Caroline Hello

My Dad was a big movie fan and his idea of a grand day out with me and my sister was to take us to the pictures. I loved it too, sit me in the dark with a Kia-Ora and I was a happy kid. A big event was seeing the latest James Bond film (I think "Diamonds Are Forever" was the first I saw) on the day it came out at the Odeon Leicester Square which I still think is the greatest cinema in the world with its football-pitch size screen. Aside from Bond, Dad also worshipped Michael Caine which meant we got dragged to see "Zulu" twice when it was re-issued in the 70s (no videos in those days).

My own cinematic tastes ran toward the ouevre of Ray Harryhausen and the stop-motion creatures he created for movies like Jason & The Argonauts and Mysterious Island, so when "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" came out in 1974 the old man took me to see it. Even though it wasn't his cup of tea I'm sure he didn't mind because the film had some rather nice eye candy in the form of Caroline Munro who played Margiana, a slave girl and love interest for lucky old Sinbad. Munro had been a scream queen in a couple of Hammer horror movies but her main claim to fame was being the girl in the Lamb's Navy Rum billboards that were plastered all over London at the time. She wasn't the sort of actress to give Meryl Streep sleepness nights and her part in the movie consisted mostly of standing there looking scared and trying not to burst out of her costume, but she did that brilliantly. Even though I was only 12 at the time I think I knew what girls were for by then and she was burned into my subconcious at a very impressionable age.

Caroline had a romantic fling with former Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone and I don't know how long it lasted or how serious it was but when it ended Colin was moved to write a song about her on his terrific debut solo album "One Year" in 1971. The plaintive "Caroline Goodbye" is a gorgeous record with a whispery and sad Nick Drake-ish mood. He does sound a bit wet though, no wonder she dumped him.

Download: Caroline Goodbye - Colin Blunstone (mp3)
Buy: "One Year" (album)
Buy: "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (movie)

As a bonus feature to our program today here's a one-off single Caroline made in 1967 when she was only 16. This is very nice 60s girl pop produced by "Teenage Opera" man Mark Wirtz and the musicians on it include Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. Like her acting, she isn't the greatest singer in the world but she sure sounds pretty.

Download: Tar and Cement - Caroline Munro (mp3)