It’s all vaguely coming back to me. Michael Eriera liked my material a lot and wanted to use some of the less political material in a show he put together at the Jermyn Street Theatre.
I remember Janie and I going to see that show and liking it a lot – Michael was a good director.
I don’t think the project went all that far, sadly, but it was successful enough for some dosh to come my way; probably not much, hence my “spend spend spend” quip.
Michael Eriera 17 October 1994
(Finchley address redacted)
Dear Michael
SONGS
As promised, here are some songs; some old, some new, all borrowed (music, that is) and none blue.
As it seems we are all to be fabulously wealthy on the back of your great find in Jermyn Street, I’m now off to spend, spend, spend.
Seriously, if you need some recordings or anything else do let me know. Remember that there are plenty more where these come from; I have omitted most of the political ones.
Four Weddings and A Funeral had been such a big film that year, as had Liz Hurley “busting out all over” her film award dresses and as had the film’s hit song; Wet Wet Wet’s version of Love Is All Around (see below).
I gave the story my treatment – quite sparse but effective I still think:
LARGE BREASTS ARE ALL AROUND
(To the Tune of “Love is All Around”)
VERSE 1 – HUGH GRANT
I see them on the film set,
They’re bursting out of clothes,
Large breasts are all around me,
And so my feeling grows;
That siren Elle MacPherson,
And Lizzie Hurley know,
That if they want attention,
They’ve gotta let ’em show.
MIDDLE EIGHT – LIZ HURLEY
You know I love you, I always will,
Your rich since Four Weddings and a Funeril;
They say you’re brainy, but I’ll defend,
My cleavage is my own deep end.
VERSE 2 – BOTH
HUGH: I see huge breasts before me,
As I lay on my bed;
LIZ: I kinda get to thinking,
You’ve one track in your head;
HUGH: I give nice comments to you,
So why are you upset?
LIZ: Large breasts are all around you,
And you’re so wet, wet, wet.
Here is Wet Wet Wet singing Love Is All Around, with the lyrics on screen:
While we’re here – I have always liked the song and far preferred it in its original recording by the Troggs. Here is a quintessentially sixties promo video of The Troggs on one of those old-fashioned trains.
The log says September for this lyric but the earliest electronic file is the above date.
I wrote an update of this lyric 16 July 1995:
LARGE BREASTS ARE ALL AROUND – CAUGHT WITH A HOLLYWOOD TART – SUMMER SILLY SEASON 1995 REMIX
(To the Tune of “Love is All Around”)
VERSE 1 – HUGH GRANT
I feel you with my fingers,
And then I suck your toes;
Large breasts are all around me,
And so my feeling grows;
My girlfriend Lizzie Hurley,
And tinseltown tarts know,
I’m mad and at attention,
If they just let ’em show.
MIDDLE EIGHT – LIZ HURLEY
You know I love you, I always will,
Your rich since Four Weddings and a Funeril;
They say you’re clever, so use your brain,
One flash of tits, you go insane.
VERSE 2 – BOTH
HUGH: I see huge breasts before me,
As I lay on my bed;
LIZ: I kinda get to thinking,
You’ve one track in your head;
HUGH: I’ve told the world I’m sorry,
So why are you upset?
LIZ: Large breasts are all around you,
And you’re so wet, wet, wet.
Seeing these documents made me laugh. In the first few weeks of establishing The Z/Yen Group, while we waited for incorporation documents to come through, we traded as me personally, then assigned the business to the corporation.
Rather unexpectedly, we sold so much business during those few weeks, I had to register for VAT in my own name for six months.
I wanted to make sure everything was above board, so I put absolutely all income through as VATable business, including my NewsRevue income.
I don’t suppose Harriet Quirk saw much in the way of writers’ VAT invoices, not that she really needed to do anything with them because it seems I sent them retrospectively on receipt of the dosh and just wore the VAT charge myself.
What a trooper.
Spot the royalty values going down in those early weeks/months of the new business – I guess I was concentrating on matters other than comedy too much.
INVOICE – FILE COPY
VAT REG NO GB 646 1995 04
FAO Harriet Quirk Date: 12 October 1994
News Revue Tax point: 1 October 1994
Canal Cafe Theatre
Delamere Terrace
London
W2
INVOICE TO: News Revue
ACCOUNT REF: NR01
INVOICE NO: 02005
In respect of songs and sundry patter for the News Revue show (known as Edinburgh run) during August 1994.
£
ROYALTIES 45.96
VAT @ 17.5% 8.04
————-
TOTAL £54.00
========
This amount has been received, with thanks.
INVOICE – FILE COPY
VAT REG NO GB 646 1995 04
FAO Harriet Quirk Date: 24 October 1994
News Revue Tax point: 24 October 1994
Canal Cafe Theatre
Delamere Terrace
London
W2
INVOICE TO: News Revue
ACCOUNT REF: NR01
INVOICE NO: 02006
In respect of songs and sundry patter for the News Revue show (known as Alex’s run) during early Autumn 1994.
£
ROYALTIES 32.34
VAT @ 17.5% 5.66
————-
TOTAL £38.00
========
This amount has been received, with thanks.
INVOICE – FILE COPY
VAT REG NO GB 646 1995 04
FAO Harriet Quirk Date: 21 November 1994
News Revue Tax point: 21 November 1994
Canal Cafe Theatre
Delamere Terrace
London
W2
INVOICE TO: News Revue
ACCOUNT REF: NR01
INVOICE NO: 02007
In respect of songs and sundry patter for the News Revue show (known as Kerry’s run) during Autumn 1994.
£
ROYALTIES 43.58
VAT @ 17.5% 7.62
————-
TOTAL £51.20
========
This amount has been received, with thanks.
INVOICE – FILE COPY
VAT REG NO GB 646 1995 04
FAO Harriet Quirk Date: 9 January 1995
News Revue Tax point: 9 January 1995
Canal Cafe Theatre
Delamere Terrace
London
W2
INVOICE TO: News Revue
ACCOUNT REF: NR01
INVOICE NO: 02009
In respect of songs and sundry patter for the News Revue show (known as Robert’s run) end 1994.
£
ROYALTIES 15.49
VAT @ 17.5% 2.71
————-
TOTAL £18.20
========
This amount has been received, with thanks.
There was one more VAT invoice for NewsRevue in quarter one of 1995, before I deregistered from the VAT regime and never had to invoice NewsRevue again:
INVOICE – FILE COPY
VAT REG NO GB 646 1995 04
FAO Harriet Quirk Date: 14 March 1995
News Revue Tax point: 14 March 1995
Canal Cafe Theatre
Delamere Terrace
London
W2
INVOICE TO: News Revue
ACCOUNT REF: NR01
INVOICE NO: 02011
In respect of songs and sundry patter for the News Revue show (known as Christmas run) end 1994 and early 1995.
£
ROYALTIES 9.60
VAT @ 17.5% 1.68
————-
TOTAL £11.28
========
This amount has been received, with thanks.
The log suggests this was written in September but the electronic file is dated 24 October 1994.
This was all around Z/Yen start up time; I don’t recall if it was used or not…it blooming well should have been.
I DON’T WANT TO GO TO HAITI (To the Tune of “I Don’t Want To Go To Chelsea”)
VERSE 1
Photographs of Haiti’s tricks, Could be as daft as Bay of Pigs; Bill Clinton smokes but don’t inhale, He launches fleets but don’t set sail; We shafted Vietnam and we fucked up the Somalis, We don’t sit around and talk like your Boutros Boutros Ghalis, But when we go off to fight we look like a bunch of Charlies;
CHORUS 1
Now Bill and Raoul are in cahoots and matey, I don’t want to go to Haiti; Oh no, it’s not strategic, Don’t want to end up paraplegic; I don’t want to occupy, I don’t want my pals to die, I don’t give a fuck for Haiti.
VERSE 2
Photographs of Clinton’s daughter, Her nose is bent as Shirley Porter, She is so spoilt it’s a disgrace, She wears her teeth in mum’s embrace; She is a little flirt when she walks out with her waddle, She’s a real daddies girl but he talks a load of twaddle, So she can’t walk and fart without getting in a muddle;
CHORUS 2
They say she keeps fit but she looks so unhealthy, I don’t want to go with Chelsea; Oh no she won’t get tongue-kissed, Until she’s seen her orthodontist; I don’t want to meet her folks, Those Clintons are a bunch of jokes, I don’t want to go with Chelsea.
Even if you don’t like my lyric, here is Elvis singing I Don’t Want To Go To Chelsea with the lyrics on screen – worth the price of admission alone:
Postscript: proof positive that the lyric was used and that it must have been written in late September 1994 originally. John Random has uncovered the running order from the October 6th week – see below.
I left BDO at the beginning of August with a view to most of
the others joining at the start of October 1994. Michael was not permitted to
join until early 1995. So for seven or eight weeks, I was technically on my own,
setting up Z/Yen.
In Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, there is a story about Golgafrinchans, a race of humanoid beings on another planet, who were the true ancestors of humanity. The Golgafrinchans divided their society into three distinct groups; thinkers, doers and middle-folk, the latter group of which were deemed useless and so were launched off into space, purportedly to be the advance party for a relocation of the entire society, but in reality to enable the thinkers and doers to stay put and thrive on their own planet.
Now I like to think of myself as part thinker, part doer,
but there were times during that late summer when I wondered whether I has been
launched as a Golgafrinchan-style advance party.
Not that I was entirely on my own. My diary shows an evening session with Michael on 9 August, which resulted in a massive “to do” list for establishing Z/Yen, “Z/Yen Notes”, available for inspection here.
In addition to the tasks on that list, I wrote an initial business plan, also available for inspection here. I also finished off several client assignments on an associate basis after leaving the old firm. My diary for those weeks looks ridiculous – it was a ludicrously busy time.
Example of a ludicrously busy week
It was hard to get businesses started in those days. It was
impossible to find premises without 12 months or more trading record, but how
were we supposed to get a trading record without space. Thank you, Nick
Pickering of Rochester Partnership for helping us with space for that early
part of Z/Yen’s life.
It was a similar “Catch 22” with start-up business finance in those days. Michael, Elisabeth, Janie and I took Z/Yen’s initial business plan to the South of France late August – we had to pitch it to our prospective external investors at Eli Wallitt’s villa in Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne, near Grasse.
Grasse rooftops
We all stayed in Nice at the Hotel Windsor. My financial records show that we ate one night at Le Farniente, which is still there 25 years later. We also ate at a place named Au Bistroquet which is harder to track down now.
I especially recall the convoy drive up to Saint-Cézaire; Michael and Janie had very different ideas on driving speeds on unfamiliar mountain roads in little hired cars from Avis; I expect it looked like a latter-day version of the car chase scenes in Monte Carlo or Bust!
OK, in truth these photos are of my parents’ visit to that same Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur part, in 1958.
That initial financing arrangement did not end at all well, but that debacle came later – part of Z/Yen’s Book of Exodus – whereas this promordyall chronique is Z/Yen’s book of Genesis.
I did still find time for writing some silly stuff. There was a leaving do for several people on 30 August at Corney and Barrow. In fact, I think, technically, that was my leaving do as well. I’d had an informal, smaller gathering of friends at the same venue on 12 August at my own expense, but I think the 30 August thing was laid on by the firm. I produced a handout for the evening, which I think went down well.
I do also recall around that time some farcical conversations with the Companies House people, who struggled to register our little group of companies because different departments, that didn’t speak with each other, dealt with holding companies and subsidiary companies. The holding companies got bounced because they didn’t have subsidiaries, while the subsidiaries got registered to (at the time) non-existent holding companies. Technically speaking, this might mean that Z/Yen has never has existed at all; an intriguing thought.
At several
points, I thought the business wouldn’t be ready to start trading on 1 October
1994, but of course we were able to open our doors (or I should say one door, for
one room in Gresham Street) that day.
…well this news story about a fatal accident when a Roll-on/roll-off ferry capsized had insufficient time distance to be made into comedy. Or possibly simply couldn’t ever be made into comedy.
I assigned the intellectual property rights to the RNLI for this one, but it never got that far. Still, they’ve had plenty of my dosh other ways since.
_ ROLLING ON, ROLLING OFF _
(To the Tune of “Knowing Me, Knowing You”)
CHORUS
Rolling on, rolling off, {ah-haaaaaa} Safety checks were not enough; Rolling on, rolling off, {ah-haaaaaa} The Baltic Sea is cold when you’re in the buff. {fucking cold when in the buff} Hyperthermia’s not freezing I know, But my blood won’t flow; We were all rolling off, Cos these ferries are duff.
Below is a video of Abba singing Knowing Me Knowing You with lyrics on the screen:
I cannot remember the context of this spoof letter of complaint, other than the fact that John was working for BACTA – perhaps that was a new thing at that time. I can only assume that the Anchor House thing was some sort of a charity lottery.
Nearly 25 years later, John is once again working for BACTA and might find this letter “helpful”.
Any recollections from your end will be much appreciated, John.
One small additional point for any geeks who might still be reading – this was, I believe, the very last letter I ever wrote using WordPerfect.
Ian Harris 12 Clanricarde Gardens London W2 4NA Tel: (071) 243-0725 Fax: (071) 229-2967 Internet: zyenilh@zyenharri.win-uk.net Compuserve: 100434,1552
Mr John S White 27 September 1994 BACTA Bacta House Regents Wharf 6 All Saints Street London N1 9RQ
Dear Mr White
GAME FOR A CURSE
I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms. Last week I had the misfortune to enter a certain Anchor House, at which address I was induced by a resplendent banner to enter the aforementioned Game For A Curse competition. I was promised “thousands of cash prizes” for my not insignificant investment of 50p. Imagine my surprise and horror when I ascertained that my investment had been entirely lost. None of the promised cash prizes came my way (the offending card is enclosed for your perusal and comment).
I am not one of life’s losers, Mr White, and I assure you that the matter will not stop here. The gaming board shall hear of this, as shall the responsible Minister and/or the President of the Board of Trade.
Innocent citizens like myself should not be subjected to this humiliation and defeat. I very nearly won £1,000 (look at the card carefully) and therefore believe that the said prize should be mine by virtue of the error that you have clearly made with regard to the supply of a non-winning card.
Don’t try to get me under Schedule 1a of the Lotteries and Amusements Act 1976 or I shall see to it that you are done under the Pedants and Irascible Old Gits Act of 1962. Two can play at this game, Mr White, so watch it.
Some rare long intervals between visits to theatre and concert hall that summer, all down to the dawning of my business Z/Yen, which took up ludicrous amounts of time including weekends.