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We’ll Meet Again

George Formby legacy lives on thanks to stars like Andy Eastwood 150 150 mhamer

George Formby legacy lives on thanks to stars like Andy Eastwood

Hi folks here is my latest #leponline here I chat about the great George Formby and the young ukulele/multi-instrumentalist Andy with his lovely family!

The amazing legacy of iconic entertainer George Formby will endure thanks to the likes of talented musician Andy Eastwood.

Jimmy Cricket devotes his latest long-running newspaper column to Andy, who went into showbusiness as a child.

He studied classical violin and piano, but also developed a passion for jazz and pop.

Andy made history at Oxford University by becoming the first musician to give a degree recital on the ukulele! 

Below is Jimmy’s Lancashire Evening Post column about George Formby and Andy.

In George Formby’s song Riding in The TT Races, there are two lines that always make me chuckle: “In a ten-mile race/I’m the best” and “I ride two miles/and skid the rest.”

It’s from a movie made in 1935 called No Limit, in which George plays a hapless would-be motorcyclist who wants to compete in the Isle-of-Man Grand Prix.

George’s gormless character, who always got it right in the end, made him a global star and endeared him to millions of moviegoers, especially during the war years when he helped to lift people’s spirits.

The amazing legacy of iconic entertainer George Formby will endure thanks to the likes of talented musician Andy Eastwood.

However, it will be for his wonderful songs like Leaning on a Lampost and When I’m Cleaning Windows that he will be remembered for in generations to come.

Golden classics

One such entertainer who will make sure his legacy endures is Andy Eastwood.

In fact, he performs the Formby songbook so well that none other than the American Banjo Museum invited him over to Oklahoma City to perform at a ceremony in which George Formby was inducted into their Hall of Fame.

George’s niece Gina was there on behalf of the family and I bet she had a tear in her eye as she watched Andy sing and play those golden classics!

Andy’s own career is quite remarkable.

Born in Blackburn, he moved to Dorset when his dad took up a teaching post there.

Genuine George Formby ukulele

He made his stage debut when he was only 12 at a vehicle rally in Southsea.

A few years later he turned his back on the bright lights of the entertainment profession, when he got a musical scholarship to Oxford University.

He must be one of the few people in the whole wide world to come away from that great institute of learning with a music degree in ukulele studies.

I can just picture all the students and professors at his graduation singing With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock.

Career crossroads

With his musical studies completed, Andy returned to showbiz and it was around about that time our paths crossed when we both appeared in a variety show in Ilfracombe, North Devon.

I remember vividly he was with his father and mentor, Walter, and they’d just been gifted a genuine George Formby ukulele from a lady whose late husband had paid £1,500 at an auction.

Apparently, she was so enthralled when she saw Andy performing on stage one night that she felt he was the one to carry on George’s legacy.

What a present!

Andy then toured extensively with Sir Ken Dodd and Blackpool impresario Duggie Chapman, but when both these giants of the entertainment industry sadly passed away within 18 months of each other, he found himself at a crossroads in his career.

I can’t wait to see her play the ukelele!

However, the show must go on, so Andy put on his producer’s hat on and to this day he promotes his own afternoon shows specialising in nostalgia for older theatregoers with titles like We’ll Meet Again celebrating wartime anniversaries and other shows that relive the great music from the fifties and sixties.

Oh, and there’s more, if you turn up to any of these matinees, he’ll not only regale you with his singing and ukulele expertise, but you’ll be amazed at his virtuoso violin-playing as well.

Andy lives in Blackpool with his lovely wife Helen Farrell, a beautiful singer in her own right.

When I worked at the Cast Theatre in Doncaster with them a few weeks ago, they had with them their seven-month-old baby Poppy May whom they brought on stage and, needless to say, stole the show.

I can’t wait to see her play the ukulele!

To find out more about Andy check out his website at www.andyeastwood.com

Also read from this website: Show included George Formby tribute act

D-Day landings: Many heroes included Paddy the pigeon 150 150 mhamer

D-Day landings: Many heroes included Paddy the pigeon

Next month (June) sees the celebrations for the D-Day landings.

Next month sees the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings – and Jimmy Cricket marks the occasion in his latest newspaper column.

The Normandy landings were the land and associated airborne operations which took place on 6 June 1944.

Codenamed Operation Neptune and widely referred to as D-Day, it involved the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II –  the largest seaborne invasion in history.

It commenced the liberation of France, and also the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations for the Allied victory on the Western Front.

Writing in the Blackpool Gazette and the Lancashire Evening Post, comedian Jimmy says: “As next month (June) sees the celebrations for the D-Day landings which took place 80 years ago, I always pause to think about the many entertainers who helped to boost the morale of our fighting troops.

Beautiful voice

My friend the late Frank Carson, who served in the forces himself, used to joke: ‘One day I saved the lives of 200 men – I shot the cook!’.

Then, of course, there was the Force’s Sweetheart the late great Vera Lynn.

[Vera Lynn’s songs helped raise morale duringWorld War Two. People knew her best for her wartime anthem We’ll Meet Again. She died aged 103 in 2020.

She was just a young girl vocalist back then and the only time she’d been out of the country was when she travelled to Holland to do a gig with a dance band.

However, she had a yearning to do her bit, and before she knew it, she was touring the swamps of the Borneo jungle in the sweltering heat, giving young soldiers a taste of home with her beautiful voice and melodic songs.

Feathered friend

A lot of the time she performed on the back of army trucks.

You know readers, this may sound funny but I always think of Vera’s pianist and accompanist Len Edwards, who always went with her and who risked life and limb to provide her musical backing.

He truly was an unsung hero.

Which leads me on to mention another hero from the Second World War, in this case a silent one.

His name was Paddy, and on the day of the D-day landings, he flew back all the way from Normandy in record time to provide valuable information that reassured everyone at home, that everything was going to plan and that our soldiers had made a successful landing.

The reason he did this without saying a word?

Paddy was a carrier pigeon and his coded message was tagged on to his foot.

Quiet thanks

But what made Paddy even more special was this…

… Of all the pigeon’s released from Normandy that day, he was the last one to make the journey and, guess what, he was the first one back to Hampshire.

But there’s more readers, come closer, what made his feat all the more remarkable was that not only did he have to contend with open-air fire, but the Nazis had placed specially trained hawks along the way to ambush him.

However, our feathered friend thwarted all their efforts and made it home safe and sound.

He did it in an astonishing four hours and 50 minutes, which became the fastest record by a message-carrier pigeon during the Normandy landings.

Paddy was honoured for his heroic achievements by being awarded the Dicken Medal on September the 1st, 1944.

The medal is given for gallantry or devotion to duty while serving in military conflict and is often known as the animal’s Victoria Cross.

He eventually returned to the place of his birth – Carnlough, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland, to be with his owner – Andrew Hughes.

He lived until 1954, dying at the age of 11.

In 2019 a plaque was unveiled in his honour in Car lough harbour.

So readers, if you ever cross the Irish Sea and take a trip along the Antrim coastline to drink in the beautiful scenery, make sure you stop off at Carnlough Harbour and pay a visit to Paddy’s plaque and give a quiet thanks for a silent hero.”

Also read: LEP column paid tribute to the ‘wonderful’ Vera Lynn

LEP column paid tribute to the ‘wonderful’ Vera Lynn 150 150 mhamer

LEP column paid tribute to the ‘wonderful’ Vera Lynn

Hi folks! I had no idea when I wrote this May @leponline column it would be as an epitaph to this wonderful performer and humanitarian. R.I.P. our Vera!

Jimmy Cricket’s latest newspaper column was devoted to Dame Vera Lynn – just weeks before she died.

Dame Vera passed away on Thursday (18 June) aged 103.

She was known the Forces’ Sweetheart, whose songs helped raise morale in World War Two.

The Queen, Prince Charles and Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney were among those to pay their respects to her.

People knew her best for her wartime anthem We’ll Meet Again.

Jimmy’s column in the Preston-based Lancashire Post on 18 May (above) was all about Dame Vera.

The headline read: Remembering the forces’ WWII sweetheart Vera Lynn.

He tweeted on the day she died: “Hi folks! I had no idea when I wrote this May@leponline column it would be as an epitaph to this wonderful performer and humanitarian.
“R.I.P. our Vera! Performing arts“

The BBC reported: “Six weeks ago, ahead of the 75th anniversary of VE Day and during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Dame Vera said simple acts of bravery and sacrifice still define our nation.

“A week later, she became the oldest artist to get a top 40 album in the UK.”

The BBC recalled that Dame Vera had sold more than a million records by the age of 22.

The article added that she “was also remembered for singing The White Cliffs Of Dover, There’ll Always Be An England, I’ll Be Seeing You, Wishing and If Only I Had Wings.

“The Queen echoed her famous WW2 anthem during a speech to Britons who were separated from families and friends during the coronavirus lockdown in April, telling the nation: ‘We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again.'”