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01 Feb 02 - 06:47 PM (#640283) Subject: Desperately seeking Bill Watkins From: kidd Where oh where is the one, the only, the very Bill Watkins, formerly of these shores (Scotland, that is, though last seen in the Borders rather than on the coast...) and author of the magnificent 'Streets of London' parody? Answers on the back of a fiver to this thread! |
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02 Feb 02 - 03:25 PM (#640809) Subject: RE: Desperately seeking Bill Watkins From: shankmac Have not tripped over the man in a long time. Last I heard he was married and living State side but that was three or four years ago. Would be great to hear from him, wherever he is...... |
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03 Feb 02 - 07:25 AM (#641202) Subject: RE: Desperately seeking Bill Watkins From: shankmac |
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04 Feb 02 - 05:57 PM (#642395) Subject: RE: Desperately seeking Bill Watkins From: GUEST,kidd yeah - last heard of in the Twin Cities area, maybe? Murray Macleod would know, possibly... |
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14 Mar 02 - 07:57 PM (#669452) Subject: Lyr Add: THE END OF THE EMPIRE (Bill Watkins) From: Murray MacLeod Coming on to this thread desperately late, but hopefully not too late to be of help. Bill Watkins can be contacted via his websiteWildBillWatkins.com Bill Watkins deserves wider acclaim as the author of the song popularized by Andy M Stewart The Errant Apprentice as well as one of the more pithy poetic observations on the British Empire, the text of which I reproduce below. THE END OF THE EMPIRE © Bill Watkins Notes: This is a song I wrote for Andy M. Stewart as the British flag came down over their old opium port of Hong Kong. It can be sung to the tune of The Humours of Whiskey, but the melody pattern is just A B, not A B B. the streets of old London support an abundance Of flag-waving wankers in working-class pubs Whilst the old Tory bosses and lordly old tossers Still snooze in the corners of gentleman's clubs Bucolic old colonels are writing their journals Of halcyon days on the old Hindu Kush 'Til the downtrodden natives became educated Got armed and elated and gave them the push. This devious shower of imperial power Had crassness to sour the patience of Job The great British Empire bit like a vampire The necks of poor nations all over the globe If you think these marauders and swindlers and frauders Should lecture the world on how to behave Just stretch out a map in the midst of your lap And look for a country they didn't invade. Whilst never empire-ish the poor bloody Irish Had 800 years under slavery's yoke Till in 1916 when the boys in the green Crept up on the bastards and gave them the poke From Hong Kong to Poona, to Tristan de Cunha The pillars of empire came tumbling down Now what have they got of the whole shaggin' lot 'Cept Belfast, the Falklands and Ould Derry Town? So come good folks unite and we'll take up the fight And smash the foul might of imperious greed As the old system crashes, stands up to its lashes, We'll scatter its ashes along with its seed I hope and I pray that may God speed the day When it's battered and beggared and burning in Hell And the shrieks and the groans of the empire's old moans Cannot drown out the tones of sweet Liberty's Bell. Murray |
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11 Sep 08 - 09:33 AM (#2437278) Subject: RE: Desperately seeking Bill Watkins From: Jim Dixon I don't know exactly where he lives, but Bill Watkins can frequently be found hanging out at Merlins Rest Pub* 3601 E. Lake St. Minneapolis, MN 55406 USA Phone 612-216-2419 I don't know what financial interest, if any, Bill has in the pub, but the owners think so highly of him that they gave him his own page within their web site, and offer to let you e-mail him there, too. *They insist on spelling it without an apostrophe, apparently. |
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20 Oct 10 - 09:38 AM (#3011415) Subject: RE: Desperately seeking Bill Watkins From: GUEST,Vince Gorman I think Bill might be the same Bill Watkins that I met at the Eagle Folk Club in Lauder many years ago. I sometimes sing his streets of London Parody on occasions. He gave me the words of it on one of the folk evenings. I added another verse myself a few years ago. I've often wondered where he went or what he does now. |
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20 Oct 10 - 10:48 AM (#3011472) Subject: RE: Desperately seeking Bill Watkins From: maeve Some time has passed since the thread was active, but perchance others would like to know that his own website is here: |