Lunedi Lunacy

It appears that "concept albums" have been around since the 1940s: according to the Wikipedia entry Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads was one of the first.  But they seemed to have reached a zenith in the 1960-70s with Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Tommy, Dark Side of the Moon, and The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast.

The last named was based on William Roscoe's children's poem written in 1802 which reappeared in 1973 in picture book form.  Retold and expanded by William Plomer and illustrated in his signature graphic style by Alan Aldridge it reflect the temper of the psychedelic 70s.  In 1974  Roger Glover, late of Deep Purple, used it as the inspiration for his album and the subsequent rock opera that came from it.  Glover recruited a large cast of well-known rock musicians to perform on the album including Ronnie James Dio of, amongst other groups, Black Sabbath.  The one minor hit to come out of the album was "Love is All" with Dio on vocals.

In 1976 Halas and Batchelor, turned the song into a cartoon short using the Aldridge designs as their starting point.  The cartoon become a cult favourite in Europe particularly in France where a new TV channel used it as an quick stopgap anytime they experienced technical difficulties.  It's popularity in North American was the result of it being shown on children's programmes on several emerging networks including Nickelodeon.  As their unwary parents slept in of a Saturday morning a new generation was "tuning in and turning on". 

I rememeber the album being a particular favourite of my first roommate Ray and his friends when they would  wander into the apartment in a mellow mood from the clubs as the sun rose over St James Cemetary.  I recall having my early morning coffee before the start of a Sunday 0630 shift to the sounds of Saffron Dormouse and Lizzy Bee or Sir Maximus Mouse and running out the door to catch the 0615 subway with the sounds of Love is All echoing in my ears.

September 7 - 1911:  Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum.

Lunedi Lunacy

Napoleon the Pig - Animal Farm
Halas & Batchelor (1954)

Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films was founded in 1940 by husband and wife team John Halas and Joy Batchelor; over the next 58 years they were to be one of the premiere animation studios in Western Europe.  Their output include 70 propaganda films during the Second World War, children's shows, full length cartoons (the first was Animal Farm in 1954 - unwittingly a propaganda film clandestinely funded by the CIA), musical shorts, educational cartoons and a series based on the popular books of Gerald Hoffnung - he of the Interplanetary Music Festival.

In 1961 they introduced Hamilton the Musical Elephant in two charming little shorts with soundtracks by British jazz great Johnny Dankworth (it was only later that he became the more formal John). 

You have to wonder why the little guy only appeared it two cartoons though perhaps the creators wisely thought there were only so many plot lines you could create for a trumpet playing forgetful elephant.

April 6 -1327: The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.

Lunedi Lunacy

Back in the days when the pound was worth less than the dollar and my trips to London were frequent I saw all manner of theatre, opera and concerts.  Hotels were inexpensive, tickets were cheap and the stars were out in full force.   Olivier in The Merchant of Venice one night, Maggie Smith in Hedda Gabler directed by Ingmar Bergman the next; Jon Vickers in Otello on Thursday, Lynn Seymour and Mikhail Baryshnikov in Romeo and Juliet on Friday.  And the concert scene was just as varied and I even recall one concert that was declared open by Queen Victoria; or at least Annette Crosbie, who had just appeared in a BBC series of that name, in the guise of that revered majesty.   It was followed by the normal tomfoolery of any Hoffnung concert.  In the tradition that had been set by Gerald Hoffnung himself the mickey was taken out of classical music by some of the well-known musicians of the day.  I only wish I had kept the programme.  I was to see another Hoffnung concert several years later when the Kingston Symphony teamed up with the Master's widow to produce a riotous afternoon of classical buffoonery. 

I've always enjoyed both Hoffnung's cartoon books and the recordings make of the three Interplanetary Festivals in the 1950s-60s.  I wasn't aware of the series of cartoons that had been created by John Halas and his wife, Joy Batchelor based on Gerald Hoffnung's work.

And a left click on the Hoffnung right-hand drive organist will take you the official Hoffnung site:

October 6 - 1945: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series.