Ahhh the BFSS !!

I of course was the Ban The Ban Frank Sidebottom Society Society...

Well I wasn't to blame for phoning you up honest.... although it may have
had something to do with Jim's other biggest fan... the Sugarcubes-obsessed
herself, the James H Reeve Adoration Society AKA The Minister for Cheadle
Hulme AKA The Fall & The Sugarcubes Appreciation Society.... I didn't know
Lucie at the time (despite the fact that our banter in our letters might
have seemed like we did) but she got in touch with me in 1989 when I had
just made my first venture onto James Stannage's programme presenting the
Silly Hour Charts on Monday nights for him... and we met up and corresponded
for a couple of years after that including several visits across Heaton Park
to spy on Jim's house haha...

Haha... I've just found the tape with David Dunne presenting when Jim was on
holiday and he announces to everyone on the Tuesday night... "I have 2
letters... one from a Martin A Smith and another from Simon
Sandiford-Mitchell... the writing's very good, its all in pencil..."

And I started it off in the usual way "Dear David, Please read this out on
Monday night at 11.15pm.... Please play one of the following records
(followed by a list that I just made up off the top of my head) and say
hello to the following people...." and it was remarkable how many times Jim
and his various replacements used to obey my commands!

I wasn't Eric XX G-Mex so your sanity is safe. I really did used to write
most of my letters in the William Hulme Compter Room and on the 85 bus.... I
think I am going to have to set up a JHR dedication web site.... with sound
clips from the hours of his show I have... I also have the official James H
Reeve cassette that Piccadilly released... and also the James H Reeve
Musical tribute that I made myself and sent him a copy of...

I have found a couple of things of interesting letters and things that Jim
sent me in the post - see he didn't hate me that much.... I have scanned
them and put them in the files section of this Yahoo Group :

1. A letter from James dated 26th September 1989 explaining why he was so
grumpy when I saw him and spoke to him in his front garden one Sunday
afternoon...

2. A letter from James dated 14th March 1990 thanking me for sending him
the musical tribute cassette.

3. A compliments slip when I sent him something else as a goodbye present
or something equally strange

4. A signed photo of James he sent me after he had "my shopping list" sent
to him and he read it all out on air. Actually he never knew at the time
but it was a spoof as I sent it in myself pretending to be "a freind" - but
in actual fact it was my mum's shopping list - and I hadn't bothered to
check the contents of it before I sent it... it had allsorts of embarrasing
things on like a jumper, cake cover etc

5. A signed photo of Jim's biggest rival (after Allan Beswick) which of
course was James Whale...


What's the story about Hallam FM ? I must have missed that - not that I can
pick up Hallam FM from here anyway.. Radio Sheffield yes, but not Hallam FM.
This is where he worked as much as I can remember: If anyone can correct or
fill in the gaps, that would be great...

Jan 1986..................Replaced Phil Wood on Piccadilly Radio
End of 1987?...........Show disappeared for a reason I've forgotten
Early 1988?..............Is this when Piccadilly "Music not music" started
and Jim was on Sat Sport on 1152 and Sunday lunchtimes on Key 103
Sometime 1988?......Late night show reappeared without phone calls and with
letters only on Music Not Music with the beep beep BONG chime instead of
news at the top of the hour sometimes it would ve just played in the middle
of the record
Early 1989...............James Stannage replaces Jim Reeve and Jim moves to
Breakfast show with Dave Ward on 1152 (I remember writing in a letter that
said it was a shame that now they've just done the posh key 103 signed
photos, he'll have to go back to the cheap medium wave ones)
Can't remember when he disappeared from the breakfast show... maybe it was
around late 1990?

He reappeared on GMR doing the breakfast show I think or was it the early
afternoon show? There was major contraversy about why he left and it was in
the Manchester Evening News - something about a racist comment he was
alleged to have made on air.

I remember him appearing on Century FM but can't remember whether that was
before or after Talk Radio... he did the 6-7 phone in programme before he
suddenly disappeared under some contraversy.

My next memory of him is on Talk Radio although I can't remember when or
what time of day he was on - maybe 4pm-7pm ???

Then I used to listen to his early afternoon 2-4 or 2-5? show on Team Talk
252 in 2002 - that only lasted a few months before it disappeared too.

I have not heard anything of him since that....

Anyway that's enough waffle from me.... little did Jim know he'd be my
inspiration to actually work for local radio.... oh how the listeners in
Burnley, Blackburn, Preston, Clitheroe and such places are delighted by my
complete over-enthusiasm for the local non league football team beating
another non league football team as I interrupt the Blackburn Rovers match
to tell them all about it....


Regards,

Simon

----- Original Message -----
From: "ujffc" <no_reply@...>
To: <jameshreeveappreciationclub@...>
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:51 PM
Subject: [James H Reeve Appreciation Club] Re: Oh to be 15 again


> Sandiford-Mitchell!
>
> Don't I recall you once ringing me up at home to ask whether I
> wanted to meet up as part of a James H Reeve "reunion"? Strange,
> since none of us had been united in the first place.
>
> I have no idea how you got my number, but somehow I feel the blame
> lies with that Pete Mitchell character.
>
> Yes, it is I, The Ban Frank Sidebottom Society; later also the
> Unofficial Julia Fordham Fan Club, from the days when James moved
> his show to Hallam FM and my contributions were vocal and telephonic
> rather than literary and postal.
>
> I am shocked to learn that you used to be several 'characters'. We
> never would have guessed. Weren't you the William Hulme Computer
> Room or something of that ilk?
>
> Please tell me that you weren't also behind the genius that was Eric
> X X G-Mex, otherwise I shall have to go off and re-evaluate the
> whole of the last 16 years.
>
> Regards,
>
> Martin
>
> --- In jameshreeveappreciationclub@..., "Simon
> Sandiford-Mitchell" <simonsm@i...> wrote:
> >
> > Well after a long time of hearing nothing about or from JHR, I
> happened to
> > attend Radcliffe Borough v Burscough on Saturday just gone and was
> > interested to spot the following in the match programme:
> >
> > --
> > GRANADA TV AT STAINTON PARK TODAY
> > Granada TV will be at today's game along with Club President
> Bernard Manning
> > SNR. Granada TV will be showing a documentary on Bernard and The
> Boro, to
> > be screened on ITV. The cameras were at the Golf Day last week
> where
> > Bernard was helping out raising some funds for the club. A host of
> > celebrities were on show: Sir Alex Ferguson, Sam Allardyce, James
> H Reeves,
> > Graham Sharp and Roger De Courcey.
> > --
> >
> > That will have impressed James I'm sure if he saw his name
> wrong... if this
> > programme gets shown on ITV then we might catch a few seconds of
> JHR - don't
> > suppose he'll be chatting much to Alex Ferguson though.
> >
> > I was listening and cringing to some 1986/7 tapes that I made of my
> > letters - I am still amazed that I was granted so much airtime
> given the
> > fact that they were all written on the bus on the way home from
> school -
> > sometimes 10 of them all pretending to be from different people
> from the
> > same school... He did fall for some of my scams, but he saw
> through just as
> > many.
> >
> > I wonder if Zoltan is still about.... or the green Strawberry Pot?
> >
> > I drove past his old house on Scholes Lane in Prestwich the other
> week... it
> > looked deserted... I presume James did sell up from there and not
> just
> > abandon the house!
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> > The Lime Opal Fruit Appreciation Society
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "goonsquaduk" <goonsquaduk@y...>
> > To: <jameshreeveappreciationclub@...>
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 9:33 PM
> > Subject: [James H Reeve Appreciation Club] Re: Oh to be 15 again
> >
> >
> > > Your name is very familiar !
> > >
> > > I've just found this group, good to be here, i was a listener to
> JHR
> > > when he was doing the 10pm-1am Key 103 show from early 1986 to
> > > whenever it was, 1988 (?) and have followed his 'career' ever
> since.
> > > Is he on air anywhere at the moment does anyone know ?
> > >
> > > Stu
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > > jameshreeveappreciationclub-unsubscribe@...
> > >
> > >
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > > To visit your group on the web, go to:
> > > http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/jameshreeveappreciationclub/
> > >
> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > > jameshreeveappreciationclub-unsubscribe@...
> > >
> > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
> > > http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/info/terms.html
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > ---
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>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>


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