Every week I write and article for the Euro Weekly News, an English-speaking newspaper covering all the major resorts of Spain and the Balearics. You can pick up a copy on a Thursday ... or read it here every week. |
Thursday 16 November 2006
On two previous occasions I had actually turned down the offer to appear on the popular 'cult' TV show 'Never mind the Buzzcocks', considering the, 'guess who is the real old pop codger' segment of the show, somewhat demeaning to the artiste in question. For the un initiated, basically what occurs is six, similarly dressed old gnarly's, are lined up in an identity parade. The panel then has to guess which member is the 'real one'. This is done with a great deal of bantering and sometimes quite heavy 'P' taking, after which the artiste in question gives a weak smile, a wave, and basically slinks off. That scenario never really appealed to me, but on this last occasion they told me the policy had changed somewhat and they now showed a clip of the artist singing one of his, or her hits - or in my case 'hit!' and also announced where the artist was appearing. This, coupled with the fee, 3 million viewers and an all expenses trip to London, finally swayed me (plus the fact that at my age I really have nothing much to lose) so last week off I duly set. Ooh, shades of past success, there at Heathrow stood my uniformed (dreadlocked) chauffeur, which I knew was the real McCoy as my name was actually spelt correctly on the board he was flourishing. Off we duly set after he informed me he was taking the old A4 road, as the m'way was jam-packed. Wrong! The A4 was actually one great, total gridlock. 'Can't understand it', he mused, 'this never happened before' How many more times will I be subject to this expression from people who have never experienced 'Leapy's law' in their normally ordered existence! Anyway to, cut a long one' as it were, it took an hour and a half to reach our Shepherds bush hotel. Quite a pleasant hotel, the K West is an extremely functional abode some 10 minutes from the BBC studios. The room allocated to me was adjacent to the lifts, unfortunately those lifts were out of order - surprise surprise and those that were functioning, about ten miles from the room, well, when you're lugging a suitcase the size of mine that's about what it appears. Don't ask me why I had so much stuff. When I had my air hostess girl friend she once told me that preceding a trip you should pack all you think you need, unpack immediately, throw out 50% and repack what's left. Never having learned this lesson I was grossly 'over packed' and extremely heavy with it. I duly collapsed for the rest of the day. That evening I thought I'd visit the bar and have a noggin or two before retiring. When a brandy that hardly wet the bottom of the glass, turned out to be £7 a shot I decided an early night was a far more acceptable alternative. The next day I was due at the studio for rehearsal at 6pm. Picked up at 5.30 for a ten minute journey should have been ample, but with traffic ('Cant understand why it's like this at this time!' Mmmmm!) a solid crawling mass, we took nearly an hour to reach the studio. On the night the whole crew were kindness personified, their hospitality unsurpassed and, apart from the recorded half an hour show taking three hours, ('Can't understand it, never happened before!') and yours truly actually knowing two of the panel including Bill Oddy, who were supposed to guess who I was, it all went quite swimmingly. After a few noggins in the green room I took off with some friends to their lovely farm where the old boy chilled for a couple of days. All in all an extremely satisfactory trip and although, in Benidorm I never saw the final result ('can't understand it, we've always been able to get BBC2 in the past!') I understand reports were quite favorable. So I buzzed in and buzzed out at it were. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the producers and crew for making the whole buzz- well, quite a buzz really. If you ever need me for any thing else you know where to find me, just give us a buzz...... Awright! Keep the Faith Leapy |
www.leapylee.co.uk is the copyright © of Leapy Lee 2006 • Webmaster: IGM Designs, Apartado 59, Porto Colom 07670, Mallorca
