Ivy Benson

Presenter0:00

This download

Speaker 20:01

is the only

Presenter0:02

Extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:08

I they, what part of the country do you come from?

Ivy Benson0:10

I'm Yorkshire, I was born in Leeds.

Presenter0:11

Yes. Musical family?

Ivy Benson0:13

My father was a brilliant musician.

Presenter0:16

Professional?

Ivy Benson0:16

Oh yes, he l he worked in the Lee's Empire, in the pit.

Presenter0:19

Yes.

Ivy Benson0:20

for many years.

Presenter0:21

What was your first musical activity? When did you start taking lessons?

Ivy Benson0:24

Well, my father taught me the piano when I was five.

Presenter0:27

Mm-hmm.

Ivy Benson0:28

And uh I did my first piano for it.

Ivy Benson0:31

Recital on the BBC in Children's Hour when I was nine. When you were nine? Yes.

Speaker 20:34

When you were nine.

Speaker 20:36

Do you remember what you played?

Ivy Benson0:37

Oh god, yes. It was, um, in a Persian market.

Presenter0:43

Ah, when you left school, did you start straight away as a professional musician?

Ivy Benson0:46

No, I didn't have any money. I couldn't buy any instruments. So I took a job in a shoe department and then I went into a clothing factory.

Ivy Benson0:56

And then I was able to pay my little weekly instalments on my first clarinet. That was my first instrument.

Presenter1:02

When did you start playing professionally? While you were still working in the factory?

Ivy Benson1:04

While you

Ivy Benson1:06

Yes. When I was seventeen I used to do dances in the evening.

Ivy Benson1:10

But uh working in the factory from eight until six and then rushing and playing eight till two and three in the morning, I had a nervous breakdown and I had to give up the factory.

Presenter1:19

Yeah.

Presenter1:21

Couldn't keep that out for long, so you became a a full-time musician.

Ivy Benson1:22

Long till you will.

Presenter1:24

Yes, I have to do it.

Ivy Benson1:27

Yes, very poorly paid and uh at that time girl musicians were looked on as something rather freakish, you know, something odd that had uh

Ivy Benson1:37

Invaded a masculine fear.

Presenter1:39

Yeah.

Ivy Benson1:40

Really hard work.

Presenter1:42

And after how long did you come to London?

Ivy Benson1:44

I didn't come to London till I was about about twenty three, I was.

Presenter1:48

I thought

Ivy Benson1:48

I thought that uh London was the mecca of everything and I'd make a fortune.

Presenter1:53

Was it easy or not?

Ivy Benson1:54

I starved.

Ivy Benson1:56

I couldn't get a job. I I finished up with a trio, not mine, it belonged to somebody else, in a very sleazy nightclub in Piccadilly.

Presenter2:04

Had you already got the idea of an all girls' band?

Ivy Benson2:08

At that time, no, I was more concerned about making a name for myself.

Ivy Benson2:12

But then I was rather appalled at the

Ivy Benson2:15

Terrible jobs girl musicians were getting and the appalling pay they were getting.

Ivy Benson2:20

And uh I decided to do something about it.

Presenter2:23

Mm-hmm.

Ivy Benson2:25

That's how I really started to get them together.

Presenter2:27

What was your first band? How many?

Ivy Benson2:29

five dreadful musicians they were, really. They were all years and years older than myself and I started a mecca and I tried to make

Ivy Benson2:40

What do you say, a silk purse out of a sales ear?

Presenter2:43

Oh never mind, you are a band leader.

Ivy Benson2:45

Yeah, I started.

Presenter2:47

Now, you were touring the dance halls with a a five-piece girls' band.

Presenter2:52

How many instruments do you play yourself?

Ivy Benson2:55

I play

Ivy Benson2:56

Three, well.

Ivy Benson2:58

I have a knowledge of everyone in the burn.

Presenter3:01

Mm-hmm.

Ivy Benson3:01

And I did that purposely. I learnt everyone because I knew that I would have to teach all my life.

Presenter3:06

See ya.

Presenter3:07

When did you get, as it were, a proper band? When did you

Ivy Benson3:11

Enlarge

Presenter3:12

in large matters augment

Ivy Benson3:14

Well, I aug augmented to go to Glasgow, and then I augmented again to go to Carvent Garden during the war years.

Presenter3:21

Oh, that's right. Yes, Covent Garden was a dance hall during the war.

Ivy Benson3:22

Was it

Ivy Benson3:23

Yes, Mecca turned it into a dance hall.

Presenter3:26

Yes.

Ivy Benson3:27

Really enjoyable time I had then.

Presenter3:28

Now this is where you had great success.

Ivy Benson3:31

Very great success. That's why Jack Hilton heard me.

Presenter3:33

Yeah. How big was the band by now?

Ivy Benson3:35

Um it was eighteen then.

Presenter3:37

Eighteen, this was the show band.

Ivy Benson3:39

Hmm.

Presenter3:39

And you began broadcasting?

Ivy Benson3:41

Yes, I got a series, Band of the Year.

Presenter3:44

Yes, you were a l welted band of the year.

Ivy Benson3:46

Mm.

Presenter3:47

And music halls, of course.

Ivy Benson3:48

All all the uh moss empires, all the theatres.

Presenter3:51

Yes.

Presenter3:52

You did some really valiant work entertaining the troops.

Ivy Benson3:56

I thoroughly enjoyed that. It's a part of my life I wouldn't have missed

Ivy Benson4:00

at all. No money in it. I just got a basic ten pounds like every other artist that went out. But it was a very gratifying thing to see in the War Office, the graph.

Ivy Benson4:10

A mine

Ivy Benson4:11

It goes right to the top.

Presenter4:13

Great. Yes, you were asked for to go to Berlin for the Allied victory celebrations.

Ivy Benson4:17

Mm-hmm.

Presenter4:19

And

Presenter4:19

There's a nice story about you and the girls doing a little smuggling, I believe.

Ivy Benson4:25

Old

Ivy Benson4:26

I don't but I should tell you that. The only

Ivy Benson4:29

Two brothers and a sister, Italians, they'd been brought over into Austria and the border was closed and they just couldn't get home.

Ivy Benson4:37

The two brothers were going to make a dash for it across the board and leave their little sister and and I was crossing into it to lay so.

Ivy Benson4:45

The wardroom mistress, the driver and myself decided we'd just put them in amongst the luggage. And we did.

Ivy Benson4:52

They went on ahead. When we got to the Italian border, I was horrified to see it standing there. You know, it only had a cover over it, with the Italian guards walking round it.

Ivy Benson5:03

So I just collected all the bottles out of the

Ivy Benson5:08

invited the gods to have a drink and then they were so drunk they just passed us through.

Presenter5:12

And you've got the children.

Ivy Benson5:13

Then I got the three children over, we all collected, put them on a train in Udeni to Milan and I haven't seen them since.

Ivy Benson5:19

Yeah.

Presenter5:19

So that

Ivy Benson5:21

It's a long enough time.

Presenter5:22

I think the story might be told now.

Presenter5:25

Nobody will come up.

Presenter5:28

Of course, you spend a lot of time nowadays on the continent.

Ivy Benson5:30

Yes, six months out of every year I go away. I'm in Stuttgart next month.

Presenter5:36

What's the average pattern of a year, then?

Ivy Benson5:39

Well, I I work all the Bailey clubs during the uh autumn.

Presenter5:43

Up in the north.

Ivy Benson5:44

up in the north. And then of course there's always the one night stance and private dance.

Presenter5:45

Yeah.

Presenter5:48

Well that's hard work the one night stands, I should think.

Ivy Benson5:51

The hardest of all, is it's very tiring you have to sit up for hours.

Presenter5:55

Mm-hmm.

Ivy Benson5:55

You know, they sleep during the day.

Presenter5:56

And you're usually at a seaside resort for the summer.

Ivy Benson5:59

Yes, I've just done three years in in Tolquay in the Marine Spa. Really happy association.

Presenter6:05

Good.

Ivy Benson6:05

What a pity they're pulling it down.

Presenter6:07

Yeah, so I hope they put up another one.

Ivy Benson6:09

Oh, I hope so, too.

Presenter6:10

Ivy, is there still prejudice against women musicians?

Ivy Benson6:14

Not as much as there used to be. I think I've crushed that a little bit.

Presenter6:17

Good to see you.

Ivy Benson6:18

But uh it's still difficult to get into the jazz field. I do have a girl in the band playing wonderful jazz.

Ivy Benson6:25

And uh she gets very frustrated.

Presenter6:27

Hmm.

Presenter6:28

Where do you find your girls? The number of girls who take up the trompone must be fairly small anyway.

Ivy Benson6:34

Yes, there's not very many about. I advertise in local brass band areas.

Presenter6:39

Mostly from the north, are they?

Ivy Benson6:41

Ninety per cent come from the north.

Presenter6:43

They join you usually.

Presenter6:45

Rather young and you were seven

Ivy Benson6:46

Yes, I've got a very young band at the moment, sixteen years to about twenty-six.

Presenter6:51

Hmm.

Ivy Benson6:52

But then my marriage rates high, Roy. I I never know how long I'm going to keep them.

Presenter6:56

Yes, of course there must be a a quick turnover.

Ivy Benson6:58

Mm.

Presenter6:59

Any idea how many girls have been members of the band since you started it? I mean, is there is there an old girls' association?

Ivy Benson7:02

Is there an old

Ivy Benson7:04

Oh no. Oh bands. None at all. But I do have a complete band in the States. A complete orchestra. They've married G I's and gone back, you know.

Presenter7:04

Oh, but I'm not sure.

Presenter7:13

Yes.

Ivy Benson7:14

I think I must have had over three hundred.

Presenter7:14

Yeah.

Ivy Benson7:16

In my lifetime.

Presenter7:17

Do women play any differently? Do you think your band's got any different sound because it's a girls' band?

Ivy Benson7:22

No, no, they they sound like a male band.

Ivy Benson7:26

And naturally they haven't got the stamina of a man. They're not built that way, are they?

Ivy Benson7:31

But uh they still have a sound like a like a male band.

Presenter7:32

They still have

Presenter7:35

They always look terrific. They're much more decorative than male musicians.

Ivy Benson7:37

Oh yes, I've got them in hot pants at the moment.

Presenter7:40

How often and how many changes of costume do they have?

Ivy Benson7:43

Oh, five times a year I have to change the clothes.

Presenter7:45

Hmm.

Ivy Benson7:45

They wear out. And then new fashions come in.

Presenter7:48

Yeah.

Presenter7:49

What have been the the worst moments during all your travels? Ever lost the instruments, for example?

Ivy Benson7:53

Yeah.

Ivy Benson7:54

Yes, they were offloaded at a border once and I arrived in the town, found I didn't have anything. They were all lying on a platform at Aachen. It took me a day to get them back.

Presenter8:02

Did

Ivy Benson8:04

And I've also lost my costumes at one time in a strange manner.

Speaker 28:04

I'm not sure.

Ivy Benson8:08

I was working in Egypt and

Ivy Benson8:11

The costumes disappeared out the basket.

Ivy Benson8:13

And uh it was a very, very unusual theft until they found that the Arabs had cut a little hole in the roof and they were hooking all my costumes out. So somewhere in the desert, Roy, there's a a band of Arabs walking around in pink nylon dresses.

Speaker 28:28

Ha ha ha ha.

Ivy Benson8:30

Lovely sight, it must be.

Speaker 28:33

Oh you've lost the instruments, you've lost the costumes, you ever lost any girls?

Ivy Benson8:35

But got

Ivy Benson8:36

Oh yes, I had a very fine pianist from Manchester, Manchester College of Music.

Ivy Benson8:41

Her boyfriend came into the hall and showed me where I was working. She left the stage, that's two years ago, and I haven't seen her since.

Presenter8:50

Oh, this romance bit. It can ruin an all-girl's bad concept.

Ivy Benson8:54

Oh yes.

Presenter8:54

Okay.