Another Year ..

For most people 2020 has been the worst of all years but not for me. The previous year was the one that ripped me apart when I lost my dear wife and soulmate Jill. So I started this year alone with a view that I should just carry on somehow.

Then, as Spring became Summer and we found ourselves in lockdown, I began a friendship with someone I met at an event the previous winter. At that time we just caught a glance across a room that revealed an attraction but nothing more. I didn’t give it another thought to be honest.

But as we all became more isolated I began an online friendship with Lisa. Our mutual love of radio meant we had so much in common. Then we met again, this time socially distanced of course, one sunny afternoon in the Hebden Bridge park.

To cut short this story, we made each other laugh and smile without even thinking and soon fell in love. I was scared at first, guilty too. How could I become close to someone so soon after such a terrible loss? And Lisa was not exactly what I considered ‘my type’. What about the age difference?

So we are now what you might call an item. There are occasional bumps in the road of course and Lisa has to live in the shadow of someone who will never leave my thoughts and memory. But we have found happiness during one of the most difficult times in human history.

So please excuse me if I don’t think of 2020 as such a bad year.

Derek Webster 31st December 2020

With Lisa Autumn 2020

CORONATION STREET GOLD

This unforgettable episode of Coronation Street is currently streaming on BritBox and is worth the subscription alone.

Tension mounts as Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner clash on the cobbles.

Great writing and acting with characters I feel I know from my childhood. Annie and Jack Walker running the Rovers Return; Minnie Caldwell and Martha Longhurst in the snug and Albert Tatlock who seemed never to be young. Arthur Lowe, before his Captain Mainwaring days as shop manager Mr Swindley.

Some episodes are introduced by Bill Roach who also appears in this as a young Ken Barlow.

Half an hour of pure TV gold made in Manchester by Granada Television.

Violet Carson as Ena Sharples with Pat Phoenix as Elsie Tanner

OLD FRIENDS

“Old friends
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends” (Paul Simon)

Dressing up to be daft for a digital gathering 23/12/2020

The world is in lockdown but me and my close friends Aidan and Jerry have been doing what we’ve always done tonight. We may not be sat across a beer stained table but this zoom like connection will do for now.

Our Wednesday nights gatherings have been going on since we first met doing ward round duties at Radio Whiston in our 1980’s hospital broadcasting days. Collecting requests from patients for our radio shows, always heading to the pub afterwards, a tradition kept going down the years.

These great mates have seen me through two marriages and a terrible loss that broke me like nothing I have ever known.

But we’ve stayed strong, supporting each other through good and bad, never judging, always there with a helping hand.

It would take more than these dark times to break our friendly routine.

To all our friends, take care and here’s to all the good times yet to come. And most of all please value your family and friends and let them know you care.

A typical gathering in The Holt, Rainhill where many a plan was formed. With John Gilmore.

Partying at Red Rose Radio, Preston, Lancashire, back in the day.
The hat belonged to my future wife Jill who took the photo.

Holidaying in the Lake District

Back at The Holt to hatch more plans in more recent years.

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Enjoyed watching the film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based around this real life ‘Mother of the Blues’.

The real Ma Rainey (1886-1939)

Set in a recording session in 1920’s Chicago with Viola Davis playing the swaggering star of the show: “We’ll be ready to go when Madam says we’re ready to go. And that’s the way it goes around here”.

Chadwick Boseman is brilliant in his final role as the young man with a horn desperate to break out from Rainey’s shadow: “I’m going to get me a band and make me some records. I knows how to play real music, not this jug band s**t”.

Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis

It makes a point about how innovative black musicians were disrespected and exploited by the music industry. But Ma Rainey knew it and made life difficult for them.

Showing on Netflix it’s a good watch. See the trailer below.

https://youtu.be/ord7gP151vk