| Ref No | BSUCA/AT/1/3/1 |
| Collection | Andy de la Tour Collection |
| Title | Keith Allen, Pauline Melville, and Andy de la Tour, performing at Pentameters Theatre |
| Name of creator | Tour, Andy de la (1948-) |
| Date | 16 January 1981 |
| Duration | 50 min. 18 sec. |
| Extent | 1 audio file Broadcast WAVE Format (BWF) |
| Description | Keith Allen, Pauline Melville, and Andy de la Tour, performing at Pentameters Theatre
Side A: [50:18] static, background noise, laughter. Keith Allen [KA] [0:12] SAS - not particularly brave or strong. Debacle - Squatters Advisory Service. SAS good at keeping a low profile - their heads unscrew. Educational techniques/lecture theatres. [2:30] Programme about the Iranian storming of the embassy. KA refers to himself as an ordinary punter, couldn't understand how these men, trained to deal with major crises, but can't get over a two foot gap on a balcony without ropes and ladders. [5:20] What KA feels he must do now is introduce the next act - Deidre Simpson. Audience applause. Talks about morning routines. Lives in Notting Hill, talks about the carnival as a rip off. Looking at what he thought was a map trying to work out where it was a map of, was a picture of the Queen Mother. Audience laughter. [9:52] Anecdote about a dwarf policeman who walks funny and bursts into song. [12:40] Looking for his roots. The London Experience - £3 entry, felt it was a rip off. Felt it was a fantastic experience. Somehow ended up looking at flowers. Generosity of people from the East End, how they throw amazing parties, used Cockney rhyming slang. [17:41] Alan Minter - fallen hero, KA thinks he's a prat. Jests about his father and growing up a Marxist. Makes an anecdote about a man drinking in his local looking for his brother. [20:02] Reflecting on his childhood having read a lot of books - all revolutionary movements begin in the countryside. Jokes to audience that it's only an act and settle down. Talks about being on a coach to the countryside in search of revolution - sound of birds not relaxing. Jokes about later finding a serene warm place where he pleasured himself. [24:07] The most moving thing he's seen in his life - in a field and saw horses without policeman on them. Bank robbers - wander around with no fear, modified shotguns. Relaxing in this field, thinking about his childhood - the sun caught his attention, can't stop thinking about Van Gogh. Sees a plane and imagines he's in the cabin next to the pilot. Jests about pilot being given oral sex whilst the plane is at risk of crashing - lack of communications. [29:19] Glass drops off the stage to audience laughter. Public school study - sketch to audience about a Headmaster and a young schoolboy of 9 caught smoking, simulates something to the audience accompanied by grunting noises which makes them laugh. [32:08] Mentions that there's a five minute interval and he won't be part of the second half. [32:22] Audience applause. Pauline Melville [PM] jokes about performing next to the tree of life, interest in alternative therapies reflected in pub decoration - macrobiotic colours. Jokes about different alternative therapies and religions, finding a guru and seeking enlightenment. [35:40] How to choose a good guru - two ways, shares them with the audience and they laugh. Talks about the wheel of life and reincarnation. [37:45] Discusses studying Zen Buddhism - years of studying - anorexia nirvana. Evening classes at college on how to teach your child about death, went for five or six weeks until she realised she didn't have children so then took up existentialism - answering big questions. [40:00] Essay set on 'what is time?' Uses it as a hook to bid farewell to audience. Applause. [40:54] KA talks about certain names in the business you love working with - one of them is dead. Makes jokes about the police force and the audience 'putting their stumps together' for the next act. Jokes that he does a lot for hospitals in making people sick. Welcomes AdlT to the stage. Applause. [44:04] Andy de la Tour [AdlT] says he's only arrived in the last 5 mins so he hopes the show was good. Wants to start with an impersonation of Ronald Reagan - AdlT has brought a visual aid to help the audience. Gives a speech in the style of Reagan in an American accent, audience applause. [47:04] Talks about a comedy club in Soho - compares it to a bear pit. Highly charged street atmosphere you have to wade through to get to the building, compares it to wartime Saigon. Going to the comedy club recently and there was an alarm going off outside one of the buildings. People just walking past and ignoring it. Makes a comment that they should use the PA systems to announce they're being broken into - police can arrive and talk back to the building. Contrasts it with a rape case - e.g. blaming the building for being broken into, multiple occupiers. [49:51] Horrible films being shown in Soho about single women being attacked sexually and physically. Tape cuts off.
[Summary by Ellis Spicer] |
| Notes | Side A of 1 sound cassette, digitised to LPCM wave 24 bit 48kHz. Digitised using Denon Cassette Deck DN-790R, Roland Edirol UA-55, and Adobe Audition CC 2014. 2016-02-22 |
| Category | Audio recordings |
| Access conditions | Available for consultation at the University of Kent's Special Collections & Archives reading room, Templeman Library, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NU. Access is available via digital listening copies. The University of Kent acknowledges the intellectual property rights of those named as contributors in this recording and the rights of those not identified. |
| Copyright | Keith Allen, Pauline Melville, Andy de la Tour |
| Level | Item |