Flash Bang Wallop Traditional Cache

All lined up in a wedding group
'Ere we are for a photograph
We're all dressed up in a morning suit
All trying hard not to laugh
Since the early caveman in his fur
Took a trip to Gretna Green
There's always been a photographer
To record the 'appy scene

'Old it, flash, bang, wallop, what a picture
What a picture, what a photograph
Poor old soul, blimey, what a joke
Hat blown off in a cloud of smoke
Clap 'ands, stamp yer feet
Bangin' on the big bass drum
What a picture, what a picture
Um-tiddly-um-pum-um-pum-pum
Stick it in your fam'ly album

The song was written by Tommy Steele and and Polly James and is from the musical ‘Half a Sixpence’, the story of Arthur Kipps, an orphan who unexpectedly inherits a fortune. Steele also starred in the 1967 film version of the show, which is undergoing a revival in the West End at the moment. I heard this song on the radio a while ago and it brought me back to Saturday mornings in the late sixties/ early seventies and listing to Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart’s ‘Junior Choice’ programme on BBC 1. Along with ‘Ernie the Fastest Milkman in the West’ and ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ ,’Flash Bang Wallop’ was a staple of the programme. It’s a bit of an anachronism now but interestingly they’ve kept the original version verbatim for the revival...and ho hum, it’s still a larf, innit?