FIRST IMPRESSIONS © Don Read June 2012
Having spent most of my working life in the music business I am well conditioned to encountering the title of this piece. I witnessed so many examples of misjudgments and missed opportunities. But unless you are a clairvoyant how do you predict the future of a performer ?. You need luck, fate and sheer hard work.
In 1955 I was returning from a concert in Cardiff with a big band. We stopped at a “greasy spoon” on the A4 around 1am. The Juke Box was playing and two members of the band wandered over and played some strange music by a singer who garbled the lyric and was virtually unintelligible. We all laughed and made disparaging comments. Someone said they did not think the singer would last very long. The name ? Elvis Presley.
I recall a young music student from York sending me some music in 1955. Since I do not read music I passed it on to a band. They played it and handed the parts back to me with a polite remark that it was not suitable for their repertoire. I returned it to the sender.
Three years later the young man surfaced in London, telephoned me and invited me to a rehearsal of a seven piece band he had formed. He decided to adopt a stage name. Barry Prendergast became John Barry. He wrote the music for most of the James Bond films plus several well known pop songs including the Louis Armstrong hit,” We’ve Got All The Time In The World” and several Matt Monro hits.(“Born Free”)
Matt Monro was out of work in 1959 and I managed to find him some short engagements. A night club owner in Streatham said Matt could come along and run through a couple of songs during the day. After the “audition” I spoke to the owner. “Well, are you going to engage Matt for a week’s cabaret? You must admit he has a great voice”. His reply was a resounding “No. He doesn’t look the part and has a voice like a tenth rate Frank Sinatra”. With that kind of response you just move on.
In 1961 Dick Rowe was one of several recording managers at Decca and when a demonstration disc, one of many, landed on his desk, he played a few bars and told his secretary to return it to the sender, a certain Brian Epstein from Liverpool. Rowe’s comments were that there was no demand for beat groups. The public only want girl singers. The demo in question was by, in case you have not guessed, the Beatles. Over at EMI a young recording manager who had just recorded the Goons, heard the demo, told Epstein to bring the group down for two days at the Abbey Rd studios and, “We’ll see what happens”. George Martin triggered the amazing career of the Beatles.
But the best example of First Impressions involved the eminent conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham. In 1937 Sir Thomas was killing time wandering round Fortnum and Masons. He spied a rather distinguished looking lady but could not think of her name. She spotted him and approached. “Ah, Sir Thomas how nice to see you. Are you keeping well?”. Lost for a suitable reply Sir Thomas fumbled for the right response. “Indeed I am, dear lady, and you ?” “Yes, Sir Thomas, I am keeping very well indeed”.
Sir Thomas was stuck. He simply could not think who she was but he continued the conversation as best he could. “And your husband, dear lady, still doing the same job, is he ?” “Yes, came the reply. He’s still King”. Don Read
Having spent most of my working life in the music business I am well conditioned to encountering the title of this piece. I witnessed so many examples of misjudgments and missed opportunities. But unless you are a clairvoyant how do you predict the future of a performer ?. You need luck, fate and sheer hard work.
In 1955 I was returning from a concert in Cardiff with a big band. We stopped at a “greasy spoon” on the A4 around 1am. The Juke Box was playing and two members of the band wandered over and played some strange music by a singer who garbled the lyric and was virtually unintelligible. We all laughed and made disparaging comments. Someone said they did not think the singer would last very long. The name ? Elvis Presley.
I recall a young music student from York sending me some music in 1955. Since I do not read music I passed it on to a band. They played it and handed the parts back to me with a polite remark that it was not suitable for their repertoire. I returned it to the sender.
Three years later the young man surfaced in London, telephoned me and invited me to a rehearsal of a seven piece band he had formed. He decided to adopt a stage name. Barry Prendergast became John Barry. He wrote the music for most of the James Bond films plus several well known pop songs including the Louis Armstrong hit,” We’ve Got All The Time In The World” and several Matt Monro hits.(“Born Free”)
Matt Monro was out of work in 1959 and I managed to find him some short engagements. A night club owner in Streatham said Matt could come along and run through a couple of songs during the day. After the “audition” I spoke to the owner. “Well, are you going to engage Matt for a week’s cabaret? You must admit he has a great voice”. His reply was a resounding “No. He doesn’t look the part and has a voice like a tenth rate Frank Sinatra”. With that kind of response you just move on.
In 1961 Dick Rowe was one of several recording managers at Decca and when a demonstration disc, one of many, landed on his desk, he played a few bars and told his secretary to return it to the sender, a certain Brian Epstein from Liverpool. Rowe’s comments were that there was no demand for beat groups. The public only want girl singers. The demo in question was by, in case you have not guessed, the Beatles. Over at EMI a young recording manager who had just recorded the Goons, heard the demo, told Epstein to bring the group down for two days at the Abbey Rd studios and, “We’ll see what happens”. George Martin triggered the amazing career of the Beatles.
But the best example of First Impressions involved the eminent conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham. In 1937 Sir Thomas was killing time wandering round Fortnum and Masons. He spied a rather distinguished looking lady but could not think of her name. She spotted him and approached. “Ah, Sir Thomas how nice to see you. Are you keeping well?”. Lost for a suitable reply Sir Thomas fumbled for the right response. “Indeed I am, dear lady, and you ?” “Yes, Sir Thomas, I am keeping very well indeed”.
Sir Thomas was stuck. He simply could not think who she was but he continued the conversation as best he could. “And your husband, dear lady, still doing the same job, is he ?” “Yes, came the reply. He’s still King”. Don Read