Don Woods

Our wonderful Government.....you couldn't make it up......I haven't got a clue what is going on and neither have they. I am enjoying the women's rugby league.......great win against France....and the England men's team were brilliant.....then we have the football with Liverpool beating Man City followed by fans throwing stuff at Klopp and him getting a red card on the touchline.............the game needs sorting ... it is slowly getting out of hand.................... stupidity is also creeping into the junior game with parents attacking the referee for giving a red card etc to one of their kids.....it's a football match...that's all....mind you one town has cancelled certain games for the rest of the season because of low life behaviour....which is one answer.... I watched the TV Awards.....what a load of rubbish.....I had to laugh at the award for the best presenter with Bradley Walsh looking confident as he presents more programmes than anyone in history.......and guess who won it for the 21st consecutive time....yes...Ant and Dec.....Bradley's face was a treat......TV doesn't get much worse. Then we have our weekly dose of Strictly Come Dancing in which I do enjoy watching the skills of the pro dancers but they always have to alter things...WHY.....now we have two blokes dancing with each other and two women dancing with each other....which is not good....PLUS we now have to be subjected to sob stories from contestants which have nothing do with the contest....the format was perfect as it was. I would like to feature the Diana Dors song this week...."I've Sen and Done it All

I find it very strange referring to our new king as King Charles ....and to hear the National anthem as God Save The King......we haven't seen a lot of him up to now but I'm sure he will find his feet.....but it's a tough act to follow. Liverpool has been chosen to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in place of Ukraine.....so that should bring a few quid into the city. Ken Bruce on Radio 2 has featured Brian Blessed as his guest and he picks his favourite records each day through the week.....what an interesting bloke.....apart from his amazing acting career he has climbed Everest amongst many other adventures....I remember him starting out in Z Cars back in the day. I also watched a documentary soon Diana Dors which was fascinating......I wrote a song for her, which she recorded, when I was signed to a London record company back in the 70s which I have only recently heard for the first time.....watching this documentary was quite emotional as I actually spoke to her on the phone. There is a new series coming on the T.V. called "The Larkins"....staring guess who...Bradley Walsh.....so he is now on The Chase every day...plus Blankety Blank...plus Law and Order....plus Breaking Dad (with his son)....plus Coronation Street....not to mention Dr.Who....plus hosting the Palladium...plus a string of past quiz shows.....wont be long before it's Sir Bradders. Just when you though that Brad's diary must be full out he comes with an album of old classics.....he's not a bad singer so I thought he deserves a bit of publicity as we don't see much of him....so here is a song off his album. "Get Happy."...by Bradley Walsh and The Bradettes

On the political front I'm afraid I have totally lost my way so you have the opportunity to voice your opinion so over to you........ We haven't heard much more about the rocket which is to take off for the moon....has it gone yet? Not forgetting the other thing the boffins have sent up which successfully changed the direction of an asteroid which is good so now we are safe should one actually threaten the earth as one did millions of years ago................what this lot costs doesn't bare thinking about....but I'm sure the poverty stricken and starving folk in the world are delighted with the "success" I would like to wish Mark Owen ...from the one man band Take That.....good luck with his latest come back.....I think. the lad is somewhat misguided with his long hair and earring etc......I'm sure he is a nice chap but there is a time to call it a day. Winter is here so we are inundated with quiz shows with the same old formats....what is annoying is the presenter always asks the same question to the contestant "what will you do with the money if you win?".....the contestant then explains how he is going to take his family on a luxury holiday etc then two minutes later he's out of the game with no money.....point being? HE'S BACK!! Graham Norton with his weekly selection of guests who are there purely to promote their latest ventures......I watched the first one last week.....the guests included David Tennant and Jamie Lee Curtis....who came on (possibly after a few wines) and tried to unsuccessfully take over the show as they all tried to talk over each other....with Graham guffawing along with it all...I decided out of interest to watch it to the end.....only to be subjected to Robbie Williams with his latest record.......time to switch off. Then we have the Sunday night Strictly Come Dancing results from Saturday.....and Robbie is only on again!!.........I know he is very popular and has sold many records but I can't stand him. I would like to remember an old friend of mine who worked on Radio City called Norman Thomas....I did several jingles for his programme...this one was for his daily competition whereby you had to guess what he had in his hand after being given various clues.....it was very popular and hilarious.....it was a short jingle but this one was the 12 inch version.....a great guy and sad loss.

There has been endless coverage of the Queen lying in state with thousands and thousands of her loyal subjects queuing fo up to 24 hours to pass the coffin and show their respects showing how respected she was.....a wonderful lady .......and David Beckham has been praised for joining the line with everyone else instead of using his celebrity to jump the queue.....unlike Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby who have taken some stick. Football has returned after being cancelled out of respect....which is a good thing unless you support Leicester. One of the satellite channels has started showing old Benny Hill shows.....they haven't aged well....I used to find him funny back in the day but not now.....the sexism is totally over the top....not that I am bothered about that....but it just isn't funny any more...sorry Benny. Out of interest I watched a film on TV about Laurel and Hardy....called "Stan and Ollie" which covered the later years of the duo when they went on the road.....Stan being played by Steve Coogan and Ollie by John Reilly.......normally these sort of films don't quite get the characters right....however this was brilliant ...within minutes you thought you were watching the real stars....great film. Back in the day I was a huge fan of The Beach Boys....I loved their harmonies and great surfing songs.....and bought all their albums until they lost there way....in my opinion...with "Pet Sounds"...so I watched a concert on TV featuring Brian Wilson and a large band singing his hits.....it started well with some of his early hits like California Girls and Help Me Rhonda....then he goes into his later stuff so it was time to switch off.....I would like to feature as this week's record one of their early hits to remind us how good they were when the surf was up and we all had "Fun Fun Fun"

The blanket coverage of the loss of our wonderful Queen....my memories of the coronation. We have a new P.M. Liz Truss.....this has been overshadowed at the moment with the news of the Royals. I felt the women's football took a step backwards with the 10 Nil win over Luxemburg.....hopefully it will pick up when they play a decent team. I watched a very interesting Alfred Hitchcock film called "Rope".....I had never heard of it....what made it fascinating was the whole film was made with one single camera shot....amazing. I never thought our TV programmes could get any worse.....I was wrong......thank goodness we have.programmes like "Room 101" and "Would I Lie to you"....what is sad is that programmes like The Voice and The Masked Singer are very popular.....maybe it's just me. The song I would like featured this week in one that I remember around the time of the coronation..."Cry" by Johnnie Ray.......I became a fan of his after this song and have sung it many times in my band over the years.

Newswatch is back which gives the opportunity for viewers to criticise the news coverage....the complaints ranged from the ridiculous coverage of our "heatwave" and the forthcoming energy price rises.....both being on at the top of the news day after day........and the unnecessary coverage of child violence on the 6p.m. news......needless to say there was no BBC News representative available to comment. Then we have the devastating floods in Pakistan watching the suffering and hardships it brings as they reach out for help......as we watch the spaceship preparing to go off to the moon....say no more. The handwritten lyrics to David Bowie's "Starman" have been found which will sell for thousands.....it's a piece of paper .....but obviously it means so much more to those who see so much in it......or think they do. As there was absolutely nothing worth watching on TV last SaturdayI thought I would watch something I've never seen....The Masked Dancer.....where celebs dress up in costumes and hide their face and dance in front of a panel of talentless celebs who have to guess who the dancer is........to say it's the biggest load of rubbish I have ever seen would be an understatement.....as bad as it gets.....that is an hour and a half I will will never get back .................followed by "The Voice" where hopefuls come on and sing behind a row of celebs...after we have heard their sob stories... the celebs spin around if they like them.....absolute garbage....but at least it's on ITV so I'm not paying for it. I felt it was time to look back at some of the hits from the good old days and came across this one....those of a certain age moan about modern music so I though we could feature this song.....which was actually a hit back in the day.....it is so bad it should serve as a reminder that we never got it right all the time.....Jess Conrad singing "Cherry Pie"

1.Our loyal postmen have gone on strike....this being an example of those actually doing the work to feather the nests of those "in charge" who don't.....some of the pay rises of the so called "bosses" are obscene. 2.I watched a programme featuring American stand up Bill Maher....who says it as it is.....he mentioned a sexual harassment case brought up by some woman against a presidential candidate who kissed her on the back of the head....five years ago and she is still deeply distressed...no doubt the legal guys were delighted. 3.I watched a documentary which featured the sixties pirate radio station Radio Caroline which illustrated the outdated pillocks who ran the BBC who would only play one hour of pop music at the time. 4.I know I am from the past but I fail to see the point of tattoos and rings in the nose.....I know it's modern fashion....but WHY? 5.Bing Crosby was, and still is, my favourite crooner....I have always been a fan.....what I didn't know was his massive influence on recording techniques....and how he changed the direction of record production.....this was in a documentary I watched recently which was fascinating....I would therefore like to feature Bing in this week's record spot.....the choice is yours as all his songs were great.

The news has done a U-Turn....we are not now going to fry and die of thirst...we are going to drown as we now have floods....so the scaremongering has changed direction. Along with all the strikes among the buses, trains and docks our Barristers are going on strike....so lock your doors....you couldn't make it up...does this lot have any consideration for anyone but themselves. There are a lot of complaints about bikes on the road and how idiots can't be traced.....electric bikes are being ridden at 30 mph despite the 5 mph limit.....and the lycra boys think they own the roads....answers simple ...make them require a licence like other motorists.....or is that too obvious. We have seen the last of donkey rides in New Brighton....the cruelty to animals brigade have been on the warpath.....I can't say I disagree but why has it taken so long to come to this conclusion....I remember having a donkey ride 70 years ago I have recently been approached by a company who are working on famous legends around the country to present on Channel 4......they have spotted my YouTube clip of The Legend of Beddgelert and asked me for details of it.....I told them how it came about and they said they would be in touch.....so we'll see what happens.....I have sent you the music from the clip and the story which I have set to poetry and is narrated by Paul Damian.....get your handkerchief ready.

The heatwave has struck again....so the hosepipe bans are back....not to mention the empty reservoirs....the news is having a field day scaring everyone. Then we have the rising cost of our energy bills with the news telling us we could not only starve because we wont be able to afford food....we will also freeze......how did we survive when we were young with no central heating etc? The main supermarkets are doing their bit....they have stopped selling those disposable barbecues.....which will prevent careless picnickers setting the country on fire.......I wonder which items on their shelves will quietly increase to cover their losses. In between the blanket athletic sport we have the return of the football.....withManchester noted bottom of the table with Everton close by.....I'd rather watch the young lady gymnasts showing the world what REAL talent is......Man U. should sign one of them up as a goalie. I watched a fascinating documentary on ABBA with an in depth chat with Agnetha.....the band produced a lot of masterpieces and for my money were top of the tree. The song this week is a classic which Ricky Nelson recorded back in the 50s.....it was known for it's great guitar solo by James Burton who played on all of Ricky's early hits prior to him joining Elvis in Vegas.....around 2008 James came over here to tour and I had the opportunity to join him in concert singing a selection of Ricky Nelson Hits......he then came over each year and I did 8 concerts with him over the years and we became good mates.....this is a live recording of one of the concerts as we launch into "Hello Mary Lou"