Today's the Day!

Today’s the day! We should be leaving between 10.00 am and 11.00 am, which means we have a leisurely journey to Ardrossan, which can be covered in three hours and 51 minutes non stop (according to Microsoft AutoRoute.)

The journey takes us along the A 650 Aire Valley Road and the A620 to Skipton, where we join the A 65 and head for the M 6.

North of Carlisle we join the A74 to Gretna Green taking a left turn on to the A75, and head for Dumfries. After leaving Dumfries we head north on the A76 to Kilmarnock.

We then join the A71 towards Irvine, and just south of Irvine take the A 78 which takes to Ardrossan, where the Cal Mac Ferry “Caledonian Isles” should be waiting to take us on a 55 minute journey to Brodick, on the Isle of Arran!

I should be blogging again on either Sunday 4th or Monday 5th October!

Not Long Now!

It’s not too long now to our holidays! All things being equal we should be on the Isle of Arran at Lamlash by about 7.15 pm tomorrow evening. The long range weather forecast is not looking too brilliant, but with temperatures ranging between 56 and 59 during the daytime, we aren’t complaining.


Sat Sep 19
Partly Cloudy
58°/52°

Sun Sep 20
Mostly Cloudy
57°/53°

Mon Sep 21
Cloudy
58°/55°

Tue Sep 22
Light Rain
59°/56°

Wed Sep 23
Showers
56°/54°

Thu Sep 24
Cloudy
56°/54°

Fri Sep 25
Light Rain
57°/55°

Sat Sep 26
Cloudy
57°/54°

WEATHER FORECAST FOR BRODICK ON THE ISLE OF ARRAN


We will no doubt be visiting friends we have made on the island over the years. Our first few stays on the island were with one of the resident doctors and his wife in their B & B. We always pay them a visit when we are on Arran.

Some of the old haunts will also be visited.

It’s a standing joke with the family that we always pay a call in “Homestyle” (which is an old fashioned hardware shop – the sort where you can still by nails and screws loose) One year we returned home triumphantly with a sink plunger! Last year I bought two new saws, tins of paint a new floor mat for the back door and sundry other items. I managed to spend £80.00 in the shop!

I always call in to ARCAS (the Arran Cancer Support Shop which is opposite the pier where you disembark) with a box full of books, DVDs Audio Tapes etc. and usually come away with nearly as much as I have donated!

Bilsland’s is a large store which stocks outdoor clothing, souvenirs, books, DVD’s, postcards and has an excellent café. No doubt they will benefit from our visit!

The Book and Card shop usually has some extremely good offers on with its reduced price books – It being the end of the season the proprietor is usually wanting to shift the stock so he can make way for the Christmas goods!

Belford Mill in Whiting Bay is a small Warehouse type of store which stocks tools, electrical goods and fittings, and various “offers” I remember last year I bought a 10 led torch, which has proved very useful.

Just across the road from Belford Mills is the Coffee Pot a super little café which sells delicious home made food

The Old Byre is a farm on the east side of the island, which sells knitted goods, lambs wool goods and sheepskin rugs.

The Brodick Bar is our favourite spot for an evening meal. In twenty years of visiting we have never been disappointed in the quality and quantity of the food served. Under the personal direction of the owner (Iain MacFadzean) he leads a team of dedicated staff who produce some first rate food, beautifully prepared and presented.

Hope to be back with you all on Sunday 4th October!

Cause for a Double Celebration!

Yesterday (Wednesday) was Nana’s XXth birthday. (She doesn’t like it public knowledge, but it was her 92nd!)

We took her out for a surprise run to Masham, to the King’s Head, for a meal, and lo and behold it was market day too.

We then went on to Carperby, where her niece’s daughter and husband live. As Nana had never been before and was anxious to see what their new house looked like, we kept it a secret, and it wasn’t until we turned into to village of Carperby that she realised where she was. She still had no idea that we had informed Patricia (her niece’s daughter) that we would be calling, so she asked if we could drive by and show her where the house was. “We won’t call in,” she said, so it was quite a surprise for Nana when I pulled down their drive.

We left Caperby about 6.00 pm and as Ruby (our chocolate Labrador) hadn’t “paid a call.” I stopped in a grassy lay by near Lightwater Valley for her. Whilst we were stopped wifey rang Hannah, our youngest daughter, to be greeted by Hannah joyfully shouting “I’ve Passed!” This was to tell us that she has gained a BA (Hons) after her three years at Ormskirk Edge Hill University.

So delight all round.

Chaos Reigns Supreme!!

I don’t know if you have the problems we have in our household, but whenever we decide to go on holiday, the week prior to us going suddenly seems to need at least 36 hours everyday for you to do all the things you need to do before you go away!

I usually plan out all the essential things that need to be done, like cancelling the papers and the milk, ensuring camera and mobile phone batteries are all fully charged, checking that all travel documents and sailing tickets are in order and informing neighbours of our contact numbers in case of an emergency.

Then there are those essential for the car – check water level, oil level, tyre pressures and fill the tank up with petrol

There is the need to pack for a fortnight – very problematical if you are a female so I understand – should I take this sweater or that one, will this co ordinate with that?, but not much of a problem for me – I just take sufficient shirts, sweaters shoes, socks etc and fill a case with them! It’s not only for the humans that we need to pack, but also for Ruby (the dog) – she might be smart, but she hasn’t yet learnt to pack her own case!

As we go self catering we also need some food for the first day or so because we arrive Saturday after the shops have shut.

So all this has been taken care of and then suddenly, out of the blue people decide to die and I am required to play for their funeral services! – Two so far this week before we go on holiday.

Our youngest daughter is in the process of moving house – Dad can you give us a hand with transporting the furniture from the old place to the new one? Can you take the old settee and chairs to the tip (they don’t exactly fit into a two seater Smart Car!) Could you be down at the house when the gas/electricity man comes?

Dad can you be my Flu Friend and collect some Tammiflu tablets from Keighley Baths? (This is our middle daughter who has just gone down with what she suspects is the latest Swine Flu.) So I hare off to Keighley, only to be told that they are not distributed until after 12.00. I return at 12.00 to be told by another person that they open at 1.00 pm. I have a wedding to play for back in Bingley at 2.00 pm – do I hang on until 1.00 pm or go back and play the wedding and make a third trip to Keighley?

Our eldest daughter phoned me up last night - Dad can you play the piano for the new children tomorrow morning?


36 hours a day - lets make it 48 just in case........

I suppose I should say thank goodness we’ve only three daughters!!!

Roll on Saturday when we are on Holiday!

Happy Birthday - Both 40th and XXth

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, it was Rachel’s big 40, and she had invited lots of people from all over the country and from way back to her celebrations.

Some years ago, Rachel worked as a nanny in Jersey, and one of the first people she met was another nanny called Nickie. I don’t think either of them had met “in the flesh” for at least eleven years, so it was a lovely surprise that Nickie could make it. She now lives near Oxford, and had travelled up from there with her partner.

One of her best friends from Cottingley First school days was also there, as well as colleagues from the school she teaches in.

Rachel receives her surprise 40th Birthday Cake at the celebrations

Detail of the birthday cake showing Rachel just a few years younger!

It was a delight for me and the missus because we were able to catch up with some of the relatives who we don’t see too often. Dot's cousin and her husband and their newly married daughter and her husband had travelled from Manchester. Another cousin and her husband and their niece and fiancée had travelled from Burnley.

The extra special joy for us was that my best friends wife and her daughter (wife from Dunston, and daughter from the London area), along with her husband and 19 month old twins had travelled to be at the celebrations. As we hadn’t seen Sheila for about two years, and her daughter for considerably longer, it was lovely to catch up on all the latest news.

Rachel’s husband Gary, and his parents were there and their daughter Mollie (the one who forgot her swipe card – see yesterday’s blog) and Tom were busy greeting people as they arrived.

We collected Rachel’s grandma – known to one and all as Nana, from Ilkley, and Nana had a surprise waiting for her when Rachel announced that it will be her xxxxth birthday, on Wednesday and all the guests sang Happy Birthday for her!

Olivia leads the celebrations with "Happy Birthday dear Nana"

We even managed to get a photo of her with her daughter, grand daughter and great grand daughter!

Four Generations!

Nearly a Disaster - then Celebrations!

Last week was the start of term for most of the children around us. For Mollie (our youngest grand daughter) it was a momentous time. She has just moved from her Primary School (where her mum works in Nursery, and her brother also attends) to a Secondary School. The Secondary School is about 20 minutes walk away from home in the opposite direction to her Primary School, so Mollie and two or three of her friends have to walk to school together.

All went well for the first few days, and then disaster struck yesterday. To get into the school you need a swipe card, and this also carries a record of the money you have paid for your dinner. In other words without the swipe card, come dinner time – no dinner. Mollie, in her haste to get off to school had forgotten her swipe card. There were frantic text messages to Mum, but Mum had not seen them. Then there was an almost tearful phone call too.

Eventually Mum got the message and reassured Mollie that she would be able to deliver the swipe card to the reception area before the start of school. So all ended well!

By the way a certain Mum has reached the big 40 today! There are celebrations at the local rugby club and about 200 guests expected. Something which really touched me and the missus was that Rachel asked for no presents, but donations to two of her favourite charities. Well done you. It seems we did something right when we brought up the children!!!!!

Computers Rule OK?

It appears that Calderdale Council have a computer system which automatically sends out threats of visits by bailiffs to anyone who defaults in their payments – no matter how small! You may well say - well they were in debt, but owing 69 pence, does it really merit sending out threatening letters and the possibility of a visit from a bailiff?

It seems that a seventy eight years old widow was going to be visited by bailiffs because she had inadvertently omitted 69 pence from a cheque she was using to pay for her alarm services.

Calderdale’s computers send out demands and threats of visits by the bailiffs. Whilst they admitted that this kind of behaviour was “inhuman”, they do not appear to have the ability to use a bit of common sense and over ride a computer system which behaves in such a manner. If they had had the ability to think for themselves this would never have happened in the first place.

I detect in this the usual attitude of “follow the rule book at all costs.” Surely to goodness some computer operator could have used their common sense and stopped the computer behaving in such an inhuman manner. Some one (ie a human being – not a computer!) had to input the information into the computer in the first place. Why couldn’t they have used their common sense and stopped the computer generating the threats?

Come on Calderdale. Get your act together. Get your computer system sorted out, or else let your computer operators have the permission to use a bit of common sense in cases like this. Better still, why not remove this program from the computer altogether?

Anarchy Rules OK?

Sorry to be banging on again about the two monsters from Doncaster, but Jayne Dowle takes up the battle for children such as these to be removed from their parents in her Thursday column in this morning’s Yorkshire Post.

Whilst not really supporting the idea of removing children from their parents, she is honest enough to state that in the case of the two brothers from Edlington this would have been the only realistic solution. She quotes their family background as “corrosive neglect” and agrees with Martin Narey (the chief executive of the children’s charity Barnado’s) who says that children should be taken away from bad parents to prevent them growing up in terrible situations, suffering unspeakably, and then repeating the cycle with their own children.

Martin Narey was a former director of prison services and has seen at first hand the outcome of families who have failed their sons and daughters. He does not subscribe to the current whims and fashions that removal of children from their families should only take place as a last resort. He has stated that social workers should not be trying to work with families that can’t be fixed, but should be more pro-active in removing children who are at risk.

Millions of pounds have been pumped into supporting the policy that believes that children should only be separated from their parents as a last resort, yet here is proof that is just does not work with “families that can’t be fixed.” Social workers, doctors, health visitors, and teachers are all drawn into a multi agency support system to support parents who through addiction, unemployment, or sheer fecklessness can’t or won’t look after their own children and provide a safe and caring environment for them.

The support system has failed because it can’t support those who won’t accept that they have responsibilities to their children.

To quote, once again the former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Keith Hellawell:

“Society as we know it is collapsing about us and no one appears to be doing anything about it. There are still many families who bring up their children to respect others in the way they would wish to be respected themselves. However they are in danger of being outnumbered by those who care for little but themselves.”


As I said on Tuesday,

The attitude of children like these two brothers leads to anarchy. Do we really want that?

The Dam Busters

Having been born at the very end of the war, I have no real recollection of what it was like to live through that dreadful period. I have just finished re watching the classic film The Dam Busters which is based on the book by Wing Commander Guy Gibson “Enemy Coast Ahead” and the book by Paul Brickhill called “The Dam Busters.”

It tells the true story of how Barnes Wallace invented a bouncing bomb, which would successfully breach the three main dams in Germany which supplied the water to the Ruhr Industrial complex, and of the brave men who trained and flew in the special squadron formed to attack the dams.

Initially these pilots were requested to fly their specially adapted Lancaster bombers at 160 feet above the water, but after problems with the experimental bomb cases breaking they had to fly at a mere 60 feet above the water, hold their aircraft steady at that height in the face of enemy fire and drop their bomb at a precise distance from the dam wall.

Some eight crews were listed as “missing – presumed dead” at the end of the operation, but the successful mission no doubt greatly shortened the war.

As in many areas of conflict, brave service personnel gave their lives for our freedom.

Undisciplined Children

I don’t know what the other morning papers have had as their main lead stories, but the Yorkshire Post led with the terrible affair of the two boys who had attacked and assaulted two similar age children as their front page news item on Friday, then on Monday an inside page story told of the executive director of Barnado’s demanding that social workers have less focus on fixing families that can’t be fixed, and be more pro-active in removing children who are at risk.

Today an inside page analysis and opinion article by Neil McNicholas (Vicar of Whitby St Hilda’s Church) has the headline “By excusing their behaviour we are failing a new generation of children.”

In the article he argues (quite rightly in my opinion) that one of the major factors contributing to children of this type is the breakdown of the traditional family and the rise in the number of unmarried mothers. He goes on to state that our Social Security System in effect is paying young women, in many cases not much older than the children themselves, to have more children. The more children they have, the more money they receive through Child Benefit and other allowances. He questions whether these children are really wanted, and what parenting skills these young unmarried mothers have.

Then he raises the question of discipline. How many of these children know the meaning of the word “No!” Too many of these children have never heard the word “No!” or if they have, nothing ever happens if they ignore it.

Those of us who were taught the difference between right and wrong and were taught to do as we were told, and knew the consequences if we ignored it may struggle to understand how anyone could not have learned such basic lessons, but if no one is teaching them, how can such lessons be learned?

By excusing present behaviour and failing to address it and effectively deter it, we are failing our children exactly as their parents failed them.

The former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Keith Hellawell has said that “Society as we know it is collapsing about us and no one appears to be doing anything about it. There are still many families who bring up their children to respect others in the way they would wish to be respected themselves. However they are in danger of being outnumbered by those who care for little but themselves.”

I read all this as a plea for discipline by caring parents for their children. If discipline in the wider sense of the word fails we have anarchy. Do we really want that?

Make Bad Parents Give Up Their Babies

In my tirade in Friday’s blog against irresponsible parents, I resisted the urge to suggest that children, and even babies should be removed from their parents, but it seems that I am not the only one thinking in these terms. When I opened my Yorkshire Post paper this morning, I saw that no less a person than Martin Narey, the chief executive of Barnardo’s is calling for something similar.

I am sure that by “sticking his head above the battlements” he is going to come in for criticism from the do gooders of this world, but let’s face it, what he says makes a great deal of common sense. He calls for less focus on fixing families that can’t be fixed, and social workers to be more pro-active in removing children who are at risk.

For some eighteen years I worked in a school in a run down area of the city. The local council estate had more than its fair share of out of work parents, drifters, alcoholics and drug abusers. As a result I sometimes felt that I spent more time in case conferences dealing with children at risk than I did teaching. I always felt that these case conferences were of very limited use, both to those who attended them, and in particular to the child/children who were at risk. Much was made of the Multi Agency approach, but little was done for the children. The conferences generated about 90% talk and 10% action (if you were lucky!)

I met many social workers who quite honestly must have lived on another planet. They were being duped left, right and centre by some of the unscrupulous and irresponsible parents they were dealing with. “The Social” (Money) was spent on alcohol, drugs, in fact just about anything except on the needs of their children. These were irresponsible parents of the highest order, and the social workers (some of them) genuinely thought that they were helping their children.

On one occasion at one of these conferences I drew a social workers attention to the fact that a little girl of seven used to arrive in school each day at around 8.00 am in the depths of winter in a thin summer dress, short socks and worn out sandals. We used to take her in and warm her up by the school radiators and give her a bottle of milk – she had not eaten before arriving at school. Despite being on the “at risk register” nothing changed during the winter. Why? Because the family were, as Martin Narey states “a family that can’t be fixed” The child should have been removed at the first possible opportunity – she had been on the at risk register from within a few months of her birth, but as far as I could see, the amount of good this had done her was precisely nil.

I had another child (a boy) who had been beaten by his father with a “barley stick table leg” I discovered this after weeks of careful observation during PE lessons when I noted bruising on him. He insisted that he had got carpet burns by being pulled along the floor by his older sister. He too had been on the “at risk register” for a few years. It was only when I called social services in to school so that they could see the extent of the bruising that something was done. Why on earth couldn’t they have done something before under their own initiative? Because they probably thought they were doing well by what they liked to term as “working alongside the family” It was another case of a family that couldn’t be fixed.

More power to Mr Narey. I sincerely hope, that for the sake of lots of these poor children some person in authority sees sense, and intervention, in the shape of removal from the home and their parents takes place at a much earlier stage, before it is too late, and before what has happened in Doncaster, children being killed.

Wife in the North

Recently I have reviewed one or two of the books I have really enjoyed reading, and it has suddenly struck me that I have been very remiss not to have mentioned “Wife in the North” by Judith O’Reilly. Judith was the Times Educational Correspondent when she lived in London, but has since turned freelance.

She does a blog, which she started off when she moved from London to Bamburgh, and it was as a result of my reading her blog, and enjoying her turn of phrase and sense of humour, that I started off this blog.

Judith and her husband had spent some holidays in Northumberland, and her husband had for some time entertained the idea of the whole family moving up to Northumberland to live. Whilst they were at their holiday cottage they learnt that the cottage next door was coming up for sale, and it was decided that they should give Northumberland a try. By knocking the two through it would give sufficient space for Judith, her husband, two boys and soon to be born baby girl, as well as room for Judith’s elderly parents, when they came to visit.

Initially Judith had grave doubts, and as she admits she is a townie. On leaving London she had this to say:-

As we drove out of the city’s fabulous sprawl last night with our two boys in the back of the car, I wondered whether I could kill my husband and plead insanity. I knew it would be slightly unfair - I had agreed to the move, although I had not meant it. “Hormones ate my brain, Your Honour.”

I love London - it is where I want to be. He thinks we will move to Northumberland and life will be perfect. Life is never perfect. If I had not been pregnant I would never have agreed to this ridiculous experiment in country living.

After three weeks there her husband has to return to London, leaving her to cope with the three children. It was somewhere around this point that Judith started her blog Wife in the North.com, which she sub titles - Just how grim can it get up north? Very. One woman's lonely journey into the Northern heartlands.

She then takes you through the trials and tribulations of knocking through the cottages, the culture shock of mixing with North Country folk, and the trauma of dealing with three very young children who all fail to sleep through the night! She also explains how life in rural Northumberland is very different from life in London. There are many funny and entertaining episodes in her book, as well as a very poignant piece about the birth of her first child.

Judith began her blog with 9 blogs at the end of 2006, and it was in effect re launched in 2007. It was very quickly picked up by political bloggers both in England and in the USA, and within a very short space of time Viking Penguin offered her a contract to turn it into a book. The initial print run was for 35.000 copies.

Her book has just been translated into German and is currently No.15 in their best sellers list.

The rest, as they say, is history.

She is at present working on her second book.

Do take the time to obtain a copy of her book, which is called Wife in the North (ISBN 13: 9780141033433). I promise you that you will find it an entertaining read, and if you are (or have been) the parent of small children, you will find lots to identify with.

Parental Responsibilities

After having just read the case of the two Doncaster brothers who terrorised two other boys I felt prompted to write the following article.


It is some fifteen years ago since I took early retirement from teaching. At that time it was a known fact that during the summer holidays there would be an increase in problems caused by children who had time on their hands and very little, if any, parental supervision. The main problems were what could be construed as mischief making, or, on a higher scale, anti social behaviour. The anti social behaviour was at the lower end of what we now rate anti social behaviour – noise and nuisance rather than out and out vandalism, arson, grievous bodily harm etc. etc.

Most teachers in some of the rougher areas of the city would tell you that they were in effect “policemen” during term time, and they kept the lid on a lot of the potential anti social behaviour. Once their steadying influence during term time was removed (i.e. during the holidays) anti social behaviour problems would escalate.

During my time as a teacher of primary/first school age children, teachers still commanded respect from their pupils. It was still possible, to some extent, to influence the out of school behaviour of pupils. I have even known parents come in to my school and ask me to chastise their offspring because, “I can’t do a thing with him.”

In the intervening years since I took early retirement the world has changed rapidly and more often than not the change has not been for the better. We now seem to have dozens of “agencies” e.g. child support, psychological services, child protection, etc etc. who are there to point the child in the right direction. There is a wonderful conglomeration known in the “trade” as MASS – Multi Agency Support System whereby the police, probation officers, the child protection team, social workers, members of the courts and “Uncle Tom Cobley and all” [to quote the words of the song] are tasked with “protecting the child” – whatever that might mean.

Far too often this multi agency team are sunk under a mass of rules and regulations. Whilst they may well be working with the highest ideals at the forefront of their tasks, they are doomed from the start by the legislation they have to work within. There also seems to be a problems of too few people spread too widely, not enough time to thoroughly become involved with families “at risk”, and a lack of information access between different agencies.

As I have stated on many occasions – It is no good making laws if you do not have the manpower (oops! person power - in this politically correct age) to make sure they are being adhered to.

If a Child Protection Officer, Probation Officer or a Health Visitor wishes to see a child they should be able to drop in unannounced and demand to see the child there and then. No “Ifs and Buts” We bend over backwards to defend the rights of the parents, but what rights are they entitled to if they cannot properly support and bring up their children in a safe and caring environment? What has happened to the rights of the child?

If a Child Protection Officer, Social Worker or Health Visitor is involved with a child (and the child is usually on the Child Protection Register) alarm bells should be ringing at full volume. The mere fact that members of these agencies are involved tells us that there are major problems facing the child, and these are usually within the home environment.

Let’s get back to the root of these problems. If we had parents (and here I mean two – one male and one female – preferably married to each other) who took their parental responsibilities seriously then the vast majority of these at risk children would no longer be at risk.

It seems to me that we are breeding a nation of feckless, sex mad, young adults, who breed like rabbits and shun their responsibilities, and we are supporting their feckless and irresponsible behaviour by our attitudes to supporting them and protecting their rights.

Relief Road - But Relief for Who?

So we’ve got round to Friday and almost all the children have returned to school after the summer holidays.

Doesn’t it make a difference to the amount of traffic on the roads between 8.00 – 9.00 am and 3.30 – 4.30 pm?

I usually take my wife to work just before 8.00 am in the morning and it has been simplicity itself getting out of Manor Road on to the Cottingley New Road, but yesterday we were back to the old routine of a constant stream of nose-to-tail traffic heading in both directions along Cottingley New Road, and the only time when it was safe to join the traffic flow was when the nearby traffic lights had caused a break in the flow of traffic on this road.

There are, within a distance of approximately 1 mile, three schools. One Primary and two large Secondary Schools, and despite the fact that a lot of the Secondary age children are bussed to school, still a high proportion of children are brought to school, in cars, by their parents.

I think that the local authorities fail to plan as far as the end of their noses sometimes! Not too long ago we had a local first school, a local catholic school, two local middle schools and a local upper school. Now we have one local primary and two local secondary schools, thus it can quite easily be seen that the total number of schoolchildren, who used to be spread amongst five different sites are now being retained in only three of those sites – hence the rise in congestion at school times.

Bingley Relief Road at Cottingley Bar

Just prior to this change in education from a three tier system (First/Middle/Upper) to a two tier system (Primary/Secondary) a local relief road was built which in effect by passed Bingley. Whilst this was good for reducing through traffic in Bingley it exacerbated the problems on the surrounding roads. Traffic coming down the Aire Valley Corridor and passing through Bingley was broken up by no less than five sets of traffic lights. The situation now is that the same traffic comes speeding along the relief road, and hits an its first obstacle (in the shape of a roundabout) where the relief road rejoins the original Shipley – Bingley route, and an even greater problem once it reaches Saltaire roundabout!

Much of this traffic, which used to go through Saltaire, on its way to Bradford and beyond now turns up Cottingley New Road (B6146), even though this causes problems with the amount of traffic now using the road! No less than three mini roundabouts between Manor Road and Cottingley Moor Road have done little to help the problems of motorists trying to get out of Cottingley during rush hour!

Aerial view of Cottingley

There are still a fairly high proportion of the resident population of 4,600 in employment (despite the best endeavours of the present Labour Government and Gordon Brown in particular) and trying to get out of Cottingley during rush hour to go to work is problematical to say the least!

Film Music - Top Ten

I was out most of the day yesterday, and when I arrived home the monthly Classic Fm magazine and CD’s were awaiting me on the doormat. There is usually 1 CD per issue, but Classic Fm must have been feeling particularly generous this month because there was not one, but TWO free CD’s.


The first CD is called Top 10 Soundtracks and contains tracks from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Chariots of Fire, Schindler’s List, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dr. Zhivago, The Mission, Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves.

Looking at the composers, there is Howard Shore, (Lord of the Rings),

Howard Shore

Hans Zimmer, (Gladiator),

Hans Zimmer

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou better known as Vangelis, (Chariots of Fire),

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou better known as Vangelis




Klaus Badelt, (Pirates of the Caribbean),

Klaus Badelt

Maurice Jarre, (Dr. Zhivago),

Maurice Jarre (father of Jean Michel Jarre)

Ennio Morricone, (The Mission),

Ennio Morricone

two John Williams compositions (Star Wars and Schindler’s List)

John Towner Williams

and two John Barry compositions (Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves).

John Barry


Whilst I enjoy much of the music which is written especially for films, I find it hard to relate to it as classical music. It was not written as a piece of classical music. It was written to support the visual images of a film i.e. to be the SOUNDTRACK. Perhaps somewhere the difference between classical music and soundtrack music has become blurred because a lot of soundtrack music is performed by a full scale symphony orchestra – indeed some of the more famous of our resident English Orchestra’s make a lucrative living from recording the soundtracks to films. Exciting and entertaining as the above mentioned pieces are (they are well written too!) and they will stand listening to without the film they have come from, at the end of the day they are not pieces of classical music!

The second CD is called Classics at the Movies and contains classical music which has been used on film soundtracks.