Again The Likes We Never See

A great Briton

Charles Burgess Fry Born: April 25th, 1872 Died: September 7th, 1956
Even in his youth C.B was recogniesed as an all round exceptionally gifted person. A poster boy for the term 'clever clogs'. He excelled at a number of sports (seen above playing cricket) but not content with sport, C.B was also a brilliant teacher, politician, writer, editor and publisher. Like I said, clever clogs but a truly great Briton.
We'll never see the like of C.B. Fry again. The earth has moved, ambition shifted and all the people now are clowns. In our rush to step into the future, in our thirst to make evrything easier (mostly via internet, apps, Kindle, iTunes, etc), we have discarded real adventure and sold our soul to convenience.
It was all so different in Fry's time. You had to work and push both muscle and mind to a much greater level if you wanted to make an impact back then. Even hobbies required more spirit to pursue them. And it created character, a type on Man that could never exist today. Now its mostly copy and paste, and lily livered downloads. Convenient yes, but not very exciting.

Things Wot I Knew

Have you ever seen something, or heard them, and instantly known they would be huge? Before they made it, doesn't count if the artist/musician is already successful. I remember hearing Guns n' Roses before Appetite For Destruction was released and thinking, 'f**k, these are going to be huge!' Ditto Nivana. I was slightly off note with a similar prediction about Skid Row, however they were successful for a brief time in the 1990s.


These lads were big you know

My Nostradamus~like forecasts were not restricted to musos either. Mickey Rourke was the first actor to appear on my 'success radar' when I saw him in No Prayer For The Dying and Johnny Handsome. 'Now there's a guy who is going places,' I said at the time. Sure enough the next time I saw Mr Rourke he had made his Hollywood breakthrough and was romping around with Kim Basinger in the super sexy 9 1/2 Weeks. Lucky git.
Christian Slater was the next boyo I chanced upon and blessed with my Welsh wand (ooer!) After seeing him in the wonderfully dark Heathers I knew he was going to join Mickey in Hollywood glory. Sure he gets his acting chops from Jack Nicholson but that ain't no bad thing, no siree!
The next BIG THING I discovered (before it was a 'big thing') was Skateboarding. When I felt the rumble of the board, heard the 'punkiness' of the soundtrack and popped my first ever ollie, I just knew good things awaited this cool sport/hobby. Have you ever seen Thrasher? The prophecy is all in that piece of film.
The last of my predictions did not fly as well, mainly due to the fickle nature of the British public. Hedgehog flavoured crisps. How on earth in a sane world did they ever die out? How? How in the name of Dimebag Darrell how? A brilliant idea, tragically lost in 1980's Britain.
So there. The things wot I knew before they were touched (and some would say tarnished) by the whiff of success.