Is there any way I can see that on the Web?

It was a fascinating interview, I agree totally!

I signed the petition. 

Did anyone see Bill's interview with Mark Lawson on BBC4 on Monday? It was very interesting. If you missed it and have BBC4 you can catch it again tonight at 11.20pm.

He went into a great deal of depth about his mother and upbringing. He had a tragic childhood, as has been well documentated over the past few years and in 'Who Do You Think You Are'. Then he moved onto Cambridge and his songs. He said that he wanted to move away from the horrible serious songs that the women were practically forced to sing in the Footlights revues.

Next came the Goodies and he talked about how he'd sometimes get quite grumpy with fans because the fame made him feel quite claustrophobic. In recent years he's had people coming up to him recalling their past encounters with him, either Bill had once told them to *beep* off or he was very nice to them and wrote them lovely autographs with funny little pictures. Bill said it depended what mood he was in at the time.

He then talked about the fame of The Goodies, and how a book singing in Manchester had to be cancelled because hundreds of people turned up and there wasn't enough security for them. There was another "rock and roll" instance where I assume he was talking about 'Goodies and the Beanstalk', where the Goodies are tramps living in the park, and Bill vividly recalled that the local council had erected a stand for about 600-700 people to watch the filming. Bill said that's why many of the shots in that scene are close-ups, if the camera went back any further you'd see the huge crowd that had gathered to see them. After the filming finished they were taken to a pub but were followed by the fans, and the further they got into the pub the more surrounded they became. Eventually they were chaparoned into the back room and their security locked them in there until the crowd went away. They were therefore trapped in a tiny room and couldn't go outside because there were fans waiting, banging on the door and trying to open it. The door was very old and boarded up and the fans then managed to get their hands through the doorand tried to grab them. Bill likened it to something out of a horror film and, as a sufferer of claustrophobia, he particularly hated the experience.

He also talked about Graeme being highly intelligent and Tim being quite patriotic. I can't recall anything else he had to say about them, but he didn't have a bad word to say about either of them. The only negative Goodies-related comment there was was that he called Bananaman a mess.

Oh, they also showed the moment he turned down This Is Your Life when it was presented to him, which was amusing. The interview ended with Bill talking about This Is Your Life and how the Goodies had formed a pact in the '70s never to do the show. Tim got the treatment in the '80s (or was it the '90s?) but Bill refused to be in it (plus he was in Australia) and Graeme didn't want to do it live so he pre-recorded a message for him.

That's all I can recall from memory, it was an interesting interview.

Jess.

I made my friends sign it and they don't even know who he is. They wrote some nice things anyway. 

Well I've signed. Although clair may refuse to give me my ticket for Clue if I don't! Come on guys, beg, plead and anything else you come up with. Bill MUST be prevailed upon to relaese these songs.

Sorry to double-post, it's cold here this morning and my brain's frozen.  It least, that' my excuse.

There's also the Bill forum somewhere on the web, which I keep forgetting the url of. But I think Euan knows all about it, or a Google should pick it up.
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bondgirl : ' how about www.wildbilloddie ...Also I don't know if this is possible but wouldn't it be cool if when you got on to the petition site it played a shorten version compilation of bills songs

Clair & co, if you like the compilation track idea feel free to drop me a line at joidevdw @bigpond.com... I've access to some pretty good audio mixing software and a fair few Bill songs.

There's a guy on the web called PigsontheWing (his real name's Andy) who used to run billoddie.net, a marvellous fan site which has since shut down  .  He might be willing to let you use that url, since there's nowt there at the moment.  (Or at least, last time I looked.  If it's up again, let's have a party.)

how about www.wildbilloddie ...Also I don't know if this is possible but wouldn't it be cool if when you got on to the petition site it played a shorten version compilation of bills songs 

How about www.welovebill.com?


Love your avatar, by the way.

Actually...speaking of internet publicity...

Can anyone think of an appropriate URL for a Bill Oddie campaign website?