One of the truly fantastic things about the rise of technology and the internet and the ability to access music using computers and so on is the ability to listen to things that have long since been deleted and you thought you would never hear again in your lifetime. One such song for me is ‘The Banner Man’ by Blue Mink.
This is one of my absolute favourites from childhood and a song that ‘stayed around’ for a long time in the jukeboxes and bars well into the late seventies, but is now sadly forgotten. I seem to recall that in the 1970s mainstream songs such as this one and another favourite ‘The Pushbike Song’ by The Mixtures were often sung on tv programmes like ‘Play School’. Presenters like Chloe Ashcroft (who I adored as a six year old) and Fred Harris would sing these songs with Big Ted and the other toys thus introducing them to a wider audience, which included me!
My lasting memory of this song was on a summer’s night in 1974 on holiday in Blackpool. I was six at the time and I was on holiday in Blackpool with my mum and dad, my brother and my granny. My mum was always an ‘early to bed’ type and it was very surprising to ever see her up past 10 o’clock so after our fun day riding the trams and making sandcastles on the beach and being too scared to go down the stairs into the Dr. Who exhibition, opposite the Central Pier, we arrived back at our ‘digs’ for the evening. For some reason I cannot recall my mum, brother and granny went to bed and I went for a walk along the seafront with my dad. It was dark and I distinctly remember the light on the top of the Tardis (which acted as the entrance to the exhibition) a kind of nobbly-glass disco style light, was flashing pink even though the attraction had long since closed.
After a time we came to a café. A typical Blackpool café, which probably almost certainly utilised lard for frying the chips and other 70s pleasures such as sausages, bacon and eggs etc and there we sat down while my dad had a cup of tea and I had a hot chocolate. In the corner was a jukebox and after a bit of pestering my dad let me put 10p in for us to have two choices. I seem to think he chose them as he knew what I liked and he knew I loved ‘The Banner Man’ by Blue Mink. The juke box was one where you could see the records (special ones with a much larger than usual hole in the middle) being picked up by an arm, swung over and dropped onto the turntable before the heavy duty juke box needle started on its journey from the outside to the centre and filling the café with such a joyous and wonderful song.
I remember it was dark outside, but the white lights and white paint of the café shone out of the night while we sat drinking our Cocoa and Tea listening to the music. I was so pleased to rediscover this song on itunes and to play it again and again and think back to Blackpool in 1974 and the wonderful fun I had on holiday in the 1970s.
Now listen to the song…
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