Friday, June 21, 2013

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HIDES UNDER A BUSH

Today is the Solstice, and speaking of the longest day, I found out today that an old mate of mine had died. Yes, Bill Millen, the piper who led the troops ashore on D-Day was a friend of mine. He is best remembered for playing the bagpipes whilst under fire during the D-Day landing in Normandy. Pipers had traditionally been used in battle by Scottish and Irish soldiers. However, the use of bagpipes was restricted to rear areas by the time of the Second World War by the British Army. Lord Lovat, nevertheless, ignored these orders and ordered Millin, then aged 21, to play. When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: “Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply.” He played "Hielan' Laddie" and "The Road to the Isles" as his comrades fell around him on Sword Beach. Millin states that he later talked to captured German snipers who claimed they did not shoot at him because they thought he was crazy. Millin, whom Lovat had appointed his personal piper during commando training at Achnacarry, near Fort William in Scotland, was the only man during the landing who wore a kilt – it was the same Cameron tartan kilt his father had worn in Flanders during World War I – and he was armed only with his pipes and the sgian-dubh, or "black knife", sheathed inside his kilt-hose on the right side.
 
In the mid 1980s when I was a student nurse and he was the Senior Nurse (nights) we bonded over cheap whisky in the Staff Social Club at Langdon Hospital near Dawlish. I hadn't seen him for over 25 years, but it was still a pang when I found out that he had died back in 2010. This week, however, I found that he has been commemorated by a life sized bronze statue of him which was unveiled on 8 June 2013 at Colleville-Montgomery, near Sword Beach, in France.
 
Rest in peace old friend.
 
What's new on the Gonzo Daily?
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com
 
 
 
 
Gonzo Web Radio - Seven more archive broadcasts of Canterbury Soundwaves
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/canterbury-soundwaves-episodes-8-14.html
 
Gonzo Web Radio - Another episode of Strange Fruit
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/strange-fruit-42.html
 
 
 
*  The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at  jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...
*  The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
 
* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

*  Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?
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