The day we bumped into Rod Stewart

Back in the summer we were visiting relatives in London. We went on a sightseeing walk around London. We were staying in Kingston so caught the train into London. We changed at Vauxhall and caught the tube to Green Park. The aim was to do something of a quick walk around some central London tourist landmarks.

We  first walked through the park to Buckingham Palace. We did wonder why anyone would book a deckchair for the whole day to sit in the park.

Buckingham Palace

We took some photographs of the palace and watched as the Guards standing on duty were inspected.

Military officer was riding around on his horse, quite surreal in some respects.

As we walked to Clarence House, we saw Rod Stewart. It was looking like he was filming a music video.

I stopped to take a photograph or two. 

One of the reasons for posting this post, was that the video has now been released.

We then walked around to St James Palace. We missed the entrance as we were on the pavement next to the palace, but it was interesting to see what was originally the home of the royals. Through St James Park, through Whitehall, down to see the Houses of Parliament.

It was then pass Downing Street with a couple of protests. Back through Horse Guards Parade.

We then walked past Admiralty Arch into Trafalgar Square.

Then we  caught the tube to Waterloo and then caught the train back to Kingston.

“I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.”

One of my favourite films of all time is Back to the Future. 

Back to the Future DeLorean

There is that scene in the film where Marty McFly plays in the band (playing Earth Angel) and successfully attempts to get his parents to dance and kiss. He then moves onto playing Johnny B Goode.

So was interested to see this Youtube video from 2016.

Michael J Fox joined Coldplay on stage in New Jersey in 2016, playing Johnny B Goode – recreating one of the original movie’s pivotal scenes. Before that song, Coldplay did play Earth Angel. Michael played McFly as a gift to Chris Martin’s son Moses, whose favourite film is Back To The Future.

One of the reasons this hit my radar was that Michael J Fox has reprised his Marty McFly character in a new video for rap star Lil Nas X.

Ralph McTell has updated his hit Streets of London

It began with a conversation between a foreign correspondent who loves ballads, and his neighbour, a legend of the British folk music scene.

The result was Ralph McTell agreeing to write a new verse of his legendary hit Streets of London – something he’d always previously refused to do.

Can you sing us a song?

A member of the audience of a Bruce Springsteen concert asked him and his band to play “You Never Can Tell”, that song that was used in Pulp Fiction.

This was the result.

Fun.

The Doors in a Ford Training Film

The Doors provided instrumental backing to a training film for Ford, before recording their first album. Recorded in 1966 and not previously released.

Rather than watch the whole film, just watch the end credits to hear some classic sounds from the Doors (and see their name in the credits).

You can watch the whole film, but remember this was made in 1966 and though focussed on customer service, is rather sexist.