Revving up for a No 1 hit
QUESTION
What is the make and model of the motorcycle used as a sound effect in The ShangriLas’ Leader Of The Pack?
THE bike was a Harley Davidson FLH Duo Glide. Producer George ‘Shadow’ Morton didn’t want to use a sound effect, so he took the bike to the recording studio to lay down the track.
This was no mean feat as the bike, which weighed nearly a third of a ton, had to be taken up several floors in a lift to the studio.
We know this, as Shadow appeared on our BBC TV show Notes & Queries with Clive Anderson in 1993 via satellite from New York. We managed to track him down despite his reputation for elusiveness, hence his nickname.
In 1964, the BBC banned the song, despite it being a Number One in the US, due to its death theme and because it was thought to be an incitement to violence between mods and rockers.
On our show, we played a recording of Leader Of The Pack, but with a twist: we brought a Harley Davidson into TV Centre Studio 1 for Clive to ‘play’ the motorcycle live.
This gave the health and safety nannies a heart attack. They initially refused permission for Clive to ride the bike, but when he told them he had a motorbike licence, they gave in.
Shadow was pleased with the performance and we closed the show with Clive driving the heavy beast off the set with copresenter Carol Vorderman as his pillion passenger.
A motorbike also took centre stage in the US television series American Dreams when the iconic song was performed by Katie Campbell and the Duff sisters Haylie and Hilary.
Philippe Bassett and Leela Creswell, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.
QUESTION
What’s the difference between a Stalinist and a Trotskyite?
STALINISM and Trotskyism are competing branches of Marxism, which originated as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
The leader of the revolution, Vladimir Lenin, claimed to be an orthodox Marxist who had updated some of Marxism’s tenets to reflect the times.
Under Leninism, the Communist
Party was to be organised as a dictatorship of the proletariat as a stepping stone to true socialism. Following Lenin’s death in 1924, there was a power struggle between Joseph Stalin, SecretaryGeneral of the Communist Party, and Leon Trotsky, who was in charge of the Red Army.
Stalinists adopted the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism. Its main tenet was the creation of socialism in one country under the strict rule of a centralised Communist Party.
Stalin aimed to erase capitalism and to transform the fledgling Soviet Union into an industrialised socialist state.
Appealing to socialist revolutionary fervour and Russian nationalism, he launched his first Five-Year Plan in 1928, ordering an unrealistic 250% increase in industrial development. He declared class war on the kulaks — farmers with more than eight acres. Five million people were deported and never heard from again. Russian agriculture was rapidly collectivised, against considerable rural resistance, to meet the needs of urban industry.
Advocating permanent revolution, Trotsky believed socialism could be achieved only if the working classes around the world rose up as one to overthrow the ruling classes — the doctrine of international socialism.
Following his exile in 1929, Trotsky criticised Stalin’s bureaucratic system, dubbing it Bonapartist. Stalin described Trotsky’s system as rotten liberalism.
Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico in 1940 by Ramon Mercader, a Spanish-born Russian agent, using an ice axe. P. E. Taylor,
Jarrow, Tyne & Wear.
QUESTION
I have acquired an allotment and been advised to improve the soil by adding eggshells and chopped banana skins. Will this work?
BANANA skins and eggshells are two of many ingredients that can be added to a compost bin. They should be mixed with other kitchen vegetable and fruit peelings, together with grass cuttings, leaves and shredded paper.
When broken down, eggshells make the soil unattractive to slugs and snails, so they are an organic deterrent.
Barry Hillman, Shoreham-by-Sea Horticultural and Allotment Society, W. Sussex.
EGGSHELLS and bananas will not do any harm to the soil. However, you will need to apply a ludicrous amount to make a real difference.
A better approach would be to add them to a compost heap along with other organic material that can later be dug into the soil.
Banana skins don’t have to be chopped up as they rot quickly. Citrus fruit should not be added to compost, as the acidic compounds they contain aren’t good for worms and other insects that assist in the composting process. Happy gardening!
David Barwick, Nottingham.