Ringing On The Engine Bell

A Combination Of Cribbins by Bernard Cribbins (Parlophone, 1962) - listen to Tim Worthington talking to Paul Abbott about Bernard Cribbins' pop career in (Music For) The Head Ballet.

(Music For) The Head Ballet is a podcast hosted by Paul Abbott, celebrating the novelty record in all its many and varied forms. So far the series has looked at Frank Sidebottom, the Eurovision Song Contest, Tom Paxton, and George Harrison’s inexplicable single about Formula 1, and on the latest edition you can hear me on Ringing On The Engine Bell by Bernard Cribbins, a 1964 single that was mysteriously withdrawn from release before it could trouble the charts. Though as you’ll find out, it might not be such a mystery after all…

As well as Bernard Cribbins’ surprisingly extensive back catalogue, we also chat about George Martin’s comedy productions in general – taking in That Was The Week That Was, Peter Sellers, The Beatles and more – the weird obsession everyone seemed to have with the Fire Brigade in the mid-sixties, and a possible link between a Cribbins b-side and the early work of David Bowie. Plus there’s an extra surprise for fans of Looks Unfamiliar…

You can download (Music For) The Head Ballet: Ringing On The Engine Bell By Bernard Cribbins here. You can follow (Music For) The Head Ballet on Twitter at @HeadBalletPod.

Ringing On The Engine Bell by Bernard Cribbins (Parlophone, 1964) - listen to Tim Worthington talking to Paul Abbott about Bernard Cribbins' pop career in (Music For) The Head Ballet.

Buy A Book!

The Larks Ascending is a guide to comedy on BBC Radio 3, heavily featuring Bernard Cribbins’ songwriters Ted Dicks and Myles Rudge. You can get The Larks Ascending in paperback here or from the Kindle Store here.

Alternately, if you’re just feeling generous, you can buy me a coffee here. Don’t send ‘Fred’ and his mate for one, though. They’ll only demolish a wall or something and anyway, they prefer tea.

Further Listening

Paul has been a guest on Tim’s nostalgia podcast Looks Unfamiliar, talking about The Compleat Beatles, Zeeb And The Martians, Crab E. Crab, Rock Lords: Narlies, the Commodore Plus/4 and The Late Night Funster Show, which you can find here. Paul also joined us for a chat about the Christmas Special of The Peter Serafinowicz Show, which you can find here, and took over has host to chat to Tim about California Fever, Galloping Galaxies!, Bad Ronald, In-Flight Entertainment, The Chronicles Of Narmo by Caitlin Moran, Pirate Radio Four, The Collings And Herrin Podcast, What’s That Noise? and Karen Gillan’s The Hoarding here.

Paul has also appeared on Tim’s Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast It’s Good, Except It Sucks talking about Thor: The Dark World here and Iron Fist here.

You can find Tim on (Music For The) Head Ballet talking about I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek by The Go-Go’s here, and on Goon Pod talking about Peter And Sophia, a comedy album that George Martin produced for Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren, here.