HeroQuest

Scrapbook

Soon, I was standing in front of The Shepherds Bush Empire, which was designed and built by renowned architect Frank Matcham. The theatre first opened its doors in August 1903. In September 1953 it was sold to the BBC and converted into a television studio and broadcasting theatre. Over the next forty years the venue played a significant part in the history of British television. Popular shows such as 'Crackerjack', 'Hancock' and The Old Grey Whistle Test, were broadcast from the Empire.

The Old Grey Whistle Test was a BBC2 music show that was first televised in September 1971 and ran until1987. It is recognized as one of the most influential music shows ever. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, The Old Grey Whistle Test placed 33rd.
The show's first host was Richard Williams, Features Editor of the Melody Maker music weekly.
According to DJ "Whispering" Bob Harris, who later replaced Williams as Host, the program derived its name from "a Tin Pan Alley phrase from years ago. When they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the "old greys" - the collective nickname for the office cleaners who would typically start work at 5pm as office staff were leaving. The tunes they could remember and could whistle, having heard them just once or twice, had passed 'the old grey whistle test'."
The Old Grey Whistle Test was the template for what later became MTV in the USA.
The show's focus on "serious" rock music rather than chart hits was emphasised by the lack of showbiz glitter. The program hosted many seminal acts of the era, including the first British TV performance of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Later, the New York Dolls' performance on the Old Grey Whistle would strongly influence the British punk movement. In 1978, when it was felt that the program was behind the times in its failure to embrace Punk Rock, Annie Nightingale took over as Host.

Her first show was opened by TV Smith and his band The Adverts. In the early 80s, Nightingale was replaced by a string of other hosts. In 1983, the show was retooled and it's name shortened to Whistle Test, which remained its title until it went off the air in 1987. The BBC vacated the building in 1992. It was taken over and, in 1994, again became the Shepherds Bush Empire. The Empire also featured live music concerts.

During the building's long history, many of the greatest bands in Rock have performed there. Although the theatre has a capacity of only 2,000, it has been chosen as a venue for small gigs by such leading performers as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Eric Clapton, Duran Duran, and a myriad of others.The Empire changed hands again in 1995, and the entire building underwent a major refurbishment at cost of two million British Pounds. Seattle's Rock giants Soundgarden were the first act to perform at the Shepherds Bush Empire under the new era. Radiohead, The Charlatans and Blur all played at the Empire. The Empire was honored by Music Week magazine as UK Venue of the Year in 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2005. As well as hosting concerts, many live television events have been broadcast from the Empire including Comic Relief and many prestigious awards ceremonies. In recent years the Shepherds Bush Empire has staged virtually every significant band of the modern age and has firmly cemented its place as one of the most important and spectacular music venues on the planet.

After reading the list of upcoming concerts and looking around at the Empire, I decided to take a stroll through area's main focal point: Shepherd's Bush Green (or Shepherd's Bush Common). It is an approximately 8-acre triangular area of open grass surrounded by trees and roads lined with shops. The park has two tennis courts at its northwestern apex. There was also a play area for kids with a sandbox, a small slide, and a little jungle gym. It was all very nice.
There were old men sitting on the benches and joggers doing their thing along the paths. It was rather active for a park at about 7 AM.

I watched as a woman and her daughter played fetch with their dog. He was a little black mutt of mixed breed. He chased his ball as if his life depended on it every time. It made me miss my dog Calista.
As the day grew brighter, it was looking like it was going to be a beautiful day. The sky was clear and blue with only a few wispy clouds and it was about 80 degrees. I strolled leisurely through the Common and enjoyed listening to the city waking up. The once quiet street, was now bustling with activity. The double-decker busses, for which London is so famous, began to make their rounds, and pedestrians began to appear from all over. I took a few photos of the park and began to look for a hostel that I knew was in the area. After about fifteen minutes I found it near the Shepherd's Bush West 12 Shopping Center. Unfortunately, it was still closed.

The pub next door controls the hostel. Through the window, I could see there were two people inside, a man and a woman. There was an opened door for deliveries, so I popped my head in and inquired as to the price of a bed for a night and when they would open. The guy was pretty rude, but informed me that it was £22 per night. The woman was a good bit nicer than the guy. She said that they opened at 8 AM, but I could sit and wait in the commons room if I would like. That sounded agreeable. So, she let me in and I dropped my gear. She went back upstairs and I took a look around. The place was kind of a mess. There were dirty dishes on the tables, trash on the floor, and the couches were all torn with stuffing coming out of them. On the plus side, there was a computer with Internet access. I dropped a £1 coin into the slot and got twenty minutes access, but it turned out to be for naught. Unfortunately, the machine could not run Java Script, so I couldn't check emails. And to make matters worse, there was a restrictive censorship program that would not allow a page to come up if there were any "objectionable" words or content. So, I was unable to check my MySpace or anything. I was pissed! (And not in the good English way that means drunk.) I surfed what I could until my time ran out. I decided to walk around and check out the other areas of the hostel to see if it was as bad as the Common Room. To my disappointment, it was. The place was a dump. I found the water closet, stopped, and dropped a deuce. Then, I walked out without flushing...

I followed the directions to the Shepherd's Bush Underground Station and hopped a train heading towards the center of London. I ended up getting off at the Marble Arch Station.
On an island site in the middle of London's rushing traffic stands the Marble Arch, an impressive stone arch designed by John Nash. It is based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome. Originally, the arch was intended to serve as the main gateway to Buckingham Palace. But, it was too narrow to allow the state coach to pass through. So, in 1851, it was moved to its present site at the northeast corner of Hyde Park. It stands close to Tyburn, which, from the 12th century to 1793, was London's place of execution. Criminals were brought there from the Tower of London or from Newgate prison to die on the gallows.
After wandering around for a while, I spotted a stall that sold tickets for the double-decker bus tours of London. The Big Bus Company is a family-owned company has been doing business in London since 1991, when it started out with just two busses. In its fifteen years of operations it has grown to a fleet of over 70 busses and accrued many awards including the Visit London (formerly the London Tourist Board) Sightseeing Tour of The Year award twice. The tour admission price includes a boat ride on the River Thames and many free guided walking tours as well. With your ticket, you are able to get off and on the bus for a twenty-four hour period. That way you can explore the sites and get a feel for them. The tour company also offers express tickets to London's most popular attractions.

I came up the stairs from the tunnel and was looking at Hyde Park, one of the Royal Parks of London. (http://www.royalparks.gov.uk) It was beautiful. Hyde Park covers 350 acres (1.4 km²), and is one of the largest parks in central London. It is divided in two by the Serpentine Lake, which was formed in 1730 when Queen Caroline, wife of George II, ordered the damming of the River Westbourne.
At that time, the Westbourne formed eleven natural ponds in the park.
The Serpentine will be used for the swimming leg of the triathlon at the London 2012 Olympics. South of the lake is the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial, an oval stone ring fountain opened on July 6, 2004.
The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, which is widely assumed to be part of Hyde Park, but is technically separate. Kensington Gardens is 275 acres (1.1 km²) giving both parks an overall area of 625 acres (2.5 km²).
Hyde Park is famous for its Speakers' Corner, an area of the park where public speaking is allowed. It is located in the north-east corner of the park, near the Marble Arch. Within this area, a speaker is allowed to talk about any subject without fear of any legal repercussions. Only two subjects are off limits: the British Royal Family and the overthrow of the British government.

There was a middle-aged man standing in the Speaker's Corner. He was going on about his opposition to Great Britain being involved the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. I only watched him for a few moments before I queued up with the rest of the crowd waiting to get on the next bus.

The Big Bus Tour Of London Begins...

When the next bus arrived, I grabbed a seat at the rear of the upper level, dropped my bags, and got my camera ready. It was good to sit and I relaxed and enjoyed the ride. Our guide for this leg of the tour was a pleasant blonde woman named Amy. She was well versed on the history of the city and its famous landmarks. She was also very funny.
The city of London's history is fascinating. Over the course of two thousand years, many groups from the Romans to the Vikings, the Normans to the Tudors, and more have left their mark. The city is filled with many different architectural styles. London is the city that has inspired artists as diverse as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mozart, Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond novels), the Beatles, and so many, many more.
The Big Bus Tour takes visitors to all the great sites such as Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament & Big Ben, and the British Airways London Eye, the highest observation wheel in the world.
The City of London is a geographically-small City within Greater London. The City of London is the historic core of London from which, along with Westminster, the modern conurbation grew. A conurbation is an urban area comprising a number of cities, towns and villages which, through population growth and expansion, have physically merged to form one continuous built up area. A metropolitan area usually combines one or several conurbations with peripheral zones not themselves necessarily urban in character, but closely dependent on the conurbation in terms of employment and commerce. The City's boundaries have remained constant since the Middle Ages, and hence it is now only a tiny part of the larger London metropolis. The entire area around the City of London, including all the districts, is refered to as the Greater London Metropolitan Area.The City of London is now a major business and commercial centre, ranking alongside New York City as the leading centre of global finance. It is often referred to as just the City or as the Square Mile, as it is approximately one square mile (2.6 km²) in area. These terms are also often used as metonyms for the UK financial services industry, which is principally based there.

HeroQuest

Scrapbook