Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
BBC accompanist and musical assistant who arranged music for variety shows and original songs.
On the island
Eight records
The eight records for this collection haven’t been catalogued yet.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Not recorded.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08When did the excitement of music come into your life?
I started having piano lessons when I was seven years old. Unfortunately, i in a way, it was found that I'd been born with the ability to read music at sight. So when I was given a new piece to practice, I just went home and played it straight through. Consequently, I saw no reason to spend a lot of time on dull scales and arpeggios. Well, when I was twelve, my father said he wasn't going to continue paying money he could ill afford … when it was such a bother to get me to practise, and so my piano lessons were stopped.
Presenter asks
2:45What was the next step up the ladder?
Well, I was torn to shreds when after a year of this joyous living one of the heads of the B B C, who had been keeping a fatherly eye on me, decided that I should leave the typewriter keys for the piano keys and become a staff accompanist.
“You must remember that I was a raw amateur. And that's probably why I've always been more thrilled at knowing the famous people I've met. than, shall I say, a more blase professional musician.”
“My darling husband Harry S. Pepper, hereinafter referred to as Pep, will forgive me if I say that this was probably the happiest and most carefree year of my whole life.”