Julian Bream at 80

[mrbouffant]

Wonderful programme, I thought. I was at at that Prom in 1991 and it was good to see at least part of the performance of the Guitar Concerto. It really is a wonderful piece and the programme for the first time really put it into context -- the slow second movement is an extended homage to Django Reinhardt and the third seems to sound like it is based on lute/Elizabethan models. As was so often with Arnold's concerti, it fitted the soloist like a glove.

[Sir Velo]

In amongst the bouquets, a salutary thought: how sad that what could have been the greatest last 20 years of a recorded legacy have largely been lost to us through injury and illness; at a time when many artists are laying down their most profound thoughts. Nonetheless some wonderful footage.

[Hornspieler]

Wonderful programme, I thought. I was at at that Prom in 1991 and it was good to see at least part of the performance of the Guitar Concerto. It really is a wonderful piece and the programme for the first time really put it into context -- the slow second movement is an extended homage to Django Reinhardt and the third seems to sound like it is based on lute/Elizabethan models. As was so often with Arnold's concerti, it fitted the soloist like a glove.

I too was delighted with this programme. Especially to see his old green 8cwt Austin Van which he used to drive back and forth between Woolwich Barracks and the flat in Kensington. It had the number plate JRB1 Then one day, he turned up in a sparkling new silver Wolsley 1500 - but the number plate was different. Did he sell that treasured Number to buy the Wolsley?

Nobody dared ask. As fellow bandsmen, we did not enquire too closely into each others' extra-mural activites, but I did often wonder why he kept a double matress behind the two seats in that old van?

Of course! It must have been so that his precious guitar didn't get bounced around!

Good morning all,

Hornspieler

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As fellow bandsmen, we did not enquire too closely into each others' extra-mural activites, but I did often wonder why he kept a double matress behind the two seats in that old van?

Of course! It must have been so that his precious guitar didn't get bounced around!

Of course!

Good morning all

Good morning to you, too, Hs - and a belated Happy New Year.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yes good morning and thank you for that reminiscence of the Maestro .... where in Kensington? I grew up there ....

a marvellous programme took me back to the 70s

i must get his Villa Lobos recordings; the Maestro's playing of his work was just magical and entrancing ..

[Richard Tarleton]

I too was delighted with this programme. Especially to see his old green 8cwt Austin Van which he used to drive back and forth between Woolwich Barracks and the flat in Kensington.
Hornspieler

HS at that point in the programme I thought of you and JB propping eachother up on parade after a weekend on the tiles, as you vividly described to us!

Sir Velo - In amongst the bouquets, a salutary thought: how sad that what could have been the greatest last 20 years of a recorded legacy have largely been lost to us through injury and illness; at a time when many artists are laying down their most profound thoughts. Nonetheless some wonderful footage.

It is indeed 20 years since he made his last recording - though his last 4 recordings for EMI represent a glorious swan song encompassing some of his "most profound thoughts" and are among his very finest. We're lucky he made a full recovery from his potentially career-ending accident in 1984, and was still performing up to 2001....

[Hornspieler]

Thanks for the welcome CDJ.

yes good morning and thank you for that reminiscence of the Maestro .... where in Kensington? I grew up there ....

a marvellous programme took me back to the 70s

..

Well, as "Gentlemen of the Artillery" we were entitled to have "Living Out" passes, so we did not have to remain in the barracks when off duty and could delude ourselves that we were civilians until the following morning's parade.

I believe that it was actually Earls Court where JB shared a flat with the jazz clarinettist Wally Fawkes (AKA "Trog" of The Daily mail) who was a member of the Humphrey Lyttleton Band. "Humph" also drew cartoons for the Daily Mail and I remember one in which Julian's old Austin Van was clearly represented in the picture.

Anyway, to get back to the story:

Giving a Recital in the Wigmore Hall, JB wrenched, or tore a muscle in his left arm and had to withdraw.

The following morning, he did not appear on parade.

"Where's Bream?" demanded the Band Sergeant Major.

"He's phoned in "sick at home, sir" voluntered a certain horn player.

"Well tell him he's got to get here and report sick in the usual fashion."

"Well, he can't do that, sir, because he can't put his uniform on."

For three days, JB was allowed to stay away but eventually he had to return and report to the Medical Centre.

The MO put him on "Excused Duties"

He arrived in his van, with his left arm in a sling and driving one-handed across the gun park. This pantomime went on for about a week, but the Band Sergeant Major worked out what we had always known - that the one-handed driving across the gun park to the bandroom was not how he had driven from Earls Court. Eventually the light dawned and the BSM decided to call JBs bluff:

Wednesday. Half day off for the band and JB was about to drive off when the BSM appeared at his window.

"Are going to London, Bream?"

"Yessir"

"Right then. You can give me a lift as far as London Bridge."

So JB told us that he drove all the way up the Old Kent Road to London Bridge, keeping his left arm firmly in its sling and changing gear with his right hand by reaching through the spokes of the steering wheel!

He said that by the time they reached London Bridge, the BSM was a quivering jelly!

Well, you had to keep ahead somehow.

I won't go into some of the tricks that I got away with. That is for another thread at another time.

Hs (They didn't call me "The Horncat" without good cause!)

[amateur51]

Of course!


Good morning to you, too, Hs - and a belated Happy New Year.

Happy New Year and welcome back from me too, Hornspieler!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

thanks for that HS!

[Richard Tarleton]

There's a chapter called "National Service" on Bream's "My Life in Music" DVD. He recalls nearly being stabbed through the hand by his neighbour's bayonet during bayonet practice - his breaking down in tears at this appalling episode seems to have been the trigger for his move to the band.

[Hornspieler]

There's a chapter called "National Service" on Bream's "My Life in Music" DVD. He recalls nearly being stabbed through the hand by his neighbour's bayonet during bayonet practice - his breaking down in tears at this appalling episode seems to have been the trigger for his move to the band.

There are more than one reasons for joining a staff band based in the London Area.

Firstly, as was the case with JB and myself. we both had established connections with the music profession - he as a solo artist and me as an orchestral musician. So we could not afford to lose those contacts for a period of two years National Service.

But to join a staff band (RA, RE, Irish Guards, etc) one had to sign on as a regular. This involved three years, not two, but National Service required two years of service followed by 2½ years in the Territorials!

No professional artist can find employment if he is required to attend TA on one night a week and two weeks' camp in each year.

"Thank you for your offer of a place with the Royal Opera orchestra, but I'm afraid I won't be able to do Tuesday nights"

By signing on as a regular soldier, one served for 3 years with the colours and 4 years in the Reserves. No duties in the reserves and a nice little cheque in the post every three months (which enabled us to tax our cars at the War Office's expense.
Now we could take on private engagements in most evenings and keep in touch with the music scene.
That is what Julian, myself and several other musicians did. Weekly pay was 3 times the National Service rate and there was also "Band Pay' for the band's outside engagements. Plus, as I mentioned before, the priviledge of a living-out pass; which even gave us our own ration books and a food allowance. (We weren't allowed to eat in the Woolwich Cookhouse, which was certainly no loss!")

When the band fulfilled their summer engagements (mostly on the bandstand at Eastbourne) Musician Bream was taken along with us to give solo performances, thus putting us 'one-up' on the royal Engineers, Royal Signals, RAF Central Band and all the Guards bands; so we got a major slice of the income.

Anyway, enough of that. Let's get back to Julian Bream at 80.

Hs

[amateur51]

There are more than one reasons for joining a staff band based in the London Area.

Firstly, as was the case with JB and myself. we both had established connections with the music profession - he as a solo artist and me as an orchestral musician. So we could not afford to lose those contacts for a period of two years National Service.

But to join a staff band (RA, RE, Irish Guards, etc) one had to sign on as a regular. This involved three years, not two, but National Service required two years of service followed by 2½ years in the Territorials!

No professional artist can find employment if he is required to attend TA one one night a week and two weeks' camp in each year.

"Thank you for your offer of a place with the Royal Opera orchestra, but I'm afraid I won't be able to do Tuesday nights"

By signing on as a regular soldier, one served for 3 years with the colours and 4 years in the Reserves. No duties in the reserves and a nice little cheque in the post every three months (which enabled us to tax our crs at the War Office's expense.

That is what Julian, myself and several other musicians did. Weekly pay was 3 times the National Service rate and there was also "Band Pay' for the band's outside engagements. Plus, as I mentioned before, the priviledge of a living-out pass; which even gave us our own ration books and a food allowance. (We weren't allowed to eat in the Woolwich Cookhouse, which was certainly no loss!")

When the band fulfilled their summer engagements (mostly on the bandstand at Eastbourne) Musician Bream was taken along with us to give solo performances, thus putting us 'one-up' on the royal Engineers, Royal Signals, RAF Central Band and all the Guards bands; so we got a major slice of the income.

Anyway, enough of that. Let's get back to Julian Bream at 80.

Hs

Great inside story, HS

Good to see that working the system is nothing new. But you didn't have ATOS in those days, of course

[Richard Tarleton]

The point of the story as JB tells it on his DVD was that his distress at the enormity of what had just nearly happened - a bayonet possibly slicing tendons in his left hand, ending his career just as it was beginning - seems to have been the prompt for the authorities removing him from mailine training, before his distress had a damaging effect on group morale One of the great raconteurs.