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| King's Reach Tower in Stamford Street |
Talking of KING'S REACH TOWER (as I was when this post was first published) reminds me of when myself and the previously-mentioned (and sadly late) KEVIN BRIGHTON were getting into the elevator on our way down to (or way back from) the seemingly football pitch-sized IPC staff canteen. (No doubt I exaggerate, but it was bloody huge.) As we stepped into the lift, it was so full that there was only room to stand facing in the way as the doors shut behind us.
So we're face to face with a bunch of people blankly staring out at us, while we self-consciously stared back at them. It was too good an opportunity to miss. I raised my hand to my mouth, cleared my throat, then said: "I suppose you're all wondering why I've called this meeting..." A split-second's silence while the penny dropped, then the elevator erupted into laughter.
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| Kevin Brighton and his pal Del in the IPC canteen |
I've used that line a number of times over the years in similar situations and it always gets a response. Casting my mind back, I even recall where I first got it from. It was around the mid-1970s and a fellow named JOHN HATTLE (my boss at the time*), was relating pretty much the same scenario as the one above (with himself as the protagonist, obviously), in the car park outside a pub near his shop where I worked. I don't know if he'd appropriated it from a movie for his own purposes, or it was a genuine, on the spot 'ad-lib' as he stepped into a lift. Anyway, there I was, ten years later (though it seemed far longer at the time), regurgitating a one-liner from my past. That wasn't even the first time I'd used the line, having done so a few times since I'd first heard it.
(*Or maybe it was just after I'd recently left his employ, but was signwriting a van for him.)
However, recalling the situation today, it made me realise how often we store things away in our minds, sometimes for decades, ready for use at a moment's notice whenever the situation demands. As someone who sometimes sports a beard, I'm used to people commenting on it when I grow it back again, usually along the lines of: "I see you've grown the beard back, eh?" (I guess they must lead really boring lives for such an event to be considered worth remarking on.) I usually respond with: "This one's false - the real one's in my pocket!" It was only when watching a MAN From U.N.C.L.E. 'movie' a while back that I was reminded of where I'd nicked the line from, so many years before.
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| A post this dull needs glamming-up a bit, so here's Bob Paynter's secretary, Caroline |
Back in 1982, I sent a 'cassette-a-letter' to a friend who was temporarily living in Bournemouth at the time. We replayed it about a week ago* (to much merriment at the sound of my young voice) and I was surprised to hear myself tell a joke I'd only then-recently heard, and which I still tell today, thirty forty years later. It made me realise how many of the jokes I tell nowadays are of a similar vintage. (Note to self: Must learn some new material.)
So what's the point of this self-indulgent reminiscence you may be asking yourselves. Only this:
We really are products of our past, aren't we?
(*Well, it was only a week ago when I first published this post ten years back.)
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Sadly, King's Reach Tower has lain empty for a few years since IPC Media moved out in 2007. I understand there are now plans to add six floors, reclad the exterior, and turn it into luxury apartments. I'll always remember it as it was though.
15 comments:
Weird to think we now have a Prime-Minister who was born in 1980.
Weird indeed, CJ. 1980 still seems recent to me. Ah, well.
I think we are all products of our past as that's all we have to base things on. The problem as we get older is that there's very little we can do to change how the past affects us as we become to greater or lesser degrees stuck in old habits etc. But the nice memories like this are good to look back on despite some seriously dodgy jokes ( actually the beard one is pretty good) :)
A timely post Kid as just hours before this post I started reading the Rebellion reprint of INVASION 1984! from 'Battle' which was produced in King's Reach Tower back when Tharg the Mighty ruled.
Nice to know real people worked there.
And guess what, McS - I still use that beard 'joke' now. Cracked it only a week or so back. It's my stock reply whenever anyone refers to my former beard. "I see you've shaved your beard off" someone might say. My response - "That was a false beard - the real one's in my pocket." Boom-boom!
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Talking of King's Reach Tower, T47, reminds me that 'Tharg is a t*sser! (without the asterisk) Bring back Strontium Dog!' was spray painted onto the wall beside the entrance at one point. The IPC bigwigs wouldn't have been impressed, but the 2000 A.D. team took a photo of it to put on their wall.
Tharg was indeed a t*sser as to me he represented the era of unfortunate use of photography in place of drawn art in comics.
I know that 2000 A.D. used photos of Tharg on some features or letters pages, T47, but were there any actual photo-stories of him? I was never a long-term regular buyer of the comic so don't know. I'm aware that the revived Eagle used photo-stories, but I was pleased as punch when they ditched them for hand-drawn comic strips.
I must save your beard joke for some later date but at present all I get is " good to see you grew a beard .Now you look intelligent" 🙄
And you can reply "Then now I look as I am!" How have you been, LH? Fully recovered yet?
I don't recall where photo stories appeared other than it ruining what could have been good stories in Eagle. Tharg as Editor of all things should be held responsible.
I'm not sure whether Tharg was supposed to be editor of other comics like Eagle or not, T47. 2000 A.D. may have exclusively presented him in that light, but I don't think the other comics subscribed to the notion of Tharg as overall editor of all IPC comics. Anyone know? The photo stories may've been naff, but they attracted a lot of attention to Eagle on its relaunch.
A great reminiscence, Kid. I shall keep the elevator joke in my back-pocket for such time as it may be appropriate, although my days of crowded lifts in business premises in London are far behind me now. There is a particularly British sense of humour/irony in that joke, I feel. Love it. Can't see it playing so well here in the US ; there would be too many mystified looks of people taking it at face value. And in Japan, it's considered extremely rude to talk (even whisper) in a lift, and everyone facing front is de rigeur.
It's funny, I noticed recently that the early 80s have started to acquire a nostalgic glow for me that did not exist a few years ago. Similarly the 70s used to seem naff in retrospect, but now seem a carefree time.
I used to have a pal who worked in Japan, and he said that the Japanese were very big on dignity and respectful behaviour. What, then, are we to make of their crazy 'game' shows that go out of their way to embarrass and humiliate people? A paradox for sure. As for the paradox of time, I think the further away we get from an aspect of our past, the dearer it becomes to us, hence our sense of nostalgia for some periods of our life taking a while to kick in. (Or something like that.)
I've heard that Japan has a very low crime rate because being convicted of a crime is so shameful in Japanese society that it deters most people.
And probably the punishment for being convicted of serious crimes is so severe that it's part of the deterrent, CJ.
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