Just Like That, only Later....!

I love to read biographies, but one problem I have here is that I'm not interested in baseball players or US politicians - I like to read about the TV personalities and sports heroes of my youth. So when Linda was in England to see the Osmonds, she kindly went book shopping for me and brought back two crackers, biographies of two slightly off the wall figures with interesting backgrounds - Tommy Cooper, one of the funniest men of British comedy who famously died on stage during a live TV broadcast, and the autobiography of Jools Holland, keyboard player with Squeeze, presenter of The Tube, and all round raconteur and musician. I saved these wonderful offerings for the Alaska trip.

I read the Tommy Cooper book first, and discovered that as well as a deceptively good magician, and being much loved and well-regarded by the highest figures in British comedy, he was also extremely mean, probably an alcoholic, and was increasingly unwell as he grew older. One incident in the book hardly stuck out until later. In the early 1980's, Tommy was asked to perform at an open-air concert at Clapham Common, as a support act for The Police. Not surprisingly, his act went down well with the first four rows, but terribly with the thousand's of festival-goers who couldn't see his slapstick magic or his comedic tics and facial expressions. Not a high spot in his illustrious career.

The Jools Holland book also recounts an episode - where Jools is asked to perform at an open-air concert at Clapham Common, topped by The Police, and when he is asked if he could accompany one of the other support acts, none other than Tommy Cooper ! Jools is asked to play Tommy's theme song, 'The Sheik of Araby' as he comes onstage, and perform a little 'Don't shoot the piano player' pantomime, in which Jools does indeed get shot. In his book, Jools describes this small incident with the honour and reverence reserved for one's true heroes. Tommy's book doesn't mention Jools at all...

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