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Billy Connolly... it's OK relax


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Saw his telly prog last night. Seemed in not bad nick, certainly better than I've seem him previously and better than the Parkinson story a few months back. There was current footage and old reminiscence footage. It's was nice to see him on telly again but it did give the impression he was tidying up few loose ends which was a bit sad. Would I be wrong in saying that 'Live' and 'Cop yer whack for this', on cassette obviously, was a revolution for Scottish identity.

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18 minutes ago, Eisegerwind said:

Saw his telly prog last night. Seemed in not bad nick, certainly better than I've seem him previously and better than the Parkinson story a few months back. There was current footage and old reminiscence footage. It's was nice to see him on telly again but it did give the impression he was tidying up few loose ends which was a bit sad. Would I be wrong in saying that 'Live' and 'Cop yer whack for this', on cassette obviously, was a revolution for Scottish identity.

Whoops too late for the edit, too old to remember Cop yer whack, no,  'Solo'

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On Friday, December 14, 2018 at 10:45 PM, Eisegerwind said:

Saw his telly prog last night. Seemed in not bad nick, certainly better than I've seem him previously and better than the Parkinson story a few months back. 

Aye watched it last night, thought he's looking well for a 75 year old with Parkinson's. The move to Florida seems to have been a smart one.

 

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20 hours ago, glasgow jock said:

He went downhill (comedy wise) after "An Audience With" in 1986. (IMO Of course)

Don't know about that.  I went to see him live a few times in the 1990s and early 2000s and on every occasion I was laughing so hard it hurt.

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On 12/19/2018 at 12:11 AM, Toepoke said:

Aye watched it last night, thought he's looking well for a 75 year old with Parkinson's. The move to Florida seems to have been a smart one.

 

I actually thought the marked improvement in his demeanor since the move to Florida was quite remarkable. Food for thought!

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1 hour ago, slasher said:

I actually thought the marked improvement in his demeanor since the move to Florida was quite remarkable. Food for thought!

I've always suspected chilling in the sun was better for you than knocking your pan in at some shitty job till you're too old or too ill to do it anymore, like governments,employers and the work ethic would have you believe. Good luck to him.

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On 12/18/2018 at 3:05 PM, glasgow jock said:

He went downhill (comedy wise) after "An Audience With" in 1986. (IMO Of course)

 

On 12/19/2018 at 11:45 AM, aaid said:

Don't know about that.  I went to see him live a few times in the 1990s and early 2000s and on every occasion I was laughing so hard it hurt.

Kind of agree with both of you.

An Audience with.... was definitely the last time I laughed till I cried with him. It was utterly hilarious. 

Unfortunately he followed it up with a couple of duffers eg Billy and Albert which were a bit shit. He seemed to become more gratuitously profane for a while which seemed to be just for shock value and he lost a lot of his earthy humour for me.

He did come back a little tho. Some of the excerpts from some of his “Tour....” stuff was decent. 

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9 minutes ago, Marky said:

 

Kind of agree with both of you.

An Audience with.... was definitely the last time I laughed till I cried with him. It was utterly hilarious. 

Unfortunately he followed it up with a couple of duffers eg Billy and Albert which were a bit shit. He seemed to become more gratuitously profane for a while which seemed to be just for shock value and he lost a lot of his earthy humour for me.

He did come back a little tho. Some of the excerpts from some of his “Tour....” stuff was decent. 

It's the first two albums phenomena. Getting out the angst of 20 years, firstly a bit rough, secondly better articulated, thirdly a career. You can never take away the early years and in his case and a few others there will still be flashes or more of insight.

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The first time I heard 'him', it was actually just his material.   Us cadets were on a rifle range and we must have run out of ammo or something, 'cause the flight sergeant did the crucifixion sketch from beginning to end and it was brilliant.   It was like a stage too, as his audience was seated on an array of steps like in some ancient theatre.

A school pal had one of the first albums, which was what I heard next.   Quite shocking in its day, and we lapped it up of course.

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I wonder if it's because he has been living a too comfy/celebrity lifestyle to make for good stories. He used to draw from life in the tenements, fitba', shipyards, the streets etc. In fact he still does, his latest reminiscences of being a welder or at the Barrowland, dancing etc. He talks of Glasgow as if still in the 1960s...

Not saying he's not entitled to making some cash out of his memoirs but his latest material less likely to be as fresh and funny as the early days when he was breath of fresh air, a force of nature. 

Saw a few minutes of him in miami/little Cuba  watching the old guys playing dominos and he pointed out he's an old guy too now. Some of his gentler observational stuff works better maybe than trying too hard to be funny. 

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Probably when he started swearing to get laughs - excessive swearing

Or there's the oft used Labour brainwashing favourite - I have more in common with a welder from Liverpool than i have with a (name your profession) in Scotland etc etc

 

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Probably showing my age. My mother went to see him in the Excelsior Hotel (think that's what it was called) at Glasgow Airport in the mid 1970's. I remember soon afterwards he brought an album out (vinyl) called 'Get Intae Them'. Worth a listen if it's still available. 

Edited by Lairdyfaeinverclyde
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5 minutes ago, Lairdyfaeinverclyde said:

Probably showing my age. My mother went to see him in the Excelsior Hotel (think that's what it was called) at Glasgow Airport in the mid 1970's. I remember soon afterwards he brought an album out (vinyl) called 'Get Intae Them'. Worth a listen if it's still available. 

Found it on you tube

 

 

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1 hour ago, Ally Bongo said:

Probably when he started swearing to get laughs - excessive swearing

Or there's the oft used Labour brainwashing favourite - I have more in common with a welder from Liverpool than i have with a (name your profession) in Scotland etc etc

 

Just the other day he said Glasgow was no harder or funnier than (Liverpool, Newcastle, etc.), just more bigoted.

However valid that may be, it's hardly endearing yourself to your city that you made a living out of telling stories about. 

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Because of this thread, and because I recently had quiet a bit of time to kill (see A380 thread), I watched An Audience With a couple of days ago.

I grew up very aware of Billy Connolly but without ever really having watched much of his earlier stuff, presumably because he was at his sweary stage and my parents wanted to protect my impressionable young mind or something.  So I don’t think I had ever seen An Audience With before.

There were some genuinely very funny moments, and some that probably would have been very funny but haven’t aged well. There was also a fair amount that I can’t imagine was every funny.  

But what struck me the most was how familiar it all seemed.  He inspired a whole generation of wannabe professional Weegies into thinking they were funny men just because they were born in Clydebank or East Kilbride. And that is unforgivable.

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6 hours ago, Denny’s Yard said:

I grew up very aware of Billy Connolly but without ever really having watched much of his earlier stuff, presumably because he was at his sweary stage and my parents wanted to protect my impressionable young mind or something.

Willies, jobbies and Jesus mainly.   Pre the Parkinson interviews too.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/23/2018 at 7:10 PM, Ally Bongo said:

Probably when he started swearing to get laughs - excessive swearing

Or there's the oft used Labour brainwashing favourite - I have more in common with a welder from Liverpool than i have with a (name your profession) in Scotland etc etc

 

I have seen him a few times live, none recently. One occasion was when I lived in Jersey in the mid 80’s, there was no age restriction on the gig and swearing was banned.

He was hilarious, which does confirm that whilst funny when used at the right time, swearing  is unnecessary if the content and delivery is good.  

Watched the first part of the Made in Scotland programme last night. Really enjoyed it. Rothesay was pretty nostalgic. 

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1 hour ago, TDYER63 said:

Watched the first part of the Made in Scotland programme last night. Really enjoyed it. Rothesay was pretty nostalgic. 

Had it on today when I was taking the tree down.  Excellent programme, I look  forward to seeing part 2...

 

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6 hours ago, Toepoke said:

Had it on today when I was taking the tree down.  Excellent programme, I look  forward to seeing part 2...

 

I'm a tad confused about what programmes I'm watching or expecting. I started this thread when i saw the one about him in the States. I thought this was the second episode of that, was this a seperate thing with another episode to come. Regardless, thought it was very good. found the meetings with the 'artists' a bit forced. Cried with laughter at the 'jesus suffering fuck' story but maybe the bits before that contributed.

Edited by Eisegerwind
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10 hours ago, Eisegerwind said:

I'm a tad confused about what programmes I'm watching or expecting. I started this thread when i saw the one about him in the States. I thought this was the second episode of that, was this a seperate thing with another episode to come. Regardless, thought it was very good. found the meetings with the 'artists' a bit forced. Cried with laughter at the 'jesus suffering fuck' story but maybe the bits before that contributed.

Aye there's been a Billy bonanza recently, the series you were talking about was on STV then the Beeb showed this...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bwzhy6/billy-connolly-made-in-scotland-series-1-episode-1

 

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17 hours ago, Toepoke said:

Had it on today when I was taking the tree down.  Excellent programme, I look  forward to seeing part 2...

 

😂

Once again I have managed to watch a series in reverse order  without realising it. 

I sat down last night  to watch ‘part 2’. Hit ‘resume play’ on iplayer and watched 5-10 mins of him in the  artic before realising Scotland was nowhere to be seen. I had actually watched  part 2 the previous night and this was a completely different programme they had tagged on. 

Sorry for spoiling the suspense 🙄 Part 1 was great too when I eventually found it....

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