LONDON LIGHT MUSIC MEETINGS GROUP

May 18th 2025
at the Lancaster Hall Hotel

Once again it was time for our loyal band of light music enthusiasts to assemble at the Lancaster Hall Hotel for another afternoon of superb entertainment, on Sunday May 18th 2025.

As usual, Tony Clayden opened the proceedings – this time with the former BBC Home Service intro. theme based on 'Oranges And Lemons', in the arrangement by Spike Hughes.

He then continued with some musical tributes to musicians who had recently passed away. He began with a former member of the Robert Farnon Society – Robert Walton, who was featured at the piano (with orchestra) in Kurt Weil's 'September Song’. Robert was a frequent contributor to Journal Into Melody, the magazine of the RFS.

Next we heard pianist and arranger Laurie Holloway (whom many will associate with Michael Parkinson's TV show, of which he was MD). With his trio, he played 'Sunrise, Sunset', from the hit 1960s musical Fiddler On The Roof in a unique jazz arrangement, much of which was in 5/4 time.

To complete this trio of music by recently departed maestros, Tony played us Quincy Jones' 'Soul Bossa Nova'. Jones passed away in November 2024, at the age of 91, after a lengthy and prestigious career as a conductor, arranger, composer, trumpeter and bandleader in the USA.

Tony continued his presentation with a track from a brand-new CD by Gavin Sutherland, curiously titled The Next Programme Follows Shortly, in which Gavin has reconstructed and performed many well-known tunes from television. We heard 'College Boy', by Derek New, the theme from from University Challenge, in its first 'jazzy' version. Gavin's arrangement is so good that it is virtually indistinguishable from the original !

Next came one of Robert Farnon's less familiar compositions – which came from a sixties Chappell recording – entitled 'The Big Night'.

Tony concluded his presentation with Lennon and McCartney composition, 'Here, There and Everywhere'. This particular version – by the Mike Leander Orchestra – became well-known as the signature tune for the regular BBC radio programme introduced by the late Ray Moore.

It was then the turn of Anthony Wills to remember two American performers, the first being Jack Jones, who died in October 2024. We listened to his performance of 'Lollipops And Roses'. His next big hit was a song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David entitled 'Wives and Lovers' written for a film of the same name. After listening to this, Anthony played one further item performed by Jack Jones – 'The Impossible Dream' from the musical 'Man of La Mancha'.

Anthony then turned his attention to Mitzi Gaynor (who also passed away last October) She starred in Cole Porter's musical 'Anything Goes', so we listened to her singing the title song. She later starred in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific', after Doris Day turned down the role of Nellie Forbush.

From this musical we heard 'Soliloquy', followed by I'm In Love With A Wonderful Guy'.

Anthony concluded his presentation with Mitzi singing 'Happy Anniversary' from the musical of the same name.

We then took our first interval.

Suitably refreshed, we reassembled for the second part of our meeting. Tony Clayden was joined by Alex Gleason for an exploration into the music of Ron Goodwin, whose centenary falls this year. Tony prefaced the section with a few words about RG, who was born in Plymouth in 1925, but from the age of nine was raised in northwest London. His original instruments were the piano and trumpet, and he went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music in London. He became a noted conductor, arranger and composer, and wrote the scores for over seventy films, in addition to numerous light-orchestral pieces.

Alex started the 'musical ball rolling' by playing some of his film music – commencing with The Green Belt – one of his earliest scores, following it with the theme from That Riviera Touch which starred Morecambe and Wise. We then heard the theme from The Trap – which has become very well-known as the intro. music for the TV coverage of the annual London Marathon.

Alex concluded his part of the feature with the love theme from the Decline and Fall suite and finally Monte Carlo or Bust, which is a three piece suite (musically speaking, that is ! ) and was a sequel to Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, for which of course RG also wrote the score.

The presentation returned to Tony and a performance of The Melba Waltz [Mischa Spoliansky] – from a very early Parlophone '78' featuring Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra – which is actually from a film about Dame Nellie Melba.

In the early days of his career, RG was engaged by George [later Sir George] Martin, who was the A&R manager for EMIs Parlophone label. In addition to providing the arrangements and accompaniments for many popular recording artistes of the era, Ron became involved with the various comedy recordings in which Martin – at the time – seemed to specialise.

These included a couple of LPs which featured Peter Sellers and we heard his ‘jokey’ interpretation of the Jerome Kern song ‘All The Things You Are’, complete with a beautiful orchestral Goodwin backing.

Next, we heard Edna Savage sing 'Beautiful Love' – accompanied by Ron Goodwin, in another lush string arrangement. A further RG orchestral composition then followed - the 'El Morocco Tearooms', which originally featured on the well-known Peter Sellers LP comedy track 'Balham – Gateway To The South'. It apparently became so popular that RG was obliged to modify it into a full-length piece, which was then recorded and released as a single in its own right !

The Ron Goodwin Orchestra then performed his composition 'Red Cloak', followed by a very ingenious arrangement of Hugo Alfven's Swedish Polka – which was enhanced with a touch of Dixieland thrown in for good measure.

Tony concluded with two Goodwin originals – Handyman (reflecting RG's legendary sense of humour) and then the exciting Headless Horseman, which sounds like it was written for a film, but wasn't !

Just before the second interval we listened to the harmonica playing of Tommy Reilly playing Madeline Dring's Danza Italiana. This provided Tony with the opportunity to inform us that Tommy Reilly's last pupil – Shima Kobayashi-Melvin – will be our special guest at the October meeting, when she will give an illustrated talk about her career as a virtuoso harmonica player.

Part Three opened with a recorded contribution by André Leon, (who was unable to attend this session), talking about Ron Goodwin – an affable man whose main instruction to his orchestra was "Enjoy yourselves!" This was followed by a short excerpt of the theme from the film Limelight, which was written by Charles Chaplin. We then heard part of an interview between André and Ron Goodwin, featuring excerpts from '633 Squadron' and 'The Battle Of Britain March'.

Martin Cleave then came to the microphone.

He commenced with a tribute to conductor and composer Ronald Corp, who suddenly died a few weeks ago, It will be recalled that Ronald was the special guest at our May meeting last year.

Martin played us some of Ronald's recordings of British, European and American Light Music (on six Hyperion CDs), made back in the 1990's. These featured the New London Orchestra which Ronald founded. We heard the following:
'Rhythm on Rails' (Charles Williams)
'Rouge et Noire' (Fred Hartley)
'The Toy Trumpet' (Raymond Scott)
'El Relicario' (Padilla)

Martin continued his presentation by reminding us that back in the 1950s and 1960s the 'Hit Parade' actually had some good tunes – a far cry from today!

We listened to some examples: Leroy Anderson's 'Blue Tango' from Ray Martin's Concert Orchestra, 'Vanessa' from the Ted Heath Band, 'Little Red Monkey' from Frank Chacksfield's Tunesmiths with Jack Jordon (Clavioline) and Ronald Hayward's 'Flirtation Waltz', featuring the piano of Joe 'Mr. Piano' Henderson.

To conclude our afternoon of melody, I came to the table to present my usual 'Radio Recollections'.

It is always good when somebody in the audience has a connection with the performer or composer of the piece in question. My opening number 'Bows and Bells', featuring Hugh James and his orchestra, was written by Sydney Del Monte, whose son, Howard was seated in the audience. We turned to Marcel Gardner and his orchestra for our next number- which was Marcel's own arrangement of 'Tabarinage', ('Buffoonery'), one of the best light music numbers of the 1960s, written by the distinguished pianist Robert Docker, whose daughter, Beverley, was sitting in the front row, with her husband.

I continued with one of the lesser known compositions of Fred Hartley, 'Caviar Is My Dish'. It was played by Harold Geller and his orchestra- an attractive combination featuring the mandolin of Hugo D'Alton.

Next, Jack Coles conducted the BBC Midland Light Orchestra in one his own compositions 'Fantan'. To conclude our afternoon's entertainment, we listened to Louis Voss and his Kursaal Orchestra playing 'Tango Yvonne', written by Bernard Monshin in honour of one of his daughters.

Tony closed the meeting at 6.00pm, inviting us all back for the next one on October 29th.

In view of the diminishing number of attendees at these gatherings Tony suggested that we all try to encourage others to come along, as our meetings will not be able continue running at a loss.

© Brian Reynolds May 2025

The next LLMMG meeting will take place at the Lancaster Hall Hotel on Sunday 19th October 2025 – All are welcome, please tell your friends !