Taking a Tram Ride at Milestones Museum!

It’s been a very productive week one way and another and I’m thrilled to announce my new flicker book show reel “Love of the 1940s” is now up and running. I never imagined putting a selection of photos with a demo backing track could be this complicated, but after a lot of blood sweat and tears it’s finally up, adding another great addition to my video library.

I would like to say a special thank-you to Peter Hardicker for putting this video together for me and to Karen too for finding my graphic style for the type faces. The time it’s taken me to sort through all my photos has been immense, but

Milestones Museum!

now it’s done I’m thrilled I’m able to share it with you all and I hope in turn it will inspire lots of new business.

Last Saturday I was in Swindon performing for a masonic lodge at the Marriott hotel. It was a wonderful evening and I think possibly my first of this type of function since the pandemic. It felt good to perform for a Ladies Nights again and to see ladies in their beautiful evening dresses and gentlemen in black ties and diner jackets enjoying themselves. I’d been engaged to perform music from the 1920s, 30s and 40s over two sets in period costume. I concluded my second set in ATS

Inside the Radio, Gramophone Shop!

uniform and straight after me came Elvis followed by a dance band which played favorites from the 1960s and beyond.

After my show I got changed and I was invited to enjoyed the rest of the party which went on until midnight. Fortunately I was able to stay over at the hotel as special guest of the masonic lodge which was a real treat and the following day I made my way over to Milestones Museum in Basingstoke.  I’ve been so busy in the office of late I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to visit somewhere new and get away from my computer. One of my clients had told me about Milestones last year and since hearing about it I had wanted to visit for quite a while.

Milestones is a huge hanger set out as a town, packed full of old period buildings and vehicles dating from about 1890 to the 1940s. Unlike the Black Country Living museum all the

A Vintage Street Scene Scenario!

buildings are indoors so it doesn’t matter what the weather is doing out-side you are always in the dry. Milestones didn’t disappoint and I had a wonderful day looking at all the buildings and period exhibits. I particularly liked the tram and the old radio, gramophone shop.

I love to travel and there are a number of museums I’m keen to visit before things start to get really busy again including an exhibition of Dame Vera Lynn’s life which is on display at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. It opened on the 8th January and runs through to the 18th April. The exhibition showcases over 100 objects from her

Looks like my Luggage!

estate including her dresses which I would very much like to see.

Entitled “An Extraordinary Life” it offers unparalleled insight into both the public and personal life of the singer, whose songs were crucial in maintaining morale during the Second World War. The exhibition also reveals artworks by Dame Vera, who was an enthusiastic painter for much of her life. The exhibition chronicles the nine decades Dame Vera spent in the public eye, from her early days as a singer, to her wartime service in the Entertainments National Service

All the Fun of the Fair at Milestones! 

Association (ENSA), through to her extensive post-war entertainment career and charitable works.

I’m hoping I might get the opportunity to visit later this month but for the moment I’m busy performing “Happy and Glorious” shows to commemorate the Queen’s Accession which will be rolling straight onto Valentine shows from the 7th February.

In the mean-time I will leave you with a few of my photos taken at Milestones and a link to my new flicker book show-reel “Love of the 1940s”. Enjoy watching!

https://youtu.be/6skkZOT_ESc

Toodle Pip and Bye for Now! 😉