…a song that was written by Elvis Costello for Robert Wyatt. The song itself discusses the craziness of the Falklands war supposedly bringing back prosperity to the shipyards. What is the point of building new ships in Birkenhead, to replace those being sunk in the war, whilst also sending off young men from the area to fight and, potentially, lose their lives in the same ship?

It is our favourite song by Robert Wyatt but has also gone done into musical folklore.

Robert was preparing for a UK tour in 1973 when, during a party, he became inebriated and fell from a fourth floor window. He was paralysed from the waist down and has been in a wheelchair ever since. Despite his disability, Robert continued his musical career but had an argument with the BBC’s Top of The Pops when they didn’t want him on the show in his wheelchair because they felt it was “not suitable for family viewing”.

The producer wanted Robert to sit in a normal chair which resulted in Robert refusing to perform until they relented – he performed on the show in his wheelchair even though the camera angles used tried to hide the fact.

He has also become famous for his rather weird musical tastes. The verb “Wyatting” has been coined to describe the practice of playing weird tracks on a pub jukebox simply to annoy the other pub goers. Wyatt was quoted in The Guardian newspaper as saying; “I think it’s really funny” and “I’m very honoured at the idea of becoming a verb.” However, when asked if he would ever try it himself, he said; “Oh no. I don’t really like disconcerting people. Although often when I try to be normal I disconcert them anyway.”

Robert Wyatt is a true Meff. Many lesser people would have given up after an accident such as his but he has continued with his musical career to this date and, furthermore, kept his rather original sense of humour.

This is from the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1983…

Robert Wyatt – Shipbuilding

Don’t forget, if you have any music videos you would like us to feature on a future Sunday then drop us a line. We are always happy to listen to requests from others, we cannot promise to feature any but we will try our best to find the videos if we think others will enjoy.

Today is an exciting day for me because Davidd said I can have my own regular posts on the blog to feature my artwork. Personally, I think he just couldn’t be bothered finding anything to write about today but I am still pleased about it. I love drawing and it really has been great lately because since my drawings have been shown on the blog many of you have said some really nice things about them. It does get difficult though, because once everyone compliments them then I have to try even harder next time to produce even better drawings.

The way I work is to get Davidd to take photographs with his phone while he is out with Razzi. I then get the chance to pick the best of them and draw them. I particularly like drawing buildings because I think I have an eye for detail. Old churches and grand buildings in particular are very difficult to draw because of all the fine details – these are the things I like drawing the most, though.

Anyway, that is enough of me talking; let me show you some of the things I have been drawing. My latest drawings are from buildings around the Wirral…

I hope you enjoy looking at my drawings and if you can think of anything you would like me to draw then just let me know.

Toodles

To the outside world John Christie was an unassuming, middle-aged man who lived quietly with his wife Ethel in post-war Notting Hill, London. His unassuming demeanour hid the fact that he was a serial killer who preyed on vulnerable women. To his victims he was a person of some substance who was once a Special Constable and, as such, was trustworthy and beyond reproach. He would lure women to his home, while his wife was out, using the pretence of curing them of some medical ailment. He would then knock them unconscious using carbon monoxide gas, gain his sexual gratification with the unconscious or dead body and then dispose of the body by burying it in the back yard of 10 Rillington Place.

Timothy Evans was born in Merthyr, Wales. After his parents’ marriage failed, he was brought up by his grandmother who spoilt him but could never control him. He had a low IQ and could not read or write. Above all, he had a reputation as a person who lived in a fantasy world and would tell people all kinds of falsehoods about plans for his bright future. In his adult life he lied and drank heavily and was often violent. He married Beryl Thorley, five years his junior and about as bright as him. When Beryl fell pregnant they needed more room so went to live in the squalid upstairs flat at 10 Rillington Place – above John Christie.

The baby put a strain on the Evans’ marriage, mainly because they could not afford to live on a van driver’s wage. Timothy and Beryl argued, sometimes violently, and then came the bombshell news that Beryl was pregnant again. She wanted an abortion, unlawful in 1949. She was so angry she told everyone she knew – including the Christies.

The arguments got louder and more often.

Richard Attenborough as John Christie

On 30th November, Timothy walked into a police station and told police he had disposed of his wife and placed her body down a drain. He went on to explain that Beryl had taken some pills, which had been given to him by a stranger, which were meant to bring on an abortion. He said he had told Beryl not to swallow the pills, but when he arrived home from work he had found her dead. So he had left his child with some friends and now wanted the matter resolved. He told the police where they could find Beryl’s body but did not say he had killed Beryl – he was adamant no-one had helped him dispose of her.

When it took three strong police officers to lift the heavy manhole cover of the drain, it was obvious that Evans could not have lifted it alone and so he was lying. They also thought that Evan’s was mad because the drain was empty.

On hearing this, Evans changed his story.

The stranger who provided the pills, he said, was not a stranger at all. He was John Christie, who lived at another flat with his wife, Ethel, at the same address. Evans said that on 8th November, when he was at work, Beryl had gone to see Christie and he had offered to help her abort her child. It was Christie who had removed Beryl’s body and it was Christie who offered to take care of the baby. Christie knew a family, he said, who would take care of the baby.

Then Evans changed his story a third time. He said he had helped Christie carry Beryl’s body to his flat, and had later visited him, asking to see his daughter. Christie would not tell him where she was, so Evans asked him to tell whoever had her to contact his mother and give her their address.

Again police officers visited the address but found nothing except a stolen brief case in Evans’ flat. Evans was charged with stealing it because so far there was nothing to prove there had been any murder. Christie told them the whole story was crazy and that Timothy Evans was a known liar – which he certainly was.

After a search where Beryl and baby Geraldine could not be found, the police returned to Rillington Place for another search. They did it properly this time. Having found no trace in the house, they turned their attention to the tiny washhouse in the yard. In the dark recess behind the sink they found a large package wrapped up in a tablecloth tied with cord. Inside was the decaying body of Beryl Evans. Tucked away beneath a pile of wood was Geraldine. Mother and daughter had been strangled and a man’s tie was still around the baby’s neck.

The pair had been dead about three weeks. Beryl had been beaten and there were signs of sexual interference. Christie, when spoken to by police, said he thought the tie was similar to one he’d seen Evans wearing. The police, now conducting a murder investigation, again spoke to Evans, who changed his story yet again, admitting the murders of his wife and daughter, and later gave a more detailed account of the entire sequence of events. He said he had murdered Beryl in the morning and placed her in the washhouse, then baby Geraldine when he got home from work, placing her into the washhouse also. But this was not possible because on 8th November there had been workmen in the house all day.

Despite this obvious discrepancy, which needed investigating at least, Evans, the known liar and man of low intelligence, and possibly afraid to say anything against Christie, was charged with the murders. He admitted them to police, but not to his mother. ‘I didn’t do it mam,’ he said. ‘It was Christie.’

Timothy Evans stood trial for only one murder; that of his daughter, Geraldine. He pleaded not guilty. The prosecution maintained that he would put up a defence of ‘provocation’ if charged with murdering Beryl, which might save him from the noose. This line of defence was unavailable to Evans if they only charged him with murdering a baby. They produced four ‘confessions’ of a backward, illiterate man who would have been interviewed mercilessly when in custody. The prosecution did not call the workmen who were in the washhouse on the day Evans was meant to have placed the bodies there. They also ignored other evidence which did not support their case.

Christie testified against Evans. Here was a man who had served his country during the war, and who had been a ‘Special’, giving evidence against someone who had ‘confessed’. Evans was seen as the liar he was, a man who was now trying to blame Christie to save his own skin.

Evans was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

He was hanged on 9th March, 1950.

After the case, Mr and Mrs Christie were left to get on with their lives in Rillington Place. However, things did not go well with Christie’s hypochondria driving his wife mad and her repugnance of a Jamaican family who had moved into one of the other flats. Christie lost his job.

That December, Ethel Christie disappeared.

Christie told Ethel’s friends that his wife had returned to Sheffield, although they must have thought it strange that she would do so without so much as a word. He told one that Ethel was asking kindly after her, and even sent gifts to relatives purporting to be from the two of them. Without a job and with no money, he sold his furniture to pay the rent. He even ‘sold’ the rented flat to a couple, who moved in then out again when they discovered the scam. Evidently they were happy to do so, for the place had a strange smell about it.

Then Christie disappeared.

The flat was now empty and an upstairs tenant, Mr Brown, was allowed to make use of the kitchen facilities. Mr Brown thought it needed a tidy up and decided to do some decorating and put up some shelves. He found the wall was hollow, and discovered there was a hidden cupboard door. He shone a light inside and saw what appeared to be the body of a naked woman. He could not have believed what he was about to uncover.

The police were called and they began a search…

Christie Kills Beryl Evans

The woman had been strangled. Her hands were tied and the body was well preserved, thanks to the constant low temperature in the cupboard. A second woman’s body was found, also in the cupboard, then a third. Then the police noticed loose floorboards in the parlour, and lifting them they dug in the rubble below where they found the corpse of Ethel Christie. The next day they searched the entire flat, finding potassium cyanide and a tin of pubic hairs. Then they searched the garden, where they discovered bones, a skull and two more women’s corpses.

Now the police had the task of identification, which was done quickly. It was apparent that, except in the case of his wife, Christie had murdered to satisfy his sexual perversions: necrophilia – having sex with a dead person, or a person near death. Christie had persuade most of his victims to inhale through a tube, believing it was a remedy for something or other, when they were unknowingly inhaling deadly carbon monoxide gas as Christie satisfied his sexual lust.

The hunt was on for Christie.

He was arrested on the Embankment at Putney by a patrolling constable, destitute and sleeping rough. Christie was recognised by his description and other than providing a false name gave no trouble. After blaming everyone, including his wife, for his actions, Christie gave the court detailed accounts of all the murders except that of baby Geraldine Evans whom, he said, he did not kill.

He was hanged on 15^th July 1953.

The above was made into a film starring Richard Attenborough as Christie, John Hurt as Timothy Evans and Judy Geeson as his wife. This is the main reason Razzi is so scared of Christie. Attenborough’s portrayal of the mass-murder was masterful and brought the character to life. He was perverted and creepy and whenever the film is on the telly, Razzi runs for cover.

Richard Attenborough said of the role; “I did not like playing the part, but I accepted it at once without seeing the script. I have never felt as totally involved in any part as this. It is a most devastating statement on capital punishment.”

Following two public inquiries, Home Secretary Roy Jenkins recommended a posthumous pardon for Timothy Evans, which was granted on 18^th October 1966. It allowed authorities to return Evans’s remains to his family, who had him reburied in a private grave. There was already debate in the United Kingdom over the use of the death penalty in the legal system. The controversy generated by Evans’ case, along with a number of other controversial cases from the same time, contributed to the 1965 suspension, and later abolition, of capital punishment in the United Kingdom for murder.

One last note about the case of John Christie; the pubic hairs recovered in a tin belonging to Christie did not match all the bodies that were found – this means there were more murders than ever came to light.

In his first full year in charge of the club he has won one cup and got to the final in another. I am willing to bet any amount with anyone that whoever the American owners bring in will not be that successful next season – so why sack Kenny?

Winning the Carling Cup should have been enough to guarantee that he continued the job next season. While he was Manager there had been genuine cause for optimism around the club again. He is a man who lives and breathes Liverpool FC which is something the American owners never will. They are businessmen who just see the club as figures on a spreadsheet. Furthermore, they have now set the bar really high for whoever succeeds him as manager. If the new manager does not win a trophy next season will he too be sacked?

Kenny had turned the club around from one of its darkest eras. Former Liverpool player Alan Hansen said yesterday; “…you have to remember where Liverpool were when he came back. If you went into Anfield in January 2011 it was the worst it had been in 30 years – the club was on its knees, so you were not going to get straight back into the Champions League.”

He added; “I believe Kenny should still have been the manager at the start of next season and I also think that Liverpool supporters were pretty optimistic that things would improve under him next season.”

Where is that optimism now?

It is worth remembering that Kenny did not apply for the job. He was working with the kids at the Liverpool Academy when the American owners asked him to become their manager. He did so because he loves the club and he knew they were in an hour of need. To now turn around and sack him after just one season in charge shows what a short memory the current owners have.

I have a feeling the new owners of Liverpool FC are going to prove to be just as unpopular as the last lot of jokers. Hicks and Gillet and now Fenway Sports Management – new owners, same story!

From time to time boyfriends tend to get a little jealous of Razzi flirting with their girlfriends and tend to come looking for him. The last time we had an irate boyfriend turn up at the Bear Sanctuary I had to go and tell him that Razzi was not in while he hid under the bed.

In other words, Razzi is a little bit of a coward when it comes to monsters and scary people.

This has given us the idea for a series of articles about the things that scare Razzi. From time to time we will tell the story of these people and try to persuade Razzi that there is really nothing to be scared of. The idea is not to scare him even more but to make him face his demons and learn that there really is nothing to be scared of. I am sure his therapist would approve.

Razzi is scared of quite a number of people from Adolf Hitler to Judy Sheindlin. He doesn’t know either of them personally but he has noticed that Adolf tends to shout and wave his arms around a lot when he is speaking which is very scary. Judge Judy is the same; if someone says something stupid in her court then she shouts at them and Razzi runs and hides under behind the couch.

Hopefully after we have published some of the scary stories he will stop being such a scaredy-cat. I once told him that bears in the wild climb up trees when they are scared of something. Razzi looked at me with those sad little eyes of his and told me that he could never do that because he is scared of heights!

Watch this space; Razzi’s Scary People is coming soon.

Forty one Steiff bears, called “U Pitchnoun” (which means “The Little One”), were outfitted and set in a scene by luxury goods manufacturers especially for the event; “Les Teddies De l’an 2000”. Korean Industrialist Jesse Kim placed the highest bid ever received for a teddy bear when the hammer fell. The money was raised in aid of Monaco Aide et Présence to help them set up aid missions around the world.

Monaco Bear

Razzi decided this was the bear he wanted and, because he has been very good lately, we decided to see what we could do. Firstly, we had to explain to Razzi that we haven’t quite got £130,190 sitting around and if he wanted to save up his pocket money then it would take him a really long time. So maybe a limited edition Louis Vuitton was a little beyond our finances.

Razzi agreed.

After reading through a Steiff catalogue though, we discovered that they make copies of “U Pitchnoun” and sell them under the name of “Monaco” – Razzi was determined this was the bear he wanted.

We started searching around the online retailers before eventually finding someone who had a Steiff Monaco Bear for sale. We purchased the bear and now Razzi is a happy bear with his new companion. However, we have told him that he has to behave himself otherwise we will send “Monaco” back to Steiff because they will look after him if Razzi doesn’t.

He has promised to be a good carer for Monaco and, we have to admit, he has always taken care of Pookie very well. The two of them have been inseparable since Linzi won Pookie at the fair for him.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t teach Monaco all about bear porn!

The confused bear who arrived last week has picked a name for himself. He has been watching quite a few films since his arrival and has become a big fan of the Star Wars movies. He particularly likes the Ewok tribes who live on the forest moon Endor. The second Death Star had its main shield generator on the moon’s surface so the Rebel Alliance was sent to deactivate the shield with the help of the Ewok Tribes. So confused bear has decided he would like to be known as Ewok.

Another of the bears has decided on the name of Eros. Eros appears in ancient Greek sources under several different guises but is one of the primordial gods involved in the coming into being of the cosmos. Eros was also depicted as an adult male who embodies sexual power. Why do I get the feeling we have another Razzi in the making here?

The third bear decided to look to the stars for his name. After researching some of the nearby stars and planets he decided on the name Elara after a moon which circles the planet Jupiter. It was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at Lick Observatory in 1905. It is the eighth largest moon of Jupiter and is named after the mother by Zeus of the giant Tityus.

Our fourth bear, who originally came from Wales, has decided on the name Edern. In Welsh, the name Edern means; son of the legendary Nudd. Gwyn Nudd is a Welsh mythological figure, the king of the fair folk and ruler of the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. Described as a great warrior with a “blackened face”, Gwyn is intimately associated with the otherworld in medieval Welsh literature, and is associated with the international tradition of the Wild Hunt. The name Edern is most often used as a boy name or male name.

Finally the fifth bear has a slight problem – he has no label. Normally Renault Bears have a label attached to their backs which we write their name on. Unfortunately this bear, just like the original Eddie Bear, has no label. Some of the other bears have been joking with him calling him Clint after Clint Eastwood – the man with no name. Thus we have decided to call this bear; Clint – the bear with no name.

As a special treat, because these bears have had to wait so long for a name, we have decided they can have extra Jammy Toast for a week!

Welcome to the Bear Sanctuary dudes.