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DUFFY'S PROGRESS

  
     
  In his Virginibus Puerisque of 1881 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote

"Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour."

Stevenson was expressing the same idea as the earlier Taoist saying - "The journey is the reward." - and for many contributors to popular culture over the centuries this has proved literally true. Stevenson gave us his own nautical adventure "Treasure Island" ( with Long John Silver based on Gloucester's own monopede poet W.E. Henley ) and the desire to travel into the unknown has been the springboard for characters as diverse as Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and astronaut Frank Poole in Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey".

Travel, of course, requires transport - even if it is only the desire to "walk five hundred miles" as The Proclaimers put it - and this has been a constant theme in the popular music of the last 60 years. Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cat's "Rocket 88" - actually recorded by Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm and produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee in 1951 - is now widely acknowledged as the very first rock and roll record and how about the Beatle's "Yellow Submarine", Frank Sinatra's "Fly me to the Moon", Lonnie Donegan's "Rock Island Line", Catatonia's "Road Rage" or Prince's "Little Red Corvette"? Then there are the band names. The B52s, The Cars, Jefferson Airplane, Scooter, Northern Line, Liverpool Express. And all the other transport associations. Paul Simon writing "Homeward Bound" on Widnes railway station or Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens climbing into a Beechcraft Bonanza with a tragically inexperienced pilot.

Britain's own first rock and roller started his journey to knighthood with "Move It" and is forever associated with a big red London bus, but as Sir Cliff Richard now tends his vines in Portugal the island that gave the rockin' World Led Zeppelin has seen a flowering of female singers - either in groups such as Girls Aloud and Atomic Kitten or as solo artistes.

Some of these - like Adele and Kate Nash - have used the gift of recorded music to celebrate infrastructure with releases like "Chasing Pavements" and "Made of Bricks" while the cover of "Alright Still" featured Lily, the daughter of Gloucestershire based actor Keith Allen, astride a bicycle.

 
     
     
 
    
 

A transport enthusiast though would have to look a long way to better the debut album of Miss Aimee Ann Duffy. Not only does this feature the blonde Welsh chanteuse standing in front of a Festiniog Railway carriage of a type built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company but the video for the title track "Rock Ferry" includes scenes shot at the Festiniog's Minffordd station ( and Network Rail's Porthmadog, close to Gelert's Farm of the Welsh Highland Railway ) and another song on the hit CD is named after Warwick Avenue station on the Bakerloo Underground line of London Transport, another Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company customer.

"Rock Ferry" was recorded at Maida Vale in West London ( near Warwick Avenue ) is issued on the Polydor label and during 2008 reached the top five in the US charts and went platinum in the UK after spending two weeks at number one.   

From the album "Rock Ferry", the single "Mercy" was the most played pop song of 2008 in the United Kingdom and is rumoured to have earned Duffy £100 000 in royalties alone.  In second, third and fouth place respectively were Take That's "Rule The World" ( the longest Top Ten run for any Take That song ) Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" ( the band's first UK Number One ) and Estelle featuring Kanye West with "American Boy" before Duffy took fifth place with "Warwick Avenue".

Duffy also strengthened her links with Gloucestershire by performing at the 2008 Wychwood Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse, near the southern end of the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway.

For more about Duffy visit www.iamduffy.co.uk

 
 
    
  "Rock Ferry" was recorded at Maida Vale in West London ( near Warwick Avenue ) is issued on the Polydor label and during 2008 reached the top five in the US charts and went platinum in the UK after spending two weeks at number one. For more about Duffy visit www.iamduffy.co.uk  
 
    
  By way of tribute then to the singer from Nefyn, west of Porthmadog along the A497 ( where I spent my first childhood holidays ) here is a map of Duffy's Progress from Porthmadog's Cob Records and Minffordd by way of Rock Ferry to Warwick Avenue.  
 
    
Festiniog Railway "Prince" waits for the road to Porthmadog at Minfford in 1969,

Festiniog Railway "Prince" waits for the road to Porthmadog at Minfford in 1969,


 

For resons of space I have omitted the stations between Caersws and Crewe ( Newtown, Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Yorton, Wem, Prees, Whitchurch, Wrenbury and Nantwich ) and those between Shrewsbury and Tamworth ( Wellington, Oakengates, Telford Central, Shifnal, Cosford, Albrighton, Codsall, Bilbrook, Wolverhampton, Coseley, Tipton, Dudley Port and Sandwell, Smethwick, Smethwick Rolfe Street, Smethwick Galton Bridge, Birmingham New Street, Warter Orton and Wilnecote ) as well as those on the West Coast Main Line between Polesworth and Euston ( Atherstone, Nuneaton, Rugby, Wolverton, Milton Keynes Central, Bletchley, Leighton Buzzard, Cheddington, Tring, Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Apsley, King's Langley Watford Junction, Bushey, Carpenders Park, Hatch End, Headstone Lane, Harrow & Wealdstone, Wembley Central and Queen's Park )

  
 
    
  For reasons of space I have omitted the stations between Caersws and Crewe ( Newtown, Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Yorton, Wem, Prees, Whitchurch, Wrenbury and Nantwich ) and those between Shrewsbury and Tamworth ( Wellington, Oakengates, Telford Central, Shifnal, Cosford, Albrighton, Codsall, Bilbrook, Wolverhampton, Coseley, Tipton, Dudley Port and Sandwell, Smethwick, Smethwick Rolfe Street, Smethwick Galton Bridge, Birmingham New Street, Warter Orton and Wilnecote ) as well as those on the West Coast Main Line between Polesworth and Euston ( Atherstone, Nuneaton, Rugby, Wolverton, Milton Keynes Central, Bletchley, Leighton Buzzard, Cheddington, Tring, Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Apsley, King's Langley Watford Junction, Bushey, Carpenders Park, Hatch End, Headstone Lane, Harrow & Wealdstone, Wembley Central and Queen's Park )

Interestingly, the map also features two gauges ( 4' 8/2" and 1' 11 1/2" ) three systems of electrification ( 3rd rail dc 750 volts on The Wirral, 4 rail dc 660 volts on LT and overhead catenary ac 250 000 volts south of Crewe.)  Minffordd, Shotton, Tamworth and Smethwick Galton Bridge stations are all split level.

  
 
    
  DUFFY ON A BIKE  
 
    
   
 
    
  On 18 February 2009 Duffy became the first female artist to win three Brit Awards in the same year - for Best Album, Best British Female and Best British Breakthrough Act.

The early months of 2009 also found Duffy following both in the tracks of Lily Allen and in the footsteps of such pop luminaries as Sir Elton John by appearing in a television advertisement for Diet Coke on a hybrid bike.  In the commercial, Duffy was seen leaving the stage at a concert and not returning for an encore until she had pedalled into a local supermarket and purchased a 330ml can of the Atlanta, Georgia, based beverage.  At the end of April 2009 Daily Star readers were given the chance to win both the bike and Duffy's outfit from the advertisement - as seen in the promotion depicted above.

Meanwhile, closing the loop back to poetry at the top of this feature, Saturday 2 May 2009 saw the appointment of Britain's first woman poet laureate - Manchester based Carol Ann Duffy!

  


  On Wednesday 17 June 2009 Yahoo News carried the following Press Association story:

 A TV advert which showed singer Duffy cycling through a supermarket provoked a flurry of complaints.

The commercial for Diet Coke showed Duffy coming off stage before sipping from a can of the cola and cycling through dark streets and into the store, before returning to her concert in time to perform an encore.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said 18 viewers questioned whether the ad condoned behaviour "prejudicial to health and safety", because Duffy was not wearing reflective clothing and her bicycle had no lights.

There were also four complaints about whether the ad was irresponsible because children might copy her behaviour.

Coca-Cola argued that the ad was not meant to reflect reality, but rather "Duffy's fantasy, a scenario that depicted her escape from the pressures of stardom and far removed from the real world".

Nonetheless, the company said they had gone through a "vigorous" production process to ensure they met the Highway Code criteria for riding a bicycle on public roads.

With the regulations recommending cyclists wear reflective clothing in the dark, Coca-Cola pointed out Duffy wore a black and white sparkly top that stood out, while her bicycle had lights on the front and rear in each shot.

After investigating, the ASA did not uphold the complaints, noting the "fantasy context" and deciding that older children would understand cycling round a supermarket was not a realistic situation.