Father Of Comedian Mike Harding.

Back from left: Sgt. Simkin, Fl/Sgt Harding, Fl/Sgt Langley, Sgt Hambly. Front, from left: Sgt Hayward, Fl/Lt Scott, Sgt Frank Alfred Saunders (Photo: Gordon Thorburn)

Hard to find much about Blaster’s wartime service. He trained at 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, which would seem to have been in what was then Rhodesia, flew Halifaxes ‘on active service’, then after hostilities were over switched to bomb disposal.

Moggy

Yes Guinea Fowl is not too far from Gwelo (now Gweru) Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe),I had a fairly close look at it in 1984 whilst flying a Slingsby Skylark 3b out of Moffat Field – it was by then an Army base but the (grass) airfield at that time looked good and still extant.I almost had to land out there but fortunately found a thermal and got away – I say fortunate because the apparently infamous fifth brigade were based there at that time and might not have been welcoming to a visiting glider pilot : )

Fair point. For ‘pilots’, substitute ‘aircrew’.

Moggy

I’ve avoided using the description ‘pilot’ as the online sources at which I’ve looked only say that he ‘flew Halifax bombers’ and it occurred to me that it’s possible that this might be a reference to serving as a crew member as much as a serving as a pilot. But maybe others can research this to shed more light upon it?

… from aircrew to bomb disposal seems an unusual career change

Post 1945 there would have been very limited opportunities for heavy bomber pilots, and a lot of call for bomb disposal. If he liked the RAF and wanted to stay in, this seems like wise role switch.

Moggy

Maybe someone who knows how to research these things can ascertain whether it is the case that Derek MacIntosh Bates (dob 5 February 1923) did serve as a Halifax crew member in the RAF during WW2? His obituaries say that he ‘flew Halifax bombers’ but do not elaborate as to the capacity in which he did so. But then, equally, they say that he served in bomb disposal and, to me, from aircrew to bomb disposal seems an unusual career change – particularly when one considers that he would have been only 22 when war ended. However some internet sources suggest that bomb disposal was his post-war occupation in the RAF. I’d be interested to hear if others can unearth more on the subject.

Hard to find much about Blaster’s wartime service. He trained at 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, which would seem to have been in what was then Rhodesia, flew Halifaxes ‘on active service’, then after hostilities were over switched to bomb disposal.

It would be interesting to know more. There’s an earlier thread on the topic if you search.

Moggy

I have a couple of Blaster’s LP’s, plus a cassette tape (somewhere). Even though you know what’s coming in his
stories, he can still have you in tears of laughter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOwven0Rt94

I have a couple of his recordings. Politically incorrect in spades (is that an acceptable reference [this has just occurred to me- I honestly don’t know the origin of the phrase]) but didn’t know that he flew- there is nothing in the recordings I have that any reference to flying.

Going off at a slight tangent, but maintaining a parallel course, not many people know that Derek ‘Blaster’ Bates, the late lamented comic raconteur, apparently flew Halifaxes in the last war. With which squadron(s), where and when, I know not.

Lots of his stuff on Youtube.

I wondered about including him but wasn’t aware of the depth of his folk work. “My dad worked down in arms and legs”- then the day they broke the mould of solid gold that once made Barry John.

He was one of a group of folk musicians who found that the jokes became more and more of his act (Billy Connoly, Jasper Carrot etc) and came to dominate it. Later he stepped back into folk music. .

Not forgetting (for the rugby fans) Max Boyce.

I spent many weeks with rib pains after Mike Harding concerts, but like many good comedians he is a keen observer of life, so when he turns serious it grabs you- try Christmas 1914 for a good example. He is also an adopted Yorkshireman despite being from the wrong side of the border. And who can forget Manuel, who dances the the tango with nothing on. Apparently the BBC didn’t catch on to what Ole! Muchos Cohones! meant until afterwards. And I hate scrumpy, while liking Adge Cutler.

Folkies drink scrumpy from leather-bound putrid tankards that they clip to their belt, out of sight beneath the gut.

The men are even worse.

Moggy

I think Moggy may well be a closet Folk enthusiast who hasn’t come out yet. I know he likes real ale. Case proven, I’d say.

I’ll wager there is a flower-bedecked straw boater and pair of sandals in the cupboard under the stairs.

Only just discovered he’d lost the Radio 2 slot. I personally can’t stand folk music; too many hours spent doing pit security at Fairport festivals (I needed the money, honest) but he seems an OK bloke and Bombers Moon is very touching.

Not as funny as Connelly? That’s difficult to imagine. Dr Shipman is almost certainly funnier than the Scots ‘entertainer’

Moggy

Mike now organises and hosts a brilliant streaming folk show http://www.mikehardingfolkshow.com/ This show was created after the BBC dropped him from a radio 2 national folk programme .
His devotion to folk and roots music has never wavered and he also attends live music sessions across Lancashire,Cumbria and Cheshire.

Often wondered what happened to Mike Harding, saw him live once, his comedy was good, but not a patch on Billy Connolly.

“Bombers Moon” by Mike Harding is actually about his bitterness that he never knew his father and those who sent him to his death. He was Killed before he was born. He says his mother was married, widowed and a mother in the space of a few weeks. His father was Flight Sergeant Louis Arthur ‘Curly’ Harding, a navigator on Lancaster.