Prestigious Visitors!

Jude · Post by **Jude** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:46 pm

I know that we at Hertford had at least one "Prestigious Visitor" a year - and it wasn't at speech day - some of those I remember :

Prunella Scales - actress

can anyone add to this list - I have suddenly got writers block!

Great Plum · Post by **Great Plum** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:01 pm

Recently of course, the school had Gene Simmons as a visiting 'teacher'...

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:11 pm

When I was there we had James Blades a percussionist, I believe he mentored Evelyn Glennie, and it was actually him (a small man) who banged the gong on the Rank film titles.

He was great he made music on all sorts of things, not just percussion but garden hoses and funnels and things.

Katharine · Post by **Katharine** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:46 pm

englishangel wrote:When I was there we had James Blades a percussionist, I believe he mentored Evelyn Glennie, and it was actually him (a small man) who banged the gong on the Rank film titles.

He was great he made music on all sorts of things, not just percussion but garden hoses and funnels and things.

There was someone in 6s who always claimed that she was related to the man who banged the gong on the Rank films. Most of us didn't believe her as she didn't know his name!! (We didn't either, but she was the one related or so she said)

Perhaps there was a CH connection and that was why he came.

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:25 pm

Possibly.

There is a lot if you Google him. He died in 1998 at the age of 97.

marty · Post by **marty** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:40 pm

Will Carling came to CH in late 91/early 92 - just after England had lost the World Cup final to the convicts. He looked pretty cheesed-off...

Author PD James and Falklands veteran Simon Weston came to give talks in chapel during my time too

J.R. · Post by **J.R.** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:23 am

Jack Warner, (actor- 'Dixon of Dock Green') with his sisters, Elsie & Doris Waters. (Music hall, theatre and radio fame).

They had a nephew at C.H.

UserRemovedAccount · Post by **UserRemovedAccount** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:52 am

One of the numerous pieces of totally useless information tucked away in my brain is that the man who banged the gong on the intro to Rank films was Bombardier Billy Wells. "Bombardier" is a rank used only in the Royal Artillery and is equivalent to corporal elsewhere in the Army.
See: http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/wells-bb.htm

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 6:03 am

petard249 wrote: "Bombardier" is a rank used only in the Royal Artillery and is equivalent to corporal elsewhere in the Army.

Any fan of 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' knows that.

I think Bombardier Billy Wells may have been the 'body' but the sound was made by James Blades from 1935 until 1980

http://www.southernperc.demon.co.uk/blades.htm

J.R. · Post by **J.R.** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:11 pm

englishangel wrote:
petard249 wrote: "Bombardier" is a rank used only in the Royal Artillery and is equivalent to corporal elsewhere in the Army.
Any fan of 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' knows that.

I think Bombardier Billy Wells may have been the 'body' but the sound was made by James Blades from 1935 until 1980
http://www.southernperc.demon.co.uk/blades.htm

Did he have the uncanny knack of shouting B-O-N-G at the drop of a hat ?

(Mary's been Googlin' again !)

Richard Ruck · Post by **Richard Ruck** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:30 pm

We had Mary bleedin' Whitehouse

AKAP · Post by **AKAP** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:36 pm

Richard Ruck wrote:We had Mary bleedin' Whitehouse

That would ruin anyone's school days.

We had a concert by Michael Chapman, but I guess you've all forgotten him
And Fairport Convention came to interview a drummer who was a pupil.

Great Plum · Post by **Great Plum** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:38 pm

AKAP wrote:
Richard Ruck wrote:We had Mary bleedin' Whitehouse
That would ruin anyone's school days.

We had a concert by Michael Chapman, but I guess you've all forgotten him
And Fairport Convention came to interview a drummer who was a pupil.

Dad still goes on about that Michael Chpman gig...

AKAP · Post by **AKAP** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:47 pm

Great Plum wrote:
AKAP wrote:
Richard Ruck wrote:We had Mary bleedin' Whitehouse
That would ruin anyone's school days.

We had a concert by Michael Chapman, but I guess you've all forgotten him
And Fairport Convention came to interview a drummer who was a pupil.
Dad still goes on about that Michael Chpman gig...

Interestingly he lives just up the road on the Northumberland/ Cumbria border. The local paper mentioned the other week that he is about to set of on a tour named "the bus pass tour". I'll see if I can track the article down.

Hendrik · Post by **Hendrik** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:40 pm

one of my fave t-shirt slogans has to be 'fairport convention haven't heard of you either'. saw them at cropredy a couple of years ago, they've still got it.

we had some astronaut who's been on the moon, and of course, Mark Thomas (f'n legend)

i was walking through quad to the maths block and saw some bloke who wasn't anything to do with the school. i asked the nearest teacher who he was "Tim Rice (Andy LLoyd Webber's bloke)", came the reply. "As in 'Tim Rice but dim'?" said I. I then received a very unimpressed look.
i thought it was damn funny at the time though.

Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Prestigious Visitors!

Prestigious Visitors!

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Re: arthur rank's gong basher