Introduction
In The D'Oyly Cart
Prehistoric Complaint
The Album
There's A Hole In My Budget
Seven Ages Of Woman
Fragments
Pillar To Post
Guide To Britten
Excelsior
Rain On The Plage
Last Of The Line
Rockall
The Lord Chamberlain's Regulations

Rain on the Plage (or One Summer doesn't make us Wallow)

You had to keep doing running repairs to a revue, keeping it up to date and replacing weak items - not ours of course - especially in the early days, on tour. On one occasion, I remember, Laurier Lister rang up and said 'I want you to write me a new little song to go with a very beautiful and expensive backcloth I've had made depicting the south of France.' And so, almost overnight, we wrote a song called 'Rain on the Plage' - It's got a lovely tune. We can't sing it - here's just a snatch of it.

When it's raining on the Plage
There is water everywhere.
Can this be the Riviera?
It's more like a Rivière!
What we spend on hot potage
We shall save on Ambre Solaire,
But it might have been plus sage
To have found some other Plage
Such as Bournemouth or Swanage
Back in sunny Angleterre.

When it's raining on the Plage
There is nowhere else to go;
All the cinemas are showing
'Passeport à Pimlico'.
They've collected our bagages
And we're waiting for the train.
When they wish us Bon Voyage
We shall murmur, 'Quel dommage:
Une si jolie petite Plage
If it wasn't for the rain.'

Originally from the album 'And The We Wrote...'.