Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Scottish choir conductor who led a wartime choir on BBC's Variety Bandbox and later worked on 'Cabin in the Cotton'.
On the island
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:34As a youngster, was it your ambition to be a professional musician?
No, it wasn't really, although I I used to play in a in a downspand. I used to play the piano on Saturday evenings for a few shillings.
Presenter asks
0:44Your parents encouraged you?
No, well, not really. I had a sort of deal with my father that uh any money I got in that way I would spend on classical records, which I did actually, and um built up a very good library.
Presenter asks
0:59What did you do when you left school?
I was articled to a firm of chartered accountants. Did you take all your exams? No, I was going in for my intermediate when I was called up for the army and they put me in the Royal Army Pay Corps.
Presenter asks
1:11Were there any opportunities for music in the army?
Eventually we used to have a few wing socials that people used to get up and sing and I used to accompany them and I started off with four or five people singing round the piano and then gradually wrote stuff for twelve people and sixteen until we had quite a large choir operating.
Presenter asks
1:29What sort of repertoire did you have?
Well I remember the first one we had a guy was a Hawaiian War chant and um crazy things like the boogie woogie bugle boy from Company B. All the rhythmic stuff.
Presenter asks
7:18Have you any particular ambition so far unfulfilled?
Well, I think really I would like to have the best choir in the world. That's what I would like. And I shall try very hard to get it.
“I had a sort of deal with my father that uh any money I got in that way I would spend on classical records, which I did actually, and um built up a very good library.”
“I was articled to a firm of chartered accountants. Did you take all your exams? No, I was going in for my intermediate when I was called up for the army and they put me in the Royal Army Pay Corps.”
“We used to perform at uh gun sites and the Woolwich Garrison Theatre and places like that. It was from there that we got our first audition with the BBC and we we did a show at Woolwich Garrison Theatre and we were asked to do an audition for uh Cecil Madden and Ronnie Woolman and uh we were put into Variety Bandbox while we were still in uniform.”
“I've I've done thirty-two thousand miles in the last five weeks because that included a trip to Australia.”
“Well, I think really I would like to have the best choir in the world. That's what I would like. And I shall try very hard to get it.”