Month: January 2020

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Jeanne Burns: The great jazz singer that few know of…….. Part two

Jeanne Burns made very few recordings though she was also a composer and wrote for Billie Holiday. One of them is “I got a Need for You” which she recorded with Adrian Rollini and his Tap Room Boys in 1935, a song which I have posted about before. I just love her voice. Another is the excellent Jazz-O-Jazz. To hear the track click here. Here’s a piece about the National Sound Archive where I did some research on Jeanne Burns career.

From The Observer 3 April 1988National Sound Archive 4

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On the death of the Sultan of Oman, a timely reminder of Mark Thatcher’s coat-tails visit there.

 

MT in Oman (2)

David Leigh and I broke this story in 1982 about the Prime Minister’s son acting as a middle man in Oman.  This story is so interesting that the official UK public records have been withheld until 2053.

The backstory of how the Sultan overthrew his father in 1979 is an interesting one. He was helped by Sandhurst chum Brigadier Timothy Landon who was the connection with the Foreign Office. Landon went on to be the Sultan’s fixer and when he died a few years back had a huge home counties estate and left £200m. Not bad for a Brigadier.