Rockin' Brian

This time from his second appearance on the Kate Smith Evening Hour. He gets to sing with one of June's sisters, Anita Carter...

By contrast to the previous post this clip of Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three on The Grand Ole Opry from about ten years later uses just one camera. But it's put to good use on the close up of Luther Perkins's solo...

It seems quite a few episodes of this early 50s NBC TV show still exist on Kinescope (or tape transfers from Kinny) and fortunately they include one from 1952 featuring June Carter and Hank Williams. The production values are remarkably good for such an early show, it looks like three cameras with tracking shots from more than one on dollies, here's an extract..

Yesterday I used a picture I'd ganked from Google Images of the Queen in Billingham. It was said to be of the official opening of the Forum. On closer inspection though it is slightly earlier that day when she opened the Art Gallery and unveiled the Family Group statue in the Town Square. The stands you see were on three sides of the statue and I was in the middle one on the right of this picture but I'm out of shot. The building in the distance is the Billingham Arms Hotel extension with Roy's Furniture store underneath - now Lloyds-TSB and a charity shop.

The statue is by Edward Bainbridge Copnall who died six years after the unveiling.

Family Group 2

Family Group

His other public works include another Family Group in Dudley, Warwickshire. This one is carved from oak unlike Billingham's which is fibreglass.

Dudley_Oak_6

The Forum leisure complex and theatre in Billingham closed its doors today for an eighteen month refurbishment. Here are artist's impressions of what it may look like...

Forum-1

Forum-2

Forum-opening

This Teesside band of the late 70s/early 80s was an offshoot of the previously mentioned Blitzkrieg Bop. They made one TV appearance in 1979 performing Ego Therapy on Tyne Tees Television's Check It Out...

Of course they were captured on the Kinny of Town Hall Party too..

This time with Larry Collins...

This is great...