Talk:Flanders and Swann

message: I removed the following: "The British Motorway" — written and performed in 1959 to celebrate the partial opening of the M1, Britain's first motorway. The title was also the entire text of the song, after which Flanders said apologetically "Of course, it isn't very long yet".  I can find no reference for this (a Google search of +"Flanders and Swann" +"British Motorway" returns no hits.  --RobertG ♬ talk 09:00, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I actually saw them make this little joke at the Fortune Theatre in 1959, but I have to agree it's unverifiable.
El Ingles 16:04, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  British Motorway 

message: I have moved my contribution here because as afr as I knoe ther are no published sources for this. The statement comes from my own knowledge of the BBC's archive. If anyone can provide a reference then I would be grateful... meanwhile I hope that this can remain here bcause this is important background information.
jennyd60
==
A complete film recording copy of this show does still exist in the BBC film and videotape archive at Windmill Rd Brentford but like many archival recordings from the time it was never intended to be preserved for the longterm and only survived by a happy accident. Consequently it suffers from many complex legal issues surrounding its copyright and rights ownership. Sadly these are likely to prevent it from being ever shown again (or released on video).
I'm not sure of the context for Jennyd60's remarks but I do remember seeing one programme about Flanders and Swann shown on BBC2 in the early nineties. If I remember correctly, it featured colour video of a Canadian show and was presented by Ian Wallace. It was remarked in the programme that footage of the two performing is very rare.
Flanders was very cautious about recording or filming shows; the LP of the Drop of a Hat was recorded (by George Martin) on its last performance and their last ever performance was videoed in Colour probably in New York, certainly in America - Flanders makes a joke introducing the Song of Patriotic Predudice saying "Without the English, you'd all be Spanish!". The video was for sale - I have a copy - I've just looked on Amazon and the video is no longer current and its a collector's item (so I'm glad I didn't clear it out when I got a PVR)!
It would be nice to see the BBC film; although its black and white and of poor quality I do remember watching it in the 60s and the performances (to my memory) were much stronger than the New York video when they were looking tired.
The article says the videoed performance was in the studio; having recently watched it, there is an audience present - there are shots showing Flanders with the audience in the background, and Flanders is surprised by the reaction of the joke about a song in French being sung in three parts; is there any more about the circumstance of the recording?
Apepper 15:33, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Surviving Film Recording 

message: I sure don't remember 4 different LPs. AFAIK there was just one. Anybody else? El Ingles 16:45, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I take that the anon was trying to point out that not all the recorded songs from the "Hat" shows appeared on the two "Hat" LPs; some of them were on the miscellany LP whose title I forget.  I don't think the anon's comment helps the reader in any way, however, and it could be removed.  --RobertG ♬ talk 17:31, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

text: It has. — Grstain | Talk 18:07, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit by 82.41.227.67 on 14 dec 06 

message: The opening paragraph mentions "...several studio-based albums.", AFAIK Bestiary and, arguably "And then we wrote" are the only two studio recordings. Apepper 17:15, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've changed "albums" to "tracks". The singles included in 'Extiary' were studio recordings. --El Ingles 17:22, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Several studio recordings? 

message: I recall George Martin discussing recording Flanders and Swann, and it occured to me that he recorded a two hour show which was edited down to a one hour LP. This implies that there were a number of songs or monologues left off the LP; can anyone confirm that? Apepper (talk) 18:59, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing recordings? 

message: The picture of Michael Bernstein and Colin Stevens used in the article is wrongly labelled as being the original Flanders and Swann. Even if the caption is corrected is it helpful to have a picture of a pair of impersonators (excellent though they no doubt are)? Tim riley (talk) 19:17, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Picture 

message: As i understand it, since Flanders daughter was on the radio today talking about it, 'the youth of my heart ' was music by swann but words by sydney carter. I'm not sure if this is the case for other of the songs, but the article would give the impression they are all written by F&S. She commented something about the piece being used in the act to give her father a rest between monologues and other F&S pieces, though I don't precisely remember the detail. Sandpiper (talk) 23:49, 28 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: F & S did sing other songs by Carter/Swann, but they were not included in any major recordings. I have edited the article to credit Carter. --WJCB (talk) 22:00, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  the youth of the heart 

message: the article says At the Drop of a Hat was recorded twice. Once for a long-playing record in 1957, and again for CD in 1959 by engineer George Martin.
So when was the Compact Disc invented? There is a mistake here somewhere. Sandpiper (talk) 23:54, 28 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: This obviously needs rewording. What I think it means is that the version on the modern CD is different to the version on the LP. When I get the chance I'll look at the cover notes on the CD and see if it verifies this. —  Tivedshambo  (t/c) 05:34, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I always beleived that it was the 1957 recording released in the US and the 1959 one in the UK, on LP at any rate. I may well be wrong.  --WJCB (talk) 16:24, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  inventors of the cd? 

message: The BBC comedy show Armstrong & Miller routinely does a Flanders and Swann skit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cveZR4e91kU&feature=related  Bokononist (talk) 00:25, 12 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, but you can't blame that on Flanders and Swann - it's not really anything like them, is it?  It could, however, usefully be documented on Armstrong and Miller.  --RobertG ♬ talk 08:45, 12 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: "Blame it on them"?  It's a direct reference to the duo, I think it is worth including on this page. Caseykcole (talk) 22:34, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Contemporary reference to Flanders and Swann 

message: It says in the article that F & S wrote over 80 songs together, but I can count up over a hundred, so I've edited the page to my amount. I'd be glad to hear if anyone has any different totals?  --WJCB (talk) 15:27, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I've added a song to a list that may be already too long, "The Whale (Mopy Dick)", which seems to me appropriate as an example of Swann's ability to parody musical styles. D Anthony Patriarche (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 22:25, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Number of songs 

message: I have removed the following as I felt it was out of kilter with the rest of the article.  There is no need to have a blow-by-blow listing of all Flanders' and Swann's songs by album - after all, making records was not their main occupation.
I moved it to here so that the information wouldn't get lost or forgotten: perhaps it could be incorporated into a Flanders and Swann discography article?  What do others think?
--RobertG ♬ talk 16:19, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Most of the listing was my work, but I'm not inclined to fight for it. Wiki-articles about other musicians don't include such detail, to be sure. On the other hand, some of RobertG's "clean-up" of earlier today is without merit. Why does he not find the first line of "The English Are Best" to be appropriate as a summary, for example? --El Ingles (talk) 17:26, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: "...fight for it"?  "Without merit"?  I'm sorry you feel like that.  If you think "up with the English and down with the rest" is better, why not just say so and put it back?  What about my suggestion of a Flanders and Swann discography article?  Did that have any merit?  --RobertG ♬ talk 18:48, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Flanders and Swann discography has my vote. Rothorpe (talk) 19:26, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

text: Could we, rather than have a discograhy, have a list of Flanders & Swann songs, as not all of them were released on album, and some on At The Drop of Another Hat were originally sung in At The Drop of a Hat (e.g. 'In The Bath')? It could also contain songs they wrote for other revues. I would be willing to compile this if others like the idea.  --WJCB (talk) 16:23, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  '''''Too many corkers''''' 

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thread_title: File:Michael Flanders and Donald Swann.gif Nominated for Deletion

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