Tolchard Evans

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BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.

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Our castaway this week is a veteran songwriter and composer of light music, Tolchard Evans. Tolchard, how do you feel about a nice, relaxing time on a desert island? I would love it.

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to get away from the noise of London.

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and get away from stereo grams.

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And dogs. Where we live we have dogs all round us. Well you do have one stereogram with solar batteries on the island on which you can play your records. Did you find it a hard job?

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to choose just eight records.

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No, I don't think I did.

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My intention was to vary the programme, not to make it too serious.

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But actually I like the high ground music.

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And I liked good pop.

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Are you from a musical family?

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Yes, yes. Did you start learning music very early?

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About six years old. Piano. Piano. Yeah.

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But at the same time I found that

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I was quite good at extemporisation.

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and decided that I'd sooner become a composer.

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And I was very impressed with the modernness in those days.

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Uh people like Paul Ducas, the the French writer. So what's the first record you've chosen? Something of Paul Ducas? Oh yes, definitely.

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This particular thing every time I play it gives me a sort of thrill up the backbone, you know.

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It's called the Sources Apprentice.

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Part of The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Duca, played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Louis Fuemo.

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What's your second list, Doctor?

Tolchard Evans3:10

What's your second?

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Well, I think I should pick on Chopin's Fantasy, Impromptu, and C-sharp minor by Sempre. Why do you choose that?

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Well, I'm a great admirer of Sembrini.

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You know, the way in which he can switch from a highly technical word of bar into a pleasing presentation of a pop amazes me.

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Semprivi was rather amusing the other day when I said I'd been practising the Chopin impromptu for over fifty years.

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At first, I told them I found it very hard and difficult.

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Now I could play it in the most appalling fashion with comparative ease.

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And you want his recording of that? Oh, certainly.

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Semprini playing Chopin's Prontésien promptieu in C sharp minor. Now you told us Polchop that you wanted to be a composer. What steps did you take about it?

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Well, it occurred to me that uh

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If I wanted to be a symposium.

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That I should get

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in on the ground floor and that

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I would like to get into a publisher.

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Yeah, do any sort of work.

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to find out what it was all about.

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Get to know people. So which publisher did you join?

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In 1920, I think it was.

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Just after harmonis.

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I hear.

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Swan Edvert.

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for a new publishing company.

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Called the Lawrence Wright Music Company of

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Charing Cross Road. In Denmark Street? That's it. Just right. Oh, yes.

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Yeah.

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I there met Lori. He offered the job to me.

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He said salary, 30 shillings a week.

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Last shilling an hour overtime. When can you start?

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I said on Monday he said no you don't you start now

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You see, you've got to do anything, put the coals on the fire.

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Any job? LPAC files there?

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When helping to pack his first song annual, I read an article by Earl Dunn saying that he had discovered a great songwriter.

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Call the race of metals.

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It suddenly that the photograph of this great writer

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had a fantastic resemblance to the Lawrence Side himself, which of course he was.

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I decided there and then if I wanted to make money, it was useless emulating Monsieur Paul Ducas.

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What were your jobs apart from packing parcels with the Lawrence Rush? Oh, anything, anything, yes. Playing the piano?

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Eventually, yeah. Demonstration, yeah, isn't it?

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Um plugin

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Oh yes, good heavens yes. Going around to the music hall artist. Everything that was wanted you had to do.

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Yeah.

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A very good way to learn the business. Oh yeah.

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Good morning.

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Yes. Let's have your third record. What's that?

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I think Leslie Stewart. Yes. Did you ever know Leslie Stewart? Oh, yes.

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Joey.

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Couldn't I say I knew him, I met him.

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in The Great Strike of 1926.

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I'd just written my first world hit, The Things All Barcelona.

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And uh

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There was a pub opposite called Peck's Wine Bar.

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And in this bar, you met everybody, classical writers.

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popularized everybody congregated there, you know.

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And I went in and he was introduced to me.

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And he was a very tremendous, overpowered personality.

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And he suddenly picked on me.

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They gave me a lecture.

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He said, Do you know the young man?

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With this song you could make a lot of money.

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But don't you go mad.

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Don't you go and buy a lot of sports cars and live with women?

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and commit other dreadful sins.

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To my amazement.

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The following year.

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He went boat.

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They're doing the same thing.

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That he lectured to me about. Nevertheless, it was very good advice. Oh, yes, but that he didn't take it. Which of Leslie Stewart's compositions have you chosen to hear? Well, I think the one of the most popular that everybody sings now is L Lilia Laguna.

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Mohawk Ocean.

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Thank you.

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Manda.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Black and white minstrels

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Lily of Lagona.

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Now you told us your first worldwide hit was Barcelona.

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You had quite a run of Spanish songs, didn't you? Oh yes, tremendous amount.

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Of course, you know Lady of Spain, Lady of Madrid, Argentine and all sorts of it. I can't even remember them myself. Was this a love of Spain or just? I don't think so, but I thought it happened to be commercial at the time because we had things like Valencia.

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And you keep it up.

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You wrote a lot of comedy songs, especially for Jack Payne on the BBC Dance Orchestra.

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Well, I didn't actually write them, but our team wrote them.

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Your team.

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Who was that? It was Robert Harvey's.

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Stanley Dammel and myself. Yes. There was one comedy song you wrote for children that was a great success. What was that?

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Oh, you mean less who's single at the third scene? Yes, is that the one you were talking about? Yes, that wasn't for Jack Payne, was it?

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That one you

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Now that was Henry Hall.

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I always remember that because we said to Henry Hall, well, you're on from 5.15 to 6.

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Every day there'll be a lot of children listening to it.

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Why not tater for the children, you see?

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And he did. He did play. It was November the 3rd, 1932.

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And uh

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My old friend Carol Gibbons, I tried to persuade him to play it. I went to Savoy. I was very friendly with Carol.

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And he said, Good God, I can't play this in the Savoy.

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He saw by two of anything else, but not this you see.

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But anyhow

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Within a few weeks it was a terrific hit.

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And Carol rang me up one morning at home about 11 o'clock. I said, well, this is a great surprise. What can I do for you?

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And he said

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Okay brother, you win. I said, what do you mean? He said, that goddamn bird is on the infested death. Let's have it right away.

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Then of course you wrote a lot of ballads.

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Which are your own favourites from that long list of successes?

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Well that's a rather difficult question.

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I should say that if

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Which you know was.

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Written in 1934 that never became popular until the 50s when Perry Como started to do.

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And another one called Unless, which was very, very big. It must be very encouraging for a songwriter that perhaps 20 years after he's written the song, it suddenly picked up and in a quite inexplicable way becomes popular. Oh, I have to go much longer than that. Sometimes it's 50 years.

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Let's have your fourth record. What's that to be?

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I think

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Holloway.

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Because to me

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He was the greatest pianist of all time.

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When I had my big successes in America, I saw him play at Tamiki Hall.

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He seemed quite a little man, very shy, unassuming.

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At least technique was out of this world.

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Forgetting the, you know, the classical music, his gimmick record, where he plays the march, the stars and stripes, is unbelievable.

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He seems to be playing all the instruments of the orchestra at once.

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Part of it's playing Stars and Stripes Forever.

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Well, let's get on to your next record. We've come to number five. Where do we go now?

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Well, I think we'll go to Ralph Butler, shall we? Ralph Butler? Yes. Another songwriter. Oh, yes, a great songwriter.

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Of the many songs played and sung today, none are more played than those of Ralph.

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He was fine.

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You would say it rather. Who is he? Never heard of him.

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He hated love songs and once remarked to me that he had no intention of writing lyrics.

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depicting the lugubrious lamentations of the disappointed lover.

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I thought it was a good remark.

Tolchard Evans13:56

I think it's good.

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Neither did he.

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When you consider that some of his ideas and lyrics include Run, Rabbit, Run.

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Realm Marbla.

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All good bells and jolly good company.

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The sum has got his hat on many a

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He had a habit of getting fed up and disappearing for months on end.

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We once discovered the imported poultry farm with the most disastrous results.

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He couldn't sell the chickens.

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And the chickens on their part wouldn't lay eggs.

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He sold out of the loss.

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But at least it gave him a cute idea for a song.

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It was called Misery Farm. It's a number I remember very well and who would you like to sing it? I think Tommy Henley.

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We've got a farm, a barn of a farm, right in the middle of a swamp. There ain't any charm in our little farm, right in the middle of a swamp.

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Right here.

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No longer.

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Tommy Hand is singing Misery Farm.

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Which brings us now to your sixth record, Tolchoi. What's that?

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I think I'd like something by Archibald Joyce. He wrote many famous tunes.

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Vision of Salome or so many, so we click on dream.

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My father was very friendly with Archibald Royce.

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Joyce had the cream of society worth.

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It was the modern Strauss Mollteifel in his day.

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There are nothing else but waltzes which even now I can play for members.

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I was only about 12 years old when I met him and was greatly impressed by his jovial personality.

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I used to play my little compositions to him, and he never seemed bored.

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In my youthful mind, I wonder whether one day I might become as famous as he was then.

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So here is Archibald Joyce's Dreaming played by the De Broy Summers band. How's that? Jolly.

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The De Broy Sommers Band.

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Toljo, have you any hobbies that could prove useful on a desert island? Could you look after yourself well? I don't think so, no. You could you build a hut?

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Good heavens, no. I couldn't even knock an ale in. Do you know anything about cultivation? Do you garden?

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I used to.

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So you could grow some food.

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I think I could go.

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I don't know if you

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You mean angling? Yes.

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Good heavens, in my business the only angling I've been associated with is angling for song hits, I do landing about fish.

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Would you try to escape?

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No, I don't think I want to come back here.

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I'd stay where I was. Surrounded by sharks.

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But good-natured sharks, not like some of the sharks I've mentioned, the music business.

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Let's have record number seven. I think Will Hoe, very old friend of mine. Can I tell you a story about Will Hoe?

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What do you

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A friend of mine once owned a big luxury hotel.

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He told me he was opening a new copper.

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Knowing that I was in touch with Arsis, he asked me if I could persuade somebody to officially open it for him.

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Benchu Wohai, who I knew intimately through the water barats, agreed to do so.

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All the ladies were adorned in the most fashionable gowns, and the finest wines were long piers.

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For some reason or other, Willow had been delayed, but nobody was allowed to drink until he arrived about half an hour later.

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He apologised and said in any case he was on the water wagon and would we mind if he opened the bar with a glass of milk.

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Apparently cocktail bars do not normally stock this beverage.

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After hurried SOS message to the kitchen staff, it arrived and a crisis was happily averted.

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Probably I'm a little old-fashioned, but Will A always gives me a laugh, especially as the schoolmaster arguing with Arbottle and the other cheeky little boy.

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Morning boys, for finding that.

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Well, where's old Jimmy Harbottle? He's not here yet. Not here? No. What? Later game? Yes. Oh, dear, though, dear. He's always late now, isn't he? Still, we must make allowances for his age, you know. He's getting on now. See, how old will he be now? Eighty-five. Eighty-five? Yes. Eighty-five and never left school. I don't suppose he ever will leave, either. Ah, here he is. Well, you're late. Yes. What? Yes. Guess what? Yes, I'm late. You say, yes, sir, when you speak to me, will you? I want to know why you're late. I've been having an argument with another boy. With another boy? Yes. Who's the other one? Me.

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Wilhay and his scholars, the fourth form at St. Michael.

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What's your last?

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Well, I suppose it must be Lady of Spain because it's been my biggest hit for years and years. How long ago did you write it?

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How long is

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Oh 1931. 45 years. Oh yes.

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Forty five

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By the way, it became popular through the most fortuitous circumstances.

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Well, Jack Bain had the housebanned Savoy Hill.

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He liked it so much he said he would play it every broadcast for a month.

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He said, however, if he heard any other band play, it would tear the orchestration to bits. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? Well, we didn't know at the time. We were afraid to go near another band in case the

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They wanted to know if it did become a hit, why we didn't ask them to play.

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But many people think, you know, that Giroldo made it. He played it a lot. Yes, it yeah, but he didn't make it. Whose recording have you chosen for us? Oh, definitely, Carmen Dragon.

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and the Capital Symphony Orchard.

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Carmen Dragon and the Capital Symphony Orchestra and a tune you may have heard before. Tolchart, if you could take only wonders out of your eight, which would it be?

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Well, I think it must be Lady of Spain, because she's kept me more or less.

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Safe.

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Secure for all these years. She still produces a check every month. She's a dear girl.

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She still produces

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Yes, but um in Victor.

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Much to expect.

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to be kept by our Spanish woman.

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45 years and then think you're going on forever doing this. No, I'll take I must have

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People gratitude.

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And one luxury to take to the island with you.

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But why think it would be

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Parliament

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Yes, and some pens. What are you going to write in exile? Well, I shouldn't write any commercial music.

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I should be able to try and relax.

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And right.

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What I wanted to write.

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Irrespective of money.

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And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare and big encyclopedias. Oh, definitely, Voltaire.

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Can't always get desperate because he has my sense of humour.

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And um

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It's the way he expresses himself.

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Can say so much in a few words.

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He's a sort of master of innuendo. You have to go back and say, I wonder what he meant by that.

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And that great expression of his, which is proved so prophetic.

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The Earth is the Lunatic Asylum.

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Of the planets. It's been so true. And thank you, Tolcha Alevnis, for letting us hear your desert island disc. Thank you very much, and thank you for having me.

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Goodbye everyone.