Rare Interview with Laurel & Hardy - Copenhagen 1947

Interview with Les McKeown: August 9th 2010

On Mon August 9th 2010, our guest on Black Sky Radio was Bay City Rollers legendary frontman Les McKeown. Les spoke with presenters Nightmare & Jenna about his amazing life and career and he answered your questions from the studio chatroom at http://tinychat.com/blackskyradio.

You can listen to the full UNEDITED interview on the player below.

If you want to catch up with Les and what he's doing in the future, you can find him on Facebook.

INTERVIEW WITH HOLLYWOOD ACTOR JEFFREY WEISSMAN

Pale Rider, Back To The Future 2 & 3, Twilight Zone The Movie

Ross Owen and Nightmare talk to actor Jeffrey Weissman. Recorded live on Thursday 22nd April 2010 on Black Sky Radio.

Click here to listen to the interview in full:

(to download, right click and save this link: http://bit.ly/9O4Hza)














Jeffrey's website can be found at http://www.jeffreyweissman.com/

Earthquake during live show with Kevin Pollak and Henry Winkler

and the fonz STILL keeps his cool

One man died and scores of others are feared trapped in the rubble of their homes after a powerful earthquake struck on the US-Mexico border.

At the time of the quake I was at home in Scotland watching Kevin Pollak's Chat Show live on the internet with special guest Henry Winkler (The Fonz from Happy Days). Below is a clip from yesterdays live broadcast of the show when the earthquake started.


The 7.2 magnitude tremor set high-rise buildings swaying in Los Angeles and San Diego and was felt across Southern California.

Rescue teams with dogs and digging equipment are on their way to Mexicali, which was near the epicentre of the quake, where reports are emerging of people trapped in the ruins. A man died when his home collapsed just outside Mexicali.

The tremor struck at 3:40 pm (22:40 GMT) on Sunday in Baja California in Mexico, about 19 miles southeast of Mexicali, according to the US Geological Survey. The area has been hit by smaller magnitude quakes all week.

The earthquake was the largest in the area for 18 years and three strong aftershocks were reported within the hour, including a magnitude 5.1 jolt in the desert east of San Diego.

The major quake was felt as far north as Santa Barbara and east at Palm Springs.

The quake was felt for about 40 seconds in Tijuana, Mexico, causing buildings to sway and knocking out power in parts of the city. Families celebrating Easter ran out of the homes, with children screaming and crying.

In LA chandeliers swayed and wine jiggled in glasses during Easter celebrations. Water sloshed out of residential swimming pools, the city fire department went on "earthquake status" and some stalled elevators were reported. Rides were temporarily closed at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim.

In San Diego, there were reports of shattered windows, broken pipes and water main breaks in private buildings, but there were no reports of injuries.

USGS seismologist Lucy Jones said: "It sounds like it's felt by at least 20 million people at this point."

Rare Audio Interview With Stan Laurel

Recorded August 14th 1957, just 1 week after Oliver Hardy died.

Arthur B Friedman talks to Stan Laurel
(listen to the complete interview below - over 1 hour long)

Dr Arthur B. Friedman interviews Stan Laurel for Turning Point on August the 14th, 1957, only a few days after the death of his comedy partner, Oliver Hardy. In this 74 minute interview Stan talks about many things including: Oliver Hardy’s death; his beginnings in a juvenile pantomime company; working for his father in his theatres; how and why he became a comic; understudying Charlie Chaplin in the Fred Karno Troupe; the hardships, good times, partnerships and professional jealousy of his vaudeville career; his family; The Stan Jefferson Trio; costumes; his early film career with Larry Semon, Bronco Billy, and Hal Roach; how he became a gag writer and director after struggling to find a comic character; how he was teamed with Oliver Hardy and his return to films; early film making techniques, where gags come from and off the cuff shooting techniques; his relationship with Oliver Hardy and how their characters developed; silent, talkie and feature length films; the worldwide appeal of Laurel and Hardy; his retirement, hobbies, health and fan mail.

Celebs show their support for our Song For Haiti

I'm delighted to tell you that we have some special guest singers on board including...

Rowetta:
Best known for Happy Mondays, X Factor and dance tune BE/Reach Out sampled by the Black Eyed Peas on Boom Boom Pow.












Carol Kidd MBE:
Legendary jazz vocalist whose admirers included the late Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.












Coby Koehl:
Amazing vocalist from New York recently discovered by Boy George who said "Coby Koehl is the best singer I've heard since Amy Winehouse"!

THE STORY OF HOW A CAPTAIN BIRDS EYE LOOKALIKE RIPPED ME OFF IN LONDON

A lesson learned.

DON'T BE AS GULLIBLE AS ME
It was 1989 and I was 21 years old. I was working on the production team of a daily TV show called Jameson Tonight, hosted by Derek Jameson and Shane Ritchie which was recorded at the famous Windmill Theatre in London's Piccadilly.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

As the weekend approached, I remember thinking, "After my outgoings, I'll have about £75 quid left from my wages". 20 years ago that was like having £200 quid to play with. I'm now thinking to myself, "I'll go home to Scotland for the weekend and have a nice time with my friends and family". The man in the booking office at the bus station tells me there's only 2 buses per day from Kings Cross to Glasgow, one in the morning and one which travels through the night. I opt for the morning one and pay £14 quid for my bus ticket. So now I'm down to £61 quid. My bus leaves the next morning at 11am.

FRIDAY MORNING
I'm running late and my bus leaves in 5 minutes. I get to the bus stop and no-one else is there. I arrive with 2 suitcases... one was my dirty laundry, c'mon I was young and thats what mums are for isn't it? Inside the other case was... actually I've no idea, I honestly can't recall, but it was bloody heavy. So there I was at the bus stop, on my own with my two cases. I looked at my watch and suddenly realised it was 11.05am. As I muttered a few expletives to my myself, I heard a familiar voice from behind. "You just missed it son". Now when I say it was a familiar voice, what I actually mean is, it was a familiar accent. It was Scottish! I turned around and there was a little bearded man. I remember thinking he was the spitting image of captain birds eye with his snow white hair and big fluffy beard, except he was wearing one of those green, army style, wooly jumpers. The ones with the black leather shoulder pads.

"The bus just left" he said. I politely thanked him. Now, normally at this stage, one would be cautious when approached by a stranger in a big city like London, however this friendly little Scottish guy looked totally harmless. He also seemed slightly concerned for me. "Where exactly in Scotland are you going?" he asked. I told him "Airdrie" and to my total surprise he immediately blurted out "Airdrie? Do you know Willlie Mutch who owns The Snug bar in Stirling street?" Well as it happens, I DID in fact know Willie Mutch and I knew the pub well. I used to work in it as a DJ when I was 18, so now the friendly stranger has really got my attention. We chatted for a little bit and he went on to tell me he was a lorry driver and that he was heading to Perth in Scotland with a consignment of Whisky. He even pointed to a lorry parked at the side of road and said "That's my truck there." He then suddenly went quiet and looked me in the eye with his head tilted to the left, as if sizing me up. After a few seconds he then broke into a big grin and said, "I'll drop you off in Airdrie! I'm passing through it anyway." Now If I tell you that I accepted his offer, you would probably think I'm mad, but this guy knew people I knew, he had a likeable grandfather way about him. Anyway, without realising what I might be letting myself in for, I hastily accepted his offer of a lift.

He went on to explain that he had to go to his depot first, he told me he gets free bottles of whisky from his consignment. The deal is that he pays £6 per bottle at the London depot and gets his money back when he arrives at his destination. At that point, I immediately asked, "Can you get me a bottle at that price?" He replied with a yes but said I wouldn't have to pay. He said I could have a freebie. As far as I remember the depot was somewhere around Oxford station and we had to walk. As I struggled with my suitcases, he was kind enough to offer to carry one of them. We passed a little cafe and he asked if I was hungry. I was actually starving because I had been running late and had missed my breakfast so we went in. He ordered a full breakfast and I ordered ham and eggs which in Scotland is bacon and eggs, however, I was handed a plate with cold meat and eggs on it. That was the day I found out ham was different from bacon. After we finished our breakfasts he went to pay for both of them. I of course couldn't let this happen, after all this man was giving me a free lift, getting me free whisky and was even carrying one of my cases. The least I could do was buy him breakfast in return. It cost me £8. So now I'm down to £53.

We left the cafe and started walking to the depot. It took us a good 30 mins but eventually we arrived. He explained to me that he wasn't technically allowed to carry passengers in his truck so I would have to wait outside the office while he went in to pay for his whisky. I stood there alone with my cases, about 200 yards away from the office as the old boy went in through the office door.10 minutes or so passed and he came back. "Have you got change of a £20 note"? he asked. "They've no bloody change in the office". I happily obliged by handing him two £10 notes. It didn't cross my mind that he hadn't given me the £20 note yet. Off he went back into the office. See the photograph below. This is how I remember the office.

10 minutes went past and there was no sign of the little guy. 20 mins later and still he hadn't appeared. I started to get suspicious that something wasn't right. I waited 20 more minutes and still no sign of him. By now I'm getting fed up so I went up to the door and knocked on it. No reply. Knocked again. No reply.

Eventually I opened the door and was shocked by what I saw...

A FECKING DESERTED YARD!

Yeah, thats right, there was NOTHING behind the door. The only part of the depot that actually existed was the front wall with a door in it. There was no interior, no side walls, no office inside and no captain birdseye lookalike, NOTHING!

That little bastard had conned me out of a breakfast and £20 quid AND left me standing in the middle of nowhere with my 2 cases. I was totally livid when I realised I had fallen for it. I was standing there with £53 quid left and wondering if there was any other way to get home to Scotland for the weekend. I jumped in a taxi to Victoria station (there goes another £15) and found out there was a bus leaving for Hamilton (a small town not too far from where I was going) at 1pm, so I decided to catch that one. Cost me £17 for my bus ticket. Between my taxi fare to Victoria and my new bus ticket I was now left with £11. My bus arrived and off I went. I finally arrived in Hamilton about 8pm. Jumped in a taxi from Hamilton to Airdrie and the fare came to £13. I actually had to borrow £2 from my sister to pay the taxi. So there you have it, that captain birds eye lookalike messed up my weekend visit. I'll never forget him. Little bastard!

The above story is 100% true.