Monday 5 January, 2004

Dear sir, I'd like to complain

First morning back at work. Feeling tired and slightly detached (at least I managed to drive on the left side of the road) - and the news on radio didn't help to bring me back to reality. I listened to BBC Radio 4 in the car where they had been contacted by a worried listener who claimed that the Big Ben bongs (yes, they called it that) at midnight on New Year's Eve had in fact been a recording and not the real thing. They interviewed a BBC representative and a Conservative party MP for this article to prove that the recording had in fact been genuine and that the bongs heard where indeed live and not a recording.

So they weren't exactly serious, but it still reminded me of those Monty Python "letters to the editor" jokes.

Posted by kolibri at 5 January 15:28, 2004
Comments
# 1 - Janne (on January 5, 2004 10:58 PM):

Hey, I was there next to Big Ben at the time of the bongs! I recall being very disappointed at the quality of the bongs; but it may be that the 100,000 people screaming all into my ear did dampen the bings and lessen the bongs somewhat.

The bongs were far better the next day. Bings, too.

And whatever they say about the fireworks: don't believe them. It was the suckiest New Year's fireworks I've ever seen, and I've seen some that could be defined as a two firecrackers inside a thick, wet sock.


# 2 - Kolibri (on January 6, 2004 07:17 AM):

Well, this would certainly explain the concerns of that worried citizen - he was saying that the bongs were obviously fake because you couldn't hear the people or the fireworks in the background. If the fireworks were sucky, it would explain both why they weren't heard and why people were quiet.

Oooh, this is getting deep.


# 3 - Janne (on January 7, 2004 08:32 AM):

The people most definitely were not quiet, but I think that if the bongs were recorded from the Big Ben itself, the crowd noise would probably not be heard up there - much like the bongs could not be heard down within the crowd.

But you're probably right about the fireworks, tho'. Most of the bangs (as opposed to bongs or bings) could not be heard due to the types of explosives used and the crowd noise.

I think we're just going off the deep end, here :)


# 4 - Stormcaller (on January 10, 2004 01:13 AM):

The fireworks on Millennium eve were fantastic, and the crowds were obviously much larger than this year's, but we could clearly hear Big Ben chiming loud and clear. Might have been something to do with the fact that we were pretty much right under it, though...


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