This is a brilliant piece by David Gunson, telling the story of Air Traffic Control and aviation. There is another copy of this, but the audio is crap about 1/3 of the way through.
I was introduced to this recording by an ex-RAF navigator and managed to get hold of the CD pictured here and have played it to many of my friends, all of those have found it very funny indeed. When I was helping to organise the annual User Group conference for a Financial software package I managed to book David Gunson to speak to us after dinner and he was, predictably, a great hit.
This is excellent. My Dad was in the RAF with Dave and we’d go and stay with them of them with us on occasion. Although I was a child his manner was always very friendly and kind hearted, indeed the whole family were nice. This, along with Dylan Thomas’ - A Child’s Christmas In Wales, are my favorite audios
I used to listen to this with my dad on long drives home. He died four years ago. Finding this again after all this time brings back so many memories, I can hear him laughing at all the punchlines. Thank you for posting this.
Fully concur. An ex-colleague who knew of my interest in aviation gave me a cassette of this. I subsequently obtained the CD of it. For 18 months (April 1997 to October 1998) I worked 170 miles from home in Bristol (UK; sorry but I don't know if you're British) and drove home every Thursday evening. As I passed the last northbound junction of the M32, I'd put the CD on. I could tell you whereabouts I'd be on either the M4 or M5 at any given point, purely by where Gunson was talking about a particular subject. The CD would always end just before I reached the M5 junction with the M42. It's almost 30 years since I first heard this and I still listen to it today, and can't help but laugh at it.
PAN-AM negative profit...😂.......such a comical way to look at things.... yet so true to life with what companies actually report in their financials! great speech.... never heard it til 2023 although plenty of people vaguely mentioned this guy in passing over the years. now i know what they were on about!....love youtube
My mum bought this for my dad on LP ....i think it was in the 70's.. not sure of that but he loved listening to this i also listened when he put it on his gramophone unit... Memories.
@@XXSkunkWorksXX I bet his sexist comments wouldn't go down too well with the snowflakes of today. I think he was talking about air-traffic controllers when he said something about "there are a hundred of them and the four of them are women - well, three of them are women and one is [pause for an "either/or" hand gesture], but you're bound to get that in any organisation."
My headphones on at work back in the mid 80s listening to this and making a mess of the surgical instruments i was producing. .thank you for a memory of a very fond time in my life. .ps i have often shared this over the years on my still working Sony Walkman...
I had (maybe still have) the commercial cassette of this and have not been able to locate it for years. Many thanks for posting this here. I've now paid for the proper version on Amazon. Brilliant stuff.
This is one of many we inherited from my Uncle, we use to lisyen to Radio with my Dad, but as I was in college near my uncle, when he died I inherited his LPs because when he was ill he could listen to these with me rather than his sisters, we spent 2 or 3 night grinning and laughing at this, Bob Newhart, Blaster Bates, GOON SHOWS (I was the only one who got the manic humour, and could do a Bluebottle to Uncle Jacks Eccles, hence my inheritance + Robin Rialto -- evidence of truth)
Seen all these comments about having a copy of this on cassette and am jealous because the only copy of this I had access to was dad's record and he wouldn't let me put a record on the player on my own (granted I was 5).
OMG i haven't heard this since the 80's . I found a recording in a customers car who was given it by a friend or something. I was an old C90 cassette. There is a gap in the recording and a few drop outs, but i made a copy and played it for years. So glad to have found it again. ( seem the copy i have is the naff copy mention in the description ) Always made me laugh about the putty melting in the windows, wafting things with your cap and the classic bit about frosted glass in the toilet. Everything turns left at Dover ! shear magic. Is this a real after dinner speech thing or all scripted ?
It's a real speech. If you Google him, Gunson is still available for after dinner speaking. He must be cracking on in years seeing as this was recorded in 1981 (the Civil Service dispute with the government) but you can still hire him.
First heard this on an AEF day at Finningley in the 80s and even then the jokes were memorable. Going to play it to my 12 yo daughter who's mad about flying. Sure the next generation will forgive the slightly un-PC delivery. Long may it continue.
Note folks: the word is SHEER. Sheer brilliance. Not SHEAR. It is, though! I had the cassette - which was OK quality-wise, but the one I had had been slightly mis-cut in the duplicating machine - so it started a few minutes in and had the start at the end, or vice versa, I forget. Lovely to have it in full - thanks.
Great to hear the whole album again! Still wittingly funny. A little bit historic now too with references to defunct airlines and Concorde. Thanks for uploading this as I have lost the oroginal LP due to divorces, moving etc.and have been looking for this on-line for quite a while as a whole album and not in parts with bits missing!!! I wonder what David Gunson is doing now? Cheers Mate. .
Every time I go on a Caribbean or North Sea cruise I wonder whether he'll be giving the lectures. I'd love to meet him and thank him for all the wonderful quotable lines that he has given the world: "and we will switch those OFF" (talking about distracting warning lights while you are panicking", "dark as a [censored]'s armpit - or any part of his anatomy", "you go crazy with the stick and watch what happens - because if you want it to do that again, THAT is where you put the stick" (how to fly a helicopter", "their voice goes up a couple of octaves - and then it disappears down the hole in the middle" (the reaction of the ATC when "the tea-lady" treads on the plug and turns everything off, making the picture on the shrink and then disappear).
This was hilarious, back in the 1980s However after loving this all of my life, I've come to the realisation that I can no longer recommend it to people. The whole thing is littered with racism, homophobia, nationalistic stereotyping, and misogyny. I thought it was just a single instance that I could just gloss over, but when the instance count got into double figures... This was amazing for its time, but its time has passed. There is no place for casual racism or sexism in a modern society. Cue responses from straight white males that I'm over-reacting.
I’m straight and white but I think you’re fishing for a red herring. I think our so-called modern society could do with some well- considered offence. Why are we so terrified of offending people now? As a society, we have lost the ability to laugh at ourselves and at each other and we are the poorer for it.
I agree. But it is of it's time. I suspect that David Gunson is still doing this, he will have amended it, and will not be doing exactly the same routine that he did back in the 1980's
Cue responses from straight white males , well , thats me , but i'm more interested in the " littered with " , than any over reacting. The definiton of most of those is hatred against a type of person. Ive listened to it , and would be interested in what " racism, homophobia, and misogyny. " is in this speech . I'll miss out the nationalistic stereotyping, as it was an insult to the French , and to be honest, they deserve it. But the others , i'd be interested in where he spoke ' hatred ' against any type of person , and not just mild humour. Thanks :0
