John Barry agreed to write music for York museum
We all have “might-have-beens” in our lives, some of which we regret!
Kevin Glenton’s article (November 3 Press, “The day Bond composer visited his former home”) evoked one such near miss for me.
John Barry was a school friend of an Air Museum friend of mine, another John, at St Peter’s (I’m not an alumnus; they were) and he was a potential contact for a big request on behalf of the emerging Yorkshire Air Museum & Allied Air Forces Memorial at Elvington.
The request was to write a piece of music for the museum – after all, he’d had a few hits!
The title we’d already decided. Those of us with knowledge of Yorkshire in WW2 will be unsurprised to hear it was “The Halifax March”.
The fee we had in mind with the new museum struggling to make ends meet was minimal; in fact gratis.
JB agreed!!
I contacted the leader of the Central Band of the RAF who agreed the band would première the piece and include it on a CD at “today’s popular price” to the museum.
Well it never happened, falling into the folder marked “might-have-beens”.
I was too busy to spend time selecting the other tracks for the CD. My more-than-full time job meant I couldn’t fit everything in.
Then both Johns became ill, one sadly not to recover. The net result was nil.
A “might-have-been”… in the Yorkshire Air Museum archive!
Derek Reed
Middlethorpe Drive
York
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No case for EU return
Rejoining the EU is raising its ugly head.
Should this again be decided by another referendum, the case for staying out is significantly reinforced every time ex Chancellor Reeves, one of many failed Labour ministers, states publicly we should be a full member.
Peter Rickaby
Moat Way
Brayton
Give pensioners a break
Time for another moan.
Why is it, students can get 10 per cent or more off beer, meals out, etc, etc?
What have they done for this country?
Nothing yet.
Why don't pensioners get the same deals, after all we've kept breweries and restaurants going all our lives and now we aren't working any more we could do with a little help, so come on.
S. Robinson
Yorkshire
Case for North Sea gas
Michael Kearney, in his letter to The Press, deplores the decision to open the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.
He assumes that if the country does not have this supply, it will manage to do without. What is more likely would be a continuation of the present importation of gas from abroad as liquefied natural gas (LNG).
This carries a carbon footprint because the gas is brought by ship from distant countries. Gas flowing through a pipeline entails less of a carbon footprint than gas arriving by ship.
I do realise that much of our gas comes by pipeline from Norway. But some of it arrives by ship, and the Jackdaw field gas would replace a portion of it.
David Martin
Rosedale Ave
York
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