Outgooning a Goon

[RogerS]

Bob's mention of his father-in-law's habit of beating a tune out on the doorbell (in the BRUB thread) reminded of the time we (in the BBC) outgooned a Goon - Spike Milligan to be precise.

It was in one of the studios and Spike was fitted up with a mic hung round his neck with a lanyard. We also had speakers in the studio which were used as 'foldback' so people could hear what was going on. Spike found that if he walked too close to one of these speakers and twanged the cord on his lanyard then acoustic feedback from the loudspeaker to his mic and round and round again produced a 'Boing..g.g.g.g.g.g.g" sound. Spike thought this was great fun and so did it again. And again. And again. We got very fed up with it after a while.

So the sound supervisor did a bit of creative thinking. The mic around Spike's neck was of the moving coil variety. Which is exactly the same as a loudspeaker. So the sound supervisor set the sound desk up so that he could speak into one of the production mic's and route it to be heard by Spike on his mic.

The next time Spike twanged his cord, to his surprise there was no Boing. Instead a little voice at chest level said

"Stop it. It hurts".

He did.

 

[AndyP]

Ah Spike Milligan, author of about the only poem I know from beginning to end

There are holes in the sky
where the rain comes in
But they are ever so small
That's why the rain is thin.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Only poem?
Here I sit
alone at sixty
fat and bald and full of sin
cold the seat and loud the cistern
as I read the Harpic tin.

 

[RogerS]

I love his epitaph

"I told you I was ill"

 

[Pinch]

Great story Roger and one of my all time favourite characters - good ole Spike.

What was it like working with him?

I imagine he was unpredictable.

"All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make you happy."

"It was a perfect marriage, she didn't want to and he couldn't."

"My father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic."

Spike was a one off.