Pete Gardner- The Rag Albert Years!

My transatlantic telephone Podcast with Charlie Locke owner of Lake Louise Ski Area.

helmut erzählt... https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Sch%C3%B6rner https://www.hima.com/en/rss-news-sucess-stories/article/secure-oil-supply-hima-protects-europes-biggest-petroleum-pipeline https://www.tal-oil.com/en

Helmut erzählt von seiner Jugend in Mittersill als 12 jähriger Bub während des WW2. die Frauen von SS Offiziere die in das Eltern Haus/ Appartement wohnten. für ein 12 jährige Bub war das Erlebnis in Salzburg in der Schule zu gehen, denn Angriff von Amerikanischen Bomber zu erleben in der Sicherheit von Schutz Keller/ Stollen, in seiner Worten, “die schönste Zeit” als Teenager. Helmut und Kollege haben am nächsten Tag die armen Leute geholfen von den bombardierten Häuser auszuräumen. https://austria-forum.org/af/Wissenssammlungen/Essays/Geschichte/Pinzgau_unterm_Hakenkreuz http://www.imschatten.org/47.html https://www.sn.at/wiki/KZ-Nebenlager_im_Pinzgau http://www.imschatten.org/21.html https://www.mdw.ac.at/582/

Helmut erzählt seine errinnerungen über die kriegs jahren.  https://austria-forum.org/af/wissenssammlungen/essays/geschichte/pinzgau_unterm_hakenkreuz   http://www.imschatten.org/47.html https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/andrei_Andrejewitsch_Wlassow https://www.sn.at/wiki/KZ-Nebenlager_im_Pinzgau https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_Jungvolk

Pete tells us the story of Rag Albert the rag & bone man, and how he and his musician friends called themselves Rag Albert, a name that caught peoples attention. 

Eddie Blackstone talks briefly about his children, about what inspired him to write songs following his first ever trip to Colorado.  Listen to Eddie's 8 self penned songs towards the end of the Podcast, otherwise listen to his song collection on Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/eddie-blackstone  https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddie-blackstone-89446339/?originalSubdomain=uk

  Eddie and I discuss the weather in Austria and England, with new snow in Austria it prompted Eddie to tell me he had called his good friend Arleen in Colorado who is amongst other things, a member of the Voluntary Firebrigade and due to the heavy snowfall that Colorado had, helped put out a huge forest fire at Cameron Peak near Walden. Eddie recalled Arleen taking him to a Rodeo in nearby Walden, small dwelling with 550 inhabitants, 2 bars one on either side of the street and a subsequent fight between drinkers in middle of the street from each bar!  Aged 16 years plus,Eddie had left his Grammer School and taken up a trainee's position at Hoover Limited in Bradford Yorkshire, the year was 1956. This meant a bus journey from Harrogate on a daily basis where he and his friend would sing throughout the whole journey on the back seat of the upper deck. In May/June of this same year, Eddie signed up for the armed forces requesting to be in the Navy as he liked the idea of being on ship's, something he would rue after discovering that he was very often seasick when on boats later in life.  The recruiting Officer made it clear that there were no vacancies for the Navy,but there were for the Royal Marines, Eddie agreed after he was assured there would be an element of boat travel in the Marines. Whilst awaiting further contact from the Marines, Eddie was able to continue in his trainee job at Hoover Limited until the day arrived when a train ticket arrived in the Post, a journey from Harrogate to Lympstone near Exeter to the Commando training centre. Eddie's recalls the train arriving from North East England pulling into Harrogate train station where both his parents came to see him off, his father running a business in the town. There appeared to be a rowdy bunch of youths on this train, unbeknown to Eddie were a group of young men heading to their base at an RAF camp in the south. Eddie remembers giving his mum a hug,and giving his Dad a peck on the cheek in full view of the young and lively RAF group! The RAF group soon gave up giving Eddie stick when they discovered he was going to be a Commando!  Eddie's train took a very long time to get to the south of England arriving at Bristol Parkway at 4 am whereupon Eddie had to wait a further 3-4 hours before the onward train arrived. From Lympstone train station Trucks brought the new recruits to the Commando training camp. The next day Eddie and others were shown the army assault course whereupon Eddie made it known that he was supposed to being placed on a ship, not so said the CO,not if youve been seconded to the Marines! To Eddie's surprise he eventually got fitter and mastered the tough expectation of the Commando traing course lasting 6 weeks in Lympstone,then a further 6 weeks in Bickley, several of his colleagues never made it through the Lympstone course,the Bickly course was tougher still but Eddie came through. Eddie was to see military action sooner than he had imagined, seconded to Cypress where the Commando's were to deal with terrorists causing problems in the otherwise British rule on the island. Arrival in Cyprus came via Malta and Gibralter, the fun during the 3 months of Commando training was all about to come to an end, in Cyprus Eddie's life was also on the line once arriving on New Years day in 1957. The area of Paphos, Nicosia and the Taurus Mountains was where the Commandos were to operate. Whilst there Eddie bought his first ever guitar for a bar of military soap and a tin of Beans! One evening Eddie was on guard duty and came into the barracks for a cup of tea and heard an engaging musical sound coming out of the radio, it was Lonny Donegan and band, Eddie realised that this is what his heart was telling him to do, the lure of music making and showbusiness had begun to have an effect. Eddie and pals were to play and entertain the soldiers during their stay. Eddie and skiffle band drove 16 miles to Nicosia in their 3

Eddie tells the story of how he met with fellow singer and Country entertainer Tjaye Martin after his good friend Kelvin Henderson england/bristol/somerset/8605867.stm ; www.alancackett.com had introduced her to Eddie, and how Eddie, via an agent friend, arranged for Tjaye to perform solo at the Sheraton Abu dhabi in 1989 for a season. Following this, Eddie and Tjaye performed as a duo at the Sheraton for a 5 year period playing in front of an International audience as well as some select people from the UAE. Eddie remembered well a certain Egyptian born army Colonal always immaculately dressed and present at one of the performences and made sure that Eddie was well supplied with several rounds of Jack Daniels, on one occasion,no less than 18 shots were provided for Eddie conveniantely situated at the bar of the Hotel. Artists performing at the Hotel were forbidden to sit at any guest tables and opted for the Hotel bar instead!  On another occasion Eddie and Tjaye were bekonned to Sheik Muhamed's table, something that they'd normally not be allowed to do,but it was not protokol to turn down such an offer from a Sheik of course. The Sheik duly invited Eddie and Tjaye to perform at his Birthday party on their night off from playing the Sheraton, the address Liberty Tower Penthouse. There was a very wide door entrance to the Penthouse, on the dooor a Welcome Tjaye and Eddie notice, they were gariousciously received by the Sheik who was dressed in country and Western style clothing, 40 other invited guests were also present. The Sheik approached Eddie saying I think your favorite drink is Brandy? A full bottle was then provided to Eddie,and  Jack Daniles bottle to Tjaye Martin. Just some of Eddie's recollections and stand out memories of seasons in the sun at the Sheraton.  Eddie who had at one stage been the landlord of the Horseshoe Inn in Bath, had left the pub after a ten year stint, his wife Pat who remained great friends split up in the early 80's. Eddies rise to fame and musical popularity carried on when he started to write his own songs when in Colorado on a visit and meeting Arleen a 'very special lady' and became good friends with Eddie, he had written about 15 songs whilst in Colorado. Eddie goes on to tell several memorable stories of his ventures in the USA. Eddie and Tjaye embarked on a 4 week visit to the US playing and singing as they travelled around starting in New Orleans and driving to Arizona eventually clocking up 5,000 miles in their hire car. Visiting a ghost town named Stein, meeting and befriending Jerry Reed a well known Country and Western singer. https://en,mwikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Reed and once back in the UK, being invited by Jerry to perform at the renowned Jamborree in the Hill's,an American Country music institution. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamboree_in_the_hills  in front of an audience of circa 40,000 spectators. It dosent end there, Eddie tells the story of being invited onto the Marty Robin's TV show, Marty , an established songwriter and performer of country style music, was an acclaimed performer who had his own television show. Marty had big hits in the late 50's and early 60's with songs such as 'El Paso' and 'White Sport coat and a Pink Carnation' https://youtu.be/KAO7vs_Q9is; https://youtu.be/zD8MnvyAi61  Marty intended to record two of Eddie's self penned songs and invited Eddie to attend the recordings in Nashville, sadly Marty died shortly afterwards.  Finally , Eddie recalled many great occasions and fun memories of his good friend Nigel Robinson once back in the UK. 

Eddie Blackstone was the Cheerful landlord at the Horseshoe Inn Combe Down in Bath Somerset when we last met in 1978. In 1982 I joined the travel industry and thus started summer and winter seasons in the alps leading on to moving away from Bath and losing contact with some of my closest friends for a while. The friendly Landlord was just a stopgap for Eddie bringing up his young family in the west country,  unbeknown to me Eddie was always a showbiz man, a standup Comedian, a very good singer, a musician and someone who as a pub landlord was persuaded to get back out on stage, record his many self penned songs and even make records, not to mention bit parts in film's! Eddie had good contacts, he knew the right people and it didnt take long before he settled into country music, made friends with Kelvin Henderson a prominent west country singer and musician and was invited to perform at the Jamborree in the Hill's festival on two occasions in the USA.  40,000 spectators was nothing unusual for a festival of its size, playing alongside many of the internationaly afamed country greats such as Willie Nelson, Jerry lee Lewis and many others. 

Todays Podcast features a conversation with three young freelance Camera assistants who have been seconded to the filming of the Ski scenes for the James Bond movie Spectre in Austria. The location is Obertilliach in Eastern Tirol. We met at the        https://www.dolomitenhof.net/en/ In the buildup to the recording made on 17th January 2015 Bernie outlines his family background with both parents coming from villages close to Obertilliach where the Spectre main action scenes were filmed, firstly St Lorenzen in Lesachtal ( father), and Sillian Osttirol ( Mother). " My Dad would have been intrigued"!  Bernie explains his growing up in the 60's in the UK, and how the pop music, and the film theme tunes had a big effect on him.  The travel industry continues to occupy my time but my main hobby has always been to create music,playing guitar and Piano, livestreaming and amateur movie making on Periscope and Facebook.  During the year 2014-15 when it became clear the Spectre film production team were coming to Austria to film in Sölden and Obertilliach, my livestreams on Periscope became very Bond like, adopting the name 'Bernie Bond' for several of my livestreams to try and capture the excitement.  Making repeat visits to Obertilliach I was able to see the progress of the building work going into the re-assembled barn specially constructed for the Spectre film, the barn that the aeroplane flys into after shredding its wings in the forest.  Meeting with the three young camera assistants in Hotel Gasthof Dolomitenhof.    https://www.dolomitenhof.net/en/ Talking about several aspects of Blockbuster movie film making with the three camera assistants  Phil the eleder of the three is a technician for Panovision  https://www.panavision.com/history  One of Phils bigger assignments was working  on Avengers 2 movie in South Korea. https://youtu.be/PrivUeJLE70 The boys had never been to Austria, I made sure they ordered Schnitzel for their late afternoon supper, with cranberry jam of course!  The lads all arrived in Obertilliach the day before and found the only spare beds in the village, the mian crew had taken the rest!  Phil had been in Sölden ski resort Austria with the main Production unit. The main production unit were all housed at the Wellness resort Tuffbad in St Lorenzen Carinthia Austria whilst filming in Obertilliach. https://www.almwellness.com/en/ ## Correction, in the audio I explain that the Barn was built from wood shipped over from Pinewood studios, in fact the Barn had been brought over from Styria ( Steyrmark) and re-assembled in Obertilliach. https://youtu.be/NJfHChWGjag Who was our favorite 007?  The camera assistants are expecting to have to fly to Mexico for other scenes for the Bond Spectre film. The whole production crew, several hundred in total in Austria had all been issued with Helly Hanson protective winter wear.          https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=1176167619064814&_rdr#