Newsletter June 2020

Snowbow/Maritime Memories Newsletter

Now it has been a very busy time here at Snowbow/Maritime Memories, with so many things happening, so, here is a brief summary before we get on to the main purpose of this newsletter, which is to show you an article I wrote for Sea Breezes, but just before we get to this let me tell you about the illustrations above…. Now the artwok for these record sleeves capture me in caricature form by that great Swedish artist, Ulf Sandberg, and the reason for this is, well, apart from me prefering to look at myself as a cartoon rather than as I am in reality, is because so many of you asked if I would record some of the comedy and songs I do on stage when we’re on our special Maritime Memory Cruises… You know, when I have one of my turns and I don’t mean one of those ‘call the doctor’ turns, but turns when I clamber up on stage and try my best to entertain you….
 
As someone wrote to us to say the other day… Comedy in today’s world, especially on our TVs is totally without humour, and how we loved coming to your shows on the ship and leaving with tears of laughter streaming down our happy faces… Yes, it’s true that most comedy is without humour, whereas I’m told that what I do is funny, well except when people start chucking rotten veg and shooting bullets at the stage!  But at least I never swear and in truth, people do laugh and that’s what it’s all about, so I’ve been and recorded a double album based on those live stage performances and as with those performances, everything I have done has been ad libbed, and the end result is two hours of stand up jokes, impersonations and lots of original songs varying from  rock ‘n’ roll to country rock, ballads, folk  psychedelia… Yes, I’m serious, which is probably because of the strange effect some of you more wayward ones have on me when you’re sitting down the front puffing away on that wacky baccy stuff… Makes me go all peculiar it does
 
Oh, and there are lots of funny songs as well, and here’s the reason for the lovely artwork, I’ve actually released one of the tracks  as a single… I just couldn’t cope with trying to deal with a modern day Record Company, full of red tape, political correctness, and everything, so I just went ahead and released it myself.  Then after a couple of days I forgot all about it until the other day when I got the shock of my life, because… suddenly from out of nowhere it was being played all over the world and had…wait for it…wait for it… had made it into several global top charts and… and even made it to Number One in the European Top 100 Indi Charts! 
 
Isn’t that amazing, so if you go to our website and our new Music Page, you will be able to hear the record and see the promo film as well, and then, if you really, really like it then you might just put on a balaclava and go out in your back gardens in the middle of the night and, when you’re sure no one’s looking, you could dig up that old safe of yours and take a few bob so you can buy a copy!
 
And now back to Sea Breezes and the article wat I writ for them, which is all about Maritime Memories and gives away all your personal secrets, secrets that you thought you could trust us with, and ones that you never imagined would ever  become public!  

No don’t end it all, I’m only joking, but it was written in response to emails and phone calls from all over the world, asking so many questions about ships and the sea, and especially of the golden age of shipping and in particular, asking if I could I tell them what the main differences were between going away to sea back then and going away to sea as it is today.
 
Now I know that if we had this conversation when onboard one of our Maritime Memory cruises we’d still be discussing it a month later, but here now is that article in which I do my best to give a brief and hopefully clear understanding of just how huge those differences were and are.  Oh and by the way, something I believe to be very pleasing is the fact that most of the people asking these questions and especially this one are young teenagers!  Isn’t that good to know.
 
I hope you enjoy the article below, which will appear in Sea Breezes in all its glory soon, so get a copy for yourselves and if you want me to sign it then of course I will, but if you don’t like the article and want me to +”*%@¬*=O then I might decline the request!