Sunderland singer's 'toilet roll shortage survival video'

A Sunderland singer has created a ‘toilet roll shortage survival video’ during the pandemic to remind us of the days when we had no toilet paper – and had to use outside loos.
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Dave Murray, also known as The Mackem Folk Singer, looked back to the 1960s when many houses across the North East had outside toilets.

And not only that, old newspapers were often the replacement for toilet roll for some families.

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He posted a lighthearted message on Facebook and called it the Bog Roll shortage survival video.

Sunderland musician Dave Murray who has created a 'toilet roll shortage survival video.'Sunderland musician Dave Murray who has created a 'toilet roll shortage survival video.'
Sunderland musician Dave Murray who has created a 'toilet roll shortage survival video.'

It includes Dave making a toilet roll holder 60s style, cutting up pages from a paperback book, and finally finishing with his song called Outside Bog from his album.

It came after panic buying in the early days of the crisis led to shortages of toilet paper, with shelves empty and shopping restrictions in place – though stocks have now recovered.

He said: “I was seeing all the news clips and pictures of people stocking up on toilet rolls and hand sanitizers.

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“Jokingly, I said to my wife ‘they must have never used newspaper.

“My wife just laughed and I said ‘I can remember the time when a news paper fulfilled many jobs in our homes in the 60s, such as backing to laying a carpet, painted and stuck together to make streamers or laid out on the shelves in the food cupboard.

“But the funniest use was newspaper cut up in squares and hung on a nail or string in the toilet as a substitute for toilet roll.

“I remember saying to my dad one time ‘can you hurry up, I need the toilet’.

Dad said: “Two minutes I'm reading the paper.”

He came out without it. I said: “Where’s your paper?

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“Dad just laughed and said: “Just use the first two squares. I will read the rest later.”

“It was a time when life was simple.”

It included the lines “Did yeh ever gann to the Mecca, did yeh ever gann to Genevieves,

“Did yeh ever have lang hair or wear an Afghan coat, and bell bottom jeans,

“Did yeh ever dance away the hours,

“At the Mecca on a Friday and Saturday night,

“Did yeh ever walk round in circles,

“Up and down them stairs a hundred times a night.”

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His other songs over the years have included Merry Christmas 1966, River Wear Bairns, and Fish and Chips (all about his childhood memories of ‘chips and pattie on a Friday neet’).

And just last Autumn, he released the folk album Pallion Lad with songs named Rag Man, Pyrex, and Bookie’s Runner.

Have you, or someone you know, come up with amusing videos to cheer people up during lockdown? Why not share them by sending them to the Sunderland Echo Facebook page.

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