UK Members - Who Might This Drummer Be?

[JSngry]

http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/search/...ek%20that%20was

WARNING - There's a lampoon of American racism included in this clip rhat is very, uh.... unflinching. And totally un-PC.

But the drummer on the theme sounds like Klook or somebody.

[Chuck Nessa]

My first thought was Phil Seaman but doubt he had that gig.

[JSngry]

Same here, on all counts.

[sidewinder]

Almost certainly not Seaman. 'TWTWTW' theme music was composed by Ron Grainer and I would guess that it's a BBC studio band of session guys. Ronnie Stephenson or Tony Kinsey perhaps?

[A Lark Ascending]

http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/search/...ek%20that%20was

WARNING - There's a lampoon of American racism included in this clip rhat is very, uh.... unflinching. And totally un-PC.

But the drummer on the theme sounds like Klook or somebody.

From the 60s through to the early mid-70s one of the most popular TV shows in the UK was a thing called 'The Black and White Minstrel Show'. So I imagine it's also satirising that. (Lennie Henry, a well known British Afro-Caribbean comedian, actually started there, telling jokes that mocked his colour.)

There's a very good chapter on the context of 'That Was The Week That Was' in Dominic Sandbrook's excellent study of Britain in the late 50s/early 60s, 'Never Had it So Good.'

[JohnS]

Almost certainly not Seaman. 'TWTWTW' theme music was composed by Ron Grainer and I would guess that it's a BBC studio band of session guys. Ronnie Stephenson or Tony Kinsey perhaps?

Could be, other possibles Ronnie Verrell or Kenny Clare.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

"That was the week that was" was, by miles, my favourite TV programme in those days. From Jim's use of the word "unflinching", I gather that such explicitly offensive material (whether related to America's sore spot or other matters) couldn't have got on TV over there. Satire has always been greatly honoured here (see some of the truly offensive cartoons that appeared in 18th C newspapers) and satirists can probably get away with a lot more here than elsewhere. The contrast between that song and Tom Lehrer's "I wanna go back to Dixie" is quite notable.

And, as Bev said, they picked two different, but related targets to work on together. Brilliant!

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Kenny Clare.

I was trying to remember that name. I remember hearing on, I think Peter Clayton's Sunday night jazz programme on Radio 2 many moons ago, how Clare did the drums on 'Coronation Street' and got paid a flat rate for the session (standard practice, I assume). Imagine if he'd got royalties!

[sidewinder]

Kenny Clare.

I was trying to remember that name. I remember hearing on, I think Peter Clayton's Sunday night jazz programme on Radio 2 many moons ago, how Clare did the drums on 'Coronation Street' and got paid a flat rate for the session (standard practice, I assume). Imagine if he'd got royalties!

Coronation Street?

Well - I wouldn't be suprised.

Of course his No. 1 gig was with the Clarke/Boland Big Band, opposite Kenny Clarke in the 2nd drum seat. he was absolutely brilliant in that band - the perfect foil for Clarke.

I think I sort of remember 'That Was The Week That Was' on the TV - but I was really young and invariably got sent packing off to bed around that time of the night, the 'watershed'. It caused quite a stir at the time.

Edited January 25, 2009 by sidewinder

[marcello]

Well

both played together in the Clarke - Boland Big band for a while, right?

[sidewinder]

I've mentioned Kinsey because he was MD and drummer for BBC's 'That's Life' show about a decade later - same sort of satirical/current afairs/light entertainment type programme. So it's quite possible it's him.

Edited January 25, 2009 by sidewinder

[BillF]

I think I sort of remember 'That Was The Week That Was' on the TV - but I was really young and invariably got sent packing off to bed around that time of the night, the 'watershed'. It caused quite a stir at the time.

Showing your youth there, sidewinder! I was 24 at the time and liked the boppish theme tune - as well as the satire, of course!

[A Lark Ascending]

Coronation Street?

We're so used to it that we hardly hear it. But it's actually a very nice blues with the brass arranged to reflect a Northern brass band (especially at the end). All we hear is a bit at the start and the bit at the end on TV. But there's a full version here:

http://www.televisiontunes.com/Coronation_Street_-_Full.html

The middle section is positively Ellingtonian!

Very much of it's time - Northern kitchen sink drama meets that brief moment when 'Trad' was the height of fashion!

From Wiki:

The show's theme music, a cornet piece, accompanied by a brass band plus clarinet and double bass, reminiscent of northern band music, was written by Eric Spear and has been only slightly modified since its debut.[91]

The jazz musician and journalist Ron Simmonds wrote in 1994 on Jazz Professional that it was recorded by the Surrey musician Ronnie Hunt.[92] However, in 2004 the Manchester Evening News published a story that a young musician from Wilmslow called David Browning played the trumpet on both the original recording of the theme in 1960 and the re-recording in 1964. He said he received a one-off payment of £36, although he would have received more money in the long run if he had opted for royalty payments, as he did on other television themes.[93]

Doesn't help on Kenny Clare but...

Edited January 25, 2009 by Bev Stapleton

[sidewinder]

I think I sort of remember 'That Was The Week That Was' on the TV - but I was really young and invariably got sent packing off to bed around that time of the night, the 'watershed'. It caused quite a stir at the time.

Showing your youth there, sidewinder!

Barely out of nappies !

That's one of the earliest TV memories I have (apart from Andy Pandy, Looby Loo (Lou?), The Woodentops etc ). The other one is seeing the Churchill funeral barge procession along the Thames with all those cranes. In retrospect, that was an entire era coming to an end and a new one beginning.

Edited January 25, 2009 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

I think I sort of remember 'That Was The Week That Was' on the TV - but I was really young and invariably got sent packing off to bed around that time of the night, the 'watershed'. It caused quite a stir at the time.

Showing your youth there, sidewinder!

Barely out of nappies !

That's one of the earliest TV memories I have (apart from Andy Pandy, Looby Loo (Lou?), The Woodentops etc ). The other one is seeing the Churchill funeral barge procession along the Thames with all those cranes. In retrospect, that was an entire era coming to an end and a new one beginning.

I recall the Churchill funeral too - being taken into the junior school hall to watch it. I don't think we had a clue why.

What about 'Rag, Tag and Bobtail'?

I have no memory of TWTWTW; I do recall Frost in the late 60s - never understood at the time why he enraged my father so. I think I can see now - TWTWTW was against everything he stood for.

[BillF]

I have no memory of TWTWTW; I do recall Frost in the late 60s - never understood at the time why he enraged my father so. I think I can see now - TWTWTW was against everything he stood for.

My father loved TWTWTW and said it was the best thing that had ever been on television. He was always anti-establishment and there hadn't been much expression of that sort of thing up till then.

[Alexander Hawkins]

One story doing the rounds is that actually it's not Clare on the Corry theme tune, but - unbelievably - Philly Joe Jones. He was over in London at the time, but for obvious reasons, didn't have a union card. So it would have been depped for cash, off the books...Can't remember who told me this, but it was someone such that I think there could be mileage in it!

[Alexander Hawkins]

BTW - another option for the clip (which unfortunately I can't hear at the moment!) - Allan Ganley?

[sidewinder]

One story doing the rounds is that actually it's not Clare on the Corry theme tune, but - unbelievably - Philly Joe Jones.

That's so outrageous that it is almost believable ! Unlikely though I would have thought for Philly Joe to head 'oop North' to the Granada studio for a session and a pint of Weatherspoons.

Wasn't Philly Joe resident in the UK in the later 60s, around 1968?

Edited January 25, 2009 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

Agree that Ganley could also be an option - as could Jack Parnell. However Parnell was mainly on ATV/ITV I think.

[Jazzjet]

I think I sort of remember 'That Was The Week That Was' on the TV - but I was really young and invariably got sent packing off to bed around that time of the night, the 'watershed'. It caused quite a stir at the time.

Showing your youth there, sidewinder!

Barely out of nappies !

That's one of the earliest TV memories I have (apart from Andy Pandy, Looby Loo (Lou?), The Woodentops etc ). The other one is seeing the Churchill funeral barge procession along the Thames with all those cranes. In retrospect, that was an entire era coming to an end and a new one beginning.

I actually went to Churchill's funeral ( 1965 ), or rather was in the crowd outside St Paul's. We went from school. I remember it as being one of the coldest days I had experienced.

[sidewinder]

What about 'Rag, Tag and Bobtail'?

Don't think I remember that one.

Which show had the 'Spotty Dog'? The one with the total lack of limb co-ordination.

Wow - 1965 for the Churchill funeral. I do sort of remember the coldness of that day.

Edited January 25, 2009 by sidewinder

[JohnS]

I think it's very unlikely to be Philly Joe, I doubt if he qualified for a union card. Jack Parnell was probably only wielding the baton at this time.

edited for typo

Edited January 26, 2009 by JohnS

[Alexander Hawkins]

Philly Joe didn't have a union card...but there would be so many of these studio gigs going that I bet it'd be easy to dep it for cash in hand (plus, however heavily unionised the band, I wonder how many guys would kick up a fuss at having Philly Joe sit in on a tune? Don't know!).

Agree it's unlikely that he'd go north just for the one job...In fact, the whole thing's really unlikely...I just remember hearing it from a source who would know...wish I could recall who!