Another
'It's Time for Light Music' show
from Stephen York at Beyond
Radio!
This Thursday 14th
Dec, between 6pm and 8pm, Stephen
York at Lancaster and Morecambe's
Beyond Radio will present
another in his series of
programmes entitled It's Time
for Light Music.
This week Stephen
calls it The Light Fantastic.
There will be film
music by Robert Farnon and Miklos
Rozsa, music by Eric Coates,
Ernest Tomlinson, Mathew Curtis
and others. And of course, some
appropriate Christmas music!
December 2017
Temporary
schedule alteration for David
Corbett's 'Light Programme'
Please note that
the New Year's Eve
edition of David
Corbett's 'The Light Programme'
on Serenade Radio will be at 6pm
until 8pm, just for that week.
December 2017
LMS
Chairman releases Christmas CD
For 2017!
The Light Music
Society have announced that a CD
of Christmas music by composer
Thomas Hewitt Jones has been
released on the Signum label. All
of the music is by Jones and
conducted by LMS Chairman Gavin
Sutherland.
The disc, titled Christmas
Party, is relatively short
in length and contains what has
been described as some
"naughty fun" for the
festive season. Christmas Party,
the titular piece on the disc
features Simon Hewitt Jones on
violin alongside the wonderful
Royal Ballet Sinfonietta.
Also featured is
Jones' beautiful carol Child
of the Stable's Secret Birth
with vocal performances from the
Choir of Clare College Cambridge.
To round it all
off in wonderfully eccentric
style is Cameron's Lament,
a setting of the tune David
Cameron hummed inadvertently
while his microphone was still
live after his resignation speech
in 2016!
This is a
Christmas Cracker you won't want
to miss!
Click here to visit the
website where you can listen to
some samples.
November 2017
Winter
Warmers - Friday 1st December
2017
Friday Night Is Music Night
Brrrrr... winter
draws on. The nights are long and
dark; the mornings cold and
frosty. Join Ken Bruce and the
BBC Concert Orchestra conducted
by Bramwell Tovey for a selection
of winter classics to warm the
cockles of your heart. Snow, Ice,
Fire, Frost and the cold winter
wind as depicted in the world of
music. The programme includes
music from Dr Zhivago (Maurice
Jarre); The Snow Maiden (Rimsky
Korsakov); Skaters Waltz
(Waldteufel) and The Nutcracker
(Tchaikovsky). The guest singers
soprano Ailish Tynan and baritone
Simon Butteriss perform songs by
Lehar, Heuberger and the Savoy
operas.
BBC
Concert Orchestra appoints
Bramwell Tovey as its new
Principal Conductor
The BBC Concert
Orchestra has announced the
appointment of Bramwell Tovey as
its new Principal Conductor,
taking up his position in January
2018.
Tovey’s new
role will see him work with the
orchestra for an initial period
of five years including a BBC
Radio 3 concert at Watford
Colosseum on Thursday 15 February
2018, before a number of
performances in the BBC Concert
Orchestra’s 2018-19 season
at Southbank Centre, to be
announced. As well as artistic
programming, Tovey will take a
leading role in the BBC Concert
Orchestra’s wide-ranging
learning and education
activities, including mentoring
emerging conductors and
orchestral players from a range
of backgrounds who share the BBC
CO’s appetite for musical
versatility.
Tovey will take
the reins from Keith Lockhart,
who has been Principal Conductor
of the BBC Concert Orchestra for
seven years. Keith will continue
his relationship with the
orchestra in the new role of
Chief Guest Conductor and will
return next year to conduct a
concert showcasing the music of
Stephen Sondheim at the Royal
Festival Hall (Thursday 15 March
2018). The BBC Concert
Orchestra’s Conductor
Laureate is Barry Wordsworth and
Composer-in-Residence is Dobrinka
Tabakova.
Here is Radio Days
performed in full by Nottingham
Symphonic Wind Orchestra for BBC
Radio 3:
November 2017
Tony
Clayden receives Good Music
Certificate
from Evergreen Magazine
Evergreen
Magazine has just
awarded its Good Music
Certificate to the Co-Ordinator
of the London Light Music
Meetings Group, Tony Clayden.
The first joint
recipients of this honour were
the late David Ades and Alan
Bunting, who did so much to keep
Light Music alive.
Sadly, both men
died relatively soon afterwards,
and Alan's family were left with
a huge collection of recorded
material, including CDs and on
vinyl.
Alan had
painstakingly digitally
remastered much ofthe latter over
a number of years for reissue on
several different labels,
including the
highly–acclaimed Guild
series.
Not only did
Londoner Tony 'gallop to the
rescue' by purchasing and
retrieving them all from Alan's
home in Scotland, but he had
already established the LLMMG
– which had come into being
after the Robert Farnon Society,
led for many years by David Ades
– ceased operations at the
end of 2013.
The new group,
which holds meetings twice-yearly
in Central London, has recently
held its eighth event. With its
links to a number of other music
websites and organisations,
including the Light Music
Society, it continues to promote
the genre and helps to avoid the
potential disappearance of
probably thousands of
once–familiar tunes.
A semi-retired
recording and sound engineer,
Tony is one of a small band of
dedicated enthusiasts who
recognise the value and worth of
Light Music and he has amassed
many musical contacts and friends
during a long, interesting and
varied career.
Tony, we thank you
for filling a huge musical void
and wish you well, as you
continue to make historic and
tuneful melodies available to the
general public.
Friday
Night is Music Night
coming up on Friday 17th
November 2018 on BBC
Radio 2 at 8pm will be a
"celebration of music
arrangers" including such
arrangers as Stanley Black,
Robert Docker, Robert Farnon and
Gordon Langford.
This programme is
a new episode and is not
a repeat. Create a reminder to
listen, now!
November 2017
Play
it again: The firm saving vinyl
Whether gathering
dust in your loft or currently
spinning on your turntable, it's
a fair bet that at least some of
your vinyl records came from a
small factory in the Czech
Republic.
The facility in
question is the headquarters of
GZ Media, based in the small town
of Lodenice, 25km (16 miles) west
of the Czech capital, Prague.
GZ is today the
world's largest producer of vinyl
records, of which it expects to
press 30 million this year, for
everyone from the Rolling Stones
and U2, to Lady Gaga and Madonna.
A
rousing chorus for Harold
Rich’s 90th birthday
celebrations
Friends and family
gathered to celebrate the 90th
birthday of a ‘quite
remarkable’ but humble music
man.
Harold Rich began
playing piano at the age of three
– and his musical talents
paved the way for a glorious
career with music at its very
heart. The 90-year-old former
musical director for BBC’s
Pebble Mill at One still tickles
the ivories on a regular basis
– as organist at St Thomas
Church in Hockley Heath and for
the church choir –
Harold’s Angels. And it was
his Hockley Heath friends and
fellow music lovers who joined
him to celebrate his milestone
birthday.
It is hard to cram
Harold’s 87 years of musical
achievements into just one
newspaper article – but, in
honour of his 90th birthday, we
are happy to give it a go. After
taking up the piano as a
youngster Harold’s life has
followed a music path throughout
– resulting in an
illustrious career, all thanks to
his pianist talents.
He served in the
Royal Navy from 1945 to 194,
where he was the pianist/arranger
for the Royal Naval Barracks
Dance Band (The Bluejackets) at
Devonport. During this period, in
1947, he made his first broadcast
– a 15 minute solo spot
‘At the piano’ from the
BBC in Bristol.
In 1945 he won a
scholarship to the Royal College
of Music, where he studied from
1948 to 1952. There he won the
ARCM diploma, and was made a
Graduate of the Royal Schools of
Music, London. He also won both
the Hopkinson Gold and Hopkinson
Silver medals, both of which were
presented to him by Her Majesty
the Queen (then Princess
Elizabeth), the College
President. In addition he won the
Dannreuther prize for the best
performance of a concerto during
the year 1951 to 1952.
From 1953 to 1959
he was Conductor of the Dudley
Choral and Orchestral Society and
served on the local committee of
the Incorporated Society of
Musicians, and the committee of
the Dudley Arts Society.
He began his
musical career with the George
Mitchell Minstrels, and then the
Continental Ballet, as one of
their respective accompanists.
After a seven-year
spell as a music master in a
secondary modern school, he
became (in 1960) the pianist of
the BBC Midland Light Orchestra
(which he later conducted,
including the Orchestra’s
first appearance on colour
television), and then was
appointed orchestral pianist for
Norrie Paramor with the Midland
Radio Orchestra. He also played
with, and arranged music for,
Norrie’s Big Ben Banjo Band,
and was Norrie’s piano
partner in the group
“Pianorama”, which
Norrie formed. Harold took over
this group in 1980, since when
(as well as numerous broadcasts)
it has made several commercial
recordings.
In addition to
forming his own broadcasting
Quartet in 1961, he was a member
of the Palm Court Trio, which,
apart from making many radio
brodacasts, and a number of
records, had the pleasure of
playing for Her Majesty the Queen
Mother at a private dinner party
in Scotland.
In addition to
conducting his own orchestra for
many broadcasts, Harold Rich
became Musical Director for the
popular television programme
“Pebblemill at One”
where he conducted for the likes
of Tom Jones, Eartha Kitt, Vic
Damone, Nana Mouskouri, Elaine
Page and Peter Skellern, and
accompanied numerous artists on
solo piano. These ranged from
‘pop’ stars such as
Cilla Black, instrumentalists
such as the violinist Max Jaffa
and the renowned flautist, James
Galway, to singers such as
Rosemary Clooney, Val Doonican,
and operatic stars, including
Jose Carreras.
He has, over the
years, been the orchestral
pianist and soloist for many
distinguished Light music
conductors, including Stanley
Black, Robert Farnon, Geoff Love,
Frank Chacksfield, and Ron
Goodwin (with the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra),
to name but a few.
(The above article
was published in the Solihull
Observer
and written by Chris Willmott
25th Mar, 2017)
October 2017
David
Mellor on Classic fm - Sunday
22nd October, 7 - 9pm
This week, David
celebrates the ever-popular genre
of Light Music.
We’ll hear
the rousing London Suite by Eric
Coates, which was inspired by
three different streets in 1930s
London, and David will take us
Stateside for a selection of
recordings of music by Leroy
Anderson, featuring Arthur
Fielder and the Boston Pops
Orchestra.
October 2017
Classic
fm's Full Works Concert
Thursday
12th October at 8pm – 60
Years of The Light Music Society
The Light Music
Society was founded 60 years ago
this year, and since day one it
has tirelessly promoted and
championed Light Music throughout
the world. Tonight, Catherine
Bott champions this important
body by featuring two hours of
music by composers who have had
connections with the Society and
helped make it grow into the
organisation it is today.
There are delightful works from
past Presidents, including Eric
Coates and Sir Arthur Bliss, and
distinguished members in whose
number are Ron Goodwin and Haydn
Wood. In a concert full of
hummable tunes and music
that’ll put a spring in your
step,
Catherine also features pieces by
familiar orchestral composers who
tried their hand at composing
lighter music for the concert
hall. These include Gustav Holst,
whose Moorside Suite is performed
by Gavin Sutherland and the Royal
Ballet Sinfonia, and George
Gershwin’s jazz-infused
Concerto in F, played brilliantly
by Xiayin Wang, accompanied by
Classic FM’s Orchestra in
Scotland, the Royal Scottish
National Orchestra.
Ron Goodwin
633 Squadron – Main Theme
Squadron Leader Matthew Little
conducts the Central Band of the
Royal Air Force
Eric Coates
Three Elizabeths Suite
Reginald Kilbey conducts the City
of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Arthur Bliss
Things to Come – March
Arthur Bliss conducts the London
Symphony Orchestra
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs
Dusk
Ronald Corp conducts the New
London Orchestra
Ernest Tomlinson
Suite of English Folk Dances
Vivian Dunn conducts the Light
Music Society Orchestra
Albert Ketelbey
Bells Across The Meadow
Barry Wordsworth conducts the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Haydn Wood
London Landmarks
Gavin Sutherland conducts the
Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Billy Mayerl
Marigold
Piano: Philip Ellis
Edward Elgar
Chanson de Nuit Opus 15 No.1
Julian Lloyd Webber conducts the
English Chamber Orchestra
Gustav Holst
A Moorside Suite
Gavin Sutherland conducts the
Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Percy Grainger
Handel in the Strand
Kenneth Montgomery conducts the
Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Emile Waldteufel
Les Patineurs
Ronald Corp conducts the New
London Orchestra
September 2017
Concert
of British Light Music - 25th
February 2018
Mark Fitz-Gerald
will be conducting his third
annual 'Concert of British Light
Music' at The British Home in
Streatham at 3pm on Sunday 25th
February 2018. More details will
be available nearer the date on
our Events page.
September 2017
'The Story
of The Light'
A series of two
programmes entitled 'The
Story of The Light' are
to be aired on Mondays
18th and 25th September at 10pm
on BBC Radio 2
commemorating the 50th
anniversary of the end of 'The
BBC Light Programme' when Radio 2
took over.
Our member, Brian Reynolds will
be participating in the second of
these programmes talking about
'Music While You Work' and light
music programmes in general with
comparisons to today's radio.
July 2017
Robert
Farnon's 100th birthday and
updated 2005 JAZZ.FM tribute
programme
We are grateful to
Pip Wedge (former Robert Farnon
Society Canadian Rep. and Journal
Into Melody columnist) for the
following information:
Robert Farnon
lovers might like to know that
Glen Woodcock, who has been
broadcasting big band programmes
on JAZZ.FM in Toronto for forty
years, is updating a tribute
programme he did in 2005 when
Robert Farnon died, for broadcast
this Sunday (23rd July) to mark
what would have been Bob's 100th
birthday on Monday (24th).
The programme can
be heard via the Internet on
Sunday evening at www.jazz.fm, 5:00pm –
10:00pm Toronto time.
Unfortunately that puts it from
10:00pm - 03:00am UK time, but
maybe some people would like to
stay up to hear an hour or so,
while others might be able to
record it.
June 2017
Goon
but not forgotten - a blue plaque
for Leeds musician Angela Morley
BBC Radio Leeds
presented a special morning
programme about the life of
Angela Morley. As the story was
interspersed throughout a three
hour programme.
May 2017
Aspidistra
Drawing Room Orchestra Concert
– May 29th 2017
An extensively
re-furbished Lauderdale House, in
North London’s Highgate
Village, was the venue for the
annual Spring Concert given by
the Aspidistra Drawing Room
Orchestra. This was their
sixteenth consecutive Bank
Holiday event, which was well
supported by many faithful
'regulars' – including
several from the London Light
Music Meetings Group – and
in addition, a number of 'first
timers'.
Amongst the latter
was Howard Del Monte, who had
travelled from Hampshire to hear
a spirited rendering of his
father Sydney's composition 'Bows
and Bells'. This was a popular
favourite on BBC Radio around
fifty years ago. Sydney Del Monte
was a guitarist and banjo player,
who was a regular member of The
Banjoliers for many years.
We were treated
once again to an afternoon of
fine 'Palm Court' music in
contrasting styles; a few 'fast
and jolly' compositions,
interspersed with some calmer
pieces and garnished with some
songs performed Liz Menezes and
Camilla Cutts.
Nearly one hundred
years of musical heritage was
represented, ranging from 'light
classical' to 'jazzy'. The
programme featured a line-up of
works, which, with one or two
exceptions, have not previously
been performed by the orchestra.
These included two selections
with a definite gipsy influence,
from the Russian composer Yascha
Krein and G. S. Mathis [a
pseudonym of Hungarian ?migr?
Matyas Seiber].
Other composers
featured included Charles
Ancliffe, Sigmund Romberg,
Gerhard Winkler and Albert
Ketelbey, who made two
appearances with pieces written
specifically to accompany silent
films. A later generation was
represented by, amongst others,
Horst Jankowski, Ray Martin and
Leroy Anderson.
A welcome surprise
was the original version
of the famous 'American Patrol'
by Fred Meacham, in a very
different rendition from the
familiar arrangement made popular
by Glenn Miller and others.
Adam Bakker, who
runs and directs the orchestra,
has recently acquired the entire
collection of sheet music
previously owned by Ann Adams,
who was the founder of – and
for many years conducted –
the Ladies Palm Court Orchestra.
Four of the items on the
programme came from this source.
Speaking to Adam during the
interval, it became apparent that
he faces a mammoth task of
sorting and archiving this vast
inventory of compositions !
As always, the
orchestra’s performance was
of a very high standard, the
players obviously relishing the
opportunity to perform repertoire
from a 'threatened genre' which,
most regrettably, achieves very
little exposure these days.
Very many thanks
are therefore due to Adam Bakker
and the Aspidistra Drawing Room
Orchestra, for presenting another
really enjoyable concert and
especially for continuing to
promote 'Palm Court' music.
ANDR? LEON joined
LM RADIO in 1963 before taking up
an appointment with the
SABC's Special FM Services as a
Programme
Producer/Compiler/Presenter in
the
Johannesburg Studios.
He left South
Africa in 1969 to live in the UK
and has since worked in the Film,
Music and Radio Industries.
Over the years he
worked for Decca Records, Carlin
Music, Chappell's Recorded Music
Library and Boosey & Hawkes.
He was a regular contributor at
the Robert Farnon Society
Meetings.
Andr? was the
pioneer "Test Transmissions
Voice" for Classic fM prior
to their official launch in
September 1992.
He was then
appointed as the main late-night
and Early Breakfast show host
together with Robert Booth from
BBC Radio 4.
He is visiting
South Africa in June 2017 for a
celebration at LM RADIO and has
prepared a series of 3 one hour
programmes for the Station paying
tribute to presenters past and
present.
He will also feature the music of
the 1960's and talks to a
selection of famous stars of that
era, including Adam Faith, Judith
Durham, Cliff Richard and Peter
Sarstedt. You will also hear how
Tony Hatch came to write
"Downtown" for Petula
Clark!
April 2017
Gordon
Langford
Gordon Langford,
who has died aged 86, was an
English composer, arranger and
performer. He is well known for
his brass band compositions and
arrangements. He was also a
composer of orchestral music,
winning an Ivor Novello award for
best light music composition for
his March from the Colour
Suite in 1971.
Langford's career
had a notable relationship with
the BBC. Some of his compositions
and arrangements were used as
Test Card music in the 1960s and
'70s, with such titles as Hebridean
Hoedown, The Lark in the
Clear Air and Royal
Daffodil being remembered by
Test Card aficionados. He also
wrote and arranged music for Friday
Night is Music Night, as
well as numerous other BBC
programmes.
"It has only
just come to my attention that
the composer and pianist Heinz
Herschmann sadly passed away,
aged ninety, in September 2014.
Heinz had been a
regular attendee at meetings of
the Robert Farnon Society for
many years, and signified his
support for the LLMMG when it was
formed earlier that year.
Born in Vienna,
Austria, in 1924, he fled from
the Nazis just before WW2,
arriving in England on the
Kindertransport.
I am preparing a
full tribute to Heinz which will
appear on our website in due
course."
February 2017
Review
- Concert of British Light Music
- 26th February 2017
A cold, wet, and
windy Sunday February 26th saw a
second concert of British Light
Music performed by the Mark
Fitz-Gerald Orchestra. The venue
was once again the British Home
and Hospital in Streatham,
South-West London. The event
followed-on from the success of
the first concert in 2016, and
was held in aid of funds for the
Home.Read the
full review
February 2017
New
Light Music programme on Serenade
Radio
David Corbett
reports that he will be
presenting a new 'Light
Programme'
on the internet radio station Serenade
Radio on Sunday
evenings between 10pm and
midnight starting on 5th March
2017.
Serenade Radio
also currently broadcast
unannounced Light Music for an
hour each day starting at 6am.
February 2017
Angel
Radio
Brian Reynolds
reports that programmes from Music
While You Work and from Those
Were The Days are broadcast
weekly by internet local radio
station Angel
Radio who are based in
Havant, Hampshire and specialise
in "Nostalgia Radio"
Music While You
Work - Fridays 12.15pm to 1pm
Those Were The Days - Sundays
4.30pm to 5.30pm
Friends and family
gathered to celebrate the 90th
birthday of a ‘quite
remarkable’ but humble music
man.
