I don’t think this idea for a lyric worked very well and I don’t think NewsRevue used this lyric.
LIBERIA (To the Tune of “America”)
CHORUS 1
Life is no good in Liberia, Famine and war and hysteria, Leprosy, AIDS and diphtheria, Toss hand grenades in Liberia.
VERSE 1
Former American colony, Product of trading in slavery (very); Characters names sound like Mark Twain, But soon as you learn them they’re slain.
CHORUS 2
Life is no good in Liberia, Peacekeeping force from Nigeria, Most would agree that’s inferior, No-one feels free in Liberia.
VERSE 2
More fighting in Cape Mesurado, Lining up forming a warfare queue (fa’ queue); Roosevelt Johnson leads from the front, But everyone says he’s a Krahn. (That doesn’t rhyme with front??)
CHORUS 3
Life is the pits in Liberia, Whole bunch of shits in Liberia; Fight mercenaries in Monrovia, Get dysentery and diarrhoea.
Below is America from West Side Story with lyrics on the screen, after a lengthy (circa three minutes) build up:
The Unabomber was apprehended in April 1996 and I thought to make a NewsRevue lyric out of it. Mercifully, I either thought better of the idea or ran out of ideas…or both. The fragment below might make you smile, though.
UNABOMBER I WANT (To the Tune of “You’re The One That I Want”)
VERSE 1 – THE BOMBER, STRAPPED TO AN ELECTRIC CHAIR
I’ve got bombs, they’re worth applying, Cos I’m out of control; But the power I’m defying, Is electrifying (electrifying, electrifying, electrifying).
MIDDLE EIGHT 1 – THE COPS
You’d better confess, Cos we need our man, Keep the public satisfied. You’d better confess, You’d better understand, Vengance has to be applied. BOMBER: Are you sure? COPS: Yes we’re sure to have you fried.
CHORUS 1
Unabomber
VERSE 2
CHORUS 2
VERSE 3
CHORUS 3
Below is a video of You’re The One That I Want with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John prancing about, plus the lyrics in both English and Spanish:
I lost all record of this one, other than the diary notes. If I recall correctly, the programmes weren’t yet available as we saw a preview of this ill-fated play/production at The Richmond Theatre.
Janie made the arrangements and it seems we took The Duchess with us. So if the play was as tedious as the reviews and poor audiences suggest, we had quite an evening. No wonder I blotted it out of my mind.
Here is the Theatricalia entry, which on this occasion is my sole canonical source of “who was in it” type information – thanks for that.
Michael Billington in The Guardian (a friendly critic, not known for his damning reviews), describes the piece as a “piffling bio-play”.
With the cast including F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Marsh and Gemma Jones, there should have been some salvation in the performances, but it clearly wasn’t a good play/production.
I suspect that The Duchess was not impressed and that it was our fault that the theatrical part of the evening did not meet her high expectations. I’m guessing we ate at Don Fernando’s in Richmond, as we hadn’t booked anything and that’s where we would go without a booking.
Mike Ward 5 April 1996
Actor’s Workshop
West Grove Terrace
Hopwood Lane
Halifax West Yorkshire
HX1 5EX
Dear Mike
I’M BACK!!!!!
Sorry I missed your trip to London last month. Thailand and Vietnam were fascinating and refreshing. Now it’s back to reality I’m afraid and it doesn’t feel so good.
I recall leaving the country owing your charity money, as you did not deduct any angel money from the 1996 New Year Revels cheque. From memory, Angelling costs £25. Let me know if this is not the right amount.
I think I had the measure of it. That barbeque was an absolute highlight for us. I remember a Scottish head chef who had looked after us well there, coming down to supervise Prasert and make sure it was all really well arranged for us. Perhaps he did that for all the guests. Still a highlight for us.
I watched Trading Places (Janie mysteriously watched highlights)
Partly the film didn’t please her, partly the exertions of the previous day got to Janie, I suspect.
1 April 1996
Snorkelled Phra Nang beach rocks – swam & sunbathed.
We wanted to enjoy every last minute of that place. In future years, we would probably not have done the “swimming until the last minute” thing as it is so difficult to transport wet cossies all the way home!
I made no notes about the journey home; I suspect it was relatively problem free and therefore not note-worthy. Certainly not memorable…in a good way.
It had been a fabulous journey all in all.
All the photos from the part of the journey that featured Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam & then Thai resorts can be found through the Flickr link here or below.
I can safely say that Janie took this picture on the dangerous hike
Went to pool early – set off on trek – Janie completed/Ian gave up
We both did this early part of the trek. Then I took one look at the required hiking in the heat and gave up, while Janie went on with some sweet and friendly Thai Air folk who were stayingJanie made it down into the lagoon despite the heat. If you think she looks red in the face in the picture, you should have seen her when she got back to the pool with those kindly Thai Air staff, who had helped her to complete the hike “safely”.Before returning to poolside, Janie took this shot from a high point of the hike
Janie returned to pool – noodle lunch – siesta watching Last Tango In Paris – returned to pool – quick aborted snorkel at Railay and then Thai starter dinner at Thai Restaurant, then watched most of Indochine.
A few memories to accompany this. Janie realised she had bitten off more than she could chew with that lagoon hike and was most grateful to the Thai hikers who kept an eye on her and helped her out.
I recall that the afternoon sun was simply too hot for us both, pretty much every day, so we needed to siesta every afternoon and chose to watch the odd movie from what seemed to be an excellent video library, not least with films like Indochine, which helped to reinforce what we had just seen on our touring. Interesting choice of movie there in Last Tango. Neither of us had seen it before so we thought we’d give it a go. I suspect that Janie had seen enough steamy hot scenes for one day exploring that lagoon so probably now claims to remember little of it.
We loved the little villa we called our own for those few days at Rayavadee. They also had an excellent collection of CDs and I recall listening a lot to several there which I subsequently bought, including a Best Of Van Morrison. Funny what sticks in the mind.
All the photos from the part of the journey that featured Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam & then Thai resorts can be found through the Flickr link here or below.
Went to Chicken Island/Poda Island snorkelling – superb morning trip.
Snorkelling with the fishesFeeding the fishes by Poda IslandBeautiful vistas on return boat trip
Had sandwich lunch at Beach Bar – watched Indecent Proposal over siesta, played briefly with canoes, had seafood meal at the Thai/Seafood Restaurant and early night.
All the photos from the part of the journey that featured Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam & then Thai resorts can be found through the Flickr link here or below.
Entering Princess Cave (Above).Nam Mao Beach on the way (below)
Latish up – went to see Princess Cave…
Inner Princess Cave
…had a light lunch of noodles and rice (aborted lunch at beach restaurant) – after swam – played with snorkles – had sauna, jacuzzi and massage.
Then got lazy, ate in from private dining and watched An Autumn’s Tale on video.
All the photos from the part of the journey that featured Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam & then Thai resorts can be found through the Flickr link here or below.
All the photos from the part of the journey that featured Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam & then Thai resorts can be found through the Flickr link here or below.
Early start on our own account [unguided]. Taxi to Jade Emperor Pagoda…
Devotee within Jade Emperor Pagoda (above) and the view out (below)
– then money exchange hunt & short shopping spree and return to hotel for pick up…
This Taiwanese couple were having their wedding photo shoot outside the hotel
…and then schlep to Phuket – three hours at Bangkok [airport] especially wearing. Overnight at pretty decent Dusit Laguna Phuket.
It wasn’t possible at that time (still might not be) sensibly to get from Ho Chi Minh City to Phra Nang in one day, so we arranged an unwanted afternoon & night in Phuket. Actually we rather took to the Laguna and returned there (although to a different property) for a short break in 2017.
But back in 1996, our short stop at the Dusit Laguna Phuket looked like this:
All the photos from the part of the journey that featured Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam & then Thai resorts can be found through the Flickr link here or below.
