Fans Reunited

[paul jh]

I think your travel plans sound good, Marian. I believe the hotel is only one mile from the Hayes train station. I'm not too familiar with the rail system, so I'm going to use what I'm comfortable with (the Tube and Buses). But the Tube can be frustrating with the steps and crowds. That's why I wanted to only take buses from the Strand, but it's just not gonna work this time.

Michael - Where is the "BOAC" on the ceiling? If it's Hatton Cross, can I see it from inside the subway car? I don't plan to get off there. Like you, I love old airline memorabilia and photos (like Matt Monro in front of the BOAC airplane). I made a BOAC model when I was a boy in the 1960s. I wish I still had it. I have a collection of timetables from the 1960s until they stopped publishing them a few years ago. I miss picking them up at the airports and ticket offices. Several airline timetables were featured in a "You Are Here" exhibit at my favourite museum in the world (the Design Museum in London). I was like a kid in a candy store. I spent hours looking at them.

Hilary - That's a great idea about the photos on this website and the newspapers. Are you offering to contact the society editors of the Daily Telegraph, Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, Observer, and Evening Standard? I think Matt Monro Fans Reunited deserves key coverage in the newspapers.

Thanks for the positive reaction to my picture. There were some lovely flowers in the photo that were cut off. I almost decided to send Murph another photo, but I'll probably leave it like that for now.

[michduncg]

Hi Paul

The 'Speedbird' logos are highly visible as you know what you are looking for - they are not on the ceiling - but in the roof support pillars (the Tube goes back underground towards the airport) You will definitely seem from the Tube carriage, as they are in Navy blue, whereas the pillars are orange, I think!

Matt does seem to have plenty of photos taken at London Airport, (as Heathrow was known until 1968) both in the Terminals, and also in front of aircraft. There are lots of BOAC pics, particularly in the 'Rare Monro' album notes. I guess it was all part of the 'jet-set' glamour of the era, when stars would be greated by a load of reporters and photographers on the tarmac. That was of course in the days when an aircraft would have a number of set of steps down to waiting buses, so that you got off the plane in a matter of minutes. None of this ten or fifteen minutes to hitch up a single pier and then join a scrum for the one door while everyone unloads their huge bags out of overhead lockers. Ah, and they call it progress!

When I first moved to London in the mid 80s, a lot of the airlines used to have glamorous booking offices along Regent Street and Picadilly, there are still a few left, but most airlines rely on the internet now. I have got various bits of British Airways literature, featuring TriStar L1011, VC10s and Concorde. One of my memories as a child is seeing the double decker buses that BEA used to use, arrive at Heathrow - I must have been very young at the time becuase I think they had stopped doing it by the mid 70s - you used to check in the West London Air Terminal (now Sainsburys on Cromwell Road, SW7), and they put your baggage on a trailer towed behind a special bus, that you travelled out to the airport on. There was one bus per flight, and you did all you passport formalities in Central London, so when you got to the airport you just waited for them to call your flight. Your baggage was checked onto the plane for you and everything.

[Edgar]

Yes, I remember that. I used to work for BEA in the early 60's and remember West London Air Terminal or WLAT as it was know then very well. I used to go there for training course for a fortnight at a time and they used to give me expenses, something I had never had before. I was only a youngster then and I used to get 11 shillings for an evening meal. So what i used to was go to the local chippie, get a a bag of chips for sixoence and if there was football on, which in London was quite often, I used to go a see a match in the evening. In those days, five shillings would get you a stand ticket at Stamford Bridge!! Happy days eh?

[michduncg]

Wow - good job I'm not going next week - I'd bore you to death with questions about BEA! 11 shillings sounds a lot for the time - we only get £15 a night for a meal if we go away now. certainly wouldn't get into a footy match with that nowadays - never mind your fish and chips (About a £5 around here)

[Anita]

We will be at the fan club meet in Hayes on 20th November also staying at the Premier Lodge, looking forward to meeting you all and having a drink after the show.

[mariana44]

Hi Anita--that will be great--the more the merrier !!!

[Lena & Harry Smith]

Hi Anita, See you there!!

[ROBERT M.]

Marian said "the more the merrier"

do you mean the more drinks the merrier you will become

[mariana44]

Hi Robert--it was intended to sound ambiguous

Personally, I do not drink!! Well, not much !!

[Lena & Harry Smith]

Just purely for medicinal purposes....

[paul jh]

I'm currently packing for my trip. The long range weather forecast is for highs in the mid-50s with rain. Do any of you have any updates? Thanks!

[Angela51]

Hi....Paul jh

LONG TERM WEATHER FORECAST !.... You certainly will not need
to pack any Sun-Cream...The weather here, in the MANCHESTER area, has been dreadful during the last week or so, blustery winds and rain.
The outlook does not look very promising either.

Happy packing and safe journey.


Angela

[Marian]

Could be "Singing in the Rain" Paul!!
Here's wishing you a smooth uneventful flight over.

Marian.

[mariana44]

Hi Paul--at the moment the weather in the South of England is very mild---
15 degrees--about 50 . But dull and cloudy, and windy. The wind is expected to get worse over the next few days here in the South. But I do not know how long the weather is going to stay this mild.

Hope you have a good flight over--looking forward to seeing you soon !

[Lena & Harry Smith]

Hi Paul, It's p......ouring down right here in London. although quite mild, but not a great deal of change until Friday when there could be some bright intervals.
Well maybe paving the way for sunshine next week.
Have a good flight and Happy landing.