Striking up the big band
QUESTION Were Cliff Richard and The Shadows the first British band to tour the U.S.?
CLIFF RICHARD and The Shadows were not the first band to tour the U.S. This honour fell to Ted Heath And His Orchestra, Britain’s great post-war big band.
Before 1956, there was an embargo on U.S. bands playing in this country other than at U.S. forces bases.
After an agreement was brokered between the British Musicians’ Union and the American Federation of Musicians, Ted Heath (not to be confused with the Seventies prime minister of the same name) toured the U.S. while the Americans Stan Kenton And His Orchestra toured Britain.
Heath’s band was part of a tour that included Nat King Cole, June Christy and The Four Freshmen performing 43 concerts in 30 cities in 31 days.
The climactic performance was at Carnegie Hall, New York, on May 1, 1956, where there were so many encore calls that Nat King Cole had to come on stage to ask the audience to leave.
Bill Ridley, Fareham, Hants. THE first British rock ’n’ roll band to tour the U.S. was Cliff Richard and The Shadows. Unfortunately, they did not make much of an impression when they appeared on TV in the popular The Ed Sullivan Show In October 1962.
Instead of one of their rock’n’ roll hits, such as Living Doll or Move It, the band were persuaded to perform What D’You Know, We’ve Got A Show, a vaudeville tune from The Young Ones film.
It failed to excite the American public. Cliff later acknowledged the mistake: ‘If I had been a bigger star at the time, I would have said: “Look, I’ll do this for you, but I need to sing my new single.” ’
In February 1964, 73 million people tuned in to see The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, marking the start of the British Invasion when UK pop and rock bands dominated the U.S. charts in the Sixties.
Dave McGann, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.
QUESTION What caused the sinking of the submarine HMS Affray?
HMS Affray, which was launched on April 12, 1944, has the unfortunate distinction of being the last British submarine to be lost at sea. There is some controversy about the circumstances of its loss. Crucially, it was fitted with a snorkel to allow it to use its diesel engines when submerged. The use of a snorkel is referred to as snorting.
The submarine had just come out of an extended time undergoing repairs in the dockyard at Gosport, Hants, when she was ordered to sea to take part in a training exercise.
This involved snorting at night in a busy shipping lane, an extremely hazardous procedure because of the risk of collision between the snorkel and a surface vessel.
The commander of another submarine in a similar condition to HMS Affray refused to go on the exercise.
Significantly, no disciplinary action was taken against him and he was subsequently promoted.
However, the commander of HMS Affray, Lt John Blackburn, an experienced submariner and war hero, took his submarine to sea on April 16, 1951.
It did not have its normal crew of 61. Eleven had been left behind to make room for five Royal Marines, who were to be put ashore as part of the exercise, and 20 submariners undergoing training, making a total of 75 on board.
At 9.15pm, a signal was received from the submarine giving her position and saying she was about to dive, intending to surface at 8.30am the next morning. Nothing was heard from her again.
The submarine had air for only two days, but it took an extensive six-week search before it was found on the sea bed at a depth of more than 250ft a few miles north-west of Alderney harbour in the Channel Islands.
A newly developed underwater TV camera was used to examine the submarine. At first it appeared to be undamaged, but on closer examination it was found that the snorkel had broken off where it joined the hull.
The mast was recovered and it was reported that a metallurgical weakness in the tube had caused it to fracture. A valve just inside the hull should have been closed to prevent the ingress of water, but the valve’s correct operation could only be established by raising the submarine and this was not attempted.
There have been suggestions HMS Affray was not seaworthy when it put to sea. In 2001, it was declared a war grave, putting it out of reach of further investigation. There are memorials at Braye Harbour, Alderney, and Gosport to the 75 men who died.
Denis Sharp, Hailsham, E. Sussex.
QUESTION Following the Brett Kavanaugh saga, has a member of the U.S. Supreme Court ever been impeached?
THE only Supreme Court justice to have been impeached was Samuel Chase (1741-1811), appointed by George Washington in 1796.
His open partisanship for John Adams’ Federalist Party infuriated the Democratic-Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson became U.S. President in 1800, matters came to a head.
In 1803, after Chase gave a grand jury charge in the U.S. circuit court in Maryland that was critical of the Republicans for abolishing circuit judgeships in 1801, he was accused of acting more like a prosecutor than judge.
In March 1804, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Chase for his open bias. He was served with eight articles of impeachment, one related to his grand jury charge and the other seven focused on alleged improper behaviour when he presided in other court cases.
On March 1, 1805, he was acquitted. His acquittal was a victory for his position that an indictable offence was required to meet the high crimes and misdemeanours standard for the impeachment and conviction of a federal judge.
He served on the Supreme Court for the rest of his life.
Tim Downes, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
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