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Tommy Watt
Thomas Mitchell Watt (31 October 1925, Glasgow – 20 May 2006, Bristol, England) was a Scottish jazz bandleader. Born to a working-class family, his father a machinist toolmaker, Watt was hired as a pianist by Carl Barriteau at age 17, and served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He moved to London following the war, where he played with Ambrose, Harry Roy, and Ken Mackintosh. He teamed up with actor Brian Rix, whom he had met during the war, in 1955 to record a demo, which eventually led to a contract with the BBC. After making appearances behind Matt Monro, Watt was hired by Parlophone for session and arranging work. In 1956 Watt put together his first big band, which played at Quaglino's, a London restaurant. Among his sidemen were Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Ross, Jackie Armstrong, Tommy McQuater, Bert Courtley, and Phil Seamen. Watt became one of the better-known British bandleaders of the 1950s, winning an Ivor Novello Award for the song "Overdrive" and releas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom and the 27th-most-populous city in Europe, and comprises Wards of Glasgow, 23 wards which represent the areas of the city within Glasgow City Council. Glasgow is a leading city in Scotland for finance, shopping, industry, culture and fashion, and was commonly referred to as the "second city of the British Empire" for much of the Victorian era, Victorian and Edwardian eras. In , it had an estimated population as a defined locality of . More than 1,000,000 people live in the Greater Glasgow contiguous urban area, while the wider Glasgow City Region is home to more than 1,800,000 people (its defined functional urban area total was almost the same in 2020), around a third of Scotland's population. The city has a population density of 3,562 p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronnie Ross
Albert Ronald Ross (2 October 1933 – 12 December 1991) was a British jazz baritone saxophonist. Life Born in Calcutta, India, to Scottish parents, Ross moved to England in 1946 and was educated at the Perse School in Cambridge. He began playing tenor saxophone in the 1950s with Tony Kinsey, Ted Heath, and Don Rendell. During his tenure with Rendell, he switched to baritone saxophone. He played at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958, and formed a group called the Jazz Makers with drummer Allan Ganley that same year. He toured the United States in 1959 and Europe later that year with the Modern Jazz Quartet. From 1961 to 1965 he played with Bill Le Sage, and later with Woody Herman, John Dankworth, Friedrich Gulda, and Clark Terry. Ross was a saxophone tutor for a young David Bowie, played baritone saxophone on The Beatles' ''White Album'' track, "Savoy Truffle", and four years later was the baritone sax soloist on the Lou Reed song " Walk on the Wild Side", which was co-pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddie Starr
Freddie Starr (born Frederick Leslie Fowell; 9 January 1943 – 9 May 2019) was an English stand up comedian, impressionist, singer and actor. Starr was the lead singer of Merseybeat rock and roll group the Midniters during the early 1960s, and came to prominence in the early 1970s after appearing on '' Opportunity Knocks'' and the Royal Variety Performance. In the 1990s, he starred in several television shows, including ''Freddie Starr'' (1993–1994), ''The Freddie Starr Show ''(1996–1998) and two episodes of '' An Audience with...'' in 1996 and 1997. In 1999, he presented the game show ''Beat the Crusher''. Early life Starr was born in Ulster Road, Liverpool, (from his autobiography) England. At the age of four, he moved with his family to Huyton. One of seven children, Starr was the son of a bricklayer, who was often unemployed. According to Starr, his mother Hilda (''née'' Feihnen) was from Germany and was Jewish. A twin brother died at birth. When his father, who wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Cooper
Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at , and he habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army for seven years before developing his conjuring skills and becoming a member of The Magic Circle. Although he spent time on tour performing his magical act, which specialised in magic tricks that appeared to fail, he rose to international prominence when his career moved into television, with programmes for London Weekend Television and Thames Television. By the end of the 1970s, Cooper was smoking and drinking heavily, which affected his career and his health, effectively ending offers to front new programmes and relegating him to performing as a guest star on other entertainment shows. On 15 April 1984, Cooper died at the age of 63 after suffering a heart attack on live television. Early life Thomas Frederick Cooper was born on 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centre 42
Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and other assorted writings. His plays have been translated into 20 languages, and performed worldwide. Early life Wesker was born in Stepney, London, in 1932, the son of Leah (née Cecile Leah Perlmutter), a cook, and Joseph Wesker, a tailor's machinist and active communist. Arnold Wesker was delivered by Samuel Sacks, father of neurologist Oliver Sacks. He attended a Jewish Infants School in Whitechapel. His education was then fragmented during World War II. He was briefly evacuated to Ely, Cambridgeshire, before returning to London where he attended Dean Street School during the Blitz. He then returned to live with his parents who had moved to a council flat in Hackney, East London, where he attended Northwold Road School. He then attende ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Big Band
The BBC Big Band, originally known as the BBC Radio Big Band is a British big band, previously run under the auspices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The band broadcasts exclusively on BBC Radio, particularly on BBC Radio 2's long-running series '' Big Band Special''. It consists of professional musicians and is directed by a number of conductors. These include arranger and composer Barry Forgie, who has been the band's Musical Director since 1977, American jazz trombonist Jiggs Whigham, and guest musical directors. History The BBC Big Band's origins lie in the earliest days of the BBC when the BBC Dance Orchestra was formed in 1928 under the leadership of Jack Payne before Henry Hall took over in 1932. Benny Carter was hired as the arranger from 1935 to 1938. In the 1950s, the format and purpose of the Dance Orchestra was changed and modernised, and it became a big band with strings in the Billy May style, known as the BBC Showband, under the leadership of Cyr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Northern Dance Orchestra
The BBC Northern Dance Orchestra was a big band run by the BBC and formed in 1956 as the successor to the BBC's Northern Variety Orchestra, which had been formed on 1 April 1951. Known to listeners as the NDO, it broadcast on the radio daily, usually from recordings made at the Playhouse Theatre, Manchester, Playhouse Theatre in Hulme, Manchester, and on many trips to halls throughout the UK. Through BBC Transcription Services it gained loyal listeners overseas. Many well-known musicians played with the orchestra over the years, including trumpeter Syd Lawrence, who left the NDO and formed his own very successful big band in 1967, and saxophonist Johnny Roadhouse, one of the band's founding members. The NDO's first conductor was Alyn Ainsworth, who had conducted the BBC's Northern Variety Orchestra. Ainsworth also wrote some of the band's arrangements together with Pat Nash and Alan Roper, using a standard big band line-up of five saxophones, a flute, four trombones, four trumpets ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nothing Barred
''Nothing Barred'' is a 1961 British black and white comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Leo Franklyn and Naunton Wayne. It was written by John Chapman (screenwriter), John Chapman. Plot Penniless Lord Whitebait plans to save his dwindling fortunes by opening his stately home, Whitebait Manor near Egham, to the public. But public interest proves minimal, and with rapidly mounting debts and the spiralling costs of his daughter's upcoming wedding threatening to ruin him, Whitebait is forced to take desperate measures. He and his servant Spankforth plot to stage the theft of a valuable painting from Whitebait Manor. They go to Wormwood Scrubs prison to collect a suitable prisoner being released, but in error collect Wilfred Sapling, a plumber who has been doing repairs in the prison. Their conversation to get the man to steal a painting is at cross purposes and he thinks they are discussing plumbing. Meanwhile, elsewhere, a real burglar – Barger – ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Night We Got The Bird
''The Night We Got the Bird'' is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Dora Bryan, Ronald Shiner and Irene Handl. It was written by Conyers, Rix and Tony Hilton, based on Basil Thomas's 1957 play ''The Lovebirds.'' It was the follow-up to '' The Night We Dropped a Clanger'' (1959), and includes the last film appearance by Ronald Shiner. The title references a phrase in British English with its origin in the world of 19th century theatre, where it was customary to hiss like a goose to express disapproval. Plot When unscrupulous Brighton antiques dealer Cecil Gibson dies in a road accident, his widow Julie remarries, and her new husband Bertie was Cecil's innocent but naive business partner. One of their wedding presents, from an unknown source, is a mouthy South American parrot, which appears to be a reincarnated Cecil whose aim is to make married life difficult for Bertie. As Bertie and Julie go off on their honeymoon, they are chased ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Count Basie
William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, his minimalist piano style, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Dennis Rowland, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams (jazz singer), Joe Williams. As a composer, Basie is known for writing such jazz standards as "Blue and Sentimental", "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "One O'Clock Jump" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LP Record
The LP (from long playing or long play) is an Analog recording, analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of revolutions per minute, rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a vinyl (a copolymer of vinyl chloride acetate) composition disk. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire US record industry and, apart from a few relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound in 1957, it remained the standard format for record albums during a period in popular music known as the album era. LP was originally a trademark of Columbia and competed against the smaller 7-inch sized Single (music), "45" or "single" format by RCA Victor, eventually ending up on top. Today in the vinyl revival era, a large majority of records are based on the LP format and hence the LP name continues to be in use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors, since 1956. Awards The awards are presented at two annual ceremonies known as The Ivors and The Ivors Composer Awards. *The Ivors take place each May and, as of 2020, are sponsored by Apple Music. They are recognised worldwide as the major platform for recognising and rewarding Britain and Ireland's songwriting and composing talents. The Ivors remain the only award ceremony in the musical calendar that is not influenced by publishers and record companies, but judged and presented by the writing community. *The Ivors Composer Awards take place each December and are sponsored by PRS for Music. They are broadcast by BBC Radio 3. The aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
