Foreword
Now, here's an oddity … and there's another. In fact, there are loads of oddities! In a
diverse collection such as The WORLD OFs, though, there will always be a bunch of individual units that are not easily categorised or gathered together ... except, maybe, in an old shoe-box labelled 'Oddities'.
NIGEL BROOKS SINGERS
Englishman Nigel Brooks was a composer, having written three ballets and an opera, and an arranger who also conducted.
He spent some of his career at the BBC where he conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra. He created the Nigel Brooks Singers whose main claim to fame (arguably) was their several appearances on the Basil Brush Show in the mid-seventies. The troupe had a penchant for the religious song as is in evidence here on THE WORLD OF SONGS FOR SUNDAY: NIGEL BROOKS SINGERS (SPA 482). Songs range from the punchy ‘Hey ho. Away we go!’ of ‘Riding on a Donkey’ to the rather more sombre ‘We Crucify Lord’.
TRAVEL THE WORLD OF TRAVEL (SPA 212) throws up an interesting collection of music from around the world. First up on our whirlwind tour is Iraq where we can hear Abdul-Karim Al-Azawi improvising on a pair of kettle-drums known as a tabl (the same as the Indian tabla). It is the smaller right hand drum that is the actual tabla delivering sharp notes whilst the larger left hand one is known as ‘dagga’ and produces dull beats. Up the road a bit we come to Rumania where Maria Rusu treats us to two love songs and, sandwiched between them, a piece played on cimbalom by Mircea Nitu. A cimbalom is a stringed instrument a little like a dulcimer, the strings being struck with two small
hammers. Moving rapidly on we have an Hungarian folk dance called ‘Fergeteges’ which is a rapid, almost angry tune played on a duo of cimbaloms by Csaba Pálfi and Katalin Balogh followed by ‘Gyors Csárdás’, a similarly frantic piece played by the Szeged Restaurant Gypsy Orchestra.
We now visit two countries that no longer exist; Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Some might add Rumania to that list as the common English spelling of this country, since 1975, a couple of years after the release of SPA 212, became Romania. Less pernickety is consideration of Yugoslavia, which fractured into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia in the early 1990s, and Czechoslovakia, which, around the same time, became the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I should add the proviso that the history of both these former countries is a little more intricate than described above so tread carefully if launching into a dissertation on the subject on the strength of this, otherwise fine, manuscript.
Anyway, back to love songs which is what is delivered by Dunja Rihtman, Jasna Hadzisalihovic and Milan Nesic on behalf of Yugoslavia whilst we are back into cimbalom territory with the first of two tunes from Czechoslovakia. This is a humorous love song and is accompanied by a children’s song which drives a dance in which a young lady dresses as a queen, representing the beginning of Spring that would seem to equate to May Day celebrations in the UK. Side 1 ends with a couple of bouzouki tunes from Greece. The examples here are of traditional-style bouzouki performed for us by Ioannis Thassarigikis who, the LP back cover advises, is an inn-keeper. A bouzouki is a stringed instrument with three of four pairs of strings which are plucked by a plectrum. The name stems from the Turkish word, ‘buzuk’ which means ‘broken’ which might explain one or two things to those who do not appreciate this music but I ain’t included in that number. I love the bouzouki!
We open Side 2 by dropping in on Finland where we find another song of love, this time being sung by Tyyne Nikko over the sound of kanteles. Kanteles are stringed instruments and those used here have between 28 and 36 strings which are plucked with fingers or strummed. Kanteles may be played on the lap but larger ones, known as concert kanteles, would normally be placed horizontally upon a table in front of the player. The song is from The Kalevala, a compilation of poetry which became known as the national epic of Karelia and Finland. Karelia, incidentally, is an area of land divided between Finland and Russia; historically Finnish, the eastern part was ceded to the Russians during the beginning of the Second World War. Oops! There I go again. Let’s get back to THE WORLD OF TRAVEL, shall we? There follows ‘Vinteliska’, a folk tune picked out on the kantele by Juho Kareinen.
Now, for a change of climate, let’s drop south to the Andalusian community in southern Spain. This track is a section of the Good Friday procession where the carriage of Jesus Christ is borne upon the shoulders of almost fifty dock workers. This procession takes place during Easter week when the mood is quite solemn but after this period, things lighten up to more normal levels and the contrast can be felt when listening to the second piece which is played on guitar and sung by Jose Bedmar and Antonio Fernadez respectively. Next we have a Tarantella from Sicily; a lively courtship dance named after the tarantula spider which was blamed for a bout of hysteria in the 1600s and this is followed by a lullaby called ‘La Vò’. A short journey in south eastern direction finds us in Israel. If you’re walking, wear your wellies – the Mediterranean Sea lies en route. When we get there, we find the police preparing for aggro between Israelis and Arab settlers, which, on this occasion, the LP back cover notes informs us, involved readying for action with concertina, saxophone, trumpet and drum and being prepared to use ‘em. Thus it was, that Rioka Becker found herself facing up with cover from the Tel Aviv Police Band and belting out a tune about Simona who came from Dimona to quell potential riots. Hmmm …
Now, the word ‘music’ appears something like 41 times on the back cover, all spelt correctly (as you might expect – it is quite an easy word) except one so now, ladies and gentlemen, for your entertainment, Musci from India. Instruments heard here are a tall kettle drum known as a nagárá, a set of fire bells called a pancha ghantà, a pair of metal discs beaten with wooden hammers called ghodis and a kànsar which is a metal disc hit with a stick. This percussive piece is played at the evening illumination ceremony which is part of the Festival of lights or Diwali. More exotic instruments feature in the follow-up track, a devotional song sung by Shrimati Gupta over a bansuri which is a transverse bamboo flute, an esràj which is a long-necked fiddle along with the above-mentioned tablà.
Finally, we end our trip around the world in Bali with a Monkey Dance played by the Gamélan Orchestra conducted by Anak Anak Gde Mandera, during which around 180 men sit around a flaming torch singing a kind of five part counterpoint. Part of the performance involves the enactment of a story of the kidnapping of Rama’s wife, Sita, by bad boy Ravana in the Ramayana, an epic poem, the title of which means ‘Rama’s Journey’. Sita is rescued by white monkey, Hanuman and his horde of monkeys, whose prattle and babble can be heard.
VERDI AND JIMMY SILVER The front cover of THE WORLD OF PARTY SINGALONG: RECORDED LIVE AT THE ASTOR CLUB: FEATURING VERDI AND JIMMY SILVER AND HIS MUSIC: 30 PARTY FAVOURITES (PA 441) … is that title long enough? Now, where was I? Oh yes, the front cover of this LP, well, it depicts a gathering around the ol’ Joanna in someone’s front room. There’s Dopey Dave on the right who seems to have mastered the art of holding two pints in one hand (or maybe this is a clever depiction of what he sees when he takes a draft). Next to Dave there’s Tony, a thoughtful chap who prefers to be called Anthony – well, as he would say, it is his name! In the corner behind Ant is Nervous Nev chewing his fingernails as usual … NEV! How many more times … and that is someone’s dad at the piano. He doesn’t live there – it was just the last chair available.
The music on the record is produced by a bit more than a piano, however. Over a background of jostling and clinking is the voice of Italian Mr Edoardo Verde, Dino to his friends, who also sings all over the top of Jimmy Silver’s sort of traditional jazz/Dixieland kind of sound. The concept of an Italian gentleman singing songs like ‘How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm’ and ‘Don’t Dilly Dally on the Way’ is a challenging one and how are we supposed to compute him singing ‘Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty’ and ‘I Belong to Glasgow’! Perhaps you just have to be there. Where? The Astor Club, that’s where. It was a glitzy, chic nightclub in London’s Mayfair frequented by Royals and villains and pretty much everyone in between which opened in 1930 and operated for about 40 years. WORLD OF starlet, Kathy Kirby made her debut solo performance there and Tom Jones was second on the bill to Engelbert Humperdinck one time. Any road up, there’s fun of a particular kind here if you want it.
AMONG YOUR SOUVENIRS Peter Forbes Robinson, Valerie Monese and Reginald Leopold were popular on BBC TV and radio in the 1970s on programmes such as that in the title AMONG YOUR SOUVENIRS (SPA-R 465). The legend across the bottom of the front cover explains
that we may expect ‘fragrant memories from the Victorian and Edwardian period and a little later’. Bass singer Robinson and soprano Monese were frequent participants in this music show whilst Leopold and his orchestra backed the stars on pretty much every episode. Forbes Robinson is probably better known for his work with classical pieces by such as Mozart and Britten but he could turn his voice to many roles such as those on our LP. Here we have, for example, ‘Glorious Devon’ which Robinson renders in a way that would not be amiss in a Gilbert & Sullivan opera and then his deep bass rumbles through ‘If I Can Help Somebody’, a ballad that is reminiscent of a Rogers and Hammerstein musical. The orchestra gets a couple of run-outs and the ‘Waltz: Bal Masque’ sounds so light and airy that, for me, it is the highlight of this record. A close second, however is ‘Lo, Here the Gentle Lark’ sung by Monese, whose voice twitters and trills, crescendos and decrescendos, rises and falls as it emulates the song of the titular bird. This may not be to everyone’s taste – it isn’t really mine but my ears are open and there is nearly always something to glean from any record, I reckon.
HILDEGARD KNEF Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was a German stage and movie actress and singer who wrote around 130 songs, had her nose broken by a blow from her mother at age 13 years and was also a prisoner of war. The latter event is worthy of a romantic film script as Hildegard, in order to be with her lover, dressed as a soldier and took part in the action. It turned out to be a short-lived venture as she and boyfriend were taken
prisoner by the Russian army. Knef escaped with the help of fellow prisoners but her beau, unfortunately, was executed. In an actual film, Hildegard Knef caused some scandal in Die Sünderin (The Sinner) with a short nude scene which was a movie first in the Germany of 1950. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Knef began her singing career at 37 years of age. Hildegard Knef has just one LP in the series, THE WORLD OF HILDEGARD KNEF (SPA 181) on which she sings one of her own songs, co-written by Hans Hammerschmid, ‘Fur Mich Soll’s Rote Rosen Regnen’ which translates into English as something like ‘It Should Rain Red Roses for Me’.
OWEN BRANNIGAN Located in the village of Dudley within the county of Tyne & Wear, is a road called Owen Brannigan Drive. Fame indeed. Brannigan was an English bass singer of folk songs and opera where, in the event of him appearing in a Gilbert & Sullivan, we might refer to him as a buffo – a comedic bass. Though his repertoire was quite wide, it was the works of English composers Benjamin Britten and Gilbert & Sullivan that
make up the main part of Owen Brannigan’s recorded portfolio along with some Mozart. At age 21, whilst working as a joiner, Brannigan began singing with a local opera society, prior to which, his experience stemmed from his time with the choir for which his father was the organist. It was nine or so years later that things got a little more meaningful when, after studying at the Guildhall School of Music, he was appointed bass singer at Westminster Cathedral. Even though he was busy building army camps during the early part of the Second World War, he managed to maintain a singing career with some of his work being broadcast on BBC radio, a fine shop window of his talents as it turned out because he was heard by a contemporary, Joan Cross, who later became Director of the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company, whom he was encouraged to join. He made his inaugural professional appearance at age 35 as Sarastro in The Magic Flute by Mozart and, interestingly, by performing premieres of new works, was able to create characters such as Swallow in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. As well as opera, Owen Brannigan performed several oratorios, similar to opera in that they involve orchestra, choir and soloist playing particular characters but whereas opera is essentially theatrical, oratorios are concert experiences; opera without character interaction and the dressing up. Brannigan was awarded the OBE in 1964. The record? Why, that would be called THE WORLD OF OWEN BRANNIGAN (SPA 321).
WINIFRED ATWELL Whilst Winifred Atwell features in many of the stories of other WORLD OF personnel, it seems only fair to give her her own slot here, if only on the strength of the number
of hit UK singles that she achieved in her time at the top of her profession. Check out these stats: Two No. 1s, one Nos. 2, 3 and 4, two No. 5s, a No. 7, No.9 and two No. 10s, two other Top 20s and a couple just outside. Fifteen hits in all. Quite a haul, I reckon. Mind you, Winifred was pretty much in a field of her own with her boogie-woogie cum ragtime pop piano playing style. Her first three singles (Britannia Rag, Coronation Rag and Flirtation Waltz) can all be found on THE WORLD OF WINIFRED ATWELL (SPA 51) along with ‘Black and White Rag’, which was used as the theme tune for BBC TV’s Pot Black
snooker challenge show. Other tunes are ‘Crazy Words, Crazy Tune’ and ‘Winnie's Waltzing Rag’. Atwell’s other LP is AROUND THE WORLD OF WINIFRED ATWELL IN 80 TUNES (SPA 256) which features four medleys on each side and in all there are, of course, 80 tunes including such classics as ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm’, ‘Ba Ba Black Sheep’, ‘Symphony No. 6 in B minor Op. 74’’ and ‘Ten Green Bottles’. That all takes some remembering! Winnie also crops up on
THE WORLD OF STEREO ACTION (SPA 125) playing ‘Portrait Painter of Paree’.
ANTON KARAS Unlike Ms Winnie Atwell above, Anton Karas had just the one tune that was anything like well-known. In fact, it’s beginning to look as though Decca had enough eligible participants to have added a WORLD OF ONE-HIT WONDERS to the WORLD OF roster. Karas was the Viennese zither player who composed the so-called ‘Harry Lime
Theme’ nick-named after the fictional con-artist from the film The Third Man. THE WORLD OF ANTON KARAS & “HARRY LIME” (SPA 118) contains the first three pieces from The Third Man (‘The Harry Lime Theme’, ‘The Café Mozart Waltz’ and ‘Anton Karas Second Theme’) plus nine other works played on zither by Karas himself. Anton Karas wrote all 21 of the tunes from the film but only one other on our LP, ‘Zither Man’ but we would not know Anton Karas at all if not for a slice of luck. Since he was 15 years of age, Karas was earning pocket money from playing his zither in bars and taverns around Vienna and was doing just that at age about 42 when The Third Man film director Carol Reed (male) popped into town. He was mulling over what to do about the soundtrack of his film when he heard, coming from a tavern, the unusual but pleasing sound of Karas’ zither. The director went in search of the music man and did a deal resulting in loads of new music though curiously, the tune that became the theme for the film was composed some 20 years beforehand!
RAYMOND BAXTER THE WORLD OF MOTORING (SPA/A 191) features the sounds of 34 different motor vehicles manufactured from 1895 to 1961 from around the world. There are British Rolls Royces and Bentleys, American Chryslers and Oldsmobiles, Italian Alpha Romeos and Fiats, German Mercedes and D. K. W.s and French Renaults and
Bugattis. What’s that? D. K. W.? Oh, that stands for Das Kleine Wunder (The Little Miracle). The D. K. W. in question is the 1939 MeisterKlasse, a name that was in production, in one form or another, since 1932 until the beginning of the Second World War. These splendid frog-eye type cars with long bonnets evolved in the 1950s, after the war, to a vehicle resembling the British Morris Minor saloon and traveller. On the back cover, there are a few words on each model featured and the commentary on the record is delivered by Raymond Baxter. During the above-mentioned war, Baxter became acquainted with a different type of motor; he was a Spitfire pilot! Five or so years after the war, he turned his hands to cars and became the motoring correspondent for the BBC. He even competed in the Monte Carlo rally several times but it is his work on TV science programme, Tomorrow’s World that most of us will remember him for.
THE TORNADOS The Tornados were brought together by Tony Meek as a backing band for such stars
as WORLD OFs Billy Fury. If you know a Tornados record at all, it is most likely to be No. 1 tune, ‘Telstar’, their second single release. It is, naturally enough, ‘Telstar’ that kicks off proceedings on THE WORLD OF THE TORNADOS (SPA 253) followed by ‘Love and Fury’, their first but failed attempt at chart topping. The Tornados charted with four other songs; ‘Globetrotter’, which got to No. 5, ‘Robot’ – No. 17, ‘Ice Cream Man’ – No. 18 and ‘Dragonfly’ – No. 41, all of which feature here. Some three years after forming in 1962, drummer Clem Cattini left to begin life as a session drummer and found himself on 42 No. 1 hit singles including ‘Diane’ by The Bachelors, ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’ by Tom Jones, ‘Release Me’ and ’The Last Waltz’ by Engelbert Humperdinck, ‘Grandad’ by Clive Dunn, ‘Ernie’ by Benny Hill and ‘Barbados’ by Typically Tropical plus others by non-WORLD OF artistes. Original guitarist George Bellamy is the father of current band Muse frontman, Matthew.
RAY MARTIN The music of Raymond Stuart Martin features amusingly on FAVOURITE TV THEMES (SPA 333), FAVOURITE TV THEMES VOL. 2 (SPA 391) and he has a tune on THE
PHASE 4 WORLD OF COLOURS (SPA 484). Now, this being the world of WORLD OFs you’ll probably have noticed a trend with the names of many of our artists so you’ll not be surprised to learn that Ray was born Kurt Kohn. Yes, Ray was born in Austria but immigrated to England just before World War II so was just in time to do six years in the British Army. I reckon, therefore, if he wants to be known as Ray, that’s fine by me. On being stood down from the army, he began working with WORLD OF’s Mantovani and
Stanley Black and a year or so later, he had Vera Lynn recording his co-written tune, ‘Once Upon a Winter Time’. Apart from covering other artists’ music, including TV themes as performed on two of the records mentioned above, he wrote around 1200 other tunes. In case you feel like counting them all, I should warn you that apart from his assumed name, he goes by about ten others, for example, Lester Powell and Tony Simmons. I can get you started though because the ‘Horse of the Year’ TV theme from SPA 333 is one of his. Classic themes covered over the two TV records include ‘The Ironside Theme’,
Mission Impossible Theme’, ‘High Chaparral’ and the UK’s very own ‘Emmerdale Farm’ along with ‘Match of the Day’ and ‘Grandstand’. The track he contributes to the Colours record above is ‘Black is Black’ though some would say the black is not, scientifically anyway, a colour at all.
ED ‘STEWPOT’ STEWART The back cover notes of THE WORLD OF ED ‘STEWPOT’ STEWART (SPA 283) tell us that BBC radio DJ Ed’s very first broadcast over the BBC airwaves was when he was a young lad. Little Ed sang ‘Away in a Manger’ to his Uncle and Aunt who were living in Newfoundland, Canada. Apparently, his nick-name ‘Stewpot’ came when he pulled up his shirt and rolled his belly and made it look just like a revolving cooking pot … whatever that is! Still, he took the name with him to many different broadcasting jobs, the most popular being Junior Choice making simultaneous (to begin with) transmissions over BBC’s Radio 1 and Radio 2. The first tune played on his first show was, for your information, ‘Early One Morning’ by Roger Whitaker. The usual sort of records being played by Edward Stewart Mainwaring on the programme were ‘Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)’ by WORLD OF’s Benny Hill and Max Bygraves’ ‘You’re a Pink Toothbrush’. On the LP, though, we have some that I remember from my youth including ‘Consider Yourself’ from stage show Oliver, ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ from the film of the same name and ‘The Happy Wanderer’ with singalong lyrics such as: ‘Valdareee. Valderaaa. Valdereee. Valderaa ha ha ha ha ha ha’. That was one happy wanderer! REGINALD DIXON
Reg was long-term organist at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool but he was already
well-respected at the start of his tenure in 1930 and his playing must have impressed further because, five years later, the original Wurlitzer was replaced with one constructed to the orders of Mr Reginald Herbert Dixon. This came about due to Dixon outliving the capabilities of the existing machine and requiring a bigger, better instrument to satisfy his dancing audience. He stayed at Blackpool for 39 years before retiring from the post, continuing to tour Europe as well as the UK then
went back to Blackpool for his 40th anniversary gig. Reginald has made more recordings than any other organist playing classical pieces as well as ballroom dance music. Reginald Dixon crops up on THE WORLD OF REGINALD DIXON (SPA 38) and THE WORLD OF REGINALD DIXON VOL. 2 (SPA 474) as well as THE WORLD OF CINEMA ORGAN (SPA 195) on which he stars on about half of Side 2 with a medley of eight tunes which, refreshingly, do not appear on the other two records. Both of the former LPs begin and end with renditions of ‘I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside’ so it must have been something of a signature tune. He shares SPA 195 with Horace Finch, Sidney Torch, Donald Thorne and Dudley Beavan.
HORACE FINCH Beginning in 1926, Horace spent some of his career at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool as pianist for orchestral as well as solo work but when the original Wurlitzer was replaced with Reginald Dixon’s, it was moved the short distance to the Empress Ballroom. Finch was invited to play this one for dance sessions whilst Dixon was on the new one. Fair dos, Reg did construct it. Anyway, a few short years later, Finch got the chance to develop a new Wurlitzer for installation in the New Opera House which was next door to the Empress. Like Dixon, Horace was obliged to
introduce an intermission in his playing of the organ in order to help the RAF play their part in winning World War II but when no longer required, was released back to his trusty Wurlitzer.
SIDNEY TORCH
Though born in London, it was to Ukranian parents, Mr and Mrs Torchinsky and it was his father’s idea to change the family name to something less exotic. So it was young Sidney Torch who, with his photographic memory, entered the piano exam room. It’s a shame that his photographic memory allowed him to forget to pick up the music sheets for the compulsory aspect of the exam. Still, due to aforementioned memory, he passed with flying colours. I suppose this shows that with a photographic memory one can afford to selectively forget. Later in life, he became an accomplished cinema organist but when it looked like the cinema organ was going out of style, he began writing, arranging and conducting light orchestral stuff. For those of you that think it might be amusing to make Sidney Torch your speciality subject, you’ll need to know that his work might be catalogued under a Denis Rycoth. Why such a name? Answers on a signed cheque to … only joking. The name is an anagram of his own, of course.
DONALD THORNE Donald James Dean Thorne made a name for himself with the Granada cinemas where he became known as The Cheeky Chappie of the organ due to his perky repartee between tunes. Later, he worked with smiley WORLD OF star of the piano, Winifred Atwell. Thorne had some success with his own compositions but sadly, neither of the two tunes entrusted to him on SPA 195 are his.
DUDLEY BEAVAN Soon after the start of the Second World War in 1940, morale of factory workforces was low and the Government decided, correctly as it happened, that the answer was Music While You Work where cheerful music played on national radio was piped into factories. One programme between 1030 and 1100 and another mid-afternoon.
Anyway, the most suitable tunes were deemed to be those that encouraged whistling or singing and, you may be wondering, what is the point of this story – wait for it. The very first programme was performed by (drum roll, please …) Dudley Beavan! Dud’s music was appreciated by everyone who was listening so not only was morale boosted in factories but people at home doing the dusting or sitting in traffic jams in their car benefitted from a good ol’ singsong.
RONALD CURTIS
Another hero of the organ was Ronald
Curtis whose career began at the John Compton Company where he developed a flair for the inner workings of these musical monsters and where he soon became an organ builder himself. Curtis enjoyed the whole of THE WORLD OF CINEMA ORGAN VOL. 2 (SPA 344) all to himself. In fact, the LP is subtitled ‘Ronald Curtis at the Compton Theatre Organ’ and this, despite having an earlier LP in the series in his name, THE WORLD OF THE HAMMOND ORGAN (SPA 303). Ronald Curtis was known for his work with both pipe and electric organs playing both Comptons and Hammonds. Compton first produced pipe organs in the 1920s and then electric organs from around 1932. The Hammond, which was produced from 1935, is an electric instrument.
MECHANICAL ORGANS AND MUSIC There are two WORLD OF LPs appertaining to mechanical contraptions associated with the production of music; THE WORLD OF MECHANICAL ORGANS (SPA 115) and THE WORLD OF MECHANICAL MUSIC (SPA 145). The notes on the back cover of SPA 115 tell us that there are several types of mechanical organ, largely forsaken but lovingly restored by determined enthusiasts for our listening pleasure. Here we can hear works on a concert organ, showman’s organ, fair organ and dance organ. The
Carl Frei Concert Organ was originally built as a dance organ but was disassembled and then reassembled according to Mr Frei’s own specifications. This organ has two outings on the record. Two tunes are also provided by each of the Hooghuys 101 Keyed Showman’s Organ and the Wellerhaus 84 Keyless Showman’s Organ. What’s the difference between keyed and keyless, you might well ask. Well, both types are fed strips of cardboard with holes punched into them. In the case of the keyed system, the instrument has small metal keys jumping through the punched holes, each key thus released operates an air valve which ultimately allows a burst of air to blow through appropriate pipes and thus, produce a melody. In a keyless system, the hole-punched strip passes over a row of air outlets and as the air is released through a hole, it operates a valve much the same as the keyed version. Most of the holes make musical noises but some are there for percussion. The back cover notes suggest that the Hooghuys has a nasal tone … hmmm … let’s have a listen … well, I can hear no real difference but that doesn’t mean that there is none. What I can hear, though, is a joyously out-of-tune end to ‘The Dam Buster’s March by one our next instruments, the Gavioli. There are three fair organs on our LP; the Mammoth Gavioli Fair Organ, the Mammoth Marenghi Fair Organ and the Carousel Van Der Beeck. The latter is a small 84 key instrument and has a softer voice than the Mammoths although all fair organs are built to play loud in order to
attract passing ears to a fairground in desperate need of one’s money. These organs also have two pieces of music each on this record.
And finally, dance organs. There is just one featured here but it does have two songs. We have the 112 Key Mortier Dance Organ. This is a 112 key organ and the extra keys allow the playing of an accordion as well as more regular type sounds. Now, the thing is, whilst I can’t really tell very much difference between one of these splendid machines and another, and not recognising any of the tunes except Ivanovici’s Donauwellen Waltz maybe doesn’t help, I reckon that if one fancied a little bit of mechanical organ of a dull evening, one need look no further than SPA 115.
The second record of this pair (SPA 145) features 21 different mechanical music machines so let’s just give the record a spin and see what we have. First up is a couple of rather plain pieces, known simply as ''Tune No. I and II composed by someone called Unknown, played on a Belgian Café Piano. These two tracks sound a little muffled particularly when the next tune, a Rossini overture, which is played on a Nicole Frères 6 Overture Box No. 34924 21” Cylinder Music Box, rings nice and clear. The song recalls cow-bells high up in the Austrian Alps. Well, that or the ice-cream van coming round the corner. Then follows a Strauss waltz played on a Nicole Frères 6 Air Forte Piano Keywind No. 34055 13” Cylinder Music Box and 'Casta Diva' from Bellini's Norma on a 10 Air A Rivenc 17” Cylinder Music Box.
Next we have two pieces on a Paillard Vaucher Fils 8 Air Hymn Box No. 10232 11” Cylinder Music Box – very pretty, giving a hymn-like quality to 'Abide With Me' and 'Nearer My God to Thee'. The Imhoff & Muckle Chamber Barrel Organ No. 2296 also sounds a little churchy in places running through four tunes which lean towards a traditional Irish get-together including Auld Lang Syne; all very quiet, not unlike a church mouse but then in bowls the boisterous brother, an Imhoff & Muckle Barrel Piano which changes the mood to something resembling a saloon bar full of grizzle-faced cowboys except that the songs played are composed by Strauss again, Gounod and Waldteufel. Next up is a Bremond 22 Key Organ Box and a Musical Snuff Box which throws up, to my ears anyway, a tinkly non-tune to bring Side 1 to a close.
Side 2 begins with a clutch of tunes, all very nice in their way, played, in the following order, on an Ariston Organette by Ehrlich C1880 (two tunes including 'The Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Gilbert), a Henry VIII Dance on a Regina Disc Music Box Single Comb Table Model C 1895, Suppé's 'Light Cavalry Overture' on a Pop Polyphon (Victorian) and then a couple more Victorian style machines; an Autoglockenpolyphon (Victorian Juke Box) and a Superpolyphon (High Victorian Music Machine) but this one, I feel, allows the tinkliness to conceal the melody which contrasts with the relatively big sound of the 24 Key Barrel Organ (Bevington & Sons) that follows.
Sounding like a small piano, a Steck Pianola prances tidily through its piece nice and cleanly. It sounds a little Chopin to me but then, it was written by him. Two tunes from Verdi's Il Trovatore including the 'Anvil Chorus' on a Nicole Frères 4 Air No. 36581 Music Box offer up a clean, pretty music box sound and then we have a Brugger & Straub 6 Air Music Box, a 4 Air Mandoline – Piccolo 2 combs 13” Cylinder C 1870 Music Box and a Lecoultre 6 Air Keywind Music Box, the latter of which throws up another Strauss waltz.
Finally, a couple of Gilbert & Sullivan songs on a Mojan Manger Mandoline – Piccolo 12” 6 Cylinder Music Box which sounds pretty but the melody was maybe a little obscured by the flittering harp-like sound. Now, whilst I do realise that the above may have been hard going (try writing it!) but I was keen to acknowledge each of these mechanical music machine with their splendid names. Job done!
PEGGY ASHCROFT and JOHN GIELGUD Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud were contemporaries in the theatre and they come together on THE WORLD OF PEGGY ASHCROFT & JOHN GIELGUD (SPA 573) where extracts of Shakespeare plays are combined with five of his sonnets. Dame Edith Margaret Emily (Peggy) Ashcroft has been awarded a commemorative stone in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey and maybe she’d earned it. When she played Winnie in
Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, she was embedded up to her waist in earth (in theory at least) from the opening of Act I. This was the easy bit, however, because from the beginning of Act II, she found herself buried up to her neck! You won’t read many words on Ashcroft without learning that she was the finest Juliet (Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) of her generation. Similarly, you won’t read many words on Sir Arthur John Gielgud without learning that he was the greatest actor to have taken on the role of Hamlet from Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Still, he DID have around 500 stabs at it! He
must have been quite good, though, as he is one of only 15 actors to have won all four American entertainment awards; the Oscar (for outstanding achievements in film), Grammy (recording), Emmy (television) and Tony (theatre) awards. Mind you, he had to wait – his first Tony came when he was 44 and he was first awarded a Grammy when he was 76! His first Oscar came when he was 78 and he was 87 when he won his Emmy!! Both Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud turn up on THE WORLD OF SHAKESPEARE (SPA 167) reading parts from The Taming of the Shrew and Othello respectively.
RALPH RICHARDSON
John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson along with Laurence Olivier, were thought of as the greatest English actors of their day, particularly when on Shakespearean duty. Our attention today, however, centres on a slightly unusual role for Richardson on THE WORLD OF GREAT CLASSICS VOL. 5: PROKFIEV: PETER AND THE WOLF:
CLASSICAL SYMPHONY (SPA 90) where he narrates the symphonic children’s tale. Peter and the Wolf was composed as an educational device to teach young people about orchestral instrumentation by allocating different instruments to the various animal characters in the story. Such an undertaking may have been very much to Ralph Richardson’s liking as he once claimed that he didn’t like his face at all1 and here he can be heard but not seen. I’m not sure it is much of a workout for the rich baritone of his voice and, ever reluctant to criticise though I am, the delivery seems a little lacking in enthusiasm. Still, the proceeds from the sale of this record were donated to the Malcolm Sargent (who conducts the London Symphony Orchestra here) Cancer Fund for Children.
REF:
Other references available on request
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Well now, I have some news which will disappoint all of my readers (both of them). The above is the penultimate post! HOORAY! So what can you expect from the last one (apart from emotion and tears - I mean)? Well, we still have Lieutenant Pigeon and a couple of stage shows to cover and then the bulk of the post will be taken up by the Comedians of the WORLD OF team and Lieutenant Pigeon. Then we have a biggish section on Steam Railway Records which leads onto Lieutenant Pigeon before we finish up with those records which are housed in non-conventional covers. Oh, did I mention Lieutenant Pigeon?