Now then! Tuesday already, time for another one of these. Be prepared! Hope you're all in fine health and fettle, etc.

First, 'ello to the following - Tim short was in LAST weeks but i forgot to mention him. Plus - Estelle Norton, Fiona Bretherick, John Tiffany, Lucie Roberts, Toby Wardman, Mark Pollard, Joanna Smith, Rachel Hargrave, Chris Bamford (Kiff) have joined us since last week. Welcome, you lot. May your inboxes ne'er be the same!

Keep contacts etc coming in, remember ANYTHING is better than nothing. You've got my e mail, and mobile is 07855 077908 - The same as last week, funnily enough. Back issues of the block mail still available FOC. Complete your collection!

Toby Wardman's e mail address is quality. Anyone else thought of anything as original as "randy Wombat"!?

Ok, apology time. Just before i do, PLEASE remember in future if something i type DOES slightly offend, that a/ E mail has no tone and you may have read it incorrectly and B/ I'm a good bloke really and i am definitely NOT here to insult or ridicule people. However, i think i went over the top with Claire Ackroyds story last week, so am apologising to Claire. YES, she met a squaddie, but the rest i made up purely for entertainment purposes. However, i think i painted Claire in a bad light and i am sorry for this. Claire is one of my longest standing friends and isn't, wasn't and has never been anything like the person i painted in last weeks mail. I'm learning from my mistakes. Thanx for listening!

The Youth Choir section continues to grow daily - If you haven't added yourself or looked recently, please do - More new names in there, and now the picture section has grown a LOT as i have stuck 30+ pix in there. Enjoy! 24 new names in there since i started this. I want more! Please send me your pix - Old and new - of yourselves and i'll stick them in for you - JPEG's and GIF's only pls.

300 names exactly to find, the list is now complete and i have done the online part. Those offline will be harder but i have LOADS of numbers, addresses, leads etc, thanks to David Crowther (See later), a massive debt of gratitude owed to DC. Half of you are in 'ere because he gave me your name.

Freaky co-incidence. It turns out that me and me family rent our house from Joanna Smith's parents. Small world indeed...

Emma Standidge - Let me know how your contacting Kate Willis went! Merci.

I have heard an excellent rumour that someone in this block got hoofed from the choir for defacing music! Nice one! Anyone else get the boot for something like that!? I SHAN'T name drop the person in question. You know who you are!

Ok, fun time. Get ready, do yer breathing exercises etc...

This weeks SOS. It WAS going to be Chris Bamford and Jill Hirst as i have had a wrong e mail add AND mobile number, but Briony provided Chris' correct address today, SO. MALE = Nick Miller. Nick, myself, Ross etc had a weekly night out years back and nearlly always ended up singing "Alexanders Ragtime Band" in the car. Mailed him through friendsreunited but nothing back. Help! FEMALE = VANESSA REYNOLDS. Vivacious Vanessa, who has a pic on the phot section, has done quite well for herself apparently. **** knows where she is though! Help, part two. Thanx to Simon Donovan for helping locate Richard Spreckley last week, by the way.

USELESS FACTS OF OUR TIME. PART 3.

Ian Whitworth's ears used to bend inwards at the top.

MEMORY OF THE WEEK.

On the day trip to Scarborough (when i successfully poached Miss Idle from Mr Jacques, ho ho ho), someone threw up on their music at the rehearsal. NOT a pretty sight. Too many greasy chips and bags of popcorn no doubt. Anyone know who it was?

PERSON OF THE WEEK.

Claire Ackroyd. Not that i'm crawling or anything, but she DID remind me of an excellent ad for "Lenor" from yonks back where all these cute kids were cuddling blankets washed in it and saying stuff like "It's like a fluffy rabbit", "It's like clouds" etc. Then the yorkshire lad pops up and says "Miiiiiine is a bit CUDD'LY". Quality.

10 DODGY CHOIR RELATIONSHIPS. PART 3
Martin Cooper and... erm.. Martin Cooper

Young Martin used to follow me around like a lost sheep and rarely spoke to ANYONE else. Except himself. Martin became acquainted nicely with himself, though, and often had great conversations withm erm... himself, about cars and stuff. He also often took himself out on a date to the local transport Cafe.

ANAGRAM OF THE WEEK. Quite proud of this one. "MISTER RICHARD SPRECKLEY" / Hard, prickly sister creme

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF KEN ROTHERY. PART 3.

Hapless Ken didn't QUITE read the script when he took on a job as a bus conductor years back. Once, on the 365 Oldham - Hudds route, he began conducting Vivaldi's Gloria which was playing in his 'ead, promptly tw*tting the person sat behind him with one over-zealous swing of his left arm. When the fella came round he put poor Kenneth in HRI for a week. And he lost his job. Again.

CLASSIC REHEARSAL OCCURENCES. PART 3.

Some amusing person smuggled a Whoopee cushion into rehearsal once, releasing a regular cacophony of dodgy sounds that we kept blaming on Ken. Just as the fun was reaching it's peak, Laurence Townsend over-inflated it and sat on it. It burst.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK.

Roll of honour 1st. Lucy Arnold 1st, David Crowther 2nd by telephone (he had read the block mail at Colin Powell's house) - Jill Hirst and Briony Lawton peformed it. Neither got Rebecca Shaw as accompanist. Nice 1. This weeks question. Branching out a bit this week. The Choir's 1st ever concert took place on 31/01/87. What was number 1 in the Top 40 on that date? (Clue - this tune started a revolution). 1st in gets a quarter of Kola Kubes, a Pat Bronley make-up kit, and someone's music from the Scarborough trip (Pages stuck together). Good luck!

TOP 10 SONGS FROM THE YOUTH CHOIR REPERTOIRE.

7/ John Rutter's "Gloria". Yes i know, a WORK as opposed to a song - Anyone who went to York for the British Federation of Youth choirs singing day on 13/03/88 got the Choir's one and only chance to sing this fantastic piece which remains, to date, the most challenging piece i've ever sung. Brilliant. And yes, it WAS that trip where one of the coaches broke down and loads of us had to cram into one coach!

Dish of the week. Hope you're 'ungry. As a starter, please enjoy the delightful tones of "Groove is in the heart" by Deee-Lite which featured regularly on Coach trips. Your main course tonight is the awe-inspiring "Two Tribes" by Frankie goes to Hollywood. Shame there wasn't a four-part choral version of it. Yer pud consists of a relaxing spread that is "Daysleeper" by REM. Tonights wine, which is suitable for Wildmans in particular, is "Qmart" by 808 State & Bjork, one of God's finest creations. Finish it off with an Eighties stunner, "Lean on me" by Red Box. Please enjoy your meals. <b*rp>

JOKE OF THE WEEK. A geezer orders a pint at the bar. When finished, he checks his jacket pocket, then orders another. He checks his pocket again, then orders another. This happens SEVEN times. The barman says "Hope you don't think i'm being nosey, but why do you check your pocket after each pint before ordering another?" The geezer replies "i've got a picture of the wife in there. When she looks good enough, i'm going home!". Yo ho ho

Contacts, leads, pictures, etc - Keep 'em coming, and many thanx for everything so far - Rachel Hibbert deserves special mention for reminding me of a good few people.

For those who are new, i typed something in my first block about David Crowther which i am repeating each week, but i forgot to Copy it tonight so can't paste it. However, it went something like this -

I know there was a lot of s**t floating around about David all those years back. I just hope this can be put in the past, whatever you thought about it. David was respnosible for bringing us all together for a fantastic choir and social life, and i hope he can be remembered for that, and ONLY that.

Right, i know i promised mails would get smaller, but David has written something for me to type in for you tonight, and i am happy to oblige as he has no internet access himself. Here is comes.

"I am really please that Jonathan Le Gras has set up a Friendsreunited site for the Youth Choir members from its 'great days' (1986 -1993). Well done, too, to Dave Kennedy for extending this idea ti include a possible reunion. Dave has already worked tirelessly along with Lucy Arnold to try to trace as many as possible of the 400 members from those days.

My acquaintance with modern technology remains resolutely slight. I am about the only person in Britain without a mobile 'phone, while my PC stands winking but unused in the corner. So i am indebted to Colin Powell for letting me see what's going on. Colin is one of about 30 ex Youth Choir members with whom i am still in regular contact.

Dave Kennedy's jottings are highly amusing, but he describes a Youth Choir which i don't remember running. My memories are of a highly-motivated, well-disciplined (if indefinitely minded) group of young people. He seems to recall a group of surreptitious, underhand anarchists!! Perhaps we are remembering two sides of the same coins.

Next time, i will include my own memories of our first concert tour to the Isle of Wight, some of which may surprise you.

Finally, thank you for the many messages of goodwill sent via DK, which are reciprocated"

David Crowther.

Can't say fairer than that can you? I am only too glad to enter it in here, David - I had the best and the happiest times of my youth in that choir - And YOU did that.

Right, you know where i am, so keep in touch and throw as much at me as you can. Bet no - one gets the question right.

By the way, myself, Lee Birmingham, Nigel Keenan, Fraser Sugden, Simeon LeGras and hopefully a few others are planning a few ales together shortly. If you're up for it, let me know!

Look after yerselves, and apologies once more for the size of this one.

Adios

Dave