Let’s stick with the naff U2 theme. What is the highest recorded number of guitars that the Hedge, sorry the Ledge, sorry the Edge has taken on stage for a real live concert to hook up to his effects pedals? Wild guesses unlikely to be much more ridiculous than the answer.
Heard on the radio that today is the 70th anniveraary of the first publication of Guiness Book of Records....always wondered what Guiness had to do with this....now I know! So why were Guiness involved, and why was it published?
Sir Hugh Eyre Campbell Beaver, KBE (4 May 1890 – 16 January 1967) was an English-South African civil engineer, industrialist and bureaucrat, who founded the Guinness World Records (then known as Guinness Book of Records). Sir Hugh Beaver created the concept, and twin brothers Norris and Ross McWhirter co-founded the book in London in August 1955.
Spot on - according to the report I heard Guinness sponsered it from the start as an advertising ploy to solve pub arguments....now we just have Google!
Funnily enough, we had this in a pub quiz a couple of months back. The question was something along the lines of, 'What well-known publication was first advertised as a guide for resolving pub arguments?' We didn't know the answer, but guessed it correctly.
Who is this..........? An entertainer, born in Watford in 1922. Educated at Eton. Volunteered for all services in WW2, but was initially rejected because of his father's nationality. Subsequently served in the RAF. Later gained fame as a member of a much-loved 'team'. Shortly before his death in 1996 of prostate cancer, he was visited in hospital by the future King Charles, a big fan.
That's right Sooper. Fascinating fella, this from his Wiki.... Once in the RAF he went through flying training. He was the penultimate man going through a medical line receiving inoculations for typhoid with the other flight candidates in his class (they were going to Canada to receive new aircraft) when the vaccine ran out. They refilled the bottle to inoculate him and the other man as well. By mistake they loaded a pure culture of typhoid. The other man died immediately, and Bentine was in a coma for six weeks. When he regained consciousness his eyesight was ruined, leaving him myopic for the rest of his life. Since he was no longer physically qualified for flying, he was transferred to RAF Intelligence and seconded to MI9, a unit that was dedicated to supporting resistance movements and helping prisoners escape. His immediate superior was the Colditz escapee Airey Neave.
