"Firing into the Brown" #71 - Olivia, Johnnie, Grande Battaglia and stuff...

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update... first of the year, so Happy New Year to my reader...  not a very cheerful update either if I'm honest, but that's the way life sometimes is... 😏

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Back in '75 or '76 a pubescent, slightly oily and spotty Steve the Wargamer did "Romeo and Juliet" for his English O Levels and our most excellent teacher (and he really was excellent) dragged us all in to the school hall one day where the television on the big wheelie stand lived (all schools at the time must have had them😏) and showed us Zeffirelli's film of the play..

I was at an all-boys school (they existed in the dark ages) but was completely, utterly and totally blown away by Olivia Hussey...

😍

She would have been about the same age, or a year older, than me when the film was made, and she was incandescently beautiful, and I had a crush on her for some considerable time..😀

...it was those eyes...  honest... 

So it was that with great sadness I heard of her death over this Christmas period..  so sad...  but so good to have left such a film in your body of work. I must seek it out and watch it again...

• Romeo and Juliet (1968 film) - Wikipedia
• Olivia Hussey, captivating star of Romeo and Juliet, dies aged 73 | The Independent

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...and if that wasn't bad enough, a mere few days later I then heard that Johnnie Walker had also died...  

...bugger! 😐

I suspect Johnnie is not as well-known as Olivia outside of the UK, but in the UK, he was a behemoth of the rock radio world...  a true out and out rock DJ, he was outspoken in his support of songs, bands and genres of music when they weren't universally approved of or accepted by the powers that be, but equally dismissive of music and bands that he saw as trite...

The guy was on the radio for 58 years, started on the pirate ships (Caroline) was sacked by the BBC (or was it a mutual parting of the ways??) for his on-air comments about the Bay City Rollers, went to the US on the FM radio circuit for a while before coming back eventually to the BBC and presenting the "Sounds of the 70's" and the "Rock Show" both of which I have listened to for years and years...

...another legend passes...  Ave..

• Johnnie Walker (DJ) - Wikipedia
• Johnnie Walker: Radio's rock and roll pirate - BBC News

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...we have however, on a slightly more cheerful note, kicked off a big game...

Set in the War of the Spanish Succession this one features 10 battalions of foot, 6 regiments of horse, and two batteries of heavy guns a side, as the Maritime Powers and the Franco Bavarians fight for control of the (aptly named 😏) village of Grande Battaglia..

Big old game so I'll save the report to a separate post, but to wet the appetite here's the initial setup and table..

Allied, or Maritime Powers, to the left..

...and the Franco Bavarian's (booooo.. hissss 😀) to the right..

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...