I got this today from Doc Cox, formerly reviled as Ivor Biggun, my eminent colleague in the remarkably unnoticed Trembling Wheelbarrows, east Suffolk's premier comedy band in our price bracket. The record (or DVD, anyway) finally set straight. 'It seems that some poor misguided sod wants to know who writ it. I know that one or two people did perform it in the London area, mostly odd refugees from Lime Grove and a bloke who played the guitar on the KENT & EAST SUSSEX line. But it was me wot rote it when I was a sound assistant at the Beeb. I originally did it for a BBC-film-sound-recordist and Scout Leader (in the days when you could be a scout leader and not raise a snigger) called Brian Biffin. He was a leading light on the K and E.S. and had shot some footage of tank engines, whatever they are. He made me a list of train-type phrases ("Welsh Steam Coal" was one I remember) and I put 'em to a Johnny Cash-type tune with lots of assistance from another sound engineer whose name I think was Robin. He did all the clever musical bits. I just strummed and sang. We recorded it in "down time" at a dubbing studio in Lime Grove, on about four tracks. The early evening "Nationwide" programme took a liking to it, a film editor grabbed some stock-shots of steam trains and they made a short music video. It was screened several times, because it was their "standby" film, to fill screen-time whenever anything went wrong in the studio, and on "Nationwide" a LOT of things went wrong in the studio. Wally Whyton phoned me up out of the blue and offered to copyright it via his new publishing company, but I'd already promised the K&ES that they could have it for free and sell it on 8mm film and later, on those new-fangled VHS cassettes. Then it disappeared into the ether. After all, it WAS from a scratchy old film. The "Nationwide" lash-together was in black-and-white but the version that Brian Biffin did was in colour, albeit grotty 8mm 1970's colour. That must be the one that has ended up on the DVD. I know that MUTTLEY and DAVE THE GNOME have probably forgotten about it by now, but perhaps you could be so kind as to mention that it was A TREMBLING WHEELBARROW who dun the song, and mention Brian Biffin as the film-maker?'
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