The Legendary 10 Seconds

6th October 2019

Several years ago my son Tom and his friends played a trick on me. It was one evening at my house in the kitchen. I was a little bit merry having drunk some beer and one of Tom's friends called Matteo, said that he was very good at magic card tricks. Matteo said that he had videos of his card tricks on youtube and that he was called the Great Edwardo. 

He then showed me one of his card tricks where I had to pull a card at random from a full pack of playing cards without showing him the card. I then placed the card back in the pack and he got me to shuffle the cards. He then managed to produce the card I had chosen. I lost count of the number of times that he performed this magic card trick on me and each time producing the correct card I had chosen. 

What I didn't realise was that Tom and one of his other friend's, who stood behind me, could see the cards I was choosing and were secretly telling 'the Great Edwardo' which card I had chosen. I must admit that I am often pretty gullible and even more so that time because I was a bit drunk. Since that time whenever I see Matteo I say to him ''How is the great Edwardo?''

Matteo was the best man at Tom's wedding and this started thinking about the Great Edwardo and it gave me the idea for a song about a magician.

HE'S GOT TRICKS UP HIS SLEEVE

MAGIC SPELLS YOU JUST WON'T BELIEVE

SLIGHT OF HAND AND MISDIRECTION

ON THE STAGE WITH SUCH PERFECTION

COME AND SEE THE GREAT EDWARDO

COME AND SEE HIS MAGIC SHOW

COME AND SEE THE GREAT EDWARDO

TO HIS SHOW YOU MUST GO

HIS AUDIENCE GATHER IN A CROWD

HEAR THEM ALL GASP ALOUD

A PUFF OF SMOKE AND HE APPEARS

AND JUST AS QUICKLY DISAPPEARS

COME AND SEE THE GREAT EDWARDO

COME AND SEE HIS MAGIC SHOW

COME AND SEE THE GREAT EDWARDO

TO HIS SHOW YOU MUST GO

IN TOP HAT AND BLACK GOWN

THE POSTER OF HIM IN THE TOWN

ADVERTISING HIS GREATEST SHOW

THE ONE TO WHICH WE ALL MUST GO

22^nd September 2019 

It was my son's wedding yesterday. It hardly seems that long ago that he was born. Where do all the years go? It seems that as I get older the years seem to go by so much more quickly. I must admit that yesterday was quite emotional at times and I am now feeling completely exhausted!

We arrived at Holy Angels church in Chelston early in the morning. A few minutes later on the other side of the road Lord Zarquon arrived on his motor bike wearing his Karate gear. Turns out he was giving a Karate lesson in the church hall opposite to Holy Angels church that morning. I had a brief chat with him and he told me that he had finished the 'Man who Evolved' song so I am now looking forward to hearing the final version of this recording.

After the church marriage service finished we then moved on to the Berry Head hotel in Brixham. Photos were taken of the happy couple with various members of the family including the bride's father who had come all the way from Russia. He must have been feeling tired as it had taken him about two days to travel from Nizhny Novgorod to arrive in Torquay at about 4 pm on Friday the day before the wedding.

Before the afternoon meal we heard three very entertaining speeches which included John Bessant mentioning Quicksilver Messenger Service. Shortly after the meal I told John that I never expected that band to be mentioned in a wedding speech.

In the evening the Estuary Buoys played two excellent sets of songs and in between various friends and family performed some songs. Tom was the compere and he said the the performances after the Estuary Buoys had played their first set, and before their second, was called amateur hour! Having said that Emma Matthews in particular sounded amazing with her singing. 

This was definitely one of the highlights of the evening. The Estuary Buoys played lots of songs that I particularly liked and this was not surprising as I had given them a long list of songs that I wanted to hear them perform. Probably the best ones were their renditions of 'Apache' and 'Paint it Black’. 

The later song was one that I would have liked to have requested but I felt that it wasn't appropriate for a wedding. So although I knew it was a song that they sometimes played and one which I particularly like I hadn't included it in my list. I said this to Phil Swann after they had finished their second set ( which included so many encores that I lost count ) but I also told him that it sounded great.

1^st September 2019 

Lord Zarquon came over on Monday and he gave me the finished master of the new version of my song about the Richard III Society. It differs from the original version which is on our first Ricardian album because it features the recording that I made several years ago of Camilla Joyce singing some of the lyrics. 

Lord Zarquon played me a new keyboard part he has recorded for the Gallant's Bower song and we've decided that my singing on the song needs to be different so I will have to have a think about that.

On Saturday morning I had a very nice walk with Elaine and our friends Phil and Debby Helmore in Babbacombe. In the afternoon I went to Plainmoor with Jerry Brimicombe and unfortunately we witnessed Torquay United losing 2-1 against Hartlepool. Another weekend ruined!!! Just as I was about to leave my house to go over to Babbacombe to take Jerry to the football match, I found that the September 2019 issue of the Ricardian Bulletin had arrived in the post and I was very pleased to see that there is a positive review of the History Book Part One album on page 32. Included with the magazine is the Richard III Society mail order catalogue, issue number 17 which includes 7 Legendary Ten Seconds albums and takes up the whole of page 10.

18^th August 2019

Lord Zarquon came over on Monday evening and I forgot to discuss the Instrumental Legends album. Hopefully he will read this blog and remember that he needs to sort out the album cover! (Editor note As well as all the other jobs he has arranging, mixing, mastering, writing and playing keyboard parts, Bass guitar parts and generally sorting out and making good the huge amount of material Sir Ian keeps producing ha ha!!!)

We somehow ended up talking about other things for ages, mainly about an old friend who has an incredible musical talent yet seems content to keep it in a room in his house and strangle it himself with both hands. Also talked about care in the community or lack of it.

We have however started to make some real progress with the History Book Part Two album with the songs Driverless Cars and Knights of a King completed. I've written and partly recorded loads of songs for this album and as usual probably too many!!

Had a very interesting evening on Tuesday which was quite enjoyable despite seeing Torquay United lose at Plainmoor to Maidenhead United. This was the second home fixture of the new season but I missed the first one because I was at a wedding. I thought Torquay looked very good and the scoreline flattered the away side so I am not disheartened, it was just one of those games. I normally go to Plainmoor with my disabled friend Jerry Brimicombe as his carer but is wheelchair is out of action at the moment so I went on my own. However I bumped into Andy Perry who I haven't seen for ages and sat with him and he said we can sit with another friend who was there.... the one and only Steve Honeywill. Now one day I will tell you about how many times Steve and myself have shared and laughed so much about our private jokes. The Legendary Ten Seconds is one of them. Steve his quite a character. I will never forget the journey down to Plymouth to see the Cure gig and meeting Steve for the first time.

Now then I must tell you about Andy Perry. He used to write articles about bands for a Sherborne based fanzine called Feeding the Fish and his Dad used to own the Livermead House Hotel in Torquay. He witnessed the 2-2 draw at Plainmoor in 1977 against Cambridge United when Torquay United entered the Guinness book of records for scoring the fastest own goal. What most people don't know is that Torquay managed to score all four goals in this game. We talked about this on Wednesday evening and about the book he wrote with John Lydon. I've seen it a few times in HMV and I really must get around to reading it. Here is a link to the book on John Lydon's website:-

http://www.johnlydon.com/project/anger-is-an-energy/