Lyr Req: ABC Minors' Song (UK)

Subject: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: C-flat
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 06:52 AM

As a small child in the 60's I was a regular attender of the ABC Saturday morning kids club called "The ABC Minors".
For a shilling (or was it sixpence?) we could enjoy two full length feature films, a cartoon or two and the pleasure of pelting the kids in the seats below with a storm of half eaten food, lollysticks and anything else we could lay our hands on. The poor cleaners must have loved Saturdays!
As part of the entertainment the cinema manager would invite children whose birthday it was that week, while we all sang "Happy Birthday" after which the microphone was passed down the line of scruffy, snotty-nosed kids...."Thank-you-very-much-Minors", "Thank-you-very-much-Minors", and so on along the line.
I've been trying to recall the ABC Minors' song but can only come up with a couple of lines,

"We are the ............
We're Minors of the ABC,
and every Saturday we line up,
...............with glee,

and finishing with;

" We're all pals together,
we're Minors of the ABC"

I'm hoping that there are some more ex-Minors who can fill in the blanks,

"Thank-you-very-much-Minors!"

C-flat

Subject: RE: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: weerover
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 07:35 AM

Not sure about the missing words but the tune is taken from a song called "Blaze Away", which begins "We'll build a bonfire of our troubles..."

wr

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ABC MINORS SONG (UK)
From: Turlough
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 08:05 AM

C-flat,

Quite frankly I have no idea what you are talking about, but I found this for you:

THE ABC MINORS SONG


We are the boys and girls all known as..
Minors of the ABC...
And every Saturday all line up...
To see the films we like and shout aloud with glee..
We like to laugh and have our sing-song...
Such a happy crowd are wee..eeeee
We're all pals together...
We're Minors of the ABC.

I hope that's it...

Turlough

Subject: RE: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: C-flat
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 08:39 AM

That's it indeed!   Thank you Turlough.

Subject: RE: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Turlough
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 08:45 AM

It's a pleasure, C-flat!

Should you be longing for more nostalgia, I found the song on

http://astonbrook-through-astonmanor.co.uk/home16.htm

Subject: RE: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: C-flat
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 08:54 AM

Your googling skills far surpass mine. I've looked several times without success!

Subject: RE: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: nickp
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 10:56 AM

Don't remember the song but do remember the luminous badges...

Subject: RE: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 12:08 AM

"...My father was a minor,
And I am an adult.."

Subject: RE: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 06:02 AM

I used to go to Saturday morning pictures (6d, 9d in the circle) and sing that song at the ABC Savoy in Holloway Road, London.

It's now a Wetherspoons pub called The Coronet. It seems strange sitting and drinking beer in the same place I sat and misbehaved as a kid.

Still misbehaving tho'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: C-flat
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 04:07 AM

Likewise in Middlesbrough Kevin, the old ABC here is now a busy town-centre "fun-pub". I did once go in to see what they'd done to what was a lovely old building but I didn't stay for a second drink.
Todays trendy new edge-of-town multi-screen cinema complexes seem to be a success and I've enjoyed their facilities many times myself but I could never understand how the cinema industry practically wiped itself out at the onset of the VCR movie-rental trade.
Their reaction to rapidly falling nubers? Put admission prices up!
Didn't work? Put them up some more!
All they needed was a face-lift, get rid of the old "flea-pit" image and modernise themselves but that would have taken investment at the very time they were under thread.
These days the home-rental and cinema industries seem to be able to live alongside each other and survive nicely but some of those beautiful old cinemas should never have been allowed to be turned into night-clubs and car parks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Jim McLean
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 04:48 AM

ON a Saturday morning we used to go to the 'pictures' for 3d; it was called The Thruppeny Rush. Along the High Street (Paisley) there was a cinema which admitted you in exchange for old jam jars! If I can remember rightly, a two pound jar was worth 2d.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: C-flat
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 06:02 AM

That's right Jim. An old friend of mine remembers paying with jam-jars as a kid in Newcastle.
Before my time though!:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 12:10 PM

Remember it well from the Plaza, George Lane, South Woodford

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: old git
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 03:42 PM

In my case it was the "Royalty" in Hull
think it's a supermarket now
after attending so many sessions you got a mickey mouse badge and got in cheaper when you wore it (free at Christmas)
the show nearest Xmas we all got an apple and orange...............wonder what flash Gordon's doing now......oh simple days when all the bad cowboys wore black hats and all the good ones wore white.............wonder if the UCI complex will let me in for two jamjars...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 26 Aug 03 - 03:34 PM

The Adelphi in Sheldon,Birmingham-a halfpenny on the bus each way and thruppence to get in,so my brother and I would walk and have the extra penny pocket money.AAHH The good old days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 11:50 AM

They pulled down the old ABC at Townend in Walsall and built a Woolworth's in a mock-deco style on the spot, but it doesn't look as good. (But it looks better than the Art Gallery next door!) Ah, lost innocence! (Actually, I lost a lot of things at the pictures, but not that.) Who was the serial hero with the spaceship? The female lead (Veena?) wore a "respectable" Star-trek-style costume with a longer skirt (just above the knee) and a sort of cross-your-heart-bra affair over the blouse. They had a "cold light" device which made the ship invisible, but only on the outside!)

It all came to an end when I started at the Grammar School in 1962: we had compulsory rugger practice on Staurday mornings! (I did lose my rugger kit on the bus once!)

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: GUEST,John Lynch
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 11:56 AM

Hi

I stumbled across this forum when I was researching bits for a reminiscence section on my web site Seniors Network.

I was hoping to find a web site for fans of the ABC Minors but no luck as yet. I have managed to get a few bits but perhaps someone out there has more to offer?

Have a look at the site -
http://www.seniorsnetwork.co.uk

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 03:56 PM

My Saturday mornings were spent at the Ritz* on Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes. We sang the song with great enthusiasm and because my mates yelled out "WEEEDEEEMO" I naturally did the same. No idea why, when you're 10 you don't ask.
My strongest memory is the Laurel & Hardy short where Olly dreams in the barber chair that his (much widowed) fiance is coming to cut his throat. The sight of that lady coming down the corridor sharpening her knife had ALL us sprogs diving undet the seat. Happy Days !!
* Now a MacDonalds

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Gedpipes
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 04:24 AM

Hi C-Flat, you must be dead middle class coz I never paid in the ABC.
I used to get the bus down Linny Road, (1d). Wzs it the Lodore M or the Levick M and sneak in. I remember trying to have 3 birthdays in succession and got shot out the third time by the Commissionaire who must have been an RSM in the Guards. What fun times.
The last time I sang the ABC song was in a pub in Holland with 20 folks from the Boro in 1981. What fun

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: GUEST,davy
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 11:14 AM

It was the Ritz in Huddersfield, and if you had a birthday every month you could minimise the cost by getting in free next time!
Ah! Batman....Jungle girl...Flash Gordon! I also got my first taste of motown there! Diana Ross, little eva! In't nostalgia good!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 11:52 AM

Not as good as it used to be, Davy!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: C-flat
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 12:34 PM

Hi Gedpipes,
I got away with the birthday scam a couple of times but, as you say, the commissionaire was a fearsome type and not to be messed with!
We also used to use the rear fire escape as a free access, paying for one to get in and open the door for the rest of us but that was soon rumbled.
As for being middle class...we are talking about the 'boro, and if I tell you that I was born in Pallister Park and raised in Grove Hill you may get some idea as to how "middle class" we were!

Off topic, but isn't it curious how the more run-down the housing estate, the more pretty the name?
Gove Hill and Brambles Farm are two good examples where a dog with two ears would be a rarity!

C-flat.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Gedpipes
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 02:10 PM

I'm from Lower Acklam meself. I wish I had 2 ears.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Ned Ludd
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 02:28 PM

Wonder what happened to all my badges? Prob'ly met you at the Ritz in Hudd's Davy! Balcony or stalls?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: C-flat
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 06:29 PM

"Lower Acklam"? That's posh-talk for Whinney Banks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: GUEST,MikeofNorthumbria(off base)
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 06:54 PM

Hi folks,

Does anyone else remember the theme song of the other British cinema chain's Saturday morning club? It went something like this...

We come along...on Saturday morning,
Greeting everybody with a smile!
We come along ... on Saturday morning,
Knowing it's well worth while!

We're members of the Odeon club, and we intend to be
Good citizens when we grow up, and champions of the free!

We come along ... on Saturday morning,
Greeting everybody with a smile ... smile... smile ...
Greeting everybody with a smile!

But despite these good resolutions, audience behaviour in our local Odeon was just as riotous as in the rival ABC establishment down the road. More like the Bash Street Kids than Lord Snooty and his Pals.
Happy days!

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 25 Jan 05 - 04:01 AM

Somebody burned our Odeon down in Walsall! J Arthur Rank himself said we diodn't deserve a cinema if we behaved like that, so it ended up as a Tesco.

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: GUEST,Woodcock
Date: 08 Feb 05 - 04:30 PM

ABC Enfield town, must have held about 5000 people on a Saturday morning or maybe 10,000. There were kids from all over the place, I'm sure there were about 50 of us used to walk across the playing fields from the Brick Lane estate. Always lots of fighting afterwards. Maybe into the nearest sweet shop for 8 mojo's for a penny or 4 hobo's for the same. Black Jacks and fruit salads, or maybe some of those imitation fags that used to light up and smoke when you sucked them.isnt it, wasn't it, you know, Marvelous.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: GUEST,JERRY THOMAS
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 06:04 AM

THE WALDOLF IN WOTE STREET BASINGSTOKE 6d in the stalls or 9d in the circle we all paid 6d and in the interval we all went up to the circle for the main film!
The song was put up on the screen at the start and had a ball bounce from word to word for us all to follow after the song the manager would come on the stage and ask if it was anyones birthday he would give them a free pass for next week I think I had a birthday every couple of weeks !
Then the lights went down and the fun started fights,pea shooters running across the babk of the seats setting off the fire extinguishers a total riot,around October,November you had to watch out for bangers and even rockets!!
Oh what fun we all had! I am sure that ABC were paid by our Mums and Dads to get rid of us for a few hours on Saturday morning so they could make some more kids to come in the future!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ABC Minors' song (UK)
From: GUEST,buspassed
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 07:15 AM

The Abc Rex on North Hull estate was our Saturday morning rendezvous. You always got there early for the marbles/conkers/card trading and then you made sure you were wearing your Minors badge which meant you were given a picture card [on completing the collection of the current set you could buy the album and then when you showed the collection to 'Uncle' he gave you the badge for that set]. Think I had 8 or 9 sets, would be a basis for a pension fund today! The badge that everybody wanted though was the big Monitor badge which was given to the goody-goodys who thought they could keep us in order, many losing their special badges in the toilets to the Back Row hard cases.

My daughter bought me a Monitor badge for my 60th and I wore it with great pride at my own 'Buspass Matinee' we staged at a local cinema. Great day!