1355 Humphrey Lyttelton, 100 Oxford Street, The suns of all fears

09.00 The radio news this morning announced the death of Humphrey Lyttleton, at the age of 86. I have this image of George Melly greeting him at the Gates, saying what took you so long man. It's just as difficult to get a gig up here as it was down there, but I did get one show the other day with Louis and the Hot Seven, and there is a hot joint along Celestial Way that said if you want to lead the house band and take over the their daily broadcast hour with an audience of twenty billion, the job is yours.

The usual image of a jazz man is someone hyperactive, unconventional, with many wives and a liking for illegal substances. Humphrey Lyttleton had a very different image, a laid back patrician, as a younger man, the second son of the 8th Viscount Cobham who was a house master at Eton. Humphrey, or Humph as he was affectionately called went to the Sunningdale Preparatory school before Eton College where he was the junior(fag) for Lord Carrington, He became interested in jazz after hearing records of Louis Armstrong and Nat Gonella and formed a college quartet in which Ludovic Kennedy played the drums. He had a short period at a plate works in Wales which turned him into a romantic socialist and then as was customary with Eton men he joined the Guards, the Grenadiers, seeing action in Salerno in World War II. On VE day he went onto London Streets with his trumpet and his playing was captured by a BBC roving reporter. He then went to Camberwell Art college and in 1949 he joined the Daily Mail as a Cartoonist joining forces with jazz clarinettist Wally Fawkes to create the strip cartoon Flook. Later he became a kindly grandfather with a wicked sense of humour introducing a weekly jazz programme and as chairman of an itinerant spoof panel show which filled theatre audiences around the country.

20.00 I had intended to finish writing about Hump before going to the match but the repaired camcorder arrived so I was able to go out for the Daily Mail. I had was led to believe that the day would be warm as well as sunny but here it was cloudy with a temperature reducing wind. I called in at the supermarket on my way back for milk, tomatoes and the like but added a nutty brown loaf when one was discovered. I decided on some sorting out and then lunch and then it going off to the match time taking a flask of coffee with me. Being the Tees Wear Derby there would be a big crowd 45000, in fact, and I nearly miscalculated the time in that I managed one of the last couple of parking spaces available and then relaxed with the paper and the coffee. I left the car for the ground in time to take a peek inside the new ten lane Olympic size swimming pool, high diving facilities and fitness centre. It has been designed for use by the likes of you and me through the week with a programme of swimming and fitness activities. There was no one using any of the 140 odd fitness machines though.
17.00 It proved to be a exciting and enjoyable game although it began ominously as for the second week running a goal was conceded in the opening few minutes but this time the joy of the away supporters was shortlived and we equalised within a minute and then just before the end of the first half we took the lead again. There were several opportunities to extend the lead after the interval and the Boro also had their chances and converted one with about 20 minutes in the match left. As has been a feature of the man we won with seconds of extra to go which broke the hearts of the Boro players as well as their splendid travelling fans who belie the failure to fill their ground. They deserve success given thee strong and loyal heart of their Chairman Steve Gibson, but only as third to the Black Cats and the Toon alternating as Champions now that is celestial fantasy, especially as the other two each year would win one or more of Cups. On reflection in such a scenario the Boro could have the Premier championship the year we won the Champions League Cup. Fantasy of course except that in London there is Chelsea and Arsenal, Spurs and the their like.

21.00 Last night I passed the time away before bedtime with a martial arts film set in the USA in which a maverick police detective joins forces with Samurai type of assassin to rid the streets of drug dealing protection racket gangs with the ubiquitous corrupt senior police officer. I was in the mood. The film has Blade in its title

The previous evening the Arts channel was showing a film which I thought I had seen before called 8 ½ women. In fact the film is about an exceptionally wealthy business man John Standing and his son who after watching Fellini's 8 ½ decide to recruit a private harem each one with distinguishing characteristic from the other. The film I thought was being shown was 8 Femmes, the French comedy murder mystery, which I saw in theatre. 8 ½ Women is a film about intellectual sex where the question "who is really in charge of the asylum." is the plot? However there is no emotional engagement, but this may be just me.

Tonight I watched again The Sum of All Fears in which Ben Afflick saves the world in a tale created by Tom Clancy. The message in this film is that there were known to be 27000 thermo nuclear weapons in the world, and that one went missing, an Israeli rocket bomb which contained USA plutonium secretly provided and which falls into the hands of a neo Nazi group of high placed official on both sides of the former cold war anxious to return to the good old bad days. The other message is that the USA and Russian Presidents are good guys, but who have to go to the point of being prepared to use their weapons rather than lose face. Fortunately there are two kindly father figures high up in intelligence who keep each other informed of what is really going on behind all the public posturing designed to keep ahead of all those trying to take power in the two lands. I cannot wait for the China V rest of the world and winning films to begin.

22.00 100 Oxford Street is a basement, the most famous basement in the central London, perhaps in the UK, and which opened in 1942 during World War II as a facility to show the talents of the sons of Victor Feldman. During the rest of war it became a haunt for visiting GI's who wanted to listen to jazz and to dance and among those performing was Glen Miller with several members of his band. The basement was considered as good as any bomb shelter. After the war it became the London jazz club with sessions on Saturdays and Mondays for the dance music of day (Swing and the Jitterbug) with the Sunday session changing to bebop. By one of the great pieces of good fortune in my life Humphrey Littleton's agent acquired the lease just before I left school and 100 Oxford Street became The Humphrey Lyttleton Club or Humphs providing traditional jazz on seven nights of each and every week. There was a period when I longed to be able to live in Soho and go to clubs every other night if not every night of the week with my clarinet of course until eventually being asked to join a band. Louis Armstrong played there in 1956, and Billie Holliday was in the audience for a session with Alex Welsh band with Beryl Bryden. I saw Chris Barber at the club but because of the boom in traditional jazz popularity he had become too big to appear there and the main regulars were Acker Bilk, Terry Lightfoot and Kenny Ball.

The Club became the 100 as USA artists commenced to come over in number many played or visited the club including Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rushin, Bo Diddley and BB King. My era of visiting came to and end as the club moved into its own new era with Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll, John Mayall's Blues Breakers, the Animals, the Who, the Kinks, The Pretty Things and Spencer Davis. Wild Bill Davidson, George Lewis who I did see there and Earl Hines. Ken Colyer also played here after giving up his own Club in Soho which I had also visited. The Club went through hard times but adapted switching to Punk (Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash, Buzzcocks and the Damned), and then the emphasis changed to African Jazz and Township Music. In the 1982 the Rolling Stones played there, in secret session and in the 1990's the Club moved into the Indie scene and to Comedy Nights. However there were also appearances of Chris Barber and Humphrey Lyttleton. George Melly made his last performance there with moments included in his telebiography.

In 1954, a year before I left school, Humph did a show at the Royal Festival Hall with Johnny Pickard on Trombone, Wally Fawkes and Mickey Ashman on base. I have the 10" LP which includes eight of the numbers played that night including Basin Street, I wish I could shimmy like my sister Kate and When the Saints Go Marching In. My first visit to the R.F. H was to listen to the Modern Jazz Quartet as guest of the sister of the work friend who introduced me to the world of live jazz performances. It was also the era when I had joined the American Embassy Library and was borrowing records such as Menotti, the Telephone and recorded music of the Southern Plantations. Lyttleton also moved away from Trad jazz although in 1956 Bad Penny Blues reached the UK singles charts and stayed in for six weeks. He formed a special relationship with Buck Clayton who regarded him a soul brother. I have their LP Me and Buck, the title of one of the Eight numbers with Autumn Leaves, Stardust, and Sentimental Journey my favourites. Danny Moss was the tenor sax and Joe Temperley Baritone. I also have a hardback edition of his autobiography I play as I please. He had some popularity in the USA and in 1968 at the request of NASA he visited to broadcast live to the crew of the Apollo 8 Space craft.

In addition to continuing to play his music for more than 40 years he was the radio voice of British Jazz in his weekly "Best of Jazz" series and which he only stopped when his health recently deteriorated. For most people however it was not the musician or Jazz authority that they came to know and love but as the Chairman of the comedy panel radio show, "I'm sorry I Haven't a Clue" in which he encouraged silliness and harmless double entendres which became so successful that it could fill major theatres around the UK.

Helen Shapiro was a 60's pop star with "Walkin back to Happiness a hit when she was only 14. She developed into amazing jazz singer and went on tour with Humph in the 1990's. I hoped to get to one of their concerts but missed out. I also missed out on seeing him perform with Elkie Brooks although I have her Pearl's a Singer albums ad saw her perform twice at Newcastle City Hall. She was nearly as loud as U2 UK.

1367 Young musicians and Horror in Burma

Yesterday was an international day of salutation for talented youth when also the reality of the limitations of international government was very evident for everyone to experience. We all crave individual liberty to be ourselves and to exercise the maximum control over our lives and we all resent when government takes decisions which affects us adversely or takes decision we do not like or would have taken differently if given the power.

Yesterday the world realised not just the full horror of the force of nature in Burma as speculation mounted of 100000 and more dead and a million affected, without the basics of shelter, food, sanitation to prevent many more dying in the aftermath. The world genuinely wanted to help, in the sense of ordinary people, often with little themselves, understanding the nightmare and wanting to alleviate the suffering in someway. The behaviour of the Burmese government was held to be irresponsible because it has refused the intervention of other governments knowing that the motive of many of these government is to bring to an end their power alongside genuine humanitarian concern, knowing that any help in the present circumstances would go to the government, its army and supporters wielding the power. The position of everyone is understandable and time is needed to achieve reconciliation but time those most affected do not have. Time and time again Jesus Christ is present on earth and is crucified. So I shut out this reality and celebrated the exceptional talents of a few individuals, although there was a tinge of regret that I may not live to see them fulfil their potential, although the greater fear is that I could live to seem fail.

30 years ago a young trombonist, Michael Hext won the first British Young Musician of the Year, a competition which is only open to those who are born in the UK and who are under twenty years of age on the day of the final, this year on Sunday May 11th, at the millennium Hall Cardiff. I predict this year's winner will be another trombonist, aged twelve years, Peter Moore, who comes from a brass playing family and is already a soloist with a brass band where his mother also plays,. Accompanying him to trips to Chicago, the Isle of Man and Paris. When his mother, no doubt on the advice of the music school he attends told him he was ready to enter the competition, it was for the experience of such a competition and the exposure of reaching the televised semi finals, and perhaps going on to the final, but it was because he was considered ready to win.

Once before a twelve year old was the outright winner but so far I have found information that she was due to have a concert in London in 2005, but nothing after that. Although Peter was born into a household already playing brass instruments with his father a trombonist he should musicality before he could talk an his father revealed that once when he ended a tune prematurely he was stunned that his son sang the final note in perfect pitch. His mother also mentioned that that when in pre school she had to explain that only some children learnt and could play an instrument. Peter started to play the trombone when he was six and within a couple of years he have become a better player than his father and knew that playing the trombone and being a soloist musicians was what he wanted to be and his parents were then faced with the decision to send him to one of the great musical schools in world Cheetham's in Manchester and who this year has provided half the sixteen semi finalists so far. He was nine years old. Unlike many of the others who need to spend all the day, every day in practice rising early to do so for an hour before breakfast, Peter seems a very balance young man who will spend several hours playing football with his mates or playing console and computer games. I only have an untutored musical ear and my technical knowledge is sparse but his performance of Sandstrom's Sang til Lotta was breathtaking in its tone and beauty and brought tears to the eye of one of the judges, who then expressed concern about what would be the impact on his life if he won outright. Two other older pupils from the school, both also exceptional had to stand by in awe with a third.

Some of those who have won the competition have stood the test of time with perhaps the most successful and well known Emma Johnson, the Clarinettist who won in 1984 and then in a young artist competition in New York and now performs to sell out concerts in throughout the world, Europe, The USA, the Far east, Asia and Australia. He repertoire includes forty concertos. She has her own chamber Ensemble and has successfully conducted orchestras. Nor is it necessary to always win the competition. Paul Watkins won the string section but the final in 1988 and is now regarded as one of Britain's leading cellists who also turned to conducting winning both the critics and audience prizes at the Leed's conductor's competition. However the is one performer from those thirty years also moved me beyond words, another cellist Natalie Clien who won the competition in 1994 with a performance of the Elgar which, dare I suggest, was greater than Jacqueline Du Pre. She then went to win to become the first British winner of the Eurovision completion for young musicians. She won the classical Brit award for young musicians in 2005 and amazingly but sadly is appearing in Newcastle this Saturday when I am otherwise engaged. Such is life.

Across the Atlantic it was also semi final night for American Idol when the four remaining contestants had 500 songs from the American Rock Hall of Fame to chose from, 17 year old David Archuleta stole the show with performances of Stand by me and Love me Tender. In the beginning I argued that David would win unless he faltered and so it was with a couple of less that good weeks it looked as if he was handing the title to rocker David Cook who is already a polished performer that people will pay money to go and see on stage. Although Simon had never rated her and her voice screeches out on the higher registers the most impressive transformation is that of Seyesha Mercado whose stage presence and sexy personality will earn her a career on Broadway, Her performance of A change is gonna come was outstanding although surprisingly one judge, not Simon for once, made it clear he did not want her to win. I think she has the potential to surprise everyone.

Otherwise it was gentle kind of day in which I removed the spring bulbs from their containers to dry and got things ready for the summer planting which I will commence next Wednesday. I will for a walk today to take a look on what is on offer as for the fifth day in succession it is warm and sunny. Magic. The first occasion of warm and sunny for six months. It was bright for a few days earlier when I made my first visit by ferry across the Tyne but the wind was fresh. Last year of course there was good weather, did I not go to Scotland around this time? And then the rain came and with floods, ending with the Diana Concert. I must remember to cancel my subscription to Satanta sports for the Summer. It could be that Kevin Keegan's second coming is short lived for after his comments about not having the player resources to challenge for the top four he held the pre match conference a day earlier as he was summoned to London to discuss the situation. Apparently he has to sell players before he can buy as the new owner discovered a major debt on the books something which had not been established at the time he and his advisers decided to buy the club. Alan Shearer you were wise to stay away. Is Michael Owen on his way?

1833 Music of many colours before the serious and the tragic

I had intended only to write about musical matters, a film about the life of Celine Dion and the 1950’s Hollywood production of the Jazz Singer sandwiched between the original Al Jolson version and that of Neil Diamond half a century later. There is also the Rock Concert for children and the X Factor. Then there is I Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana.

There has also been an excellent England 50 over win against South Africa and Sunderland beat Arsenal at home and one Monday Newcastle had long drawn out and hard fought win over Preston away from home. I have eaten well but wasted nearly an hour trying to find the renewal form for car tax as well as attending to other financial matters. It was Wednesday before I got round to ringing the renewal office in Wales and discovered that there has now been further improvement. Last year I spoke to a human being who while taking details checked electronically that I was insured to drive the vehicle which had a Ministry of Transport Test Certificate regarding road worthiness. This year I was relayed to a different number where everything was done electronically in a matter of minutes as fast as automated instruction options were given and I could key in the information. What brains who designed the system folks, this marks a step in the evolution of humanity.

The main development which overshadowed music is the extensive flooding and damage to property in neighbouring Cumbria and which in turn is overshadowed by the death of a service policeman, married with four children. Last night regional TV was holding a competition arranged by the national lottery in which the general public can vote for one of pairs of good projects to allocated the funds for a needy addition to their voluntary work.

One was a Mental Health Charity based on a town in Northumberland, Blythe which I passed through earlier in the year in search of Wilkinson’s and folders for holding display sets. The Other was the North East Rescue service in which volunteers are prepared to go out in all conditions, locations and times in search of missing persons. They use four wheeled land rover but need a command vehicle in which they store their equipment, house electronic communication and information and hold meetings to organise a search undercover, all of which has to be done in the vehicle cabs or outsider at present. Sadly the Blythe project will miss out because of coincidence however unfortunate and tragic. One of the additional problems this time is the destruction of bridges such has been the force of water, cutting the town of Workington into so those living on the North side have a journey of over 40 miles and up to two hours because of traffic jams to reach the town centre for which some could walk across the bridge. Fortunately the Train line is working and that mains services which were carried under the bridge have been re-laid or relayed. I was not sure which applies.

I also want to note the most interesting of the four episodes of Garrow’s Law which appeared on Sunday night Sir William Garrow PC that Privy Councillor of State not Personal or public computer! The programme deals with his first years as a barrister appearing for defendants in criminal proceedings where the common outcome was death and the second transportation. Barristers could ask questions of a witness against the accused but could not address the jury directly. Prosecuting barristers and judges frequently dined socially at which the political and social approach to the law was discussed. This was the era of the rotten borough when a community with a handful of voters could send one or two Members of Parliament to Westminster while the new cities such as Birmingham with sixty thousand males eligible to vote sent no one. The franchise was restricted to male property owners. There were jury trials who were hand picked and were expected to reach decisions quickly while sitting in the open court.

On real life Sir William did set out to change the system into a fairer one and through his rise to power and standing was able to do so, He lived for eighty years from 1760. After his success in winning many hopeless causes at the Old Bailey he became a Member of Parliament, the Solicitor General and the Attorney General and then a Judge and when he retired at the age of seventy two he was appointed to the Privy Council. He was responsible for the development of the Adversarial system here in the UK and which also developed in the USA where elsewhere, notably in France there is the Inquisitorial system which I believe is a better approach.


The BBC attempted to convey something of the era in which he first worked as a barrister with four hour long dramas. How far he was involved. if all in the actual cases used in the programme and drawn from Old Bailey records was not stated but the last was the most engaging and I suggest important because it concerned one of the leaders of the London Corresponding society, prosecuted for High Treason and where if found guilty he would have been hung drawn and quartered. In fact two of the leaders were found guilty in one instance and transported for 14 years. The purpose of the society, largely formed of trades people with tailors, watchmakers, shoemakers and weavers forming about a third of its recorded membership of 347 was to widen the Franchise, although many were also against organised religion hold the view that reason and nature were the way to experience God and the issue which provoked the government most into action was their opposition to the wars with France. There was concern about the spread of branches to Manchester, Sheffield Stockport and Norwich and in particular plans to hold a UK national convention when meetings began to attract thousands of interested people
In the fourth drama the emphasis was an unscrupulous juridical system heavily influence by the state for political reasons and where the best friend of the accused was a government spies. In fact the government then used planted informed widely as it has done ever since and which all governments always do. The extent of monitoring and intelligence gathering is extensive and today the state has extensively greater powers to do so in relative secret through the development of electronic communications and monitoring systems as well as national and international databases.

An the end of the trial Garrow makes an impassioned speech about the ideals of democracy, justice and freedom to as well as freedom from and on what should be the limits of the power state which was intended to have relevance to day as it did then. The programme was timed with the opening of the independent commission into the causes of British involvement in the Iraq War. The BBC News channel Red button and the Internet are providing live coverage of the open sessions and there is to be a site where some background papers are to be made available.

So to the music with first the film, an unauthorised biography of the Canadian singer Celine Dion. A singer whose name I knew well but knew nothing of her life or that she had won the European Song Contest or remembered she was the voice behind the song in Titanic. My impression is that the film set to be an honest and frank account of her early life as a singer life. She was brought up in French speaking Canada as part of a huge Catholic family where she was the youngest of fourteen children who were all brought up musically minded and both parents sang popular music and encouraged their children to perform with them at was has been described as a local piano bar. They also composed songs and with the help of her mother and a brother, Dion created a tape of her first song in French- It was only a dream when she was twelve years of age. The brother discovered that the manager/agent for someone whose record album they had purchased was called Rene Angelil and sent him the recording. He was so impressed with the voice of the girl and that he decided to devote himself to making her a star, mortgaging his family home to finance her first record.

At first in Quebec and then throughout Canada and then the rest of the world her work as an adolescent singer became known and appreciated and as she was the first Canadian artist to achieve a Gold record sale in France. At eighteen after seeing a Michael Jackson concert she told Angelil she wanted to be an International Star like him. He realised that there had to be changes so she he arranged for her to become internationally English speaking, she had surgery to improve her features and she concentrated on creating a new adult image from that of the child star. While her status progressed it was not until the late 1990’s and in her mid twenties that she achieved the international stardom which was her ambition and which has continued to this day.

The film appears to have dealt with her relationship with Angelil in an honest way in that when it became evident that the relationship between the two was becoming close her mother is alleged to have stepped in to ensure that the relationship remained professional given the difference in ages. The film suggests that the relationship developed later but was kept secret from the public until Rene had a heart attack. The factual aspect is that Rene had married twice before wedding Celine, the first in the year that the singer was born and that he had a child by each of his wives. He is well known to have become a successful high stakes gambler and poker player. Celine gave up her worldwide engagements when her husband developed throat caner from which he recovered. I liked the film and will look out for her records.
I have now seen three versions of the Jazz Singer. The first was the Al Jolson 1927 version and the second the 1980 Neil Diamond. I was disappointed by the Neil Diamond when I saw it in theatre film because I had forgotten that it was a remake of the Jolson and thought it was about a Jazz singer which it is not. I have now seen the 1952 version which has Peggy Lee playing the famous singer who became his wife. There is a fourth version made in 1959 as part of a TV series and with Jerry Lewis in the title role, although there are no copies now of the production.

The story should be known to most people of my generation as it follows closely that of the early of Al Jolson himself. The story is of a good Jewish singer who is expected to follow in the footsteps of his father the Cantor at their synagogue. The young man has other ideas and wants to go into show business variety and leaves home to do so, with his father effectively disinheriting him as his son as a consequence. The young man retains contact with his mother. He establishes a relationship with a established singer who is not Jewish with adds further to the alienation with his father. Just when he is about to open in a big show his father becomes dangerously ill and the return home for a conciliation, taking his place temporarily in the Synagogue for one of the most important religious dates in the Jewish Calendar. Father recovers sufficiently to accept his son’s vocation and to hear him sing in public. In terms of choice of music and singing voice this is the weakest of the three films although Peggy Lee was one of the great Jazz singers of my generation who died at the age of 80 in 2002. The Jolson and Neil Diamond films are worth seeing several times in any lifetime.

As gala charity raising rock and pop concerts go that for Children in Need last week was pretty good with Robbie Williams taking the stage immediately after Take That, and Cheryl Cole doing a raunchy version of her recent hit, Kathryn Jenkins proving what singings is really about and Annie Lennox continuing to show what a class act she is as well as good soul. I tend to feel Paul McCartney is overrated although I enjoyed his Hey Jude led finale. I also saw Sunday‘s Antique Road show on the i player and which came from Bletchley were the first computer was built and sued as part of British intelligence. Why all the records and evidence was destroyed remains a mystery but enthusiasts have rebuilt the computer and some of those who worked there and who are still alive have been able to admit that they did. During the programme two women who had met the Beatles when children were interviewed. Paul had been at a pub when asked about food in the days before this became the main function of Inns and he had been taken back to their home by his parents and he had entertained them afterwards with the guitar the girl was learning to play and had sung Hey Jude before it had been recorded and released to the public. The other girl had attended a meal provided the Beatles after they had done a gig at Stow school for which the quartet had been paid £100. The two women had photos, letters and signatures which were said to be worth between £1000 and £1500 but the memories were priceless.

What astounded me about the Children in Need concert is that it is usually difficult to hear the singers because the audience screams and shouts most of the time and for which the X factor is to blame. Last, and this, week the programme continues to show that the audience likes to ignore the advice of the judges, except Simon, and that it is a singing competition for those who can make a successful popular music record and album. The programme is timed to that the winner of the contest has the the most popular release at Christmas Time and more recently the charity song which includes the top ten performers also becomes the best seller for at least one week.

For the past six weeks we have been entertained by two Irish sixteen year old twin boys who have distinctive hair styles and are full of energy and have learnt to dance but cannot hold a tune. Originally they were also obnoxious but with the right team behind them and Louis Walsh doing his best to avoid being without anyone to mentor after first couple of weeks they survived to knock out a good singer from Wales but who lacked the charisma which is needed to break into the pop world these days and stay there. This week the boys got their comeuppance as the judges found that the public had also voted down what many regarded as the best make signer left although he again lacks charisma. Danny, the sister of you know who, mentors the very likeable single mother Jewish singer Stacey Solomon who has a voice on a par with Leone and last year’s winner. As the public clearly have not taken to Leon, the male challenge comes from Joe from South Shields who I agree with Louis is likely to be a good musical show lead performer and Simon’s school teacher who has plenty of attitude which did not work with the public which they interpreted as conceit. The dark horse is a pretty sixteen seventeen year old without a strong voice who despite attacks by the judges especially Louis the public has not placed in the bottom two. Louis hoped last week was that the choice between the lad and his duo the judges would keep John and Edward in because they were better entertainers that the pretty boy and in truth it is entertainment and commercial potential that Simon and the judges are looking for.

Most people know the aria from I Pagliacci although I suspect most are unaware that the composer was Ruggero Leoncavallo whose greatest known work is La Boheme. The one Act opera usually is usually performed with Cavallerria Rusticana, another one act opera by Pietro Masacani and which I experienced this week with the Met Opera Player and where both roles are performed by Placido Domino. The sound quality was not good which defeats the purpose and I will look to see if there is another video on the site. The Met Player site promised that last year’s finals of the National Auditions would eb broadcast from November 17th but so far no joy and similar the live Royal Opera House performance of Don Carlos where I caught only the first act is promised to be coming soon on the BBC i player for Channel 4. Both male lead tenor roles were performed by Placido Domingo

Turiddu is young villager returning from military service to find that his fiancée has married someone else who is wealthy and seduces another village girl in revenge. Equally jealous by this development Lola starts an adulterous affair with her former fiancée. The truth of the situation emerges and it is the young girl who is excommunicated from her church because of the affair. Lola goes into the church mocking the girl left outside and who then advises Lola’s husband of his wife’s infidelity. Turiddu comes out of the church and invites everyone to his mother’s wine shop. Lola’s husband arrives and the women leave. The husband issues a Sicilian challenge of a fight to the death. The opera ends with news of the death of Triddu. Among those who have made audio recordings of the opera are Beniamino Gili, Maria Callas, Victoria del las Angeles, Renata Tebaldi, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. Franco Zeffirelli made a film in 1982 with Placido Domingo and the symphonic Intermezzo was used in the film Raging Bull and the Godfather Part III.

Pagliacci is a play within a play. It features a troupe of touring players where the wife of the head of the troupe is having an affair with a member. The troupe perform a play in which the wife of Pagliacci played by the head of the troupe is also having an affair but with a different member of the troupe. In the opening Prologue Pagliacci reminds the audience that actors have feelings too and that the show is about real life. The players arrive in a village where they are invited to the local Inn for a drink before the evening performance. Observing the interaction between the wife of the troupe head, Canio and a member villages draw this to the attention of the Cano. He laughs this away saying that what happen in the performance is one thing but in real life he will not tolerate anyone making advances to his wife. Another member of the cast says he is in love the wife while the husband is away drinking in the tavern. She scorns him but is afraid of what her husband will do if he finds out that she is having an affair. Her lover comes and asks her to run away with him. The husband returns hoping to catch the adulterous couple together but the lover escapes with the wife saying. I will always be yours. Canio threatens his wife with a knife but his friend disarms and says the man will give himself away in the play. It is at this point that Cano sings Venti la grubba-Put on the costume.

The play follows closely what has been happening off stage and at crucial point Canio cannot go and demands to know who his wife’s lover is. She asks Pagliacci to remember that they have an audience and he sings the famous No! Pagliaccio non son! and explains that he is pale because of the shame she has brought him. The crowd believing this is still the play cheer his emotional performance in the play. He is still distraught demanding to know her lover and he grabs a knife and stabs her and then as her lover comes to her aid Canio stabs him and says- The play is over.

The most famous recordings have been by Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Pavarotti and Domingo, Gigli, Victoria de los Angeles and Montserrat Caballe. The opera has had major impact on popular culture from music to film and TV

1827 World's Great voices?

My Friday 13th of November 13th ended with an orgy of great singing which continued until the early hours of the 14th. The cause of my ecstasy was the arrival of the Readers Digest album- The World’s Greatest Voices. There are five programmes each on a separate audio disk and an extensive booklet with info on each track.

Programme one is entitled Enchanting arias with an emphasis on tenderness and subtlety rather than in popular context power ballads. It begins with Charlotte Church, (01) Tell me what is from Mozart’s the Marriage of Figaro and which describes the pleasure and pain of first love and sung in English. This is followed by a duet which I have heard several times before but would not have been able to identify, Dame Joan Sutherland sings with Jane Berbie the Flower duet (02) from Lakme by Delibes.

Teresa Boganza and the Ambrosian singers then perform one of the most famous female arias in opera L’amour Est Un Osseau Rebelle from Bizet’s Carmen(03) which I first saw in Croydon as a schoolboy with my birth and care mothers and their eldest sisters, I even liked the Hollywood version of Carmen Jones buying the Long Play record now some 50 years of age. I have various version on video tapes and a CD with Regina Resnik as Carmen and Joan Sutherland as Micaela. In the morning I was able to buy tickets for Met Opera Relay in January. My only disappointment with the opera is that it is written and sung in French rather than Spanish.

Another familiar Aria of previously unknown origin is M Appari Tutt Amor from Martha (Flotow) sung in Italian by Roberto Alagna (04)

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa then sings Oh My Beloved Father in Italian, one of Puccini’s most loves arias from the rarely performed Gianni Schicchi. (05) She then sings the Dream of Doretta from Puccini’s La Rondine (06) Again it is an aria I have heard before although the opera is rarely performed.

Placido Domingo gives his first performance with O Paradis from another opera long since excluded from the Grand Opera scene, Materbeer’s L’Africaine (07). British Lesley Garrett then sings Casta Diva from Bellini’s Norma (08) which is beautiful and followed by the similarly romantic sounding duet from Bizet’s the Pearl Fishermen with Placido Domingo and Thomas Hampson.(08).

Power and range is trademark of Luciano Pavarotti who commences with On with the Motley from I Pagliacci (09) and likely to bring the house down who ever sings but Pavarotti is extraordinary. This is followed by what the booklet describes as the daftest plot in opera and therefore appropriately named La Wally, Ebben? Ne Andro Latino is performed by Leslie Garret, a piece I believe I have heard before and matches the emotional intensity of Pavarotti. (10). There is more magic to follow with Jose Carreras and Bellini’s Fenesta Che Lucive (11) and Pavarotti with the first of two arias from Puccini’s Tosca, Recondita Armonia is one of the best known (12) and Placido Domingo, The Stars were brightly shining (16) closing the first programme. In between the French tenor Marcello Alvarez performs Pourquoi Me Reveiller from Massenet’s Werther and is a revelation(13), and Robert Alagna then follows with another of the best known loved of all male arias Che Gelida Manina (14) followed by Jose Carreras with the Flower song from Carmen(15). By this time goose pimples were electrifying and I abandoned everything else to concentrate on listening and making notes until close on 4am.

The second programme is headed voices of Tranquillity which would have better titled Sacred or Spiritual Music and begins again with Charlotte Church and I vow to thee , my country by Holst (17). Lesley Garrett follows with Bless This House the onetime regular favourite for radio broadcasting.(18). Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sings Let the Bright Seraphim from Handel’s Samson Oratio (19), a well known aria and Emma Kirby, But who may Abide The Day is Coming from his sung by everyone, the Messiah (20).

Robert Alagna then has two performances with first Sanctus from the Berlioz Requiem with an ethereal back choir (21) and then Agnus Dei from Bizet’s L’Arlesienne. (22) Dame Kiri then contributes Laudate Dominunum from Mozart’s Solemn Vespers (23), new music to me although I have a collection of his Masses.

Anthony Way sings the well known O for the Wings of a Dove Mendelssohn (24) and Angela Gheorghiu the more familiar to day Pie Jesu from Faure’s Requiem (25) followed by Crucifix with Roberto Alagna (26) and Dame Kiri O Divine Redeemer (27)

Sir Harry Seacombe was originally known as a Comedian who could sing, as a member of the cast of the Goon Show but in his later years he became a much loved presenter and contributor to the Sunday evening’s religious programme. His contribution is his most well known Bach’s Ave Maria arranged by Gounod (28) He is followed by one of the best known school boy singers of recent generations Aled Jones and All Through the Night (29) and Franck’s Panis Angelicus with Russell Watson (30). Sir Harry then gives his well known rendering of the Lord is my Shepherd(31) and the sessions ends oddly with Nan Mouskouri Plasir D’Amour, perhaps as a bridge to the third programme which covers Classics from the Stage and the Screen (32). A feature of this programme is the contribution of the choirs

(33) I did not see the stage production of West Side Story, and as with many my introduction to show was through the Film and it was only when looking up Stockyard Channing from the West Wing that I realised she played a key part. Tonight is sung by Jose Carreras.

I also loved the 1960 film Can Can with Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine and Maurice Chevalier. Dame Kiri Kanawa sings (34) I love Paris. I also enjoyed Love Story with Ali Mcgraw and Ryan 0’Neil. Placido Domingo sings (35) Where do I begin. I am confused by the programme notes which appears to indicate that Placido Domingo sings The Second Time although the heading says is Tito Beltrain(36) and is in my view one the great surprises of the whole collection as a passionate show stopping tour de force.

Stranger in Paradise from Kismet, here sung by the Opera Babes was my introduction to Borodin and is sung by the Opera Babes (37). I saw the film when it was released.

A long time favourite of mine is Yesterdays from Roberta with Dame Kiri (38) and Lover come back to me became a jazz standard I think, here with Leslie Garrett and the Romberg and Hammerstein number from New Moon (39). Three Coins in a Fountain is a film from childhood with Love is many Splendid sing played for years on the radio and now sung by Jose Carreras (40), in contrast to the sophisticated Smoke Gets in Your Eyes from Roberto with Dame Kiri (41) Smiling Through has Lesley Garret (42)

Because Your mine is on my Mario Lanza recording and comes from the film of the same title, here sung by Joseph Carreras (43). Lesley Garrett follows with My Blue Heaven from follow the Boys a star studded film for the USA and Britain at War(44). I have not been a great fan of Gilbert and Sullivan although I was taken to performances of the Doyle Carte Opera company on tour as a child and have seen a few stage productions since then. Three Little Maids from School one fo the well known pieces from the Mikado is performed by Leslie Garrett, Joan Rigby and Susan Bullock(45).

Similarly the music of Franz Lehar and his Merry Widow has not been my cup of tea. Lesley Garrett sings Vilja (46). This contrasts with. Climb Every Mountain with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. I saw The Sound of Music with a bevy of Child Care officers when working for Oxfordshire at the city centre cinema and then took my birth and care mothers with their eldest sister to see the film at first opportunity. I acquired the video tape edition as part of some deal I cannot now remember but still watch the film every time it comes on TV, usually at Christmas. I particularly enjoyed the programme made on the lives and reunion of the seven children when they went together in Heidelberg(47).

The Disk ends with I could have Danced all night from My Fair Lady sung by Angela Gheorghiu, I had to book tickets for the central London Cinema performance of the show taking the three aunts. I have seen the film several times since and always enjoy (48).

Programme four is a collection of sentimental songs beginning with of my favourites marking the passing of time, September Song by Kurt Weil and sung by Lesley Garrett.(49)

Irving Berlin’s Always is performed by Kiri Te Kanawa was part of childhood (50)

Noel Coward songs are for the mature of experience and I know him more from his films. Ian Bostridge who is unknown to me performs one of 300 songs written and composed by the master of communicating the life experience of the upper classes(51).

Renée Fleming with Daniel Barenboim shows a side of her work which perhaps explains her popularity in the USA with Ellington’s Do nothing Till you hear from me(52).

In contrast I am familiar with Tenderly, the evening breeze, here sung by Jose Carreras, although the version which I and most people know was that of Nat King Cole, frequently heard on Family Favourites which overtook Forces Favourites at the end of World War II (53).

This is followed by another of my great songs of all time, Cole Porter’s Every Time We Say Goodbye I die a Little, here with Kiri Te Kanawa (54).

You Belong to my hear was sung by Bing Crosby among others from 1945 and is performed by Jose Carreras and the arrangements maintains the original Latin feel(55).

Lesley Garret performs Someone to Watch over me which I believe comes from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess but I may be wrong, the composer who came to international fame through is Rhapsody in Blue in 1924(56).

Another of my top songs is I’ve Got you Under my Skins with Kara Te Kanawa undertaking one of Cole Porters much performed standards and which won an Oscar as the title song of the James Stewart 1936 production (57).

Renée Fleming gives another Ellington Song, Prelude to a Kiss, her special treatment (58)while Ian Bostridge takes on the second Noel Coward song, The Dream is over (59).

Because is another great standard which I know from the Mario Lanza version here sung by Jose Carreras (60) while Lesley Garrett gives her treatment to With a song in my heart from Spring is here (61) Love is guiding star is the creation of opera tenor Richard Tauber and is sung by Placido Domingo (62) Be my Love is another Marion Lanza adopted number which is the work of Sammy Cahn’s and sung by Tito Beltrain (63)

Any Williams made Moon River is own and this version with closes the programme is by Luciano Pavarotti (64). Could the contrast be greater!

The final programme is the most exciting for its range of choices as indicated by its title Grand Moments and begins with O solo Mio, the most well known Italian song and of course sung here by non one else than Pavarotti (65). It was Saturday lunchtime before I was ready to complete the five programmes with a lunch of Chinese style chicken thighs and baked beans followed by dates, grapes and coffee, Asda gas its own brand of firm and juicy dates for £1 tucked away towards the end of an aisle at the end of which there is a display of more well known branded ones in the same size box for £1.50.

Jose Carreras performs the well known La Danza from Siorees Musicales by Rossini (66) and this is followed by Joan Sutherland singing the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor and others at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden(67) and then Dame Joan Baker performs Che Faro Senza Euridice from the opera Orfeo and Euridice by Gluck(68).

Marilyn Horne who was regularly heard on the radio contributes Softly awakes my heart with the Vienna Opera Orchestra from Saint Saens Samson and Delilah (69). Dame Joan Baker then sings Dido’s Lament When I am laid to earth from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (70).

Marcelo Alvarez sings Seul Ser La Terra from Don Sebastien Donizetti (71) and then a song described as exquisite, I am a poor Wayfaring Stranger with Andreas Scholl (72). This leads to Bryn Terfel in Handel’s Where’er You Walk from Semele (73).

Angela Gheorghiu provides Depuis Le Jour from Louis by Carpentier(74) and onto the Choir of New College Oxford with The Blue Bird( 75) and back to Bryn Terfel for the Welsh folk anthem We’ll keep a welcome (76) Another ensemble work is the D’Orly Carte with My Gallant Crew from HMS Pinafore (77) and then Jose Carreras in his final contribution Mattinata the Neapolitan song by Leoncavallo (78) and the final two are La Donna E Mobile with Sir Harry (79) from Verdi’s Rigolett0 and the much loved Kathleen Ferrier Blow the Wind Southerly which was one the great musical memories of my childhood and youth And is thought to have originated in Northumbria (80) WOW indeed and more WOW. Music for concentrated enjoyment.

1790 Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music

Having sorted out and got myself organised I had a good relaxed day on Thursday and this carried over to Friday as having gone to bed around midnight it was after 9 when I rose and 10.30 before I was ready to engage in activity. My inclination is to concentrate on catch up writing activity while paying some attention to Bryan Ferry on the Arts channel with a Roxy Music concert now, the 1982 Frejus concert with numbers such as Drug, Avalon and Dance away. This was Brian 27 years ago, followed just before with Dylanesque. I have seen the Frejus concert before but the Dylanesque I am not sure.

I have seen Bryan perform live twice and the Newcastle City Hall. A local man with aristocratic bearing and quirky mannerisms he hit the social big time and I enjoy a couple of his Long Play Records. I have not seen Dylanesque in which Bryan explains that when he heard Dylan on acoustic guitar while attending art school in Newcastle he decided it was not his kind of music and it was several years before he listened to Dylan on the electric guitar and went back to his original music and included Hard Rain on his first LP as a non political music experience. He then assembled a band and backing singers to create an album of Dylan music from a list of records made after listening to the Dylan catalogue. There was no plan about the order of the recordings on the nature of each recording except to cast the character of the song to suit his voice and musical approach. The third number, I forgot to note the opening to the programmes was Highway 61 revisited, not one of my favourites. Next is All I want to do and my reaction is that this is interesting Ferry, but does not work as Dylanesque, self indulgent and meriting greater thought and preparation. I change my mind a little with Times they are achanging. Gates of Eden followed. Missed the title of another. Watch Tower covered by Hendrix was next, I am not a Hendrix fan. Knocking on Heaven’s Door where I enjoyed the original and his take. As well as Simple Twist of Fate. I then got caught up with payments and accounts and did not note the finale songs before the programme ended.

The music will took priority over the Scotland Australian game which is being shown on BBC 2 in Scotland but which can also be watched on the Internet BBC sports site. I need coffee and then I must pay the credit card and assess finances for the coming months, a task which now means that I will have to say more no than yes or knew purchases do I do not want to do this.

1271 Eric Clapton, the Good Citizen and Lost

The day commenced with hibernation weather although here on the coast it was dark and cold with bursts of sleet which did not become settling snow. Elsewhere there were blizzards with at one point one hundred vehicles, the majority lorries trapped behind a blocked main road, so that the police and local authority services had to reach them, turn them around and take them to places of safety until the roadway could be cleared. The fear was of iced roads as temperatures dropped with the fall of night. This morning some homes in Yorkshire were without electricity and 130 vehicles remained trapped along the A66 route in Durham over the Pennines to Cumbria and Lakeland.
One outcome of staying home, battening down the hatches and keeping warm and well fed is that I was able to commence turning previous work concerning he family history of my mother and factual information available about her life, together with photographs and memorabilia about her 100th birthday into project sets, with more to do over the weekend.
I experienced an interesting play, The Good Citizen part of the UK Drama afternoon series and featuring Hugh Quarshie creating his own environmentally friendly Passport to Pimlico by declaring a piece of earth in the English Country a separate territory in which he opts out from the Government of UK. The play is a vehicle for its author to display his prejudices about how governments and the media operates although the overall way in which any government would respond to such action, especially if it has European Legal precedent, is valid. What the author does not understand is how such an operation would be conducted in practice. In the play the government and the media are too open about their methodology and involvement whereas in real life it is all done at arms length by agents who can never be traced. Another approach is to bury the truth under a plethora of possibilities with the most far fetched deliberately planted in order to discredit everything else raised, including what actually happened. In the final scene of the play a High Court Judge decides that the hero should not be detained in a psychiatric hospital because of a threat to his own life and to others, after his estranged wife has agreed to sign committal papers after being threatened to have her children removed to places of safety and being bribed with a highly paid celebrity photoshoot. The substance of the plot, the motivation of the hero and the issues which the play raises merit greater writing. Any episodes of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister has greater effectiveness in revealing how the Civil Services and Government Ministers have interacted in the past, and one suspects, to this day.
However it was an enjoyable hour in which I was able to also work.
I was initially disappointed that the daily catch up of series three Lost as the penultimate and final double episode of the series were to come with the new series commencing on Sunday. Then I discovered that the missing episodes are to be shown on Saturday between 1 and 4 pm with the Liverpool versus Sunderland game at 5.15 on Satanta. What a great afternoon in prospect. The sum total of series three is to confirm the belief that the island exists as an interactive dream state, a prolonged dimension between life and death in which we confront our sins and gain the opportunity to show remorse and atone or damn ourselves for eternity. I am reminded of films such as What Dreams may come and Vanilla Sky and also Groundhog Day as some individuals appear wedded to repeating bad choices, despite all the knowledge of inevitable outcomes I eat food which I know will put on weight and I put on weight so I eat more of the wrong food.
In the evening I gave my full attention to a programme about the life of Eric Clapton the only individual to be entered into the Music Hall of Fame three times, through the Yardbirds, through Cream and as an individual soloist. Eric is illegitimate, readily admitting to sense of being an outsider throughout his life, regardless of the loving care he was shown in childhood by his grandparents believing his mother was his older sister. She was only 16 when giving birth through a Canadian serviceman eight years her senior, who after the war returned to his homeland. He only discovered the truth after his mother had married a different Canadian and returned home with his half brother and this had an adverse effect on Eric and his schoolwork. As if to try and make up for the deception his grandparents supported his attempts to play the guitar and a marimba which were given on his 13th birthday. He found learning very difficult and nearly gave up but he had a drive which matched his lifelong sadness which is apparent in much of his music
Like many young men of this era we were greatly affected by American Blues music which expressed our deepest feelings, but Clapton took the interest further than anyone, recording tracks on a Grundig tape recorder and listening and attempting to copy. I used to try and do similar on my clarinet in a cupboard in out flat much to horror of the aunties and neighbours. This was during a time when my windows were covered with Anti Apartheid, War on Want and CND posters. I gave up, he did not, he survived only one year at the Kingston School of Art but that year provided him with the freedom and sufficient self confidence to pursue his need to express himself through music and to establish friends and contacts. He commenced to busk around Kingston, Richmond and the West End. He was able to join a rhythm and blues group The Roosters, at the age of 17 years. He then spent two years with the Yardbirds, leaving before their first commercial hit, but having an established a good reputation among fellow musicians. In 1965 Eric Clapton still committed to playing blues music and hostile to adapting for popular and commercial requirements joining the legendry John Mayall and the Blues Breakers.
In 1966 Eric joined musicians of similar ability for the first time in what became one of the first world super groups Cream and where the extending solo and ensemble jamming became its trade mark. It is a feature of the work of Eric Clapton that he became the authentic rolling stone, involved for a short time in the creation of great music and then needing to move on to new work with new people. Clapton performed with Cream for 28 months, during which time Crossroads was created in honour of Robert Johnson's Crossroads, the blues guitarist acclaimed to this day as the greatest, whose records Eric put on his tape recorder and learnt to try and reproduce chord by note. In the late sixties Eric developed a friendship with George Harrison and they co wrote and played together and guested at each other's concerts. Eric organised and was the music director for the tribute concert at the Royal Albert Hall following the death of George in 2001. With Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood there was an attempt to create a second super group which appeared before 100000 people in Hyde Park in 1969 Blind Faith but it was in the early seventies with a new group Derek, Eric mispronounced and the Dominoes that he helped created what has become his best known single recorded and performance work Layla. At this time he had become infatuated with the wife of George Harrison Pattie Boyd, although she rejected his advances at the time. It was during the 1970's that Clapton readily admits that his life became dominated by drugs and alcohol. The Dominos drummer was found to be an undetected schizophrenic, murdered his mother and was confined to a mental institution where he remains today.
Patti Harrison then responded to Eric's interest and they commenced to live together, marrying in 1979, but although he controlled drug misuse he remained dependent on alcohol. Eric has always been a figure of controversy, especially when he support Enoch Powell's call for control over immigration, explaining his reasons as nothing to do with racism but concern over the tendency of the establishment to invite people to come into the country to undertake badly paid jobs which existing citizens do not wish to do because they can live just as well on state benefits and then concentrating in ghetto's to which I would add, denying until recently, full political and social participation to those who wished o do so. Although he worked primarily as a soloist he continued with collaborations with Jeff Beck and the Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International with other interests included the Countryside Alliance and the Tsunami Relief Appeal, and with Phil Collins, and in more recent times Sheryl Crow (my Favourite Mistake-they remain friends). I had watched the final Phil Collins concert on film before the film on Eric Clapton. I have Phil Collins records and saw him in concert at Newcastle City Hall.
While still married to Patti Boyd he had a year long relationship with another and with whom they had a daughter, a relationship which he had kept secret from his wife, paying maintenance, and from the public until the child died in an accident in 1991. His mistress had been the Managing Director of the Sir George Martin and John Burgess recording studio on Montserrat. After the divorce with Patti Boyd, in 1999 aged 54 he met Melia aged 23 while working on an album with BB King and they married in Surrey in 2002 and have three daughters. In 2005 Cream was reformed performing in London and New York. He wrote music for many films and TV shows. Layla was played in the film Goodfellas and Opel used part of the tune in its advertising throughout the 1990's
Eric acquired some of the world's great collection, if not the greatest collection, of guitars. One of these sold at auction achieved $791,599, another $847500 dollars and a third $959,500. He used some $12 million dollars from guitar sales in 1999 and 2004 to create and maintain the Crossroads treatment and rehabilitation centre in the Caribbean. In the film shown last night he talked of retiring from performances for a time but he is now scheduled for performances in New York in February and a Hyde Park concert in the Summer, park of Hard Rock 2008.
Eric never met and knew little of his father and in 1998 wrote a song My Father's Eyes. A Canadian journalist undertook research and eventually tracked down several members of the family and from these discovered that the man had died in 1985 and that he had been a musician, piano and saxophone, and someone who could never settle. Like father, like son.

1766 And all that Jazz

On Thursday 24th July 2009 I watched and listened to Chris Barber and Acker Bilk play live again for the first time in close on fifty years, along with Kenny Ball who I have never seen, although I have one of his records. In order to set the scene for the concert at the 02 Indigo arena in the former Millennium Dome Building I had walked the streets of Soho and along Oxford Street in the morning beforehand and again on Friday. This conjured once more afresh the memories of my years between the ages of 16 and 22 when I regularly attended the 100 club in Oxford Street and the Cy Laurie Club in Great Windmill Street as well as other clubs featuring traditional jazz. The choice of clubs was determined by a work colleague who I would meet up with after work on a Friday or meet up with on a Sunday, as he would going to the local Palais on a Saturday. I was under 18 at first but then I would go on my own a Saturday and sometimes a Monday to the 100.

I had set off mid morning as it rained catching the first available bus which headed in the right direction from a stop approaching Kings Cross Station. More about the changing and ongoing face of Kings Cross and the Houseman’s Book shop and publisher of Peace News in the second piece. The bus struggled against the volume of traffic and road works as it laboured to Warwick Street Station, Regents Park Station and Baker Street Station and the street made famous in the Sherlock Holmes Conan Doyle Stories. The bus then turned into Harley Street, the traditional home of private medical practice in the UK and along the way I had also noted a shop exclusively selling chess and bridge sets and also a private social work agency. Passing Madam Tussauds and the Planetarium where I have only made two visits to Tussauds and one to the Planetarium, several decades ago there were long queues.

The bus then took the route of the coach into London I got off outside of the Selfridges Food Hall. Selfridges is celebrating its 100 years of history and this was the one store where my birth and care mothers and their elder sister would visit on their rare visits to London because the food hall supplied Mediterranean salami. I doubt if there was a food hall as such in those post war days or that it resembled the present collection of specialist eating areas and specialist grocery suppliers. At the cheap level there is a hamburger, pies, sausage and mash bar with prices similar to those on the motorway service areas while at the other extreme half a dozen Oysters with champagne is available at £25 or with caviar around £250. There was one young woman who appeared to know the young man serving and then a second young woman arrived on her own. She appeared to be no more twenty, with only the best grooming and contemporary outfit money could by. I return to see her again after making the rest of the tour around hall has she was sipping from a champagne glass while waiting for the eats to be served. I longed to find out her story why was there?

There was also a Thai food, and a Sushi Bar and hot beef sandwiches. And then there was the seller of salami and olives with 100 grams ranging from £2,50 to £5.99 but it all looked delicious. This delay and going to find the gents in John Lewis meant that I arrived at Humph’s around 12.30 only find that there was the monthly lunch time Trad jazz session underway from 11.30 to 2.30 organised by the Ken Coyer foundation. Had I arrived earlier or did not have the concert in the evening I would have been tempted. Another year I will better organised.

Before reaching Soho I was struck by the number of young women wearing the briefest of shorts and having the whitest of long legs and the number with shaped uplift bras who were exhibiting their assets with confidence. I wondered how many realised that a few hundred years away their dress would have been interpreted differently, even today because the sleazy side of Soho remains although it predominantly remains a place to eat out or drink with a little food. I entered the Soho Square end tried for the second time to remember where the basement coffee car was located and I had cleared tables and checked the sugar containers when doing shifts for a girl to whom I had been introduced by George Clark then unpaid organiser for the London region CND who had warned about drugs. The coffee bar was the home of the New Left and was totalled the 2.is which was located at the other end in Old Crompton Street and where there is a plaque.

There is major works going in and around Soho Square with Dean Street cut off. I went along Dean Street to take a peak at the menu at what used to be Leoni’s Quo Vadis but is now run by the brothers Hart brothers but have developed the complex with includes the traditional street side dining room, with a club and function rooms above and what appeared to be a new bar and terrace through a court yard behind. I was taken to eat there after being invited to talk about my prison experience to a large gathering of gays around 1961/3 and had never eaten in such a fine restaurant before. I went again two decades later to celebrate an event and was prepared for the amount of the final tally. There would be little difficulty in marking up £50 before drink to day. Best though is to have company to share a sea food platter started for £40 followed by a whole roast chicken for £30. There would be no sharing of the chocolate profiteroles at £6.50 and were delicious when enjoyed three decades ago. There is a twelve page wine list and with company I would go for an inexpensive Sancerre with the fish and a Beaujolais with the chicken, champagne with the pudding. Immediately next to Quo Vadis is the oldest Strip show town called the Sunset Strip which used to look seedy from the outside entrance but was very popular because of a comparative small fixed charge gentlemen could be entertained from midday to midnight. Now there is a colourful glitzy bar at the entrance but there is no touting for custom. Before reaching the sordid end I should mention Ken Colyer’s Club in Great Newport Street which I visited only a couple of times as in those days there were Ken Colyer fans and there were Cy Laurie fans. According to one source the Skiffle club was opened on the first floor of the Roundhouse Pub in Wardour Street but the all nighter I attended was at the Skiffle cellar and my recollection is that it was at the basement level one went up for a walkabout Soho at 3 am rather than down. Ronnie Scott open at Gerrard Street in 1959 and is now in Frith Street with the Marquis also in Wardour Street. This led the way to the Piccadilly end and Cy Laurie.

Before then I did take a detour en route to Great Newport Street to close to Cambridge Circus where a whole side street is boarded at ground level as the buildings are being worked for development. Near here are still a couple of restaurants where I have had evening meals in the past along with several others in central Soho. There is also the Stockport, one of two locations in London and which offers two course simple fare for under £7 and are ideal if you want solid food and do not want to pay a premium for ambiance. As I went towards Great Windmill Street I did pass one open door way with a handwritten sign which said welcome and an arrow pointing up the stairs to Models. Until the Street Offences Act of 1959 the girls would parade all around Soho but after that they disappeared up 100 stairways offering models or massage.
Cy Laurie was located in a door in what was Ham Yard in Great Windmill Street and which no longer exists. It was close to the Windmill Theatre where the posing was still life and now boasts 100 young women in an international revue setting but there internet research indicates there are also areas for companies to arrange private night outs or few individual executives to spend their latest bonus. While the milk bar at the Piccadilly end has long gone there is still someone offering hot salt beef sandwiches and where I would sometimes eat what was my evening meal before joining others in the agreed pub of meeting, wondering if the young women were from across the way or literally off the street.

As it started to down pour as I left the Cineworld Trocadero I abandoned continuation of the Soho walkabout for the Underground and invested in a £5.60 zones 1 and 2 ticket. From the Circus I changed at green Park for the Jubilee and made my way two hours earlier than anticipated to the 02 Dome. The station with its two taxis zones and bus station has been completed and there is now a glass canopy walkway to the main entrance where bags and any technology is checked electronically together with a and held survey of the body. However there is continued work to one side of the outside of the Dome and there are major developments in the area between the Dome and the Pier head. I had a good walk around before finding a quiet seat close to the new permanent exhibition of the history of British music from 1945 and includes the Soho jazz scene remembered on my walkabout. Inside the Indigo 02 there was the offer of a £5 discount on the entrance price of £15 for adults and I did considered going there on Friday. Sunday remains a possibility.

The reason for finding a quiet location was eat my spicy chicken wings and juicy cherries. This was early around 5 so I then headed for the Slug and Lettuce where I found myself a window table overlooking the VIP entrance to the Indigo 02 and settled down to write these notes, read some Sons and Lovers and drink Peroni beer. Food and drink for the day had so far cost £11.60 from Marks and Spencer’s St Pancras and some fizzy water, I did not fancy the cherry flavoured still from a machine outside the Cineworld. This increased to £20 with the Peroni which I drank slowly in half pints. The door were opened at 7 and I made my way to a little queue at the public entrance around ten past and was surprised to find a good crowd inside.

The Indigo is bigger than anticipated with the ground level audience in a semi circle around the stage and along soft lit bar at the rear. I did attempt to explore the balcony which was roped off as explained by a burley gentleman who guarded the other stairway to the VIP lounge. My seat was in the last row of the first block of seat from the central aisle and I was able to have the aisle seat after no one showed up. I would say that the lower level was three quarters full and those at the far sides moved into thee spare more central seats at the first interval. The atmosphere is that of a nightclub and eminently suitable for jazz with a first class sound and lighting system. It was a bigger setting that three band have experienced since the late 1950’s.

The three bands performed separately and there was no collective of the three B’s or guest players from former times. It was in effect a commercial launch of the double CD
Boaters, Bowlers and Bowties which is a remix of 40 titles including their big hits and which include half a dozen songs by Ottilie Paterson. Copies were being sold for £15 at the concert although Amazon has then post free £12. There was some signing of copies for this price although I was not sure if all sold on night were included. For some the biggest disappointment was that Chris Barber with his Big Band was that he made no attempt to recapture his early sound except for two spirituals. One problem was the departure of his trumpet player Pat Halcox after fifty years and the early retirement of Ottilie Paterson after she developed throat problems in the late 1970’s.

It is also interesting that in otherwise excellent web site Chris does not mention that he played as part of the Cy Laurie Band in the early 1950’s along with Alan Elsdon and Al Fairweather and that George Melly first performed with the band in 1948 and it has always surprised that he never received recognition or popularity in the way many of the other did despite living and playing until the 1990’s. He died in 2002. There is a query about what happened to him between 1960 and 1968.Geerge became a living legend and I saw him perform with Mick Mulligan at the Great Windmill Street Club Ian Christie and Archie Simple were members of the group. Mick had problems with Alcohol and later managed George. He then retired to run a grocery store and also involved in horse racing where he had some success owning Forever my Lord.

Chris started out as a trombonist with Humphrey Littleton. It has also to be remembered that the original Ken Colyer band was in effect the subsequent Chris Barber with Pat Halcox replacing him. Ken wanted to play as authentic New Orleans style jazz as possible while Chris was interested in developing a more commercial sound. It was Monty Sunshine who had the million record sales with Petite Fleur, He formed his own band around 1960 but attended was what to have been a one off concert in Croydon in 1975 but they went on an international tour in the 1990’s. He retired in 2001 and is now in his 80’s. I was disappointed that he had Ottilie with Pat Halcox did not take a bow on stage. Lonnie Donegan the Banjo guitarist who established Skiffle with a washboard and tea chest base. He became an international artist achieving success in the US market and with a succession of top 30 hits. He died in 2002. My only public performance as a washboard player was the Finance Department annual dinner for Croydon Council in 1958.

Having said that some were disappointed that Chris did not replay his old music I like the sound of the Big Band and his decision to attract some fine younger musicians especially Zoltan Sagi who plays reed instruments, given his own age of 79 those in their forties to sixties are young!

The middle band of the evening was Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz men. He became known for his goatee beard, bowler hat and waistcoat in the middle 1950’s and then had the major hit Stranger on the Shore written for a TV series. Acker has a number of outstanding musicians with him notably Enrico Tomasso who was part of Roxy Music for a time and is generally considered one of the best jazz trumpet players of past forty decades. Strangers on shore with in the UK hit parade for almost a year. At the age of 80 he struggled more than most of his colleagues and it was not clear if the constant checking on what he was to do was an act or he is suffering the early stages of memory loss. He phased his performance with jokes which were OK. Man and his dog lost in the dessert with a supply of water and matches but no food so the begin to eye each other and the dog lost so eventually there was just a pile of bones so man says looking at he bones pity about that as his dog friend of many years liked a good bone. Jazz colleague lives in a small town with a great bakery where there is usually a small queue. Lady comes in and goes to the front and man says excuse me madam do not you realise there is a queue. She says if you were a gentleman you would not object, he says this is a bread queue not a life boat. There were another half dozen of the same standard but expanded. The final band was Kenny Ball who had commercial success with Midnight in Moscow which sold over a million copies and gained popularity in he USA. He is the only British Jazzman to have been made an honorary citizen of New Orleans. He learnt showmanship with Sid Phillips and Eric Delaney bands. One of the present band joined 50 years ago and another forty. His session was the most entertaining and he had the audience singing, standing on their feet and waving their hands at the end with All you need is love.

This brings me to the audience who were mainly grey haired who I spotted as they also came for a drink or perhaps a drink and light meal in the Slug and Lettuce beforehand. There were some young people often with parents grand parents. We also enjoyed jokes about being passed our bedtime, welcome again to a live concert after fifty years and where is the cocoa. I spoke with a couple who wanted to know if an aisle seat across the way was vacant as they husband was very tall around 7ft and his wife just a little shorter, He has only found out the concert after hearing Chris Barber on the radio the previous day and had rushed over to get tickets. When working on the Observer he worked with Wally Fawkes who worked also as a Cartoonist Trog who created Flook. He is now in is mid eights, has been married twice with six children, five who survive. He was a founder member of the Humphrey Littleton band and he also played with George Melly and John Chilton and the Feetwarmers. It was that kind of night. Chris mentioned his tour with Howard McGhee and Sonny Terry and this as occasion when Sandy Brown played When the Saints for about half an hour at the end of the Riverboat Shuffle to Margate and back and we had trouble docking on the return journey. I remember one the two visitors from the USA saying to other up on deck as were about to arrive. It blowing my mind man when the saints.

Meanwhile we all rushed to ensure we got on our way to our destinations in all four corners of London. Managed to catch a Jubilee line to London Bridge Station just before eleven thirty and against there was a train waiting for Kings Cross so I was back just after midnight, well more like 12.30 by the time I had settled in.