REPORT
ON THE SPRING GATHERING OF THE
LONDON LIGHT MUSIC MEETINGS GROUP
on Sunday 8th May 2016
(click picture to
enlarge)
Sunday May 8th was
a beautiful, sunny and
unseasonably warm day, probably
far too nice for sitting indoors,
listening to Light Music, but
that is what around fifty of us
chose to do!
Appropriately, we
commenced with a piece called Flying
Start by David Lindup, from a
new Vocalion CD featuring titles
from the famous KPM mood music
library, and followed it with Great
Panorama by the late Ernest
Tomlinson, who for many years was
the 'prime mover' of the Light
Music Society. Several members of
the latter were in the audience
– well, we couldn’t
leave them outside on the
pavement, could we?
Anthony Wills was
our first presenter, and he chose
to talk about 'Flare Records',
which was established by Bernard
Taylor in 1995, to 're-discover
and preserve the music of the
past, through re-issuing
older, precious recordings
which otherwise might
languish in the vaults'. He
played a number of examples from
the Flare catalogue, which
contains mostly 'show' material,
commencing with the overture to Me
and Juliet by Rodgers and
Hammerstein. This was followed by
Begin The Beguine sung by
Tony Martin then Paradise in
a Dennis Farnon arrangement
featuring Gogi Grant. After this
we heard 'It’s Terribly
Horribly Frightfully Nice' sung
by Jane Powell and Michael
Redgrave. This was followed by To
My Wife by Harold Rose, sung
by by Walter Slezak and
Because You're Mine performed
by Doretta Morrow and Mario
Lanza. Anthony concluded his
selection with Gershwin's Our
Love Is Here To Stay, featuring
the Glen Osser orchestra with
vocalist Fernando Lamas.
Tony Clayden then
continued the programme with the
well-known military march With
Sword and Lance by Hermann
Starke, but given a wonderful
up-tempo big band treatment by
Ted Heath and his music. This was
a track from another recently
released Vocalion CD featuring
the Heath ensemble, in recordings
originally made by the BBC
transcription service for
syndication to other broadcasters
around the world.
The next piece was
from the new 'Guild' CD, 'Animal
Antics' – the Ron Goodwin
orchestra's recording of Lobster
Quadrille by Joseph Horowitz.
This was followed
by Zing Went The Strings Of My
Heart, played by Enoch Light
and the Light Brigade, from
another new Guild CD, '100 Great
American Orchestras'- Volume
Four. Enoch Light became well
known, when stereo recordings
were introduced in the early
'60s, for his slightly quirky
orchestrations featuring
exaggerated 'ping-pong' effects,
and this was a good example of
this technique!
We then heard a
novelty piece by the famous
organist and composer Harold
Smart entitled Peek-A-Boo,
from the Guild CD 'Runaway
Rocking Horse'.
To conclude the
first part of our programme, Tony
then played the theme from the
John Dunn show on Radio 2,
entitled 'Imogene',
composed and performed by Les
Reed and his orchestra –
much to the delight of former BBC
executive producer Brian Willey
who was sitting in the audience,
and Anthony Wills, who was the
regular producer of the show!
This track was taken from a
newly-released CD 'Have Themes,
Will Travel', which has been
compiled by Steven Wills on
behalf of the Chichester
Hospitals Broadcasting
Association – a registered
charity which finances the
operation of Chichester Hospital
Radio.
During our 20
minute break we had the
opportunity to peruse the CDs
which were on sale, several of
which were newly supplied by
Guild Records. To the surprise of
many, our special guest Shelley
van Loen was manning a
beautifully presented selection
of 'Shelley Chocolates' - yes,
she is a chocolatier as well as a
musician.
We commenced part
two with The Firefly by
Donald Phillips, played by the
world-famous Norwegian harmonica
player Sigmund Groven, who was
present. We have invited Sigmund
to make a presentation (hopefully
with some live music) at next
spring's meeting.
It was then the
turn of Chris Money to come to
the microphone and speak about
the career of the famous film
conductor/composer Louis Levy. He
then played us Levy’s Cole
Porter Suite.
Tony then gave us
his tribute to Moira Ades who
passed away in December. Moira
had been a friendly face at
nearly all the Robert Farnon
Society meetings, admirably
supporting the late David Ades
for many years. Tony then played
one of her favourite pieces, sung
by Tony Bennett with the Robert
Farnon Orchestra - Beautiful
Things which Tony seemed to
think made a natural segue into
my own presentation!
I opened my 'Radio
Recollections' spot with an
excerpt from a 1962
'‘Morning Music' broadcast
from the BBC Northern Ireland
Light Orchestra – Tarantella
from 'A Day in Naples' by
George W. Byng. I followed this
with a lovely tune by Cedric King
Palmer, Shimmering Silk, played
by Jack Coles and his Orchestre
Moderne from a 1956 broadcast.
Next, a composition by guitarist
Sydney del Monte entitled Bows
and Bells, played by Hugh
James and his orchestra. To
conclude my presentation, I
played a paso doble entitled Sicilia
by Apollonio in an invigorating
performance by Bernard Monshin
and his Rio Tango Band. This
particular item was 'cleaned up'
for me by the late Alan Bunting,
to whom Tony then gave a tribute.
He referred to
Alan’s tremendous
contribution to the world of
light music recordings, and his
passing has left a huge void.
After a career
working as a sound engineer for
the BBC in Cardiff, and
subsequently sound engineering
manager for BBC Scotland in
Glasgow, Alan established his own
company to specialise in
restoring vintage recordings for
several recording labels, and the
list of his work in this field is
enormous. Together with the late
David Ades, he was responsible
for 135 CDs in the Guild 'Golden
Age of Light Music' series,
containing over three thousand
tracks – a tremendous and
unique achievement.
Alan was
particularly interested in, and
extremely knowledgeable about,
the work of Percy Faith and we
heard Mucho Gusto from the
Percy Faith orchestra. Another
major project of Alan's was to
remaster all of the recordings
actually conducted by Eric
Coates, and from this collection
Tony played At the Dance from
the 'Summer Days' suite –
from a 1926 '78' which sounded as
if it was recorded recently!
We were now
approaching the end of the second
part of the meeting and Tony
concluded with an Ernest
Tomlinson composition entitled Sheerline,
and then Bubbles in the
Wine from a forthcoming Guild
CD, 'American light Orchestras
– Volume Four'. Tony
confirmed that it was Guild's
intention that the light music
series should continue; a further
military band compilation was
under consideration, as was the
possibility of at least two
albums of 'off-air' recordings
from my own collection. At this
point we took a short second
break.
After the break,
Tony welcomed Shelley van Loen
and the Palm Court Strings to the
stage and they gave a magnificent
performance of light music
favourites interspersed with a
few less familiar works, such as
The Grand Hotel Waltz which had
been specially written for the
ensemble. The programme was as
follows:
Nights of
Gladness (Charles Ancliffe)
Cigarette Girl
(Ludwig Siede)
Quanto si Bella
(G.Bonincontro)
Salut D'Amour
(Edward Elgar)
Belorado
(Fredrick G.Charrosin)
In the Shade of
the Palms (Reginald King)
Fairy on the
Clock (Sherman Myers)
The Vanished
Army (Kenneth Alford)
Tango of the
Night (Hose Payan and Fred
Hartley)
Miss Pilgrim's
Progress (Philip Martell)
Tango Yvonne by
(Bernard Monshin)
Echoes of the
Puszta (A.Ferraris)
The Grand Hotel
Waltz (Allen Walley)
Pamplona
(Adolphe Gauwin)
The Song of
Jealousy (Vittorio Masheroni)
Rumanian Gipsy
Fantasia (Jo knumann)
Tropical
Moonlight (Reginald King)
Here's To The
Next Time (Henry Hall)
Tony thanked
Shelley and her musicians for a
wonderful performance and
informed us that the next meeting
will be on October 9th,
when our special guest will be
BBC Concert Orchestra producer
– and ace accordionist
– Neil Varley. The meeting
closed at 6.25pm.
Brian Reynolds
The next
LLMMG meeting will take place at
the Lancaster Hall Hotel on
Sunday October 9th 2016 –
All are welcome, please tell your
friends !
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