’s gran was CRB-checked either, or what had befallen his parents. I think we should be told.
8 November 2011
John Burscough
And if you ever wondered what would happen if Billy emigrated to Holland, this blog has all the details.
Voetbal’s coming to town…
8 November 2011
Chris The Siteowner
With reference to Simon’s mention of the Frank Worthington Shoot! questionnaire, here it is.
Thanks to Gary of Got, Not Got fame for this.
1 May 2012
John Burscough
(Mmmmmm. Steak, lobster and bacon butties.)
1 May 2012
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Frank was obviously taking the piss all the way through that. An unhealthy obsession with all things Elvis is at least plausible, but admitting to owning a Triumph Dolomite? That’s a dead giveaway.
1 May 2012
Charles Exford
Fantastic Simon (and thanks Chris), not that I doubted your original memories of 3 years ago, but the article just proves your phenomenal powers of recall.
I only remember the interview on seeing it again now – and even at the age of about 13 or so I remember wishing they would ask him about his failed medical at Liverpool in 1972. Scurrilous rumours abounded.
Go on then, I’ll save you a Google.
1 May 2012
simon smith
It`s nice to know someone takes notice of what I post, automatic doors actually DO open for me…just takes three and a half years.
I`ll just wait for my Andrew Collins spot to be acknowledged now.
On a Frank W note, a cheap headboard for the person who can name the 90`s Premier League (and 80`s lower division workhorse) player, then a ballboy, jumping up behind the goal on the goal v Ipswich.
2 May 2012
John Burscough
Julian Darby (ex-PNE etc etc).
2 May 2012
Paul F
Mental the way little snippets like that stick in your mind. Top, top remembering Simon.
3 May 2012
Baldy Davitt
What a site!
Thanks Chris and all the contributors for making my , ahem. downtime while at work highly entertaining and passable.
I always had the bizarre idea that the Hilton Park in this instance referred to the home ground (now sadly demolished) of Leigh Rugby League club.
I have no idea why though…
2 July 2012
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
Rugby ground, Motorway service station, residential care home, Scottish golf course, Irish country house hotel: Take your pick.
Based on distance from St. Neots, once one has completed one’s Alessi sampling, the care home (which is in Bottisham apparently), is a handy 24 miles away. – Easily within 70s presenter chasing range, so I’ll plum for that.
Don’t know what I did pre-Google. I knew nothing of the wider world and all the shiny things it contains.
2 July 2012
John Burscough
I’d plum(p) for the second, on the basis of other motorway service station references (Tebay, Rothersthorpe North + South).
2 July 2012
vendor of quack nostrums
Forgive me my fruity faux pas.
2 July 2012
John Burscough
Definitive version here (which has been on YouTube for nearly two years, but I hadn’t seen until tonight. So many clips, so little time).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmMs3Y5LlCI
2 July 2012
Baldy Davitt
Motorway service station it is then, and a much more likely place to run into ex How presenters than at a RL match
I now have a hankering to spend the weekend checking out my nearest stations (Woodall and Woolley Edge) on the off chance I bump into Fred Dineage.
5 July 2012
John Burscough
You could ask him about his ghosted autobiographies of the Kray twins, or his MBE, or his daughter the MP, or his great-uncle who died on the Titanic. (Dinenage, BTW.)
5 July 2012
Baldy Davitt
Cheers John, if he ever shows up rest assured I will, though my first question has to be “Did you have an affair with the ‘dolly dealer’ when you presented Gambit in the late 70′s? (think her name was Michelle Lambourne?)
12 July 2012
MIKE IN COV
Homophone corner.
Lori or Laurie (Anderson?)?.
Joannie or Joni (Mitchell?)?.
19 July 2012
John Burscough
The Alessi reference suggests Lori (their hit, as Gez points out). The other is more debatable, as Paul Evans’ 1978 song title was spelt ‘Hello, this is Joanie/Joni’, depending on whether you were in England or New Zealand. Interestingly, nobody spelt it Joannie.
19 July 2012
Chris The Siteowner
Well done, Sir. Joanie it is then.
19 July 2012
John Burscough
Alan Brazil…
19 July 2012
John Burscough
…vs. the singer in The Goombay Dance Band (Oliver Bendt, at right)
19 July 2012
Rubber Faced Irritant
Greetings from Leeds Castle where Mrs Irritant and I are having a lovely day out. Although she did forget the flask. How many of you would love to bring your families on 10 August? Careful now.
30 July 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
@RFI, congratulations, the moving strapline contains a double PBR! 10th August looks like a fun day.
30 July 2012
Chigley Skin
@TwoFatFeet (post #13), and a few others who’ve brought it up elsewhere on the site: though the titles of Our Tune and Girlfriend’s Finished With Him do make infinitely more sense when transposed with one another, incontrovertible proof that it’s not just a CD printing error lies in the Peel Session broadcast on 4th April 1990. After the boys’ performance of this song, and his little ramble about “Oulton Park”, Peel clearly states that the song is called Our Tune. Eighteen months before the album was released.
Maybe there’s an amusing story or private joke behind the two titles, and the fact that each of them seems to suit the other song better, but either way, I’d say they clearly went down on the album listing the way the band intended them to.
5 August 2012
CyberFoggy
Shouldn’t it be fore-ball ?
i.e what golfists shout
18 September 2012
vendor of quack nostrums
@ cyberfoggy. Nah, it’s definitely fourball. Matchplay format whereby four players play in pairs but with their own ball. As opposed to a foursome where pairs share their ball, playing alternate shots. The difference is important. Could you imagine the acute embarrassment of dying casually whilst waving through a foursome that you thought was a fourball? Cringe.
18 September 2012