<<  Back to the serious stuff!  :) 

An Expat's Lament

 

and  other  lamentable  stuff

 
  Recycling is good for the environment, everyone knows that, so here is my contribution towards saving the planet; recycled music.  Well most of it, but there is some entirely new stuff by Alan* who taught maths in Dubai - with whom I have lost touch - and even a piece by myself.  All arrangements and sequencing are mine, as are the words to some of the pieces, and of course I'm the accompanist and vocalist. Vocalist - Ha!         
Mail me    Mark@Panoradiant.Co.Uk                     All rights reserved.  Human rights that is!                           Mark Schuster (c) 1998-2010 where applicable

* Alan if you are listening in please contact me - or if anybody knows where to contact him, his second name began with F, that's all I remember,  please let me know.

 
 

 
Click a title to go to its MP3 song

Photos of me showing off  
   
An Expat's Lament  

This is an old George Formby number to which  I've attached new words.  There is a bit of Gilbert and Sullivan at the end.  Sentiment seemed to fit!

Corner of our sitting room in Dubai 1999. Hot with the noisy airconditioning turned off during recording
 
   Personal Finance Man
And this is yet another of George's songs to which I had to write new lyrics.  The original "How Do Who Do You Do Hindoo Man" might have been thought Ok in the 1930's when he sang it, but would be terribly offensive now 
 
Dubai 1974. Not a finance man but resident engineer. Original office at our villa and if you don't believe it's the seventies just look at the curtains, dial telephone and manual Royal typewriter
 
   My Little Motor Car
My daughter in her teens had a 1972 VW Beetle which she adored and this is a little song about it.  Sgain I've pinched the tune from George Formby
 
Tootsy, my daughter's Beetle
 
   With My Little Ukulele
George Formby yet again, but this time with it's original word - almost.  Sorry I can't do Lancashire so you'll have to make do with Cockney.
 
Yes, I know it's not a uke but a banjo tuned to 
"My Dog's got Fleas", in other words a uke
 
   
When All Night Long
My only operatic principle part with the Dubai Singers, and that as an understudy.  Private Willis on guard duty at the Houses of Parliament in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe.  Though written in the 1890's nothing seems to have changed much through more than a century.
 
Wrong uniform for Private Willis, instead me doing my bit for Queen and Country in far off Lincolnshire 
c 1960
 
   
Graffiti
This and the next three numbers were a collaboration with Alan, a maths teacher in Dubai.  Original words and music by him, but I've taken the liberty to change the words a little when arranging this stuff.  Alan if you ever come across this page please contact me so that I can ask your permission in retrospect.
   
   Hotel Anaesthesia    
   A Woman's Place    
   Girls Ain't What They Used To Be    
   
I'm Scotch and I'm Married
I came across the words of a Will Fyffe number on the internet but couldn't find the tune, so I've borrowed George Formby's Aunt Maggie's Remedy  
   
 
Transport of Delight
Flanders and Swanne.  This and the next number.  Interlectual humour from the 1940's and 50's
 
London Transport Route Master c 1961
 
   Have some Madeira M'Dear     
   
Leaning on a Lamppost
Here we go, George Formby again but this time with the original words
   
   With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock    
   Swimmin' with the Women    
   When I'm Cleaning Windows    
   Naughts and Crosses    
   Fanlight Fanny    
   Yorkshire Toreador    
   Mother What Will I Do Now    
   Sitting on the Ice    
   Chinese Laundry Blues Photos apropos about nothing  
 
Underneath the Arches
Flanagan and Alan, about a homeless wanderer during the 1940s or 50s
 
My first company car in Dubai
 
   
Side by Side
Don't know who wrote this pretty little number
   
   
A Little Love Duet
My own composition.  Well you try writing music on a PC with a mouse!

Me pretending to drive an Image Orthicon t.v. camera in 1958. It was enormous and needed a two man crew and it was only black and white.  Daft thing is my little iPhone does a much better job!
 
    <<  Back to the serious stuff!  :)