LONDON
LIGHT MUSIC MEETINGS GROUP
October
10th 2023
at the Lancaster Hall Hotel
THE AUTUMN
GATHERING
It was another
sunny, and once again an
unseasonably warm day in London,
for the second of our bi-annual
feasts of Light music at the
Lancaster Hall Hotel.
Just the right
sort of weather for a huge
turn-out, you might imagine ?
– No, not a bit of it ! With
just over 20 people loyally
supporting us, it was easily the
lowest attendance of all time and
Tony Clayden had plenty to say
about this at the end of the
meeting – but more of that
later.
Opening
proceedings on a sad note, Tony
paid tribute to two of our
long-standing supporters who
recently died, David Corbett and
Chris Money – both of whom
had often made presentations to
our group. They were former
members of the Robert Farnon
Society and had much enthusiasm
for Light Music.
Tony also
expressed regret at the passing
of Rosemary Squires, who had
demonstrated her loyalty to the
RFS, even asking if she could
give a live recital. That
concert, which took place at the
Bonnington Hotel, will be
remembered by many, as well as
the fact that she proved to be
such a warm and affable lady.
Tony started the
musical side of the programme
with Gateway To The West
by Robert Farnon, performed by
Bob and his orchestra – it
seemed appropriate, seeing that
we were meeting in the West Two
district of London !
Then, bearing in
mind that the late Chris Money
was a great fan of Sidney Torch,
he played two Torch compositions,
Going For A Ride and Rosie
The Red Omnibus, the latter
a movement from the London
Transport Suite.
This was followed
by two items from the orchestra
of Harry Davidson The first was Cockney
Capers – credited to
Peter Crantock, who in reality
were the duo of Clive Richardson
and Tony Lowry, writing under a
pseudonym.
We then heard
Davidson’s arrangement of a
medley of some of the music from
Sullivan’s The Mikado.
Both of these were to acknowledge
the fact that the late David
Corbett was a great fan of
Davidson – having written a
substantial book about the
latter’s career on that
long-running BBC Radio programme
‘Those Were The Days’.
It was now time
for my ‘Radio
Recollections’ feature and,
on this occasion, I had chosen to
feature my favourite orchestra
– the BBC Midland Light
orchestra with their two regular
conductors, Jack Coles and
Gilbert Vinter.
However, before
starting, I drew the
audience’s attention to a
new light music programme on Serenade
Radio entitled Evergreen
which airs between 9.00 pm and
10.00 pm every Friday. It has
clearly been put on as a partial
replacement for David
Corbett’s programme, which
is much missed. Presentation is
by Adrian Jackson, who has his
own orchestra and has conducted
several top orchestras- including
the BBC Concert Orchestra.
[As with the
former Sunday night Serenade
‘slots’, each edition
will be recorded and available on
our LLMMG website for a number of
weeks thereafter, courtesy of
Andy Marriott, head of Serenade
Radio. Many thanks are also due
to ‘our’ Terry Guntrip
for facilitating this].
I opened my
presentation on the Midland Light
Orchestra with two Jack Coles
compositions – Fantan
and Girl From Cadiz, a
beautiful piece which a couple of
members of the audience thought
bore a resemblance to Trevor
Duncan’s Girl From
Corsica – well, maybe!
Next, music from
the stage – Chu Chin Chow,
to be precise, as we listened to
Frederick Norton’s Cobbler’s
Song. This was followed by
Gilbert Vinter’s Serenade
To A Veiled Lady (dedicated
to the somewhat secretive teenage
daughter of the composer). I had
the pleasure of meeting the lady
in question some years ago!
After Trevor
Duncan’s The Wine
Festival, we listened to
Harry Parr-Davies’s Pedro
The Fisherman, in a snazzy
arrangement by the
orchestra’s pianist, Harold
Rich (a gentleman whose presence
has graced our meetings on
several occasions). He was the
featured pianist in our next
item, Safari Fiesta by
James Warr. I concluded my
presentation with a super upbeat
arrangement of Albert
Ketelby’s In a Persian
Market. I wonder if the
maestro would have approved?
At this point we
took our first interval.
In part two, we
welcomed a familiar face to the
top table – that of Steven
Wills. He talked about his days
as a hospital radio presenter and
played a selection of Capital
Radio ‘jingles’. Some
TV themes followed - such as the
Harry Worth theme and the
original music from
‘Dr.Finlay’s
Casebook’ which was, of
course, Trevor Duncan’s March
from the Little Suite.
That was followed by the
‘Animal Magic’ theme,
otherwise known as Las Vegas,
by Laurie Johnson, and then
another library piece News
Scoop, by Len Stevens, used
for the signature tune to BBC
TV’s ‘Grandstand’.
Turning to ITV,
Steven played us the theme from
‘Thunderbirds’ or, to
be more precise, a beguine
version entitled Tracy Island
–(not a lot of people know
that)! Peter Yorke’s Silks
and Satins followed
–although most people (of a
certain age) will remember it as
the closing theme to the
long-running fifties TV
‘soap’ -
‘Emergency Ward Ten’.
Another vintage
theme followed, which was
entitled Non Stop –
which must have made a small
fortune for its composer, John
Malcolm, as it was regularly
heard as the signature tune for
the early-evening news from ITN
for very many years.
Some people will
have recalled the days when the
BBC screened interludes
–‘The Potter’s
Wheel’ was a familiar one.
Steven selected two pieces for us
– Robert Farnon’s Horn-A-
Plenty, and Charles
Williams’ Music Box
Lullaby, which were not, in
fact, employed for this purpose,
but – as Steven suggested
– would have been most
suitable.
This was followed
by two examples of cinema music.
Steven selected the grand waltz
from “The Sound of
Music”, better known as My
Favourite Things (Rodgers)
and the overture to ‘Mary
Poppins’ (Sherman and
Sherman).
Many film
companies had opening fanfares
and we were treated to three
– “Universal”,
”20th Century Fox” and
“Anglo-Amalgamated”.
These were
followed by two light-hearted
film themes “Carry on
Cabby” and “Nurse on
Wheels”, both written by
Eric Rogers.
Next Steven played
us some radio themes, which
included the signature tune for
“Sing Something Simple”
– featuring the Cliff Adams
Singers accompanied by the
brilliant accordionist Jack
Emblow (still with us at the age
of 92).
We also heard
Desmond Carrington’s
signature tune Say It With
Music and then Just For
Fun, which Don Davis adopted
as his opening theme, both
featured on BBC Radio 2.
Test Cards
(remember them?) often contained
obscure pieces that were never
heard elsewhere. As an example,
Steven played a piece called Chrysanthemum
played by the Norwegian Light
Orchestra.
On now to film
themes and Steven gave us two of
my personal favourites. Firstly,
Benjamin Frankel’s
delightful music to the 1950 film
“So Long At The Fair”.
It was so popular that it had to
be extended-emerging as Carriage
And Pair.
Another delightful
composition followed, in the
shape of Ron Goodwin’s theme
for the film “Murder She
Said”. However, as this film
spawned sequels, the piece was
retitled The Miss Marple
Theme.
Steven concluded a
delightful hour with Henry
Mancini and That’s
Entertainment.
It was time for
our second interval.
Upon resumption of
business, André Leon was invited
to the top table to present a
feature he entitled “The
Williams Collection” –
various personalities with the
same surname. Dealing first with
the film music composer, John
Williams, famous for
“E.T”, ”Star
Wars”, “Close
Encounters”, etc., André
chose two minutes of Princess
Leia’s Theme from
“Star Wars”. Turning to
the guitarist of the same name,
André played Cavatina,
composed by Stanley Myers, from
the film “The Deer
Hunter”. André had met both
of these ‘Williamses’
– as well as comedy actor
Kenneth Williams. I don’t
think he composed anything, and
anyway “Rambling Sid
Rumpo” would hardly be
suitable for our meeting!
On now to Charles
Williams, the composer, whom
André hadn’t met (I
don’t suppose he knew
Vaughan Williams either, but I
digress!)
Upon hearing the
name Charles Williams, Tony
Clayden proceeded to give us a
fluent, unscripted account of his
life and career, alluding to his
chronic alcoholism, which
prevented him from attending
important functions, as he was
unable to guarantee his sobriety.
It was due to this unfortunate
situation that he declined to
attend a ceremony arranged by
Cambridge University, who had
wished to confer an Honorary
Doctorate of Music upon him; he
felt that he was not worthy of
receiving that award.
After Tony’s
comments, André played Charles
Williams’ Blue Devils
march – a very early
composition which pre-dated his
much more familiar pieces, such
as The Dream Of Olwen
and the Theme from The
Apartment - thus bringing
his presentation to a conclusion.
Tony then played
us Francois Couperin’s Les
Barricades Mystérieuses
– a feature for four saxes.
Although a classical piece
written for solo piano a long
time before the saxophone was
invented, it works extremely well
in an arrangement for those
instruments. This served as an
introduction to our final
presenter, Tony Foster who,
having presented features on the
trumpet and the trombone (of
which he is an exponent) at
previous meetings, decided that
it was saxophones that should be
featured on this occasion. He
opened with the Syd Lawrence
orchestra playing Glenn
Miller’s arrangement of In
The Mood.
This was followed
by Prelude To A Kiss
played by the Buddy Rich band and
then Haydn Wood’s Roses
Of Picardy – probably
one of Wood’s most famous
and certainly lucrative
compositions. The saxophone
soloist with Peter Yorke’s
orchestra was the brilliant
Freddy Gardner, who died so
prematurely in 1947, aged only
39.
Next came
Tony’s penultimate piece, Dame
In Red, played by the Robert
Farnon Orchestra and featuring
saxophone soloist Roy Willox, who
had worked with Bob on many
recordings over the years.
To conclude our
afternoon’s entertainment
Tony Foster played My
Favourite Things from
“Mary Poppins”, again
performed by Syd Lawrence.
The music over,
Tony Clayden expressed deep
concern over the small size of
the audience, which, if repeated,
would seriously impact upon our
ability to continue holding these
events.
It is not feasible
that Tony should have to
subsidise the shortfall in
takings out of his own pocket.
Whilst the Hotel
offers a competitive rate for
Central London, it has been
obliged to increase the charge
for the hire of the room and also
for teas and coffees.
We could, perhaps,
utilise the smaller room at
Lancaster Hall or find another
location. As an absolute last
resort, it may become necessary
to discontinue holding these
meetings altogether.
These choices will
be considered over the coming
weeks and the results of our
discussions communicated to you
via our website.
On this rather
melancholy note, Tony brought the
meeting to a close, after having
expressed the hope that all
attendees would be able to
support the next meeting, to be
held on May 12th 2024, and
hopefully the numbers would be
greater.
© Brian
Reynolds 2023
The next
LLMMG meeting will take place at
the Lancaster Hall Hotel on
Sunday 12th May 2024 – All
are welcome, please tell your
friends !
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