Brian Michael Fahey (25 April 1919 – 4 April 2007) was a British musical director, composer and arranger, best known for composing " At the Sign of the Swingin' Cymbal", the signature tune to

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

's long running programme ''

Pick of the Pops ''Pick of the Pops'' is a long-running BBC Radio programme; it was based originally on the Top 20 from the UK singles chart and was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 4 October 1955. It transferred to BBC Radio 1 (simulcast on BBC Rad ...

''. From 1972 he was principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra, until it was disbanded in 1981.

Biography

Fahey was born in

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England, and educated at Colfe's Grammar School. He learned piano and cello from his father, and became interested in

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

arranging and composing. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he served in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

;. Wounded in the leg during the

Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

retreat, he was taken prisoner. He was shot during the Wormhoudt massacre on 28 May 1940. After recovering from his wounds and the removal of a lung, he spent five years in

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

s, during which time he worked on his musical skills. After the war, Fahey became a pianist with the Rudy Starita Band which, supported by

ENSA The Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, ...

, toured Egypt and Palestine. During that tour he met the band singer Audrey Laurie (birth name Audrey Watkins). They married in 1947. After that he played in various bands, but his passion was for arranging. Between 1949 and 1959, he worked for the music publishers Chappells and Cinephonic Music, specialising in arrangements for singers, bands and orchestras, mainly for radio broadcasts. His compositions include "The Creep" (with Ken Mackintosh), which reached No. 10 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1954, "Fanfare Boogie" (1955, written with Max Kaye for the Eric Winstone Band), which won an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

, and "Here in a Smoky Room", which (as played by the Otto Keller Band – O.K. being a pseudonym for

Syd Dale Syd Dale (20 May 1924 – 15 August 1994) was an English self-taught composer and arranger of big band, easy listening and library music. His themes and underscore music played an important role on television, radio and advertising media of the ...

) was one of the staples of BBC test card transmission music in the early 1970s. Fahey freelanced after 1959, working with recording companies, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and in the theatre. His most famous piece, " At the Sign of the Swingin' Cymbal", was first released in September 1960 under the name Brian Fahey and his Orchestra. It was used as the theme tune for ''Pick of the Pops'' from 1961 to 1966, and again from 1970 until the present day. He provided scores for films such as '' The Break'' (1963), '' Curse of Simba'' (1965), '' The Plank'' (1967) and ''

Rhubarb Rhubarb is the fleshy, edible stalks ( petioles) of species and hybrids (culinary rhubarb) of ''Rheum'' in the family Polygonaceae, which are cooked and used for food. The plant is a herbaceous perennial that grows from short, thick rhizomes. ...

'' (1969), and the theme to Pete Murray's popular

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

show ''Open House''. Between 1967 and 1972, he was

Shirley Bassey Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (; born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. Known for her career longevity, powerful voice and recording the James Bond music, theme songs to three James Bond films - the only artist to officially perform more than o ...

's musical director. In 1972, he became principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra. Under his direction the orchestra did a lot of television work, accompanying Kenneth McKellar, Lena Martell, Moira Anderson, Shirley Bassey,

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, Lena Zavaroni and Anne Lorne Gillies. It also had its own BBC One programme, ''Make Way for Music''. They recorded 'inserts' for the many music and chat shows on BBC Radio 2 and Radio Scotland, recording with artists including

Cleo Laine Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth (born Clementine Dinah Hitching; 28 October 1927) is an English singer and actress known for her scat singing. She is the widow of jazz composer and musician Sir John Dankworth and the mother of bassist Alec D ...

Georgie Fame Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the only B ...

, Carol Kidd and trombonist

Don Lusher Gordon Douglas "Don" Lusher OBE (6 November 1923 – 5 July 2006) was an English jazz and big band trombonist best known for his association with the Ted Heath Big Band. In a career spanning more than 60 years, he played trombone with a numbe ...

. Fahey continued to work for the BBC after the orchestra was disbanded in 1981.

Personal life and death

Fahey was a close friend of

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...

(with whom he shared the same birthday) and of the American arrangers

Billy May Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet (TV series), The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad (TV series), T ...

and

Nelson Riddle Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many vocalists at Capitol Records, including ...

, who both attempted to persuade him to emigrate to the US, where he was offered several lucrative contracts. But he preferred not to disrupt his family life and so instead lived for many years in Purley,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. In 1972, he moved to the Ayrshire village of

Skelmorlie Skelmorlie is a village in North Ayrshire in the southwest of Scotland. Although it is the northernmost settlement in the council area of North Ayrshire it is contiguous with Wemyss Bay, which is in Inverclyde, and has a PA zone postcode unl ...

on the west coast of Scotland, where he and his wife remained until her death in November 2006. He was an avid cricket and football fan and supported

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. He died on 4 April 2007 at

Worthing Hospital Worthing Hospital is a medium-sized District General Hospital (DGH) located in Worthing, West Sussex, England. It is managed by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. History Worthing's first hospital was a dispensary created in 182 ...

, aged 87, and was survived by his six children, 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

References

External links

Obituary in ''The Guardian''Oral history recording
in the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahey, Brian 1919 births 2007 deaths People from Margate English film score composers English male film score composers English conductors (music) British male conductors (music) English bandleaders English people of Irish descent Musicians from Kent Royal Artillery soldiers British Army personnel of World War II 20th-century British male musicians British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany People from Skelmorlie Easy listening musicians