With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

“tough is the leather thats strapped to my skin” October 23, 2016

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:43 pm
Tags: , , , ,

sb80belfastmksn-vt

Hello good people of the blogosphere. This is a somewhat gratuitous post from me as it involves my late, great father with whom I shared the same name; Bill Adamson if you were unaware.

HMS BELFAST DURING THE KOREAN WAR 1950-1952 (A 31985) The Korean War 1950-1952: An American S.51 helicopter flies over HMS BELFAST in the Yellow Sea, 1951. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205187744

Anyway here’s a little question for you. What did my Dad have in common with arch new romantics Spandau Ballet? Did he play in a band? No. Did he wear a kilt as a part of early new romantic fashion? No he didn’t, although as a Scot he was probably more entitled to than they were. Did he play in a band? No he didn’t, although after a couple of pints he could turn out a mean version of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” or “Sailing”.

spandau_ballet_111

OK I’ll put you out of your misery. HMS Belfast is what they have in common. That was the ship that my Dad served on during the Korean war in the early 1950s and it was on the HMS Belfast that Spandau Ballet played one of their early gigs back in 1980. Incidentally it is an even more tenuous link but my Dad served in Korea at exactly the same time as first man on the moon Neil Armstrong. Have you got any tenuous links to share? Feel free to let me know what they are!

sbonhmsbelfast

The boys from Spandau Ballet were delighted when they discovered that they were able to smuggle their budgies on the HMS Belfast

The boys from Spandau Ballet were delighted when they discovered that they were able to smuggle their budgies on the HMS Belfast