Friday 10 July 2009

Axe me I won't say no - how could I?



The man in the pic above is Dr Richard Beeching i.e. the fucker responsible for the infamous Beeching Report (what a coincidence that it bore his name!) which led to the closing down of thousands of miles of the UK railway network in the 1960s. He got paid a fortune for it too, by all accounts, wielding his "axe". There's really no justice sometimes.

What's that got to do with the price of an open return to Inverness, I don't hear you ask. Well, blog favourites the Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut have only gone and released a single about the man, in which Pete fantasises about travelling back in time and turning Beeching's axe back on him. Sounds like a plan!

Hey Doctor Beeching is available as a free mp3 from sparklemotion.co.uk, and while you're there they'd also appreciate it if you could make a voluntary donation to the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway, as Pete explains:

"The LWR is a little steam railway near where I grew up which is run by volunteers and needs funds to carry on its work restoring old locos, extending the track and enhancing the site for visitors. It's on a section of line which was closed following the recommendations of Dr Richard Beeching, as referred to in the lyrics of the song, so there's kind of a nice circularity about it if we can use the song to undo a little bit of the damage wrought by the Beeching Axe.

"The donation is entirely voluntary and you're quite welcome to download the song without making one. But we'd love it if you could put something in the hat. We suggest a donation of one pound (though, of course, it would be great if you could give more)."


Click here to download and donate

So there you go. Great bloke that Pete Green, lot of work for charity. I still think we need to divert some of those funds into financing that time machine though.

7 comments:

dickvandyke said...

Bastard Beeching!

My train was cancelled this morning. 40 years ago they put a man on the moon. However, a badger on the line in Burley brings the Harrogate/Leeds line to a grinding halt.

Kippers said...

Must've been a bloody burly Burley badger.

dickvandyke said...

Dont blame it on the sunshine, dont blame it on the moonlight,
blame it on that bastard Beeching and a bloody burly Burley badger.

davyh said...

I liked his early work with Fleetwood Mac.

davyh said...

Pete Green that is. Not the bloody burly Bee- oh I give up.

Kippers said...

I once won a Blue Peter badger.

dickvandyke said...

I had the sett