Ours announces the arrival of FAB lollies, vapes and Es to the tune of The A Team.
When I was a kid it was Green Sleaves from a vehicle that looked like it pre-dated the Battle of Britain.
I also have memories of the kid from over the road letting one of the tyres down and getting dragged through the hatch and covered in raspberry sauce for his troubles.
Our local van (which comes around every Sunday at 3pm) does the classic Teddy Bear’s Picnic at the moment, but a few years ago the same van definitely did the A Team too.
My local ice-cream van plays a rousing rendition of John Philip Sousa’s march called The Liberty Bell.
Although most folk just know it as the Monty Python theme.
We used to have one. It was Ecstasy of Gold by Ennio Morricone. You know a tune is a classic when you can convert it into an ice cream jingle and it still sounds good.
The bloke was very, very old though and we haven’t seen him since ‘the before times’.
I used to know the owner of the cafe that did deliveries to the local knocking shop. Salted jacket spuds. Takes away the taste apparently.
Said knocking shop is above a chippy, which doesn’t say much for the quality of the chips if they have to bring their salty potato based lunches in from further afield.
Not the ice cream van but our regular sandwich van on the estate plays the old Batman theme – “Dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner…..” you know the rest
I only know it as the Roger Ramjet theme tune but I’m sure it must have originally come from something else.
I did think the other day that there needs to be a better nationwide app that tracks ice-cream vans real-time so I could go and find one. Would be perfect for long ride refreshments too.
I also have memories of the kid from over the road letting one of the tyres down and getting dragged through the hatch and covered in raspberry sauce for his troubles.
After they found the body, the inquest concluded that he’d topped himself.
Working in Wakefield one time, the morning was punctuated by an ice-cream van playing the Batman theme. “Oh,” says someone, “the sandwiches are here.” Huh?
So I moseyed down to the car park, to discover The Bap Van.
What a bizarre and fascinating thread. Where do they get these from? I assume they aren’t real music boxes any more and are recordings, but they all sound exactly like music boxes so that must mean someone is putting these tunes out. Somewhere there’s a company producing these and selecting the tunes. Can someone get Dave Gorman on to it please?
When I was a kid it was Teddybear’s Picnic and Greensleeves, but in my part of Cardiff it’s Match of the Day.
Most of the country’s 5,000 ice-cream van chimes are made by MicroMiniatures in Staffordshire, which for 25 years has offered the most technologically advanced chimes (most are now digital) and an extensive range of tunes, from Jerusalem to The Stripper, via Nessun Dorma, Cherry Ripe and Waltzing Matilda.
“Our most popular chimes are O Sole Mio, Greensleeves and Match of the Day,” says the company’s Rich Lister. “We also provide a service to have custom chimes, so if the customer wants a particular song or their own jingle we can put this on to a chime. Most recently, we have produced Soul Limbo (the Test Match Cricket theme) and Amarillo of Tony Christie & Peter Kay fame.”
Always fancied being an ice cream man. Seems like a chilled job.
When I was a kid our local one played La Cucaracha. There were two local Italian firms and the daughters of both were at my school. Hated each other. Ice cream wars have ruined generations 😂
Ours is “Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me”.
Not heard that until moving here.
Back home (South East) the ones I recall have alreadt been mentioned (Greensleeves & Match of the day are definitely ones I remember).
Said knocking shop is above a chippy, which doesn’t say much for the quality of the chips if they have to bring their salty potato based lunches in from further afield.
Home of the Jumbo Cod?
I always thought the knocking shop was the one that looks like an undertakers on the other end of the block…..you live and learn.