AUTUMN CONCERTO

Brian Reynolds reports on the recent London Meeting of the Robert Farnon Society on 28th November 2010

I wondered whether I should head this report 'Winter Wonderland' in view of the bitterly cold weather which much of the country had been experiencing. Certainly our decision to move the dates of our future meetings was well and truly vindicated. Little did we know what was in store for us, weather-wise, in the coming weeks! At least we could look forward to the warm and cosy ambience of the Park Inn. However, we arrived at the hotel to find it completely changed, with warm reds and gold replaced by cold greys and mauve. There was a minimalist feel about the refurbishment which left the hotel looking marginally more welcoming than a morgue!

The elegant opulence of the hotel had certainly given way to "progress" and we even found ourselves in a different room, just until refurbishment is completed.

However, regardless of surroundings, one thing that will never change is the high quality of the music at our gatherings.

To our delight, David Ades, who had been unable to attend the previous two meetings, was back on the top table and proceedings got under way with Robert Farnon's Canadian Caravan played by Leslie Jones and his Orchestra of London, and this was followed by Bob's super march Colditz - very appropriate as the fine drama series for which it was written had recently been rebroadcast. From a 1976 session with Bob, we then heard Lena Horne sing Softly As I Leave You and this was followed by Tear It Up, a piano novelty written by the recently deceased Derek Boulton, under the pen-name of Derek Nelson.

David Ades then handed over to yours truly for my customary "Radio Recollections". As there was a lot to fit in today's programme, I chose three short and lively pieces from yesterday's radio. To open, I played a fast and furious string number, wittily called Bow Jest, by its composer, Eric Jupp and played by pianist, Norman Whiteley and his Sextet. Next, a foot-tapping little opus by the well known conductor Norrie Paramor, Taverna played by Jack Salisbury and his orchestra, who were for many years resident at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill. To conclude, we heard a samba by an old friend of the society, Cyril Watters, entitled Pancho From Peru. This was played by Anton and his orchestra, one of the best of the session music orchestras from the days of the Light Programme. I don't think any of these pieces have been commercially recorded. So many light pieces that were written primarily for radio never found their way on to disc and are now forgotten - a pity, as some are really good.

Next, David played Eddie Fishers' recording My Shining Hour - once again accompanied by Bob. This came from the 1995 sessions that have not, so far, been released.

It was then André Leon's turn to come to the top table - with a feature which he called "Big Screen, Little Screen." He began with the Newsnight theme by George Fenton (real name George Howe). We then heard a recording of the composer explaining how he came to write it. This was followed by the Gandhi closing titles - apparently Fenton collaborated with Ravi Shanka). Next we heard the theme from The Blue Planet and the signature tune from the TV series Shoestring.

Some music by Geoffrey Burgon was then featured. Firstly, the title music from Brideshead Revisited with talkover by Jeremy Irons. This was followed by the Choir of Chichester Cathedral singing Nunc Dimitus, the music from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Our meetings always try to reflect anniversaries and deaths in the months since we last met - and there were really quite a few to consider on this occasion but time is always our enemy and some had to be omitted. However, we could hardly ignore the 100th birthday of Edmundo Ros on the 6th December. So to celebrate this legendary bandleader's centenary we played one of his biggest hits The Coffee Song.

Time now for some new releases, beginning with Strike Up The Band from the RAF Concert Orchestra conducted by Sidney Torch (Guild). Next we heard the Phil Green orchestra playing She's My Lovely believed to feature the trumpet of Kenny Baker. This is from a new Vocalion CD called 'Moments In Mayfair'.

Back to Sidney Torch and the RAF Concert Orchestra for some film music arranged by Len Stevens - the title of which is unknown. We were lucky to have this as it was from a transcription disc discovered by Philip Farlow. Finally, in this section we listened to Philip Lane's London Salute.

This brought us to the end of part one and it was time for some refreshments.

PART TWO

Our special guest for the afternoon was former BBC Producer Anthony Wills and it was decided that the best way to present him was by way of an interview. Robert Habermann was the interviewer and the conversation was punctuated with pieces of music of Anthony's choice.

By way of an introduction we listened to a 1989 performance of I Hear Music played by the BBC Radio Orchestra conducted (appropriately, in view of his recent death) by Neil Richardson. Anthony had considerable dealings with the Radio Orchestra over the years and went on to tell us of the various constituent parts of the orchestra. It was often broken down into smaller ensembles (the Radio Big-Band being the best known), but over the years other combinations such as The Radio Players and other, often short-lived titles such as the Saturday Showband and the Swinging Strings were utilised. The Radio Orchestra was of course formed in 1964 by combining the BBC Variety Orchestra and Revue Orchestra and at its peak had 75 players.

We listened to the Geoff Love Orchestra playing Leslie Julian Jones's Postman's Knock and to Sarah Vaughan singing Robert Farnon's How Beautiful is Night.

Many will associate Anthony Wills with 'Friday Night is Music Night' but during his long career he also produced 'Marching And Waltzing', 'Glamorous Nights' and the John Dunn, Gloria Hunniford, and Brian Matthew shows. His association with 'Listen To The Band' came about when he was approached with the line "You like jazz, don't you - how about producing 'Listen to the Band!' - This was, of course,NOT a jazz show but a feature for brass and military bands. Anthony told us that whilst Charlie Chester presented the show, the script was actually written by Brian Matthew as 'Cheerful Charlie' was not an authority on brass and military bands. He was however, an accomplished composer and a fine artist.

We then listened to Rosemary Squires with the Eric Winstone Orchestra playing Sea Breeze.

Anthony then told us about a music series which he produced, called 'The Golden Days Of Radio' which ran for about six months. He also made documentary programmes on David Whitfield, Michael Holliday, Fred Astaire and Ethel Merman. We then listened to a comedy song from Ronald Frankau.

Anthony told us of his involvement with the BBC's Religious Broadcasting Department, when he produced some editions of 'Songs of Praise'. He also produced a series called 'The World Dances' and we heard a medley of tunes from that series, which included The Charleston, I Wonder Where my Baby is Tonight, Black Bottom, in a recording conducted by Stanley Black. (Perhaps that's why he included Black Bottom!)

Anthony told us of his work with Alan Dell on various shows, including 'Sounds Easy', which he illustrated with the concluding item of a selection from Stella by Starlight, followed by the closing signature tune of the programme. From 'Steve Race Presents...' we heard Salena Jones with Neil Richardson and the Radio Orchestra. Anthony, who also produced 'The David Jacobs Show' concluded his presentation with a selection from 'Oklahoma' featuring the Steven Hill Singers with the BBC Radio Orchestra conducted by Stanley Black.

After the raffle, it was now time for another interval.

PART THREE

The third part of our extravaganza opened with the ever-enthusiastic Paul Barrett giving us a Mantovani tribute. Paul's concerts with the new Mantovani orchestra have had an enthusiastic reaction and we were also pleased to welcome his producer, Franck Leprince (who was in the audience.) With the aid of video, Paul played us excerpts from the third concert, which included The Count of Luxembourg Waltz, Delilah and Around the World (featuring the trumpet of Mike Lovett).

Next to come to the top table was an old friend of the Society, Tony Foster, whose theme today was the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Tony commenced with Spitfire Prelude (Walton) played by the Central Band of the Royal Air Force conducted by Barry Hingley, their Director of Music who, I think, held the rank of Wing Commander at the time. This was followed by Ron Goodwin's Luftwaffe March (sometimes known as Aces High) and lastly the Battle of Britain Theme (Goodwin) - the end title music.

David Ades then played the final section of a fourteen minute work by David Rose - Le Papillon. This was one of Rose's last compositions.

To conclude, in more serious style, David played us Robert Farnon's American Wind Symphony (The Gaels) conducted by Dr. Stanley Saunders.

That brought to an end a very full programme (so full that we had to leave many scheduled pieces of music out). Earlier in the programme, David read apologies for absences from David Farnon, Peter and Ellen Burt, Peter and Silvia Rix and conveyed the good wishes of Alan Bunting in Scotland (wouldn't it be nice if he could come and talk to us one day?). It just remained for David to thank everybody who taken part and we went on our way to Bob's Melody Fair.

This report first appeared in ‘Journal Into Melody’ issue 187, March 2011.

REMEMBERING THE MUSIC OF ANGELA MORLEY
The Robert Farnon Society London Meeting Sunday 29th November 2009
by Brian Reynolds

Once again the months had rolled by and it was time for our 'Autumnfest' featuring the best in light and popular music, with the emphasis this time being on the music of Angela Morley (Wally Stott) who had passed away early in the year.

As there was a lot of music to get in, we started a few minutes early and the audience took their seats to the accompaniment of the BBC Radio Orchestra conducted by Iain Sutherland, playing a selection of Irving Berlin melodies arranged by Robert Farnon.

It was then time for Albert Killman to welcome everyone to the meeting. One thing that was immediately noticeable was the absence of David Ades, who was in bed with the lurgi (not that it any of our business who he goes to bed with!) To be serious though, David had a chest infection and had been ordered by his doctor not to travel. I am sure that he was most disappointed to miss his first meeting in 45 years - some record! Let's hope that he is now fully recovered and will be his usual sparkling self at the next meeting.

We were then treated to a DVD of the opening overture from John Wilson's magnificent and highly successful Promenade Concert featuring the MGM musicals. After this Robert Farnon (in a Canadian interview) introduced 'Scherzando for Trumpet and Orchestra' played by the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra, conducted by Eric Wilde.

It was now time for my regular Radio Recollections spot. I had been asked to play something by Steve Race, by way of a tribute to this artist who had died earlier in the year. I chose 'Nicola' which Steve had written in honour of his newly-born daughter and which was probably his best known composition. It was played by Michael Freedman and his orchestra and featured the two pianos of Edward Rubach and Robert Docker. To continue, I played a very exciting paso doble by pianist Albert Marland entitled ‘Bandarilla’, performed by Harold C.Gee and his Maritza Players. Harold C. Gee is largely forgotten today but he had a thirty year career of regular broadcasting and was part of the fabric of the old Light Programme. He died in 1973. Next I played two consecutive pieces from a 'Music While You Work' by Ralph Elman and his Bohemian Players - Ralph was the nephew of the well-known classical violinist Misha Elman. The two pieces were 'Miss Melanie' by Ronald Binge and 'Silly Billy' by Norrie Paramor who, in his last years, conducted the BBC Midland Radio Orchestra. To conclude my section of the programme I played an exciting piece by Yvoire entitled ‘Cresta Run’ featuring the BBC West of England Light Orchestra under their conductor Frank Cantell.

We then heard a piece called 'Estate', pronounced 'Eshtaty' - meaning 'Summer' - arranged by Robert Farnon and played by the BBC Concert Orchestra, with featured trombonist Gordon Campbell. At this point, Daniel Smith, featured soloist in Bob's Concerto for Bassoon, talked to us and played a recording of his performance of Break out Blues by George Shearing.

A Farnon original was next – ‘Manhattan Playboy’ played with great panache by Rawicz and Landauer with orchestral accompaniment under the direction of the composer.

Paul Barrett was then invited to the stage to talk about his third Mantovani Concert Spectacular, which will take place in the Spring.

To conclude the first part of the programme, and perhaps give us a taste of what was to come in the second part of the show, Albert played us a Wally Stott arrangement of ‘Oranges and Lemons’ played by the Wally Stott orchestra.

PART TWO

Suitably refreshed, we returned to our seats to the strains of ‘Angel Cake’ by Wally Stott. The tribute to Wally/Angela began with Albert reading out an appreciative letter from Angela's partner, Christine. This was followed (on DVD,) by an excerpt from John Wilson's televised 'Friday Night is Music Night' of a few years back, in which he played 'A Canadian in Mayfair' - written by Angela Morley as a tribute to Robert Farnon. It was, of course, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra with an introduction from Roy Hudd.

Phil Farlow then took the stage to talk about the early career of Wally Stott and played excerpts from 'Tip Top Tunes' with Geraldo and his orchestra, featuring Dick James, The Geraldtones and Carole Carr, who sang ‘All Alone’. Wally Stott was, in fact, a member of Geraldo's orchestra, which then played the Stott arrangement of 'Adios'. We then saw (on DVD) some archival film of Angela Morley speaking at our past meetings and this was followed by excerpts from the films 'The Slipper and the Rose’ and 'Watership Down' featuring Angela's score for these films. We continued with the themes from 'Hancock's Half Hour' and 'The Goon Show'.

It was now the turn of harpist/pianist/conductor David Snell to take the stage and tell us of his association with Angela Morley. He then played us the end titles from ‘Captain Nemo and the Underwater City’, in which he had participated, but not underwater!

Albert then introduced ‘County Fair' featuring Mel Torme with the Wally Stott orchestra.

It is always a pleasure to welcome the ever-youthful Rosemary Squires to our meetings. She presented some recordings which she had made with Wally/Angela. First we heard ‘Junior and Julie’ which was followed by ‘Thou Swell’ and an Angela Morley arrangement of ‘All Too Soon’ which featured Kenny Baker (flugelhorn) and Keith Bird (saxophone). Rosemary then played us Angela's Reverie for piano and violin and concluded with a selection of Christmas Waltzes (arranged Morley).

It was now time for the second interval, and we went to our refreshments to the accompaniment of the John Wilson Orchestra playing Wally Stott's ‘Snow Ride’.

PART THREE

We returned to our seats to the accompaniment of Robert Farnon playing ‘Get me to the Church on Time’.

It was then back to the big screen to watch a DVD of an interview with Bob Farnon - the interviewer being Bernard Braden.

This turned out to be very illuminating as Bob pulled no punches when it came to expressing his opinion as to what he thought of modern pop and its perpetrators! This was followed by a recording of Alan Dell talking to George Shearing and Angela Christian, who then performed Bob's ‘How Beautiful is Night’.

André Leon then came to the stage to report on the latest situation with UK Light Radio, which has been off the air for some months. André is, however, hopeful that further test transmissions will start early in the new year, and outlined the proposed format. We then heard a part of the ‘Miss Marple Theme’ (which will be the background theme to various trailers) and Leroy Anderson's ‘Sleigh Ride’ which will be the conclusion to a presentation by David Ades, scheduled to be broadcast in 2010.

Albert Killman then gave a tribute to Malcolm Laycock, an old friend of the Society, who had recently passed away. It will be recalled that, upon Alan Dell's death, Malcolm took over his dance band programme and had been presenting it since1995. There was quite an outcry a year ago when the BBC in its infinite wisdom (or lack of it) decreed that the vintage British dance bands should no longer be featured in the programme. This, together with other differences with the BBC led to Malcolm's resignation in July 2009. To conclude his tribute to this respected broadcaster, Albert played the final part of one of his shows, which ended with ‘Just One of those Things’.

At the request of Norman Grant, Albert played ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ featuring Tony Bennett with the Robert Farnon Orchestra after which he thanked everybody who had contributed to the show. It goes without saying that Albert did a first rate job of presenting the afternoon's programme, but I know that a few people felt that it wasn't quite the same without David, whose presence we look forward to on the 28th March, when our special guest will be pianist and organist Iain Kerr.

WALLY STOTT – THE "TIP-TOP TUNES" YEARS

BY Philip Farlow

When it was decided to dedicate part of the November 2009 Robert Farnon Society meeting to the work of Angela Morley, I swiftly communicated a wish of mine that the very important formative years playing and arranging for Geraldo’s orchestra should be included in a special ‘cameo’ presentation. The vehicle for this early work was a BBC programme called Tip-Top Tunes and the idea here would be to illustrate briefly all the main elements of a typical programme with a particular focus on the early arranging skills of Wally Stott, later Angela Morley.

Back in May 2009 David Ades had fully supported the idea which was duly accepted by the London Meeting Committee allowing me to set to work on a presentation that I’d suggested to do at least minimum justice to the subject would be no less than ten but not more than fifteen minutes long.

Such often necessary constrictions certainly focuses one on what you really want to say and play and so on and off, over the next few months, I set to with a small but rare selection of broadcast material working out just how the dickens I was going to fit everything into my allotted slot.

Over the years my various presentation experiences with such projects has hopefully taught me the important patterns of how to start, how to finish and how to create and maintain narrated and musical contrast and interest in between.

More recently I discussed with David Ades the fact that perhaps many including worldwide members not able to attend last November’s meeting may be interested in a more detailed description of the final result. So here are my ‘almost verbatim’ notes interspersed with detail of music used and its source.

I started by explaining that as ... (P.F.): "Walter or Wally Stott was the name by which Angela Morley was known until the early 1970’s – and as certainly during the mid 1940’s period I’m dealing with here, to keep things chronologically correct I’d like to refer to that name during my presentation.

"Bandleader Geraldo’s BBC Radio series ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ started in 1946 and quickly caught on, not only as a ‘must listen’ for the general public, but its very high standard of musicianship ensured a good audience by the dance band and light music profession as well.

"It’s interesting to note that ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ filled the spot previously occupied by Bob Farnon’s Canadian Army Radio orchestra’s series ‘Soldier Serenade’. There were certain similarities in the two programmes’ style as well, which were juggled, modified and added to, to become this new cocktail of the best in the widest sense of popular music entertainment of the period, as presented by this big concert sized orchestra of Geraldo’s.

"The ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ signature tune was written by Wally Stott. How it developed to be used is unclear – but what is very evident is that Wally delivered just exactly what was required.

"To set the mood, here’s an example of a programme opening sequence from 1947".

Cue Insert: BBC Light programme identification ‘Oranges and Lemons’ (Charles Smart – Novachord & Celeste) into continuity announcement (Jean Metcalfe) into ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ theme and part voiced over announcement by Peter King.

I then went on to explain (P.F.): "And now some brief examples of the kind of things heard in a typical ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ programme. "There were ballads by solo singers, a vocal group, there was small group swing, the big band with and without strings and of course the tour-de-force of the whole large concert orchestra. This is the musical climate in which Wally Stott was working at the time, (Cue music under) and it was in fact as far as I can see, his first foray into string writing. "Amongst the singers handling the ballads in the early ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ series were Archie Lewis, Sally Douglas, Denny Vaughan (recently Bob’s of course) – and here in a ‘Songs with Strings’ spot, Carole Carr. Fade up music: ‘Blue Bayou’ – Carole Carr and strings

This was the start of a five minute carefully constructed, timed and edited music sequence which I voiced over explaining all the various elements of the ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ programme that I had chosen. Carole Carr was followed by (P.F.): "... and another singer with the whole orchestra here, Dick James" Fade up music: ‘Along the Navajo Trail’. Then (P.F.): "there was always a vocal spot by Gerry’s resident vocal group, the Geraldtones" Fade up music: ‘Little Jack Frost get lost’ followed by (P.F.): "and how about this for a lineup during a little quite boppish jazz spot" Faded up Peter King announcement & music: ‘Get Happy’ played by ‘The Tip Toppers’ (King’s announcement, ‘..swing arranged for small combination..’) demonstrating the very high standard of personnel within only a part of Geraldo’s Tip-Top Tunes orchestra namely Freddy Clayton – trumpet, Dougie Robinson – clarinet, Keith Bird – tenor sax, Laddie Busby – trombone, Jack Collier – double bass, Denny Vaughan – piano, Ivor Mairants – guitar and Eric Delaney – drums. Finally during this sequence I explained that (P.F.): "... a spot called ‘Swingtime’ presented the big band, sometimes without strings – and sometimes like here – with" Fade up music: ‘Cherokee’. (Ending the five minute voiced over sequence).

(P.F): "The backbone to this wonderful musical aggregation was of course some very talented arranging skills – and in the early days of Geraldo’s ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ programme Bob Farnon was amongst these – together with a young man – still in his early twenties also occupying a place in Geraldo’s sax section – and that was Wally Stott. And like Bob Farnon, and listening to Bob’s arranging skills at work, Wally was developing a very quick ear as to exactly what to deliver in both big band – and now in string writing – because there’s no doubt about it that Wally’s arranging work within Geraldo’s ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ series shone like a very bright beacon – and particularly within those many exotic production type arrangements of which one was included in nearly every programme. Things like ‘Cherry Ripe’, ‘Oranges and lemons’, ‘April in Paris’, ‘The Kerry Dance’, ‘The March of the Toys’ and in this archive broadcast piece, Wally’s work reached perhaps an all-time high" Cue faded up Peter King announcement & music: ‘Adios’ arranged by Wally Stott for the full orchestra and vocal group, the Geraldtones, followed by (an only example from an earlier programme), a ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ programme close sequence part voiced over by the programme’s original producer and presenter David Miller.

So ended my presentation at last November’s R.F.S. special Angela Morley meeting. In the course of researching for it I noted, though didn’t mention the fact that apart from Wally Stott and Bob Farnon, over the years a whole host of arrangers were used throughout the ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ series including Alyn Ainsworth, Eric Jupp, Roland Shaw and Bob Sharples. ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ ran into the 1950s but became shorter and more infrequent as the decade wore on.

Further notes: Having had access to some of the surviving original radio excerpts of the ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ series (see below) it was interesting to note how a typical programme included carefully ‘written in’ linking modulations by (say) harp, celeste, or even the whole or parts of the orchestra to accompany equally carefully timed announcements for changes of programme tempo, mood and key. Hearing some of these often intricate and quite beautiful ‘compositions in miniature’ certainly indicates the presence of both Wally’s and Bob’s additional work on certainly the parts of the series heard.

On a technical note the sources used for the archive links were either directly or indirectly from a combination of Geraldo’s own circa 1946 to 1948 original off-air acetates some of which had been poorly used in the mid 1970’s Pickwick 2-LP set ‘Hits of the naughty Forties’. In the course of carrying out later work for Manja Geraldo-Leigh’s Family I was, with permission, able to retain some elements of that which I had worked on. Although the company that ‘cut’ these for Geraldo (Gui de Buire, New Bond Street, London) was capable of producing excellent ‘balanced landline’ quality, a combination of speed variations between sides or sets of sides and other non ideal local conditions meant that the received sound often needed tidying up in various ways. I carried out some minimal work on the versions used at the November meeting and felt it paid off producing an overall smooth technical end result. Geraldo archive: It is thought that Geraldo’s unique collection of surviving radio reference recordings is held by the Royal College of Music. An equally unique collection of original music scores and band parts are certainly known to be deposited at the R.C.M. and have been actively drawn on by John Wilson for specialised broadcast, recording and other performance occasions.

Editor: some of Wally Stott’s arrangements for Geraldo’s "Tip Top Tunes" Orchestra were recorded by Parlophone, and the following have been reissued on Guild Light Music CDs:

The Kerry Dance GLCD5162 Of The Toys GLCD5124

REMEMBERING THE MUSIC OF ANGELA MORLEY
The Robert Farnon Society London Meeting Sunday 29th November 2009
by Brian Reynolds

Once again the months had rolled by and it was time for our 'Autumnfest' featuring the best in light and popular music, with the emphasis this time being on the music of Angela Morley (Wally Stott) who had passed away early in the year.

As there was a lot of music to get in, we started a few minutes early and the audience took their seats to the accompaniment of the BBC Radio Orchestra conducted by Iain Sutherland, playing a selection of Irving Berlin melodies arranged by Robert Farnon.

It was then time for Albert Killman to welcome everyone to the meeting. One thing that was immediately noticeable was the absence of David Ades, who was in bed with the lurgi (not that it any of our business who he goes to bed with!) To be serious though, David had a chest infection and had been ordered by his doctor not to travel. I am sure that he was most disappointed to miss his first meeting in 45 years - some record! Let's hope that he is now fully recovered and will be his usual sparkling self at the next meeting.

We were then treated to a DVD of the opening overture from John Wilson's magnificent and highly successful Promenade Concert featuring the MGM musicals. After this Robert Farnon (in a Canadian interview) introduced 'Scherzando for Trumpet and Orchestra' played by the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra, conducted by Eric Wilde.

It was now time for my regular Radio Recollections spot. I had been asked to play something by Steve Race, by way of a tribute to this artist who had died earlier in the year. I chose 'Nicola' which Steve had written in honour of his newly-born daughter and which was probably his best known composition. It was played by Michael Freedman and his orchestra and featured the two pianos of Edward Rubach and Robert Docker. To continue, I played a very exciting paso doble by pianist Albert Marland entitled ‘Bandarilla’, performed by Harold C.Gee and his Maritza Players. Harold C. Gee is largely forgotten today but he had a thirty year career of regular broadcasting and was part of the fabric of the old Light Programme. He died in 1973. Next I played two consecutive pieces from a 'Music While You Work' by Ralph Elman and his Bohemian Players - Ralph was the nephew of the well-known classical violinist Misha Elman. The two pieces were 'Miss Melanie' by Ronald Binge and 'Silly Billy' by Norrie Paramor who, in his last years, conducted the BBC Midland Radio Orchestra. To conclude my section of the programme I played an exciting piece by Yvoire entitled ‘Cresta Run’ featuring the BBC West of England Light Orchestra under their conductor Frank Cantell.

We then heard a piece called 'Estate', pronounced 'Eshtaty' - meaning 'Summer' - arranged by Robert Farnon and played by the BBC Concert Orchestra, with featured trombonist Gordon Campbell. At this point, Daniel Smith, featured soloist in Bob's Concerto for Bassoon, talked to us and played a recording of his performance of Break out Blues by George Shearing.

A Farnon original was next – ‘Manhattan Playboy’ played with great panache by Rawicz and Landauer with orchestral accompaniment under the direction of the composer.

Paul Barrett was then invited to the stage to talk about his third Mantovani Concert Spectacular, which will take place in the Spring.

To conclude the first part of the programme, and perhaps give us a taste of what was to come in the second part of the show, Albert played us a Wally Stott arrangement of ‘Oranges and Lemons’ played by the Wally Stott orchestra.

PART TWO

Suitably refreshed, we returned to our seats to the strains of ‘Angel Cake’ by Wally Stott. The tribute to Wally/Angela began with Albert reading out an appreciative letter from Angela's partner, Christine. This was followed (on DVD,) by an excerpt from John Wilson's televised 'Friday Night is Music Night' of a few years back, in which he played 'A Canadian in Mayfair' - written by Angela Morley as a tribute to Robert Farnon. It was, of course, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra with an introduction from Roy Hudd.

Phil Farlow then took the stage to talk about the early career of Wally Stott and played excerpts from 'Tip Top Tunes' with Geraldo and his orchestra, featuring Dick James, The Geraldtones and Carole Carr, who sang ‘All Alone’. Wally Stott was, in fact, a member of Geraldo's orchestra, which then played the Stott arrangement of 'Adios'. We then saw (on DVD) some archival film of Angela Morley speaking at our past meetings and this was followed by excerpts from the films 'The Slipper and the Rose’ and 'Watership Down' featuring Angela's score for these films. We continued with the themes from 'Hancock's Half Hour' and 'The Goon Show'.

It was now the turn of harpist/pianist/conductor David Snell to take the stage and tell us of his association with Angela Morley. He then played us the end titles from ‘Captain Nemo and the Underwater City’, in which he had participated, but not underwater!

Albert then introduced ‘County Fair' featuring Mel Torme with the Wally Stott orchestra.

It is always a pleasure to welcome the ever-youthful Rosemary Squires to our meetings. She presented some recordings which she had made with Wally/Angela. First we heard ‘Junior and Julie’ which was followed by ‘Thou Swell’ and an Angela Morley arrangement of ‘All Too Soon’ which featured Kenny Baker (flugelhorn) and Keith Bird (saxophone). Rosemary then played us Angela's Reverie for piano and violin and concluded with a selection of Christmas Waltzes (arranged Morley).

It was now time for the second interval, and we went to our refreshments to the accompaniment of the John Wilson Orchestra playing Wally Stott's ‘Snow Ride’.

PART THREE

We returned to our seats to the accompaniment of Robert Farnon playing ‘Get me to the Church on Time’.

It was then back to the big screen to watch a DVD of an interview with Bob Farnon - the interviewer being Bernard Braden.

This turned out to be very illuminating as Bob pulled no punches when it came to expressing his opinion as to what he thought of modern pop and its perpetrators! This was followed by a recording of Alan Dell talking to George Shearing and Angela Christian, who then performed Bob's ‘How Beautiful is Night’.

André Leon then came to the stage to report on the latest situation with UK Light Radio, which has been off the air for some months. André is, however, hopeful that further test transmissions will start early in the new year, and outlined the proposed format. We then heard a part of the ‘Miss Marple Theme’ (which will be the background theme to various trailers) and Leroy Anderson's ‘Sleigh Ride’ which will be the conclusion to a presentation by David Ades, scheduled to be broadcast in 2010.

Albert Killman then gave a tribute to Malcolm Laycock, an old friend of the Society, who had recently passed away. It will be recalled that, upon Alan Dell's death, Malcolm took over his dance band programme and had been presenting it since1995. There was quite an outcry a year ago when the BBC in its infinite wisdom (or lack of it) decreed that the vintage British dance bands should no longer be featured in the programme. This, together with other differences with the BBC led to Malcolm's resignation in July 2009. To conclude his tribute to this respected broadcaster, Albert played the final part of one of his shows, which ended with ‘Just One of those Things’.

At the request of Norman Grant, Albert played ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ featuring Tony Bennett with the Robert Farnon Orchestra after which he thanked everybody who had contributed to the show. It goes without saying that Albert did a first rate job of presenting the afternoon's programme, but I know that a few people felt that it wasn't quite the same without David, whose presence we look forward to on the 28th March, when our special guest will be pianist and organist Iain Kerr.

WALLY STOTT – THE "TIP-TOP TUNES" YEARS

BY Philip Farlow

When it was decided to dedicate part of the November 2009 Robert Farnon Society meeting to the work of Angela Morley, I swiftly communicated a wish of mine that the very important formative years playing and arranging for Geraldo’s orchestra should be included in a special ‘cameo’ presentation. The vehicle for this early work was a BBC programme called Tip-Top Tunes and the idea here would be to illustrate briefly all the main elements of a typical programme with a particular focus on the early arranging skills of Wally Stott, later Angela Morley.

Back in May 2009 David Ades had fully supported the idea which was duly accepted by the London Meeting Committee allowing me to set to work on a presentation that I’d suggested to do at least minimum justice to the subject would be no less than ten but not more than fifteen minutes long.

Such often necessary constrictions certainly focuses one on what you really want to say and play and so on and off, over the next few months, I set to with a small but rare selection of broadcast material working out just how the dickens I was going to fit everything into my allotted slot.

Over the years my various presentation experiences with such projects has hopefully taught me the important patterns of how to start, how to finish and how to create and maintain narrated and musical contrast and interest in between.

More recently I discussed with David Ades the fact that perhaps many including worldwide members not able to attend last November’s meeting may be interested in a more detailed description of the final result. So here are my ‘almost verbatim’ notes interspersed with detail of music used and its source.

I started by explaining that as ... (P.F.): "Walter or Wally Stott was the name by which Angela Morley was known until the early 1970’s – and as certainly during the mid 1940’s period I’m dealing with here, to keep things chronologically correct I’d like to refer to that name during my presentation.

"Bandleader Geraldo’s BBC Radio series ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ started in 1946 and quickly caught on, not only as a ‘must listen’ for the general public, but its very high standard of musicianship ensured a good audience by the dance band and light music profession as well.

"It’s interesting to note that ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ filled the spot previously occupied by Bob Farnon’s Canadian Army Radio orchestra’s series ‘Soldier Serenade’. There were certain similarities in the two programmes’ style as well, which were juggled, modified and added to, to become this new cocktail of the best in the widest sense of popular music entertainment of the period, as presented by this big concert sized orchestra of Geraldo’s.

"The ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ signature tune was written by Wally Stott. How it developed to be used is unclear – but what is very evident is that Wally delivered just exactly what was required.

"To set the mood, here’s an example of a programme opening sequence from 1947".

Cue Insert: BBC Light programme identification ‘Oranges and Lemons’ (Charles Smart – Novachord & Celeste) into continuity announcement (Jean Metcalfe) into ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ theme and part voiced over announcement by Peter King.

I then went on to explain (P.F.): "And now some brief examples of the kind of things heard in a typical ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ programme. "There were ballads by solo singers, a vocal group, there was small group swing, the big band with and without strings and of course the tour-de-force of the whole large concert orchestra. This is the musical climate in which Wally Stott was working at the time, (Cue music under) and it was in fact as far as I can see, his first foray into string writing. "Amongst the singers handling the ballads in the early ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ series were Archie Lewis, Sally Douglas, Denny Vaughan (recently Bob’s of course) – and here in a ‘Songs with Strings’ spot, Carole Carr. Fade up music: ‘Blue Bayou’ – Carole Carr and strings

This was the start of a five minute carefully constructed, timed and edited music sequence which I voiced over explaining all the various elements of the ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ programme that I had chosen. Carole Carr was followed by (P.F.): "... and another singer with the whole orchestra here, Dick James" Fade up music: ‘Along the Navajo Trail’. Then (P.F.): "there was always a vocal spot by Gerry’s resident vocal group, the Geraldtones" Fade up music: ‘Little Jack Frost get lost’ followed by (P.F.): "and how about this for a lineup during a little quite boppish jazz spot" Faded up Peter King announcement & music: ‘Get Happy’ played by ‘The Tip Toppers’ (King’s announcement, ‘..swing arranged for small combination..’) demonstrating the very high standard of personnel within only a part of Geraldo’s Tip-Top Tunes orchestra namely Freddy Clayton – trumpet, Dougie Robinson – clarinet, Keith Bird – tenor sax, Laddie Busby – trombone, Jack Collier – double bass, Denny Vaughan – piano, Ivor Mairants – guitar and Eric Delaney – drums. Finally during this sequence I explained that (P.F.): "... a spot called ‘Swingtime’ presented the big band, sometimes without strings – and sometimes like here – with" Fade up music: ‘Cherokee’. (Ending the five minute voiced over sequence).

(P.F): "The backbone to this wonderful musical aggregation was of course some very talented arranging skills – and in the early days of Geraldo’s ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ programme Bob Farnon was amongst these – together with a young man – still in his early twenties also occupying a place in Geraldo’s sax section – and that was Wally Stott. And like Bob Farnon, and listening to Bob’s arranging skills at work, Wally was developing a very quick ear as to exactly what to deliver in both big band – and now in string writing – because there’s no doubt about it that Wally’s arranging work within Geraldo’s ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ series shone like a very bright beacon – and particularly within those many exotic production type arrangements of which one was included in nearly every programme. Things like ‘Cherry Ripe’, ‘Oranges and lemons’, ‘April in Paris’, ‘The Kerry Dance’, ‘The March of the Toys’ and in this archive broadcast piece, Wally’s work reached perhaps an all-time high" Cue faded up Peter King announcement & music: ‘Adios’ arranged by Wally Stott for the full orchestra and vocal group, the Geraldtones, followed by (an only example from an earlier programme), a ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ programme close sequence part voiced over by the programme’s original producer and presenter David Miller.

So ended my presentation at last November’s R.F.S. special Angela Morley meeting. In the course of researching for it I noted, though didn’t mention the fact that apart from Wally Stott and Bob Farnon, over the years a whole host of arrangers were used throughout the ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ series including Alyn Ainsworth, Eric Jupp, Roland Shaw and Bob Sharples. ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ ran into the 1950s but became shorter and more infrequent as the decade wore on.

Further notes: Having had access to some of the surviving original radio excerpts of the ‘Tip-Top Tunes’ series (see below) it was interesting to note how a typical programme included carefully ‘written in’ linking modulations by (say) harp, celeste, or even the whole or parts of the orchestra to accompany equally carefully timed announcements for changes of programme tempo, mood and key. Hearing some of these often intricate and quite beautiful ‘compositions in miniature’ certainly indicates the presence of both Wally’s and Bob’s additional work on certainly the parts of the series heard.

On a technical note the sources used for the archive links were either directly or indirectly from a combination of Geraldo’s own circa 1946 to 1948 original off-air acetates some of which had been poorly used in the mid 1970’s Pickwick 2-LP set ‘Hits of the naughty Forties’. In the course of carrying out later work for Manja Geraldo-Leigh’s Family I was, with permission, able to retain some elements of that which I had worked on. Although the company that ‘cut’ these for Geraldo (Gui de Buire, New Bond Street, London) was capable of producing excellent ‘balanced landline’ quality, a combination of speed variations between sides or sets of sides and other non ideal local conditions meant that the received sound often needed tidying up in various ways. I carried out some minimal work on the versions used at the November meeting and felt it paid off producing an overall smooth technical end result. Geraldo archive: It is thought that Geraldo’s unique collection of surviving radio reference recordings is held by the Royal College of Music. An equally unique collection of original music scores and band parts are certainly known to be deposited at the R.C.M. and have been actively drawn on by John Wilson for specialised broadcast, recording and other performance occasions.

Editor: some of Wally Stott’s arrangements for Geraldo’s "Tip Top Tunes" Orchestra were recorded by Parlophone, and the following have been reissued on Guild Light Music CDs:

The Kerry Dance GLCD5162 Of The Toys GLCD5124

SPRING TONIC
Meeting of the Robert Farnon Society
at the Park Inn, London on the 5^th April 2009
reported by BRIAN REYNOLDS

It was a beautiful, sunny Spring day in London - too good to be sitting indoors listening to music - but that is what a hundred or so people chose to do. After all, this was the Robert Farnon Society meeting, an all too infrequent opportunity in this day and age to hear some quality music in the lighter vein!

We took our seats to the accompaniment of some Robert Farnon pieces; then,at 2.00pm. David Ades welcomed the congregation and played I feel a song coming on - sung by Edmund Hockridge accompanied by the BBC Radio Orchestra conducted by Robert Farnon. This served as a tribute to Edmund, a vice-president of the RFS from its inception, who died on March 15th, aged 89.

We then heard the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bob, playing his own composition A Promise of Spring.

It is the intention of the Society to do a full tribute to the late Angela Morley, who died in January, during our November meeting but in the meantime it was felt appropriate to do a short tribute to someone who, like Edmund Hockridge, had been a vice-president of the RFS. The tribute commenced with Noel Coward's famous London Pride from the Wally Stott Orchestra. This was followed by Leonard Bernstein's LonelyTown, arranged by Angela Morley and played by the John Wilson Orchestra. As members are aware, Angela's original fame was as Wally Stott and it was under this identity that our next recording was made - Cole Porter's I’ve got you under my skin - featuring the golden voice of another friend of the Society, Rosemary Squires. We concluded this short tribute to Angela Morley with her own composition Reverie played by Gavin Sutherland and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia - a private recording.

Tony Osborne (1922-2009) was the subject of our next tribute and we listened to one of his many catchy compositions Lights of Lisbon featuring Tony Osborne and his Dancing Strings. It does seem that we have lost rather too many of our favourite artists in recent months and we had one more tribute to include - bandleader Vic Lewis (1919-2009) who died on 9th February. For this we featured Vic Lewis conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Robert Farnon's composition Mauve (originally entitled Irina).

In our meetings we always make a point of remembering anniversaries, and Clive Richardson (1909-1998) was born one hundred years ago on 23rd June 2009. Clive, who was a member of the RFS for many years and who came to our meetings, was known as one of the finest composers of light music in the twentieth century as well as being an accomplished pianist - remember 'Four Hands In Harmony' with Tony Lowry? We listened to an excerpt from his London Fantasia in which Clive is featured at the piano with Charles Williams and his Concert Orchestra (from a Guild CD "Hall Of Fame Volume 1" GLCD5120).

George Melachrino (1909-1965) was born one hundred years ago on 1st.May 1909. He was a wartime colleague of Bob and they sometimes arranged each other’s compositions. In return for arranging Winter Sunshine, George arranged Bob's My Song of Spring, otherwise known as The Sophistication Waltz to which we then listened, in a performance by the Melachrino Orchestra on HMV.

At this point, David introduced our special guests for the afternoon, Marjorie Cullerne (great-niece of Haydn Wood) and Gilles Gouset who had both come over from Canada to present the Haydn Wood extravaganza that was to occupy the second and third sections of our meeting. Giving us a taste of what was to come, David then played Haydn Wood's Soliloquy in a recording by the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra conducted by Robert Farnon (from the Guild CD of Haydn Wood's music GLCD5121)

Next we heard Sleepy Time Girl from Singers Unlimited accompanied by Robert Farnon and featuring the trumpet of Kenny Baker. This was followed by some 'parish notices' in which attention was drawn to forthcoming concerts by the Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra, The Ladies' Palm Court Orchestra and the Light Music Society's annual concert, held this year in Cheltenham on the August Bank Holiday.

2009 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Billy Mayerl, one of the finest light music pianists of the twentieth century, and whose radio performances gave me much pleasure in my youth. So it was appropriate that we should play one of his compositions. Reno Runaway was the chosen item in a recording by the New Century Orchestra conducted by Eric Borshel - and which is included on a new Guild CD 'Light and Lively' (GLCD 5160). This was followed by Laurie Johnson conducting his Masquerade from The Four Musketeers.

Drawing attention to the many CDs which could be purchased, David then played Could it be You? from another new Guild CD - 'Melodies for Romantics' (GLCD5155). This featured the orchestra of Robert Farnon - curiously credited as 'Jack Saunders' on the LP label!

David then gave us the good news that, following many adverse comments, the proposed extension to the sound copyright period had been 'put on a back-burner'. I wonder if that will still be the case when you read this report!

We were now approaching the end of part one, and we concluded with an Eric Coates composition from 1941 entitled Rhythm from his Four Centuries Suite. This was from a CD of Eric Coates's music compiled by Peter Dempsey for 'Bygone Days'. Albert Killman commented that this was probably the nearest Coates had ever come to writing jazz!

This concluded the first part of the afternoon's entertainment. What was to follow, after the interval, was to be very different from a normal RFS meeting, and quite ground-breaking for the Society!

PART TWO

Suitably refreshed, we took our seats for the next part of the afternoon's entertainment. The seating had been arranged in a different way on this occasion in order to accommodate the larger than usual congregation and also to incorporate a large platform which would be necessary for the live music in part three.

David then welcomed us to what had now become 'The Haydn Wood Society'. Discussions had taken place for some time with our special guests Marjorie Cullerne (Haydn Wood's great-niece) and Gilles Gouset as to the best way that we could mark the 50^th Anniversary of Haydn Wood’s death, and make this an occasion to remember; it was decided that Gilles would give us an account of Haydn Wood's life, illustrated with pictures and musical extracts. We were shown some pictures of the sheet music and covers of some Haydn Wood pieces and photographs of several of his residences. At one such residence, we were told, a neighbour became so fed up with Wood's constant playing that she complained - however, she ended up marrying him!

The audio aspect of the presentation included the following pieces:
- The middle movement of Phantasy Concerto (1905)
- Serenade by Pierne (violin solo accompanied by Haydn Wood at the piano)
- First ever recording of Roses of Picardy
- A Brown Bird Singing sung by Ada Alsop with the Robert Farnon Orchestra
- A 1934 recording of Heather Bells (1923) - Reginald King Orchestra
- Excerpt from The Manx Rhapsody (1931) - Charles Williams with the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra
- A 1934 recording of Thorpe Bates singing The Sea Road
- Haydn Wood conducting The Doctor, this being the 2nd movement from his suite Three Famous Pictures
- The Little Ships (1941) - to reflect Haydn Wood's patriotic nature during the second world war
- Some archival film of Haydn Wood walking in a garden - accompanied by Bird of Love Divine

Gilles concluded his presentation with part of an interview (Haydn Wood with Peggy Cochrane) from 1954, during which she played part of Wood's piano concerto.

PART THREE

After a short break, we returned to our seats for a live concert. Whilst we have had live music for the occasional dinner, this was to be the first occasion for a long time that a live orchestra played during one of our meetings. At the request of Marjorie Cullerne, the Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra were invited to play for us, and we are grateful to Dr. Adam Bakker for providing their services. Quite a few members of the Society are familiar with this ensemble through their recordings as well as their concert appearances. Although technically an amateur group, 'Aspidistra's' standard of performance is comparable with a professional ensemble.

They began with Haydn Wood's Dreaming (1924) and were then joined by soprano, Camilla Cutts for a waltz entitled Love Me (1926) and then the orchestra played Thistledown (also from 1926). To conclude their first set, they were joined by Camilla for a song from 1919, I love your eyes of grey. We then welcomed the well-known David Snell to the platform to play the piano in a piece entitled A Bell for Andano (1945). He followed this with Humoreske from 'Three Cinema Stars' - this particular item being dedicated to Charles Chaplin. The orchestra's flautist, Roy Bell then took the stage for a flute solo Barcarolle (1912) in which he was accompanied by David Snell. Our special guest, Marjorie Cullerne was the composer of the next item, Casey the Fiddler, a song featuring Camilla Cutts with David Snell at the piano and Marjorie (violin obligato). This was followed by Haydn Wood's The Stars look down (1943) featuring Camilla and David.

The next four items featured the violin of Marjorie Cullerne, accompanied by David Snell. They were Prelude (1934) and Caprice (1917), followed by Melodie Plaintive (1918) and Elfin Dance (1911).

It was now time for the second and final set from the Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra and they played firstly a 1913 composition, Pleading after which they were joined by Camilla Cutts for Pretending (1921). To conclude the programme, everybody took the stage for what is probably Haydn Wood's most famous composition Roses of Picardy, written in 1916.

We had overrun by at least a half hour but I didn't hear anybody complain. It only remained for David Ades to thank Marjorie and Gilles, Adam Bakker and the Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra, Camilla Cutts and David Snell, not forgetting Tony Clayden, who had introduced the items in the concert, and spent much of the day 'twiddling the knobs' to ensure that we had the best possible sound in this our tribute to Haydn Wood.

AUTUMN CONCERTO - 2008
Meeting of the Robert Farnon Society
Sunday 30th November 2008
at the Park Inn, London
by Brian Reynolds

Well, it was that time of year again. The leaves had fallen and a chilly autumn was about to give way to an even chillier Winter.

It was damp and miserable outside but warm and cheerful inside as light music lovers gathered together for another feast of melody.

We took our seats to the accompaniment of They Called the Wind Maria. Well, call it what you like, it was better than snow - remember last April ?

At two o'clock Albert Killman opened the meeting with the World Traveller March, written by Robert Farnon and Tim Wills and performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Iain Sutherland - our special guest of the afternoon. David Ades then welcomed other visitors, including Richard Tay from Sepia Records. It was then time for Albert, joined by Peter Burt to present a selection of new releases.

The opening two items were from the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin, the first being Lazy Moon (from Goldilocks) and that was followed by Little Children (from Suite of Cards for woodwind). Next, a track from the new CD 'Mel Torme meets the British' - A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. This was followed by a Laurie Johnson arrangement for the Ambrose orchestra entitled Vuelve, after which we heard The Embassy Waltz from ' My Fair Lady' - played by Percy Faith and his Orchestra. Peter Burt then turned to a new CD entitled 'Mantovani Memories' and played us The Trolley Song.

Some real nostalgia came next, with the BBC Television Orchestra conducted by Eric Robinson playing the Test Card music which used to precede the opening of TV programmes in the fifties; this took the form of a selection of traditional tunes arranged by Max Saunders, under the title Fantasy on National Airs. There then followed two pieces from a recent Guild CD, 'Going Places' - firstly Rendevous by Bernie Wayne and then The Girl with the Spanish Drawl from the Percy Faith orchestra.

Next, we heard Ring Round the Moon by Richard Addinsell, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of Roderick Dunk. This came from an album in the series 'British Light Music Premieres'. We then turned to a Vocalion CD 'Soft Lights and Sweet Music' to listen to the George Melachrino Orchestra play The Sword and the Rose (Spielman). After this, the Emile Deltour Orchestra played Spring Fever by Rene Costy and Rene Heylbroeck. This is the title track of the 50th light music CD from Guild - a truly remarkable achievement in less than five years, with no sign of an end in sight!

Haydn Wood's popular march Montmartre was next and it gave Albert the opportunity to mention that, as 2009 is the 50th anniversary of Wood's death, our next meeting in April will feature his music prominently. We shall be honoured with the presence of his Great-niece, who will also be playing live music with the Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra, directed by Dr. Adam Bakker. Adam was present in the audience and our appreciation was conveyed to him for kindly agreeing to provide his ensemble.

Albert then reminded us of the recent death of Neil Hefti by playing his incidental sountrack music from Barefoot in the Park. This brought to an end an unusually long, but very enjoyable 'new releases' section of our programme.

It was then time for some 'Parish Notices'. Albert drew our attention to a new book on the life and career of John Barry. He also kindly mentioned my book Music While You Work - An Era in Broadcasting, the rights of which have now returned to me. I brought some copies with me which attracted a few buyers. Albert also told us of the formation of a new society for those who appreciate the music of Eric Coates. No doubt we shall hear more details of this in due course. We were also told the quite shocking news that the BBC have put another nail in the coffin of quality light and popular music by banning from Radio Two any music over fifty years old - which is a very high percentage of worthwhile material. Albert suggested that rather than send a petition (which the BBC would ignore), individuals should write and complain, telling the Society what sort of response they get. From personal experience, I have to say that I doubt if it will be positive, as the self-righteous BBC have always given me the impression that they don't give a damn what the listener thinks.

The final section of the first part of the programme was my Radio Recollections spot in which I play recordings from the days when the BBC really did care. As part of the 'choreography' of these meetings, it is required that a presenter comes to the top table well in advance of his or her presentation (thus avoiding distracting those listening). So I was able to observe that some people had fallen asleep during the playing of the new releases. I know from personal experience how relaxing music can easily send you to the 'land of nod'. Indeed I can recall an occasion when I fell asleep in the front row of a concert by one of my favourite military bands and my 'friends' took a photo of me and presented it to the conductor! Anyway, back to the present - I was fervently hoping that the 'sleepers' would wake up in time for my presentation. They didn't - so they will just have to read about what they missed!

My first item was from the BBC West of England Light Orchestra - conductor Frank Cantell, the well-known Majorca (L. Gaste) in an arrangement by Ernest Tomlinson. Next came Raymond Agoult and his Players in a tongue-in-cheek arrangement of The Clanger March from the comedy film 'The Night we dropped a Clanger'.

I then turned to a 1967 'Music While You Work' broadcast by the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra - conductor Iain Sutherland, for an Ernest Tomlinson original - The Merry Go Round Waltz. To conclude my section - at the same time giving our guest a big build up - I played Iain's excellent march Edinburgh Castle. This came from a 1983 broadcast which I actually attended. During the interval that followed, a selection of Iain's recordings (which he had kindly provided) were played.

In part two, Tony Clayden introduced Iain Sutherland and invited him to talk to us about various aspects of his career. He told us that, as a boy chorister he had won a contest and that, as part of the prize, he got to appear on 'Children's Hour'. He later took up the violin, won another contest and again got to perform on the aforesaid programme. After studying in London with the famous Sasha Lasserson, he did three years of freelancing and played with the Grenadier Guards for two years. He joined the Philharmonia, playing for such eminent names as Boult, Sargent, Groves and Solti.

Responding to questions from Tony, Iain told us that he first became attracted to light music through film music sessions. Having expressed a wish to conduct light music, Iain told us that he was given a test date, by the BBC, with an orchestra of quite distinguished session musicians in ' Music While You Work'. (I think that Iain will find that it was actually the BBC Scottish Variety Orchestra - I've got the broadcast on tape. He did some recordings with London session men for 'Breakfast Special' a few months later in 1966.)

Iain went on to become Musical Director of the London production of 'The Music Man' starring Van Johnson and after several more dates with the SVO, he was appointed conductor of that orchestra, following the retirement of Jack Leon. It would have been good to have heard more from Iain concerning his work with that orchestra, which, at his suggestion, was renamed the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra but time was marching on and we needed to hear about other things. The interview was punctuated with musical items, all conducted by Iain. Anthony Collins' Vanity Fair was, in Iain's view, a perfect example of a piece which generates its own rhythm, without the need for drums and guitar. We also heard the Galop from Masquerade, and Kurt Weil's September Song, this being a cue for Norwegian broadcaster and producer Jan Eriksen to join Tony and Iain at the presenter's table, to talk to us about his associations with Bob Farnon and, indeed Iain Sutherland.

We then listened to Say it with Music and Seventy-six Trombones (arr.Farnon) from a broadcast by the Norwegian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Iain Sutherland, deputising for Bob who, we are told, was unable to fly (talented as Bob was, he could no more fly than the rest of us!). Iain spoke of his many encounters with Bob Farnon who had every intention of conducting his third symphony, but ill health had overtaken him and the rehearsal was conducted by Iain but with Bob at the other end of the telephone, advising where necessary! We then heard one final item, especially requested by Iain - a part of From the Highlands by Robert Farnon. Tony then thanked Iain Sutherland for his contribution to the programme and asked him to draw the raffle.

Iain Sutherland proved to be one of our most popular guests to date - a truly eloquent and articulate speaker, with a much longer story to tell than time permitted and many felt, as I did, that he should be invited back as soon as possible. During the interval, Iain talked with members of the audience and signed copies of a new CD of his, featuring Scottish music.

Part three of the afternoon's entertainment opened with Paul Barrett publicising his next Mantovani concert in Poole on 31st January. As an illustration we heard Give my regards to Broadway. It was then the turn of Tony Foster to take the stand, presenting three of his favourite recordings. First came the Syd Lawrence Orchestra with (appropriately) My Favourite Things (arr. Roland Shaw); then the Robert Farnon Orchestra played The Sophistication Waltz from the 'Pictures in the Fire' CD. Finally we heard Tony Bennett sing Christmasland by Brian Farnon (arranged by Bob).

We then welcomed Mr. UK Light Radio himself to the stand, in the person of André Leon, with a new feature entitled 'The Farnon Connection' - a tribute to the Farnon Family - although the twist was that not all of the pieces were by who he said they were! In other words, there was a deliberate mistake! In addition to an excerpt from the radio serial No place to hide we heard Robert Farnon's Outer Space, Dennis Farnon's Coast Road North and Bob's Newsreel March and his Horatio Hornblower music.

The final part of the programme was, as usual, presented by David Ades. He commenced with an excerpt from 'Canadian Caravan' in which Bob conducted the Canadian Band of the AEF. The music was I Got Rhythm and then the band was joined by Paul Carpenter for I Wish I Knew. This broadcast was an ORBS production for Britain's forces. Next came Bob's arrangement of the overture to The Girl in Pink Tights (Romberg) from the original cast recording 'discovered' by the late Don Furnell, from the short period in which Bob lived and worked in the States. David then went on to play the berceuse from Alliance Variations, played by the BBC Concert Orchestra during the BBC Light Music Festival on 6th June 1959.

The Light Music Society (whose meetings were held at the Alliance Hall in London, hence the title) held a competition for an original amateur work to be orchestrated by eleven leading composer/arrangers, namely Anthony Collins, Ronald Binge, Robert Farnon, Ronald Hanmer, Trevor Duncan, Gilbert Vinter, Harry Dexter, Ernest Tomlinson, Clive Richardson, Billy Mayerl, and Lt.Col. Douglas A. Pope (at that time Director of Music of the Coldstream Guards band). Next we heard Bob's arrangement of Lucky in the Rain from the Everest LP 'Mike Todd's Broadway' - one of the tracks from the new Guild CD ' Strings and Things Go Stereo. Finally, David played us Maybe this Time (arr. Robert Farnon) and sung by Tony Bennett with the Robert Farnon Orchestra - one of our late member Neal Hefti’s favourite Farnon arrangements.

It just remained for thanks to be conveyed to all involved - Peter Burt, Tony Foster, André Leon and Tony Clayden for his interview with Iain Sutherland. Tony then came to the microphone to convey his appreciation for the assistance of the London Meetings Committee and to remind members of the Haydn Wood 'special' in April.

SPRING IN PARK INN
Meeting of the Robert Farnon Society
Sunday 6th April 2008 at the Park Inn London
by Brian Reynolds

Once again the time had come for our annual Springfest and the usual collection of dropouts, screwballs and crackheads were in attendance - but enough about the committee! We really had to look at the calendar to remind ourselves that it was Spring, because after several hours of heavy snow and temperatures barely above freezing, it sure didn't feel like it!

Outside central London snow was two or three inches thick and this fact undoubtedly put off a few of the regulars, nevertheless there was a good, healthy attendance. Because of the fact that the name-change of the hotel was known too late to be mentioned in the latest journal, some of those attending, unable to find the Bonnington Hotel, thought that they had gone the wrong way and had to ask directions. I must say that the new name seems more than a little strange as the establishment is certainly not an "inn" and is nowhere near a park! I'm sure that it is only a matter of time before the graffiti merchants insert the word NO in front of the sign outside!

Those present took their seats to the accompaniment of Here Comes the Band. As David Ades had chosen to take a less prominent part on this occasion due to pressure of other commitments, Albert Killman opened proceedings with a Robert Farnon 'lollipop'- Manhattan Playboy - played by the John Wilson orchestra - It is felt by the London Committee who plan these events that Farnon originals need to be featured more frequently.

This was followed by a tribute to the legendary pianist Oscar Peterson who had died recently. This took the form of the soundtrack of part of a 1969 television interview in which Robert Farnon talked with Peterson. We then heard Bob’s composition The Pleasure of your Company in which Oscar Peterson was accompanied by the Robert Farnon Orchestra.

My Radio Recoll-ections spot came next. At the risk of seeming to be biased, I feel that this is an important part of the programme as it enables listeners to once again enjoy the music of the many orchestras that used to be featured regularly on radio forty or fifty years ago but rarely visited the recording studios, and consequently have tended to be forgotten, despite having given hundreds of broadcasts.

As 2008 marks the centenary of the birth of Leroy Anderson, I decided that his music should feature prominently in my selection. So my first item was a medley consisting of Forgotten Dreams, Belle of the Ball, Blue Tango and Fiddle Faddle played by Ronnie Munro and his Orchestra. In an extremely varied career, Munro had led a dance band during the twenties and thirties, becoming the first conductor of the BBC Scottish Variety Orchestra in 1940. After a further spell with a dance band he formed his light orchestra for radio in the fifties, concluding his BBC career with a sextet which he led between 1962 and 1967. When radio broadcasts dried up, he emigrated to South Africa, where he reformed his orchestra, subsequently becoming Head of Light Music for S.A.B.C.

Next I played (as a request) Reginald Tilsley's novelty Young Dandy played by The Sidney Sax Strings. I met Sidney on several occasions and found him quite charming. But apparently those who worked for him in his capacity of a "fixer" soon found that he demanded the highest standards and there are many stories of quite notable musicians being 'given the boot' by him for the most trivial of reasons.

My next item was Fiesta in Brazil, an exciting Spanish waltz, played by Anton and his orchestra. Anton (real name Arthur Sweeting) had broadcast and recorded with the Paramount Theatre Orchestra in the thirties and had formed a smaller orchestra for broadcasting in the forties. For the next twenty odd years he gave hundreds of broadcasts, but sadly made no more records. He was a reserve conductor to the BBC Staff Orchestras.

To conclude my 'spot' I returned to the Ronnie Munro orchestra for another Leroy Anderson medley, this time including Serenata, Sleigh Ride and Plink,Plank,Plunk.

Ronnie Munro's string orchestra featured William Davies on electronic organ and it was he that played the pizzicato in the final item, probably because the BBC discouraged the use of plucked strings on Music While You Work (from which the recording came) as they were considered inaudible in the factories.

I was asked to give some 'parish notices' whilst on stage and I drew particular attention to a concert by Ann Adams and the Ladies' Palm Court Orchestra at London's Kensington Gardens bandstand on 29th June (2.00pm to 3.30pm). This 22 piece orchestra's programmes are the highlight of the year for me, as they include so many of the neglected light pieces that were so much a feature of the old Light Programme. I also mentioned a concert on 26th May in Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill by the Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra. Both orchestras usually attract some RFS members.

There then followed our customary look at the new releases which, on this occasion, might have been subtitled the 'Peter and Albert show' as Peter Burt alternated with Albert in presenting a selection of newly available recordings. From a new recording of the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by John Wilson, Albert played us Eric Coates' Sound and Vision, commissioned by ATV in 1955.

Peter then played Zip-a-dee-doo-dah from a new CD featuring Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra, entitled Stars and Stripes - An American Concert. Next followed some TV nostalgia as Albert played 'Scherzetto for Children' by Fred Hartley from the new Guild CD Childrens' Memories Vol 2. This item consisted of lots of traditional tunes such as Polly put the Kettle on, Tom Tom, the Piper's Son, Bobby Shaftoe etc - played by Eric Robinson and his Orchestra. Peter's next contribution was Mephistopheles Serenade from The Damnation of Faust by Berlioz, played by Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra on a new Vocalion CD Immortal Serenades.

Albert then played some music by Laurie Johnson, now 81 years old - the popular theme from the cult TV show The Avengers which comes from a new 3-CD set. Then came something rather unusual on the Naxos label as Peter played a previously unrecorded work by Leroy Anderson - The Governor Bradford March recorded by The BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. This came from the album Anderson Orchestral Music. Albert's next item was Robert Farnon's Scenic Grandeur played by the Danish State Radio Orchestra - again from a new Guild CD. Peter Burt's final contribution was Wunderbar from a Vocalion CD of Mantovani and his Orchestra entitled Song Hits of Theatreland.

Before his final item in this section, Albert conveyed to the congregation the good wishes of RFS President David Farnon and Alan Bunting. He then went on to play The Cat from Coos Bay which, I must confess, was a new one to me, but I am assured that it was a big hit in its day. It came from a recent Vocalion CD of the singles of Wally Stott.

It was now time for the first interval and we went to our refreshments to the accompaniment of Eric Coates' march Sound and Vision.

PART TWO

It was now time to meet our special guest for the afternoon and Robert Habermann introduced composer Nigel Hess. So as to remind the audience of his work our attention was directed to the video screen for a selection of opening titles from a host of television series for which he wrote the music. Many were astounded at his versatility, as a succession of pieces were played which we knew so well but had perhaps been unaware of their composer! Let's face it - most title sequences are confined to a quarter of the screen with a continuity announcer chattering about something totally irrelevant!

Featured were the following:

WYCLIFFE - HETTY WAINTHROP INVESTIGATES - SUMMERS LEASE - DANGERFIELD - JUST WILLIAM - MAIGRET starring Michael Gambon- A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE - CAMPION - TESTAMENT and VANITY FAIR

During his conversation with Robert, Nigel Hess revealed a fact that was probably not known to many present - that the famous Dame Myra Hess was his great aunt. Nigel recounted to us that he took up the piano at the age of two and a half and that his first favourite piece of music as a child was The Dambusters March.

As a professional musician one of his first engagements was as Musical Director for the Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Subsequently he wrote the title music for Let's be Friends. He was also asked to write a piece of music for an up and coming comedy duo on the lines of Morecambe and Wise's Bring me Sunshine. These hitherto unknown entertainers were Cannon and Ball. Nigel Hess has written much music for Shakespearean plays and, as an example, he played music from the Coronation Scene from Henry VIII. Nigel has always had an interest in music for Concert Band - or Wind Band as it is called in America, which he illustrated with a movement from his East Coast Pictures.

We then turned to the big screen to see a clip from Ladies in Lavender, and the presentation was brought to a conclusion with part of a Concerto - a movement entitled The Love. In view of its regal connections this work involved discussions at Clarence House with Prince Charles no less!

Before thanking Nigel Hess for a very interesting presentation which, incidentally was very well received, Robert Habermann asked him who were his biggest influences. Perhaps not surprisingly he said: Korngold, Steiner and John Williams.

Following the raffle, the meeting paused for the second interval.

PART THREE

We returned to our seats to the accompaniment of Chopin's Les Sylphides. Albert opened proceedings with a tribute to the late Gene Puerling, who we heard in conversation with Robert Farnon, to the accompaniment of The More I See You.

It was then time for ‘Cab's Swing Session’. Cab Smith started with a Robert Farnon original: Johnny's Dive. His second item (also by the maestro) was a jazz piano feature from Bill McGuffie - Poodle Parade. It's amazing how this light orchestral piece adapts so easily to jazz piano! Cab concluded with Robert Farnon conducting his own arrangement of Sunny Side Up which also happens to be the title tune of a recent 'Guild' CD.

Albert then played us Happy Go Lively by Laurie Johnson.

At long last it was time to welcome David Ades to the top table. As mentioned earlier, David had chosen to adopt a lower profile on this occasion. For his first item, David played us David Rose's Dance of the Spanish Onion from a 1967 Columbia 'Studio Two' LP. This was included at the special request of Norman Grant. Then, from a Thames TV series recorded at the 'Talk of the Town' in 1972, we heard the opening titles and Tony Bennett with the Robert Farnon Orchestra in Baby Dream your Dream.

David then introduced us to something rather special and certainly unique. Alan Bunting, who is responsible for the excellent sound restorations for the 'Guild' recordings, had obtained (at considerable cost to himself) a film of a studio session by Percy Faith and his orchestra, performed supposedly in front of a small audience - they actually sounded like a huge audience, but in reality there was no audience and the applause was dubbed!

The video was all the more special because it featured Faith's recording orchestra rather than the session musicians which he used for most television shows. I gather from David that the musicians for his Best of Both Worlds shows for the BBC in the 1960s were largely drawn from the Robert Farnon Orchestra. Percy Faith was born 7^th April 1908 and died 9th February 1976 aged 67 We then watched and listened to the following items: Mucho Gusto: Moulin Rouge: There's a boat that's leaving for New York: Tenderly:a samba La Mattchiche (Nazareth) and, finally, The Sound of Music.

This brought the meeting to a close and Albert conveyed his appreciation to Alan Bunting for making the Percy Faith material available to us; he also thanked all who had participated in the meeting - not forgetting Tony Clayden who brings a considerable amount of equipment with him and twiddles the knobs to ensure that we get the best sound. Albert also told us that next April we shall be having a Haydn Wood special, involving Wood's grand niece. It will also include some live performances of his works.

The next meeting is on November 30th when we shall be honoured with the presence of Iain Sutherland, one of the few remaining links with the 'Light Programme' who many of us remember for his conductorship of the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra as well as many programmes with the Concert Orchestra and Radio Orchestra. It was Iain, incidentally, that said: "Light music isn't dead - the BBC are in the process of burying it alive!" The meeting closed with Robert Farnon's Melody Fair.

As the audience slowly dispersed we were serenaded with some Farnon arrangements played by the BBC Radio Orchestra.... Waltzing with Richard Rodgers; Dream Theme; As Time Goes By and from the George Mitchell Glee Club with the Robert Farnon Orchestra Love is Such a Cheat (Decca F9655).

AUTUMN CONCERTO

MEETING OF THE ROBERT FARNON SOCIETY: SUNDAY 25TH NOVEMBER 2007 AT THE BONNINGTON HOTEL, LONDON

By BRIAN REYNOLDS

To paraphrase the well—known September Song ‘It’s a long long time from April to November’ and the congregation attending this year’s ‘Autumnfest’ were as keen as always to wallow in another four hours of glorious melodies. As usual, many of those attending were ‘regular’, and those who weren’t were taking tablets for it!

Proceedings began as members took their seats to the accompaniment of the BBC Theatre Orchestra (conducted by Harold Lowe) of Oranges and Lemons - arranged by Spike Hughes.

At 2.OOpm with Albert Killman, David Ades and Vernon Anderson at the presenters’ table, the meeting officially got underway with Robert Farnon’s Proscenium.

The year 2007 being the 90th anniversary of Robert Farnon’s birth, it was felt appropriate that his music should feature more prominently than usual and David, paying tribute to Patricia Farnon, who had recently passed away, felt that something should be played in her memory. Having consulted David Farnon, it was decided that his own arrangement of Bob’s Country Girl would be appropriate - retitled Country Boy on this occasion - the recording being by that fine singer Sheila Southern with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Robert Farnon. (I seem to recall Sheila Southern being the wife of broadcasting pianist Derek Cox).

Albert then introduced a piece as a tribute to Ronnie Hazlehurst who had recently died. He chose a recording by the Ronnie Hazlehurst Orchestra — Robert Farnon’s theme from the fine television series "The Secret Army", after which we were treated to a DVD featuring Dolf van der Linden conducting The Metropole Orchestra in a 1961 performance Il fait des bonds. Robert Farnon was the guest conductor of the Metropole Orchestra on many occasions.

It was then the turn of Vernon Anderson to present a tribute to Angela Morley (formerly Wally Stott); the items chosen were Limehouse Blues from the Sounds of Paradise Orchestra (Stott), Embraceable You featuring Rosemary Squires, then an item from "The Missing Battleship" - an edition of "The Goon Show". This was the closing theme Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead from "The Wizard of Oz". Finally, Vernon played us Angela’s private recording of one of her latest compositions entitled Reverie.

It was now time for Albert and David’s usual selection of new releases which were as follows:

Young Man in Love (Ernest Tomlinson) from the 1974 suite "Aladdin" played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Gavin Sutherland from ‘British Light Music Premieres Vol. 4 (Dutton Epoch).

Theme from the ‘Glenn Miller Story’ by Henry Mancini arr.Stott and played by the Wally Stott Orchestra - a Philips 78 on a new Dutton Vocalion CD. David criticised the complete lack of booklet notes.

Legend by Henry Croudson, who was a popular cinema organist and musical director of the ‘Strings in Rhythm’ on radio, this recording being by the London Promenade Orchestra conducted by Walter Collins from the new Guild CD ‘Musical Kaleidoscope’ Vol.1

Ladies of Lisbon by William Hill Bowen who wrote under the pen names of Luis Tristan and Don Versey - a fact that could have been mentioned in the booklet notes, if there had been any! This piece (a particular favourite of mine) was played here by the George Melachrino Orchestra and is from a new Vocalion CD entitled ‘Our Man in London’ & Highlights from ‘Lisbon at Twilight’. David pointed out that some titles are missing from the second LP, and Roses of Picardy is credited to Haydn instead of Haydn Wood!

Pioneer Trail (Charles Williams) - signature tune for the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year - played by the Danish State Radio Orchestra conducted by Robert Farnon -a Chappell recording on Guild CD ‘Musical Kaleidoscope Vol 2.

To conclude the first part of the afternoon’s entertainment David introduced (on DVD) excerpts from our 50th Anniversary souvenir.

A thirty minute interval followed, introduced by one of Angela Morley’s play-out themes for "Hancock’ s Half Hour".

PART TWO

The audience returned to their seats to the accompaniment of the Associated British Studio Orchestra conducted by Louis Levy in a performance of the title music from the soundtrack of "Laughter in Paradise" by Stanley Black - this being a subtle clue as to what was to come.

For our main feature we were honoured by the presence of Stanley Black’s son Jeffrey Black who, together with his daughter Jacqueline gave a lucid, affectionate, yet frank account of Stanley’s career. Tony Clayden introduced the Blacks to the audience drawing attention to the fact that several other members of the Black clan (including his widow, Edna Kaye) were also present to give support. In what he described as a ‘senior moment’ Tony managed to forget Jacqueline’s name, but saved the day by turning it into a running joke. To illustrate their talk, the Blacks played the following pieces, some of which had to be shortened because of time:

Music from the 1949 film "Third Time Lucky" featuring Edna Kaye
It’s a Raggy Waltz (Brubeck) - Piano feature
Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin)
Quiet Night of Quiet Stars (Jobim)
Mood Mambo from "The Young Ones"
Three Blind Mice (arr. Black)
Music from the Australian film "Strictly Ballroom"
Honeysuckle Rose — featuring Coleman Hawkins
That Old Black Magic

Tony Clayden thanked Jeffrey and Jacqueline Black for their excellent presentation and continued with a couple of tributes of his own. Firstly, he played part of The Selfish Giant as a tribute to its composer, Eric Coates, whose death occurred fifty years ago, in December 1957. Afterwards, he played Elgar’s Salut d’amour. The year 2007 was, of course, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edward Elgar — as most people are aware, apart from the Bank of England who, as a mark of disrespect, chose this year to remove his picture from our banknotes!

Tony also took the opportunity to inform us of a recital on 16th December by our own Robert Habermann (accompanied by Geoff Eales) and a concert by the London Salon Ensemble at the Royal Festival Hall on December 30th.

It was then back to the big screen again, as we watched Robert Farnon, on a DVD, conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in his Farnon Fantasy.

Tony then took control if the raffle, with the assistance of Jeffrey and Jacqueline Black, heralded by Edmund Hockridge (a long time Canadian colleague of Robert Farnon) singing Luck Be a Lady. The interval was announced by Stanley Black’s March of the Goons.

PART THREE

We returned to our seats to the accompaniment of Bert Kaempfert’s Las Vegas — from a new Guild CD due for release in January and no doubt available by the time you read this.

Albert opened up the third part of the show by introducing Cab Smith and his familiar ‘Swing Session’. This comprised the following:

Button Up Your Overcoat played by the Robert Farnon Orchestra from a Philips LP
The Very Thought of You sung by Carol Kidd
Swing Hoe (Farnon) — Leslie Jones and his orchestra of London.

Albert thanked Cab for his presentation and then introduced Paul Barrett who had come along to tell us about a forthcoming concert which he was promoting by the newly reconstituted Mantovani Orchestra — the concert venue being ‘The Lighthouse’ in Poole. This presentation was accompanied by the famous Mantovani recording of Charmaine. Afterwards Albert played Mantovani’s Tanya - the Moulin Rouge Theme. Albert went on to play Gabrielle which comes from the film "Paris when it Sizzles" and was played by Vic Lewis and the strings of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

As usual, David presented the final section of the programme and commenced with Robert Farnon’s Sea Shore - a big hit in those distant days when real music sometimes made the ‘Charts’. It was played by Rawicz and Landauer with the Wally Stott Orchestra.

We were then given an opportunity (via DVD) of watching and listening to Robert Farnon talking about his early career.

This was followed by an old favourite ‘Winter Sunshine’ by George Melachrino, arranged by Robert Farnon, who was conducting the BBC Radio Orchestra.

With Christmas just a few weeks away, it was appropriate to close the meeting with Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in a Bob Farnon arrangement - performed by Tony Bennett with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Don Jackson (recorded at Abbey Road, August 2002 for Hallmark Cards).

It just remained for David to thank everyone for their contributions - the Stanley Black Family (who had to leave early), Vernon Anderson, Tony Clayden, Cab Smith, Paul Barrett not forgetting the helpers on reception. Special thanks were also given to Tony Clayden for his technical services which require a lot of time and effort, and of course, the indefatigable Albert Killman.

The meeting dispersed to Robert Farnon’s Melody Fair, followed by Carioca (from a radio broadcast by the Robert Farnon Orchestra), Canadian Caravan from Leslie Jones and his Orchestra of London, and finally, a Christmas Medley from Tony Bennett accompanied by Robert Farnon.

"Chasing The Blues Away"

Report of RFS London meeting held at the Bonnington Hotel on Sunday 26 November 2006 by VERNON ANDERSON

While everyone was settling in we were treated to the sounds of Robert Farnon’s overture for Pia Zadora including many of the pieces Bob had arranged for her albums and concert tours back in the mid 1980’s.

PART 1

With the strains of Robert Farnon’s "Proscenium" still ringing in our ears David opened the meeting with a warm welcome to everyone, especially having braved the storms encountered during the morning. Thankfully the weather had now settled and it was good to see so many attending, especially those people here for the first time. We were in for a real treat.

David then introduced the other presenters at the top table, Albert Killman and Robert Habermann. Albert then paid tribute to fellow member Brian Coleman who sadly died in May this year (obit. JIM 169 Oct, 2006). Brian joined the society back in the 1950’s and was a great lover of light music but especially Bob’s compositions. One of his favourite pieces was Bob’s "Concorde March", which Albert now played in Brian’s memory.

Albert introduced Robert Habermann for his tribute to Sir Malcolm Arnold who died in September (obit. JIM 170 Dec, 2006) which commenced with "Colonel Bogey March" from the film "Bridge over the River Kwai" (1957) which highlighted his own excellent march theme which he used as a counterpoint. This was followed by Sir Malcolm’s charming "Whistle down the wind" of 1961. Robert related many aspects of Sir Malcolm’s life, focussing on his composing for films and documentaries. In 1948 he had the opportunity to write a full score.

He composed hundreds of films scores but also many overtures and dances for orchestra. Robert’s third selection was Sir Malcolm’s "English Dance". He was a prolific composer; 9 symphonies, 2 operas, 17 concertos, 5 ballets and many notable pieces covering various genres and all of them memorable. However he did suffer some notable rejections. The MGM film "Invitation to the Dance" with Gene Kelly, for which he wrote a modern jazz sequence was not used in the score and this was one of several major disappointments (Robert Farnon’s contribution to the same film suffered a similar fate). However his output was rewarded with Honorary Doctorates from a number of music universities.

Robert’s last selection was the music from the "St Trinians" films, which highlighted Sir Arnold’s very keen sense of humour. Albert thanked Robert for a fitting tribute to a highly talented man, which was well received.

Albert then handed over to David for the first of his New Releases. David held aloft the new Epoch CD from Michael Dutton containing, among other well known and much loved Robert Farnon pieces, the World Premier Recordings of Bob’s symphony No.2 in B major (Ottawa) and the Scherzo from his symphony No.1 in D flat Major. David introduced us to the first movement of symphony No.2. This has a dramatic opening which (for this listener) reflected on a world threatened by war, but soon develops into a more patriotic or "homeland" style, perhaps the Canadian landscape and its indigenous people, city life in more care-free days and then like Bob, feeling the need to join the fight for freedom and the sacrifices that that might entail. The movement ends in tranquil mood. This piece was well received on this its first hearing in over 60 years. David confirmed that copies of the CD were available from the RFS Record Service at the meeting. He mentioned especially the brilliant playing of the BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of John Wilson, recorded at The Colosseum (formerly know as Watford Town Hall) in June 2006. (A full page advert appears on page 4 of JIM issue No. 170, and a full description of the Sessions is to be found on page’s 48 to 51 including illustrations in JIM issue No. 169).

Albert picked up the theme of the last piece adding that he CD opened with a marvellous interpretation of Bob’s Suite from the 1951 film "Captain Horatio Hornblower RN." Albert went on to introduce the second piece from the Guild Series, presenting "The Golden Age of Light Music" all of which are on sale at today’s meeting. This comes from the CD with colourful themes "Beyond the Blue Horizon" and he highlighted Angela Morley’s 1954 arrangement of "Deep Purple", played by Wally Stott and his orchestra, in which she provides us with a lush string sound. After which David gave us the news that Angela is presently having treatment for cancer, and voiced the thought of all present in wishing her a speedy recovery.

David followed this with a request from fellow member Peter Burt, who with his wife Ellen had been unable to attend today’s meeting due to a flood in their house. David played piece No. 3 - Roland Shaw’s arrangement of Charlie Chaplin’s "The Toy Waltz" from his 1936 film "Modern Times", by the Mantovani Orchestra, from the "A Song for Christmas" Vocalion CD - the piece ends in the manner of a clock winding down.

No. 4 - David’s next selection was composed by fellow RFS member, Paul Lewis and titled "Rosa Mundi". Inspired by the loss of someone special, when he noticed on a single flower on his favourite rose; the only bloom this year was on "that bush". A calm reflective piece, played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Gavin Sutherland on the recent Naxos CD "English String Miniatures - Vol. 6".

No. 5 - David introduced another Guild CD this one titled "Light Music While You Work" and exclaimed that "Brian Reynolds would be interested in this one". Harry Fryer and his Orchestra recorded it for the Decca Label series of 78s ‘MWYW’ but it wasn’t released until 1951 on an early Decca LP. David mentioned the marvellous work which Alan Bunting has done in restoring these old recordings for transferring to C.D format. The composer was believed to be an American named William Wirges and he gave the piece the title "Fascinatin’ Manikin".

No. 6 - Albert introduced a new Eric Coates collection and noted that Eric’s son Austin had given his father’s watch to John Wilson, which John proudly wore during the session for the new Robert Farnon CD in June this year. This is a Living Era re-issue of the ballet suite "The Jester at the Wedding" of 1932, from which Albert played the fourth movement "Dance of the Orange Blossoms". All the pieces on this 2 CD set are conducted by Eric Coates.

No.7 - Albert then introduced us to a new Epoch release courtesy of Mike Dutton titled "Concertino for Celeste" by Roderick Elms, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Stephen Bell. Roderick Elms is playing Celeste on this recording. He wanted this instrument to be better appreciated, but it has achieved greater acclaim thanks to John Williams’ score for the Harry Potter films.

Albert highlighted a new Sinatra Album - "Sinatra Vegas", a 4 CD set and DVD containing all new material. This is on the Rhino Label and will be available from 27 November, 2006.

David’s "Parish Announcements" then bought our attention to the Petition which has been prepared re. the demise of Brian Kay’s BBC Radio 3 Programme, scheduled to be axed early in 2007. Several copies of the petition were displayed around the room and members were encouraged to add their name if they so wished. Alternatively they should write to Michael Grade at the BBC, to the address on the sheets. (Ironically Michael Grade has now resigned from the BBC).

David gave advance notice of the Society’s 100^th meeting at which two gentlemen, Matthew Curtis and Adam Saunders, will be presenting music in April 2007 - two young composers who very much support the Light Music tradition. They were both well received at David’s introduction. We look forward to hearing from them at our next meeting.

 David sent us off to the first interval for tea, coffee and biscuits, not forgetting the raffle draw, with Bob Farnon’s "Jockey on the Carousel".

PART 2

Back to Seats Music - "Seventh Heaven" by Bob. With (practically) everyone returned to their seats, Albert introduced a popular regular presenter to the top table, Rodney Greenberg, who received a warm response from the floor. Rodney then introduced today’s special Guest of Honour, veteran BBC Radio and TV producer Trevor Hill to great applause.

The first point made was reference to the article in the Daily Telegraph on the Gowers Report. Result: "No reason to extend the 50 year ruling". This announcement was received with a round of applause.

Trevor then set the mood by putting his own "interference" on the mike to check the sound system, to much laughter from his audience.

This conversation went at a cracking pace and began with Trevor’s early BBC years with Margaret Potter at Manchester Piccadilly where Rodney first met Trevor. Trevor considered himself exceptionally lucky. While living at 21 Holmwood Grove, N7 he heard some piano music - a neighbour was playing, which got him interested in singing. He won a scholarship to St Paul’s Choir School under the direction of Dr. Field-Hyde where Trevor had to sight read a piece of music. It soon became evident that he required the removal of his tonsils and adenoids. He was keen to listen to the wireless and in particular national programmes of the BBC, through which he was introduced to a gentleman call Sid Walker. Following further exchanges Trevor referred to Rodney as "a walking (seated) encyclopaedia".

Trevor referred to the BBC’s "Band Wagon" programme with Arthur Askey and Richard Murdock which he attended at Mr Walker’s invitation. Trevor got a job at the BBC – one example ITMA door noises!

Music - "Marching On" by Walter Groer - composer/ musician who owned a printing press. Trevor involved with Radio Newsreel, from No. 200 Oxford Street (in the basement of a premier store). Broadcasting House was bombed in 1940.

We heard tape of Dunkirk Evacuation Day. The next day the AEFP was launched. From the BBC Record Library came the signature tune of Forces Favourites which became Two-way Family Favourites from Hamburg - Andre Kostelanetz’s "With a Song in My Heart". Cliff Michelmore, then squadron leader was interviewed; left message to Jean Metcalfe - her response "He’s quite a smoothy, your squadron Leader M!"

Margaret Potter produced her own version of Children’s ( Hour) Magazine, serials etc. Trevor played extracts from "Robin Hood", "Calling All children" 1947 Auditions. Playback of cast of Robin Hood which included many well known celebrities including Cliff Michelmore and Roger Moore etc. Colonel Warren was the first "Ovaltiney". Ivy Benson and her Band, who, following certain escapades with Roger Moore were known as Ivy Bunsen and Her Burners!

Trevor worked for a time with BBC West Region and was then posted North of England to Manchester, worked with Cpl (later Sgt) Ray Martin at base camp in Germany, involving Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. Hugh Garston-Green NWDR. Hamburg Philharmonic.

Other reminiscences included Violet Carson and a whistling postman. The BBC commissioned composer Ray Martin to score music for "Pied Piper" for which Margaret and Trevor wrote the script.

Many other memories followed with names such as Jimmy Edwards, David Hughes, Wilfred Pickles bringing smiles of recognition. Trevor worked with Harry Corbett and his famous glove puppet Sooty for 12 years, and we saw film of Roger Moffat introducing the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra. Other famous animals to rub shoulders with Trevor included Pinky and Perky.

Trevor also knew "Leonard Trebilco", young Bob Farnon and Ted Hockridge. Working on the AEF Programme of the BBC meant acting as sound engineer for Glenn Miller, who wanted individual microphones for each instrument. During a lunch break more were hastily found to satisfy his ego, but it was not possible to connect them to the mixer. Miller didn’t notice, but praised Trevor for the improved sound!

Trevor reflected on further memories from the early days, involving such well known people as Max (Maxwell) Davies - Master of the Queen’s Musik, Julie Andrews, C.S. Forrester and the "Hornblower" books, composer Johnny Pearson which brought the conversation to a close and a special appreciation and thanks from Rodney Greenburg followed by spontaneous applause from the audience.

Albert thanked Rodney and asked Trevor to draw the raffle. We then broke for the Second Interval and returned to the strains of "Sleigh Ride" arranged by (Wally Stott) Angela Morley.

PART 3

Albert back announced the last piece and then reminded us that Ralph and Geoffrey had videod Trevor’s presentation for our archives. He then introduced our last guest speaker, Peter Worsley.

Peter told us he was formerly a Headmaster at a Secondary School, and now working for "This England" magazine. His first selection was Charles Williams’ "The Old Clockmaker" on the Grasmere label which introduced the BBC Children’s Programme "Jennings at School". Second selection from "London Fields Suite" by Phyllis Tate - "Rondo for Roundabouts". The suite also included "Hampstead Heath".

Peter has produced 3 volumes of TV and radio themes on sale at today’s meeting. He also edited This England’s "Book of British Dance Bands" (from the twenties to the fifties) and the "Second Book of British Bands" - (the Singers and smaller bands) and more recently "London Lights" - A History of West End Musicals.

Peter’s third selection was "Giocosso" by Issac Casabon and so "signed off". Albert thanked Peter for an interesting selection and recommended his books (on display) to us, with Christmas approaching.

Albert then introduced our regular presenter Brian Reynolds who proudly reported that his book "Music While You Work" has gone into reprint (interrupted by general applause). The book has bought family members of many of the artists to Brian, seeking more information.

Brian highlighted the music of Cecil Norman (1907-1988), selecting first "Whistling Cowboy" played by the Gilbert Vinter Orchestra (BBC Midland Light Orch); "Bubble and Squeak"; "Fancy Free" played by the Gerald Crossman Players -Brian confirmed that Gerald Crossman is still alive and well. Next followed "Out and About" with the composer and The Rhythm Players. Final number in recognition that Cecil Norman always used to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning - "Up with the Lark" by Harold Collins and his Orchestra. And a final note. In 1967 Cecil Norman ceased broadcasting - on his 70^th birthday. Albert thanked Brian for his tribute to a warm reception.

Albert introduced Cab Smith who decided to present extracts from Robert Farnon’s "Canadian Impressions" Suite commencing with the opening piece "Gateway to the West" (the album was your reporter’s 1^st LP bought while serving in Aden in 1956 and one of his treasured possessions!).

Next followed Bob’s impression of the main route through NW Canada - "Alcan Highway" and finally that great piece that forms the grand finale to the album - "Canadian Caravan". Cab’s selection was of course taken from Mike Dutton’s Vocalion CD which really brought out the atmosphere in the music. Sadly this has now been deleted.

Albert thanked Cab for a great selection and then asked David to present a short selection to close the meeting.

David chose a piece from the Hallmark album with Tony Bennett, a real seasonal number - "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire). And we came to the end of a great afternoon of music and narrative with lots of humour for good measure.

David thanked all the presenters by name and especially our Guest of Honour Trevor Hill.

Then a word of thanks to the ladies at the front table and for arranging the raffle etc. And finally Tony for his great technical support.

David and Albert wished everyone a Happy Christmas/New Year, a safe journey home and looked forward to our next meeting, April 2007.

Closing music -"Melody Fair" (Robert Farnon), Manhattan Playboy (RF)

The Robert Farnon Society celebrated its first 50 Years with a special meeting on 2 April 2006, followed by Dinner afterwards. Peter Burt looks back on that milestone in our Society’s history, which he simply calls …

A Memorable Afternoon

Around 40 members and friends attended the very first meeting of the Robert Farnon Appreciation Society, as it then was, on Sunday 15 April 1956 at the Bonnington Hotel. Three times as many of us made our way on 2 April 2006 to the same venue in London’s Bloomsbury, to celebrate the first 50 years of meetings. One thing I am sure of is that those pioneer members were not faced with such an array of sound and vision equipment that, courtesy of our technical wizard Tony Clayden, enhanced our afternoon’s enjoyment. And what an afternoon!

Bob’s High Street preceded the announcement summoning us to our seats, followed by his ‘The Road to Hong Kong’ Overture. It was then into the programme proper with another Farnon composition, Proscenium. David Ades welcomed us – especially "two very, very special guests", David and Patricia Farnon – before handing over to his co-host Albert Killman, who introduced ‘Farnon Fantasy’: a pot-pourri of A Star is Born, Peanut Polka, Jumping Bean, Westminster Waltz, Portrait of a Flirt and State Occasion. This had been recorded by the LPO at a Royal Festival Hall concert in 1974 conducted by Bob who, we were reminded, had fronted all of the four major London symphony orchestras.

There followed a particularly poignant part of the programme as David and Albert remembered RFS members and friends no longer with us. These were, naturally, Bob himself, Kenneth Head [one of our founders], Michael Maine, Don Furnell, Percy and Edna Foster, Jimmy Gibbs, George Collins, Peter Bunfield, Robert Rudhall, Joy Fox, Ron Goodwin, Clive Richardson, Sir Vivian Dunn, former British Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath [who wrote for this magazine], Trevor Duncan, Alan Dell, Adelaide Hall, Robin Boyle and Dame Anna Neagle [another JIM contributor]. Mention was also made of Dorothy Head who was unwell. [She sadly passed away a few days after the meeting, as reported in our last issue].

David next introduced the first video of the afternoon. This comprised short extracts from RFS meetings in November 1986, the first ever to be recorded on videotape, and May 1987 when Bob’s 70^th birthday was prematurely celebrated and another special guest was a very amusing Alan Dell. It was great to hear that distinctive voice again. Fenella Ades had been behind the video recorder when it seemed The Bonnington was not quite as upmarket as it is nowadays.

We then had a few words from Brian Reynolds about his new book ‘Music While You Work – An Era in Broadcasting’ [Book Guild] which traces the story of the well-loved BBC radio programme from 23^rd June 1940 to 29^th September 1967 with revivals in 1982, ’83, ’91 and ‘95’. Albert followed by introducing recorded messages from Forrest Patten and Bob’s brother Brian in the USA, Alan Heinecke "Down Under" in Australia, and Pip Wedge in Canada. Brian told us that his favourite composition of all that Bob wrote was the first 8 or 10 bars of To A Young Lady.

David introduced Jan Eriksen from Norway who was with us in person to recall the time in 1991 when Bob conducted the Norwegian Radio Orchestra with George Shearing as the soloist. It was worth the price of admission to hear them playing A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square.

The "parish notices" brought us to the first interval and the cutting of Sylvia Rix’s wonderful presentation cake with its liberal infusion of sherry. David also passed on greetings from friends who could not be with us, including John Parry, Frank Comstock, Philip Lane, Peter Taylor in Spain, Horace Bennett, Malcolm Laycock, Brian Coleman and Rodney Greenberg.

It was back to our seats, accompanied by Bob’s recording of Varsity Drag, for David to announce and then introduce our new President, David Farnon. Before playing, with accompanying anecdotes, three of his favourite pieces recorded by Bob - Playtime, The Newsreel March and Country Girl, vocal by Tony Bennett - David told us that over the past year the family had been engaged in compiling a complete catalogue of Bob’s works from all sources with the intention of it going on the Internet. Then there was Bob’s personal library with previously unrecorded works which would be gradually released. There was also a hope that one of Bob’s works might be played at next year’s Proms to mark the 90^th anniversary of his birth.

Next we heard an extract from Bob’s Symphony No. 3 [The Edinburgh], performed by The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra conduced by William Eddins, taken from a Canadian radio broadcast supplied by RFS member Graham Newton.

Albert recalled that TV cameras visited Bob at his home on Guernsey at least twice during the 1980s. From 11^th December 1981 we saw an interview from BBC 1’s ‘Pebble Mill at One’; then from 10^th April 1988 another with Harry Secombe in his long-running ‘Highway’ show on ITV. We learnt that Bob was a man of strong faith who both believed in the power of prayer and that any talent anyone has is God given. The extract concluded with one of Bob’s finest pieces, Proud Canvas. Albert remarked on the hours that David had spent in transcribing the afternoon’s videos from the Society’s archives onto DVDs.

The popular, witty and very personable Brian Kay was next on playing Ray Martin’s Once upon a Wintertime, featuring Bob’s "perfect" arrangement for Vera Lynn with the Robert Farnon Orchestra, and Horn-A-Plenty, with Bob conducting the Danish State Radio Orchestra in his own composition. After thanking Brian, David told us that also in our audience were the very first editor of JIM, John Costin, and the very first equipment controller, Jim Palm.

At this point Albert diverted from the script [at least, from David’s script] to thank David and Moira – "without them we would not have a Society" – and to show our appreciation by presenting them with the gifts you can read about elsewhere. After sustained applause and David’s brief word of thanks, we remembered "a great friend of the Society", Don Furnell, sometime Assistant Secretary, by listening to a recording of his voice from one of our meetings, and his beloved Metropole Orchestra playing Theme from ‘The Flintstones’, with Clark Terry on flugelhorn. Albert’s response was "Yaba Daba Doo!" John McGlynn conducting The London Sinfonietta in We’re in the Money brought us to the Brian drawn raffle and the second interval. The interval music was Bob’s City Streets.

We returned to our seats clutching our CD purchases to hear a piece especially composed by RFS member David Barton in honour of our 50 years: Nostalgic Journey. The final segment of the afternoon’s entertainment opened with Philip Farlow making a moving tribute to the fondly remembered BBC’s Michael Maine, who "from about 1974 for a good long period was magazine editor and cornerstone of the first properly formulated Farnon discography … as well as presenting pieces at the top table." He tragically died in April 1984 as the result of a road accident, aged 33. Happier times were recalled by hearing recordings of his voice on air.

A request from Norman Grant and several other members followed this with extracts from the film ‘Spring In Park Lane’ – music by you-know-who. Cab Smith had to be part of our special meeting and appeared briefly to bring us "The Guv’nor’s" arrangement of Victor Schertzinger’s The Fleet’s In – quality if not quantity. The last item was more video clips, this time from ‘Captain Horatio Hornblower RN’, preceded by an introduction from Bob talking about his work on the film – "the best score I’ve written."

David said how lovely it was to have a member from America, James Cahall in the audience again; and then closed the meeting with the usual thanks all round and, as Melody Fair and Manhattan Playboy came over the loudspeakers, 68 of us made our way downstairs to the Jubilee Suite for the evening’s celebrations.

There we shared in good food and friendship, seasoned by the humour never far from the surface at our gatherings, with music by Ann Adams and her Ladies’ Palm Court Quartet and speeches from David Ades, John Wilson, John Fox, Sigmund Groven, Brian Kay and Tony Clayden. Albert was our admirable Master of Ceremonies. It was a memorable evening to crown a memorable afternoon. And as our President had said earlier in the day and our Secretary had echoed at the end of the meeting: "Here’s to the next 50 years."

Peter Burt

A Coda from our Secretary…

For once in my life I was really stumped for words. When Albert suddenly departed from our rough script, and asked Moira and myself to join him in front of the Presenters’ Table, I was completely unprepared for what was to follow. And my dear Moira was moved to tears!

After saying some very kind words about our involvement with the Society for the past 50 years, Albert presented Moira with a charming brooch which she will wear with pride at our future meetings.

My own presentation was a copy of Robert Farnon’s Decca 78 of Jumping Bean and Portrait of a Flirt inside a special case bearing the inscription:

"The Robert Farnon Society 50th Anniversary 1956-2006

Presented to David Ades in recognition and appreciation of his many years of loyal and devoted service to the Society and of his tireless support and promotion of Light Music"

This means more to be than any other award I have ever received, and it occupies a place of honour directly in front of the desk at which I do all my work. I will see it every time I look up and I can only express my sincere thanks to everyone involved in making this wonderful thing happen. It is something I will never forget.

Occasions such as this require a concerted effort from so many people, and the success of the Anniversary Meeting is due to willing contributions from so many. Members of both the main Committee, and the London Meetings Sub-Committee, assisted in numerous ways, and there were also other generous helpers who joined in on the day. I hope I remembered to thank you all during the meeting or at the Dinner, but if my memory failed me I hope you will forgive someone who was still so overwhelmed by the kindness shown to him.

The events were captured on video and even as this magazine is being prepared a souvenir DVD is being assembled by Geoffrey Richardson (much to his regret, Geoffrey was abroad at the time, so he missed the meeting). Ralph Thompson was in change of the cameras during the day, and he was ably assisted by Brian Joscelyne and Stephen Wright. To them all I extend my sincere thanks. There is still a lot of work to do but we are hoping that the finished DVD will be ready for members to buy before Christmas – watch out for details in the next magazine.

Once again I must say what a real delight it was to welcome Mrs. Patricia Farnon and her son David (our honoured new President) during the afternoon and evening. Their presence provided the real ‘icing on the cake’.

And talking of the cake (yes, I know it’s a very corny link!) we are so grateful to Sylvia Rix for providing such a delicious ‘special treat’ for all the members. Not only was it stunning in its clever design, but it also tasted even better than it looked!

Ann Adams and her Ladies provided us with some delightful music before, and during, the Dinner, and it was good to see several non-dining members occupying chairs near the musicians and enjoying the music.

Finally (for now!) I wish to thank Malcolm Powell for taking the excellent photographs which appear on the previous pages in this feature, and on the pages immediately following this report. If you would like copies you can contact Malcolm direct – details of his address etc. on the inside front cover. (The photo on page by Simon Mentha was kindly supplied by Ann Adams).

As Peter Burt said at the top of his report: it was a truly Memorable Afternoon!

David Ades

Shortly after our Meeting, the following message was received from one of our honoured guests, BRIAN KAY

"Congratulations to you all for a splendid 50^th Anniversary Celebration. I was so glad to be there, and to be made so welcome by everyone, and enjoyed the occasion enormously. It was fascinating to see those old videos and the excerpts from the two main films were terrific, as I’d never seen either of them!

With you guys around the name and the music of Robert Farnon will surely last forever – quite right, too!"

In November 2005 the Robert Farnon Society welcomed one of Britain’s foremost film and television composers to its London meeting. As Peter Burt reports, DEBBIE WISEMAN captivated everyone present!

Debbie delights

For those of us visiting London and using its public transport for the first time since July 7^th, there may have been some anxiety in travelling to the refurbished Derby Suite at the Bonnigton Hotel on November 27^th. As we joined in a moment’s silence to remember the passing of Robert Farnon and two past stalwarts of the Society, Edna Foster and Peter Bunfield, I am sure our minds also turned to those whose lives had been so tragically cut short or been maimed in the atrocities.

Movingly, the lights were dimmed as we listened to Bob’s recording of Peacehaven. What happened in July may also have deterred some of us attending Bob’s Memorial Service, so it was good to have Albert introduce a video of short excerpts from the eulogies, including one by our indefatigable Secretary. David himself told us there was a CD of the eulogies available for sale. He then spoke briefly about the acclaimed BBC Four programme ‘Music for Everybody’ and introduced excerpts featuring Robert Farnon. Albert followed this by introducing extracts from two exclusive Society DVDs: recordings of recent visits to our meetings by Trevor Duncan and Ernest Tomlinson, both of whom we were sorry to hear were currently in poor health. [We have, of course, subsequently lost Trevor, as reported elsewhere in this issue]. These events had been expertly recorded and edited by Ralph Thompson with assistance from Geoffrey Richardson.

The popular New Releases spot was next with an interesting Ron Goodwin arrangement of The Stripper [Vocalion]; Silverheels by the Palm Court Orchestra conducted by Charles Job [Canada]; Castles in the Air - Celebrity Symphony Orchestra [Guild]; First Meeting from John Fox’s "The Love of Joy" - Royal Ballet Sinfonia [Campion], and What Kind of Fool Am I? sung by Lance Ellington with the John Wilson Orchestra [Vocalion]. David was hugely enthusiastic about the last disc but this listener would have preferred Andrew Cottee’s arrangement without the vocal! Wearing my CD seller’s hat, I still think that with so many noteworthy new releases it is pity room can only be found for four tracks. Stanley Black’s closing theme from ‘The Naked Truth’ sent us to the first interval and a welcome cuppa.

We resumed our seats for what was without any doubt whatsoever the highlight of the meeting. This was an extended interview conducted by Rodney Greenberg with our Guest of Honour, Debbie Wiseman MBE. Debbie is one of our finest composers whose work has been widely praised by critics and music lovers. She discussed her career with Rodney and gave us a fascinating insight into writing and recording music for television and movies. Her words were enhanced by video clips from ‘Arsène Lupin’, ‘Freeze Frame’, ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’ and ‘Wilde’. Albert voiced the appreciation of all present for a "most delightful hour".

Debbie drew the raffle and we broke again for another interval and a further opportunity to gladden Ellen, Paul, and myself [not forgetting the Treasurer] by buying more CDs.

Bob’s Trumpet Talk brought us back to our seats for Cab Smith, eschewing his usual Swing Session, to play three more Farnon compositions all connected with transport: En Route, Main Street, and Rush Hour. Paul Clatworthy was then welcomed to the platform and brought us Con Alma played by Dizzy Gillespie accompanied by Mr Farnon and his Orchestra. Back, then, to Albert who introduced two selections from Canadian radio programmes marking Bob’s death.

Firstly from Robert Harris’s CBC Radio 2 programme ‘I Hear Music’, an hour long tribute to Bob, came I Got Rhythm with Bob and the AEF Band. Interestingly Robert’s father had worked with Bob when he first came to this country. Secondly from a weekly radio show presented by RFS member Glenn Woodcock on Jazz FM [Toronto], which devoted the whole of its 5-hour time slot to Bob, we heard the closing music from the AEF ‘Canadian Caravan’ show that Bob later re-orchestrated for Canadian Impressions.

DVD excerpts had been a feature of the afternoon and David appropriately brought proceedings to a close by introducing two more from TV: the thought to have been long lost ‘The Best of Two Worlds’ presenting Robert Farnon and his Orchestra with Douglas Gamley and Petula Clark; and the more recent BBC4 showing of a ‘Friday Night Is Music Night’ with John Wilson conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra in Portrait of a Flirt, March from A Little Suite, and A Canadian in Mayfair.

David’s customary closing thanks all round included the welcoming ladies who take our money for admission and the raffle, and the tireless Tony Clayden who not only supplies and operates the technical facilities but leads the team responsible for devising the meeting. On Advent Sunday it was a shame there was no seasonal music, but it had been an afternoon reassuring us that some things are still right with our world.

RFS LONDON MEETING – SUNDAY 3 APRIL 2005
A Report by Paul Clatworthy

RFS Secretary David Ades opened the meeting by welcoming our Membership Secretary Albert Killman back on board after a spell in hospital. He had missed our previous meeting, and it was good to see him back at his familiar place on the top table.

Before the meeting proper began, the ‘settling down’ music featured two titles from that rare Everest LP "Mike Todd’s Broadway", which Robert Farnon made ‘anonymously’ while still under contract elsewhere. Even more rare is the stereo version, never released in Britain, from which came Stay With The Happy People and Violins from Nowhere.

To get the meeting off to a rousing start we heard some of the themes composed by Robert Farnon for the TV mini-series "A Man Called Intrepid" starring David Niven. Bob Farnon provided the music from his own collection as it was never released commercially. Frenesi was played as a tribute to the late Artie Shaw, dear to many Farnon members as a string section was used, at the time quite an innovation.

Tony Bennett singing the late Cy Coleman's composition "The Riviera" showcased Farnon's skill as a Big Band arranger, exhilarating music yet to make it on to CD! Next André Leon did a presentation explaining the problems he had after being commissioned to resurrect the Boosey and Hawkes mood music library. One unlikely source - Australia! Luckily they were not so quick to use a skip as the London HQ! Alan Bunting has done a wonderful clean-up of the sound when transferring these vintage 78s to CD. Alan must spend 24 hours a day with this valuable restoration work, and several "snippets" of the music (now back in catalogue) were played to illustrate the scope of "mood" music recovered plus some words from Alan Bunting thanking those who had helped with rare missing tracks.

David and Albert played some new releases, including film music by Clifton Parker (from the Walt Disney film "Treasure Island"); Matthew Curtis’s Bon Voyage and the Percy Faith Orchestra with a spirited version of Leroy Anderson’s Pyramid Dance. Albert Killman gave the good news that Angela Morley is still composing and will be a guest on the Brian Kay programme in July – we heard her Adrift in a Dream from a new Guild CD. Part of Eric Rogers’ score for "Carry on Abroad" complete with some "earthy" humour followed - "great to listen to on a boring car journey" said David. Before the first interval David gave apologies for absence and welcomed some distinguished guests.

Part two opened with Cab Smith’s "Swing Session" which featured Bob Farnon's arrangements of Just in time, Come fly with me and Black Bottom. The first title was almost a certain choice if Sinatra had ever got to work with Bob again, sadly never to be!

Robert Habermann introduced our main Guest of the afternoon - David Snell, harpist, pianist, composer and conductor, all in one talented man! David talked of working with Tubby Hayes, Johnny Scott, Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine. Vocalion have just issued a CD version of his Decca L.P "The Subtle Sound of David Snell" (CDLF 8110) from which we heard his delightful version of The Surrey with the Fringe on Top and one from the KPM mood library International Flight. David also worked for the Bruton library and we heard the evocative Sleigh Ride.

The BBC Radio Orchestra also had the benefit of his talent until its untimely demise at the hands of the accountants! David played one of the pastoral pieces he was most pleased with, Evensong; I am sure everyone present agreed with his choice. David continued his illuminating spot with the end credit music for the story "Sun Child" one of his film soundtracks. Next the last part of his Divertimento for Strings recorded by the L.S.O. He ended with Walking Happy especially written for him by Bob Farnon.

Albert ushered all guests back to their seats for the last part of the proceedings, beginning with Brian Reynolds’ trawl through his archive of broadcast recordings, one a forty year old version of Robert Farnon's whimsical Moomin - good to hear it again! Next a jaunty tune The Green Cockatoo by the late Harold Geller and his Orchestra. Brian ended with Eric Jupp's "Beau Geste" with some sprightly string writing. All the music a trip down memory lane from the days of "Steam radio"!

Tony Foster presented The Sid Lawrence orchestra playing Caribbean Clipper with some neat answer and call brass work. Another inspired choice was Urbie Green leading a twenty piece trombone choir with a unique version of Stardust. Third choice André Previn backed by a rousing big band led by Johnny Williams steaming through I only have eyes for you. Tony ended with Robert Farnon's Canadian Caravan from the CD "Canadian impressions" I still treasure the letter Bob sent to me when I enquired where I could get a recording. Bob kindly wrote back saying it was a "Chappell" record not then available to the general public but that he intended to include it on a future Decca L.P. Ah these years later it still thrills!

Next guest was one of the world’s foremost bassoonists, Daniel Smith who told of his visit to Robert Farnon who had written a "Concerto for Bassoon" and needed a player who could improvise jazz on this most unwieldy of instruments! He said that Bob was having trouble with his legs and was very frustrated because he dearly wanted to conduct the composition himself. Daniel said the score was absolutely amazing! Twenty five minutes long in three parts. Bob considered the composition to be his best work ever! Something he had worked on for a long time in his mind.

David Ades played Farnon's version of "Song of Scandia" an arrangement Farnon had written for Bassoon exploring the instrument’s potential. We had a preview of John Wilson's new CD "Dance Date", the chosen tune being an Alan Roper arrangement of "The Lady in Red" which Stan Kenton had a minor hit with in the late fifties. Lastly we heard two from the latest "Guild" collection one being my favourite Harold Arlen tune What's Good about Good-bye played by the magnificent David Rose Orchestra.

The happy gathering dispersed to the sound of Melody Fair, all looking forward to the next meeting.

ONE OF THE MOST ENJOYABLE Peter Burt reports on the latest London meeting at the Bonnington Hotel on Sunday 28th November 2004

As usual some glorious Farnon sounds regaled the ears of members and friends as they took their seats for our 95th London meeting. The choice as our overture this time was Robert Farnon's Hollywood Stars played by the Bratislava Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Breiner, on the Vocalion CD "The Wide World of Robert Farnon".

Instead of occupying the co-compere's chair, we were sorry to hear that Albert Killman was languishing in a hospital bed in deepest, darkest Essex. We wished him well as we welcomed his replacement at the music players, André Leon, "literally off the plane from South Africa". The meeting had begun with a few moments of silence in memory of that lovely lady, Joy Fox, who had died in August - and the first music we heard was of her singing Send In The Clowns, accompanied by husband John at the piano. There was to be more of John later.

The programme proper kicked off with Hey There, the title track from the new CD featuring Bob's sensitive settings of familiar compositions and arrangements, especially for Jane Pickles on flute, with Jack Parnell conducting the Royal Philharmonic Strings. This was followed by the opening titles from Bob's music for the film 'Maytime in Mayfair', which David Ades told us had never actually been put out on record.

And so to John Fox. It was a pleasure to be celebrating his 80th birthday and he [very bravely, I thought] shared with us some of his memories and choose some of the music Joy loved. He was introduced with his familiar theme for the BBC Radio Orchestra series 'String Sound': String Magic. He said how his life in music had been a marvellous time playing, composing and arranging the music he loved.

After more String Magic, John told us that he loved fairy tales and played Beautiful Princess and Gallant Prince [two of his 'Characters from The Fairy Tales'], from the CD 'British Light Music Premieres Vol.1' on Dutton Epoch. We then heard Love Walked In, his own favourite of all the songs sung by his beloved wife, who sang professionally as 'Joy Devon'. This was followed by another of his own compositions, Strings in 3/4 [also on the above CD], which caused him to say: "It is a composer's glory to hear his music played just like that. It makes you feel good".

John then reminded us that he was deeply fond of the English countryside and played his A Pastoral Reflection from 'British Light Music Discoveries Vol.5' [ASV White Line]. John's last choice was a real showstopper that brought a smile to our faces: his terrific arrangement of London Pride, a medley of tunes taken from a radio broadcast introduced by Steve Race. John finished by telling us that he was working on an orchestral suite to be called 'The Love Of Joy'. Thank you, John; we hope to see you at our meetings for many more years to come.

The recent CDs section of the programme was a bit short considering the number of new titles on sale. We heard Robert Farnon's Mauve from Vocalion's 'Colours' album featuring Vic Lewis and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Gary Williams singing You're Sensational from his sensational new album with the John Wilson Orchestra, 'Alone Together', on full-price Vocalion; and Dancing In The Dark, a track from Guild's 'Light Music From The Silver Screen', with the MGM Studio Orchestra conducted by Adolph Deutsch. This conjured up the memorable scene from 'The Band Wagon' of Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in New York's Central Park - what Denis Norden has described as "one to steam up your bi-focals".

As we came to the first interval and a welcome "cuppa", we learnt that we had in our audience Matthew Curtis [with a new CD out], Eric Parkin, Philip Lane and David Snell. It was David Snell playing the harp on Robert Farnon's Walkin' Happy which accompanied us to the refreshments, anticipating his starring appearance at our next meeting in April 2005.

Our "back to seats" music of segments from Fairy Coach, Concert Jig, Dick's Maggot and Waltz For A Princess gave us the clue that the next presentation was to be another celebration of an octogenarian: the engaging Ernest Tomlinson.

Recalling his appearance at one of our meetings two years ago, Ernest said that this time he wanted to introduce us to some of the lesser-known aspects of his output. So we heard Fantasia On North Country Tunes, commissioned by the Hallé Orchestra in 1978; I'm Late and a vocal version of Little Serenade, from broadcasts in 1959 by the Ernest Tomlinson Music Makers; Cornet Concerto, Concerto For Five [saxophones] and his own favourite self-penned composition, Pastorella from 'The King and the Mermaid'.

Each piece was prefaced by stories of how and why they came to be written. Ernest also talked at some length about Library or Mood music. He told us how it was unpopular with performers because they were only paid for it once, how for 25-30 years the Musicians Union insisted that all recordings of it must be made abroad, and how even such a luminary as Frederic Curzon was blacklisted for conducting it abroad.

From Ernest's own extensive catalogue of Library music we heard Gay And Vivacious and a selection from 'Cartoon Capers': Trickie Quickie, Flitting Along, Enter Villain, Pride And Fall, Cccrash, Quick Ending, Fast Asleep, Flickering Flames and Busy Chatter.

David asked about Ernest's recent broadcast interview with Brian Kay, which prompted him to tell us about how in 1962 he had won prize money of one million liras for writing Symphonica 1962. Ernest admitted that he did not like listening to other music very much as he found that what he heard influenced his own music too much.

One of his many stories was of the lady who, on seeing his name under "Music Arrangers" in the local Yellow Pages, had phoned him to ask whether he could arrange to sell her deceased husband's double bass that she had in the attic. It had been a wonderful hour or so of entertainment from a man whose many styles of music we could only marvel at.

After another interval, and opportunities to investigate the many tempting offers on the RFS Record stall, we were welcomed back to our seats with Robert Farnon's lush arrangement of Do I Hear a Waltz - one of the titles he recorded around 40 years ago for Reader's Digest, which have gradually reappeared piecemeal on various compilations over the years. It would be nice to have all of them on just one CD, supplemented, of course, with some similar material to fill the disc.

Brian Reynolds, is invariably good value for money with his "Radio Recollections" and this time he brought us an Ernest Tomlinson arrangement of a Leroy Anderson Potpourri played in 1958 by Joseph Muscant and his Orchestra; James Warr's Little Lisa played by the BBC Midland Light Orchestra in a Harold Rich [with us in the audience] arrangement conducted by Sverre Bruland, taken from an early morning programme 'Bright and Early' complete with mid-music time check; George Scott Wood and his Music playing Don Roberto by accordionist Albert Delroy; and Pretty Trix written by jazz violinist Joe Venuti and played by the Sidney Sax Strings.

It was good to have the Request Spot again as this used to be a regular feature of our meetings. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, a Farnon arrangement sung by Tony Bennett, was played for Norman Grant. Peter Luck's choice was Oranges and Lemons, arranged by Spike Hughes for the BBC Light Orchestra conducted by Vilem Tausky, and used around 50 years ago at the start of broadcasting on the BBC Light Programme. This came from Tony Clayden's impressive collection of early radio and television memorabilia, into which he has promised to delve deeper for one of our future meetings.

Another highlight of the afternoon - [not!] - was yours truly playing tracks from three releases possibly in the running for "CD Of the Year 2004": Love's Dream After The Ball - Mantovani [Guild], Deep River - Frank Chacksfield [from 'Beyond the Sea'] [Vocalion] and Serenade To A Lemonade - David Rose [Living Era].

Once again David had only time to play two of his own choices: Max Geldray, who had died in October, playing Crazy Rhythm with the Wally Stott Orchestra; and extracts from the forthcoming Guild issue '1950s Volume 2' - Midnight Matinee [Len Stephens], Postman's Knock [Angela Morley], The Magic Touch [Hugo Winterhalter] and Moonlight Fiesta [Winifred Atwell with the Cyril Ornadel Orchestra] with its wonderful horn whoop at the end.

The Leslie Jones Orchestra of London's recording of Melody Fair brought to an end a meeting that, in my opinion, was one of the most enjoyable of recent times. All credit to David and especially André for handling the controls so efficiently, and to Tony Clayden, sound technician extraordinaire, and the London committee.

 Editor: every so often our Society hosts a very special event which is destined to go down as one of the highlights to be fondly remembered by those of us fortunate enough to be present. Such an occasion occurred in April 2004, when Trevor Duncan accepted our invitation to be our Guest of Honour for our Spring London meeting. In the following report, Peter Burt recreates the magic of that memorable weekend.

 All in an April afternoon

 RFS Spring Meeting Report 2004

 Sunday 4^th April and the usual venue of the Bonnington Hotel on London’s Southampton Row. But a rather special meeting as we had as our Guest of Honour a man described by Paul Clatworthy in an earlier report as "music composer supreme", Trevor Duncan.

 There was a larger than usual gathering of members to hear about his career spanning over 50 years and to celebrate his 80^th birthday. His interlocutor was André Leon who, due to his interviewee’s self-effacement, sometimes had to almost answer his own questions. Trevor was led through his life in music as firstly BBC balance engineer then producer [including the ‘Show Band Show’], orchestrator and composer; and was prompted to comment on the music he wrote and people he met along the way.

 He told us how he first came to orchestration through the encouragement of Ray Martin, how prior to that Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade had sent shivers down his spine, and how he loved the sea. When bracketed with John Williams as "going down in history" for one aspect of his music he quipped: "I shall go down in history as not earning as much money as John Williams".

 We had recorded birthday greetings from Ann Dawson, referring to him as "charming and wonderful company", George Barker of Media Music and Peter Cox of KPM.

 And the music? There was High Heels [in three different versions], Tomboy, Making Tracks [aka Homeward Bound, aka 20^th Century Express], Dramatic Pointers, No Place To Hide, Escape Velocity, Quatermass, Panoramic Splendour ["a masterpiece of vision"], Passage To Windward, Overland To Oregon, St. Boniface Down, Girl From Corsica, Mademoiselle Moderne, Waltz For Terri, A Sequence For Sentimentalists, East Side Story, Climb to Altitude, Icicle Ride, Plan 9 From Outer Space, The Unwanted - The Boy, March from ‘A Little Suite’, Folk Tune and Little Debbie. And we had Trevor’s piano party piece of asking for four notes at random from the audience and then turning them into a composition. What riches!

 The afternoon had started with a voice a lot of us would not have heard for years, Donald Peers, singing Bow Bells with Robert Farnon’s Orchestra, from the new ‘A Portrait of Farnon’ Living Era CD. The recording included a nice interpolation of the bells as we used to hear them on the old BBC Home Service.

 Our friend Heinz Herschmann is one of several men about music who were born in 1924 and a birthday tribute in the form of his Fluerette followed. A Farnon number was next, Little Miss Molly, featuring the mellifluous flute of Jane Pickles with the Royal Philharmonic Strings conducted by Jack Parnell – a track from the latest RF sessions, which at the time of writing are still to be put out on disc. After that a forthcoming CD of, this time, old recordings made up Cab Smith’s Swing Session. The CD in question, ‘Showcase for Soloists’, and the tracks were: Travellin’ Jazz [Dennis Wilson], Walkin’ Happy [David Snell] and Trumpet Talk [Kenny Baker and Stan Roderick].

 Another long-time friend and regular attendee at our meetings is John Fox, also celebrating his 80^th birthday this year. It was good to see him again [accompanied by his lovely wife, Joy Devon] and to hear his My Village [from ’Countryside Suite’] played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by RFS member Gavin Sutherland. This drew spontaneous applause as David told us it had at a recent Bournemouth Gramophone Society meeting where he had been invited to present a programme of light music.

 Unlike in November, new releases did not miss out this afternoon as they were given a good as the first interval approached. Albert and David brought us Heyken’s Serenade, an early Ron Goodwin single on the old Polygon label now restored by Alan Bunting on one of the new Guild ‘The Golden Age of Light Music’ CDs; the very descriptive Busy Streets from Roger Roger’s ‘Whimsical Days’ [Vocalion]; and Siboney, another of those tunes that always seem to get a good recording, this time arranged by Angela Morley and played by Sidney Torch [Living Era].

 We then heard Rose, Rose, I Love You, a sprightly arrangement [Leon Young?] from Frank Chacksfield’s ‘South Sea Island Magic/In the Mystic East’ [Vocalion 2 CDs for the price of 1]; Body and Soul from ‘Delicado’, Mr Bunting’s best-selling double-CD on Living Era of early Percy Faith tracks; Dennis Farnon’s Girl Bird played by The New Concert Orchestra on Vocalion’s ‘Boosey & Hawkes Music Library Volume 1’; Monia Liter and his Orchestra’s Blue Fandango from the highly acclaimed – and not just by me – ‘Lovers in Rome/Lovers in Paris’ [Vocalion]; and, finally, in tribute to another of this year’s 80^th birthday celebrants, Angela Morley, her Captain Nemo Film Theme from RFS member John Wilson and his Orchestra [Vocalion].

 John was with us in the audience [without his orchestra] as were composer Matthew Curtis and Ann Dawson of Boosey Media. In his "parish notices" before we broke for refreshments, David introduced two overseas visitors: James Cahall, all the way from Kentucky just for this meeting, and Sigmund Groven from Oslo.

 The final part of the afternoon brought more Radio Recollections by Brian Reynolds. This time he concentrated solely on recordings he had taken from ‘Music While You Work’ broadcasts: Lavoona [Bernard Monshin and his Rio Tango Band]; Tango Yvonne [Louis Voss and his Kursaal Orchestra]; Toni’s Tune [Michael Freedman and his Orchestra] and Bandarilla [Harold C Gee and his Maritza Players]. Memories for some, possibly almost unknown to others. There were more recent memories as we celebrated the life of the sadly departed Bob Monkhouse, a good friend to light music. We heard an extract from one of his Radio 2 ‘Legends of Light Music’ shows where he introduced RF’s Yes! We Have No Bananas and a very rare 78 of George Melachrino’s Spring Morning [subsequently re-issued on Guild GLCD 5104].

 David got his personal selection in this time as he brought us "The ‘Lost’ CDs" – Farnon recordings that have never been released. These were Pia Zadora singing Little Girl Blue, George Benson with One Goodbye, Eddie Fisher’s Love You Didn’t Do Right By Me, and Catana, a track intended for the Robert Farnon Orchestra’s ’At the Movies’ album. We also heard another item from Bob with Jane Pickles, Piccolo Flight. Albert had the final word telling us that the latest new recruit to the Society was a certain Mr Neil Hefti.

 As David expressed his usual thanks to one and all, especially Tony Clayden, may I in retrospect on behalf of all of us present thank David and Albert for their afternoon’s exertions as our co-hosts.

 Peter Burt