Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Orchestra leader, drummer and composer.
On the island
Eight records
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
Well, when I was ten I bought a record of Duke Ellington's. I don't think it's the best Duke Ellington record, but it's the one that I bought. The first first record I ever bought's called Daybreak Express. It's a marvellous playing on it.
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
When I was fifteen I got this one, Benny Goodman Sing, Sing, Sing. That was the first time I heard the great Gene Cruper, and that was really one of the things that sent me stomping along trying to play the drums.
Well, when I was in Cambridge I first heard the great Count Bays's band, with the fabulous Lester Young, the great tenor saxophone, the soloist Buck Clayton's trumpet. So I've picked out one it's called Every Tub.
Well, this time we're going a little differently. I've always loved classical music, but uh round about nineteen forty six I heard Delius for the first time. And so I'd like to play a little bit of summer night on the river.
Well, I've always been a a Revelle fan. I love Ravel's music, and one of the loveliest things was the L'Enfor et la Sort de l'Ége, which is an absolutely beautiful piece of music in my opinion. And uh this is just a little bit of it. Little bit of waltz music which I found very fascinating.
Well, it's a another piece of Revelle's music, another one piece that I really do love. It's an extract from uh Le Tombeau de Couprin.
Italian Concerto, BWV 971: II. Andante
Well, here's uh a piece of Bach's music, played by George Malcolm. I first met in the Air Force many, many years ago. It's the second movement, the Andante from the Italian concerto, and believe me, George plays it absolutely beautifully.
Morning StarFavourite
Well, I've chosen this one because it's really of today. And uh although I love straight music, as I call it, I'm really a jazz man. But this record to me goes right down the middle. It's beautiful music, it's jazz, it's sensitive and I I think it's just one of the loveliest things I've heard recently.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:30How old were you when you started to learn the drums?
I can't remember a time when I couldn't bang the drums, Roy. I got a kit of drums when I was about twelve, and uh by the time I was about fourteen I'd made up my mind that's what I wanted to do, and Max Abrams taught me.
Presenter asks
3:50What was your first job?
First job was at Scarborough, in a concert party, in the first year of the war. … I can remember I got four pounds a week for that job, and that was cut to three pound ten when the business wasn't too good.
Presenter asks
7:36When and why did you decide to form your own band?
Well, I got pushed by the agent, Leslie Grade, who said, well, now look here, old chap, you've got married, you must take the next step in your career and all that sort of thing. So that's how it happened. They wanted to put a band in a show called Fancy Free with Tommy Trinder and Pat Kirkwood at the Prince of Wales.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
W. W. Jacobs
My father introduced me to [W.W.] Jacobs when I was about fourteen years old and I used to laugh and laugh at those stories and when I pick them up today and read them, same stories which I know backwards and I laugh and laugh again.
The luxury
A deep flock-cushioned easy chair
I think that's one of the most luxurious things that there is in the world.
What sort of music did you play [with your own band]?
Well, it was um jazz orientated dance music, really, with the accent on the jazz. I'm a great jazz nut and uh so therefore everybody in the band was and that's the way we played. We we played as much jazz as we could get away with, really.
Presenter asks
12:51Do you remember any panics [from Sunday Night at the Palladium]?
One Sunday night the star fell out. … Somebody said that there was an Italian opera singer on holiday over here, Luciano Pavarotti … so they managed to locate him. and he said he'd sing uh Padiyashi. … And so we started rehearsing this poor chap in his jodpers standing on the stage looking very mystified by the whole thing … and we got to the end of the first page, and it suddenly went into Da Da Da Da Da Da What happened was that It had been the opening for a Harry Seacombe show, where he was going to sing a little bit of Paliashi, and then he stopped, and then we went into I'm Just Wild About Harry.
Presenter asks
14:22Hasn't most of the work accompanying [other artists] been rather frustrating?
Yes, it a little I suppose, but on the other hand The uh responsibility for entertaining the customers is on somebody else, which is a good feeling. My responsibility is just to the artist.
“I can't remember a time when I couldn't bang the drums, Roy. I got a kit of drums when I was about twelve, and uh by the time I was about fourteen I'd made up my mind that's what I wanted to do”
“We played as much jazz as we could get away with, really.”
“The responsibility for entertaining the customers is on somebody else, which is a good feeling. My responsibility is just to the artist.”