Don Woods

The London terror attack has been headlining the news....and questions being asked as to why the terrorist,who had been in jail,was released early.....and needless to say the politicians wade in blaming their opposition.. I used to produce demos for people who would send me their rough versions of their songs and I would put them into a presentable state to send to publishers....one of the songs has always remained in my mind... have been watching the TV series of The Crown which Is quite brilliant....it divulges information which I didn't know about which must be able to be made public after so many years.....it is obviously dramatised for TV purposes but the Royals don't come out of it too well. And on the subject of the Crown...the young lady who was allegedly treated so badly by Prince Andrew 20 odd years ago is over here stating how bad his dancing was and how he sweated all over her and how she was "trafficked" over here for sex.. On the music front we are,as always at this time of year,subjected to the same old worn out Christmas songs ....I was asked by my then publisher to write a song for Cannon and Ball so I came up with this one whereby they each sing a verse aimed at each other....

.I am not a fan of Prince Andrew but I find it disgraceful how the media have treated the situation turning it into a witch hunt....at this point in time there is no proof whatsoever as to any wrongdoing on his part....certainly nothing illegal...but the media pile in trying to find something to fill their newspapers or news rogrammes....the latest BIG NEWS is he went riding with his mother...so what...and Nicholas Witchell reporting on nothing from outside the Palace on a dark rainy night which he could have done from the studio...not to mention the film crew.....mind you the BBC have to find ways to spend the 3 billion they get from licence fees.....it really is pathetic...there are far more important things going on in the world....the only thing I've learned from this fiasco is that Andrew is even dimmer than I thought.

Prince Andrew has hit the news headlines after his recent interview on the BBC....where he virtually denies all wrongdoing in the Epstein scandal....an appearance I felt was somewhat misguided.......... The TV Children In Need annual fundraising event has raised over 47 million pounds which will go towards a good cause....however with certain political parties promising to donate BILLIONS to better the country not forgetting intended high speed rail routes going BILLIONS over budget....... On the entertainment front we have the return of "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" which is very popular for some reason....I see they have stopped the killing of small creatures in the "trials" which is........ I was chatting to some friends about strange coincidences which most of us have had....the most unbelievable one I had was when I was working on Radio Merseyside with my pal And on the subject of Radio Merseyside the song this week is a jingle I wrote for Debbie Jones who had a daily competition where listeners had to guess what a certain sound ........

All this tripe about political correctness where you can't say this and you can't say that because it might offend someone, is becoming very tiresome....not to mention the 100 different genders we can choose from...this just proves how polite and tolerant the general public are by putting up with this garbage....when one of these publicity seeking characters come up with,for example, the expression"ladies and gentlemen" possibly being offensive or the many other stupid opinions it needs someone to tell them in no uncertain terms where to go....and when the P.C. brigade rise up-tell them as well....we are being manipulated by a bunch of morons whose only chance of a bit of "fame" is to come up with stupid ideas ....which actually offend ME!!!....but obviously the majority don't count anymore. For me to respect and enjoy entertainment there has to be actual talent....I have nothing against TV personalities making their fortune with very little of it...for example the likes of Jonathan Ross or Graham Norton who I appreciate are very popular but anyone can do what they do and don't get me going on Ant and Dec.....so I was delighted to watch Jeff Lynne's E.L.O. on the BBC live concert....what a great show with wonderful songs and brilliant musicians.....THAT'S TALENT!!! I have been watching a programme on caravanning with Shane Richie who visits caravan sites and raves on about how wonderful they are in a none stop effort to convince people that this is how to spend your holidays...as opposed to going abroad....all very well but old Shane arrives at each site and receives the biggest and best luxury static on the site... I am surprised that the ladies England football team is called the "Lionesses"...which is obviously a female term....are they not suppose to have a choice as to what they are?....perhaps the "England Liongenderfluids"...this would make more sense in our politically correct world.....f.....come on ladies let's start winning the big games. The song this week is one I wrote for my pal Paul Damian and is a track on the album I produced for him which includes the now famous How To Say Llanfairpwll...etc. which has ha 2.2 million hits on YouTube......this one is called The Legend of Beddgelert and is about the demise of a dog,named Gelert, which belonged to Llewellyn,a Welsh Prince back in the 13th century....it is a very sad tale....the dog's grave is visited by many tourists through the summer months in the actual village of Beddgelert (which means grave of Gelert).....since putting it on YouTube it has had 10 thousand hits....and a lot of nice comments....so here it is...hankies at the ready...The Legend of Beddgelert

Bonfire night is upon us once again...so as usual the hospitals will have plenty to do dealing with burns and damaged eyesight...personally I cannot see the point of watching money go up in smoke to the sound of OOOH!... AHH!... from onlookers....but then again I appreciate some folk have nothing better to do ....we have just had the wonderful American import "Trick or Treat" which brought out the youths of certain parts of Merseyside throwing bricks through car windows and throwing stones at houses causing pointless damage....and guess what....there wasn't ONE 70 year old involved. ....we really needed to win that game which would have been a major boost for the sport...as it is we now have to listen to "they did well to get so far" which aint what it's about. ...but as someone remarked on Facebook that they have often required the assistance of a doctor or a nurse but they have never required the assistance of a pop star or footballer....food for thought? I know this is only a minor point and there are far more important things to think about but I watched a programme about people buying property in Spain and the presenter kept wrongly pronouncing Benalmadena.....he KEPT referring to it as "Benalmadeena" and as you know the accent is on the "a" after the "m".......it is therefore pronounced BenalmAdena.... And on the subject of WIRRAL the song this week is one I wrote about it back in the day....it was a follow up to my Wirral Song which the then council made a substantial order.

Why doesn't ITV understand that the viewers want to hear what the presenters on Good Morning Britain and the guests are saying....they don't want to listen to them all arguing and shouting at the same time....it's like an aviary full of crows,,,, I have enjoyed Strictly Come Dancing for many years....I like it because it involves actual TALENT from both the professionals and from the judges....plus the spectacle of athletic guys and beautifully sculpted ladies gliding across the dance floor.with great live music from a fabulous band.......and I think it can wave goodbye to a lot of its viewers. And there is a move afoot to stop the utilising of live insects on I'm a celebrity get me out of here.....I couldn't agree more....there is no need to kill these creatures in the name of entertainment....a better idea would be to scrap the whole thing including Ant and Dec....who are well past their sell by date. The youngsters have decided the over 70s should not be allowed to vote.....and they are out of touch with modern day life....so there you go.....and back in the day I wrote a couple of songs for two editions of "Newsnight" about the Knowsley North Bye Election....one of which was about Derek and I appeared in the programme along with him. Trick or Treating has hit the news.....they are trying bring in a law to ban over 12 year olds going from door to door because it intimidates householders...t....no poor old lady wants to open their door to a 6 foot teenager with a mask ....but again I fail to see the point of "trick or treat"....it's another piece of American nonsense which belongs over there... The song this week is the one which brought you and me together around 1980 when you worked on Radio Merseyside....we marched on the German Embassy with the song after they had criticised the area....this is the updated tribute to my favourite place..."Merseyside"

The BBC have received some criticism regarding their broadcasts from outside Parliament with protesters shouting out around them and waving banners across the screen....the question was asked as to why they do not interview politicians in a studio instead of giving publicity to brainless protesters....and as usual their answer was "because that is how we have always done it"...which is supposed to make it alright......a perfect example was the climate change protester standing on the top of a train making his point....the people's answer was top drag him off the roof and stick the boot in.....not that I condone that but.... I have been watching the rugby world cup which has been somewhat addictive....England were magnificent and the Wales France game was a classic and as I have always said we want WINNERS in sport....not those who "did well to get so far"... Harry and Meghan are back in the news....they are not happy with the constant intrusion into their lives by the media....with poor Meghan not really realising what she was marrying into....."it comes with the territory" is the cry....but really I don't know what to think... I watched a programme on the arrival of rock and roll in 1950s America....it was a fascinating programme and took me right back to those days....I remember the moment it hit me like a ton of bricks....I went to see "Rock Around The Clock" in 1956 and left the cinema with a completely new outlook on music.. The song this week is from my Doowop Days album and is a tribute to a guy I had the pleasure of working with on two occasions....Bobby Vee....and what a great guy he was....

In the world today we have wars going on,we have hurricanes destroying lives,we have increasing knife crime and what do we get on the news....an argument between the wives of footballers Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney......and this is NEWS!!..... When will the world realise that we haven't all evolved at the same rate?...there are humans out there still evolving......an example of which were at the England/Bulgaria game causing it to be halted because of their racist chants.. The climate changers are still causing problems in London....still blocking the traffic and utilising valuable police time...not to mention disrupting everyday lives...but of course they are "saving the planet".... After all the hype regarding the film about Elton John....Rocketman........I should have waited for it to come on the telly then at least it wouldn't have cost me ten quid to get depressed.......just sing mate. The song this week is from one of my albums called DooWop Days.I wrote all the songs from my memories of the rock and roll years...I was always a fan of American Doowop music so I made the album in that style...this track ask the question as to what happens to those girlfriends back in the day who you never see again....it is entitled "Whet Happened To Julie?"

Knife crime is at it's highest .level in this country especially in London which isn't helped by a mayor with a peanut for a brain....so you would think it's hardly the place to have a pointless march by moronic climate changers who block the main roads requiring the police to waste valuable time sorting them out......the stupid march won't make the slightest difference.. Prince Harry has caused a bit of a stir by announcing he is taking the press to court.....he feels him and Meghan have been badly treated by the press and he intends to sort them out.... . ..but one thing I noticed...apart from being somewhat expensive EVERY price ended in 99p.....we had £6.99 up to,wait for it.....£1499.99....which is absolutely ridiculous....this activity seems to be very popular with traders these days because they think the public will believe things are a lot cheaper than they are ...they must think we are all stupid... I was delighted to see local girl Katarina Johnson Thompson get her much deserved gold medal at the world athletics championships... ..I came up with "Googi The Liverpool Duck"....4 years later she recorded the song and it took off with a lot of radio play and TV coverage (she appeared on The Palladium)....it was then featured in a film called "Priest" written by Jimmy McGovern where it was sung by a church choir..

There was an interesting item on the morning news regarding gun crime in the U.S.A.....they had an ex policeman talking about how he runs courses teaching young kids how to protect themselves should someone come into the school and start shooting at everybody.... Boris is still hanging on in there trying to sort the country out despite being accused of touching a woman's knee 20 years ago....if this was part of a novel you would never believe it....what the hell this pathetic allegation has to do with politics is beyond me.. I recently ordered two tee shirts from Amazon....only one arrived so I contacted them...they told me they would refund the money for the two tee shirts and I could keep the one I had.....was Wetherspoon....don't you just love it....how's that for a two finger salute. If you ever visit the Roman City of Chester you can actually find some Romans still there....they work for the council and are disguised as traffic wardens....and you don't even have to park on a yellow line to get a ticket....I know...I GOT ONE!!.. The song this week has an interesting story behind it....it is called "Strangle My Boss".....which I originally wrote in the 70s and through s friend I met Leapy Lee.....he took the song to Evolution Records (who he was with at the time) and they signed me up as a songwriter....this particular song was recorded by The Bonzo Dog DooDah Band....I also wrote a song for Diana Dors who recorded it...then like a lot of companies back then they went under....I later recorded the song myself in a studio in Clapham and another chap I knew took it to Australia where it was recorded by a DJ called Barry Mundi and The Fishcakes .....that was the last I heard of it until this week when I was looking through YouTube and there it was in all its glory.Some country singer called Johnny Shilo has recently recorded it and put it on YouTube...I don't know the guy or where he heard the song but it's a great version....so here it is "Strangle My Boss"

Thomas Cook,the worlds oldest travel agent have hit the headlines with the announcement that they've gone bust....which has naturally caused panic amongst holiday makers who are either due to go abroad or who are already there and don't know how they will get back....a nasty situation indeed but it does show the true colours of some of the "friendly hosts"....in Turkey for example a hotel has locked holiday makersin until they get the money owed to them....you know...those wonderful caring friendly hotels who suddenly change when the spending stops....bit like those friendly witty carsalesmen who are your best friend until you don't want the car they are trying to sell you....then suddenly there is a swift change of personality.

According to some half wit who appeared on the ITV morning news programme there are 100 different choices as to what gender you want to be.....so now it's not just LBGTQyou can add on another 95 "genders"....so there you go.....and this nut case is actually given television time to tell us that this is what children should be taught in school....Piers Morgan had a field day with this fool.....he told him it was like interviewing Dianne Abbot....because she didn't know what she was talking about either......so Vince we can be one of 100 things.....today I think I'll be...er....a mountain goat.....I might even march through the city with a big banner. I've just got my car tax reminder....£235....I speak to people who pay as little as £15.....some don't pay anything...because their vehicle isn't "damaging the planet".....soI get PENALISED for driving a car of my choice!!.....we are supposed to think that this will stop us buying diesel cars.....which it won't....it will just make money for the vehicle licensing lot.....so we must all rush out and buy electric cars which will save the planet and ...oh yes....make a fortune for the car manufacturers.....I fail to see what difference FUEL makes to the roads we still go down the same pot holes....it's like putting up the price of cigarettes or alcohol....it won't STOP anything all it will do is make the greedy cigarette producers and brewers even richer....we are getting conned rotten. We have just had the National Cycle Tour of Britain.....now I know that this is of interest to a lot of people but personally I fail to see what the attraction is in standing and watching a bunch of superfit cyclists flying past.....part of the event went past the end of my road so I popped down to take a look....I watched them all hurtle past and that was it....possibly the biggest none event of the year....but folk do enjoy it which is fair enough but what was annoying was the main road was closed for a couple of hours which causes a lot of inconvenience as you can imagine....not to mention the odd emergency and for what?.....I must be missing something.....mind you they do put signs up telling you that the road will be closed for a couple of hours and to "expect delays" so that's O.K. then. Obesity has raised its ugly head (and other parts) on the news....with "experts" pointing out that we are wrongly being told that fat ladies can be beautiful....showing them in their full glory on magazine covers....and they shouldn't be celebrated because of their size....the point of it being it is bad for your health .....apparently we are the second most obese country in the world....mind you we have got a long way to go before we catch up with America....a visit to Disneyworld clearly shows that.....and the point of "fat shaming" was brought up pointing out that skitting at people because of their weight can be very upsetting.....but the bottom line is it's your own fault if you are overweight in most cases and if you are not prepared to do something about it you need to learn to ignore morons who skit at you....it's bullying by insecure idiots and if they succeed in upsetting you they win.......I have never understood what pleasure neanderthals get from putting scams and immature comments on social media....it would be nice to have them found out and their computer rammed down their throat....which I feel would solve the problem....oh sorry I forgot about human rights. Back in the 80's I wrote and produced 21 songs for wrestler Adrian Street.....10 of which we put on a vinyl album called "Shake Wrestle and Roll....a few years ago this was re-released by a record company in America called Burger Records which they released on clear vinyl with blood splattering...and which is doing O.K. ....this week Burger have been on to me as they want to re-release the second album I produced for Adrian called "Naughty But It's Nice".....I'm not sure whether the world is ready for this but I knew it would come back to haunt me....this weeks song is from that album and it was one I wrote for him to enter the ring to....so here it is "Exotic Adrian"

I never thought I would say this but it's GOOD to see Piers Morgan back on ITV in the morning....the programme was rapidly sinking with the poor replacement presenters while he was away.... I have always been a fan of Judge Rob Rinder....until now....He has been given a chat show on channel 4....I watched 15 minutes of it and turned it off... Bury football team have been headlining the news with their removal from the football league....which they have been in for over a hundred years...as we keep getting told... Another news item was The Pope getting stuck in a lift.....so whoever is responsible can expect a bolt of lightning very soon....this reminded me of when I used to record peoples songs for them back in the 80s and one was called "Our Lady of Chestacova" which was where the then Pope was from (Pope John Paul 2)... The song this week is entitled The Ballad of Barbara Stanwyck" and is a track off my album Stars Over 45.....Miss Stanwyck doesn't come out of it too well as I never got what it was about her..

The fools who made a joke about the burning of the Grenfell Tower by making an effigy of it burning and which ended up on social media were taken to court and the case was thrown out....this has naturally not only caused distress to the victims it has also caused a public outcry.....but the point is there was no case because there was no offence.....the activity was sick and tasteless but didn't break any laws.........nowadays we seem to think you have to be careful what you say in case someone screams "racist" or "sexist" but what people don't seem to understand is unless you are likely to cause a riot you can say what you like.....because someone is offended doesn't make it an offence......free speech still exists and it's time we all realised that. The media are once again still attempting to wind everyone up with the recent cost of Prince Harry's and Meghan's flight abroad....they must search for hours for a pathetic story to fill their newspapers...or should I say toilet papers......this time it involved Prince William and his family who booked a "cheap" flight for their holidays.....which was obviously to "show Harry up"....and this is supposed to be NEWS....the fact that Elton John paid for Harry's flight doesn't seem to come into it.....they are major celebrities for goodness sake and as such are targets.....which naturally effects how they travel....even if they jumped on a bus the stupid media would have a go at them.....I'm not a royalist but I wouldn't have their job for a big clock....this sort of reporting belongs in a primary school magazine. I know I am from a different generation and fail to appreciate a lot of modern music but I feel sorry for the kids of today....everything these days seems to be based on repetitive meaningless lyrics with press button backing off a keyboard.....what happened to drums.?....they seem to have been replaced by a sock full of gravel hitting a cardboard box ...if you listen to the likes of ABBA or The BeeGees ....or E.L.O.....great songs,great lyrics and great drive......I want to hear real DRUMS...I've always said the drummer makes or breaks the band... .....and Tamla Motown is now travelling the country with live theatre shows.....I was never a fan of Tamla....it all sounded the same which is probably because the same backing band was on all the records...The Funk Brothers I think they were called....and in the sixties the Motown bands did a British tour which was pretty unsuccessful....however I did see a live Motown show a few year back in one of our theatres and I did enjoy it. I will never come to terms with the mentality of the British public....we have just had another bank holiday and for a change the forecast was very good.....so I decided to spend a few days in Wales....I went on Thursday to avoid the traffic and came back Sunday morning to avoid the traffic....had a straight run out and a straight run back.....however on the way back on the Sunday morning the traffic was gridlocked for miles going out.....and on the Monday it was gridlocked coming back....I know most people haven't got the luxury of sharing similar travelling times to me but WHY leave at 10 O'Clock on a SUNDAY when you know you will be bumper to bumper....and why come back at a time when you know the same thing is going to happen?....there are so many wonderful places to visit in this country but no....we all have to go to Llandudno or Anglesey where EVERYONE goes at the same time..... there aint a lot of imagination out there, And we must give a mention to the England cricket team....I have been watching the highlights of The Ashes which has sort of got me back into the game which I had lost interest in over the years.....what an incredible win....this is what the sport needs....no matter what all the "equality" brigade say WINNING is what it's all about...always has been always will be....and if sport is to advance in this country we need winners....as Bill Shakily once said "winning isn't everything....it's the only thing". The song this week is of my album "Stars Over 45" and is about everyone's favourite lady....Una Stubbs.....I wrote this song way back and got a publishing deal with a major company.....sadly the song didn't storm the charts so that was that....I decided to send it to Una as it was about her...and she actually rang me up and thanked me!!....she was a delight.....and I've got her signed photo on my studio wall......so here it is "The Ballad of Una Stubbs"

Prince Andrew has hit the news regarding his connection with Epstein the billionaire who was jailed for under age sex trafficking....and has since allegedly committed suicide...and Andy has been accused of being involved which the Palace has loudly denied....and as you can imagine the press are having a field day... We have been going on for ages about the standard of entertainment on the television....well we were right....recent viewing figures show that almost 50% of the viewing public now stream...preferring Netflix and Amazon to the tripe that is on normal TV....can they not see this....it's a bit like the BBC refusing to play pop music back in the late 50s...so everyone listened to Luxembourg and pirate radio...then they eventually got the message....how do these buffoons get these top jobs.....we don't want to watch soaps...we don't want to watch cookery programmes...we don't want to watch appendix operations in A & E...... There has been a new coin made to commemorate D Day....it is a gold coin with it's edge shaped like the Normandy coast...which is great....but the advert tells us there have only been 4,999 produced....couldn't they manage ONE more?...or did they run out of gold?.... We have recently discussed this new chat show "The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan"....which I hoped would improve on the usual tired formats of the likes of Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross..... The song this week is one I wrote for one of my female session singers....she was a good friend of mine and had a great voice...her name is Sue Young and she did the clubs as a duo with her husband Frank...