BIRDS EYE
Page 40
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by ne Hawk
LV down to brass tacks in Japan
LEYLAND VEHICLES men were not amused by satirical jokes about the export of the works brass band to Japan. -Snide," they sniffed. "Unworthy,they muttered. So I suppressed the dazzling shfts of wit that I might otherwise have released.
The band's two-week tour of Japan was at the invitation of Tokyo Brass Society, which resulted from a three-week visit last year by Richard Evans, musical director. During the fortnight they gave 11 concerts and took part in two seminars.
First they assembled at the Japanese Embassy in London, where Richard Evans presented a copy of Contrasts in Brass, the band's new double record album, to the ambassador. Then they entertained His Excellency and the Press, opening with what must have been the Japanese national anthem, because the ambassador stood up, followed raggedly by the unprepared visitors.
The programme which, according to my reckoning, reached noise levels of about 115dB(A), concluded with the British national anthem. This had an unfamiliar introduction, which again caught the Press on the hop. Between these surprises the band played some pleasing Japanese children's songs.
The band is self-supporting through concerts, records and so on, and the tour was undertaken during the works holiday. The instruments include two tutti cornets, one vanilla flavour and the other strawberry.
Paul sends King the wrong way
PAUL BROCKINGTON, former Midland editor of Commercial Motor, whose funeral I attended on July 22, had a quiet but keen sense of humour and enjoyed a joke against himself. During his service with the air-sea rescue branch of the South African Air Force, he was bosun of a tender which was to take King George VI ashore. As it manoeuvred into position for the King to step aboard the order was given: "Slow ahead". Paul pushed the lever the wrong way and the boat shot astern.
"I nearly went down in history as the man who drowned the King,•" he said wryly.
Jones the Coach turns to cars
ALAN JONES Mkl, who won the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in a Saudia-Williams car and is heading for the world championship, has a Mk11 namesake who is also a professional performer on four wheels, albeit rather slower. The Mk11 model drives a National Express Leyland Leopard coach which has a special livery featuring the Saudia-Leyland team and is being used at a number of events this year. Jones the Coach, who resigned from engineering management 13 lucky years ago, is a car-racing enthusiast. (Could it have been he who swept past me when I was travelling at a steady 70mph on M4? When he met Jones the Race at Brands Hatch they tried on each other's vehicles for size but decided not to exchange jobs. For one thing, the coach is less draughty.
Husband's grim tale of bondage
STANLEY HUSBAND, Seddon Atkinson's manager, manufacturing, has a grievance, as he told Secretary of State for Trade, John Knott. He complained bitterly that the company had to compete with Leyland Vehicles, which was heavily subsidised by taxpayers, and with foreign manufacturers who imported into Britain at advantageous prices because of the "grossly overvalued pound".
"We can compete against all these people with one hand tied behind our backs," he said bravely, "but at the moment we are trussed, gagged and blindfolded."
I understand that the next new Seddon Atkinson model is to be called the Houdini.
Sleep of Bacchus still illegal
I DOUBT whether lorry drivers with sleeper cabs can take comfort from the House of Lords ruling that the police are not entitled to enter a person's bedroom to administer the breath test. A vehicle may be a longdistance driver's home from home but the Law Lords were clearly talking about a domicile.
It would be unwise for a driver to refuse to take the test, no matter how cosily he was tucked up in his bunk after Midnight.