These scenes were captured on the streets of Birmingham, England last weekend.
West Midlands Police officer PC Ian Northcott entertained the crowds in New Street in Birmingham City Centre by singing 'Wonderwall' whilst he was on the beat last Saturday.
It was the very same PC Northcott who launched Socks & Chocs a little while back, to provide homeless people in Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton with a few basic home comforts at Christmas (link below video) . Here is the man himself in action.
West Midlands Police officer PC Ian Northcott entertained the crowds in New Street in Birmingham City Centre by singing 'Wonderwall' whilst he was on the beat last Saturday.
It was the very same PC Northcott who launched Socks & Chocs a little while back, to provide homeless people in Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton with a few basic home comforts at Christmas (link below video) . Here is the man himself in action.
PC Northcott borrows a guitar from someone busking and does his own performance of the Oasis classic Wonderwall. Any rewards go to the busker for the hire of the equipment as rightly they should.
I heard Ian interviewed on local radio today, he is apparently planning to perform "I Fought the Law (and the Law Won)" during the next lull in the crime rate on the mean streets of birmingham.
I heard Ian interviewed on local radio today, he is apparently planning to perform "I Fought the Law (and the Law Won)" during the next lull in the crime rate on the mean streets of birmingham.
Here is a short clip of him paying with a busker a bit further up New Street toward Victoria Square and the Town Hall.
But seriously Ian Northcott is a cool dude and a very clever policing ploy. Now that plain clothes agents provocateur have been discredited by the totally dodgy PC Mark Kennedy aka Mark Stone and Flash...but not Gordon) of whom more at the link below.
Now instead of pretending to be eco warriors, eco activists pretend to be the police, only in Ian's case..... obviously he is not pretending.
As the little crowd shows Birmingham is a multi ethnic city that is at peace with itself most of the time, little intervals like this I think helps that along.
What a refreshing bit of strumming by one of Birmingham's cops, AA--a true "peace officer" so it appears. With all the ugly news in the media these days about the mass shooting in Santa Monica in California today, it was nice to see some clips of street life somewhere where the "sun never sets" on cops and buskers. At least til round evening time. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes Doug it is a lot better than what I grew up listening to on BBC Children's radio like this one:-
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI1nPd7hezM
FROM WIKIPEDIA
The Laughing Policeman is a music hall song by Charles Jolly, the pseudonym of Charles Penrose. In 1922, Penrose made the first recording of this song, (Columbia Records FB 1184). The composition of the song is officially credited to his wife Mabel under the pseudonym "Billie Grey", however the music and melody are taken from The Laughing Song by George W. Johnson which was recorded in approximately 1901. The Penroses wrote numerous other laughing songs (The Laughing Major, Curate, Steeplechaser, Typist, Lover, etc), but only The Laughing Policeman is remembered today, having sold over a million records.
Its popularity continued into the 1970s, as it was a frequently-requested song on the BBC Radio 1 show Junior Choice.
Because my Dad was a policeman whenever the "laughing policeman" song played on the radio my parents used to turn the radio up, hehe, so I remember it very well. I like your singing, guitar-playing policeman, he sounds a lovely bloke.
DeleteI find there is something a little bit chilling in that "children's song"--that demented laugh. I can see adults liking the song but that would've given me as a kid nightmares. Charles Penrose had quite a gift for near-hysteria, I'll give him that. Thanks for that bit of folk music frivolity AA.
DeleteI used to find it funny, but other people have commented that they find it unpleasant even horrific, but like Iri I grew up listening to it and I seem to remember it made me laugh a lot when I was a kid. I can see how it would cause a lot of mirth in Iri's household though....and yes good old PC Northcott eh :-)
DeleteThanks both for your comments
Hi Aaron.........
ReplyDeleteYep I'm finally back and catching up with people and posts. This retirement business is very time consuming. Hoping all is well in your neck of the woods. As for PC Northcotte... yep that’s the way to police the streets, we should all have a PC like this one and the world would be a happier place.
Opps see you been trolled too. My email account was hacked earlier this week and every one in my contact list ( if that’s you I apologise) received a very strange email supposedly from me claiming I've lost 30lb in weight and advertising a magic bean. Nope that doesn't sound like me. BTW..........the only way I ever found of getting rid of those annoying anonymous comments was to have every one who comments on posts copy those awful little word puzzle thingies.
:-)
Hi Loretta, welcome back I will have to catch up with your travels, I haven't been coming here much myself and I haven't been anywhere much. You are right about those nasty trolls, I just delete them, but for the moment I won't have one of those word puzzle things because they drive me bonkers more than the trolls do. having said that I'll navigate my way through the questions to catch up with you soon. I expect you have a few pictures to share and some tales to tell, when I get back from the supermarket I'll nip over to your site, catch you soon.....AA
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