Before the book even begins there is a “Note to the Reader” eluding to the fact that some people have come to believe that Barry Humphries and Dame Edna are essentially the same person. Humphries writes that he hopes to shed some light on where this belief came from, so that the reader can make their own decision about what they believe.
The first chapter starts in Moonee Ponds, Australia and describes how Barry and Edna met. Humphries writes in the first person, and throughout the book uses description to indicate the decade and location of events he describes.
Each chapter gives entertaining and fascinating insight into Barry’s life and career (or lack of), Edna and her family’s life and careers, her rise to stardom (and Barry’s lack of understanding as to why) and the problems that it brought her – all in a chronological order.
A few highlights (in no particular order) include Barry being the warm up act for Dame Edna – for various shows; Edna’s time in Hollywood; Barry’s stint in hospital with alcoholism and Edna being his only visitor; Barry’s love life; Barry’s impersonation of Edna on two occasions – the first for his benefit and the second trying to help her; Edna’s poor mental health – in particular in relation to the death of Norm (her husband).
As the chapters go on, towards the end of the book you start to get a fictional feel to the final chapters. Earlier in the book Barry is handed a letter for Edna by Madge. Madge instructs Barry to only give the letter to Edna when she dies. In the final chapter Madge finally dies in hospital. Barry remembers the letter and it reveals that Edna’s missing daughter Lois was taken by Madge in a moment of madness (which explains why Madge tolerated Edna over the decades). Madge writes that she gave Lois to some old friends to raise as their own, with Lois calling her Auntie Madge. In the hospital, the nurse turns out to be called Lois and is upset as her Auntie Madge has just died.
Having read the book do I believe that Barry Humphries and Edna Everage are the same person? Yes I think they are the same person, but that only makes Humphries even cleverer. The factual parts about Barry’s life are interesting to read, but the fiction about Edna is even more interesting. It not only makes the book very entertaining but it gives and insight into the psyche of Humphries.
Recently I’ve been unable to string a sentence together that makes sense to read. Whether it’s writers block, tiredness or a lack of inspiration; I’m not sure of the cause. Whatever it is, hopefully it will sort it’s self out and then I can start blogging properly again. But rest assured, knowing I haven’t forgotten about the blog.
Posted
on Thursday 12 April 2012 @ 1:48,
by Antony.
As part of my Christmas presents last year, mum bought me a ticket to see Steps with her, Ian and Jodie. We got into town early and grabbed a bite to eat:
Mum & Ian (1) – with Flash!
Mum & Ian (2) – without Flash.
Me being sophisticated drinking coffee. Later I spend some time peeing while the warm up artists were on. Luckily they were terrible and worth missing.
Me.
While Jodie’s off powdering her nose, me & Ian fight over her bag. We stop to pose for a quick photo.
Jodie’s back and posing for a photo with mum.
Mum, Jodie & Ian.
Mum, Me & Ian.
I decide to be cheeky and mess up mum’s & Ian’s hair (forgetting that Ian doesn’t have any). Mum retaliates as a photos taken.
We got to the Arena and took our seats. There were two warm up acts, both of which were shockingly bad.
Ian, Mum & Jodie.
The audience go wild as the Steps logo appears on the screens at either side of the stage.
Five tubes that Steps were rise up and into on their first appearance on stage.
A vault with countdown clock on. The graphic was completely on a back screen.
The vault opens.
Steps appear on stage.
The graphics screen at the back of the stage. The screen lit up, in combination with the lights made getting photos really difficult.
Steps appear on stage. We were treated to a few Steps classics with dance moves using the back screen as a Just Dance type game.
Steps – Dancing & Singing in boxes.
Backing Dancers – Playing with Fire, while Steps sing.
To give you a feel of the hyper-active, excited atmosphere of the audience, I took a short video:
Then each member of Steps did a solo song. First Lee, singing a mix of a few songs. His performance was excellent, and there were even screams when he ripped open his shirt:
(Lee performing with his shirt open.)
Next was Faye:
(Faye performing.)
‘H’ sang Don’t Stop Believing and did some clever stuff by making it look like he was interacting with the big graphic screen at the back of the stage:
(H performing. With his use of the graphic screen, I struggled to get a good photo.)
Lisa sang next, singing a mix of different songs including her track ‘Lately‘:
(Lisa performing.)
Claire sang her solo last. Claire had put on weight, but looked better for it. Unsuprisingly she sang an opera type song (having been on Popstar to Operastar):
Then it was time for my favorite Steps song: It’s The Way You Make Me Feel. I couldn’t help feel disappointed, rather than just having H singing the male lines of the song both H and Lee sang them. There voices didn’t feel like they became one. I would have preferred just H to sing to be honest. Still the costumes lived up to expectations, see below:
Lee in his mask and suit.
H in is costume. Claire, Faye and Lisa wore corset type costumes. All keeping in the theme of the orignal music video.
H closer, a photo of the side screen.
Steps then went on to sing Love’s Got A Hold On My Heart
Steps stopped to say Thank you’s – mostly to the audience for supporting them. They even posed for a photo:
Then they slowed things down with a few of their ballot type tracks. What amazed me was that the audience sang along, louder than Steps at some points. The audience singing in mass made me aware of how many people related to the words in Step’s songs.
(Steps sitting on the stage singing some of their slower tracks.)
Steps brought back the hyper-active, excited atmosphere of the audience with Stomp and some other songs. Here’s some photos:
Stage for Stomp.
Stage for another song.
Stage for another song.
Steps on Stage performing Dancing Queen.
Then it was time for Steps to take a bow and leave the stage:
For their encore they performed the only track they hadn’t performed so far: Tragedy :
(Leaving the audience on a high.)
For me it was a bit of nostalgia, re-living my teen years. But Steps stated that they were back – so they may well release some new music. I hope they do, I really enjoyed myself and had forgotten how much I enjoy a bit of cheesy pop.
I would like to apologise for quality and size and of the photos. I should have taken my camera rather than used my iPhone, this would have improved the quality of the photos. I’ve also had to significantly reduce the size of the photos to save on disk space (see More Disk Space). But if you’ve not got tickets to see Steps, don’t worry as the tour DVD is available to pre-order here: Steps – The Ultimate Tour Live [DVD]. Also you can order the live concerts on CD here: Steps Live! 2012 [CD].
I recently discovered these cans of pre-mixed Smirnoff Vokda and Diet Cola:
They taste delicious, much better than if you mixing your own and slip down rather nicely. At £1.75 and only 1.6 units per can, they are ideal if you’re not a big drinker or want to reduce your alcohol consumption.
Think of it like this: if you pour a vodka and diet coke at home you’re likely to pour more than a pub measure (25mls shot) 1 unit. Your likely to pour at least a double at 2 units – if not more, whereas these cans are only 1.6 units.
Of course it depends on how many of the cans you drink – but in theory, they are a good way to reduce your alcohol consumption.
I recently I received an email saying that I was close to my 200MB of disk space. So I decided to look at my photos/images that were taking up most of the space…
Photo / Image Library:
John Barrowman LIVE
Dylan & Russell
25th Birthday Blackpool
Pagan Stone Circle in Angle
…Oh, that explains the lack of space. So I’ve upgraded my disk space with Dataflame. Hopefully that will allow me to share more photos and images with you.
