I found this rather flavorful interview in the Mick Sinclair archive.
It's worth a look for all Blackman admirers.
http://micksinclair.com/sounds/honor.html
Honor Blackman interview 1983
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Dandy Forsdyke
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Good find. That interview shows her sense of humour off. I like Kinky Boots and think of it no less than Peter Sellers/Sophia Loren hit Goodness Gracious Me (which shared the same writer)
Short interview with Kinky Boots writer - Herbert Kretzmer - and how the record became a bit hit in in 1983....
HERBERT KRETZMER: No. Kinky Boots was done in half an hour. It was written at the time of That Was The Week That Was, the satirical show that took the country apart on Saturday nights. Ned Sherrin had commissioned some shots of King’s Road on a Saturday with girls wearing thigh boots and high skirts, which was the fashion of the time. It was a two minute film and the whole thing was shot from the waist downwards, a montage of pretty long legs in boots and miniskirts. Ned wanted a tune to go with it as he didn’t feel that it needed a spoken commentary. The little song would be disposable and never heard of again. Some years later we did another song for Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman called Let’s Keep It Friendly, which was a terrible little song in the Avengers personae. They needed a B-side and Dave Lee reminded me of Kinky Boots from several years earlier. Honor Blackman was the girl with leather boots in The Avengers so we brought it out of the trunk, and the rest is mystery.
SL: And yet it took many years to become a hit.
HERBERT KRETZMER: Simon Mayo heard it and thought the recording was terrible, but the whole thing tickled him. Patrick Macnee was certainly a very stiff participant in the proceedings. It made for a very odd record and Mayo said, ‘Let’s make it number one.’ It was one of those bets that disc jockeys make with each other. It almost worked. It was popular with schoolchildren for some reason and some people are far more impressed that I wrote that than Les Miserables. You know, ‘Wow, that’s really something.’ They tend to be very young but one must take one’s fans where one can find them these days.
Short interview with Kinky Boots writer - Herbert Kretzmer - and how the record became a bit hit in in 1983....
HERBERT KRETZMER: No. Kinky Boots was done in half an hour. It was written at the time of That Was The Week That Was, the satirical show that took the country apart on Saturday nights. Ned Sherrin had commissioned some shots of King’s Road on a Saturday with girls wearing thigh boots and high skirts, which was the fashion of the time. It was a two minute film and the whole thing was shot from the waist downwards, a montage of pretty long legs in boots and miniskirts. Ned wanted a tune to go with it as he didn’t feel that it needed a spoken commentary. The little song would be disposable and never heard of again. Some years later we did another song for Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman called Let’s Keep It Friendly, which was a terrible little song in the Avengers personae. They needed a B-side and Dave Lee reminded me of Kinky Boots from several years earlier. Honor Blackman was the girl with leather boots in The Avengers so we brought it out of the trunk, and the rest is mystery.
SL: And yet it took many years to become a hit.
HERBERT KRETZMER: Simon Mayo heard it and thought the recording was terrible, but the whole thing tickled him. Patrick Macnee was certainly a very stiff participant in the proceedings. It made for a very odd record and Mayo said, ‘Let’s make it number one.’ It was one of those bets that disc jockeys make with each other. It almost worked. It was popular with schoolchildren for some reason and some people are far more impressed that I wrote that than Les Miserables. You know, ‘Wow, that’s really something.’ They tend to be very young but one must take one’s fans where one can find them these days.
THE AVENGERS GALLERY
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Timeless A-Peel
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Thanks for that! I have a fondness for "Kinky Boots," even though I actually like "Keep It Friendly" better. Interesting that the latter seems to have been the original recording. Because "Kinky Boots" is more notable, I always figured it was the first song chosen and "Friendly" was an afterthought.
Poor old Patrick, needing those taps on the shoulder. I noticed they left out the bit where they took him out, got him a bit plastered, and brought him back in hopes it would make him better. I think we can safely say it didn't.
Poor old Patrick, needing those taps on the shoulder. I noticed they left out the bit where they took him out, got him a bit plastered, and brought him back in hopes it would make him better. I think we can safely say it didn't.
