Chappell:Dead in Tune / George and the Dragonfly - Argo Recording
Conductor: Herbert Chappell Narrators: Robin Ray, Susan Stranks and John Kershaw
Recollections of the Recording Session , January 1970, Decca Studio No. 3, West Hampstead
The 1969 Christmas course at Longslade included rehearsals of Bert Chappell's pieces with narrators Robin Ray and his wife Susan Stranks (from TV's Magpie - a sort of second rate Blue Peter). Was it a good idea to send 47 members of the L.S.S.O. to a London hotel for the weekend, allow them to team up with friends from the Royal Academy of Music and give them the freedom of the West End? Perhaps not. Anyway, off we all went to the Royal Hotel in Russell Square on Friday night in order to record a new L.P. for Argo Records on Saturday and Sunday. The hotel bar was still being well and truly propped up at 2.00am by about 30% of the band and soft drinks were conspicuous by their absence.
Day one could have gone better in all honesty. Aspirins were popular and the standard of playing was, quite frankly, a disgrace.The Producer, Fred Woods, didn't get a decent 'take' all morning and lunch was taken early. The afternoon improved and most of Dead in Tune was completed albeit somewhat behind schedule. On Saturday night we were all confined to barracks but a few of us managed to escape by 9pm and we headed for a Beer Keller in Piccadilly. Several litres of Lowenbrau later, reality started to take a grip and we headed back to Russell Square. The time was a sensible 1.00am. No bar propping.
Sunday kicked off with George and the Dragonfly and the playing was generally O.K. Into the control room we went and the Dead in Tune take from Saturday was played back to us. It was so poor that we were shamed into another complete performance.
The majority of this performance actually made it onto the final edit. Robin and Susan proved to be great fun and came to hear us play later on in the year at Cheltenham. Robin chain smoked Dunhill International Cigarettes all through the two days but only smoked the first half an inch and then stubbed them out. It has to be reported that these stubs found new homes. They were substantially longer than Players No.6 and Sovereign ,popular brands with players on low pocket money allowances.The third narrator, John Kershaw, was rather quiet and very much the poet. His laid back narration style could also have been sponsored by Horlicks.
Occasional slip ups on the final disc should really have been eliminated, especially in George and the Dragonfly, where some of the chosen takes weren't the best we had come up with. Phil's classic split trumpet note must have been covered at least three times so why did it appear on the finished product? Never mind, it's still good fun and nicely recorded.
On April 28th the new record was premiered at a press luncheon in the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. Half a dozen of us attended this glorified booze up and returned to Leicester in the afternoon rather worse for wear. Jack Richards had to walk some of the girls around Bradgate Park to sober them up. Myself and Ian Heard headed for De Montfort Hall at Eric's request to play in a pageant with the Intermediate Orchestra. Both of us were sight reading and to my horror the music included Elgar's Wild Bears and the Euryanthe overture.
I was on the first desk of second violins and had considerable intonation problems. The music didn't look right at all. Then my first desk partner turned to me and said very politely, "This is the viola section". Incredibly humiliating! I'll never touch another drop, officer.
John Whitmore