Page 59 - Phonebox Magazine January 2007

DJ Grrrl visits Bletchley Park
For more information visit: www.bletchleypark.org.uk
I visited Bletchley Park on the 5th Annual Churchill Weekend, which this year was combined with the Enigma Family Re-union. I had never been there before and was over-whelmed by the information and knowledge that was on display.
There were set times for visits today to ensure the War Veterans had priority. Walking towards the meetings point for our tour I spotted lots of people, young and old, in uniforms and many people sporting medals of all shapes and sizes.
On arriving at the meeting point, just past a replica submarine, we were introduced to Nick Miers who was going to take us around the estate.
Throughout the two hour walk about he told us many interesting stories and some amazing facts.
The most important one being that these people who worked in this secret place during World War Two, basically saved our lives and kept our Nationality.
It was the secret home and workplace to around 8,500 but today the secret is out!
You simply must go and visit Bletchley Park. I am not very academic and maths and science baffles me, but I was extremely interested in people’s stories of their time there.
I also met a code breaker! Her name was Margaret Warner AKA Peggy.
Margaret, pictured at the front of Hut 3 where she was a code breaker, spent her time receiving pieces of paper, which her group had to decipher.
Margaret worked in Hut 3 for two years in which time she married a GI and they married at Bletchley church in 1945.
Margaret was proudly wearing medals for service and defence and one special veteran medal.
I asked her what message she’d like to give to Teenage Kicks and she replied “Don’t forget those who made the final sacrificeastheymadeitforyourfreedom.Alsoalotofwomenwereinvolvedsodon’tforgetthateither”. Grrrlpower!
FACTS
• Bletchley Park is purely self-funded and receives no help from the Government, even considering that if it wasn’t for these amazing people, we may all be speaking German!
• Mick Jagger and Kate Winslet have both visited the park. Rock on! • You can host a party at the Park! (Call 01908 640404)
• We have a local band called The Enigma.
Little Red Pillows Interview
One of Milton Keynes’ biggest up and coming bands, Little Red Pillows (LRPs), took time out to answer some of my questions. Firstly, you have already built up quite a large following, have you ever had any shocks or surprises from any fans? It’s been awesome how many people have seemed to like what we are doing, and supported us so far. So thanks to the peeps for that! But no real shocks, although its still surprising when the audience knows all the words and the songs we haven't recorded yet. No better feeling than that!! What has been your best gig you have experience so far and why? There have been some ace gigs we've played over the last couple of years. MK4U is definitely the biggest stage we have played on, so that was cool. But I’d say the first Pitz gig or the Pitz one last month. They were both sell-outs and that was a shock when its your first time there!! Where did the name 'Little Red Pillows' come from? Well, I love making up ridiculous stories of how we came up with it but I’ll be honest with you! We were practicing at George's house and Cap just wasn’t feeling it. He like fell asleep on his feet and then stacked into a rather convenient array of pillows, in the middle of a song. Everyone turned around to see what had happen and he just got up and said (in a SCOOBY-DOO stylie) "I would of smashed my bass in if it wasn’t for those LITTLE RED PILLOWS" And that’s it!! We were looking for a new name anyway so it was perfect. What has been the most memorable occasion for LRPs so far? The recording of the first EP was pretty special. We traveled all the way up to a studio near Derby to record our three tracks, and it was just a day of laughs! The first Pitz gig was pretty awesome as well, we all felt at that time like we had got somewhere in the MK scene, and pretty fast. We got a massive response that night, and probably was our best night as a band so
far. What’s the favorite LRP song throughout the band? Hard one man, think it all differs from member to member. A new song we have just got together seems to be pretty popular at the moment with everyone. Can’t stop playing it at praco! After a fantastic E.P, what do you guys have planned for 2007? Well, 2007 should be better than any other year! We kick off the year in February with our fourth Pitz gig on the 15th. And we may possibly have got a new EP down ready for then as well. So we have got a couple of things to look forward to, especially the recording though. Think we all love getting in the studio! ‘Funky Monkey’ is a fantastic crowd sing-a-long, where did the inspiration come for this track and did you think it would be a big hit? Ha Ha! Is it a big hit?!?! ha! It was the first song written by the current line up, Dave had a riff, George put an immediate beat to it then we all just improvised really. I was deeply into the first Kasabian album when we wrote it, so that’s where the chorus comes from. Not that we could compete with Tom and Serge!! Was a fun song to write anyway, and it’s really cool when people sing it back at us, so thanks!! What advice would you give to teenagers starting up a band? Love what your doing and never put down your instrument. Where do you see LRPs in 5 years? Well sadly, University beckons for over half the band this year so its going to get harder to be around. But in 5 years it would nice to still be playing together and maybe have recorded an album. Finally, is there any shout outs you would like to make? To ALL the guys that come watch us and support us. ED, for being a top rate "manager" and funny man. And to OLLIE AND THE WALLIES, we love you guys!!! Thanks to Little Red Pillows for answering my questions, don’t forget to check out their myspace (www.myspace.com/littleredpillows) or come down to The Pitz on feb 15th to watch their amazing set.
Phonebox Magazine 59