5 Apr 2010
The beautiful sparkling healthy spa water of Bath, in Avon
On the home stretch now, with (mainly) golden oldies to be done, but who knows what surprises they might throw up for those of us who turn out to have been singing the wrong words for twenty-three years? Anyway, I Hate Nerys Hughes (From The Heart) probably set the gold standard for disliking certain figures from the world of entertainment, something which was to feature regularly over future albums, but never less subtly. If only Nerys Hughes had actually been a Liver Bird, we may now be referring to her as, ooh, NH58 or something, but she is of course from Rhyl, and at the time of writing, quite alive, it would appear. Thanks to Tony, Nigel, Martin and EskimoEric.
See lyrics to I Hate Nerys Hughes (From The Heart)
11 Letters Sent:
Dave Cooper
Ah! I always sing “rattling bags of calcium”, mass makes more sense, ta!
Apr 6th, 2010
Maf
I recall reading the NME many many years ago where there was an article stating how upset Nerys Hughes was when she heard about the song. Perhaps we should organize some flowers for her, or perhaps not .
Apr 6th, 2010
Dave F.
From the Book…
“…crazy *by* the fire door”
But is clearly ‘at’
And Nigel has multiple shelve stackers – “The shelf stackers’ work of art”
Apr 6th, 2010
John Anderson
I wonder if it might be The Saint as in Ian St John or Roger Moore.
Apr 18th, 2010
Precocious Mckenzie
The afore-mentioned St Vitus is more probable, although your Roger Moore proposition is an interesting one John.
Could raise an eyebrow or one…
Apr 18th, 2010
Kevin
St Vitus?……not Gaye Bykers?
May 25th, 2010
Charles Exford
Kevin’s comment above made me wonder if there’s a generation of kids grown up recently whose dads (and some of their teachers for that matter) no longer say things like “sit still will you, have you got St. Vitus’ dance or something?”, and so who have never gone to an encyclopaedia and looked up this interesting disease, and so who don’t really know why St. Vitus is in this song at all.
My dad, and his before him, used to make such comments during a car journey (especially in heavy traffic around Capel Curig of course), during a boring TV documentary or a teatime where you had to sit at the table longer than about 5 minutes. It was a reprimand handed down from father to son through the ages but perhaps now dying out…
“Have you got worms or something ?” was another one, and it’s interesting to note that in a medical encyclopedia published in 1804 the two conditions were still (falsely) linked.
And the link with the Spa Water? A lot of ancient spa towns used to claim their waters could cure St Vitus’ dance (AKA Sydenham’s Chorea – “Chorea” is Greek for dance), and NB57 has perhaps read this in some literature about Bath. A bit of googling finds this for another old Spa town:
“The fame of Dorton Spa spread and stories of the effects of the waters grew. A man from Oxford with leprosy for more than 20 years was cured by the water… Cures were also cited for hysteria, indigestion, bilious affections, worms, haemorrhages, rheumatism, fevers, ague, St Vitus’s dance, dropsy, herpes, ulcers, abscesses, general nervous diseases, a host of skin disorders and even total blindness.”
Even some modern pages about Spa waters mention the disease with its old, non-medical name
Of course this post wouldn’t be complete without a quote from Thomas Hardy, who uses St. Vitus’ dance as a description of vigorous jigging at a rustic bop, as doubtless many other bygone writers did. Here’s his description of a Dorset moshpit from chapter 36 of “Far from the Madding Crowd”:
“So the dance began. As to the merits of “The Soldier’s Joy,” there cannot be, and never were, two opinions. It has been observed in the musical circles of Weatherbury and its vicinity that this melody, at the end of three-quarters of an hour of thunderous footing, still possesses more stimulative properties for the heel and toe than the majority of other dances at their first opening. “The Soldier’s Joy” has, too, an additional charm, in being so admirably adapted to the tambourine aforesaid – no mean instrument in the hands of a performer who understands the proper convulsions, spasms, St. Vitus’s dances, and fearful frenzies necessary when exhibiting its tones in their highest perfection.”
As for “The Saint was going crazy at the fire door”, I think that may be a reference to the fact that when we were kids the stick figure in many fire door signs was a bit different, and did bear a remarkable similarity to the stick figure in the title credits of “The Saint”. As well as referring back to St. Vitus at the same time.
[Some of my theories in the past have proved to be spot-on, others I must own are wild, Waddle-esque spot-kicks efforts in the random shoot-out of life. Don’t get me started on the patron Saint of Llandudno].
May 26th, 2010
Charles Exford
PS – I meant to mention St. Anthony’s fire as well. Another fascinating disease, and a possible stream-of-consciousness link between St. Vitus’ supermarket rave and the “fire door” image.
May 27th, 2010
Mogsy
Try looking up Jane Stott instead of Scott
Jul 26th, 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Hi Mogsy – are you referring to the comments about Jane Scott here?. And who’s Jane Stott then?
Jul 26th, 2010
Charles Exford
Second half of this clip (from about 4 mins 37) shows Simon and Paul from HMHB ‘covering’ IHNH (FtH) in 1989 at a benefit for the Hillsborough families.
The first half is their own song. with some guitar excellence from Simon.
Aug 9th, 2011
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