ARTS

STAG’S WORLD OF ROCK

It’s always difficult writing a monthly column compared to a weekly one as a lot can change in a month, especially with this pandemic still here. When you read this it will be early January and I should be writing “How did your Christmas go, and did you see any good bands, etc.?” However, as I’m writing this on 4th December to meet the magazine’s deadline, who knows what this government has got planned and just one announcement can scupper things. Singer Laurence Parry and I went down to Porthcawl’s John Street bandstand to see the Xmas lights turned on but sadly it was cancelled. I think they forgot to put batteries in them! We made a video about it and put it on Facebook and it cheered a few people up. I hope my good friend and fellow columnist Anthony Hontoir gets better soon after his bike accident. Anthony, who writes his monthly Film Maker’s Point of View, has made some great local history DVDs which can be purchased from his Downwood Films website. I trust next month I will have more local music news but keep the calls coming.

Stag Marks 07549 728356

Photo: Stag Marks

A FILM MAKER’S POINT OF VIEW

In October and November I made two trips up to Scotland as part of a film crew working on Carl Richards’s lighthouse documentary. We were joined there by sound recordist Paddy Copland and on the first trip we went far north to Fraserburgh, near Paddy’s home city of Aberdeen, to film at the Northern Lighthouse Board’s Museum of Scottish Lights, and for the second trip we filmed an interview with Mike Bullock, the NLB’s chief executive at their Edinburgh headquarters. We based ourselves on both occasions at The Hawes Inn, a delightful hotel in South Queensferry, right under the Forth railway bridge, that magnificent example of Victorian civil engineering, completed in 1890, which appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 masterpiece, “The 39 Steps”, and whilst there, I couldn’t resist the temptation to take a walk along a footpath at the water’s edge to find the exact spot where Hitchcock’s camera had been set up to take the shots of the bridge. Nowadays, the two Forth road bridges appear in the background, which, notwithstanding their own importance in linking both sides of the Firth of Forth, slightly spoil the view!

Anthony Hontoir, Downwood Films 07510 934299

Picture: (l to r) Paddy Copland, Anthony Hontoir, Fiona Holmes (NLB Communications Officer) and Carl Richards

Deadline date for the February issue is: SATURDAY 15TH JANUARY

Wishing all our our readers a Happy New Year

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PYLE & PORTHCAWL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

We recently held our annual Club Competition 1 expertly judged by Susan Ashford from Port Talbot. It was split into 2 sections, Prints and Digital Images. The winner of the Prints was new member Bill Robertson with The Poacher. The winner of the digital images was Geoff Baker with Food for the Chicks. Congratulations both. We’re a very friendly camera club with a mix of male & female members and welcome new members of all ages and skill levels, it’s all very informal so if you have an interest in photography why not join us, on Thursday evenings at 7:30pm at St Clare’s School, Newton CF36 5NR. Our meetings are held within the social distancing rules and guidelines. Our program is available at www.pyle-porthcawl-ps.co.uk

Geoff Baker