VIOLATION OF THE COPYRIGHT LAWS. Bill Whitebread, the London Councillor for N.O.D.A., told me the following (true) story which is too good to be lost:-

A Roman Catholic Church Society somewhere in Ireland, put on "Jesus Christ. Superstar" without asking permission from the copyright holders, or paying any Royalties. As it may be expected, the owners of the show were furious, and wrote a stinging letter, saying "You had no authority to perform this work without our permission." The Parish Priest shrugged and replied "We had permission from a higher authority.''

WE ARE A WONDERFUL PEOPLE

Morris Bloom wrote in GASBAG, November 1977 (the magazine of Univ. of Michigan G & S. Soc) "The English are known for their off-beat hobbies and avocations. They organise ghost hunts. They travel to the remotest parts of the British Isles to take rubbings at old churches. They talk and spell peculiarly: a simple Anglo-Saxon name like ''Chol-O-Mon-Delay" is pronounced "Chumley" They drive on the wrong side of the road & drink warm beer. I like them.''

PEOPLE - DAVID CANTOR

In the autumn of 1973 a bombshell hit the London G & S scene with the exuberance and warm-hearted enthusiasm that perhaps only an American can radiate. The bombshell's name was David Cantor, over to study at drama school for a few months. He turned up at the G&S Society, and the resultant friendship which exploded over my head was exhausting but rewarding. When he left London in the spring of 1974, I wrote him the following poem:- TO AN AMERICAN G & S FRIEND

T'was like a bolt from the blue,
The way we were caused to meet,
The exuberance that was you,
Which whirled me off my feet;
A friend dropped in from an unknown quarter,
A handshake from across the water
What I pray is that all will last,
I'm not a Luiz to dwell in the past.
What lies ahead vie can only guess,
But perhaps the medium of G&S,
Who made our orbits intersect,
And to whose shrine we both have trekked,
Will leave us aye the same, In friendship's name.

I only managed to see him perform once (though I have cherished tapes which he gave me of productions in the States, which he has been in). This performance was as Major General Stanley with Chapel End Savoy Players at Lloyd Park Pavilion, 9th May 1974, memorable for David (but little else), the most remarkable thing about him was that though his normal speech was with a pronounced American accent, he had no trace of it when on stage.

MORE ON ERIC CAMPBELL. In the foyer on Saturday 18th Feb (DOC LAST NIGHT) Cyril Rollins handed me a piece of paper with a few details on Eric Campbell, who was born in Dunoon, Scotland, and died in a car accident in December 1917. That's all so far.

PAMELA FIELD is with John Hanson in Lilac Time at Wimbledon Theatre (Surrey Comet, 18 Feb. 1978).

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