I was not planning to write a blog today. 3.30am and I'll be heading off to the boot sale in a bit. Car loaded and fingers crossed we do well. Anyway I am writing so I can share an idea.
Following the recent Milton Keynes Inspirational Awards Gala Dinner I shared a lot of negative thoughts but since I have kept quiet on the matter. Because I did not win I do not want people to think my observations on the poor operation of the night is simply sour grapes on my part.
Yesterday I looked at the website. WHAT A MESS. A child could have done better writing the page showing the 2018 winners. Also yesterday someone who was at the gala dinner shared thoughts with me, I am not alone in thinking how very badly it was run.
OH DEAR WHAT A SHAME NEVER MIND
Before the ill fated awards dinner Maggie suggested we should have our own awards system for the projects we are about to launch. Even when I am not at the keyboard working on things my mind is constantly turning ideas over. Yesterday it was picking up on Maggie's idea.
When we ran OurRebekah events we gave out Smile Of The Month Awards. Here is Mayor David Hopkins presenting an
award to Ro, Manager of Wrigglies Exotic Pets.
Smile Of The Month fell aside when we began turning OureRebekah towards awareness raising more than just fund raising.
The projects within Let's Inspire are not one off activities, they operate over a period of time so a monthly award would not work.
Once I am back from the boot sale I am going to start printing off the Food Bank pages ready for Josh, Jelena and I to take round the supermarkets on Tuesday. Part of the money from today's boot sale will be spent buying printing ink and paper.
The first Rock and Roll party for The Food Bank is on Saturday 29th September. There are a total of ten events ending on Saturday 29th December. Let's take up Maggie's idea and pick out the supermarket with the biggest smile.
After each event we give all who have been a part of the party, the mascots, helpers, music presenters and so on, a question sheet to award points across a series of topics. We add everything up, divide by the number of helpers filling out a sheet and come up with an average score.
Does that make sense ?
We can then announce after the last Rock and Roll Party our winner.
We could come up with something similar for each project.
Thanks Maggie for that BRILLIANT idea.
Morrissons, Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Sainsburys ?
Which will be Milton Keynes Biggest Smiling Supermarket ?
3.59am. I'll just check for typo's, publish then head to the boot sale.
Why is it I can not sleep properly ? Five minutes to one o'clock in the morning. My body is tired and desperate to sleep yet my mind is alive and eager to start the day. So here I am at the computer, rattling the keys and sharing the latest news with you all.
LET'S INSPIRE'S project ideas for The Food Bank and a series of Supermarket Rock And Roll Parties is now available to download. CLICK HERE
So is our SMILE project for the homeless and rough sleepers in Milton Keynes CLICK HERE Don't believe the article TENT CITY published in the latest edition of The Milton Keynes Citizen. It is misleading and factually untrue.
The STORY WRITING project is not also written CLICK HERE
I am in the process of putting together plans for LOVE OUR NHS. SECRET SANTA is organised, at least within our
minds, so just needs to be typed up.
On Monday Rachel and I will be meeting to talk about TEEN CHALLENGE.
LET'S INSPIRE will then be ready to start working.
A year ago I was working with some of Beck's friends to set up OurRebekah supporting Ronald McDonald House Charities.
We had a great year with some
amazing fun events raising support for families with a child sick in hospital. Our year culminated in SUNSHINE SMILE DAY. WOW what a day that was.
OurRebekah continues, Charlotte is running a
half marathon for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham so CLICK HERE and support her.
Using music to support OurRebekah events Radio Love International was born in January, YES it was only five months ago. Have we had some amazing music events or have we had some amazing music events ?
Radio Love International seeks to use music to support good causes, including OurRebekah and Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.
Radio Love International will become before the end of the year an Internet Radio Station. As we work towards that happening we have LET'S INSPIRE.
Money is the key to everything. Without robbing a single penny from the good causes we are supporting we need money to realise our ambitions. Tomorrow will see us hold the first of six car boot sales to find some of that money. Tomorrow we will be at the MK Bowl sale then on Saturday 7th July, 21st July, 4th August, 18th August and 1st September we will be at the Bletchley Irish Centre sale.
Jelena and I will be running tomorrow's event. I plan to be at the sale for 4.30am so when the gates open at 5am I can secure a good spot. Jelena plans to walk from Central Milton Keynes to the sale during the morning. Josh wants to come with her but he is just not well enough to walk that far. Could anyone offer them a lift ? I can take them home as the car will be empty having sold all the junk we have !
If we were to sell EVERYTHING we have tomorrow we would probably make £400. Let's be realistic, that is not going to happen. We want to make £100, £200 would be good.
Starting on Monday we will publish a daily set of accounts showing how money from these boot sales is being spent.
The first edition of THE SMILE will be published and distributed to our rough sleeping friends in Milton Keynes on Monday 30th July. Within each weekly newsletter there will be a sponsors page where folk can advertise their businesses in return for a donation of any size.
On Tuesday Josh, Jelena and I are doorstepping ten supermarkets inviting them to stage one of our Rock and Roll Parties supporting The Food Bank.
Saturday/Sunday 29th/30th September MORRISSONS
Westcroft
SATURDAY 13th October LIDL Bletchley
SATURDAY 27th October TESCO Wolverton
SATURDAY 10th November SAINSBURY Shenley
SATURDAY 24th November MORRISSONS Central Milton Keynes
SATURDAY 15th December TESCO Bletchley
SUNDAY 16th December LIDL Oldbrook
SATURDAY 29th December ASDA Bletchley
Some of the money we raise at Sunday's boot sale will be spent buying a ream of printing paper and ink cartridges. Did
you know by volume printing ink costs more than the most expensive vintage champagne.
1,46am I think I will go back to bed and try to sleep for a bit. I'll be back later to finish writing.
B & Q Dobbies Garden Centre Wickes Homebase
Do you think we may be able to persuade these retailers to let us take our retro vinyl twin deck out of the studio and into their stores to have some fun and raise money for Milton Keynes Hospital Radio. This being part of our LOVE THE NHS project ?
Josh, mate, do you think we could hit these stores as well as the supermarkets on Tuesday ?
1.55am and NO I did not go to bed. I'm going now. Honestly I am. Be back later.
2.45am and I am back. No chance of sleeping.
I was intending to come back and talk about LET'S INSPIRE'S Teen Challenge project. I will in
a moment but first......................
I made the mistake of surfing some friends' postings on Facebook before I went back to bed ! Now my mind is more awake than ever.
Rachel posted a video showing how the US city of Fort Worth in Texas was employing homeless rough sleepers to clean the streets.
Please do not think that the failing council of Milton Keynes could get its act together to do this. No way. Don't be silly !
It would be easier to walk across the waters of Willen Lake
than motivate Milton Keynes Council. Don't try this though will you. You will not be able to afford the rip off parking charges at Willen Lake.
Milton Keynes Council could not do what Fort Worth is doing, could not do it even if it wanted to.
But we could !
Have a look at a slideshow I posted on YouTube last July.
As we build friendships within The Smile could we not take two, perhaps three, friends and give them a day or two a week working on such a project ?
I can hear staff at FAILING MILTON KEYNES COUNCIL screaming YOU CAN'T DO THAT. Don't listen to them.
There are also tax and benefit issues in a mine field of red tape we would need to pick our way through. AH
BUT....
We do not pay our friends in cash but in kind. We do not actually pay them at all, we make gifts.
We could produce £5 vouchers which could be spent at certain selected shops where we have managed to engage their owners into our idea. Need a few more car boot sales to pay for that.
Now I can hear the readers of today's blog shouting DAVID THAT IS AN AMBITION TOO FAR !
The plan is to publish the first edition of THE SMILE on Monday 30th July, I am suggesting this programme would start to happen in October by which time we will also have income from the advertising fliers for the Rock and Roll Parties.
But we do not have the people to do all this I can hear you saying. Just a moment.... just a moment.
Can I go back to that Citizen report.
I can name THREE people who have been taken off the streets, THREE who were NOT part of TENT CITY.
There's our very own Josh and Jelena of course. Milton Keynes Council had sod all to do with rescuing them. It has been an uphill struggle with the council ever since to move forward. There is more to rescuing someone from rough sleeping than putting a temporary roof over their heads !
Do you remember the guy who used to sleep rough outside Aldi at Westcroft ? Before that he used to sleep outside the charity shop, that was before those running it put a rubbish bin where he used to sleep. CHARITY ? My backside ! That's Malcolm. For TWO years he was a rough sleeper.
Have you noticed he isn't there any more ? It was JELINA, yes our very own Jelena, who gave Malcom the motivation to change his life. OK Milton Keynes Council worked the system, couldn't manage it for two years until Jelena stepped in !
Rachel and I chatted on the phone yesterday, we are meeting on Monday.
TEEN CHALLENGE is key to the success of LET'S INSPIRE. We need the help of a teenage community service project to run our music events, to deliver advertising fliers, to be our mascots and much, much more. NO TEEN CHALLENGE = NO LET'S INSPIRE.
Rachel is worried we will not be able to get the teenagers through the door then motivate them. Get them through the door and I will motivate them. Problem solved. Yeh, but how do we get them through the door in the first place ?
Hang on to that a moment while I step aside and saher something.
In America they have something called POT LUCK SUPPERS. I have been to a few - BRILLIANT.
Friends come together for an evening of fellowship. They bring hot and cold food, savory and sweet. They put the food on a table and everyone takes POT LUCK to eat what takes their fancy.
Perhaps we keep TEEN CHALLENGE and run it alongside something else or perhaps we combine everything into a weekly FAMILY Pot Luck Super night. From that we find all the practical help we need for all of the LET'S INSPIRE events.
I was thinking to suggest to Rachel that we use Facebook to encourage our followers to sent their children along to TEEN CHALLENGE MK. Could we bring those followers to a weekly Put Luck Supper. POT LUCK MK ?
We COULD do this !
3.21am .... I am going to read this page, eliminate the typos then publish it and go back to bed. PLEASE share the page and PLEASE post your comments.
3.37am Typo's gone I THINK click the mouse and publish.
Thanks Mum for donating your bell collection to sell at Sunday's car boot sale. Went to see Mum and Dad yesterday, Mum is 90 years old and Dad is 94. In September they will have been married for SEVENTY years.
Come September Maureen and I have only been hitched for a mere FORTY years. Mum and Dad both feature in my book THE BRIDGE HOUSE. Have you read it ? ALL ROYALTIES FROM SALES GO TO RONALD McDONALD HOUSE BIRMINGHAM SO CLICK HERE AND SPLASH OUT ! I called Jelena to tell her about Mum's gift for the boot sale. She and Josh have been together for SIX years. Hey my friends, when you celebrate your 70th anniversary can I buy the first round ? My Mum came from Lambeth, she used to play the piano. In The Bridge House she plays THE LAMBETH WALK on the piano. Here you go Mum.
I was driving back home from Mum and Dad yesterday afternoon. I took the leisurely route down the A5 to avoid the M1. At the traffic roundabout on the South side of Towcester there was a naked man, stark whatsit naked, standing with his hands in the air. At first I thought it was a statue but as he turned to show the cars his bum he obviously was real.
I think he was a hippie ! In my current book DJ Max his moving towards the hippie year of 1967.
I am growing my hair again ready for my return to Hippie Mount in San Francisco next Spring. Have no fear this hippie will NOT be naked !
When we have the first Smile party in Central Milton Keynes at the end of July I plan to go dressed as a hippie. My hair will not grow back by then. Think I will have to get a wig.
I have completed the Let's Inspire draft page for TEA AT THE RITZ. CLICK HERE to read it in pdf format. I ran it past Josh and Jelena who liked it. Now Rachel is back from her holiday I can show it to her, make revisions we need then invite you, our supporters, to start getting involved.
I make no apologies for playing this song AGAIN. It appears regularly on the blog. PLEASE LISTEN TO IT.
When I gave Jelena a copy of Let's Inspire's THE CHANGE plan she looked at the picture, this picture, and said Who is this, I do not recognise him.
On Tuesday Josh and I are descending on TEN major supermarkets in our city, inviting them to have one of our Rock and Roll parties in support of The Food Bank. When it comes to putting on a Radio Love Roadshow we are good at what we do.
At our last event, Sunshine Smile Day in May, Josh was asked to be the official representative of Ronald McDonald House Charities. Here he is on stage receiving, with Milton Keynes Mayor Petchey, a cheque from Asda Supermarkets.
Let me share a story with you. May 2018....in January 2018 Josh and Jelena were homeless, living in a tent outside one of the supermarkets which will soon stage one of our Rock andRoll parties. Ahead of Sunshine Smile day AND after the event when I sent them some pictures, I contacted The Head Of Homeless Services and The Case Worker at Milton Keynes Council. Would you not think it would have been nice for them to have sent some words of encouragement and congratulations ? NO, NEITHER ANSWERED EITHER COMMUNICATION ! That's not just bad manners, that's not just and example of their failure it's just typical of the way they work. THREE TIMES this week I have e-mailed SIX democratically elected members of Milton Keynes Council. That's EIGHTEEN e-mails ! Only two responded and that was on the third e-mail. Says a lot doesn't it !
Let's play this in attempt to wake these unfortunate people up !
Yesterday our blog pulled 137 readers, figures are a bit down. But OMG social media, Facebood attracted EIGHTY SEVEN likes, comments and shares. Wouldn't it be good if this page could attract similar response !?!
This picture keeps appearing all over social media. It shows Maureen and I with the Managing Director of Shearings Holidays and the CEO of Shearings Leisure Group at the naming ceremony of COACH REBEKAH. What an utterly amazing company Shearings is ! LOVE EFFICIENCY KINDNESS are the words to describe the way Shearings work. I joked with a manager at the company earlier in the week saying staff at Milton
Keynes Council should be forced to spent time on an in service training course at Shearings. Ours would be a better city if they did !" Apparently this picture appeared in The Citizen newspaper. I have been trying like crazy to find a copy of the paper but so far without success. Make sure you listen to Radio CRMK between 10am and 12noon today. The MD of Shearings will be speaking about that photograph and Coach Rebekah. Last week I was in the studio for a ten minute chat
about the coach. I was there for 90 minutes not only talking about Wonderful Shearings but also about the homeless crisis in Milton Keynes and The Milton Keynes Food Bank. I am a great fan of radio CRMK so make sure you listen this morning. On last week's show we played this. I do like the song and play it as often as I can NOT to wind up Shearings but to APPLAUD them.
In March Josh and I drove up to Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham to hold a music tombola for families who had a child sick in Birmingham's Childrens' Hospital. Again I told Milton Keynes Council's Head of Homeless services and The Caseworker. AGAIN they FAILED to respond. SAD ! Another Let's Inspire project is LOVING OUR NHS. We take great pride in supporting Ronald McDonald House Birmingham. We have a number of things in the pipeline to continue this support. In yesterday's email was something
from a parent who had spent time in the house. Can I please share it with you. AH ! Google is screwing up the formatting for cut and paste so can I give you THE LINK - CLICK HERE for the page. Please read it.
So many of our wonderful readers supported Josh and I at Ronald McDonald House and our Music Tombola, this is how your love was shared with families.
As I close today's blog let me share a video Terri made. ATTENTION Milton Keynes Supermarkets this is how we run a music party. WATCH OUT Josh and I will be descending on you next TUESDAY !
If you were there you would have heard me constantly calling out from the stage... HAPPY SMILING PEOPLE COME THIS WAY.... SAD MISERABLE OLD GITS THE EXIT IS THAT WAY ...... I AM GOING TO USE THAT FOR TODAY'S BLOG BUT FORTUNATELY THE SAD MISERABLE OLD GITS DO NOT READ OUR BLOG !
Are you enjoying the heatwave ? GREAT AINT IT ! The camera is safely locked away, the world is not ready yet for pics of Yours Truly is shorts ! Working with Josh and Jelena yesterday Josh kept complaining it was TOO hot. I reminded him of Saturday 3rd
February when these pictures were taken as we set up a Radio Love Roadshow at Asda Supermarket. Gary is researching flights for the 2019 trip to San Francisco. Josh says he isn't going if it is HOT. Hey, man this is California !
WHERE DID THAT PICTURE COME FROM !?! Flippin Leonites ! Who took that ? Just how many years ago ? Thirty ? Perhaps.
Not a great fan of Martha And The Vandellas myself but here's something from 1963 which is perhaps appropriate for Swealtering Britain.
THANKS Jelena for the ice cream, been years since I had a White Magnum. YUMMY !
That song is from the point in my new book where I am currently writing. Time I typed up the few thousand words I have scribbled in my notebook. FOR THE STORY SO FAR CLICK HERE.... OK here we go with the next bit... There were no tour dates so Jimmy spent the next six weeks in the studio recording a new album. Why was making a movie so much fun while making an LP so totally and utterly and overwhelmingly boring boring ?
Another birthday, I was eighteen years old when Blue Hawaii was released. Then work began again. We were both to make appearances at cinemas up and down the country. A new Jimmy Robinson Fan Club organised it all. Why wasn't there a Max Robinson Fan Club ?
No fan club but in Blue Hawaii the parts of Jimmy and Max Robinson were the same. OK, I did not sing but when it came to miming I truly was as big a star as my Rock and Roll brother.
We were in the cinemas every evening and in the record shops every day signing autographs, smiling, promoting the music of Blue Hawaii and my friend Elvis Aaron Presley.
We had top go down to London before all of this started, we went to The Odeon in Leicester Square for the opening. The next day had us at The Geaumont Cinema in Birmingham. We were there an hour before anything happened and had to be sneaked in through a rear entrance. The moment the doors opened and the crowd pushed their way inside one person separated herself from the dash to mob Brother Jimmy to head to myself. I recognised here of course.
"Happy Birthday Max," she said. "I am sorry it is a bit late but I wanted to give you a kiss with the card."
The crowd started to push he aside as people decided they wanted my autograph as well as Jimmy's. She was gone.
We travel;led over the country, cinema after cinema. I wondered if she would appear again. I hoped I would see her again.
Blue Hawaii was the number one album for Christmas. We gained nothing from the record's sales. Even though the film was a huge success we were paid no more than the flat fee Paramount had originally agreed.
New Year 1962. I had not spent very much of that money at all. Although Paramount only paid us the flat fee it was a lot of money. A new tour diary would give Max and his Magic Microphone wages as I introduced acts on the stage so I decided I would treat myself. I would learn to drive. Enthusiastically i spent some of my money on a car. It was delivered to my parent's house as I had yet to have even my first driving lesson. Triumph Motors delivered it on the back of a truck, delivered it from their factory in Coventry.
"How much have you spent on that ?"
"Not much." "You have not got it on Hire Purchase have you ?" "No Dad !" "So where did you get the money from ?" "Paramount Pictures. There's plenty more where that came from. It's all safe in the bank Dad." "How come ? You were only lacky. I thought Jimmy was the star." I never did like my Dad. "I don't want to lose Max and his Magic Microphone but I have a friend who had an idea you may like. I think you should speak to him." The style of British pop music was changing and while Jimmy could still get his records into the charts he was no longer the star he had once been. Cliff Richard, Harold Webb as Elvis called him, was appealing to a wider audience, Adam faith, his real name was Terrance Nellhams, had lost all of his popularity. He only ever had two LP albums released. Jimmy did not disappear from the pop music world as did Adam but he was no Cliff Richard. I never did meet The Beatles, even today I have never shaken hands with The Fab Four. Only two left of course, Paul and Ringo. I knew Keith Richards and I met, let me remember, Gerry Marsden, Cilla Black, Dave Clark and even Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers. "That friend of mine," Richard said, "he is coming to the show tonight." Rotherham, we were in Rotherham, I clearly remember that. It was so easy to forget where we were. Arrive, set up, perform, break down and move top the next location. I know for certain this happened in Rotherham. "So who is this man and what does he want ?" "His name is Carl but I'll let him tell you himself face to face what it is he wants you for. You'll like his plans." "So you are Max and his Magic Microphone ?" I nodded. "Quite a mouthful, why not Max's Magic Microphone ? Nice bit of alteration." I may not have learned much at school, I did fail the eleven plus, but I do know what alteration is. I shrugged my shoulders. I was not saying much. Carl was a dominating man and my initial impression was that I did not like him. What did he want ? "Do you have any of the money left from what you were paid to work with Presley ?" "Most of it." I had spent only a bit on the car and still not had a single driving lesson. "I am starting a radio station," Carl began explaining. "I have sold my house, moved into a flat and put all the cash in to buying an old fishing trawler." What was he talking about ? "The ship is to be called The Jolly Roger, we will anchor her outside the three mile limit then broadcast non stop pop music all over the country." My face must have said something although my lips did not engage. "Oh I can do it, nobody can stop me. Radio Jolly Roger will be a pirate radio station." "Piracy is illegal." An obvious thing to say. "We are not going to sink ships, murder crews and bury treasure ! We are Pirate Radio and, yes, it is illegal but nobody can do a single thing about it. We will make money, tons of money, broadcasting adverts and nobody can stop us." "What about the BBC ?" "Least of all the BBC." "So what do you want me for ?" "Depends," Carl said then hesitated. "I would like you to be a presenter on Radio Jolly Roger. A jockey rides a horse, a presenter on Radio Jolly Roger will ride the records so will be called a Disc Jockey or DJ. I would like you to be one of my Disc Jockeys, DJ Max's Magic Microphone." I liked that idea even if I did not warm to Carl himself. Then this Carl continued. "I need two thousand pounds to finish equipping the studio. I do not have two thousand pounds left and I can hardly as the bank to lend it to me so I can set up a pirate radio station and break the law !" So that was what he wanted. He wanted me to lend him money. Ridiculous ! Never !" "If you invest money in Radio Jolly Roger and become a shareholder I will make you a director, the station's Director of Music." "I'm only eighteen, eighteen and a bit" I explained. "And I am thirty-eight and a big bit. Do you think we could make a good team ? Two pirates ?" This was crazy ! Almost as crazy as miming a part in Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley. As crazy as buying a sports car when I could not drive. I did not like this Carl man but perhaps I could warm to him. Richard came in to join us. He was quickly followed by Brother Jimmy. Their arrival caused mt to tell Carl where he could stick his radio station. "So am I going to be the man of the microphone myself when you leave ?" Richard said. "Having you play my records may save my career," Jimmy added with a smile. How come they both knew Carl ? "I am thinking I may ask Dad for advice." What a stupid thing to have said. Why ever did that come out of m y mouth ? The scorn Jimmy then heaped upon me made me feel utterly stupid. Even Richard was laughing. Carl did not understand. "What will happen to Radio Jolly Roger if I say No ?" "Take Dad's advice you mean ? if I had take our dear father's advice I would be sweeping the factory floor just like he wanted you to. Perhaps I may have eventually gained promotion to put pennies into envelopes alongside him as a poor little wages clerk." "I do have a Plan B," Carl said. "And I am that Plan B," Jimmy said. "I will give Carl the money but I can not become a DJ. You can, you can be the biggest DJ in the world. Stop following behind me, get out there and become a star in your own right." "But -" "Stop the buts," Jimmy was now shouting. "Get on with it. Bring Elvis Presley to England, get him live on Radio Jolly Roger." Elvis Presley never did come to England but Max Robinson did become Director of Music at Radio Jolly Roger. MORE TO FOLLOW.
