The song this week is from my "Stars Over 45" album...it is called The Ballad of the Forgotten Pop Stars and is a tribute to those who have entertained us through the years....some of which have made a comebacks since I wrote this....it is available from my website www.donwoods.co.uk . was looking through the TV programmes last Sunday afternoon.....on the BBC between 11a.m. and 8p.m. there were 9 programmes (not including the news)....7 of which were repeats.....THIS is supposed to be entertainment....they are having a laugh....it's a wonder they don't repeat the licence fee....television in this country has reached an all time low. Talking of which....Jeremy Kyle has been drafted in to co-present the ITV morning show....so now we have Kate Garraway and Mr. Kyle interviewing guests all talking at the same time.......and now...wait for it....it is ILLEGAL to stream films without paying for them....you can get up to 4 YEARS in jail........have you ever heard such nonsense ....perhaps if there was anything at all worth watching we wouldn't have to watch films...... They have announced that the rail fares are going up by around 3% ....on the day a train was derailed in London....nice timing...fortunately no-one was hurt........but it's O.K. because the huge profit will go into maintaining our railways....yeah sure......and parents smacking children has reared its ugly head again with the doogooders in full flight.....even a tap on the wrist is unacceptable... And finally...I am beginning to wonder what the point is of the 5 day weather forecast ... they can't get it right for the next day....I appreciate it is difficult to predict the weather a week ahead so why bother?...

I spent the weekend in Wales in wonderful Caernarfon....hence the song this week which is entitled "The Magic Of Wales" which I composed back in the day for my best pal Paul Damian.....it extolls the virtues of this great country and was the follow up single to my "How To Say Llanfair P.G." song and at the time sold equally as well to the tourists....I have since included both songs on an album I composed and produced with songs and legends of the country which is available from my website www.donwoods.co.uk There has been a discussion in the media regarding tipping in restaurants with very mixed opinions...personally I feel you should know exactly what a meal is going to cost you and waiters should be paid properly by their employers not by the customers....all we seem to hear is "If you get good service you should show it by tipping...etc".....but isn't good service what you expect?...we don't tip the NHS or public services..........and to add on a percentage service charge is nonsense.....they play to peoples consciences ....and another thing that annoys me is the use of pence in todays marketing...e.g. £199.99......It'S 200 quid !!!!....but to the gullible it sounds less....it's an insult to my intelligence.......bit like the old 99 guineas....which was effectively £105 !!! We are always being informed that we must save the planet by driving electric cars....and the wonderful Government have announced that by 2040 ALL cars will be electric.....I can imagine how well this has gone down with the petrol companies who have been ripping everyone off for decades....so all of a sudden we are told by "researchers" that children as young as 4 years old are having to work down the mines to provide the electric for the cars....I don't believe for one minute that said petrol companies have anything to do with this rumour?....not much.....but the rumours MUST be true......it's in the papers....and as we know most people believe the tripe they read. I was unfortunate enough to watch a programme about the inside story of a Spanish holiday complex....apart from the fact that it featured one family with two instantly dislikable children there was nothing of any interest.....plus the discussing of placing towels on sunbeds at five in the morning made this programme as bad as television gets....plus the fact that 75% of the clientele were overweight Brits.....which made this possibly the last place I would go on holiday.......................and I also started watching the world championship athletics....I now know I am getting old....I was bored out of my tree....the marathon is like watching paint dry...not helped by the constant inane yapping from the commentators particularly Colin Jackson....the actual track and field events are O.K. when they happen (some of which lasting 10 seconds)....and this was on ALL DAY at the weekend....nice to know where my licence fee goes.....I now feel the athletics are in the same category as horse racing and formula one.....BORING BORING!!!! After all the hype I watched "Diana in her own words" on Channel 4......It was a 15 minute programme padded out to nearly two hours....it told us nothing that we didn't already know with repetitive short clips of Diana with the same expression....it was badly edited and whoever composed the background music (which was far too loud) should be thrown in the tower....it was dreadful ....the attempt to dramatise the whole situation failed miserably....the shots of her with the children and Charles playing polo we have seen a hundred times before....the whole thing was totally pointless....that's two hours I won't get back

The song this week is a track from my album "Stars Over 45" which features light hearted looks at some of our legendary celebs...it is called "The Ballad Of Una Stubbs".....and is a tribute to the lady who has always been everybody's sweetheart........the album did very well and is available from my website www.donwoods.co.uk 2 watched the ITV news last Friday morning from 8 to 8.30.....during which time there were three female presenters sitting side by side...Charlotte Hawkins...Kate Garraway and Ranvia Singh....they then brought on two more women to discuss an advertisement placed in a newspaper by a restaurant requiring an "attractive " lady waitress....how dare anyone do this!!!....looks should have NOTHING to do with it !!!.....said a collection of women caked in makeup with expensive hairdos ...all this sexist garbage is wearing a bit thin....then they bring on another woman actress to discuss her part in a TV drama then it's over to another woman for the weather...so there you are ... gender equality....I might invent a game for that programme called "Spot The Bloke"....I doubt if anyone would win it. ....in fact I hate to admit it but I'm beginning to like Piers Morgan ... he is compulsive viewing. I had to laugh at a recent top notch horse racing meeting.....a 50 to one outsider won a race and after everyone had been paid out (worldwide) they discovered it was the wrong horse....apparently the stable boy had put the saddle on the wrong horse.. There is a big outcry from the Royals regarding the broadcasting of Princess Diana's secret tapes which Channel 4 are putting out next Sunday....the Palace is trying to put a stop to it...which means EVERYONE will be watching it... I have been watching with fascination the recent World War One features on the telly.....they have archive film of these poor young men in the trenches dodging bullets....it is impossible for my generation to even imagine what they went through....knowing that any minute you could be killed......and for a fraction of the money paid to our "brave" newsreaders..

The song this week is one of the several I wrote for Penny Page and her singing duck Googi....after the success of "Googi The Liverpool Duck" I came up with quite a few ideas for her...this being one of them....this was the demo I did originally "I'd Like To Be A Cowboy".....I changed to title to "cowGIRL" for the record she made....as Googi is a girl.......... The outcry over the publishing of the BBC salaries has slowly come to a halt...with of course no follow up....the BBC obviously don't see anything wrong with paying Chris Evans over two million pounds for his "talent"...the fact that this is the equivalent of 80 nurses salaries would seem to be O.K.....and of course the women are moaning because they don't get the same as the blokes...when Tess Daley pulls in 350 grand a year for doing nothing...and not doing it very well...I think it's time to give us all a refund on our licence fee.....we are told there is no money for firemen and police men yet a brave newsreader can get a small fortune.There was a young lady on a phone in and she was asked whether she watches Love Island...and she said she can't stand reality shows and rarely watches TV because there is nothing worth watching...she watches YouTube...and she is 21...I think the future of television has a major problem. The scientists have been at it again....they have "proved" after much research that walking your dog is good for you....because you get exercise.....well what do you know...exercise is good for you...wow.......these "scientists" probably get BBC salaries for discovering this information..........also since our wonderful government brought out the law banning smoking in cars where there are children there has been ONE prosecution nationwide...so that's really working well....what these so called law makers don't seem to grasp is enforcement of these stupid laws is virtually impossible as the empty headed offenders totally disregard being told what to do....maybe they should try it themselves before coming up with this stuff.....instead of leaving others to get on with it. I saw an article on Facebook featuring a picture of Vinnie Jones with a shotgun standing over 100 dead foxes laid out in a big square which he was proud to announce he had shot.....if this is true I don't think it'll do "tough guy" Vinnie a lot of good....I can't stand him anyway....I'll watch this space......I just don't get what people get out of killing animals for no reason....it must boost their egos. As you know I am not a fan of people making records who don't belong on them...footballers..actors etc....but what I just do not get is the likes of these so called celebs releasing albums of their favourite songs by the original artists...Levi Roots for example has an album "out" of his favourite reggae songs....what is the point?....and I suppose he'll actually make money from it?....what ever happened to talent....you certainly don't need it these days...................on a lighter note my golfing pal has a mate who went to school with Daniel Craig who is from Hoylake....he says that Daniel never played any sport in school and used to come round to his house for tea....he then comes up with the classic remark...."Now here's me a concrete sprayer...and HE'S JAMES BOND!!!!"....priceless.

The song this week is one I wrote for a dear friend of mine who is sadly no longer with us...his name was John Lomax and was part of a skiffle group called The Atlantics in the 50's....he played the first electric guitar I heard live....I met John many years later and we became good friends....I recorded this song with him as a tribute...The Story of Skiffle"....as it was skiffle that kicked it all off back then....John played this to Chas McDevitt when he went to one of his shows....Chas suggested he send it to the skiffle convention in Finland (2001) which he did...this resulted in us being invited over and we forming a skiffle group and off we went...great times...I miss John very much. There has been an outcry regarding parking fines being issued in hospital car parks....this included doctors and nurses...who are busy saving lives....parking is free in Scotland but our greedy little private organisations want their money....the government say it's up to the "Trusts" how they handle parking....so another nice sidestep from our boys and girls in Parliament......it costs nurses up to a grand a year...and the parking fines don't go into the NHS it goes into the pockets of the so called trusts....they had a nurse on the news saying she was dealing with a heart attack and couldn't leave the operating theatre and got a fine...she contested it and lost which cost her another 40 quid...it's a disgrace and needs sorting. The latest thing is "no losers" in school sport....they had a woman (what else) prattling on about how losing can effect children in later life...what a load of tripe...you need to learn how to win AND more importantly lose in life if you want to survive...it's called "striving" to do your best isn't it?.....and speaking of losers how about the guy who got battered by Federer at Wimbledon and started crying....boo hoo I've got a blister...he also got 1.1 million !!!.....it's the suckers who paid thousands to watch the game on centre court I feel sorry for....mind you if you're daft enough to pay fortune for something you can see on TV there isn't a lot of hope. The PC brigade strike again....Dr.Who is now a woman...which I suppose stops them moaning for a while....I don't watch Dr.Who but it puzzles me how they are going to get a kitchen and a washing machine in the TARDIS?....oops sorry can't say that I'll have the PC brigade after me....all we hear is how hard done to women are....it gets very boring after a while....we now have women's cricket which no-one I know is remotely interested in...including my female friends....and there is about half a dozen in the crowd watching women world cup games...not to mention ladies football...which is of no interest to men or indeed women...but we MUST be gender neutral !!!! The BBC have been "forced" to publish the salaries of their top "stars"....the likes of Gary Linacre and Graham Norton on millions....and the football "pundits" raking in a fortune....and apparently Chris Evans is one of the highest paid...WHAT FOR???....they had some half wit on the news who is responsible for getting top talent for TV trying to justify where MY MONEY goes....these so called talented stars are on more than the prime minister....virtually anyone can be a chat show host or a commentator......in fact Wimbledon could do without 90% of the commentary box.....well worth the licence fee?...I don't think so.

The song I've sent you this week is called "Long Live The Isle of Man"and came about from a song I was asked to write about #Blackpool.....I sent it to Norman Wisdom who lived over there ....I met him a few years later when we interviewed him for Radio Merseyside....the song got plays on #Manx radio. A short film has been made called Run...Hide...Tell... which instructs holiday makers what to do if faced with a terrorist attack....this is what TV has been reduced to...talk about scare mongering.... I watched #Rafa Nadal's 5 hour epic at Wimbledon....which he sadly lost.....I watched a fascinating programme presented by Sue Barker where she looked up some of the past Wimbledon champions and covered the time Billy Jean King pushed for "equality"... On the subject on money....the interest rate on our savings is now a massive 0.03%...which is 3/100 of 1% if my maths serves me right. I also watched the programme on the making of #SergeantPepper.....which I am not a particular fan of....#Beatles were the subject of mass hysteria which snowballed to such an extent that anything they did "must be good"....

The song this week is my tribute to a little village in Anglesey which has the longest railway station sign in the universe....Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.....the song teaches you how to say the word because if you can sing it you can say it.....I have sent it this week because it has just reached 1.4 million hits on youtube.....I wrote it for my pal Paul Damian back in 1982 for his club act not realising the impact it would have in future years....I originally put it out as a 45 single (a copy of which I sent to lady Di when she was princess of Wales....to help her with her Welsh...AND got a reply from the palace)....it then went on to cassette then CD...I also sent a copy to Wills and Kate...and got another reply from the Palace....the song has seen a lot of action over the years. There has been news coverage of a little chap called Charlie Gard who is on a life support machine which doctors have advised needs switching off...his father took the case to court and lost....the family has raised a million pounds to send him to America for some new treatment which may save his life....even Donald Trump wants to help.....it is a really tragic situation....you would naturally think they should try everything but I suppose the doctors know best?....so sad for the family....let's hope it all works out for the better, I've been losing sleep over the news that Tony Hadley has split from Spandau Ballet....how many times is this lot going to break up before to stops being news...who cares?....I was never a fan of the band or indeed most of the 80's music....I used to say "the day the music died...January 1st 1980".....I have mellowed a bit since.....the hardest part of playing in a band is actually staying together...my band lasted from 1962 until 2015....with several changes of personnel along the way however...it's a long road with all sorts of unnatural pressures which these talent contestants are sadly not aware of......but I must add that our band never fell out as such and we always remained friends. There is to be another series of The Windsors which takes the mick out of our royalty....I watched the first series and it took me a while to get into it....we have Charles and Camilla,Kate and Wills, and Harry whose new girlfriend is to be included....it is so bad it's funny....they had some of the actors on being interviewed and they pointed out that the show didn't go down to well in America...which made me laugh...the Yanks do not get mickey taking and sarcasm....when I was over in the States recording the songs I wrote for my mate wrestler Adrian Street we were constantly insulting each other and the Yanks were quite shocked...it was so funny....they do seem to live in a bubble. Speaking of the royalty Kate has been to Wimbledon for the beginning of the tennis....now forget Andy Murray....forget Nadal...forget Jocovic.....Kate has had her hair cut !!!....it's now a few inches shorter !!!...headline news......I'm looking forward to the tennis especially week 2....I'm not a gambling man but I might put a fiver on Nadal to win it....you have to play the game to realise how good these players are and the level of fitness required....many years ago there used to be a pre Wimbledon tournament in Hoylake where a lot of the top players would turn out to get themselves in shape....my band used to entertain them at a nearby hotel (Leasowe Castle)...and I remember a guy called Peter Lundgren who asked if he could get his guitar and play a few tunes with the band....I was showing him the riff to Jumping Jack Flash and the world number 10 was hanging on my every word....horses for courses?

The song this week is called "What Happened To Julie" and ..I'm sending it because I recently received a contract from a company in the States who promote songs......when I get to the small print this is going to cost me.... The London fire is still dominating the news... this material should never have passed safety regulations in the first place...if residents are moved out of existing blocks while they do the work fists are waved and blame cast....as usual the problems are magnified by the negative media... Apparently there was a big march in London regarding the gradual "takeover" of Islam which was not reported on the news......totally confused....apparently there is no money for doctors and nurses....no money for extra police...the interest on my savings is a joke and yet money can be pulled out of the air for the Queen's pay rise of over 2 million?... I watched segments of Glastonbury and enjoyed it... I watched Barry Gibb's full set which was brilliant......he should be knighted....brilliant...DESPITE a totally unnecessary appearance by Jeremy Corbyn....what was HE doing there?......if you are going to get up on a stage SING OR PLAY or GET LOST!!... Still on the music scene I watched Aled Jones on his Sunday morning programme which is always a refreshing break quality....it was brilliant.....the programme was bad enough when Cilla used to present it....she has now been replaced by Paul O'Grady...go out and buy a black and white telly from the charity shop and see if we can get some decent programmes.

The song this week is about Chester City which you will know well....I've sent it because I have been taking advantage of the recent weather which has been very hot so I took my kayak out on the River Dee at Chester this week and it was like a millpond....I paddled along joined by baby ducks,swans and the local heron....wonderful....it really is fascinating place which I never tire of....I recorded another version of the song with a girl called Julie Bright (a local Chester girl) put it on a 45 single and sold it to the Chester Council. The news is still saturated with doom and gloom.....it was endless reporting on the London fire with very little facts just a constant barrage of negative news going on about what "might" have happened or what "possibly" could have happened....it's a terrible disaster but what we now require are the facts....and perhaps we could be informed of anything ELSE that is going on in the world...at the outset of all this they had a piece of cladding from the building and put a match under it....and it caught fire....in 1968 I went to a demonstration by the fire brigade concerning cheap furniture imported from the far east....they threw a match on a couch and it burst into flames....similarly with kiddies clothing.....traders making a profit by cutting corners....so it seems nothing has changed. Then we have the attack on Muslims by a man driving a van into them coming out of a Mosque sending the media into overdrive...making out that one man had been killed and several others injured....it has turned out that the poor man who died had a heart attack before the occurrence and was being attended to by his friends....not that this makes it any better...but this sort of thing was on the cards.....and in my opinion our nation of followers are easily manipulated by the media as they believe whatever they are told and the likes of the BBC thrive on sensationalising these events.....religion has been the cause of most problems since time began and I don't have any problem with people's beliefs but we seem to have two sides to the Muslim faith and I think the only one's who can solve the current situation is them....by educating the misguided. There is a new programme on the telly called The Voice Kids....which is the same as The Voice but as the title says it's for kids...some as young as 8...this is so wrong...exploiting children and giving them false hope is not good...and could affect them in later life....if the kid doesn't get through he or she will be devastated....if they do they don't know what they are letting themselves in for....the only winners are the sharks who capitalise on the situation....it's a tough game if you want to survive and these youngsters have no idea what it's all bout.....5% show...95% business. And finally Amanda Holden has been criticised for her rather revealing dress on Britains Got Talent....with its plunging front displaying 50% of her boobs and of course this has given an opportunity for the collection of sad morons who sit at home in front of the box waiting for something to complain about to get stuck in.....but they shouldn't be looking....otherwise it's sexist !!!....what a joke...but it's fine because she is female which makes it O.K.....I wonder what would happen if Simon Cowell appeared in a pair of trousers with a plunging front (excuse me while I throw up)....but there you go.....ladies will always complain about men being sexist and men will continue to take no notice whatsoever.

The song this week is called "On The River" which is where I spent Tuesday afternoon in my Laser Dinghy....I like to get out on the River Dee at West Kirby with just me,the breeze,and the seals....paradise......we are very lucky to have this sailing facility here on Wirral...and if the tide is out we can use the large Marine Lake. This country is becoming like a bad comedy show.......our wonderful Prime Minister calls for a snap general election for no reason whatsoever and falls flat on her face...with a collection of M.P.s seeing their cushy job vanish overnight with Teresa nowhere to be seen....then we have Mr.Corbyn jumping up and down in celebration even though he LOST the election.. I watched a chap called Roy Larmer who was interviewed on the morning news programme....this was the chap who took on the terrorists during the recent London attacks....he was badly injured with wounds to his arms and neck but thankfully survived...he was talking about his experience which was very moving (despite the stupid question from Suzanne Reid)....it turns out that this hero is homeless and has no job....I really felt sorry for him....apparently a fund has been set up and up to now has raised 50 grand....which is all very well but considering this is ONE FIFTH of the fee Tony Blair gets for one after dinner speech.....PEOPLE ARE STILL ALIVE BECAUSE OF MR.LARMER!!!... Richard Hammond has had another near fatal crash....what an absolute idiot....and has "apologised' to his wife and family...it is...except some of them aren't as lucky as Hammond...and how much is this ego trip going to cost the health service?... There was a memorial service for Ronnie Corbett which was attended by lots of celebrities....to me he was a REAL comedian...and the sketches with Ronnie Barker were pure genius.......and finally Adam West also passed away... the ONLY Batman ... I actually went to his book signing in Liverpool and got the chance to shake his hand and thank him for all the good work he did in Gotham City....cool or what.