Bob & Alf Pearson

Bob0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:08

Well, where were you born? Uh well, we were both born in Sunderland.

Presenter0:12

You come from a musical family? Very musical, yes, yes. On both sides? Yes, both sides.

Presenter0:18

Alf, how early did you start having lessons?

Bob0:21

I went in the choir, church choir, when I was nine year old.

Presenter0:25

Mm-hmm.

Bob0:25

So that was my first grinding.

Presenter0:27

Was Bob in the choir too? Yes.

Bob0:29

Yeah.

Presenter0:30

Which one of you is the pianist in the act? I am. Bob. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Presenter0:34

What did you both want to be when you were at school? Something to do with music, always. Did you have that idea too, El?

Presenter0:41

Yes, always.

Bob0:42

Yeah.

Presenter0:42

What in fact did you both do when you left school? Well, when I left I went into uh a quantity surveyor's office. Father was in the building trade, he had his own business and he wanted me to have a a thorough grounding. But at nights of course I still carried on with the music. Mhm. What about you Alfred?

Bob0:59

Well, I went into the office in father's business.

Presenter1:01

Yeah, sorry.

Bob1:02

you know, costing a clerk, costing a clerk and that sort of thing.

Presenter1:06

And you were entertaining in the evenings as well?

Bob1:08

No, not really.

Bob1:10

Not like Bob.

Bob1:11

Not in the the the band like Bob anyway.

Presenter1:13

Well, he was in a band. I I didn't hear about this one.

Presenter1:17

Well just as well perhaps.

Presenter1:19

That was a real uh Fatal Five band I was in, but nevertheless it uh

Presenter1:24

It gave me my uh grounding into the pop side of music. Before that it had always been classical stuff, you know. Mhm. When did you start singing duets together in public?

Bob1:36

When the

Bob1:38

When we left the choir when our voices broke, see, w and when our voices came back again, Bob was a tenor and I was a baritone. And we joined the church amateur concert party and we started singing then.

Bob1:52

And more or less the same as what we do now. Better, I think.

Bob1:58

You came to live in the South after a while, didn't you?

Bob2:00

Yes, father got a contract, a building contract down.

Bob2:04

near Kingston on Thames, and so the whole family moved down there. And uh we used to go out at night to parties, things like that, and sing, and one night there was the uh recording manager of a grammophone company there, and heard us singing. He asked us if we would like to make some records, which we did.

Bob2:24

And then Christopher Stone, who was probably the first disc jockey, he put them on his programme and we began to get inquiries from theatrical agents offering us dates. And uh one thing led to another and that

Bob2:39

How we shot it.

Presenter2:40

Yeah. So really you were on the building site by day and in the theater by night? Yes, that's right.

Presenter2:46

What made you decide to throw up

Presenter2:49

The safe, reliable building trade and going to the theatre.

Presenter2:53

Well, the office came in

Presenter2:56

uh so much for theatrical uh dates that we we just had to make our minds up

Presenter3:01

One way or the other, so we chose the other, you know, we came for this side of it. And you've never regretted it? Not really, no.

Presenter3:09

So you took the plunge and became full-time professional entertainers. In those days, Bob, there were enough music halls to keep you busy all the year round, weren't there? Oh, more than enough, yes. The business was uh really flourishing then. It was rather a gypsy existence, I should think, moving on from town to town every week. A lot of travelling to be done, yes, and different digs to be in every week, but we enjoyed it all. Could you settle down and do a summer show?

Presenter3:32

Oh yes, we're doing a summer show this year. We've always done summer shows. How early in your career did you make your first broadcast?

Presenter3:40

Oh, back in Savoy Hill days. Of course we really weren't in the business as uh professionals then. We were still toying with the idea. But we uh our first broadcast was with John Sharman in Music Hall. And of course at the same time we were doing uh

Presenter3:56

The Saturday nights with Ambrose from the Mayfair Hotel.

Bob4:01

Eltic Carlos

Presenter4:02

What other series have you done? Um there's one that you went for several years, Alf.

Bob4:07

Yes, uh raise a luff with Ted Ray. We were in that for three years. Of course that was really the big break for us in in the business.

Presenter4:15

Yes. You did some character acting in that series, surely? Oh yes, we all had to chip in and do little bits and pieces. You know, I did that uh it was acomy, Ivy.

Presenter4:26

Oh, Mrs. Hoskins and uh

Speaker 14:29

Hello Uncle Roy, this is Jennifer!

Presenter4:33

I never knew that was Ubo.

Bob4:33

I never knew about

Presenter4:35

What other series did you do?

Bob4:38

Hit the road.

Bob4:40

Uh the pleasure boat, join in and sing.

Presenter4:43

Yeah.

Presenter4:44

And uh he was something in the way of pioneers in the early days of television, I believe.

Bob4:49

Yes, and we used to do them from the Baird Studio in Long Ecre.

Presenter4:54

Mhm. In those days I believe you having finished a song, because there was some kind of filming involved, you could nip round the back of the camera and see just the end of the song again.

Bob5:05

Yes, that's right. Finish the song, wait a couple of seconds, then dash round and see what you looked like. Dreadful sight to me.

Presenter5:12

On the village

Bob5:13

Yes, the picture was only the size of a cigarette card and it was in sort of copper and black.

Presenter5:14

Good.