[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by RM

Running the risk of reckless posting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3pf7o-9OOk

Dear "Reckless" in Tuscan
I think it was super that you brought up the subject of Hot Chocolate
who were led by the charismatic Errol Brown
One of my favourite videos and songs is their "You Sexy Thing"
a gigantic hit in the UK in 1975, and still played in television commercials
Stateside even now.

YouTube - HOT CHOCOLATE YOU SEXY THING

I have particularly fond memories of a week spent skiing in Bulgaria of all places, in about 1977/79,with a group of English schhoolchildren, it had started badly when on the way in to Sopia we were diverted to Bucharest in Rumania. I clearly recall landing on a runway lined with anti aircraft guns then watching in astonishment as the 40 or so kids kept deathly quiet whilst waiting for a meal, the reason being the constant patrolling just outside the large terminal window by soldiers with bayonets at the ready! Once in our ski hotel we were surprised to see an East German pop group doing Beatles covers, And the kids soon had drunk the hotel dry of locally brewed Coca Cola,
Later we found a sort of disco dancing facility , the people running it had clearly tape recorded their music from Radio Luxembourg, and one record heavily featured was "You Sexy Thing".
I remember thinking that Communism might just be on the way out because hitherto the Russians had of course done a comprehensive job of jamming Western radio stations to avoid the Communist youth from being contaminated by capitalist fashions and culture.
In addition in the largest department store in Sophia was an amazing display rack containing of hundreds of cans of paint each one boldly emblazoned "America's favorite paint"!!
It was soon after that (1981) that the Poles formed Solidarity and then in 1989 the Berlin wall came down.